Engines Made from castings

[dparker]

Hello All: Several years ago, before the kids became a fiscal concern I built a few engines from purchased castings. It has been so long ago (30 plus years) I do not remember what order the engines were built in. The Reeves

oscillator engine is a good fast runner and was quite easy to build. The Stuart Steam Hammer was also not too hard but I borrowed the use of a friends 6" Atlas lathe to bore the cylinder. Once I got the valve adjusted correctly the hammer is a hazard to fingers if they happen to be in the way. The Flame Licker was built from a kit from a Popular Mechanics article in the 1960's. The engine runs well as long as it is lubricated and warmed up. A fair amount of time was spent trying to get it to run until it was determined that I had machined the valve cam as a mirror image, when that little problem was rectified the engine now runs quite respectably. A hood was made up out of brass to help contain the flame around the valve port and this increased the speed of the engine. The Stuart 10V engine was quite involved for me at the time (as it would still be) so I ordered the instruction book and followed it as carefully as possible. The engine is a good runner and I learned about D type slide valves. I also built a Stuart centrifugal pump, but the kit had a right hand impeller in a left hand pump. A friend in the drafting department where I worked drew me up a sheet with the needed centers of rotation and I machined the correct impeller on my rotary table and mill drill.
I thank this forum for helping me regain my enthusiasm to get back into the shop. I lost most interest after my folks passed away and my many medical problems worsened. Thanks-----------Don

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[Cedge]

Don
I don't have to tell you that the time spent in fornt of the machines is theraputic. It becomes an almost zen experience where everything slows down and time goes away. I can tune out the whole world when working some small widget to close tolerances. It's just me and the task in front of me and nothing else intrudes on mind.

You might go to bed tired, but you go with a smile of satisfaction....(grin)

Welcome to the forum and I hope to see some of the engines you've built.

Steve

 

[Bogstandard]

Hi Don,
Welcome back to the land of making little engines.
All you will find on here is encouragement, a lot of help and the best bunch of people to share your engine building with.
Nothing is too small, large, mundane, exciting or any other thing you want to call it. If you want to build it, do it.
Just enjoy yourself and tell us all about it.

John

 

[rake60]

Welcome Don

I've had a preview of some of those engine pictures.
Beautiful Work! I hope you will share them on the forum.

Rick