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This seems like a small change but could be important. By putting the pivot in line with the cylinder where the piston is at TDC, it keeps the piston/head clearance constant. When the pivot is centered as in the previous model, the piston/head clearance increases as the stroke decreases ... a...

Ken So far, it is just a thought exercise. If it ever gets built, it will be used to test some ideas and options that are often talked about but never proven or tested and maybe some ideas that haven't been talked about yet. This frame idea will not be able to test all ideas but it should be...

Open for discussion I'm not ready to build this yet but I think it is possible. I just thought I would put it up here for discussion. Jerry

Here it is with cast fitting from PMR. Yeah, I think it is better. Thanks, Jason, for the tip on making the 3-way elbow. It will look much better than bent pipe at the top of the fake boiler, where there is a concentration of fittings. Jerry

Yeah, I heard it. One of these days, after I tame the donkey, I will try my hand at an elbow. There is no good reason to even consider an acute angle, but I actually like the oblique angle numbers. If you consider the bore/stroke ratio (10/12.3) is much closer to normal in the 135°...

John, Jason, Bob, Thanks for the input. The consensus is clearly down for off. It is hard to disagree from a safety standpoint in today's environment. It is also hard to imagine a machine like this, with all of the open, unguarded mechanism and pinch points being allowed anywhere in today's...

I ordered some elbows. We'll see what it looks like. Today's effort was the control valve. A simple project except for the size. The valve body is a 3/8" brass cube with spigots for pipe connection top and bottom. The valve spool is 1/4" polished shaft steel with a 1/8" through hole and a 5/32"...

Ken You are right that the center reference is the key. Where is it? Drawing diagonals produces a triangle that defines the center. Constructing a circle tangent to the three sides gives you the center. Then you can set the height of the cutter to twice the distance to the closest side. The...

AdShea That is of course how to layout a hexagon, but that was not the problem. The problem was that by sloppy methods, I wound up with something that was not a hexagon, even though opposite faces were parallel and equal distant apart and all angles were equal, BUT the length of all edges were...

45° Elbow? Not that easy. 135° is a piece of cake but acute angles, while theoretically possible, are not really practical. More than 135° also gets into the silly stuff. I have been there! Jerry

Thank you Kevin and Miner49er for the kind comments, and thanks for leaving a note that shows you are watching. Thanks Jason for the critical comment. This forum needs a little more of that. It is easy to say "nice job" and much harder to say "think again". So I thought about it. My solution...

I like it! Strange...outside the box...OK, but I like it. Where did it come from? Jerry

I haven't posted much on this for quite a while but I have been working on it. The problem is that the progress has been difficult. Lots of effort, little success. Not spectacular failures that you might enjoy. Just disappointing results. The problem is scale. At a scale of 12:1 there are some...

Ken Licking is one way to solve the problem if you can get past the taste. You might try flavored oils but they tend to be a little sticky. But I think you have the problem solved. As the engine wears in and smooths out, it will require less oil for lube and sealing and the o-rings will leave...

Ken That cover is a very nice, subtle piece of dressing and the soft edge blends nicely to the rounded frame. This engine has enough visual appeal in the cylinders and flywheel that more might be too much. One other point about turned faces. They hide fingerprints but if they are scratched...

With a fine tooth, thin blade, I usually make the first cut no deeper than the depth of the gullets. On repeat passes, you have to check for for plugged gullets and clean them. Listen to the cut. If it starts to thump, it has probably picked up a plug. This can cause the blade to wander or...

Brian I like the A-frame boom (of course) but there is one thing that bothers me. In twenty five years in the construction equipment business, I never saw a boom rigidly attached at it base. To do so invites catastrophic failure as the boom will deflect under load and all of the stress is...

John, KRV3000, and Mike Thanks for posting your comments. I have taken so long to get to this point in the project and am making such slow progress that I fear most of the viewers have been put to sleep. This may be the project of a lifetime but only because of the slow pace. I did think about...

Last week, I said that I had to come up with a different way to adjust the valves on this engine. That's because the one piece valve rod with a bend can't be disconnected and rotated to change the length. Here is what that looks like. Even if there was room to make a full revolution of the...

Marv A very handy tool. I had one on the boat for years and found lots of uses for it. Of course I used stainless wire. I particularly liked it for attaching clamps and hangers to the stainless steel rails. As I recall, it was Coast Guard approved for all hose connections except fuel. I bought...