3" Burrell Traction Engine build.

 Welland steam Show 2023 Report..... Welland Steam Show (Upton-upon-Severn July 28th-30th  2023). The show as usual was well attended. I'm happy to report the numbers looked better than perhaps some of the traders were expecting. Maybe the cancelled years, due to Covid, have inspired the next generation of Model Engineers. It certainly looked like there was no shortage of money changing hands for tools.  The show boasted 37 miniatures and 99 full size engines, along with a huge number of commercials, cars, bikes, tanks and military vehicles and displays. This time again, like last year there was the heavy haulage arena, which was fascinating to watch, as long as you could keep the coal ash out of your eyes :-)  I can imagine the rising fuel costs to move large machines, but this has not stopped them from attending this year. Thank you to all the organisers and engine owners, both big and small another fab year!! I actually spent quite some time there wandering about,...

  3" Burrell Steering Part 3a and spectacle plate (Continued)... Background story. If you are have been following my posts, or have just landed on this page by accident here is a brief intro to what this is all about. I'm Stephen and I am currently building my second traction engine. The first engine was a 1" Minnie that I completed a few years ago, and I'm happy to say it runs well and I do steam it every month or so to make the most of it and the 12 years it took to make. I did say I wouldn't build another one, however the Minnie is small and not capable of hauling on a rally field, it is difficult to keep in steam for more than a few hours and need constant attention to the water and fire otherwise it will go out in a flash. Then a major pandemic hit, and I had been looking at various drawings to see what I could understand, what castings were available and at what cost. I finally decided, just before the 4 year Covid holiday started, to look at building a 3...

  3" Burrell Steering Part 3 and spectacle plate. If you have been following so far we still have the hot weather with us, making it difficult to focus in the workshop. However on a steam related note it was the usual Kinver Model engineering open day on fathers day, so as a tradition we normally go along and support.  Kinver Model Engineers open day 18/6/23 Back to the steering in question, the lower bracket fits where it touches, mainly all over the worm wheel. (See Photo). I've unfortunately  drilled the mounting holes without actually checking first, and the top mounting hole is not even on the steel plate. The last few week have been studying others peoples photo's and trying to work out how best to modify the bracket with as little deviation from the original design or trying to resemble something close to the real thing. (Bottom left). Also thanks to Traction Talk another builder reached out to me and sent us a photo of his modification to sort his. (Thanks Del)....

  3" Burrell Chain Drum and steering Part 2 and spectacle plate. Following another holiday I'm back on the engine, incidentally we were on the Orient Express travelling to Venice so it was a train related break.  The spectacle plate is hopefully being welded today by my son at college, fingers crossed that goes well, as there's a ping golf club in it for him to help him concentrate on the task, and produce a neat weld. The lower bronze bearing is what I've been working on, drilling a hole hopefully in the middle as the casting is a touch oval so some hand finishing has been done and turning, by hand in the lathe to shape some of the metal off to produce a better finish shape.   I am though trying to keep the castings still looking like castings, and not fully machining every part  so it look authentic in appearance. The alignment of the steering shaft has almost been resolved and whilst the brackets are only clamped on at this stage the steering is working and r...

 3" Burrell Chain Drum and steering Part 2 and back head. Recent progress has been made on the back head plates, these were items I had laser cut, and just require a small amount of filing and bending the outer sides. I plan to get these TIG welded on for a neat finish.  (My Son permitting as he is the welder)   A quality finish from the Laser cut parts In other new the chain drum has been progressing well, the keyway for the worm wheel has been completed using a 1/8" key. This is because the worm and wheel as purchased were made to drawing so I've had to go with an imperial size rather than a 4mm key. As luck would have it my dad had a 1/8" woodruff cutter an a number of 1/8" end and slot mills, so no new cutters were required for this 1 off job.  Following some TIG welding  Until next month stay safe; make swarf; have fun!

 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...