Fizgig - A rework in progress

[lazylathe]

Hi All,

On request from Catminer, AKA Peter i will post this.

Many months ago Peter and i got together for the first time.
I drove down to his place to see his workshop and his large collection of hit and miss engines he has made.
One of them is an Atkinson cycle engine, very cool indeed!!!

I walked into his workshop and they were all set up on tables and one was chugging away merrily!
I was mesmerized!!! ;D
Way out of my league, for now!!! :big:

Peter took me around his shop and showed me all his machines and tools.
I had never seen a full sized mill in real life before and it is a monster!
So many dials, buttons and levers!! ???

The one thing that i really liked was that when Peter builds an engine he finds full scale versions and tries to copy them when doing the model.
You can see this on his Woodpecker.
Have a look at the way the gas tank is held on and compare it to the way the kit tells you to attach it.
Small details like this make the model.

Anyway i brought some of my restorations along and my Lamina engine.

A while later Peter gets this engine off the top shelf and asks me to take it and see if i can get it to run!!
WOW!! I was flabbergasted!!!
It was Fizgig, a hot air engine!!

Peter had it running but it did not want to continue running.
A challenge was born!! ;D

I did not take any pictures of it when i brought it home.... :-\
It was stripped down and analyzed for possible causes and being a noobie i did not really know what i was doing...

Anyway a few weeks later i managed to get it running!!!
I was so shocked that i had managed this!!
This was the first video i took of her running.
[ame]http://youtu.be/C08gR45z2kM[/ame]

This was after much lapping of the piston and adjusting and sealing!
After that video was taken she would not run again...
I think i must have gotten tennis elbow from spinning the flywheel for hours on end!!!

She was put back on the shelf while i tackled other projects...

A few weeks ago i brought her back out to try and figure it out.
In the meantime i had done a lot of reading about Fizgig and discovered a few key points!
She needed a bigger water cooler as she overheated and seized.
Also the displacer cap had come off, this was why i could not get her running again.... :-[

I loctited the displacer cap on and made new paper gaskets and reassembled her.
Adjusted the linkages and got this!
[ame]http://youtu.be/aqKGgbPJLaE[/ame]

SUCCESS!!!! :big:

So far the one part i remade was the bit that fits inside the piston.
A conrod connects to it that connects to the crank on the flywheel.

All that i had read said the lighter you can make the parts the better.
I set about lightening it on the mill and it moved in the vise....
So i had to make a new one, three times before i got it right...
But it fits and works!!!

I have now started to make her a burner and will also work on the larger water cooler.
The water cooler is going to be made from an alu drinking bottle, 750ml of cool water.

I will update with pics when i take some!!!
This has been quite a learning experience for me and i am excited that i managed to get her running again!

Andrew

 

[Don1966]

Andrew that is a good runner nice job.

Don

 

[fcheslop]

Hi Andrew, nice runner do you know who sells the drawings
best wishes frazer

 

[Catminer]

Andrew;
Thank you for the undeserved praise. This is a great little write up of your rebuild process.
I likely would have just posted the video with a caption like " look at this it runs"

Frazer;
The drawings are free online, I'm not sure where anymore though

Peter

 

[b.lindsey]

Andrew, nice job on that...and it seems to have quieted down a lot between the first and second video too!! Nice little runner.


Bill

 

[lazylathe]

Frazer,

Here is a link to the plans as well as some others!

http://www.btinternet.com/~sylvestris/stirling.htm

Peter the praise is well deserved!!! ;D

Andrew

 

[fcheslop]

Thank you for the info :bow:another one for the list :big:
best wishes frazer

 

[AussieJimG]

They are nice aren't they? Mine is a real favourite because it starts quickly every time.
I think it was lucky that I am not very skilled so there is plenty of clearance. I have not
bothered to put water in the cooler and it doesn't seize.

Not being able to turn stainless to the required sizes, I went to the stationers and found
a couple of whiteboard markers for the displacer and displacer cylinder. They work (and look) well.

Here is my version

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhq7-QQiEpw[/ame]



Jim