Hi all,
Brian Rupnow was kind enough to send me a set of drawings for his twin cylinder horizontal engine. I finished it a couple of days ago.
The main departure from Brian's concept is the cylinders. His drawings call for a piece of 3" x 1" brass which I didn't have and which I would have difficulty sourcing locally. I did have some 1 1/2" hex bar which I got from a scrap merchant a while ago so I made the two cylinders as separate pieces which are screwed onto an aluminium base plate which is in turn secured to the base.
I added a manifold so as to have a single inlet for air or steam. This was somewhat more complicated than would have been the case with a single cylinder block where I could have soldered the tubes in place. As I wanted to keep the cylinders separate I needed to make the manifold removable so it looks a bit clunky with the compression fittings.
I also made the flywheels from steel rather than brass - again for cost and material availability reasons.
The engine is interesting to run. Because there are no pressure dead spots which you get with a single cylinder engine, it can be run extremely slowly. At 3 psi, it goes at less than 30rpm. This makes following the way the mechanism works a lot easier.
Overall an enjoyable build. Thanks Brian.
Regards,
Alan C.
Brian Rupnow was kind enough to send me a set of drawings for his twin cylinder horizontal engine. I finished it a couple of days ago.
The main departure from Brian's concept is the cylinders. His drawings call for a piece of 3" x 1" brass which I didn't have and which I would have difficulty sourcing locally. I did have some 1 1/2" hex bar which I got from a scrap merchant a while ago so I made the two cylinders as separate pieces which are screwed onto an aluminium base plate which is in turn secured to the base.
I added a manifold so as to have a single inlet for air or steam. This was somewhat more complicated than would have been the case with a single cylinder block where I could have soldered the tubes in place. As I wanted to keep the cylinders separate I needed to make the manifold removable so it looks a bit clunky with the compression fittings.
I also made the flywheels from steel rather than brass - again for cost and material availability reasons.
The engine is interesting to run. Because there are no pressure dead spots which you get with a single cylinder engine, it can be run extremely slowly. At 3 psi, it goes at less than 30rpm. This makes following the way the mechanism works a lot easier.
Overall an enjoyable build. Thanks Brian.
Regards,
Alan C.
