My Daughters First Engine

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rhitee93

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Hi All! My daughters have taken an interest in my PMR#1 build, and one of them has come out to the shop a few times to see what I was up to. After letting her turn a few handles, I asked if she wanted to build an engine together, and of course she said yes.

I let her pick an engine out of Rudy Kouhoupt's "Working Steam Engines" book, and she liked the Open Column engine the most. It has taken a few weeks to get the time, but tonight we got a start.

In order to make some quick progress, we started with some of the 2D parts that would be suitable for cutting on the waterjet. I walked her through the process of creating the parts in SolidWorks, and generating the DXF files. Then we cut them on the machine. She is a bright kid, but even I was surprised at how fast she picked up the CAD program.

Here is a pic of the base plate, con-rod and cylinder flange that we made tonight. We are building two engines as we go along so there are two sets of parts. I feel a little bad about including Rudy's book in the photo, but I wanted everyone to see what the engine will look like. I tried to give credit to Rudy, and feel this is in the spirit of fair use, but if people disagree, I will remove the photo. (It is a crummy photo anyway :) )

IMG_1823.jpg
 
You're lucky! A daughter that wants to learn how to do this stuff, and access to a water jet...

Seeing as how you have the book, I don't think there is any problem with that picture.
 
Looks like you're off to a good start. Glad you're daughter shows an interest in engine building and that you can share that with her. Will be following you're build. Roger
 
Neat! My nephews are interested but live too far away to make a go of it I think.
I'll be watching with interest.
 
I think that's truly great. I have 2 sons who although they are into mechanics and at one time fooled around with RC cars and trucks never really followed in my footsteps. I would have loved to pass along some of the things I've learned over the years but everyone has to follow their own path.
gbritnell
 
That is great Brian, I wish my grandsons had more interest in model making. I will follow you on you and your daughters venture.

Don
 
Yeah every kid should have access to a water jet cutter.
My son built a wobbler when he was about 14 . great when they are interested.
How old is the daughter?
Tin
 
I can only imagine what my neighborhood streets would have looked like if me and my pals had access to a waterjet growing up :)

Both of my girls are 13 going on 20. The one building an engine also shoots 10m air rifle with me in the winter. Helps make up for the fact that she is a cheerleader ;D (Actually, they both are)

My other daughter and I play a lot of tennis together. I am enjoying it all now while I can before boys start to creep into the picture and they loose interest in dear ol' dad. ::)
 

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