Thread: My Latest Project - Stanley Steamer

Hi Guys I thought I'd share my latest project thats kept me pretty occupied since I was last on here.

This is the 1911 Stanley Steamer built from plans in the book "Building Antique Cars in Wood" by William Reeves. This is supposedly one of the easier models to build in the book but I can tell you it had its challenges including the fact this was my first experience in soldering brass and turning brass - although I was surprised to find I could turn brass relatively easily on the wood lathe with an old carving chisel I thought I'd try, thinking that if it didn't work or wrecked the chisel it would be no great loss. As it happened it worked fine.

I should mention that the only bit I had to turn was the flared part of the horn which is only 6mm long and 3/8 diam. and soldered to the curly bit.

I'm pretty pleased with the overall result. The car body is made from redgum from a found roadside white post along the road (I swear I didn't knock it over!! - it was already down.)

The fender mats and floor mats are African Blackwood, the white parts are predominantly Huon Pine, the gear sticks and dash levers being Tasmanian Oak, The seats are Soloman Island Queen Ebony.

There are some bits underneath the car that can't be seen in the photos which are made from Tasmanian Blackwood, The wheel hubs are Red Ironbark.

Bryon