A Little Wood Working

[rake60]

I've always wanted to attempt to build a running engine of wood.
Hard woods such as oak can be cut very cleanly and accurately with
metal working tools.

Tonight I decided to get started.
7 minutes in the shop produced this rough wobbler cylinder.

This is design on the fly!

It was a 1" oak dowel that I chucked up in the lathe and ran a 1/2" 2 flute
center cutting end mill in to. The bore is very smooth and mics at .507"
When I used up maximum depth of the end mill the bore was 1.147 deep.
I'm thinking a 3/4" stroke will work well in it. I can make the crank throw from
a piece of the same dowel. Tomorrow I'll make a trip the hardware store to buy a
couple of smaller oak dowels and see if I can make this idea fly...


Rick

 

[Brass_Machine]

This is gonna be good. Can't wait to see it play out.

Eric

 

[jack404]

Good for you rake

we have a bloke in South Australia who made a small engine outa Iron bark a red hardwoord eucalypt that grows here its name gives it away

he uses boles ( knobs that form after insects or similar damage it) because the grain is even finer oon those sections.

i had a packard straight 8 when young and made a piston outta iron bark and it ran quite happily for a couple months until i got cashed up to buy a replacement

some woods are very strong and do not burn easy at all

will watch this build with a lot of interest

cheers

jack

 

[rake60]

My wife is Canadian so we are having Thanksgiving dinner
today and I'm trying to help out, so not much shop
time today.

BTW Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canada Members tomorrow!

I did sneak down the steps a little earlier today to knock out a
couple pieces.

I managed to make a piston and crankshaft in about 30 minutes.

This stuff even fits together and moves where it's supposed to! :

Rick

 

[CrewCab]

This is looking good Rick .............. keep it coming 8)



(I'm assuming it won't be IC )

CC

 

[rake60]

This is looking good Rick .............. keep it coming 8)



(I'm assuming it won't be IC )

CC

If it is I'd have to assume the piston to cylinder fit was a bit too close.
:big:

Rick

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I'm not sure where you live, and what swings there are in relative humidity---but---A good piston to cylinder fit now will be a sloppy fit when the central heating kicks in for the winter and the air in your house drys out from having the heat on. I have oak interior doors in my house that stick really bad all summer. As soon as winter sets in and my furnace starts to run fairly constantly, all the sticky doors shrink enough that they don't stick from November untill April.

 

[rake60]

I'm not too concerned about weather changes Brian.
There is no dryer in my air system so moisture will destroy it quickly
anyway.

I did manage to get all of the parts roughed out today and test assembled.
I wanted it to be all of wood, but you just can't find a decent wooden spring
these days. One metal part:

Of course I had to try putting a little air to it.
It will sputter a little but won't run continuous yet.

Maybe next weekend I will find time to do the finishing work on it.

Rick

 

[Stan]

Rick: For a wooden spring, soak a thin strip of wood and put a bow in it. Archer's bows are a tremendous spring.