Steve Cook
Flying Squad
I don't mind admitting that I didn't buy this book for the engine that Kozo built (its 3/4" scale on 3 1/2" track), I bought it because he showed how he built it and as a beginner / dreamer, that is just what I need.
First things first, its a nice book, hardbound, 264 pages and printed on glossy paper with clear black and white photographs and drawings. Plenty of drawings in fact - made more astonishing by the fact that they are all beautifully inked by hand and used to illustrate not only the part to be made, but how to make it, often broken down into individual stages.
Where a bit more room is needed, there are fold outs
Drawings of assemblies as explanations and techniques are used extensively.
The quality is fantastic and as an appreciator of books and other peoples engineering skills, it is worth the cover price alone. Its main selling point though is that it addresses the question of building a live steam engine from raw materials and if you have flirted with that as an idea, I don't think you'll find a better book. I bought a copy from Camden Miniatures having heard that Kozo's work was well worth the £41.50 and I was not disappointed. To be fair, it won't take you from being utterly green because he doesn't talk about sharpening tools, setting up a lathe etc, that knowledge is going to have to be learnt elsewhere (or worked around with quick-change tool tips etc). There are chapters concerning The Art of Silver Soldering and setting up a workshop which talk about tools and their uses, made all the more interesting because Kozo lives in a flat and established his workshop in a corner of it
The engine was built free from the use of castings (driving wheels excepted) so Kozo has taken the opportunity to show how cylinders are shaped from block, how to bend pipes (making the jigs to do so), machine connecting rods etc, I have learnt a bucket load just from reading the pages and using some of the information gleaned in my recent projects. There is a big difference between reading about it and flying the tools but you have to make swarf and the book instills both a bit of confidence and faith in the way that it is presented and the way it is written.
Downsides? There are not many really, its a bit too nice to have in the workshop (buy a second copy...) and it assumes a tool competency / familiarity which I suppose it has to, that would be too much of a task to have included.
I can't recommend it enough, both for the presentation and the fact that the techniques demonstrated will translate to both larger and smaller scales. If you have that engine building dream, this may well be one of the best steps towards achieving it.
Steve
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