meccano steam excavator

steamyjim · meccano steam excavator

i have started building the meccano supermodels steam excavator but im using a SP3 instead of the origional 1920s meccano engine and the measurments are slightly differant from the origional set of plans

i was wondering if anyone has built one or have pictures of one with a SP3 enigne that would be useful eg the one at STIA because i am presently stuck and cant go any further at the moment???

fcrammond

I've built two excavators so far. The second used the 1929 engine and was built exactly to the spec in the supermodels leaflet. When I built the first one I had only a limited supply of parts and a Meccano/mamod engine so it's a bit of a dog's breakfast. I'll try and dig out or take some photos later but briefly , for lack of the proper bearing I had to make one up using the small brass pulleys rather in the style of the electric shovel in the supermodels range. Ed Potts's shovel is much superior so it would probably be a better one to copy. I'll try and find a few photos of that one also. Might take a day or two so be patient.
Fred

SPOKESMAN

It would be great to see those pictures Fred!

steamyjim

that would be great and very useful thanks

fcrammond · Navvies

First, mine own.

and again

A shot of Ed's machine in action

and again

And finally a rather smart version that appeared in as recent auction (and got a very poor price)

I haven't bothered with a 1929 meccano engined version but there is a good photo of an immaculate version on my STIA website at www.fcrammond.clara.net under steam powered meccano
Enjoy
Fred[/img]

SPOKESMAN

Excellent images Fred.

Steve_S

Yes, great pictures. Makes me want to get the Meccano out and make something....

SPOKESMAN

Lewis

looks impressive fred

steamyjim

there good pictures there they will come in very useful

did you alter the gearbox arangment on yuor one?? because it looks differant from the plans i have here

if so do you have any close ups of the gearbox as i am a bit confused with the measurments on it??

fcrammond

The geometry of the mamod engine is quite different to the Meccano engine and I have modified the engine end of the gearbox quite considerably. Looking at the other two photos makes me think that they have come to quite different solutions to the same problem. It is a long time ago that i built my first shovel so I cannot recollect the precise reasons for the design adopted but i suspect the availability of parts played a part. certainly it was built when Meccano first ceased production as it originally used two sets of four inch rack strip as 8inch were unobtainable. I will try and upload some photos but I have to take them first .
cheers
fred

SPOKESMAN

Some closer pics of the mechanism would be great Fred.

fcrammond

Detail shots. The yellow engine is obviously the recent Mamod design, the blue is the 1929 Meccano product.

Hope this helps.
Two points, the two small contrate gears act as a substitute for the dog clutch and the final drive has been modified to create a "racing shovel" for the Great locomotive Trials"
Incidentally I shall be off line for the next couple of weeks. Au Revoir

Fred

oldstuff

As our distinguished admin would say, " BLOODY NORA, FRED!"
Outstanding close-ups, jeez if that don't get the blood pumpin' ye must be daid!
Beautiful shots, mate!

James

Wallace

Fantastic stuff there Fred. Very nice work.

SPOKESMAN

Great images - I shall have to download those!

Chris

Gosh, that is rather too much mechanism to get me head around!

oldstuff

I know what you mean, Chris. SteamyJim, have you had the gear dreams, yet?

As my mind has been on scratch building, I find myself looking around my lady
friend's resale shop for any brass items...or pole lamps I could make chimney's
out of, etc. And when I watch the history channel and see an old cart, I think the
wheels could make good flywheels.

steamyjim

there very usefyul pics there im going to print them off bye some gears and restart with renewed enthusiasm

i THINK i have come up with what i think will be a simple idea to change the measurments to the correct size but keep the engine in the correct position simply bolt some plates on the engine bit and move the whole engine forwards to keep the gears inline

where did you get the bucket from and how are they?if i cant get one at a reasonable price im going to have to fabricate one

mc_mc

Those pictures wouldn't look half so good without the oil and grime.

Great stuff!

fcrammond

The buckets are fairly readily obtainable from the bigger s/h Meccano dealers but as an obsolete and sought after item are usually expensive at about £30 or so. The one i have on the mamod navvy is, I think, a home made replica or perhaps a Meccano rip off. It is certainly different from my other bucket. The electric shovel supermodel uses a bucket fabricated from the small square perforated plates, an example can be seen on the Tilford website (see the Tilford thread under shows and exhibitions). I used one of these made up buckets for years until I came across this cheap "replica". thought I'd got a real bargain but it was not so. Still it looks ok to the casual glance.
Keep on building , perhaps we could have a "Steam Shovels in Action" next year.

fred

MTA

Jeez Fred, that's some contraption! At the model show I went to recently there was a load of second hand Meccano, I was interested in a tray filled with different gears, when he said he wanted £100 for the lot, I decided against it! Plus when I asked for an individual item, for example a worm gear was £1.50

steamyjim

gears are expensive...

the gears on the excavator with the deep grove in them which i have to bye 3 of are £7 each

Wallace

Fred covered the price of the buckets, but here's a sample

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MECCANO-ORI...Z1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MECCANO-ORI...Z1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1920s-Folde...Z1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Meccano-Par...Z1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Do you want me to get exact measurements for you, with between the MEC1 and 1929 version?
From memory, I thought the MEC1 was only 2 holes wider (1 each side) where the firebox is? On the 1929 model it's the same width all through.

SPOKESMAN

Specialised and early Meccano aint cheap.

Knowsnothin

Have a look on eBay for this magazine
"Constructor Quarterly of June 2002"

flywheel61

Yours Knowsnothing

. That's great.

Cheers

Chris

SPOKESMAN

Superb!

yosa

Fantastic!

steamyjim

that one is amazing

i am hoping to start very soon on my one as i am trying to scab meccano gears off my tech teacher at school... we did give him a shaping machine!

SPOKESMAN

Wallace

I was just going through my album in Photobucket to look for pics of my brothers Bing engine and saw a pic I did for these forums at one stage.

It may help a little. It's for a block setting crane, showing the rigging and gear setup. Sorry it's big. I had to do photos, not scans as it was too big to scan.
It's from a No.8 or No.10 set

If it's no use, just let me know and I'll delete the post

James

Great pics Wallace

SPOKESMAN

Superb reference!

steamyjim

i have just got some gears and a dog clutch off my tech teacher so i can start building again

meccano steam excavator

Navvies