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Plans for a small 'square' (bore=stroke=12mm) engine with new-fangled metric dimensions. Possibly easier to get going than a rotary-valve engine, less fiddly than a slide-valve engine and a bit more interesting than a basic oscillating engine. Few parts, no difficult machining operations...

Plans for a small 'square' (bore=stroke=12mm) engine with new-fangled metric dimensions. Possibly easier to get going than a rotary-valve engine, less fiddly than a slide-valve engine and a bit more interesting than a basic oscillating engine. Few parts, no difficult machining operations...

This project has been in my head for four of five years. I started building it about 3 months back and apart from the flywheel is almost complete. It's my take on William Murdoch's very early oscillating cylinder engine (said to be c1785!) and features a normal piston type valve activated by...

All done except for one grub screw and a polish! First one of these I've built and quite surprised how well it runs... http://youtu.be/WtLhiItSQFg

Second run of (yet another!) rocking engine sporting hideously wobbly flywheel plundered from an old project and temporary hacksaw-quality-finish base. Ran the first time I connected it up - seems even easier than making wobblers http://youtu.be/xoII-14QViw

Stop-gap project while figuring out what to do with other problems: this is a simplified version of Elmer's wobble plate, mostly brass with some steel bits. It's simplified because I didn't have materials in suitable sizes and I didn't feel like filing down bigger lumps. Proportions are similar...

I bought this 'vintage' paraffin blowlamp/torch at a steam fair today (it cost me 3 UKP and suffice to say there was no brass visible at all until I gave it an initial de-crudding). I'm a bit stumped with the pump though - when I finally managed to unscrew it instead of the expected nut at the...

While the main project is still suffering from some alignment problems I thought I'd build a quick and dirty pump with valve set up inspired by the Stuart Turner pumps. Here's the completed engine side of things as it stands. For info, it has a 5mm bore with a 14mm stroke. It purrs along...

The latest project is far enough along now not to be abandoned or completely ashamed of so thought I'd post a picture of the thing as it stands. It's an imitation of an engine/pump that was once available as a set of castings, I'm drawing up plans as I go and will upload them when in a suitable...

Someone gave me some 'cast steel' and some phosphor bronze - what can I use them for and what are they like to work? (Wikipedia says cast steel can be used as a more durable replacement for CI). Cheers Paul

Keep forgetting to post this... The communinty edition of QCAD was recently reworked as 'CADuntu' but has now been re-badged as LibreCAD. It's a free cross platform (Win, Linux, Mac) 2D program and not half bad... http://www.librecad.org/

Is using studs and nuts in blind holes considered good or bad engineering practice if there's no possibility of a through-hole? Would a screw/bolt be better or does it depend on the load? TIA Paul

A few questions if anyone has answers.... What is the recommended speed for using D-bits compared to drilling Can they be safely used when the hole is deeper than the flat (on the D-bit) How much undersize should the initial hole be i.e. roughly how much should the D-bit be removing? I've...

I've got brain-fade today :-\ Will an arrangement such as this work and will the eccentricity affect the valve travel as normal? (The valve rod is travelling up/down as indicated but the crankshaft is offset The eccentric and strap would be as normal - the circle at the connecting point is...

Is there any (simple!) alternative to the bell crank for transferring linear motion through 90 degress? It seems to me that a bell crank suffers from the same rotational forces as beam engine connecting rods without 'parallel motion' - I notice some of Elmer Verberg's engines (ahem) 'overcome'...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tpH0FAYScQ

Test run #2 for the latest project, a tea-light powered oscillating engine with a 4mm bore and 8mm stroke, boiler capacity about 20ml. woohoo1 Runs quite happily for 5 or 10 mins at a time but should manage half an hour or so when bedded in. In this video it's running on a 'large' size tea-light...

I'm having real trouble building this flywheel - any suggestions where to start?

Almost finished this one, thought I'd bung it in here rather than 'work in progress' as there's no build diary. It's a first assembly and needs a lot of cleaning up as mostly fabricated construction so sorry about the poor finish - ignore the vile fasteners too! Not yet ready to run as it needs...

Does anyone have experience of, or an opinion on, using the shuttle-type arrangement for controlling the valve on Stuart pumps but on an ordinary engine (i.e. not a pump and with a flywheel)? Here's a picture in case my description isn't clear enough...