My Elbow Engine

[Bogstandard]

Hi Ralph,
It's very nice to be referred to as a teacher, because since I erected my new workshop a few years back, it is an open house to people requiring help in making parts on their lathe and miller. Mainly in the evening and weekend and also geared towards making fixtures and fittings for model boats.
Starting in the near future is a friend who is a builder and landscape gardener, who is building a chopper, and wants to be shown how to make all the glittery bits out of stainless and aluminium. The first job is a pair of top yokes for the forks, then somehow we have to get the rigid frame on to the miller to have the rear end machined. The plus side is that he is going to landscape my front garden for free. A fair exchange is no robbery.
By the way, I notice you are maybe using 3 in 1 oil for lubrication on your engine. I think you will be better on this engine if possible to use a little bit of multigrade, 3 in 1 and WD40 are both lubricants but do have a lot of cleaning agents in them and are really designed to get things moving rather than continuous running, door hinges have slightly different lubrication requirements than these little engines we make.

 

[rake60]

Well I finally got mine to the point that I thought I should try putting the
pressure to it. It runs, but not well.

<embed src="http://www.rake60.com/photogallery/Elbow_First_Run.mpeg" autoplay="false" hidden="false" loop="false" type="application/mediaplayer" wmode="transparent" width="350" heigth="425"></embed>

or http://www.rake60.com/photogallery/Elbow_First_Run.mpeg

Still some fine tuning to do yet, but I am happy to see that it will try!
Can't do much more with it tonight. It's 10:30PM. If the halogen light in
the driveway to take the video didn't disturb the neighbors the
compressor kicking on surely would.

Rick

 

[Bogstandard]

Well done, always knew you would succeed.
I fine, fine, fine tuned with a plastic handled screwdriver, just tapping with the plastic end with the bolts only just nipped, all of a sudden it went off like a banshee.
It's coveralls on now, oil will fly.

John

 

[lugnut]

That is neat Rick. I'll bet that you was happy with your results. I was a little surprised at how much noise it makes. I just started lining up one of the Cylinder pieces for mine in the RT for drilling. Never used a RT before so I'm a little slow. I post some photos when I made a little more progress. Haven’t made the pistons as yet.
Mel

 

[Bogstandard]

Here is another tip on making this engine, it might help a few of you to get them running.
On the plans it shows no pictures of the bolts that the cylinders rotate around. These are most probably the most critical parts on the engine because if these aren't perfectly upright or the correct length you will have air leaking from everywhere and the engine just won't run correctly.
If you look at the part built engine in my posts it shows the bolt heads not yet finished and a bit further on you will see the bolts in the picture with all the bits ready for assembly. These are stepped and shoulder bolts, designed to be perfectly upright and when tightened they allow easy modification to allow nice close fits.
The attached sketch should explain it all.

This type of bolt can be used anywhere where a part needs to rotate around the bolt.
Please excuse the quality of the sketch, my right arm doesn't work right most of the time.

John