PM Research No.1

[rhitee93]

In my intro post I promised to share the pics and video of the PMR #1 engine I have been working on.  This represents about 6 months of free time.

I made a few special touches that make the engine uniquely mine:

 1. The head and steam chest were machined from brass bar stock rather than the cast iron parts that came with the kit.

 2. The crank is built up with counterbalances rather than the cast iron original.

 3. The crosshead slide standoffs are not the simple cylindrical shapes in the plans.

 4. the valve link is a one-off design.

 5. Custom made hardware to replace the slotted screws that were supplied.

 The Build log can be seen here:
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f31/pm-research-no-1-build-17259/

Here are some pics:









And here is a video, that I am afraid is a bit long...

Thanks for the warm welcome the other day.  I'll be sure to share more of my next build with y'all.

[saw]

It's a pice of art 

[DaveH]

Beautifully made  and it runs so smooooooth 

Excellent   
 
DaveH

[doubleboost]

Very nice
I like the cross head top guides 
John

[NickG]

Brian, it's great to see the finished result ... and finish it you have!  You've made what I thought looked a bit toy like on their website into something resembling a scale model. I think the fastners and crank have made all the difference for me.   

How would you rate the quality of the castings and kit overall?

I'm very tempted to try this as my first engine from castings as for the size, the price seems good.

Nick

[rhitee93]

Thanks for the compliments Nick.

For the cost of this kit, I don't think you can go wrong.  Where else can you get a casting set for a 12" (30cm) long engine for $115USD?

I thought the castings were pretty good, but this is the only cast iron kit I have ever had so I am not an expert.  I had no inclusions or hard spots with any of my parts, and there is more than enough extra material to remove to get to the finished dimensions.  In fact, I would say too much material because some places that were shown on the prints as a cleanup pass really required about 0.100" (2.5mm) of removal.

The finish on the castings wasn't bad.  Some parts were better than others.  I opted to make my own parts rather than use a few that I just saw as too much work to clean up.  I went through a pretty extensive smoothing process to make the final paint job look more correct to scale.  This is all in the build log with some pictures of the steps I had to take.

All in all I am quite happy.  There are some beautiful casting sets out there, but the prices are a lot higher.  In the end you plunk down your money and get what you pay for, (at best).

[NickG]

 Thanks for the comprehensive review.
Those were exactly my thoughts with regard to price. Forest classics here in the uk do it for just over £130 delivered. Lineymachine were the cheapest I could find at just over £100 delivered from the states, which as you say for a 12" engine is great. It's a similar size to Stuart Victoria I guess. Not sure whether I'd get stung for some kind of import duty if ordering from the US though.

I realise that you paid a lot more attention to finishing than I would do and are a lot more skilful! The wooden base is exquisite. I saw the photos of cylinder covers which looked comparatively rough, having said that the actual shape and accuracy of them look a lot better than many more expensive ones. The actual quantity of castings is also quite high fir this type of engine I think.

Thanks again and congrats on a fantastic model.

Nick