Need Recommendation for 1st

[JonnyD]

Hi Guys,

Following BobW trail brought me to here. What a great forums. A great wealth of knowledge.
I'm inspired to try and build my first engine.

I need your help.

Could you recommend a project < 100 hrs. I have a mill and lathe with limited machining experience.
WEW & Ridders's twin flame-eater are on the top of my list right now. I'm just afraid I don't have enough experience to take these on as my FIRST.

If there was a team build for these I would love to join.

Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[Macca]

Welcome Jonny,

Following BobW trail brought me to here

me too!
Some peple have jumped right in the deep end with multicylinder I.C. engines, but I reckon you can't beat a wobbler as a first engine. I am currently building Elmer's Tiny as my first engine and whilst I am finding some of the smaller pieces challenging, I am loving the process. I can't wait to get it finished and running.

 

[Brass_Machine]

LMS has plans for a wobbler that has some good tips and instructions for a first engine.

Plans are HERE

Eric

 

[Tin Falcon]

The Mcabe runner is an easy one to build.
Tin
BTW here is Rick,s copy

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[CrewCab]

As a relative newbie I went through this same quandry a few months ago ........... until I found (imho) a great web site .............. and I would paste a link, but .............. this bloomin 'puter went :fan: about 4 hours back and all the links, emails etc escaped with the magic smoke .............. bear with me guys, I'll find it shortly

(fortunately I use a seperate disc for data ;D )

CC

 

[CrewCab]

Ere' we are 8)

Dave Goodfellow, click on metalwork, (the rest of his site is pretty interesting too).

Scroll down about 3/4 of the page to the list of engines ............... I personally think "The Siamese Twin" is pretty cool 8)

Really nice bloke, we corresponded a little via email, unfortunately his health seems to have deterioarated recently and isn't very active, so any feedback seems to be very welcome.

CC

 

[NickG]

I would agree with Eric, that little machine shop oscillator looks a very simple design but it will give you plenty of satisfaction building it.

The only things I would change on that design are the material choices. I would use Brass for the cylinder and piston and if possible, the upright. In my experience aluminium is not great for cylinders and pistons as it seems to have a higher coefficient of friction. Not as critical for the upright, but I'd say even steel employed there would be better than aluminium.

Also, do the flywheel out of steel or brass, it could do with being heavier, the aluminium one will be a little on the light side. These modifications in my opinion will give you a much better chance of a nice running first engine.

Nick

 

[CrewCab]

I would use Brass for the cylinder and piston

Would it not be better to use dissimilar metals for the cylinder and piston, I know I was advised against using aluminium for both, ..... though possibly brass may be different.

CC

 

[NickG]

Most steam engines I have seen use the same material for both cylinder and piston. cast iron, gunmetal or phosphor bronze would be the best choices. I definitely wouldn't use aluminium for either, it just seems too soft and binds.

One reason to use the same materials would be so that the rates of expansion are the same, however, I know not many people that build these engines actually run them on steam, usually just compressed air.

I've built quite a few oscillating engines using various materials for cylinders and pistons (just whatever I had to hand at the time). I did one with an aluminium piston and cylinder and it was appauling ... it had the most friction and took the most pressure to run. Steel and brass worked well for compressed air but wouldn't be much good for steam.

The other thing I forgot to mention was the bearing, i've just noticed it doesn't have one. Although the upright is thick enough if made from brass to act as the bearing, if making the upright from aluminium I would be tempted to press a bronze or brass bush into it.

Although I'm sure the engine will work no problem with the materials the drawing specifies, I am confident it will work much more smoothly with these few tweeks!

 

[CrewCab]

Thanks Nick 8) ............ filed for future reference.

CC

 

[JonnyD]

Thanks guys for all the great recommendations. Keep them coming. It's a great ref. for beginners (eg. me)
I'll probably make all of these @ one time or another.

But for starting point I'll go with Elmer's Tiny. There something about an engine that fits in your shirt pocket thats really intrigue me.

I've redrawn the engine in SW and posted it in the download area. Hopefully I have interpret everything correctly.

Now off to the shop.

 

[ChooChooMike]

Nice job on the redraw JonnyD !!