Elmer's Engine Articles

[mjp]

Hello,

A newbie here. Signed up a few months ago. First post.

I am trying to track down the Source articles for all of the engines
in Elmer's Engines book. Once completed, I want to make the list
available to the forum members. I have tracked down all but three
and just need to verify one other. All others were found in issues
of Modeltec and Live Steam magazines between 1984 and 1990.

I still need to know what magazine and issue these three came from:
No. 46 Comber Rotary Engine
No. 48 Una-Flow Engine
No. 52 Reversible Verticle Twin Wobbler

and to verify if:
No. 33 Mill Engine was in Modeltec 84-Sep

Is it possible that Elmer wrote the above three articles for a
magazine other than Modeltec or Live Steam?

Any help in identifying these issues would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Millard

 

[dparker]

Millard: I believe that you can find all(?) of Elmer's Engine plans at www.john-tom.com/html/ElmersEngines.html . I was looking around the internet and at the Elmers Engines sites and found this above mentioned site. some plans and write ups are better (clearer) than others, so if you can get better scans it would be welcome. I hope to build some of these designs someday as they intrigue me along with some others I have found and seen on this forum.
Good Luck---Don

 

[mjp]

Hi Tom. Thanks for the response.

I am well aware of the plans on the John-Tom site and the source of those plans which I believe are from the four yahoo Elmer's Engines groups. Although these are basically scans of a xerox copy of the entire Elmer's Engine book, the quality of such leaves much to be desire. I am not fortunate enough to have a copy of Elmer's book and at the going price will likely never have one. I do, however, have a scattered collection of Modeltec and Live Steam magazines that bridge the Elmer era and if you are fortunate enough to have some or all of the same, you can appreciate the need for the original book and/or magazine articles. There is a lot of detail that Elmer points out in the photos that is totally lost in the pdf scans available. Not to mention the chance to observe the true craftsmanship of Elmer's work that can be seen in the actual photographs and particularly in the color covers that featured some of them.

So my intent is to identify the source of all the articles so that I and others interested can know which magazines to look for, be it libraries, ebay, a friends collection, or whatever that they may find the original article. Through my own collection and several partial indexes scattered on the web, I have located all but the three listed in the original post.

Thanks again for your response and the link that may help others get started on the Elmer's journey.

I guess it is possible that the remaining three articles never did appear in a magazine but they had been submitted to Modeltec and/or Live Steam prior to publishing Elmer's book and therefore were included in the book although never appearing in the magazine.

So if anyone has any info regarding the "Una-Flow", "Comber Rotary", or "Reversible Twin Wobbler", your input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again and best regards,
Millard

 

[ChooChooMike]

Wow, guess I'm one of the few folks around that has a real, genuine Elmer's Engines book

Yeah, I know there's been a copy on eBay for the last few weeks. The seller is asking $500 - same seller that's on Amazon.com. The book pops up now and then on eBay at various prices, typically $150-$250. $500 is way out of range.

I've got all the issues of Live Steam magazine from 1972 to present and am scrounging for earlier issues too. If I can be of any help with looking up stuff, let me know !

Mike

 

[Bernd]

Wow, guess I'm one of the few folks around that has a real, genuine Elmer's Engines book

Yeah, I know there's been a copy on eBay for the last few weeks. The seller is asking $500 - same seller that's on Amazon.com. The book pops up now and then on eBay at various prices, typically $150-$250. $500 is way out of range.

Mike

I've have one also. I got mine for $42.00 + $4.20 shipping back when the second printing came out.

Bernd

 

[ChooChooMike]

I got mine from an old machinist guy about 3 years ago for $85 !

That was after deciding to give up on the eBay auction I was winning at $160 and let the "other" guy win. Good thing I did - I mentioned my foibles about it on another forum and this machinist offered me his copy. Didn't hesitate at all

 

[rake60]

The man who OWNS the copyrite for the "Elmer's Engine" book is a member
here. He is also the owner of the Elmer's Engines Yahoo Groups.

He makes all of Elmer's plans free to the public.
All you need to do to get them legally is join his Yahoo groups.

His name is Dirk, and his screen name is promachinist.
His generosity in making the plans available to the public can't be thanked
enough!!!

Rick

 

[mjp]

Thanks Rick for your input. Just to make sure everyone understands my original intention – I am not trying to do or obtain anything illegally - I am only trying to determine the source articles for Elmer’s Engines.

Why?

First of all, I am not fortunate enough to own an original, but I AM VERY, VERY, APPRECIATIVE to Dirk and his yahoo groups (to which I am also a member) for offering the book in its entirety for all of us to use free of charge.

Second, I am not fortunate to own an entire collection of Live Steam or Modeltec magazines either and very unlikely that I ever will. BUT, I do have quite a few and between those and some partial indexes on the web have determined the location of all but three of his engines and now that I have, I can at my discretion, seek out some or all of those that I choose to, so that I can have a first hand, clear and original article as an alternative to having an original Elmer’s Engine book, which is a bit out of my reach having not acquired one in the past. Not saying I would not try to get one if the price was right, but I could likely track down the remaining magazines that I currently do not have or want for a fraction of the cost and essentially have the same end result.

Third, I thought with that information I could compile a list and share it with the forum members so others could have an alternate approach to having an original Elmer's Engines book by obtaining an original magazine with an Elmer article should they so desire with all its clarity and depiction of Elmer’s craftsmanship not visible in the available pdf files..

So getting back to my original request, if anyone has a magazine that contains any of the three subject Elmer Engine articles or has knowledge of which that might have been, or if they never had been, I would greatly appreciate their feedback as to which magazine and issue that info is in.

Thanks again,
Millard

 

[cfellows]

I have a number of old Modeltec magazines at home. I'll browse through the collection and see what I can find.

Chuck