Wood Steam Engine

[ezdays]

Getting close, now on step 40, but there are many problems yet to be resolved. Back in step 2, I missed putting in two parts that should have locked in the spring. Issue solved with a dab of glue since there's no way of getting to that assembly without stripping back to that step. The front end sags and I have no idea if it is joined in the wrong slot (there is one drawing that is super unclear), or another step will support it better. The say no glue, but there are parts so loose they fall off when you rotate the assembly (note the liberal use of rubber bands). There are other parts that are suppose to move, but bind, all this means there will be a lot of screwing around afterwards. For instance, the hammer that hits the bell neither makes contact to the actuating gear, nor does it move freely. Same goes for the smokestack, it's suppose to rotate but is nowhere near a drive gear.

Lastly, some gears seem to mesh OK, but the spring is not driving the main gear, which was assembled in step 8 and I may have to do some tricky surgery to get to lock in, but one thing I'm not doing is any major disassembly.

I noticed that in the beginning, the instructions say to remove all pieces from the sheet they're attached to before beginning construction. That means a pile of 290 pieces, most marked, some not, some as large as 8", some as small as 1/8". I left them on the sheet until needed and kept most of my sanity.

Here's where I am now: