Recent content by Oldmechthings

If you are interested in videos, There is a short video on almost every posting on my blog. Just scroll down and click on the triangle in the middle of the picture. Birk

Celebrating too many birthday parties has started to take a toll, but I still manage a little shop time and occasionally complete a project. Some are engines and some are other things. The last engine was a Silver Angel as designed by the late Bob Shores. Before that was a little Launch engine...

Would you know I finished another model a few days ago, and while it is not an engine, it does have a reciprocating piston that goes putt putt putt quite fast. Does that count? For some reason I'm intrigued with simple everyday things that I don't know how they work. I found that building a...

Sam The clutch is a standard "one revolution" dog type clutch that was used on most old mechanical presses and shears. The design varied a little bit between brands, but all of them operated about the same. I pulled some patent drawings off the internet and then designed the miniature clutch...

Although it is not an engine, perhaps it might have some similarities in that it has a connecting rod and other moving parts. Presently it is fitted with dies to stamp out pie tins. For what?, Mice, of course. And here is a video of it in action.

Last week I finished another hot air engine, so I thought I'd post a picture for you to look at. It is not a scale model, but more of a resemblance to a patent design sketch seen in a Stirling engine book. Stirling's 4th engine built in 1843. A 45hp dual displacer, single double acting power...

SHAPING GEAR CUTTERS On this particular model the draftsman had done a pretty good job, so I enlarged the drawing to full size and then ground a lathe type tool bit to fit the drawing. On occasions I will make my own layout with a sharp pointed compass and pencil, and grind a bit to fit the...

My February project was completed several days ago with a whole week to spare. Now what do I do for the rest of the month? Actually it is a pretty simple straight forward model to build. The most interesting thing being the internal geared crank mechanism. and that was not difficult. I usually...

Not that anyone might care, but the end of January marked the completion of a scale model of an old hand pumped RR section car from the era before they were powered by gasoline engines. I'll show you a picture anyway. And here is a short video so that you can see to really works. The...

I had every intent to build a scale model of a century old stamp mill of the kind that was used to crush ore, and pulled a bunch of information off the internet in preparation to get started, but before it got underway my whimsy side got in the way. I have a terrible time staying serious all the...

Sorry, but I have been a little lax in post on the site. It is not that I have not been doing things, it's just that old men move slower than when they were younger. About the end of October I completed a Steeple Engine patterned after one seen in the book "Historic Engines Worth Modeling" by...

Last Friday, august 21st I completed a Panther Pup gasoline engine model. Patterns were made and castings poured about 17 or 18 years ago when the construction article was first published. Then I got side tracked and the castings were put in storage to "age". I've heard things get better with...

More years ago than I want to remember, I picked up a reprint copy of a 1897 Sears Catalog. When looking through it, I seen a pair of what they called "Fancy Calipers". Using a Xerox machine I enlarged the image, with the intent of using it for a pattern to make some calipers. Well the enlarged...

Machining internal gears for models is quite simple. On this model the gear teeth are machined right into frame. After boring out the inside, the blank was mounted on a rotary table on the mill, the mill spindle rotation locked, a form tool inserted in a boring bar, and the quill worked up and...

Yesterday on a post about an air operated engine, cfellows asked where I was. Just to let everyone know, I'm still around producing things as fast as I can, I'll post a picture for you to look at. It is a simple little geared engine, that is a little different than normal. It has a big hard to...