| Bull Engine air pump rebored |
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During exploratory work on the Bull Engine's air pump, which is used to remove water and air from the engine's condenser, it became clear that the air pump cylinder, piston and piston rod were not in good condition. As a result of this, it was decided to rebore the air pump cylinder and modify the piston to accept a bronze piston ring. The modification work to the air pump piston and rod were carried out in the Museum workshops, however, due to the design of our Bull Engine, it was impossible to remove the air pump cylinder itself from it's location under the engine.
We designed and constructed a boring bar and spiders which, over a period of a few weeks were installed into the air pump sylinder (still in-situ), and for the first time in restoration, a rebore of a steam engine air pump was performed. The overall time period to rebore the air pump cylinder and complete modification work to the rest of the air pump components took over six months. |