stationary engine castings

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Hi guys, I'm looking for some advce and/or recomendations

I am looking to buy some castings to make a stationary engine and have been impressed by some of the sets available in the US

My concern is that some of the vendors dont use paypal and I'm a bit wary of sending a cheque.

Has anyone dealt with anyone in particular that has given good or bad service?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Dougie

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

Buy with a credit card for protection

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Dougie,

Just one note of caution … not about vendors, but about HMRC.

The current threshold for VAT on imports is only £15 … and if you cross that threshold they charge VAT on everything. i.e. the purchase price plus the carriage charges.

Just to make matters worse, the UK carrier [e.g. ParcelForce] will charge you for the "service" of collecting the VAT.

Of course you might hit lucky … but do be prepared for the worst.

 

MichaelG.

 

Here is the link to HMRC Guidance, and more

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 23/11/2012 18:52:06

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 23/11/2012 18:57:38

[AndyBParticipant @andyb47186]

Hi Dougie,

I have dealt with Myers successfully. Contact is a bit slow but worth waiting for in my experiance.

I got a cracking set of castings for a Rider Ericsson for a bit over half the price of a set available here in the UK.

I would find what you want then ask around about a particular supplier; it is a bit fraught asking for general experiences when we have all found good and bad suppliers in all countries.

Andy

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Stay away from Coles Power Models in USA. Unless you talk to Ken the proprietor, and remind him a few times after ordering, they don't send your order out. The other staff there are a waste of oxygen. The worst part is they ignore email and will only work by phone, which is expensive and has to be coordinated with time zones. Never again for me thanks.

JD

PS – forgot tomention I have had several excellent experiences buying from PM Research in USA. A top notch service firm, with excellent products.

Edited By Jeff Dayman on 23/11/2012 19:52:19

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

As Andy says find the kit/maker and ask again, I have bought from a couple of the small US makers and not had problems.

Fizzy a lot of the US suppliers are one man bands so not set up for Paypal let alone credit cards a lot don't even have web sites, an e-mail if you are lucky or an expensive phone call. You really need someone with a dollar bank account so you can send a cheque in US funds.

The other big factor is postage, it can cost almost as much as the kit particularly if there is a lot of iron castings.

 

J

Edited By JasonB on 23/11/2012 19:55:18

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Thanks for the info

I am thinking of buying a set of castings from a concern called " Lone Star Engine Works"

The engine is a baker ball hopper, has anyone on here had any dealings with them?

Regards

Dougie

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Maury who owns the company posts on several of the forums and seems a nice guy and I've not heard bad reports of him or his products. I do know that it will cost you as much again for postage as the kit costs as someone looked into getting one for me a while back. I do fancy the ball hopper.

His castings look very good, there is a build thread of his latest Swan engine on HMEM

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f23/birth-swan-15489/

J

Edited By JasonB on 24/11/2012 16:53:57

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Thanks Jason, that helps a lot.

I got a quote from Maury today for postage of $106, which I thought wasnt that bad

Perhaps we could get a discount for buying two, one for each of us !!

Regards

Dougie

[Alan Reed 1Participant @alanreed1]

Forrest Classics in the Uk stock PM Research engines if you are interested in

small models..

http://www.forest-classics.co.uk/pm_research.htm

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Thats not too bad a price, was it for the Ali or cast iron version and did it include the CI bar for the cylinder liner, with that left out it should save a bit on postage and its easy enough to source over here.

PM Research don't do the type of Engines Dougie is after though Forrest do import the Hit & Miss Engines that Linley Machine now produce, my 1/3rd scale Galloway came from them as well as the Redwing. Although dealing with PMR in teh US is not a problem as I have done it several times, being a bigger company they take card payment.

J

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

I have been looking at the Linley site but all the different scale Galloways are listed as having the same size flywheels and bore etc apart from the 1/3 scale

I will need to contact them for clarification

Dougie

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

1/3rds scale has 10.2", 1.625" bore & 3.375" stroke

1/4scale 7.625

1/6th scale 5.1"

1/8the has 3.375"

I've got the 1/3rd & 1/6th ones

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Thanks for clearing that up Jason, do you or anyone else have any thoughts on the Wyvern engine by Westbury sold through Hemingway kits, this was another of my options

Dougie

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I was thinking of making one once but ended up doing the zero-six that was in MEB but made to look more like it was from castings rather than barstock. Its been about long enough and is therefore a proven design, slightly different from the others you are looking at in that it is throttle governed rather than hit & miss and they are better run off propane these days.

Back to the Galloways, this is a good build of teh 1/3rd scale by George Britnell, he has built all of them for Linley and redone the drawings which are now a lot better than the originals and a lot less errors.

If you search HMEM there are two Wyverns currently being documented, one from Hemmingway kit the other from a part set of castings.

J

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

I found a thread that said someone in the US was making parts for the wyvern, a base casting that had fixing lugs, unlike the original, anybody have any thoughts or comments on this?

Dougie

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Just checked the link you provided Jason, those pics are pretty amazing, now I dont know what to buy

Dougie

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Best not look at the Pacific Vapour Engine , Half scale Domestic , Woodpecker , John Deere , etc

[ronnie barkerParticipant @ronniebarker18785]

dougie

ive just seen this thread and ive got afew stationary engine kits back from the states firstly by carrying them as i went over afew years ago and brought acouple bavk, which was very cheap but i understand they are clamping down now on suitcase weight.

ive also had them shipped over and everytime you i get one shipped the price goes up and the last engine i had the seller in the states wrote gas engine on the box!!!

one thing you want to check if you have one shipped over is how many boxes it will come in as customs will charge you for opening each box, the less boxes the cheaper it is

i have spoken with maury in the states and it would cost as much if not more to get the casting to my door as the castings themselfs as you would have to pay him the shipping then you would get caught at customs, the last engine i had over which was in one box cost £400 to ship to my door, the castings were only 500 dollars!!

having said all this the engines are lovely and you can loose the price in the finished thing as these little hit and miss models make alot of money more than model steam engines and some hit and miss engines make more than there full size counterparts do so you aint going to lose out just depends how much you want to spend.

hope this helps jonathan

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Here in NZ you can import up to the value of $NZ 400 with out GST or duty, but I don't think that's going to last. Some US suppliers won't send to NZ. NZ Post is setting up a clearing house in the States to get round the problem of not exporting to NZ. Ian S C

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Iasked Maury if the post was for iron or ali, he said it's the same price for either

Dougie

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I think that is because the US have set box rates, you can send a set size box for the same rate regardless of the weight, The 1/3 Galloway takes 3 boxes which are about 12x12x6. and I have not tried to lift all three together.

J

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

I think I might opt for the "economy" from the engineers emporium and save all the worry over postage and the money grabbers screwing me for vat and handling charge

Anybody had any experience of this set of castings

Dougie

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I've heard a few people have had a job getting it to run but not tried it myself. There has been a series in MEing website about building one here

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