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I'm also a fan of using endmills for such purposes, if it works it works. Standard endmills also make great little boring bars to square up or center holes too small to get a proper boring bar in.

Hi Tim, Welcome. I've just completed my first diesel and went with the Boll aero 18. It was a joy to build and runs fantastic with very little fettling required. Only hiccup I had was too much compression so I shave a tad off the contra piston. Definitely a good choice for a first diesel as...

I took a big break and almost sold up my workshop kit when my marriage went down the pan. I sometimes wondered if less time in the shop would've saved it (I only ever did 2 hours in the shop, once or twice a week). It turned out the workshop wasn't the problem, a dull ex with no Interests was...

Hi Mark, Your intro sounded eerily similar to someone I know, also based in Lancashire called Mark, who is also working on some Boll Aero 18s in collaboration with myself.. If you're also working on them with someone called Jamie, I can only assume there's been a glitch in the matrix.

1990's apologies - answering again with '90s' didn't clear much up.

90s. I'll see if I have any photos at some point, I'm not sure where the boiler ended up. I've heard rumours it was donated to a training facility.

The old steam boiler where I work used wedges to secure the front and rear covers. It was decommissioned last year & made in the late 90s. I kept the wedges & they have since come in very handy for hammering into snapped off threaded pipes stuck in sockets as a means remove them, think hammer-in...

My ridiculously small tool post grinder does use elastic bands as drive belts.. But it worked

I had similar problems making a crank for the tiny inline 4, four-stroke a few months ago. In the end I roughed out on the mill then made a very small tool post grinder to round off and finish. It worked well but I must've put a good 2 days solid work into it, maybe more. My tiny grinder didn't...

I second that. I have two Poppins which run for as long as I keep the oiler topped up and the burner full. My oil is just the old slop left over from motorbike oil changes. Just need a little clean between runs

Hi, I bought an vac intended for cleaning Ash from wood burning stoves on ebay. Cost peanuts (about £10-15 I think) and copes great with swarf. I squashed the nozzle to make it small enough to get into mill T slots. It's also handed for my stove..

What a work of art! I've just destroyed my my second attempt at the tiny inline four crankshaft this weekend. Your pictures have motivated me to try a third attempt. Fantastic detailed write up and photos.

I got my old poppin to run nicely on nitro rc fuel because it was all I had to test it with at the time, I then ran it on some cheap purple lamp oil which looked a lot like methylated spirit. Timing was done by trial and error until a sweet spot was found. I had a problem at first with the valve...

I just used an old mop for wicks, I think from the same mop which I chopped up to make my crude lapping tool. I'm a cheapskate but it worked well!

I I lapped my first flame eater with an old broom handle with a slpit and wedges. It worked a treat and I wish I had never sold it.. Coincidently Ibdid the opposite - a metric version of the poppin

Amazing level of detail. I think there is more work and complexity in your distributor alone than I've ever put into an entire engine. That is a masterpiece in the making.

I only made one head just to see if my machines could hack cast iron that size. I wish Id done the pair at the same time now to save on setup time.

I've just about got a cylinder head. I made a block with a 30 degree angle when used alone or 21 degree when two square bars are clamped between the block and angle plate, it kept the head steady enough for the boring jobs. I also made a fixture for cutting the cooling fins by sandwiching the...

'do I still have a finger' I remember one of those moments.. I had a puller exerting around 20t of force trying to remove a press fitted plate from a big centrifuge. When it didn't move Inhad the bright idea of sticking my fingers between a part which wasn't going tobmove and the part which...

If I crack one of mine Ill probably start again in aluminium instead. Ill have spark plugs soon so I can bore and try. Ive not cut cooling fins yet, thought it may be safest to do those last.