Southworth Steam Boiler Feed Pump Progress.
by John
With book reviews and OP’s workshops on this blog you might be wondering if anything is happening in MY workshop.
Well, yes.
I have been beavering away, making parts for the Southworth steam powered boiler water feed pump. Today I made the final parts. The machining has been fairly basic and straightforward, so no special photos or videos.
These are the parts and assemblies. Top is the steam cylinders left, the water cylinders right. The water pump stack not attached. The the tails for the valve rods, the valve rods with valves attached, the cylinder caps, the valve rod levers, and some of the gaskets.
I will make a separate blog about the gaskets. These were all laser cut. I will never hand cut another gasket. Laser cutting is cheap, fast and accurate. Way to go!
The valve levers and fittings. These are small, precise, and accurate. Quite a pain to make, even with CNC. I remade more than one of these, due to dropping and losing the original. The fasteners are M2, and not finalised. The off centre drilling of the left hand fitting is of no consequence (I hope).
The valve rods, M2.5, and valves. Cutting those threads, 2.5mm diameter and 25mm long, was also a challenge. I learnt about fixed steadies, but too late to use on this job. Subject for a future blog.
And some of the cylinder end caps. There are 8 altogether.
So now that all of the parts/components are made, I will commence the assembly, then the timing of the steam engine component. Watch this space.
Book review of “A Military History of China” coming up soon. Quite an eye opener.
If you have not sent in photos of your workspace, please do so. The series has generated quite a lot of interest.
johnsmachines 
Very nice work. I am planning to build a couple of these. One 4″ long and one ~2″ long.
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Interesting articles on the southworth steam pumps. I bought two of the 6” kits years ago and made it about half way through the first one breaking bits and spending more time correcting mistakes, so I filed them away until my machine skill increased. I never had the corresponding how to build articles. I am curious if you are looking for another machining project or can share advise on getting these pumps built?
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Hi Joe, I cannot help with getting the pumps built, but if you cannot find the original magazine articles which detail the build details I could send them to you. (I would need an email address). I am currently building a vertical Southworth pump. Well actually, I had put it aside for a year or two, but your message might stimulate me to get back into it. When that happens I will post some details. John
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Always looking for future projects Joe, but too old to be taking on commissions. The how to build articles were helpful. The actual machining was not difficult. Maybe you should give it another go?
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