ME Beam Engine
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- This is a video of an ME Beam Engine that I am in the process of building. The engine has yet to be painted and there are a number of components still to make. If you would like to see photos of the build I have posted a couple of hundred to my website
gshorrock.jalbu...
I would also like to thank David Haythornthwaite for his advice and inspiration during the build.
I have now posted a video of the finished and painted model at at • ME Beam Engine
Great effort and nice to see it running at "scale" speeds. Thanks especially for pointing out problem areas as I'm considering the purchase of a casting set.
Lovely craftsmanship 😊
Thanks, thats appreciated.
Great engine. I assume these are Reeves castings? I have the same engine but older. I had the same problem with the parallel motion lugs as well. Definitely a design flaw. I’m surprised they have not amended the blueprints as my engine is from the late 60’s and this problem existed on the blueprints back then.
Hi, thanks for the kind comment . Yes they are from the Reeves Castings and like you I was very surprised about the errors in the drawings. I did think that after all this time any errors would have been sorted and the drawings would be correct. Maybe in the future as more designs get drawn using 3D cad that the errors will be reduced, but who knows.
Graham
@@wendyshorrock589 .....Perhaps. I bought my engine already built from the U.K. (I live in NYC) and the engine had several problems. Mainly the Watts Parallel motion and the crank was tweaked so I had to repair them. Unfortunately the original builder damaged the cross section a bit by mounting on soft wood. These beam engines should be set on a thin piece of metal then onto wood. Even if the build standard is spectacular they tend to warp after extended running if not extremely secure and aligned perfectly. It’s impressive this was your “first” build. Most people start with a small Mill type engine. Cheers!
Very nice - well done :-)
pretty sick, I kinda like the pewter and brass thing going on too.
the valve lever is to start the engine with.
John, many thanks for your kind comments, I appreciate it. I have now finished the model and I will try and do another video of the completed model. Also I have compiled a list of errors that I found in the drawings that may be of use to you. I will tidy it up and email to you.
Best Regards Graham
If you still have this id like a copy please.
@@jcameron2554 Is it the list of errors I found that you are after?
@@engineeringmodeller yes please id like any info you have please. Its a model id love to build, I have the ME mags with the write up. But as you say decades have passed without errors been corrected.
@@jcameron2554 Hi I have updated the photos of the build and there is a word document that describes the issues I found. Just be aware that this was my first model and the errors may be mine! You can see the build here gshorrock.jalbum.net/intro/meBeamEngine.html
Also I am not sure if you have seen the recent series in Model Engineer on this, David Haythornthwaite has done a fantastic job of documenting the construction. The series was printed in 2020.
@@engineeringmodeller many thanks, and no I'm afraid I haven't see the articles. Will have a good read tonight. Cheers Jon
This is a rotative beam engine used to supply power to other machinery ie Mills or pumps via the take off drive pulley. Pumping engines generally have no flywheel when driving a lift pump, take a look at places like Kew bridge or Hale, which are known as Cornish engine’s used to lift water.
The small pump is to replace lost water to the boiler due to running the engine, this is a calculated size to match the main cylinder at a constant speed with very little variation hence the governor.
Ron, thanks for your explanation and clarification.
Graham
Pumping engines do have a flywheel - as you said take a look at Papplewick where the flywheel is 20ft in diameter and weighs 24 tons.
@@rogerlill I have amended my post as you are correct Papplewick has a pump acting on both strokes requiring a flywheel to equalise the torque over one complete cycle in operation.
Nice work, I'm no expert; on single cylinder engines top and bottom dead centre won't allow the engine to start so we nudge it in direction of rotation. On full size engine a bit hard to do, so as Eugene says engineer had to lift handle disconnecting eccentric drive to valve gear. This then allowed valve gear to be repositioned to a starting position and then reconnect the eccentric rod, probably had to also move flywheel to allow this. Too hard to do on full size with everything connected. On a large engine doing heavy work I believe they had a small auxiliary engine to turn the main one over. With multi cylinder engines eg. locomotives, strokes are arranged to always have one cylinder not on TDC.
so are self starting. Small flywheel on opp. side I imagine is belt drive for machinery. It's a lovely engine, this one. Cheers Ron.
+Sharise Watson Also on engines that run on steam before startup they need to clear the cylinder of any condensed steam (Water) because water doesn't compress. To do this they open up vent/drain valves at both ends of the engine and run the valve mechanism manually back and forth putting steam into the engine to force the water out while not allowing the engine to rotate too closely to top dead center where hydro-locking would occur. Once the internal parts are plenty warm to prevent a lot of water build up the engine is started. The first time it goes over top dead center you hold your breath a little. With compressed air it really doesn't mater.
Jay Leno uses a helper and they spin the flywheel by hand to get it going on his 8' 1832 beam engine
Very nice same action as my 164 yr old wood beam engine.
Superb video! I am yet a student and dont know much about any mechanisms but this video helped me to understand the beam engine really easily. thanks a lot! i would love it if you post videos of any other mechanisms you may have built; if that's not too much trouble!! again, superb!
Hi Ankita
I am afraid that this was my first model so I don't have any other videos showing other mechanisms. There is a video of the finished and painted model at th-cam.com/video/_b--RaTfuzY/w-d-xo.html
i just saw the video of the finished model. I liked that too! Keep up the good work!
very nice! could use some attention but still something anyone would be proud to own
About the function of the handles at the valve mechanism: as far as I know, the valves could be manually operated: First unlink the beam coming from the eccentric by lifting it with the horizontal handle at its end, then use the vertical handle to manually operate the valves. This might be useful perhaps, if the machine must start from just before a dead point, so you want to reverse it a tiny bit to get a better starting position ? I would also like to hear about this from an expert.
+Eugène van de Kamp Also on engines that run on steam before startup they need to clear the cylinder of any condensed steam (Water) because water doesn't compress. To do this they open up vent/drain valves at both ends of the cylinder and run the valve mechanism manually back and forth (and the piston moves slightly near the middle) putting steam into the engine to force the water out while not allowing the engine to rotate too closely to top dead center where hydro-locking would occur. Once the internal parts are plenty warm to prevent a lot of water build up the engine is started. The first time it goes over top dead center you hold your breath a little. With compressed air it really doesn't mater.
+engineeringmodeller There is a weird whistling noise from the piston end, but it's a very nice looking model I have to say. Keep it oiled up plenty and it'll last as long as it wants
What is the smaller wheel opposite the flywheel ?
Lovely engine 👍😊
nice job. i'm readying myself for a similar build. got the plans and a book on the mary beam. jus' need to order the castings from reeves. again, nice job.
Hi zen thanks for the kind comment.
I don’t understand the bevel gears …why are they there?
Wouldn’t the large gear just be driven by the axle?
And why is the belt wheel not just added to the axle on the outside of the flywheel ?
The bevel gears translate the horizontal rotation of the main shaft to a vertical rotation for the spindle that the governor is connected to. The larger gear is indeed just fixed to the main shaft. Any drive would be taken from the smaller pully as it would be impractical to take a belt from the main flywheel as it would be some 12ft in diameter.
thank you for sharing, I want to make one but not sure how. I am not buying a kit.
Nice job! Well-done.
This engine was never used to pump water out of a mine and the pump on this engine is used to gill the boiler with water
Incrível engenharia
Well done Mate, looks like a well finished job, and yer got yours running in the correct rotation, crankpin driving up on power to lift the rod and push the beam as the crank travels toward the beam end, small things like that help to make it a more realistic copy of the real thing. Put in on youtube search, " Burton Latimer Beam Eng." where you will see one I made running the incorrect rotation.
Don`t really matter some of you might say, but if yer going to build one, yer may as well do it right?, why did`nt I do Mine,SOLD IT before I realised,
Best Wishes, Harry.
Thanks for the comments, I must admit I think the direction of rotation was probably more by look than judgement!