Stuart 10V Steam Engine

I bought a set of castings for a Stuart 10V Steam Engine, to see if I could do it. Although I didn't take as many photos as I should have, because I was more concerned with actually doing it than with recording the process, there are enough pics to make a reasonable post, I think.

Flattening the top of the base in the 4-jaw chuck:

 Facing the soleplate, using a couple of spare cutters to hold things firmly:

Milling out the slots for the main bearings using a vertical slide on the lathe. Just nibbled away in little steps to get the approximate shape, and filed by hand to get the final shape:

Test-fitting the bit of extruded brass I'll use to make the bearings:

We skip unceremoniously to the standard now, facing the feet:

I shaped the soft jaws of the chuck to hold the standard closely, and supported it further with a brass rod stuck in a lump of Sugru, that most excellent of silicone sticky stuffs:

Test-fitting to see if things go together:

Preparing to drill the holes in the standard's feet. The 3-jaw chuck is mounted on the vertical slide.

....and another test fit....

...and another....

Boring the standard. Clamping the standard to the faceplate was a bit tedious. Took a lot of tapping and measuring and more tapping and more measuring:

Preparing the bearings. I used a stub mandrel to hold the piece while turning in very tiny cuts. Here I'm using a height gauge to mark the final diameter:

Test fit. Satisfying.

Things coming together quite nicely now!

Drilling the steam ports in the cylinder. This was scary, since I had to bore the cylinder a little wider than specified in order to get past a casting flaw. So I needed to recaclulate the angles of the steam ports. I started with a center drill...

 ...then milled to the correct depth, leaving a pip where I needed to drill at an angle...

Using a protractor to set the cylinder at the right angle in the lathe:

...and about a week later, here's where we're at:

I made little lids for the oil cups:

Preparing the big end for drilling:

Finished crank webs beside one I messed up earlier (drill bit broke!), but it shows how I did it: I superglued two bits of steel together, and marked them out, and drilled them out, very carefully, in one piece. Then a bit of heat separated the two parts:

Dry-fitting everything to see if stuff lines up ok:

"The crankshaft ready for silver soldering". This was the most pleasant bit of the whole process - I've never silver-soldered before:

After soldering:

Beautiful colours while pickling in vinegar:

After pickling & a bit of emery paper:

And the scary bit: cutting out the crank. Then back to the lathe to clean it all up.

Another trial fit. We're almost there!

Preparing to drill the circle of holes in the cylinder cover. I have a rotary table attached to the vertical slide - really pushing the limits of my Taig lathe here!

Finished. Very satisfying.

Preparing to do the same thing on the standard

Much time passes, and it's all more or less done! Here I've make some decorative steam inlets/outlets using a circle of 12BA bolts.

By accident, I drilled 6 holes in the top cylinder cover instead of the 5 specified. I'm actually glad I did - I think even numbers of holes are nicer!

I modified the standard Stuart drain cocks by adding a steel handle. The handles that come with the purchased drain cocks are way out of scale for an engine this size.

More time passes, and at last the whole thing is fitted together. It runs very smoothly on very little pressure - I can power it quite happily just blowing into it.

And here are some pics of the painted engine. I've attached pipes to the drain cocks so the whole thing looks a bit more, well, enginey:

Some jobs remain - I need to do new steam inlet and outlet pipes and put it on a decent wooden base...

Thanks for watching!