chucketn
Senior Citizen
At the risk of being shushed, and drummed out of the forum, I would beg to ask the question "How to design a steam(or air) engine. "?
I have built a few very simple engines, and followed many builds here and on other forums. I've collected plans for all sorts of 'steam' or 'air' engines from all over the web. Recently I was fascinated by Brian Rupnow's Double Acting Double Cylinder Oscillating Engine build. Fascinated to the point I read his threads on all the forums it was posted on, made notes and downloaded most of his pictures. I decided I wanted to build this 'simple' engine. But, being totally retired and on a meager pension, instead of buying Brian's plans, I set out to design it myself using Fusion 360. I got as far as my interpretation of a cylinder(which I'm 3d printing at the moment). I intend to use 3d printing to prototype my engine, and then build it in metal, possibly even casting some of the parts in aluminum.
I began to realize there has to be a method to my madness, and you guessed it, I don't have a method.
So, I would ask the revered denizens here, how do you go about designing your engines? I mean those you design without a plan to go by, like Brian did... Do you start with the cylinder and go from there, or the crank throw and work back to the cylinder? How do you decide on the crank throw, the stroke, the bore, the size of the flywheel, the length of the piston rod, etc.?
Is there a book I can buy/download, or a thread in a forum that explains the why and how of steam engine design?
If you haven't guessed, I have no 'engineering' experience other than designing simple stuff that I can make on my lathe and mill, or print on my 3d printer.
I have built a few very simple engines, and followed many builds here and on other forums. I've collected plans for all sorts of 'steam' or 'air' engines from all over the web. Recently I was fascinated by Brian Rupnow's Double Acting Double Cylinder Oscillating Engine build. Fascinated to the point I read his threads on all the forums it was posted on, made notes and downloaded most of his pictures. I decided I wanted to build this 'simple' engine. But, being totally retired and on a meager pension, instead of buying Brian's plans, I set out to design it myself using Fusion 360. I got as far as my interpretation of a cylinder(which I'm 3d printing at the moment). I intend to use 3d printing to prototype my engine, and then build it in metal, possibly even casting some of the parts in aluminum.
I began to realize there has to be a method to my madness, and you guessed it, I don't have a method.
So, I would ask the revered denizens here, how do you go about designing your engines? I mean those you design without a plan to go by, like Brian did... Do you start with the cylinder and go from there, or the crank throw and work back to the cylinder? How do you decide on the crank throw, the stroke, the bore, the size of the flywheel, the length of the piston rod, etc.?
Is there a book I can buy/download, or a thread in a forum that explains the why and how of steam engine design?
If you haven't guessed, I have no 'engineering' experience other than designing simple stuff that I can make on my lathe and mill, or print on my 3d printer.
