The Legendary 
"Butt Ugly Radial"

A year or so back, I attended an auction held in Asheville, NC where a small number of steam engines from an estate were being offered. Six long hours later and a few bucks lighter, I came home with what has become known among my fellow collectors as my "Butt Ugly Radial". Admittedly it was one sad looking machine when I claimed it, but I've transformed some pretty rough engines. Somehow, I saw a bit of potential in this one.

When I got a chance to have a good close look at things, it was more than obvious this little fellow was going to need major surgery. Past repairs, mismatched components and some inherent design problems were all going to have to be redone. In short, I had a much bigger project than I originally thought.

Two years ago, I purchased a small chinese mini mill and lathe and commenced teaching myself to turn perfectly good usable metal into tiny recyclable chips. Along the way, I began to figure out that the chips were not the end goal and began to actually make a few successful things, like tools or the odd bits and small pieces for steam engines I restore. The "Butt Ugly Radial" was to become the victim of my first attempt at producing major components.

Current Status
of the
"Butt Ugly Radial"

This project was a challenge from the beginning, espcially for a novice machinist. When you scratch build an engine, you get to set the placement of things and build at your own skill level. When you follow others, and there were multiple others, you have to work to the skills or lack thereof and the placements of those who went before you.

Everything exterior of the main block was stripped off. There had been previous repairs using different metal profiles, as well as a selection of  several different vintage brake fittings serving as valves. Nothing matched and no two cylinder interiors were the same. This meant that each cylinder had to be machined to match one and only the one it would be replacing. A bit of 3d computer time was involved in the complete redesign of the cylinders, steam chests and valves to give the engine my own updated look.

What you see in the photo above is the results of my best first effort at machining steam engine components. The brass partsare all my own work, as are the copper steam lines running through the steamchest blocks. Tthe plating and polishing were done here as well. The engine is now 95% complete, needing only end caps and exhaustlines fitted to the open valve ends and a bit of soldering to the incoming steam lines. As soon as the weather is more agreeable, I'll be finishing the Butt Ugly Radial and giving her a maiden run. Then it will take its place in the collection and on the Steam Gallery site.