3" Burrell Traction Engine build.

 3" Burrell Traction Engine / Steering Stuff       Cutting 3mm steering bracket in the miller. I think I found a small problem on the Bridport / Plastow 3" Burrell drawings. The dimension of the steering bearings ID is not right. The chain drum axle is 1/2", but the bearing states 5/8" bore? However as I was going to make the bearing in mild steel, with a bronze bush pushed in. Then boring it out 1mm bigger to 16.8mm this means I can have a bronze bush with a 2mm wall thickness and it all looks ok. I think other people have done this, it seems a waste to swarf off a big bit of bronze for this part. I found some spare bits of bronze from the front axle that I made wrong so its not going to waste. Above the steering bracket being cut on the miller, someone commented it was a very versatile machine the Centec 2A, and Its true I do perform a number of different setup/machining operations on the machine. Sensitive tapping off centre, between centres. The next it...

 Burrell TE, Horn plates (Part 3) revisited..... Following on from a successful show/ open day with the engine the horn plates had to be stripped down of the bearings to allow the axle shaft bearings to be machined.   The setup for drilling the axle hole. Note the use of temporary fixings from the aircraft industry to hold the two horn plates together. A special Jig was made as a way of checking the distance for the gears to mesh correctly (Photo Below-Right). The Jig can be seen in position (Photo Below-Left). Once the distance of 6" has been set, the hole's can be opened up to the 30mm for the bronze bearings. It is also possible to remove the bar a leave the silver steel pegs in, then placing the gears on these shaft as a final running check.  Final 2 shots: the holes were completed, and the complete thing was reassembled for a customary photo. The bearings still have the tapped holes to complete but these shots show the size of the engine and the weight is unbelievabl...

  Burrell Parts Delivery....  I received a delivery from the foundry.  Below represents around £130 delivered, but this will keep me busy for a while. These are the parts I will be tackling over the coming months, initially I sourced these as I heard that the prices might be going up at the foundry, due to their rising energy costs. So I thought I'd save a few quid long run, and have some new bits to look at.  I'm also planning on taking the engine to an open weekend and displaying it, so these may well feature in the display of what I start with, when making parts.  Its also a good opportunity to show others what is possible with patients and a few machines.  No doubt someone will ask how big my work shop is, and I must have lots of skill, but the truth is I don't. A few mid size machines and loads of time, to do it right the first time, and my trade is not engineering - but software programming!   Photo From the open weekend 19/2/2023.

 Differential Gear Cutting .. Well I thought I'd seen the back of gear cutting, but the differential has a spur gear of 95 teeth.  I bought a new vertex rotary table before Christmas. and also had the dividing attachment to mount on in the position of the handle. With this setup I was able to start cutting half depth teeth, as a tester, so I have an easy job that will keep us busy for a few weeks.  The maths involved for 95 TEETH, using a 19 hole plate and indexing 18 of the 19 holes. This is fairly easy as its simply 1 hole less each time, so keeping track is simpler than other gears. The rotary table has a ratio of 90:1, so 1 full turn would result in 90 teeth so to get the extra 5 teeth is 18/19 of a turn for 95 teeth. <-Photo    Teeth machined to 0.100" depth for first pass to check dividing. And finished Happy Valentines !! Until next month stay safe; make swarf; have fun! Stephen.

 Happy 50th to Me February 2nd ! So far like other years of this Burrell build, I ask myself will this ever get finished! then I have to remind myself, the enjoyment is in making the parts. If I wanted a finished engine, I'd simply just have to look on Station Road or some other online steam reseller and Bobs your uncle. To date then, a number of smaller jobs have been completed as expected after the Christmas break, it takes a few weeks to get back into the flow, and the steering wheel and shaft provides a suitable part to get back into the swing of things in the workshop. This doesn't look much but there's a 2mm keyway cut inside the handle and the key inserted. (Photo Right) I was able to cut this with a 2mm broach I had from the previous engine, but the bushing I needed to make a new one. I didn't have one that was 1/4" diameter, this actually proved to be difficult to make as the broach as the body results in quite a large slot to put into a 6.35mm bush. I man...

 Happy New Year 2023!! Burrell Build Year 4... Well, here we are again. Preface: If you have been following the build so far, we are building a 3" to the foot Burrell Traction Engine, to the latest Bridport foundry drawings. The scope of this blog is to build up a documented construction guide for other would-be builders to follow. With the aims of providing interesting discussion points, helpful and useful ideas, with tips and tricks to aid construction. It must be emphasised that this is not a kit, and as such each and every part needs careful attention and machining. Castings are provided by Bridport Foundry, and making use of the latest technology in the form of laser cutting thus aids accuracy and speed of build.   However, we are talking about a build that will take at least 10 to 12 years if we are lucky, although the goal is not to rush it, the enjoyment is in the manufacture of the parts and learning new techniques, whilst acquiring ...

 Vertex Rotary Table purchase... Well, here it is, and I am pleased. This is after a good hour or so of cleaning up, but the results speak for them self. It is the proper Vertex original, yes it does have the 3 tapped M5 holes for the dividing plate mounting so we were lucky. The next mission is to buy the remaining parts to convert this for dividing use and then after Christmas the differential gears can be started.   By comparison to the rotary table I already have, it is similar in size as its only about 10mm higher and is the same overall diameter. This being important as my machine is of limited size. It has the 4 slots, not all are like this, some are 3 but as the differential mounting slots for the gears are opposite each other a 4-slot table is essential. It has the ability to be mounted vertical and this means a smaller footprint on the machine, and with a horizontally mounted cutter in the vertical head allows the work piece to be as big as 6" without the need f...