M E Beam engine

Hi I am building the M E Beam engine and I have posted problems with the Reeves castings. When I phoned they admitted the entablature castings were all chilled and so I decided to fabricate the entablature from steel. I obtained a strip of 4mm mild steel and machined a groove down the centre. see photo. Next I realised that using heat to form it into a `U` shape would distort it, so I made a simple bending jig and that worked really well. I cut the shape to size and silver soldered the entablature together. see photo. I left the entablature in one piece rather than cut the end in two and mounted it on the column. I think it looks good and took less time and machining a casting. I was not very keen on the brown mahogany base so I covered the top in aluminium and will engine turn the aluminium to give it a more modern look. What do people think of this? Adrian

[This posting has been removed]

That came out well, personally I would stick with a traditional base

Heat your chilled Castings to red heat and hold for several mins then wrap in insulation to slow the cooling process.should be ok after that.

Hi Adrian. I got a set of castings from Reeves for Lady Stephanie. The entablature casting was distorted all over the place. So I sent it back to the address on the drawings. When it didn’t arrive they told me that they had moved from that address years ago!!! They would not do anything until I returned the faulty casting which I said was impossible since I had sent it to the address on their drawings. Very disappointed with their service and ended up prefabricating the part which turned out fine. Not a great fan of Reeves now.

Bob

Hi I part through machining the cylinder and and having read David Haythornwaite excellent article on building the M E Beam engine where he suggested that instead of 6 studs in the cylinder cover it looks better if 12 studs are used. So that is what I have done. I made a dummy stud for where the steam chest bolts onto the cylinder otherwise it would have a gap in the ring of studs. The dummy stud is tapped only into the cover, see photo.

I have been busy with the beam and have machined the bearings and placed them in situ. I never realised how important alignment is when trying to align the cylinder and beam. I think this is going to be the worse job of the build. Let me know what you think. Adrian

Looks very nice. I’m building this engine too and am increasingly inclined to fabricate parts rather than use castings. Two questions:did you bend the bar for the entablature cold or hot? You’d have to be quick to get it into the jig before it cooled so I’m guessing cold. And please can you tell me where to find the article by David Haythornthwaite,I’ve looked on his website without success and i could use all the help I can get! Definitely going with the 12 studs anyway.

The articles mentioned started in ME No 4603