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While on the subject of aluminum finishes does anyone know of any mild chemical solution that will change the color or texture of the finish. I have found that using the water and alum solution that guys use to remove a small broken tap will affect some grades of aluminum. I enjoy making...

You are right Peter that 4 stroke air powered engines could be considered a bad approach to what is practical and efficient. The only reason to do it is for the true 4 stroke sound. A highly respected gentleman named Chuck Fellows pioneered the 4 stroke concept with air power with a unique ball...

I am sorry Mad but there never were drawings for this little guy. I belong to an E.A.A. pilots group and several years back we were discussing Radials and some of the guys didn't know how the crank / rods functioned so I built and assembled just the parts shown so that you could rotate the crank...

KF2QD just said it perfectly. The original question asked on this discussion was about a air powered radial and it turned into discussing both air and gas powered. I have never seen a 4 stroke air powered radial so yes they fire one cylinder after the next and you can have any number of...

I have used Delrin on air powered engines with good results. Its coefficient of expansion is about 40 percent more that Ertalyte but for a comparison Teflon is 200 percent more. Many of my engines are small and I use the Delrin mostly on bores of 3/8 inch or less. On the larger (up to one inch)...

I agree with ChazzC that the high moisture in steam would not be a good mix with any of the plastics in a steam powered engine. None of my air engines are for steam and all but one have ran fine and thats's with machining the piston to where it will not drop through the cylinder bore with your...

I have made several air powered models and have went to the high performance plastics for the pistons. You might think Teflon would be a good choice because it has the least amount of friction but has the greatest amount of thermal expansion with temperature change (stuck piston). I have had...

George, I like your Gatling's. Even as a kid watching western movies I fell in love with the Gatling. I also went to libraries maybe 30 years ago and got all the info I could. Here is one that's 6 inches long and all brass. Gary

I have been working on this Radial engine for the last 2 or 3 months and I think it is finally done. Not sure if anyone has ever done one with 9 cylinders. It is my own design. Gary

Jmccrack, Where I.C. radials fire every other cylinder yours would be a 2 stroke and fire each cylinder as it rotates. I don't know how you number your cylinders or which direction it is suppose to run but each cylinder would fire (air in) as it rotates. Gary

You can't have all the rods independent or it will bind up. You do need a master rod. Gary

ShopShoe, The original article was in the December 1961 Popular Science. I have heard that it is listed in John-Tom plans. Gary

Brian, When you said you wished for x-ray vision but thought you figured it out you are right. Rudy Kouhoupt used the same type of valve back in the 60's on his beam engine. If you look close in the photo you can see the 4 ports on the side of the cylinder. Gary

I think I kind of got this thread hijacked and I did not mean to. If I should stop adding to this thread would someone let me know. Anatol, Sometimes the rotary valve is part of the crank. In Rudy's case he called it ( the valve ) but I think of it as the rear half of the crank. On the twin...

Anatol, If you found David's plans on john-tom then you probably have seen how the co2 type engines work. If not the top of the piston has a pin which lifts a ball off a seat at TDC which gives it a shot of air to drive the piston down. In a rotary valve like mine part of the crankshaft has...

I also have been replacing fluorescents as they die with 4 foot LED units. I am buying Smart Electrician brand from Menards. Mine are the single unit with 4200 lumens and 4000k bright white which is in the mid range between warm and daylight. I am very happy with them and when on sale they are a...

Anatol, I find quite often that when I make engines from someone's plans that I end up changing this or that like in the following photos. The original was from a guy named David Kerzel. Mine has a rotary valve rather than CO2 design As for my beam engine I changed the linkage and a another...

Anatol, I am sure the center linkage could be removed rather easily if someone wanted to. Some of us say ( The more movement the better ). When I did my version of the Rudy Kouhoupt beam engine from the Aug 1969 addition of Popular Mechanics I did the opposite of what your asking and added...

Anatol, The plans for this engine were in the December 1961 Popular Science magazine. It starts on page 144 and was from a guy named Henry Frostick. Gary