Steam Engine restoration Wallis and steevens cylinder alignment

A better in depth look at how we are rebuilding Wallis and Steevens 8nhp little Lauren. Mainly looking at the cylinder alignment but also an over view of general progress.

[@WilliamChitham]

Good stuff, I hope you'll keep us updated when you have time.

[@gerrycarroll2112]

At working temp and pressure, the whole thing will twist. THE OLD GUYS that made it knew the secrets.

[@danwood7576]

Great video - nice to see how others tackle these works - hope to see more

[@jimb8009]

It's just a small project you've got going on at the moment then! Fair play to you, takes a stout heart to tackle something like that.

[@VintageIronuk]

Definitely got a few bits to keep us busy. Would be a lot quicker if we had a engineering background but we muddle through. Normally get it right on the third attempt 👌

[@simonwhite9258]

Brilliant, please do keep the videos on this coming when you have time.
Great to see this type of engineering

[@VintageIronuk]

Thanks for watching. It’s an on going project so I’ll try and update as it happens. How often that will be I can’t say. 👍

[@brucedavenport1324]

Keep the vids coming , very interesting and they show how things work .

[@markwood4194]

Great to see your restoration of a vehicle made in my home town

[@HankyAttack]

I know a man that did may boiler repairs from boxes tube plate and barrel, he alway set the cylinder up on the barrel and used a string line to inline the barrel to the crank. I also know of a Wallis single cylinder roller 10 ton called star that had a wonky block as well cross head use to go left to right in the lid bars as it tick over.

[@VintageIronuk]

Must be a Wallis thing. We originally had a string line set up and swapped out to the bars. I think both would work. Funny you should say that about the cross head as that’s how I discovered the issue. One end of the bars had to be machined to get them over far enough for it to run without putting strain on the rod. Was only discovered when we made new piston rod and gland bush. The old worn parts ran fine.

[@petergardner2334]

it was very interesting keep videos coming

[@paulstephenson5220]

Ive done the same job but on a miniature. The alignment bar set in 4 jaw perfect and machined to a point helps you a lot. Using micrometer blue and filing opposite corners of the boiler/cylinder face rotated the cylinder on the boiler to get the squareness with the crank. It took a rediculous amount of time to do it and also make allowance for the gasket thickness in the radius. Had to file around 20 to 30 thou off the boiler shell to bring the rod over about an 1/8th inch at the crank. Some of the cylinder holes had to be opened up a bit too. I feel your pain there because at that size lifting the cylinder off repeatedly to do what i did wont be fun. Maybe a good idea to get some scaffolding up to speed things up a bit. I couldnt think of any other way to do it other than file the barrel which was distorted by welding, so ill be watching how you get on for ideas. Good luck and just keep chipping away at it.

[@VintageIronuk]

We have managed to get the alignment we need. It wasn’t as bad as first thought. A small movement of the cylinder over that distance makes a huge difference when it gets down to the crank. Looking like with a a thick gasket we can make it work. Only other option if this fails will be to re machine the bottom of cylinder.

[@paulstephenson5220]

@@VintageIronuk that's good news then. My barrel was like a banana and the holes already in the boiler. Only option was to blue n file. Gasket too thin too help at my size.

[@fowler_steam]

My sort of engineering, at my sorry of scale 👍🏼 I'd quite happily help out with something like that but can guarantee you're miles away 😅
Looking good though

[@jonathoncary5926]

Very interesting,yes

[@Vam0se]

Great stuff, I rally a Aveling Barford diesel roller but one day want an 8 tonne aveling porter steamer. Really interesting watch, look forward to more
Would you say steam is more reliable than diesel? Can't think much can go wrong once your up to pressure as long as everything is oiled nicely

[@VintageIronuk]

Hi mate. I quite like the old diesels as well. They are definitely more reliable. You will always run into some issues with steam. Not often do you go a weekend with out some sort of tweaking. It’s still definitely the way to go travel tho!!

[@mofaruk3681]

Multani enterprises old steam road roller repairing my India UP

[@mofaruk3681]

❤

[@stovepipe666]

Nice project what did ye weld the crank with

[@VintageIronuk]

We rotory welded it in the lathe. Mig gun attached to the saddle and used a power feed of a line boring machine to power it. Just used general steel mig wire,

[@stovepipe666]

@@VintageIronuk ok thanks no issues with distortion

[@chrisanderson7370]

Great video keep em coming 👍

[@VintageIronuk]

Thanks, will do!