3" Burrell Traction Engine build.

  Some BSA Bike messing a-bout's Aside from making the traction engine, model railways, ammeter radio, snooker, computing, playing Ukulele in a band and a host of other activities. We have been rust-orating and old bike that belonged to my father. Basically it hadn't run for say 45+ years we bought a few bits sorted a stuck exhaust valve and bingo after some effort it started. The plan it to do my CBT test and A licence so we could take part in next years "Distinguished Gentlemen's Ride". More to follow if this happens but a few picture's of the progress below shows the extent of the restoration.   Until Next month, stay safe, make swarf and be the best you can be!

  3" Burrell motion work Work started a few weeks ago on the weigh-shaft bracket, a tricky casting to deal with. I made a start by centre drilling both ends for the shaft and then made up a difficult setup in the milling machine to try to hold it square for drilling horizontally. This worked to a certain degree, basically the length means any miss alignment is amplified massively but within a reasonable tolerance I completed it.  I was then able to turn one end a bit, to stop it looking like an egg. I'm reasonably happy with it, certainly there are probably more out there that look like mine, and maybe some in the bin. I guess if a complete disaster happened it would not be too much trouble to cut the casting up and machine a truly round centre tube and silver solder it back onto the original, to save the day as it not a cheap casting to mess up.        The alignment process prior to drilling   Often I believe the setup's are as important as the r...

Some non Burrell messing a-bout's In an older time, model glow engines use to career around a pond near me, and lots of fun was to be had running model power boats, on the purpose built lake. In this day and age, all has been spoilt by the noise police, and the impact on the Canadian goose, so they are now free to mess the pool up! As a throw back to the good old days, here is one of my cheapest engines purchased at a car boot sale for £1.50; and successfully ran in a small boat mostly on Sundays.  These were taken after some freeing up of the piston, and a quick test run confirms its a animal 20,000 + rpm using old sport 40 fuel.  So why?  Well one of the reasons why I started to make the traction engine was because I had come to the end of messing about with petrol engines, and the fact that IC engines were also banned. An alternative plan was decided upon, making use of the skills and machines I have. It was just a small distraction in (January 2025) to run one or two ...

  3" Burrell motion work (Year 6)! Happy New Year !! - Well its been a while since my last post and with the festivities over attention can be turned to the progress since last time. To say that a break was taken from machining is not strictly correct, as often a small amount is squeezed in to keep it ticking over. This casting, the Way-shaft bracket was actually received just before Christmas, but is intended for my birthday in February, also its currently December, as I'm writing this, ready for next year therefore  ignoring the opening statement. Confused yet? well here we are still building the Burrell and we are into year 6 !     Finally I made a decision with the lifting links they were basically too short, another builder pointed out on the Burrell builder site on Facebook. That he had the same trouble 20 years ago, I stupidly though as my drawings were the latest version from Bridport foundry that known mistakes from 20 years ago would have been correcte...

 End of year Roundup (5 year's In) Well after 5 years, and its nearly Christmas! I decided to assemble all the bits I have made in the last 5 years for a end of year roundup, this is the current situation of where we are at. My mother looking on from behind I have to thank because some of this is normally sat on her dining room table, and has done for at least the last 3 to 4 years.  On my Previous post there was a nice picture of the lifting links that I was most pleased with. However it appears they are not long enough and this is a confirmed mistake in the drawings. It means they need to be extended by about 1/8" or so, the plan is to do a cut and shut with the silver solder rather than committing to making new ones at this time. Time will tell if I'm happy with this arrangement or if new ones are to be started, below is my list of faults so far:- The front locking pin cannot easily be removed past the smoke box door. The flywheel is very close to the winding drum almos...

Rods and lifting link progress.  Following another holiday for a week, progress in the workshop has continued but at the normal winter slow pace. A small Jig was started ready for my return, and in an evening I completed one of the lifting rods. (Narrowly missing I'm a celeb on tv , phew! and avoiding the snow).  The Jig was my own idea and the welding done by my Son, who helped me out here. The scrap metal was in fact the Jig I used for setting the gear mesh, but as it is not longer required, so has been re purposed to this new task.   (It also can be still used for its previous job as well, as the central pin unscrews). The near completed lifting link, first of two required. Just needs an oil hole drilling. The centre portion was milled out leaving sufficient for the turning of the two ends.  The rods have also been started to a point and progress stopped to complete the above before the milling machine is swapped from vertical to horizontal. < Pleased with...