# My Upshur hit-and-miss



## rudydubya (Apr 3, 2009)

Pictures of my first engine, a hit-and-miss farm engine built from plans by the late Hamilton Upshur. 0.75" bore, 1.0" stroke, 3.5" flywheels (all measurements approximate; after all, this was my first engine) ;D. It's sitting on it's test bed here, eventually I want to make a nice wooden base for it. Took me about 6 months off and on to get it finished. It first ran last February with a simple carburetor, no throttle. You wouldn't believe how happy I was to hear those first pops. From there I made a simple throttled carburetor and finally on to the flywheel governor you see in these pictures. I followed the plans as much as I could, only made changes to correct my oversights and mistakes. The ignition system evolved into a solid state hall effect setup, I originally had points and a cam but didn't do a very good job on the points material and kept having to clean them. Also very hard to set the timing with the original setup.





Another item on my to do list is a nice base for the fuel tank. I did not make the quarter.




The red and black jacks on the base are artifacts left over from when I still had the cam and points.




Also a few more cosmetic items I want to add, like oil cups.





Will try to post a video of the engine running shortly.

Rudy


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## RobWilson (Apr 3, 2009)

Hi Rudy GREAT LOOKING ENGINE :bow: :bow: :bow:
Rob


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## BMyers (Apr 3, 2009)

Very COOL ! Thm:


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## 90LX_Notch (Apr 3, 2009)

Simply an awesome first build! :bow: :bow: :bow: Deserving of a karma.


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## steamer (Apr 3, 2009)

90LX_Notch  said:
			
		

> Simply an awesome first build! :bow: :bow: :bow: Deserving of a karma.




Yes I think it is and it certainly does! ;D  Great build!

Dave


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## cobra428 (Apr 3, 2009)

Hey Rudy,
Great looking engine, nice work! I'm getting a Coles small hit and miss running now. I know the feelling of that first pop pop pop burrrrrr. It's an unbelievable sense of accomplishment. Enjoy!
I did notice that you don't have any counter weights on the flywheels. I've been going nuts with vibration on mine. I hogged out material just below the outer ring of the flywheels 180 deg from the crank throw little by little and checking the vibs again. When I first got mine to run over ~500rpm everything was shaking off my workbench!! My flywheels are 6d x 1t cast iron about 1.5#s each. Lots of mass. Anyway have you ever seen this site.. the Caloway is my goal for my machine. Enjoy the vid's
Tony

http://www.ronsmodelengines.com/Gas_Engines.html


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## Philjoe5 (Apr 3, 2009)

Nice build Rudy. Congratulations on your first runner.  :bow:

Cheers,
Phil


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## Jeff02 (Apr 3, 2009)

Great looking engine!

Could I ask what size Lathe did you use?

Thanks jeff


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## cfellows (Apr 3, 2009)

That's a good lookin engine. Nice work!

Chuck


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## rake60 (Apr 3, 2009)

Beautiful Build! :bow:

Rick


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## Shopguy (Apr 3, 2009)

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing the video.
Ernie J


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## Maryak (Apr 3, 2009)

Rudy,

Congratulations. :bow: :bow:

A great looking 1st engine.

Best Regards
Bob


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## rudydubya (Apr 3, 2009)

Thank you all for the kind comments. I only hope that someday I can approach the quality and complexity of some of the other projects I've seen on this forum. They are truly remarkable.



			
				cobra428  said:
			
		

> Hey Rudy,
> Great looking engine, nice work! I'm getting a Coles small hit and miss running now. I know the feelling of that first pop pop pop burrrrrr. It's an unbelievable sense of accomplishment. Enjoy!
> I did notice that you don't have any counter weights on the flywheels. I've been going nuts with vibration on mine. I hogged out material just below the outer ring of the flywheels 180 deg from the crank throw little by little and checking the vibs again. When I first got mine to run over ~500rpm everything was shaking off my workbench!! My flywheels are 6d x 1t cast iron about 1.5#s each. Lots of mass. Anyway have you ever seen this site.. the Caloway is my goal for my machine. Enjoy the vid's
> Tony
> ...


_*Tony*_, the only vibration I've noticed on my engine was a slight tremble when I ran it full bore without a governor, but don't know if it was the flywheels or some imbalance in the crankshaft. I didn't balance anything. I turned the flywheels from 3.5" wide flat steel bar. And thanks for the link, I don't think I've seen it before. Quite an impressive collection he has.







			
				Jeff02  said:
			
		

> Great looking engine!
> 
> Could I ask what size Lathe did you use?
> 
> Thanks jeff


_*Jeff*_, I did all of the major work on my 7x12 mini-lathe and a drill press. Finally bought a mini-mill near the end of the project, and used it for drilling holes and to complete some minor parts.

Thanks again for the interest.

Rudy


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## Jeff02 (Apr 3, 2009)

Thaks for the info on the size of lathe.

Since you did so well on this, whats next?

Thanks again, Jeff


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## Jeff02 (Apr 3, 2009)

Another question if I may,Where did you get your plans?

Thanks, Jeff


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## rake60 (Apr 3, 2009)

You machined those parts on a 7 X 12 lathe? 
th_confused0052

Your karma just went up one!

Rick


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## rudydubya (Apr 4, 2009)

Jeff02  said:
			
		

> Another question if I may,Where did you get your plans?
> 
> Thanks, Jeff



Jeff, the Upshur website is at http://hamiltonupshur.tripod.com/. He passed away in 2006, but his daughter is still making the plans available. Her phone number and email link are at the bottom of that page, I contacted her and she told me where to send a money order.

Rudy


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## rudydubya (Apr 4, 2009)

rake60  said:
			
		

> You machined those parts on a 7 X 12 lathe?
> th_confused0052
> 
> Your karma just went up one!
> ...



Thanks, Rick. I just took my time, probably much more than most.

Rudy


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