Tag Archives: compound

More Engine Work; Valve Setting etc.

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For about a year now I have been saying “Yes, the engine is done, apart from a few bits and bobs” – so the other week I found myself waiting for some timber to arrive and decided to just “knock those bits and bobs on the head” – 10 minutes inspecting the engine revealed that there were in fact (at least) 23 jobs still to be done!!! So so far we have spent two weeks reducing this list to 7…. (and deciding to do some much later!) Herewith some notes on some of this activity… Continue reading →

Machining the Air Pump Slideways

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I thought I would record this as a video, to show the machines in action.

The machining is being done on my Adcock & Shipley 1AD horizontal mill, that I bought for a fiver back in the early ’80s. I have grafted a Bridgeport J-Type vertical milling head onto this, and fitted with a home-build DRO (Shumatec design) – and I am quite chuffed with the result…

The Castings Arrive!

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Castings for Befur's Engines

Beauty in Cast Iron!

The engine ceases being and “idea” and transforms into a few hundred pounds of cast iron!

As planned, Louise and I returned from the sailing course and hot-footed it to Paris to meet up with Bruno Martin-Neuville and his friends from the Amateurs de Bateaux á Vapeur ( The French version of the SBA) and purchase this beautiful set of castings.

Bruno, Jean-Yves, and John entertained us wonderfully with a tour of their fabulous facilities in Severes on the outskirts of Paris and a very nice lunch. (we forgot to take pictures! but saw Midship, Melusine and others…)

So the winter’s work is now clear – to commence transforming these castings into a working engine – it’s clear that there are some “deamons” lurking in the drawings, so I am pleased to have the help and advice of some of the professionals from my Model Engineering club and the support of previous builders in the SBA