The Hedley beam engine Cambridge. ▦ 20 Mar 2015

This is a new post on making the Hedley beam engine, ensconced at the Cambridge museum of technology. This is quite a small engine, the base is 12" by 39" and the flywheel is 48". There are quite a few interesting features such as the hexagon bearing on the sweep rod (con rod ) and the separate cover on the inner motion strap.

(Small) pacing it out, it is quite a petite engine. What scale will you be building it in? It's almost a domestic version. How I wish these things were lying around here! Hugh.

What a beautiful Victorian style beam engine. It would definitely make a wonderful model but casting some of the parts would sure simplify the build. I'll be following your progress to see how you solve some of the building problems.
gbritnell

Will I will be pulling up a chair also, as I enjoyed your last built immensely.


Don

Quote from: ths(Small) pacing it out, it is quite a petite engine. What scale will you be building it in? It's almost a domestic version. How I wish these things were lying around here! Hugh.

Hi Hugh Yes i do like it, I will be making it to 1/5 scale although the flywheel will be smaller so i can make it on the Myford. This will be a chance to use the Spoke Gauge !! Also i would willingly swop some of our engines for some of your sunny weather !!

Plenty of English weather here over the last few months. You blokes must love mowing. Hugh.

More info on the Headley/Hedley engine. There is quite a lot of brass on this engine as it is quite small, Also very few cavetto/ogee and ovolo moldings on the beam etc so this will be easier to build ! Also i have been shopping, a broom to sweep up the floor, a piece of grey lino to cover the floorboards and some extending magnets to pike up all the nuts and bolts that i drop!

I'm looking forward to this build. Looks a lovely engine.

SGWilly - will you be posting/selling/etc plans for this engine when you are done? Looks like a great design.

Quote from: cruebySGWilly - will you be posting/selling/etc plans for this engine when you are done? Looks like a great design.

I was thinking of writing a series for the Model Engineer mag, but they retain the copywrite of any articles published so i may just put all the drawings on this site to let anybody else make the model. it will come under the creative common type netwok as i am altruistic in my Phsyche ? any way information should be free etc etc etc.I am also having to guess at the internals of this engine as i cannot take it apat,which is all part of the fun. Hope this answers your questions. At the moment it is looking like a bar stock build so no castings will be available.
Regards
Willbert

I have now sorted out the drawing for the base and have made an initial one from perspex. As it is made from cast iron i did find a piece from an old boiler that i thought i could upcycle but found a piece of steel plat the correct thickness that i shall use instead. Looking at the base it would appear to be quite shiny as if it was been milled and polished to a high degree, however, the ptotusions for the standard columns would appear to be part of the casting so it could not have been planed in one piece unless the column bases were added after wards,which is what i will do. I have left the base with square ends at the momment to give me datum ponts to work from. there will also be a thinner part that the base will sit on that will be made after the base is filed to the correct shape. The Drawings do look a bit of a mess, and what i do is draw it using what measurements i have and give all the dimensions numbers as 1,2,3, This system takes up less room than 13" and 27/64 th's on the page. The drawing is also made so that 10mm represents 1 inch or 2 or 3 so the drawing fills the page better. I then have my book with the corresponding  dimension numbers and other columns for the scale size and also imperial and decimal inches..etc etc

The base is now marked out sawn and chain drilled. To remove the parts  i used an adjustable spanner to break them off !
A suitable piece of black steel was milled square then sawn off ,filed to fit and eventually silver soldered in position.......its almost finnished , the base i mean !

Ihave filed the slots fitted the column support blocks and cut out one of the slots, also the bottom plate is ready to fit. this has an ogee moulding that will be hand filed as there are inside corners as part of the original casting detail The column support blocks are filed up with the inner corners rounded off to fit the cutouts with out having to file them absolutely square.

Please disregard the last the last two posts as i will be starting again on the base. I will be redoing the column support lugs as the openings in the bass casting allmost touch the cutout for the lugs and also i won't have to silver solder them on, potentially distorting the steel plate and using up gas and silver, ( i don't want to be assaying this engine !)

Out with the old ,in with the new !!. The base has been remade with a different column lug fixing. This will be bolted to the base rather than silver solderd. the holes drilled to make the cutouts may look a bit distorted ! ,it is not because once drilled with a No 37 drill the plate is not put up to the shank of the drill and rocked backwards and forward to remove more metal to save a lot of boring sawing because we don't do that sort of thing due to health and safety considerations..........so..........it must of been those little men that hide in the WKSP !!.There is a modified drawing as well to ponder upon..........