andypugh

You might be able to get "lamp oil" which might even be better. https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/clear-lamp-oil-1-litre And I would expect barbecue lighter fluid to work. Possibly even white spirit. In order of preference for fire breathing: lamp oil, paraffin, barbecue fluid, white spirit. (Just don't swallow any of them).

Have you considered extending the core through the gudgeon pin holes to hold it more central during casting?

Silver solder? What is the material?

Do you have a lathe? I can make the spinning former from a drawing relatively easily, if you want to do the spinning. Or I could probably do the spinning too, but not as quickly.

So, that's your one and Ben's two? (There are several fire engines, of course)

I wouldn't entirely exclude the possibility.

A new bezel looks like a fun metal-spinning job. Here is my guide to making lamps by metal-spinning: https://bodgesoc.blogspot.com/2015/02/headlights.html

This is another marque that makes the standard of engineering of the contemporary Dennis vehicles look rather amateur. Those cross-members and torque tube look very expensive, and very hard to make and rather lovely. It's interesting to compare this fact to the continued existence of both the Dennis company and an awful lot of their vehicles.

That's cool (and I wouldn't mind a Dalesman too) but I really meant the "Mountaineer" from the early 1920s.

Leave big solid blocks and then machine? Or buy a 3D printer to make your core boxes with. Saves a lot of skill.

I seem to recall you have a ball-turning attachment. Could that be fitted with a CBN tool to generate the circular profile?

I reckon that my CNC lathe with a CBN tool could tickle them back in to shape it it was OK for them to become a little thinner. (And I am not allowed in to work for 3 weeks, and expect to run out of things to do)

http://www.lathes.co.uk/edgwick/index.html Apparently it has a special feature for making multi-start threads.

Err, sorry to sound like some sort of wierdo lathe-spotter, but what's the lathe? Looks vaguely Holbrook?

Drill and tap some bolt holes in the side of the castor to clamp the wheel?

The Albion hooks look just like the Dennis hooks.

The Peerless[1] hooks look very specific to the width of the Peerless. What did the Albion hooks look like? The Dennis hooks were mounted to the chassis, rather than the spring shackle (at least on the fire engines, possibly not on the subsidy trucks) https://images.app.goo.gl/jobbBr2YnD3wCFe77 I would imagine it would be fairly easy to cast some hooks in iron that would look exactly right, if not necessarily perform to original specification. (The chap in the above photo is a regular here, though I am not sure he has been espied that side of the lens before) [1] Peer-less seems like a good name for an optician.

Is it _definitely_ a relief valve? The 1916 White and Poppe has an oil distribution system that feeds unpressurised oil to troughs above each main bearing. Number 5 main has a spring-loaded valve that restricts the flow purely to provide a measurable pressure for the gauge. We use a very light spring to provide less resistance, and also so that the needle does not point straight down at normal pressure. It used to point straight down, then one day an oil pipe broke at the same time as the needle came loose...

Hooks on the outside only would suggest dual wheels (The "Stepney Wheel" was invented prior to WW1, though clearly there is no need for such a device with a solid tyre) If the hooks are on both sides then chains (or ropes) seem more likely.

I thought that Jon Winter had it in the UK, but their web site seems to have lost the easy to find list of products. Easy Composites have wax and tools: https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/patterns-moulds-and-tooling/Mould-Making-Materials/soft-yellow-filleting-and-filling-wax.html https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/tools-equipment-and-supplies/composites-workshop-equipment/Ball-End-Filleting-Tools-Set-of-3.html

Now you need an early '20s motorcycle to mount it on.

I did specify an "Ordinary" rather than "Safety" bicycle.

I wonder if the tyres on Ordinary bicycles are attached the same way?

It seems I have confused my marques. I was really meaning "Mountaineer" (though I Dalesman would be fun too) https://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/work/mountaineer-motorcycles

Nice to see something from Huddersfield in preservation. Is the truck still in the North? One of these days I would like to find a "Dalesman" motorcycle, made in Marsden. And don't worry about the lack of military connection, this little corner of HMVF has become the secret haunt of the solid-tyred commercial vehicle weirdos in general.