Free plans for a larger, simpler, beam engine

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Brian Rupnow

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I love Elmers engines, and I love the concept of all the moving mechanisms on a beam type engine.--That being said, after building one of Elmers basic wobblers, I find them, well,--tiny!!! They work, and they work very well, but for new amateur machinists like myself, its almost micro machining. I want a beam engine that is larger, and somewhat simpler to build, and one for which a kit is not needed. I want the parts to be large enough that I can machine them without a magnifying glass, and I want all the parts to be made from bar stock. So--I have taken Elmers beam engine, scaled it up to twice the size Elmer had in mind, and I am doing up a complete set of plans which I will post here. Many of the peices will be simplified, and if someone wants to take any of the parts and fancy them up a bit, that is perfectly fine with me. Stick around, and as I get the plans completed, they will be posted here with full dimensions and material specifications.--Brian

full assembly.jpg


full assembly-sheet #2.jpg
 
Brian :bow:
Excellent thinking, I will look forwards to your progress. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Kind regards

Malcolm
 
Brian,
Good for you, excellent idea! :bow: I am in the same frame of mind. I dislike running a tap into metal and trying to imagine that I'm cutting threads (like 2-56). I just did a 1.5x scaleup of a Ray HasBrouck design but I won't post my plans since he's still selling them. But it was a straightforward scaleup - just multiply everything by 1.5x and improvise when necessary. I'm looking forward to your results.

Cheers,
Phil
 
If anyone wants Elmer's Beam scaled up by about 1.75x and converted to metric I can supply the plans (I haven't got round to building it yet though!).
 
Can someone tell me what the advantage of the beam is? I never understood why the beam was used. Why not just connect the piston to the crank with a connecting rod - you have to connect the beam with a connecting rod. Please educate me?

 
SmoggyTurnip said:
Can someone tell me what the advantage of the beam is? I never understood why the beam was used. Why not just connect the piston to the crank with a connecting rod - you have to connect the beam with a connecting rod. Please educate me?
The beam type engines didn't originally turn a wheel. Instead of a wheel, the end of the beam was connected to a plunger in a pipe that pumped water out of the coal mines in Wales. I expect that the wheel was added at a later stage to get rotary motion, as the design of steam engines evolved. Eventually, somebody had the same thought you did, and the beam was done away with.
 
SignalFailure said:
If anyone wants Elmer's Beam scaled up by about 1.75x and converted to metric I can supply the plans (I haven't got round to building it yet though!).

That would be great. i have been considering this engine for some time. :bow:

Kind regards

Malcolm
 
Brian and Signal Failure :bow: ................ could be just what my old eyes have been waiting for :)

Thanks to you both

CC
 
Nice Idea! I too will have my printer at the ready! ;D
 
Okay Guys--Wife has taken grand daughter to the zoo today, so I spent the whole day clickin' and pickin'. The solid model is done, scaled up 50% from Elmers original plan, and simplified for NewBee machinists. You can't see it on the forum, but I can actually make the engine run on my computer, thanks to the magic of Solidworks software. I will be adding detail drawings over the next few days. there are a total of 46 parts in this machine, and 32 of those are "different" parts.

full assembly as model..jpg


full assembly as drawing.jpg
 

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