The Stuart offerings are either the "beam" which is a much simplified engine that is a little smaller than the ME Beam or the "Major beam" which is to a similar level of detail to the ME but considerably larger hence the high costs.

There are only two sources of castings for the "ME Beam" that I can think of which are Reeves and Brunell, If I were in the market for a set of these castings then I would go 100% with Reeves.

There is also the option to make it without castings or to buy just a few such as Flywheel and cylinder and then fabricate or cut the rest from solid which would be the way I would tend to go.

Michael as nobody else has come back to you these are my thoughts. As mentioned above Reeves are a far safer bet than other sources of the castings and at least you will get the castings. I've not bought much in the way of castings from Reeves for a number of years as they don't do anything I want to build but have had a few flywheel castings in recent times that have been perfectly acceptable.

As I mentioned above there is a lot of the engine that could either be fabricated or cut from solid rather than use the available castings. Having had another look through the old articles I would say the beam and flywheel would present the most difficulty to make from scratch, the cylinder is not too difficult and the bed casting can simply be done from a sheet or two of aluminium adding the bolt hole bosses around the side from separate parts. So one option would be just to buy these two parts from reeves and at least then if they were unusable you would not be a lot out of pocket if replacements were uneconomic. I have not heard of problems with these two castings so fingers crossed.

Thanks everyone for your response. I contacted Reeves by email and they explained their policies for defective castings. They also explained their procedure for checking them one they arrive from the foundry. I also called and spoke with them. So, after hearing your responses and having heard from Reeves, I feel fairly comfortable ordering from them.

I also reviewed engineeringmodeller videos and his site with build notes and pictures. I found that quite interesting.

Now, the main question is weather to order the Major or the ME. Since, Stuart and Reeves are waiting for parts from the foundry I have some time to scratch my head about that which one to buy. It would be interesting to see the two side by side to get a feel for them. I have heard the Major is just to imposing an engine and too big for some.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Michael.

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Michael, quite a good build thread of the Major beam here, I think a lot of people don't do it as the flywheel is too bug for their lathe.

Nice work. Glad to see work that is in progress as sometimes prodjects disappear and I wonder how they got on. Looking forward to see it after the finnishing process and running.

David