This is my projects so far.

[hobby]

Hi,
This is a nice forum to share our projects.
I've been into homeshop machining as a hobby, among many other hobbies, for around 7 years now.
I started out making all kinds of tooling and small repair parts, then about 2 years ago I got interested in designing and building mechanical projects.
So I looked on the inernet to see a animation of how a steam engine works, and after finding the concept, I got on my cad program and designed my own from scratch.
it is a double acting classic steam engine, it was a lot of learning experiance to get it wotking did a lot of reworking and rebuilding until I finally got it to work,
but once I did then the rest of the engines after became easier to get running on the first or second try.

I have a 7 x 10 mini lathe, and a Micro-mill drill, (harbor freight) and a 4x6 bandsaw and a small benchtop metal bandsaw. Benchtop grinder, and drill press. Among other tooling and such.


Here is the first one.

second one, this runs forward and reverse, depending on wich side air is intaked.

third one, this one is not the steam engine concept, but works with valves and rocker arms, pushrods, still a steam (compressed air engine) just a inter comb. engine concept.
This is a poor design for the intake valve, due to high pressure intake, causes the intake valve to remain pushed down into the cykinder, that's why a heavy valve spring on the one side and a lite spring on the exhaust.
Works good just can't over work the air intake.

Fourth engine, learned from my mistake with the intake valve and designed a intake valve system that does not enter into the cylinder, but the air is routed around it when depressed in it's own compartment, this is the best running yet, it is self starting when air is applied, even has a throttle.

another view.

And this one I am currently working on on weekends,
it is a horizontal 4 cyl. engine, an aircrafty type concept.

Thankyou.
For letting me share.
and
Merry Christmas
God Bless...

 

[1hand]

Wow.........all I can say is Wow!

 

[vlmarshall]

I'll second the 'wows'...thanks for sharing that stuff! I'm looking forward to more updates on that Flat Four.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Welcome to the forum hobby.
Yeah...I'll be interested in seeing more. Absolutely.

 

[rake60]

Welcome to HMEM hobby.

Interesting builds! :bow:

Rick

 

[JMI]

Very impressive, especially considering they are designed from scratch.

Jim

 

[gbritnell]

I like the mechanical looking aspect of your engines. Things like the size of the rockers and links give it almost a robotical look. They're very nice in that they're a departure from the standard looking engine. Keep up the good work.
gbritnell

 

[Maryak]

Hobby,

Welcome to our forum.

Impressive designs. :bow:

Best Regards
Bob

 

[SignalFailure]

Right up my street these, many thanks for the inspiration :bow:

 

[hobby]

Thankyou,
Everyone for the nice warm welcome,
and the compliments.

When I get my next engine done, I'll be sure to post it.

Have a great day...

 

[gmac]

+1 on gbritnell's comments. I also like the look - there are obvious signs of the "style" or family lineage amongst the engines. Great work! Welcome to the cage!!

Garry

 

[Bill Mc]

Hi Hobby - I hope that you will become a regular visitor to HMEM. Seasons Greetings - Billmc

 

[hobby]

Here is an update to my current engine, design and build.

Crankshaft built up and installed.
And piston con. rods connected.
Temporary flywheel.

Have a great day..

 

[hobby]

here was a fun project.

Looked for a picture of those kwik clamps, on the innernet. then tried to fabricate my own the real fun part was designing the fixtures needed to hold the parts for machining.

 

[hobby]

another update on the horizontal.

Using my build thread to practice posting updates on my projects, to learn how to make my postings somewhat interesting. Before I use the "work in progress" forum.

last few days, I made a wooden fixture and double stick taped it (after acurate lining up) to my rotary table, than clamped down 4 (intake) rocker blanks, and milled the profile.

Then made a new wooden fixture for the exhaust rocker blanks, (there larger in lenghth) and did the same.

then milled out the recesses on both sides.

then machined the shafts for the rockers to rock on.

and the assembly of the rockers (preliminary), for test fits.

 

[IronHorse]

Nice work Hobby, can't wait to see that one run!


IronHorse

 

[hobby]

Some more updates on my latest project.

Now it's time to figure the angles needed to drill through the block, that holds the push rod tubes.

Now to record all the dimensions measured.

It turns out to be a compound angle, 1.14 deg. on the horizontal, and 4.34 deg. on the verticle.

Now to make a drilling jig that is tilted at a compund angle.

the first angle block screwed to a wooden jig, attached to my rotary table.

Now I'll set the RT, to 0 and mill the bottom, and one side to be the datums to work off of. first.

Now I'll turn the RT. to 4.34 deg. to mill the top section, at the angle.

The first angled block done.

Now the second one is milled at the 1.14 deg.

Both blocks milled and ready to be assembled together.

Both blocks are now glued together at there proper orientations. To become the final drilling jig.

Time to set up for the drilling of the actual workpiece.

Now drilling the workpiece.

Now a test fit to see how the angles look.

Top view.

and side view.

Ok lets cut a piece of 1/4" rod which will be the dia. of the push rod tube, and see how well it lines up with the center of the cam (eccentric), and the target point on the rocker arm.

Lines up exactly as planned.

That is just the intake tube.

Now I need to recalculate the angles and make another angled drilling jig, for the exhaust tubes as well.

All in all by taking my time this cam out very acurately.


Thanks for taking a look.

Have a great day...

 

[hobby]

some more updates,

I took 1/4 steel rod, and drilled and reamed an inside diameter to 0.1865",
this will be the pushrod tubes.

Then I took all neccesary measurements, and built up another compound angle drilling fixture.

This happens to be 0.9 deg. down on vertical axis, and 2.8 deg. to the right on the horizontal axis.

Here is the results of todays work on drilling the first block, this now shows both the intake push rod tube on top, and the exhaust push rod tube at the bottom.

They both (push rod tubes), start out at the quadrant on there respective cams (ecentrics).

But as they go through the block they begin to overlap, while the intake (top) juts to the left and upwards,
and the exhaust juts out to the right and downwards, looking out from the crankshaft.

here are the picrures showing these compound angled tube directions.

FRONT VIEW.

LEFT FRONT VIEW.

and the TOP VIEW.

Next is to drill the the other 3 blocks, drill and ream the pushrod tubes, drill for set screws in each block to hold the tubes, then begin working on the push rods, themselves.

when I get one set of pushrods done, I will have enough components, in the build to test run one cylinder, to see how it works..

That's all for now...

Thanks...

 

[hobby]

another update:

Hi everyone,

On my current project I am working on a 4 cyl. horizontal engine.

Over the weekend, I was able to get enough parts machined to put together one cylinder for test running.

The first picture shows I put sandpaper between the rocker arms and the push rod tubes to force both intake and exhaust valve open to lessen compression drag.

This one cylinder still working against 3 cylinders, that still have some air compression friction, due to the fact that the exhaust port and intake posrt sre snall orifices leading into there cylinders.



So here is a test run of 1 cylinder.



Thankyou...

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Very enjoyable vid. Thanks.
Looks like good progress.