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I spent a little time with mounting everything up today so I could actually run some current through the coil and see if can make this thing run: Short answer; Nope. There is way too much friction for my little coil to be able to drive this the way I had planned, so I am envisioning some mods...

After trying to clean up the ring I cut from flat stock, I realized how tough it is to sand out machining marks. As you can see in my last post, I was trying to hold the ring in the outside jaws of my 3-jaw chuck and couldn't get the part centered when I had to flip it, so would end up with a...

I keep sneaking out to the garage and cutting parts. Gotta start the new year off right.... I didn't have any decent round stock, so I tried to cut a circle out on the mill. I thought the brass would go a lot better than the aluminum, but the cut ended up really nasty plus I didn't center it...

Thanks! I cut that with a 3/16" endmill. I probably should have put something in the picture to provide scale. The flywheel is 3.27" diameter.

A bit more progress today. Everyone headed up to the snow today (Brrr!) and left me home alone. Poor me ;) Facing off the teflon for the piston (which will hold the magnet): Turning down some brass to make a guide for the piston rod: Here's the completed guide, which I then had to scrap...

That's the style all right. Thanks! Although I could have sworn I had seen one with a bearing between the eccentric and the outer ring. I am a major collector/packrat/scrounge and have a couple of thin section bearings (.75"ID,1.0"OD) from a cast off project at work that I plan to use. I got up...

I have been having issues with my G-code conversion utility, so I ended up doing 3+ hours of hand coding. Finally I got it looking the way I wanted in CNCSimulator, and then loaded up the program and started cutting an aluminum prototype. Here's the initial result: I stopped the program before...

I am just getting started. Should I wait until I get further along to start a WIP thread? I don't really know what the protocol is. Basically it will be a solenoid engine, but the solenoid will be a little different than normal and built to look like a steam piston. I am hoping that if I mount...

Thanks for the welcome, all! I don't know about better, but Metal Craft Warehouse is a lot closer to me. Off of I80 just before you get on the causeway toward Davis. I just paid $6+ per pound for scrap brass, but it's a 5 minute drive and they are really friendly.

Just to add another data point, I thought I'd show my CNC converted X1 (HF Micro-mill). The equipment is: Harbor Freight Micro-mill Extended x and y tables from LMS 305 oz-in steppers and "Pro" driver board from hobbycnc X,Y and Z motor mounts, couplers and thrust bearings from cncfusion EMC2...

Even though I'm new, I thought it might be useful to post the build of my "custom" electric engine (and by "custom" I mean that I'm making it up as I go.) I thought it might be useful as a place to point beginners "Don't do it like this one!" The idea for this engine is a flywheel and...

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I am Jeff (AKA Robotguy) and have now logged over 10 hours looking through the forums at all of the amazing projects. I am planning to build a small electric "engine" with a magnet and coil "piston" and a brass flywheel. I have had my CNC...