The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum

tmuir · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:21 pm Post subject: A rare Scorpion for Restoration

I received my Horizontal Scorpion today and from the photos below you will see I have my work cut out for this restoration.

Model Engineering Products made the Scorpion range of steam toys.
It was started by Ted Wallis and Ted Peell towards the end of 1944.
Initially the produced just a small oscillating marine engine, soon followed by a horizontal boiler for boats.
These were made in a shed at Ted Peell's home using a drilling machine and a Myford Lathe in their spare time.

These were sold by Walther and Stevenson toy shop in Sydney.

After success with these two items they then decided to make a complete stationary which was this Horizontal engine.
This engine pre-dates the verticals but was made side by side with them aswell.

This is the only example I've seen outside the S, S & S book.

As you can see its in need of a lot of work.
Burner is missing.
Chimney is missing.
70% paint loss on firebox and 50% on base.
Steam pipe is bent and the solder has cracked allowing the pipe to be pushed into the boiler.
Piston is sticky in the cylinder
And it has a small dent on the boiler.

All fixable but it requires a complete strip down and repaint as well as a service.

Notice the hole for the burner has a round top, they also did one with a flat top so this atleast 2 variations of this engine.

The firebox is held on the base by 4 bent tabs so will be easy to remove for cleaning.

Boiler has a single bolt in the end which attaches it to the firebox.
The small hole here allows access to the nut.

Notice the grove in the piston to hold the oil and also that the piston rod has a slight bend in it that needs straightening.
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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

Mamodman123 · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:24 pm Post subject:

Nice! There's something to get your teeth into Tony! Should restore a treat that one!

A very simple engine and a lovely additon to your collection mate

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Graham-Jilly · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:29 pm Post subject:

that should look realy nice when you have restored it Tony
looking forward to that

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Sandman · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:47 pm Post subject:

O.K. Tony. It's a bit rough, but most of that is just surface.

The rest will be pretty easily fixed.

When you've done that you'll be left with a very rare engine that will be a credit to your collection.

Well done mate.

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tmuir · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:19 pm Post subject:

I've stripped it down and everything came apart quite easily.
No siezed or rusted nuts or screws which was nice.

I've removed the big blob of solder from the boiler which reveals another small dent besides the hole for the steam pipe.
Obviously at some time something heavy was dropped or put on top of it or the engine was dropped onto the steam pipe which flattened it against the boiler and put a small dent in the boiler.

I'm not going to attempt to remove the dents as they are only cosmetic and I will likely do more damage trying to remove them.

I can see all the repairs are pretty straight forward now, the hardest part will be removing the old paint and rust from the firebox.
I don't think I will manage an exact match to the red in fireproof paint so will settle for using brake calliper red paint so its off for a trip to the car parts shop in the next few days.

I found a new way to remove heavy layers of soot from boiler tonight.
I scrubbed it with Solvo (A soap with pumice in it used to clean grease and paint etc off your hands) and that worked quite well.

Biggest problem I have at the moment is soon it will be too cold to paint so I need to get a hurry on with this.

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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

tmuir · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject:

I just realised something interesting about this model.
The flywheel is the same casting as used on the vericles but it is held in place by a screw you do up whilst on the Verticles it is just a friction fit.

I guessing they went to a friction fit as it was cheaper and easier and if so that means this is probably a very early one. Possibly as early as 1945, now I'm in a delemmer about the paint as its really bad, past the point of trying to save I feel but this is a very early rare model....

I need to see another one of these models to compare to now but this is the only one I've ever seen.

For now I may just give the base a light oiling, treat the firebox to electrolysis to remove the rust and give that an oiling and clean up and fix all the brass work to get it in running condition.

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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

Steve_S · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:45 pm Post subject:

That's a nice engine Tony, and I'm sure it'll look great when you've done with it. What would the burner have been like originally? And how tall would the chimney have been?

Stitch · Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:20 pm Post subject:

tmuir · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:11 am Post subject:

tmuir · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:29 am Post subject:

Wallace · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:16 am Post subject:

It looks good tony, and I look forward to seeing how things turn out

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IndianaRog · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:17 pm Post subject:

Tony, I am also fascinated by this electrolysis option you commented on whereby with a few household chemicals and low voltage one can remove rust!!

You had a link explaining this...could you post again, I can't find it.

thanks,
Rog
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tmuir · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:45 pm Post subject:

Here is the link to the website that explains how to remove rust by electrolysis.

It explains it far better than I can.

Just remember this will on work on steel or iron don't try to use this to remove corrosion from aluminium or brass..
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/rust.htm
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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

IndianaRog · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:52 pm Post subject:

Thanks Tony, I will give that a look.
cheers,
Rog
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Stitch · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:11 pm Post subject: