Since the end of March, things have moved forward somewhat erratically. I decided that I wanted to make something simple, and since I was having difficulty with the drawings and constructional series for Anthony Mount’s McConie’s Oscillating Engine the decision was taken to set it aside and do what every budding model engineer always does and that is to make a simple oscillating engine, something I’ve never done.

It’s what SMEE offers people who want to make a start, so I searched on the internet for some drawings and was surprised to find how little is available, the best of the bunch being drawings of white lines on a black background which would have used most of an ink cartridge to print out, and was difficult to read, a most curious way of doing technical drawings. I then did a search on the online Model Engineer index and eventually settled on a design by Edgar T. Westbury. For those of you who are interested, the words and music are to be found in 1967, Vol. 133 starting on page 497 and run for six instalments.

It appealed to me being double acting, was written for beginners and so was fully comprehensive and, of course, comes with ETW’s immaculate drawings. Every part is fabricated from stock materials and, being E.T.W., the design is for an engine of maximum efficiency and power for its size.

Because I have a DRO on my milling machine I used that for setting out all the holes rather than marking out by hand which saved some time and guaranteed accuracy. The port faces were finished using super fine emery cloth with lubricant on my granite surface plate. Apart from a single very light pass through the crankshaft bearings with a reamer, every part fitted well and it turns over on light lung power very easily.

One benefit of this job was that as I worked I made better order of the workshop, as during the post-removal unpacking process things had been put in the first available space which wasn’t necessarily the most convenient for working, so I ended up with a finished job and a more ordered workshop.

The next project is to restore a twin cylinder vertical marine-type engine that I had been given in my teens for the steam tug I was building at that time. It never worked and was replaced by a Stuart 10V, and the refurbishment of that vessel is another job for the future. The engine had seen better days and at some point I must have dropped it as parts of it were badly bent and in addition the crankshaft

had come apart on one of the crank webs.

The first task was to take a series of photos to record all the parts in their correct positions, and to ensure that everything went back where it belonged during the reassembly. I then proceeded to dismantle it and establish a left and right layout on the bench, again so that all parts went back to their original positions. It became evident quite early in the process that this was an engine that had probably been built without drawings and without the use of a milling machine, but that a lot of quite careful bench work had gone into its construction.

There were some surprises in store. The two cylinders

made of steel, and the brass port faces were all soft soldered together and not very well, as one of the port face blocks fell off revealing an almost complete absence of solder across the mating surfaces, so job No.1 was to clean up these faces and re-solder, ensuring that the joint between the cylinders remained intact which was effected by clamping them together  with an old toolmakers clamp. Old paint was then removed and a coat of phosphate primer applied. The cylinders are the only parts that are painted.

Next job was to repair the crankshaft. It is of the built-up type of construction with all the shafts and crank webs silver soldered together This necessitated holding the two halves in alignment for resoldering which was done by mounting them onto two old v-blocks and held firmly by two bar clamps with centre screws. I used oxy-propane heat which kept it local to the joint and thus none of the other joints melted before the solder was successfully applied.

I then cleaned up all the parts, polishing the brass and buffing up the brightwork with emery cloth.

3 Sept.

Since cleaning up the engine no progress has been made due to post house removal ‘burn-out’, all very disconcerting not having the energy or inclination to go into the workshop, so I will just have to live through it and get back to work as soon as I feel fit enough to do so.