# Tiny vertical double acting steam engine



## gbritnell (Jun 29, 2010)

Gentlemen,
 I have loaded a new file in the downloads/uploads section. It contains drawings for a tiny vertical, double acting steam engine with Stephenson reverse mechanism. 
 This engine was entered in and won the Sherline contest the first year of it's inception. Robert Washburn, the editor of SIC, asked if anyone had offered to publish the drawings and I told him no. He said he would publish them under the guise of being an 'external' combustion engine. 
George


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## SAM in LA (Jun 29, 2010)

George,

That sure is a small engine.

Did you use a microscope while machining the parts?

Thanks for sharing.

SAM


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## 4156df (Jun 29, 2010)

George,
The detail is just fantastic. Thanks for posting the pictures and the plans.
Dennis


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## mklotz (Jun 29, 2010)

Incredible work, George. That's really one to be proud of.


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## ieezitin (Jun 29, 2010)

George.

Again yet another fine piece of craftsmanship from you. I take great pleasure in viewing your dexterity for miniature engines.

Ever thought about making a nice little 3 cylinder diesel?


Anthony.


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## shred (Jun 29, 2010)

Very cool. Thanks for the plans! (for anybody that's not checked, that flywheel is 0.9" diameter!)

Was there any particular reason to use imperial dimensions and metric threads?


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## Quickj (Jun 29, 2010)

George,
Thank you for these plans, The engine is awesome. It is hard to visualize how small this really is until you start cutting metal for it. I went down to the shop and cut some brass for the base and column. 

I did note one small mistake on the plan dimension for the column. On your Sect. A view, there is two differant radius dimensions (.225 and .283) for the same bore. I suspect that one is the bore and one is supposed to be the external dimension, but the arrows are all pointing to the same circle.

Thanks again!!

Jim


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## gbritnell (Jun 29, 2010)

Hi Shred, I have taps and dies down to 0-80 in SAE sizes. I could never get good taps and dies (high speed steel) below this or else the price was exorbitant so I bought the 1.0x.025mm taps and dies. They are high speed and of fairly good quality so that's what I used.
 Jim, you are correct my friend. I have made the change but I don't know how to change the file to add the corrected drawing. Maybe the admin. could help me with this. For the time being I'm including it here.
Thanks for the heads up.
George 

View attachment steam engine sht2.pdf


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## gbritnell (Jun 29, 2010)

For those who might not have seen the video of it running, here it is.
George
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcfrKsOaDNw[/ame]


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## ChooChooMike (Jun 29, 2010)

Very sweet George !! You really can appreciate the small size by seeing your fingers there on the reversing lever !! :big:

:bow:

Mike


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## Deanofid (Jun 29, 2010)

What a beauty, George. I love small engines. This sure fits the bill.
It runs great!

Thank you for the prints.

Dean


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## Quickj (Jul 1, 2010)

I made a start on my version of this with the base. I changed the plan by adding mounting "tabs" to the ends of the base.
I am building mine mostly from Brass.

I rough machine the part, then sandblast it to give it the appearance of a casting, then finish machine the part. I am using size 00-90 hardware instead of the m1.0X.025 that George used.

Next up will be the column, but I don't know when.

Thanks again George for a nice set of plans for a very attractive engine.

Jim.


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## putputman (Jul 1, 2010)

Jim, that is a nice touch on that base. It really looks cast. What kind of grit did you use to get that rough finish.


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## gbritnell (Jul 1, 2010)

Hi Jim,
Nice start on your engine. I would suggest making the crank and eccentrics from mild steel (12L14) so that you don't have the same metals running against each other.
George


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## Quickj (Jul 3, 2010)

Arv,

The Sandblast cabinet is currently loaded with "Black Diamond" from Northern Tool.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200022824_200022824

Which is what I normally use on car and motorcycle parts prior to powdercoating. It is a little more aggressive then glassbead, but gives a nice finish to brass and aluminum. It is actually a lot smoother then this picture would make it appear.

George,
Thank you for the reminder about the rotating and sliding parts. I will be using the appropriate materials for these when (if) I get to them.

I thank you again for making these plans available, I like this little engine very much. I apologize for cluttering up your original thread with my build efforts, so I will continue my build documentation in a new thread in the "works in progress" section.

Jim


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## ttrikalin (Jul 3, 2010)

George, 
What big fingers you have!
They dwarf the engine, man. 
 :big:

Superb machining! very nice detail!

take care, 
tom


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## jwcnc1911 (May 4, 2013)

This is fantastic!  So nicely machined it looks like a big engine until you see it in comparison with fingerprints.


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## Herbiev (May 5, 2013)

Great engine. Well done


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