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Has anyone ever bought and finished one of these steam engine kits?
Model steam engine "Danni" premilled material kit
I don't have the skills to make one from scratch (hope I have the skills to build a kit!) so one of these looks appealing to me.
If it worked out good when it was finished. How could I supply steam to it rather than compressed air?
What's your thoughts? Are these kits over priced or a good learning aid?
Thanks
Jim
There should be plenty of boiler kits available on the net as well, they do seem overpriced to me for what you are getting. If you google (free) steam engine plans there are plenty of freebies around, I'd imagine the same applies for boiler plans. I designed two simple steam engines, one a single cylinder and one a horizontally opposed twin along with their own (very simple) valve system. I've only run them on compressed air (around 5psi), considering I made the stroke too long and the flywheel to small on the horizontally opposed twin, it worked well. I made both from bits and pieces I had lying around (cost nothing). I've also made a Stirling hot air engine; unfortunately, either my design or too much friction precluded it from working. Stirling engines are fascinating things, might get around to having another go one day. There are a few on the forum that specialise in model engines, I'm sure they should be able to point you in the right direction regarding plans for boilers and engines.
Thanks for the reply.
What does this engine look like for a complete beginner ?
A Simple Oscillating Engine
Hello Jim,
My son learnt to build various Oscillators first. Basically made from a piece of brass tube soft-soldered to a piece of brass plate. Plenty of free plans on the web.
Try John-Tom Engine Plans and look at Elmer's engines Elmers Engines Steam Engine Plans
If these are too simple, maybe take a look at Ernie Winter's Bolton No 5. Catalogue
Not a great web site - you will need to download the catalogue and the pricelist.
I bought the casting set, the plans, and the assembly manual and gave them to my son for his thirteenth birthday. He managed just fine.
No. 5 Open Column Launch Engine 5/8" x5/8" Plans, Castings, Fastner Set / Material Set, No. 5 Construction Manual seems to be around $180 (not sure about gst).
Cheers,
Findlay.
I bought one of the stirling engine kits and plans, bit of a rip off really. But hopefully when its done i will have a good understanding of how it works and i can build more from scratch. The biggest PITA is everything is cut to length, well just oversize anyway, so work holding can be a real pain.
Ew
A good place to start is Start Model Engineering
Follow the link on the left-hand side to Elmer's Wobbler #25. I am also a beginner and am slowly working my way through this project and building my skills. Two well illustrated WIPs from other beginners is a big help.
As always, thanks for the help and replies and suggestions.
They are always truly appreciated.
Jim I recall you looking last year for some information on model engines. If you're still after anything on this, I may suggest this site, with designs by Jan Ridders. You will be able to scratch build them from raw materials http://ridders.nu/index.htm pages in Dutch have an option for English also.
Ewan, yes the Stirling engines can be a PIA to get working, in particular the LTD versions. Friction is their enemy and they produce so little power that they are on the borderline of physical possibilities to begin with. I recently finished 3 to give away as gifts, and getting them to work is quite a challenge. The main bearings required the seals removed all lubrication removed, and then very thoroughly cleaned. Even a spec of dust will cause the engine not to run correctly. When spinning the aluminium flywheel on the bearings, it should take 3-4 minutes to come to rest. The other thing are the tolerances required, in many cases they can be "challenging" to say the least. None were specified in the drawings so I decided 0.05 mm would be "good enough". In many instances however that was way off, and I needed to remachine a couple of parts with much tighter tolerances. Both the power piston and the displacer conrod need to be gas tight fit, but are of course sliding surfaces so also perfectly parallel. No fluid can be used to effect a seal as it would contribute too much to friction. There are approximately 150 parts to be machined in these 3 engines.
As mentioned, one of the biggest challenges is however work holding, as these small parts can be quite challenging. At one extreme the piston gudgeon pins are 1.5 mm (press fit), at the other extreme the top and bottom plates are 110 mm IIRC, and need to be machined on 2 faces simultaneously. The bottom plate cannot have a piercing hole :doh: When I gave one of the engines away I went through the drawings with the person I gave it to and briefly described the story behind each part. Sadly most of the parts had "a story".
Anyway, here's some videos of them first running. I had a cutter jam when machining the balancing holes in one (I truly hate machining 5083) and that put a small bend in the flywheel I straightened after this video was taken. Quite annoying as it was the last machining operation on the last engine, and I didn't notice it had bent the flywheel slightly until it was assembled. Bugger!
I'd definitely recommend them as projects, as they are excellent learning opportunities in extreme precision and challenging work holding solutions, but don't underestimate the time involved in constructing them. I estimated 80 hours in each engine, but I think that's being generous to be honest. Admittedly much of it is staring at the lathe scratching one's head, but it all counts. I WON'T however do any more again :D Now I'm (finally) back to the workshop for "big" stuff. Non-precision stuff, like aligning my autocollimator :D
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These are running powered by the heat differential between the hot water/coffee in the cups and the room temperature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRw-ZriTrcw
I agree that Jan Ridders is an excellent source. I have a few of his plans. They are exceptional. I am currently building his Simple 2 Stroke as I procrastinate over my CNC build..Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete F
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G'day Jim,
I haven't built any of the Bengs models but a mate built one of their flame eater engines and he was very happy with it.
They are not a finished kit and still need a fair bit of machining to complete them but from what he told me you only need a lathe and a drill press.
His engine is beautiful and runs like a dream but it's definitely not a beginners project, of course your steam engine may well be simpler but any mistakes might be costly.
For a first project I would go with something simple like the little oscillating engine you mentioned, you will gain valuable skills and knowledge and the required tolerances are not very tight. Any mistakes will only cost you time as the material cost is minimal but what you learn will be invaluable.
You really want your first project to be a simple one that you can get running without too much fuss because there is nothing more frustrating than spending hours building a paper weight, especially if it's an expensive one.
A good place to start is the HMEM forum and the Mamod forum (just google them), lots of really helpful people there and lots of documented builds.
And +1 for Elmer's engines, there are enough free plans there to keep you busy for a while.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Greg.
Beautiful work Pete, but 3 at once? Frustration to the 3rd power.
Michael
You could try some of Ray Hasbrouck's engines, look at the yahoo ray Hasbrouck forum lots of photos a book of 10 plans costs about $38 all built from bar stock, I built the #10 engine in about 5 months, my first large engine http://youtu.be/oXQk2X0PiDs too big for my boiler, I'm about to start on the # 3,Leroy Attachment 323687Attachment 323686
Thanks Michael, as you know I had my doubts I'd get even one to run, never mind 3! I still have one sitting here waiting to go to his eventual custodian and it's funny how quickly the pain subsides. Even I look at him and think, pffft they don't look that hard (the same feeling I had when I first downloaded the drawings). Oooooh how wrong I was :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Michael G
The autocollimator alignment on the other hand? Knocked him off in an hour :p
.... now go back and enjoy yourself!