Below you can view more photos of Clarence Lee’s engines. Click on images to enlarge.
Lee .51 Engine
A rear view of the Lee .51 engine. Clarence noted that he had traded one of these engines to Phil Kraft in exchange for a radio.
Lee .51 Engine
Note that Clarence added his “Lee Custom” stamp to the frame above the serial number when he restored the engine. Restoration included re-anodizing the head ball to a bright purple color.
Lee .35 Engine
This Lee .35 engine is seen from the front left side. This .35, and some .29 size sand-cast ball bearing engines were built as prototypes or experimental engines, but never went into production. Clarence designed all the Series 200 Veco engines. The engines that actually reached production were the 19, 45, and 61. There were a few prototypes for the Series 200, 29 & 35. The Series 200 engines were a ball bearing design, whereas the earlier Series 100’s (designed by Mel Anderson) were plain sleeve bearing engines. (Photo courtesy of Tim Dannels.)
Lee .35 Engine
As Tim Dannels of the Model Engine Collector’s Journal noted, “Shown here is what I would call the Lee 35. Only a couple of these were ever built, but they were never refined further to go into production. As an interesting sidelight to the “production” Lee engines, Clarence had a standing offer that if anyone who owned one of his engines was unhappy with it, he would buy it back for its original price. He never had any takers on that offer. (Photo courtesy of Tim Dannels.)
Lee .51 Engine
Danny Claes wrote the following about his Lee .51: “I have been corresponding with Mr. Lee by letter for some time. He noted that all of the parts for the 51’s were made during the later part of 1964. The completed engines were sold by January, 1965. All the parts of this engine (SN #036) are ones made at that time. Clarence had saved one 51 engine (this one) in parts after all these years, just in case some old engine came along that he was looking for, and the owner might be interested in trading for one of the 51’s. Some 15 years ago he decided to sell the last 51 to me.”