Recent content by Peter Twissell

Certainly. I used to be on a Dnepr owners group, but it faded into obscurity and I don't do facebook.

This picture was taken a couple of years ago. See also here https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/a-gert-big-radial.31859/

Re. Alignment of chamfers, I will either machine the chamfers on the parts after they are otherwise finished and bolted together, or make the chamfers on the end parts a bit smaller than those on the crankcase, so there is a clear intentional difference.

Thanks dieselpilot, I had wondered whether it was a trade name.

I'm not sure what is meant by "stressproof" in this context. Proof stress is a measure of the materials yield strength. When buying steel for anything with specific requirements for strength, workability, surface finish, hardening etc. it is worth looking up the available grades and their...

Nice work. I'm always amazed at how spindly some of these crank designs appear, although they are clearly up to the job. The crank for my radial is a monster by comparison.

I made a slightly more ambitious tool for riveting. Essentially, it's a lump of steel plate with a long slot in it and a couple of tubes welded to the end, either side of the slot. One tube supports the dolly, as in Nigel's tool, the other acts as a guide for the punch, keeping it aligned to the...

Looks just the job, scaled to an appropriate size for your engine. It's worth noting that the ram doesn't need to be a 'piston fit' in the bore, it's just acting as a displacer. Provided the seal is good, it will work.

Hi Nigel, The second steam engine I built was a Stuart Beam Engine. I made a freelance water pump from scrap material, using balls and springs from a Triumph motorcycle oil pump for the valves. The pump ram is a section of 1/8" bright steel bar, with an O ring seal. It is only the connection to...

I think it's more Rowland Emmet than Heath Robinson.

A flow plug is a resistive heater and as such, is to some degree self regulating. As the coil hearts up, it's resistance increases, limiting the current flow. I have two glow plug drivers, one of which has a NiCd cell the other has a sealed lead acid cell. Either works with all the plugs I have.

Wishing you a swift and full recovery Dave.

Splendid job and very much my kind of machine.

Much of the issue described can be eliminated simply by picking the correct glow plug. I have a 4 stroke model aircraft engine which idles very slowly with a large prop and will happily keep running with no power to the plug.

I recently restored a tinplate toy helicopter, believed to be from the 1940s/50s, which works on the counterbalanced principle. It has an electric motor with simple resistor speed control and a joystick which can alter the fore/aft pitch to make it fly in circles around a central pillar, which...