1840 MURDOCH AND AITKEN STEEPLE ENGINE

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1840 MURDOCH AND AITKEN STEEPLE ENGINE

Home Forums Stationary engines 1840 MURDOCH AND AITKEN STEEPLE ENGINE

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  • #256837
    RICHARD GREEN 2
    Participant
      @richardgreen2

      I've just aquired a set of Clarkson castings for this engine and wondered if any one here has built one,

      What I read on the internet , some one says some of the castings are iffy, and the drawings could be better.

      What does anyone think ?

      Richard.

      Edited By RICHARD GREEN 2 on 19/09/2016 17:36:13

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      #3293
      RICHARD GREEN 2
      Participant
        @richardgreen2

        Has anyone built this engine ?

        #256841
        JasonB
        Moderator
          @jasonb

          Some of the castings are supposed to be a bit hard particularly the two long side frames at the top. Might be worth treating them to a bit of heat before you try to machine them.

          #256849
          Maurice Cox 1
          Participant
            @mauricecox1

            I built one of these many yeas ago. Apart from some chill spots in the iron castings, there were also some errors in the drawings.

            The engine has two side rods connected by a bridle beneath the table. From here, a single short connecting rod goes down to the big end. As drawn, the bridle would have struck the top of the crankshaft bearing. I had to lengthen the short rod, and shorten the side rods by about a quarter of an inch. This now meant that the bridle hit the underside of the the table. The table top was duly excavated to make room. Actually, this no bad thing, as the table tops on full size table engines were assemble from five castings, and were in fact hollow.

            The side rods, as drawn, would not pass the exhaust belt, of through the slots either side of the cylinder top. I kept the "fish bellied" profile, but filed flats on each side to give clearance. It sounds like a bodge, but in fact it looks quite good, and I have sen something like it in full size, just for the decorative effect.

            The positioning of the little brackets that carry the shaft drive for the governor is a bit vague. In the end, I fixed mine to the foundation block, not the engine bed plate.

            The starting levers are quite unlike the original drawings.With the levers in front of you, the left hand one, which disconnects the valve gear from the eccentric, is connected to the eccentric rod buy a parallelogram of levers. Lift the lever, and the slide valve is free to be moved. The right hand lever is to do the moving. It is held in the valve shaft by a taper, and could be removed for safety once the engine had started. If the parallelogram of levers, previously mentioned, are correctly proportioned, then the left hand lever does not move when the engine is in motion. I found this quite a surprise, but it means that it does not present a hazard.

            Please feel free to contact me if I can help further.

            Regards Maurice

            #256862
            RICHARD GREEN 2
            Participant
              @richardgreen2

              Thanks Maurice, thats interesting,

              Richard.

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