johnsimmance
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A SET OF DIMENSIONED DRAWINGS, A MANUAL AND A DVD
SHOWING THE MACHINING AND ASSEMBLY OF A TWIN CYLINDER IN-LINE
DOUBLE ACTING OSCILLATING VALVE MODEL STEAM ENGINE.
The engine is self-starting and reversible.
THE ENGINE ITSELF AND MATERIALS ARE NOT INCLUDED.
The completion and running of this little steam engine was shown recently on a YouTube video. With a half inch bore; and a half inch stroke, it was developed from my earlier Vee-Twin design, also double acting, reversible and self starting. While the Vee configuration worked very well, the complicated steam piping from the reversing valve to the cylinders looked horrible, and was a pain to make. So I modified the Vee design to in-line, and this cleaned up the rat's nest of copper piping.
The idea worked well: The new design looked nicer, there were only two pipes on each side from the control valve to the cylinders, and the In-Line set-up was fairly unique there are very few oscillating valve steam engines with in-line cylinders.
It is not only in-line, but double acting, with a power stroke acting in both directions, and it is self-starting.
The Reversing Valve also acts as a speed control, making it an ideal little boat engine that can be radio controlled, and one that won't leave you stranded in the middle of the lake waiting for a twist of the flywheel to get it running again!
But this design advantage demands that the crankshaft must be very carefully made, with particularly careful machining of the central upright. That should be a challenge for any amateur machinist to accept!
The package comprises a set of 10 drawings, a 22 page illustrated construction manual and a 46 minute DVD which expands on the information in the manual and shows in more detail features in the drawings that might not be entirely understood.
This is not for the novice. It is assumed that the machinist is reasonably experienced, can read drawings, and can make any jigs and fixtures that are necessary on his own machines. The manual is not a teaching course in home machining, and it not a step by step instruction book. It presumes that the machinist has at least a small lathe, a milling machine, a rotary table, milling vises, vee-blocks and precision measurement instruments, including a dial test indicator. The machine tools used to make the original engine were:- a Taig Micro Lathe fitted with a Taig Compound Slide, a Micro-Mark Mini Mill with a 3 screwless vise and a rotary table fitted with a 3 lathe chuck Ordinary hand tools and a small machinists bench vise were used for assembly.
The drawings are my own CAD drawings, produced using AutoCAD LT. While I completed a Mechanical Engineering Apprenticeship in England, this was 60 years ago in 1949. I am now 81 years old and my memory the of the drafting conventions I was trained in are not only British, but have been dimmed by my years and have been diluted by my 40 years in the US, and contact with American standards. My drawings do not therefore conform to accepted standards, but I am sure that they will be easily understood by any competent machinist.
The package contains no materials, but lists some suppliers. While my stock of the required 1/8 diameter steel balls lasts, I will supply with each package 4 of these: 2 to use and 2 to lose.
The DVD runs slightly longer than 46 minutes, it highlights the principal stages of the machining and assembly, and augments both the manual and the drawings.
The DVD is recorded in the NTSC format, and also in the PAL format for European users.
This link it will take you to the YouTube video of the engine running on compressed air: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y62a_7-V5qI[/ame]
SHOWING THE MACHINING AND ASSEMBLY OF A TWIN CYLINDER IN-LINE
DOUBLE ACTING OSCILLATING VALVE MODEL STEAM ENGINE.
The engine is self-starting and reversible.
THE ENGINE ITSELF AND MATERIALS ARE NOT INCLUDED.
The completion and running of this little steam engine was shown recently on a YouTube video. With a half inch bore; and a half inch stroke, it was developed from my earlier Vee-Twin design, also double acting, reversible and self starting. While the Vee configuration worked very well, the complicated steam piping from the reversing valve to the cylinders looked horrible, and was a pain to make. So I modified the Vee design to in-line, and this cleaned up the rat's nest of copper piping.
The idea worked well: The new design looked nicer, there were only two pipes on each side from the control valve to the cylinders, and the In-Line set-up was fairly unique there are very few oscillating valve steam engines with in-line cylinders.
It is not only in-line, but double acting, with a power stroke acting in both directions, and it is self-starting.
The Reversing Valve also acts as a speed control, making it an ideal little boat engine that can be radio controlled, and one that won't leave you stranded in the middle of the lake waiting for a twist of the flywheel to get it running again!
But this design advantage demands that the crankshaft must be very carefully made, with particularly careful machining of the central upright. That should be a challenge for any amateur machinist to accept!
The package comprises a set of 10 drawings, a 22 page illustrated construction manual and a 46 minute DVD which expands on the information in the manual and shows in more detail features in the drawings that might not be entirely understood.
This is not for the novice. It is assumed that the machinist is reasonably experienced, can read drawings, and can make any jigs and fixtures that are necessary on his own machines. The manual is not a teaching course in home machining, and it not a step by step instruction book. It presumes that the machinist has at least a small lathe, a milling machine, a rotary table, milling vises, vee-blocks and precision measurement instruments, including a dial test indicator. The machine tools used to make the original engine were:- a Taig Micro Lathe fitted with a Taig Compound Slide, a Micro-Mark Mini Mill with a 3 screwless vise and a rotary table fitted with a 3 lathe chuck Ordinary hand tools and a small machinists bench vise were used for assembly.
The drawings are my own CAD drawings, produced using AutoCAD LT. While I completed a Mechanical Engineering Apprenticeship in England, this was 60 years ago in 1949. I am now 81 years old and my memory the of the drafting conventions I was trained in are not only British, but have been dimmed by my years and have been diluted by my 40 years in the US, and contact with American standards. My drawings do not therefore conform to accepted standards, but I am sure that they will be easily understood by any competent machinist.
The package contains no materials, but lists some suppliers. While my stock of the required 1/8 diameter steel balls lasts, I will supply with each package 4 of these: 2 to use and 2 to lose.
The DVD runs slightly longer than 46 minutes, it highlights the principal stages of the machining and assembly, and augments both the manual and the drawings.
The DVD is recorded in the NTSC format, and also in the PAL format for European users.
This link it will take you to the YouTube video of the engine running on compressed air: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y62a_7-V5qI[/ame]
