Stuartintro

Introduction

The Stuart No 1 is a vertical steam engine with a bore and stroke of 2". It is capable of real work when made properly. The aim of this set of articles is to show how I managed to make this engine on my 3.5" centre height lathe.

Here is an image of the casting kit as it arrives. With Stuart engines you also get all the fixings, gasket material drawings and bar stock to make the engine, not just the castings. It's more of an un-machined kit, than just a box of castings.

This set of articles shows how I built this model but remember there are often different ways of achieving the same results. So for each section I have listed what the critical dimensions are before explaining how I carried out the machining. Depending on your own workshop equipment, expertise etc.…. you may find other ways to make the parts.

It is also worth noting the Stuart castings are very accurate which means 2 things.

It is possible to use a rough cast face as a datum quite easily which makes the set-up for each part easier.
The castings are only just oversize and so not much metal has to be removed to make the final part. The down side of this is that there is no room for error and so the set-up of the casting is more important.

View the exploded diagram of the Stuart No1 engine here (267K).

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