First steam
A while ago I bought a small oscillating engine off eBay for less than half the price of an equivalent mamod or wilesco engine. This one was made in India. It isn’t finished as well as a willesco, but it was delivered promptly and looked quite serviceable.
Being a new, previously unfired engine I felt there were a couple of stiff points when i rotated the flywheel by hand. So I unscrewed the bolt holding the piston connecting rod to the crankshaft and carefully withdrew the piston from the cylinder. Then I sprayed with Tac chain grease on the piston and all moving parts – including the valve surface. Then I removed the filler screw and safety valve from the boiler and inspected them. I filed down some roughness on the mating surface on the boiler, and inspected the boiler carefully for any dents or obvious breaks in the seals. It seemed solidly built and about twice the size of the equivalent mamod engine.
After reinstalling the piston I used a small funnel to half fill the boiler, then reinstalled the filler screw and safety valve. Then I got a couple of firelighters and placed the in the burner tray and lit them, placing he burner beneath the boiler. There was a bit of smoke and a lot of flame and after about ten minutes there were definite kettle noises emerging.
I tried the whistle and saw a blast of steam, but no whistle sound. I shut the whistle off and waited a couple of minutes before taking a tentative spin of the flywheel… And here’s the result 🙂
There is no maker’s plate, but I’m told that an Indian firm makes them. The boiler has a very large capacity – around 600mls (an imperial pint) and with the firelighters looks to have possibly close to an hour’s duration once steam is up. The engine runs smoothly, and I suspect it will run faster once it is fully run-in.
