Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Sounds crazy but a low cost tiny well built engine like that makes me want to bolt it down and run it continuously 24-7 as an endurance experiment. Figure out a way to put tiny amount of lube in its air and let it run mid speed for 3 months then tear it down for wear check. Maybe I have a little twisted streak, but it would be fun to see how much abuse it could take from somebody that knew how to do it right. Maybe an oil bath crank, it would end up a holy mess blown off with an air hose and washed down with WD 40 once per month.  It must be late, goodnight.

Hi Tim,

Along that line of thought, how well would a mamod or Wilesco or Jensen hold up with continuous running for several months.
As for the Jensen 50, we know of one that is on the #51 prototype that was run 24/7 for over 8,000 hours straight on live steam and it still runs great today. I know there are Mamods and other Jensens from the 1930's and 40's that still run nicely today although I have no idea of the amount of run time on them. Jin's machine work is of a high standard. The little v-twin is a larger version of the one that Philcraft made from plans in the public domain.