Well, I've decided to make an Elbow Engine. The plans can be had here:
http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/ElbowEngine.pdf
The plans make it look easy, and the pieces look simple to make; only 10 parts.
I've read several posts here about people having frustrations with theirs. So simple parts that need to be made with a lot of precision to get it to work.
I've compiled some ideas from others here and added a few of my own to come up with something that looks very
promising, in fact as you can see from the included short video, it runs without a flywheel!
Over the next few posts, I'll outline what I did to get a running engine and why.
First and probably foremost, I made the pistons from brass, thinking that brass would be easier to bend to 90 deg.
They MUST be exactly 90 deg. It took a bit of tinkering to get that, so I can't imagine what it would be like with
drill rod. Second, I drew up the pistons up to make a bending fixture and the dimensions they gave didn't work, so I made some changes and cut and bent one. It bottomed out. I'm not sure what people did here because that wasn't one of the stated problems. I kept changing the piston design til I got a design to work; to bend repeatably and to be the correct length.
Well, that's enough for now, just a teaser. More tomorrow
Mark
View attachment Elbow.wmv
http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/ElbowEngine.pdf
The plans make it look easy, and the pieces look simple to make; only 10 parts.
I've read several posts here about people having frustrations with theirs. So simple parts that need to be made with a lot of precision to get it to work.
I've compiled some ideas from others here and added a few of my own to come up with something that looks very
promising, in fact as you can see from the included short video, it runs without a flywheel!
Over the next few posts, I'll outline what I did to get a running engine and why.
First and probably foremost, I made the pistons from brass, thinking that brass would be easier to bend to 90 deg.
They MUST be exactly 90 deg. It took a bit of tinkering to get that, so I can't imagine what it would be like with
drill rod. Second, I drew up the pistons up to make a bending fixture and the dimensions they gave didn't work, so I made some changes and cut and bent one. It bottomed out. I'm not sure what people did here because that wasn't one of the stated problems. I kept changing the piston design til I got a design to work; to bend repeatably and to be the correct length.
Well, that's enough for now, just a teaser. More tomorrow
Mark
View attachment Elbow.wmv