Presedential Candidate??

Happy Birthday Kev, and congratuilations on completing your engine, looking well in the sunshine.

My birthday soon but I don't think I will be posting the same pictures just yet.

Brian

Just had the best do yet for "His Majesty" and team, the weather was just glorious, wall to wall sunshine with a temp about 19 deg, loads of people and free run of the place. The engine behaved beautifully, running so sweetly that people didn't even hear us approaching and then jumped out of their skin from a short snap on the siren to warn them, would appear the real sweet spot is just over 100 but below 150, over that and it starts to get a bit lively and easily pops the safeties. The start button works really well, got the hang of it now, making sure the crank is set and giving the regulator a good opening but making sure you're straight on the reg to pull it back as soon as it moves off. Had the whole ensemble for the two days, trailer and bowser. Lots of very complimentary remarks about the tone of the organ which is just what I have been trying to achieve.

Wife and both helpers on the Sunday, then myself and The Coleman on Monday with lots of running about, the new bike speedo telling me we covered 5.46 actual miles!!! No road run just gently sauntering up and down the aisles. Took some video from the trailer to give sort of drivers eye view. I intend to load it to Youtube shortly

Early Sunday, helper "dude" getting the fire going



Andy getting in some miles, will be interesting to compare how his engine runs once finished, hopefully he will feel totally at home by then with the amount of miles we have covered together.

Running round the aisles at Cuckoo Spring Fair, Andy had a bit of a rough time in the trailer!!! As you can hear once we have climbed the short hill the exhaust drops away and there is virtually no noise, now that's what I really like, I can't stand engines that sound rough, the old one bugged me as it had a knock.

Looks and sounds like a great weekend, like the video but I think Andy will need dampers fitted to smooth out the bumps. Not long for me now, soon be out in the sun with Blackbeard.

Cheers

Brian

Okay Kev,

Can I have your autograph, I was looking at OG website and who is to headline story!!!!!!!!

http://www.oldglory.co.uk/news/success-for-steam-traction-world

I was going to a rally this weekend and my car engine has gone to engine heaven, therefore out of luck; will sit at home and look sad , well another kit has arrived today for the SM builders will have a look at that instead 

I suspect if you spend hours trawling the net there is tons of this stuff but nice to see some action shots of a good weekend this past summer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete_edgeler/9760924776/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete_edgeler/9760997263/in/photostream/

Hi Kev

In one of your regulator videos you mentioned the engine would not stop even when you pulled the regulator back to the point of bending the rod. I have stopped the rod from bending on my engine and wanted to share with you what you need to do for a positive closure, I put it here for you rather than in the regulator thread as I did not want to detract from the topic in question there.

it is a simple mod to do using a triangular needle file. You need to take off the buckle that connects the regulator rod to the handle. File off the corner at an angle back into the threaded hole. This will give the additional clearance for the regulator handle so that the handle stops firmly against the regulator bracket and not the edge of the buckle therefore not bending the regulator rod sideways as happens in your video and did on my engine before I did this.

I hope this helps and please excuse the crap on my engine, it still needs a good clean in some areas from the last steaming in October.

Closed Regulator


Open Regulator


Open Regulator

Hello Brian,

good suggestion for a mod, if I may be so bold you need another! The stack of washers offends my engineering sympathy, would you like me to make you a machined spacer? If you can tell me the height or send me the washers be very happy to knock one up!

With best wishes
Simon

Simon

No that's alright, it is a planned job for me, the spacer that came with the kit was not thick enough in my opinion which made the regulator handle wobble more than I liked. It was a quick fix I tried and I will make one this winter. As I now have my regulator out maybe now is the time and it will give me the chance to clean all the crap from around the area  

bjwlancashire wrote: As I now have my regulator out maybe now is the time and it will give me the chance to clean all the crap from around the area  

Painting the Forth Bridge springs to mind here, unless of course you intend to just look at a clean engine in a workshop pondering the frankly disgusting idea of lighting a fire in it !!! Good God man are you mad ????   

The stack of washers made me smile   My kind of engineering   Then I scrolled down and saw Simons comment !! Simple answer here dont take big pictures and post them !! On a serious note though I can see just what you mean and will do that but with a regulator now behaving it doesnt need to be YANKED back quite so hard, not that I learnt anything from that cause it still didnt shut the damm thing. Even with the motion in various boxes over the last two weeks it still went back together with crap everywhere, and I look at it that it is a working engine with patina, afterall when things are polished senseless on the Antiques Roadshow they always say "If you had just left it how it was it would be worth twice that!" You never thought old steam oil and bits of Dorset countryside could add so much value eh??

I was very much tongue in cheek, I have a lovely myford lathe and enjoy making that sort of thing! Like you the pile of washers made me smile

At least they were all the same diameter, very uniform!!  

Also means you have a spare stock of washers for other jobs.  

Kev

Your in the December edition of Old Glory. The picture is on the index page and suggests your on page 90.....this is the start of the miniature section but no sign in there.  

STW electric foden has a positive write up though.  

Kind regards

Yes, but Old Glory wouldn't be the same without a picture of Kev somewhere in it!

Tim

Now now Tim, I cant help it if I make good photogenic material!!   They arent very good at proof reading is all I can say. That is a cut down shot of one of the ones in my write up which was obviously last month, the miniature section actually starts on 91! Also in my bit they put the wrong captions under the wrong pictures as they did with the shots of the 6" crane footplate pictures.

There is quite a few errors on this month. Pictures captions incorrect on other pages as well.

Not a lot happening for the next few weeks so I have finally got the regulator mod and fitted it. Nice and straightforward to do, regulator plate is very easy to drill and the plate fits nicely. Spent a bit of time getting a flat face and could pick the plate up with the puck with a tiny bit of light oil on it so I reckon it should be good. I also filled a very small V in the back of the plate to hopefully give a controllable slow run, having tried the brass version of this mod for some time it is quite difficult to get a very slow tickover. I shall be able to report how successful it is in the next couple of weeks, no rallies till Wiston on the 4th July.

Had Andy here for most of the day yesterday as he also did the mod at the same time to help keep the kit moving on and we had a typical "summer"    Barbeque!! Just as the burgers went on it absolutely pissed down so we had to get the gazebo out of the garage and keep the sizzling coals dry!!!! Cant beat blackened, semi cooked, parafin flavoured burgers in the rain!!!

We also got around to improving the drain and drip pipes from the cylinder fashioned out of brass. Took quite a bit of time to get the bends right and then to repolish the tubes due to the heating process but I think a worthwhile improvement.

I would like to take this opportunity to put in writing how absolutely delighted I am with the engine and how truely wonderful it is to drive, it is slow, quiet and powerful and so very easy to control. We have had a busy few weeks in the last two months and it has really been a pleasure to use it. As I am now entering the start of my third season with it in steam it has really started to loosen up and simply gets better each time I fire up. STW have made a wonderful job of getting so many people into steam and the last few weeks have made me realise that only through them and my building and running of the engine I have met many good friends and had some very enjoyable times. The whole "Brian's Birthday" bash wouldn't have happened had it not been for owning and meeting all those involved through the build and indeed most if the people I see throughout the summer and have great like minded times with wouldn't happen if it hadn't been for the engine. So once again a big "THANK YOU" to Steve, Dean, Isobel, Craig, Ian and all the others I cant remember but who go into the hard work that produces all the really good fiddly stuff.

A couple of pictures.



Newly bent and polished pipes in place, just need to fit a small bracket in the front tank bracket to keep them all tidy



Plate in place but no puck yet, JB gone off so hopefully all's well.

Finally, come on new builders since the core of us have finished there;s very few post regarding new builds and I know speaking to Dean there must be at least 50 builds going on at the moment.

Us newbies are here, taking it all in.

I have made the decision to wait until the boiler comes, and fit my kits before paint, so bits in the bedroom, bits in the lounge, bits in the........... That must bring back memories! Oh yes, and there's still the small detail of the garage extension for the build.

Only 64 days to GDSF 14. Liz and I will be there from Tuesday, we shall make for the "STW Owners Group" area as "bona fida" members, this year, and maybe tag a ride. Roll on GDSF 16, when we should be there with, Macbeth.

Mark.

Kev

I have to agree with you regarding the new friends we all seem to be making while building STW engines, I was pretty amazed that some of them travelled all the way to Lancashire just for a little party, I think everyone enjoyed the experience   

Have you tried the modified regulator yet?