scene 1 take1 what's he building in there what
the hell is he building in there? welcome back to the shed ! if you follow my channel you will be aware
that I build model steam engines now when I'm out exhibiting these engines I often get asked by
interested people and especially the youngsters, what sort of equipment do you need
to be able to make these engines? so I explain that getting into model engineering
can be quite an expensive hobby as the main component of any good Workshop is of course
the center lathe machine, followed maybe by a pillar drill, or better still a milling machine,
of course you're going to need cutting tools for the lathe, drill bits for the drill, end mills for
the mill. And then there's the hand tools - files, saws, hammers, mallets - dies and taps - and
maybe some nuts and bolts to start fixing your project together - for your project you're going
to need some metal stock, such as round stock, hex stock, flat stock, bar stock, billet
stock - you're going to need brass stock, ground stock, and then possibly a Bandsaw to
cut the stock to size - then you're going to need some marking out tools, measuring tools,
chemicals, glues, unobtanium, PPE equipment, first aid, Cornish pasties, flip-flops, pickled
onions, oxy-acetylene, paint, sticklebacks .... So, this answer usually blows the minds of
the dads and the youngsters, who have shown an interest in building an engine
- no fear have you, steam engines in your future I see - yes well as you can see, all of
that can be a bit off-putting, but if you are just dipping your toe,
into the model engineering world, then take a look at the models from engine DIYs
shop.com, more on that later. so I used just a tiny tiny sprinkle of unobtanium and this
box arrived on my workbench instantaneously ! oh the power of having some unobtanium. Gone are
those days of waiting around for the postman! So, this was sent to me by engine DIY shop.com,
who specialize in model steam engines, and this is a steam beam engine model with a
horizontal boiler and a centrifugal ball Governor, it comes with a full set of instructional
drawings and plans and has been very well packaged - these are the pre-assembled parts packaged
at the top - and that's obviously the flywheel - that's the Beam assembly - and then
this is what looks like the valve block and the cylinder - and of course this is the Fly
ball Governor which looks very nice indeed! and well this must be the eccentric and
the spool valve spindle so yeah! cool! next out is the boiler, now this looks really
really nice, very lovely, and shiny, very nice! beautiful,
and it looks like we've got a couple of bearing blocks, a brass
pulley and that's probably the uh... I'm not sure? well that looks like the main crank
connector, and that is quite lovely too ! - something else here not sure what
that is, oh and of course a box full of well fixing screws by the looks of things
- oops! got that the wrong way around! so we got some bearings, some standoffs,
some more standoffs, some belts and stuff ah and these are the fixing screws,
most of them look like M3 so yeah, cool! I'm not sure what this is just yet, -
this looks to be the actual Firebox, and in here there's a set of tools
and washers and belts and stuff, oh! and a pair of tweezers as well - these
look like they're part of the burner again and obviously that's the fuel container
tray for the burner, cool! - and the base, yep that's very nice! - it's got a nice sort of
textured powder coated finish, yeah it looks good anyway so I guess the first thing to do
is to have a quick look at the drawings! it seems to be in a 16 stage pictorial build
so I guess we should start at number one or of course I could just assemble it by using
the magic of unobtanium - Oo - maybe not! so first of all I'm going to set
out the screws take them out their little packages and put them into a sorting tray this is the main axle shaft, and some
fixing screws, little tiny grub screws as well and lastly a pair of flange
bearings which I guess are for the axle So that's now all ready to go just need
to get familiar with all the parts and then go somewhere nice and quiet, and have
a sit down and really study the drawings. Do You Mind!! I do like a little bit of music while I'm working [Music] [Applause] [Music]
this is the cylinder and valve block assembly and it's very nicely put together, the hole here
is for the spool valve, which operates the engine and there are two intersecting pipes, one for
the exhaust, and one for the input, and these have been soldered into the block - and there is a
little blanking plug which has been soldered into the central hole which was obviously drilled right
through into the base of the cylinder to allow the steam to enter and exit the cylinder when the
engine is running, and yeah it's very neat and nicely made. the cylinder is also soldered onto
the block which has got a little drain valve to release any condensate when starting the engine,
and of course the fixing holes in the base! All the tools are provided with the
kit, such as this funky multi spanner, and three hex keys to fit the supplied nuts
and bolts. the tools are great but for me it's a little bit fiddly due to my arthritic
fingers, so I'm going to use a small socket driver and my hexagon screwdriver tools
which just makes it a little bit easier for me to handle, but everything is in the
kit which you need to build the Engine. Now the beam is a lovely brass casting which
is already been assembled as you can see it's got these lovely cast recesses inside the
beam and well yeah it's just really really nicely made it has this lovely sixbar parallel
motion linkage which was invented by James Watt in 1784 and it allows the Piston to move up
and down remaining parallel to the cylinder which allows the power to be transferred to
the beam which moves in a motion of an ark the piston and Rod are also preassembled
and it's a perfect fit in the bore, a very beautiful and well-built assembly once fitted you can make small adjustments
to both the valve block and the engine column from the underside which will
allow you to then set the beam so that it drops down under its own weight
and it's not binding at any point [Music] the spool valve has a cutout in the
shaft which allows the transfer of steam into and out of the cylinder
between the input and exhaust ports this is connected to a stainless steel laser cut
valve rod bearing The Eccentric strap itself it has a split at the back so it clamps tightly
onto the surface of a flanged bearing which is fitted to The Eccentric this is an interesting
and clever design solution the clamping action or also allows for slight adjustment for
fine-tuning the engine timing (i think) the crank connecting rod connects the
beam to the crank disc and I must say this is quite a beautiful little brass
casting with a lovely tapered fish belly design which really adds to the
features of this engine [Music] the flyball governor also comes
pre-assembled and is a lovely piece of engineering the chassis looks to
be water or laser cut and it's very nice indeed the drive shafts utilize flange
bearings on both the top and the bottom and it has this lovely set of bevel
gears which are very smooth in operation the Firebox was then assembled
in Readiness for the boiler now this boiler is a really nice piece of Kit
again it comes pre-assembled and it's made from brass tube with a central bolt which runs right
through the boiler which holds the end caps secure it has a large water level
window and utilizes O-rings and rubber washers to seal the boiler
rather than being soldered together, and this also allows disassembly for
maintenance, again another great idea There is a safety valve built in which, when
removed, doubles as the filler hole - do not unscrew the section below as the securing
nut will fall into the boiler and it will have to be taken apart to refit it
- there is a lovely steam whistle in the center with a lever to operate it
and of course there is the valve with a lovely cast brass hand wheel to allow
you to control the speed of the engine the boiler fits snugly into the Firebox and then these two stainless steel straps can
be screwed down to secure it in place a short silicon hose is supplied and
this fits over the supply pipe from the boiler and then connects
up to the Fly ball governor so there it is all built
up and ready for STEAMING! well now's the time to run this lovely beam engine
so the first thing we need to do is remove the filler cap and add some water. - you can use
distilled water or even filtered Rainwater - I use this little syringe to fill the boiler so I
can get a good accurate measurement of how much water I need to put in and you only want to fill
the tank up to halfway which is approximately 50 ml - otherwise it'll take longer to boil and
there's less space above the water to create a good head of steam - I did this in the first
run and it took ages to get the engine running and when it did run, it exhausted the head of
steam quickly, so in this case less is more! now I did consider adding a few little
sprinkles of unobtanium into the boiler tank just to increase the pressure - but I
was a bit scared that it might just explode! The filler cap doubles as the pressure
relief valve so always check the valve is free and the spring is functional before
you reinsert it back into the boiler The burner tray uses methylated Spirits for
bioethanol, but just be careful not to fill it right up to the top. about 20 ml is a good
measure which will burn for about 15 minutes Place the burner back in and make
sure the Wicks touch the bottom of the tray to enable you to use all
of the fuel inside the container give them a minute or so to absorb
the fuel and then light the wicks ------ now a word of caution here! to be able to
get the burner tray underneath the boiler you have to tilt It Forward slightly, but
this of course means fuel can spill out, and you don't want to do that, trust me! - I've
been there! an emergency has been reported in this building please cease operations and leave the
building utilizing the nearest exit or fire exit Now I've found the simplest method
to prevent spillage is to tilt the whole boiler forward instead of tilting
the fuel tray - no spills- no dramas! ....after about 3 to 4 minutes you'll
start to see Bubbles and steam coming out of the steam whistle, so it's
time to give it a toot [Applause] wow! that was a lot more impressive
than I was ever expecting now just hang on a minute Ade!
come on you're pulling my leg! that's more like it it really is
a lovely little steam whistle! Once the pressure release valve starts to Bubble you'll know there's now enough head of
steam to be a to start to run the engine SCIENCEALERT
as you open the steam valve you'll see the bubbles being released from
the water due to the drop in pressure much like the bubbles from an ocean diver which expand as
they approach the ocean surface, - a nice visual science demonstration of vapor pressure
in a liquid, which makes this large water level window a very nice feature of this model
..now as you can imagine hot steam going into a cold engine is going to condense back into water,
so you'll need to spin the engine over by hand a few times to allow the water and hot steam to pass
through and heat up the metal parts of the engine after a few spins the engine will begin to run,
spattering hot water and steam, from the exhaust any condensate in the cylinder can
be released by this little valve, although to be fair most of it seems
to clear from the exhaust itself once the engine is warmed up
and running at a steady pace, you can then reduce the amount of steam coming
out of the boiler, and run the engine as slow as possible - this not only creates an
attractive slow speed of the engine, but it also allows the boiler to be able to
keep up with the steam demand from the engine as you can see it's really quite
a beautiful thing running on steam the elegant motion of the parallel
linkages and the nodding of the beam, is really quite beautiful to watch,
and the spinning balls of the governor, and the crank turning the flywheel adds
further interest to this lovely model A little drop of steam oil in the top of the
cylinder allows the engine to remain lubricated now as I said, the boiler is only tiny, so
it does require that you run the engine as slow as possible to make full use
of the running time of the boiler, which on a tank of fuel is about
fifteen minutes including warm-up time now if you were wondering what that chirping noise
was in the background while I was filming this, well that is my little workshop buddy, my little
blue Budgerigar - Marty McFly - say hello Marty my little buddy - aren't you Marty! - who's
beautiful - Who's beautiful! say hello to all the viewers! hello viewers - I'm not a very
good ventriloquist am I? who's a bootybird! well I still haven't quite mastered that whistle! now I do get some people who ask me me
to show the engines running for a little bit longer on my videos, so I've included
about 2 and 1/2 minutes here of just the engine running so if you want to fast forward
this you can I put a countdown on the screen so you can zip forward if desired and for
those who enjoy it then please, just enjoy! it's a real pleasure to run, I've run
it a couple of dozen times already now, and it doesn't disappoint. the smells
of the burning Fuel and the sounds of the boiler hissing and the gurgling of the
exhaust, all add to its charm and appeal. so there you go - and yeah just one
burner left running but very low This steam beam Engine with horizontal boiler
and Fly ball Governor is manufactured by RETROL, which is a subsidiary company of engine
DIY and engine DIYs shop.com they have a fascinating range of steam and internal
combustion engines which you can build on your kitchen table without
a need for a workshop or tools their products have gained a trusted following
from model engine enthusiasts and collectors the world over, and after building this myself, I can
see just how appealing these kit engines can be! and they don't just stop at engines, they offer
all kinds of steam fittings for your build such as valves, pipe fittings, water pumps, lubricators
Etc, and they also have a range of complete steam boilers, and I must say that this 1 litre steam
boiler would be just perfect for my small wig-wag model engines. I just need to get my hands on
some more of that lovely lovely unobtanium ! That's enough of that! now this is currently on sale with a 25%
discount from the original price I'm not sure how long that discount will last but
if you order from the website you can also get an extra discount on top using the time
limited code in the description below (Ade22) so if you've never built a steam engine -
and you want to build a steam engine - but you don't really have the facilities to
build a steam engine - well now you CAN can build a steam engine! - very
simply and easily with this kit. I've enjoyed both building running and making
this video about it and also burning my fingers on it - it's just great fun! it reminds me of my old
Mamod steam tractor that I used to have as a kid, it's certainly a toy of the future and a
toy of the past because well, kids don't really play with dangerous things anymore!
but I really think they ought to because it instills a wondrous Fascination, and a respect
of the industrial Heritage of steam machines so what are you waiting for ? - get steaming! Well that's about all from me for now,
and as always, Thanks for Watching :)
