# First engine?



## websterz (Sep 7, 2009)

Hi guys. I have been hanging out here for several months now, and am mightily impressed with the quality of work you all turn out. I am a self-described "advanced machinist", having spent several years running lathes, mills, drills, and grinders for some guy who signed my paycheck. Well, he decided that 90% of his employees didn't need jobs anymore and he laid us all off back in February. Way to watch out for your faithful flunkies, eh? Oh well, water and bridges and all that.

Shortly before the hammer dropped I set myself up a small shop out back, 7x12 lathe, x2 mill, and a 6x18 G&L surface grinder. I have busied myself these past few months tweaking and improving my equipment, making various tooling and fixtures that I need for my gunsmithing hobby, and am now ready to do something just for the fun of it. It's time for me to build my first engine. I have steady enough hands but the eyes aren't what they used to be. Therefore some tiny little thing built on a thimble is probably not the best idea for me to tackle, not yet anyway. What's a good first engine for someone with time to kill and a decent skillset in the shop? I am looking for a challenge but I don't want to be banging my head against the wall. 

Todd


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## Tin Falcon (Sep 7, 2009)

Tod here are the usual suspects:

LMS wobbler basic vertical oscillator

http://littlemachineshop.com/Products/Drawings/2593OscillatingEngineAssembly.pdf
The McCacabe runner a cross slide valve design 

http://npmccabe.tripod.com/mccaberunner.htm
lots of plans here
http://www.john-tom.com/html/Engines.html

the little rocking engine is neat although efficient as an air leak .
Tin


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## kvom (Sep 7, 2009)

Brian Rupinow's beam engine is a nice option, and if you build it at 1.5x scale as I did the parts are a nice size. The plans are available on this site, as is my build log.


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## Brian Rupnow (Sep 7, 2009)

Todd--The plans for my beam engine are in the download section of this site, and the plans are also published in the Sept./Oct 2009 edition of "Home Shop Machinist" from Village Press. Another very simple and fun to make engine is my version of Chucks Horizontal engine, using a conventional cylinder head and valve body, as covered in these two posts
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=5234.0
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=5801.0


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## black85vette (Sep 7, 2009)

I'll vote for either of Brian's sets of plans. If you already have some experience either of them will be good. The drawings, plans, photos on his posts and 3d views of the parts are great.  Plus you can post your progress and questions here as you go and get advise. All for free! How can it get any better?


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## Brian Rupnow (Sep 7, 2009)

Black85vette---Thanks for the endorsement. I get a kick out of all the folks who are building from my plans. Wife and I went for a drive today, and when we got home there was a phone message from somebody in St. Joseph, Missouri asking me about the beam engine plans. He said his daughter had found my name and some?? of my plans on the internet, somewhere. ---Brian


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## David Morrow (Sep 7, 2009)

The F.A.M.E. gallery is a good place to get some ideas.

http://www.floridaame.org/GalleryPages/gallery.htm


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