I watched the build thread of Jim Easterbrook’s CMS Beam Engine (on that other forum) and knew I had to build one of my own. I have no illusions of being able to match the quality and beauty of the excellent engine Jim built, but I figure I’d post my progress here as I build a much more pedestrian version of this engine. I ordered the kit from Chiltern in early March and it arrived in California a couple weeks later. I’ve held off getting started a bit, but now have completed the “trial” build. I’ve done nothing more than assemble the pieces and trim the screws to the proper finished length. I ran it today using my small air compressor - it ran slowly using air pressure low enough that would not register on the gauge. I truly love watching these engines turn over slowly. So here are the obligatory photos:
Sorry for just using cell phone photos.....I'll get the camera out one of these days. I'm going to try to add one of Jin's P60 overspeed limiters, if I can attach it so the it looks proper and fits well. I'll start taking it apart and get into polishing and painting the individual pieces soon, but I would expect this project to take some time to complete. I'll add photos as I progress. I could use some suggestions on the color scheme to paint it. I'm leaning toward a deep red with some gold trim, but I'm wide open to suggestions. I just didn't want to add another green/red engine to the mix.
So there it is, thanks for looking!
Looks like a nice model of beam engine. Something to put on my wish list.
Red with gold trim sounds like a great idea
Thanks for posting this up, i agree there are some very nice builds elsewhere. Look forward to following this one and i think red with gold trim is a good choice!
I think this is my favourite of all the engines CMS produce and is very good value for money, it is certainly on my wish list as i would love to build a beam engine from a machined kit and is considerably cheaper than the Stuart machined offering.
I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the CMS kit. The castings were very clean, I'd guess they were investment castings......but that's just a guess based on the high quality surface finish they've achieved. The machining was accurate and everything fit together exactly as it should. Here is a short video of my test run on low pressure air.
https://youtu.be/dfbKvgYz8bg
Given the surface finish i would also concur they were lost wax castings, i would imagine they use CNC for all the machining.
Great to see it running nice and slow, what air pressure was it running on?
No doubt at all that they were matchined on CNC mills. You could make out the tool path on some of the parts (mostly the flywheel) and it certainly wasn't something I think they would do manually. I figure they could never sell at their price point with out very productive machine tools
I wasn't running from a regulated air source, just a ball valve. That said the gauge didn't register any pressure at all......I'd guess about one to two PSI. I got it to run even slower, but the valve was essentially shut off, and the engine would stop once the air in the hose bled off.
Is this what you need the steam oil for Mike?
Is this what you need the steam oil for Mike?
Hi Jed, well.....eventually I will. I have a couple of other engines as well, but my collection is very modest by the standards of most folks here. Just got started building models when my Grandson took and interest in steam.
Those castings look really nice as does the engine.
I bet that was enjoyable building that.
Do you have a link to where you bought it?
I got the engine disassembled, and all the parts bagged and tagged. So it begins - sanding, masking, painting. and polishing. Still leaning towards Deep Red, with Gold accents.
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this. Seems like I’ve developed a serious case of “work” again, so this has taken a backseat. Got the painting done, and working on the polishing. The steel parts are very time consuming. It is coming back together. Here is a photo of the partial reassembly.