Why do we do this?

[vederstein]

I've been thinking a bit lately and have come to a question. Those that have been following know that I'm a steam guy. I occasionally try my hand at a Stirling, but usually steam is my thing. (Hell, I failed at making a running Webster.)

It seems that most people on this forum are into internal combustion (IC).

The questions is why?

I know my reason for being drawn to steam: When I was in college (and before) I was fascinated by moving things. Model steam engines are, primarily, visual mechanisms. i.e. You can see the delicate dance between the various mechanical elements. Old, open crank hit and miss engines also fall into this category. In fact as a specialization I chose kinematics. It was the only graduate level coursework I had.

So for you IC affectionatos, I ask what is the allure?

This is not a sarcastic question. I'm truly interested in the reasons, because they differ from my steam interest. Is it the higher difficulty (timing, sealing, etc)? Is it the self contained power in an IC? Is it the goal to create what actually existed, but in miniature (e.g. a true model)?

I welcome you're comments.

...Ved.

 

[Cogsy]

I think I'm drawn to I.C. engines because that's what I was exposed to from an early age, helping my dad in the shed pulling motors apart, fixing them, putting them back together and refitting them in everything from cars and motorbikes to lawnmowers.

When I learnt to fly RC planes I was amazed that some people in the hobby cast their own parts at home and built their own engines and I imagined these skills were far beyond anything I'd ever manage. It is very fulfilling to now have some success in making my own engines that actually run. In fact I like the thought that, technically, I have a reasonable chance of building almost any contraption if I put enough effort into it.

Oh, and the noise - I love the sound of an I.C. engine, especially multi-cylinders with a rough 'hot' idle.

Edit to add: My 'wish list' also has at least a couple of steam engines, a stirling or two, a laminar flow and a Mendocino as well.

 

[bazmak]

Im the opposite.As a boy trainspotter a steam model is the beall and endall
and you can run them on nice clean air.Not interested in IC with dirty smelly fuel,never interested in my motor bike,only worked on it if it was necessary
Thats why we are all different i suppose

 

[10K Pete]

I think for me it goes back to my childhood. As long as I can remember I've been fascinated by things mechanical.
My Dad was the same way. When he was about 6 years old I'm told he made a working model of a hand cranked
cherry pitter out or bailing wire, with a crank, feeder and pit-pusher. It was wire and didn't actually pit cherries but
cranked around and had the requisite moving parts. He was a 'mechanic' in the old sense all his life. What many of
us would call an 'engineer'.

This affliction/talent was passed to him, apparently, from his Dad then on to me. Everything Dad did it seemed I was
right there, watching, helping, learning and, I realize now, having the time of my life. When I was 8 years old, or so,
I built a 'mechanical' forearm and hand with fingers. Made of bits of wood and controlled by string it would bend, flex and mimic a hand in it's motions. There was no special reason to do this, just did it from curiosity or something.

So I guess having spent a lifetime, and a career, doing things 'mechanical' it's sort of natural, now that I'm retired and
have the shop, to build nifty thingies like steam engines and weird (by some standards) old engines and stuff. I love
tinkering in the shop. If I don't have a specific project going (a rare thing) then I'm 'improving' some piece of equipment
or tooling, or making some new bit of kit. Or frequently doing something for a friend. The other thing is that these
old mechanisms appeal to me because sometimes I think I was born about a century too late. Tinkering with them
just feels good and right.

I dunno. It seems to be a 'genetic' thing. My wife loves it that I can make or fix most anything and is quite happy to have me 'messing around' in the shop. And for me it keeps what's left of the body and mind active and interested. And it's really quite enjoyable to share this interest with other like-minded people, especially these days
when there is the 'net to allow sharing all over the world! Something that in itself seems quite magical to an old fart
like me.

Pete

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I started out with steam, but found it to be too easy. After my first six or seven steam engines, which all ran regardless of the poor machining ability I had when I first started, I got bored, I wanted something with more of a challenge.

 

[Philipintexas]

I also had a fascination with steam engines from an early age, don't know why because I was born after their hay-day. I made several and showed them at model engine shows. Then I found IC engines can be as "pretty", and very "mechanical", but are also self-contained and easier to show since they run without other input. They can also be quite a challenge since there's quite a bit of intricate work including carburetors and electrical stuff. I've stood behind spectators watching them run and heard men explain to their wives that they are running on electricity... Small IC engines are pretty rare in the real world.

 

[barnesrickw]

I got bored with woodworking.

 

[stevehuckss396]

I have no idea, just like IC i guess.

 

[Blogwitch]

Despite having a mechanically minded father who was involved with massive forging of loco axles and the manufacture of wheels for steam engines in Crewe locomotive works, and a next door neighbour who made scale steam locomotives that he had running around his garden I never really liked locomotives, but loved playing with steam power, a soldered up tin can blowing a jet of steam onto a turbine fan was one of my first projects.
My first lathe was a clamp on hand powered knife grinder with a chuck bodged onto the front instead of the grinding wheel. I learned how to 'grave' parts to make small steam engines, and it went from there. By about the age of 12 I was making steam powered, electric and i/c model boats and that stuck with me for about the next 45 years, a combination of model engineering and model boat building.
When my body started to fail, when I couldn't carry the large models any more, I concentrated on the engineering side of things.
Unfortunately, most of the engines, both steam and i/c I built have been given away to friends who admired them, just a few special ones that I really enjoyed designing and making have been retained.

Now a little off topic, but maybe a few older members will remember things from earlier days.

Nowadays, when things allow, I am building the workshop of my dreams, including developing and making specialised tooling to help me towards my final goal, which will hopefully allow me to design and make anything I desire, even with the disabilities I have. Whether I have a lot more years to go or everything just ends up as a pile of rust, we have no way of knowing, just get on with it and make what you want.

I think it is what is inside a person and just how much disposable income that the person possesses (either the expensive way of casting kits or building what they can from materials they have available) that pushes him in one direction or another. I used to be on a shoestring for everything, but by sharing freely what I did have with other like minded people, things like raw materials were never an issue as they would reciprocate easily with any help that I required, even to the stage where any spare machinery found it's way to my storage areas and was freely given to others in need, as long as they would pick it up or drop it off. It is still contimuing now, last week I went to see an old friend, and while there, he gave me about 30 good quality sash weights. I have plenty of my own, so any visitors will be able to take a few home with them.

Just think, by being a little generous with your excess just might get someone else interested in this hobby and maybe he/she will carry on like a few of us others have done so for many years.


John

 

[gbritnell]

It's quite a simple answer really, it boils down to the old apples and oranges thing. What do you like more?
With the many types and styles of steam engines that were produced a person could spend his entire modeling career building steam engines from the simplest, an oscillating type, to the most complex, a Corliss with it's valves and linkages.
Internal combustion engines offer their own varied types from simple single cylinder 2 cycle types to multi cylinder radials.
Personally I started out with steam engines, machining engines in kit form from companies like Stuart and Reeves and then moved on to steam traction engines like a 1" Case from Coles Power models. I had always been interested in I.C. engines having grown up in the hot rod era, late 50's through the early 70's and here again built my first miniature engine, a hit and miss type, from a casting kit supplied by Paul Breisch.
If one takes your question, without any inference of sarcasm, of why builders choose what they do, it's because of a person's particular interest, and not for any other reason.
I do take from your questioning that you couldn't build a Webster so you enjoy building steam engines more. If that's the case then maybe you should ask yourself why you feel that way. Personally I feel like as has been previously stated it's much easier to build a 'simple' steam engine because even with loose tolerances and fit's all one has to do is apply more air pressure or more steam and it will produce some type of motion. On the other hand if a person builds an I.C. engine with loose tolerances and fits adding more fuel, spark and air will produce no operation at all.
Even a Stirling or flame licker engine is not that complex but requires careful accurate machining to make them operational.
Leaving any type of engine building out of the question I think the answer lies in the challenge of machining itself. How do I make a particularly complex setup, how good is my fit between parts, or how do I shape a particular part from a block of metal.
Your answer lies within yourself.
gbritnell

 

[cfellows]

For me, it's a lot off subtle reasons. Partly, it's the challenge of not only getting an IC engine to run, but to make it run well at a slow, easy pace. Also, an IC engine seems to me to be somewhat "alive", a small, controlled explosion making it move. The sound, the smell, and the motion all combine to make it quite satisfying when it runs.

IC engines can also be the most frustrating. One day they'll run great and the next day they'll barely sputter or won't start at all, even though seemly nothing has changed. I have only built one engine, a 7/8" bore, air cooled, vertical single, that seems to start and run predictably time after time.

I like and have built all types of engines including steam, stirling, flamelickers, and even electric solenoid, but IC engines seem to me to have a unique, magic quality unmatched by the others.

Chuck