Phoenix Engineering Works & Foundry
The workshop at the Old Engine House is housed in a converted Victorian railway Signalbox and is used for the restoration, repair, maintenance and manufacture of steam powered and other vintage machinery. In addition to numerous hand tools there are some ancient (and even one or two modern) bit of equipment to aid this work. In true Victorian style, where even ramshackle old sheds used as enginering works were given grand names, we have continued this tradition !
Turning is accomplished on Boley, Hobbymat, Wade, Drummond or Muir lathes.
The hobbymat is a modern precision small capacity lathe which runs by electric motor
The 5 inch lathe was built by Drummond Bros. of Ryde's Hill, Guildford in 1914 for a REME mobile military workshop like the one pictured hereunder and is still operated by a foot treadle - it's also known as the one legged jogging machine and is the nearest I get to sport. This was my late and much missed friend Tony Atthill's lathe on which he machined all the engines in the Atthill Collection, also now resident here.
An ex REME horsedrawn mobile field workshop - a leg of it's 5" Drummond can be seen in the centre.
The Muir is well over a century old, will swing a foot in diameter and six foot between centres - here the connecting rod for the first Riches and Watts engine is undergoing the final stages of re machining to remove the results of years of neglect. When needed it is connected to a stationary engine by leather belt.
A screwcutting WADE lathe made by CAV Small Tools is also resident, it was the first lathe in use but as it is now very worn and it's aluminium castings are beginning to crumble it has been largely retired to a quiet corner of the engine room and is only woken up if an occasional job requiring its set of collets is required - this is a rare event following the arrival of a vintage Boley Watchmakers lathe which caters for the minute jobs.
Drilling is accomplished on a cheap modern powered drill press of Far Eastern manufacture, with a portable handrill or one of three sensitive drilling machines, both pictured were retrieved from the tip, de rusted and restored, on the left, this tiny powered drill was home made by some past engineer, on the right a hand cranked Metabo both are now used for the really thin drill jobs such as putting holes in gas jets. Not pictured yet is a sensitive drilling machine built in 1948 by my old pal Tony Atthill, this is now driven with an inverter controlled three phase motor giving a continuous range of speeds and with instant reverse is also used for small tapping jobs.
Not running to a milling machine (well a lathe will do almost as well for most jobs) there was great jubilation when this super little hand cranked shaper turned up on the tip in a darker shade of horshoe (rusted solid to the uninitiated) after a lot of work de rusting, scraping in the slideways, repairing the smashed clapperbox casting and finally re painting it occasionally gets pulled out and used when I can think of no other way than arm aching to flatten or shape a bit of metal, here it is taking a sliver off the back of a recently cast brass plate. Should anybody know who it was made by I would love to hear as I could find no marks on it during restoration
The non ferrous foundry is a recent addition to facilities here - forced by the need to produce castings at an affordable price, an enormous investment has been made to ensure that all the best in modern foundry technology has been incorporated.
Raw material supply - the quality of the raw materials in casting is essential, here only the very best is good enough - we melt down only the best brass taps, plumbing fittings, bits of electrical plugs, old immersion heater elements, swarf and other scrap which can be obtained for nothing (or next to nothing)
The latest high design in furnaces has been constructed - best quality (free) firebricks have been loosely piled up in a scrap stainless steel cover and a small hole for the propane torch left at the bottom. A bit of brick is perched over the top to prevent ingress by rain.
Charging the crucible is a delicate matter, the correct balance of taps to swarf is essential to maintain the qualities of the alloy. There has been talk of various fluxes and de gassing tablets to prevent oxidation of the melt and porosity in the casting, pyrometers to establish the temperature of the melt prior to pouring and other high tech essentials, however, so far, heating old scrap until it goes runny and then pouring into the greensand mould as quickly as possible has given acceptable results.
These are a raw plate in the early stages of fettling having just had the sprue / riser cut off and two finished plates after fettling, polishing, painting and 'antiqueing'. The raw plate was cast in greensand, the two painted ones were done in an oil bonded sand and have yielded a much smoother finish.
The moulding arrangements have not been pictured, well quite frankly old bits of strip wood nailed up to make flasks and a few buckets of wet sand aren't really worth the bandwith ! (but I may take some next time I have a moulding session)
A leap into the modern world is currently under construction, this being a 3 axis computer controlled engraving / light milling machine, being built largely from scrap and using stepper motors reclaimed from old printers and a PC from a skip !