Its taken me a while to finish this engine, it sat for a number of years on display and I kept thinking that I need to add a lantern. Finally I decided to do the sheet metal work for the lantern, really as a trial before I build the main body for the traction engine project that is also on the workbench.

This also meant I needed to add a generator, I created a simple swing arm and used a small electric motor driven from the flywheel.

Just need to now share a video of it running. The light bulb was turned out of perspex and a small LED fitted inside – some hints on machining perspex.

The complete engine

and a close up of the bulb

Thanks for all of the kind words, after lots of days in the workshop working on a model it is great to have such kind feedback, makes it all worthwhile.

Thought I would share an image of the marking out of the lantern, quite simple once I realised I could scribe a few arcs to lay out the basic upper and lower dimensions. Then, as you can see there are a number of arcs used to set out the fundamental dimensions.I practised laying out the design on paper before moving to brass sheet.

Note: I tend to use a large permanent marker rather than engineers blue as it can be a tad cleaner.