Flyball governor plans

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Brian Rupnow

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Does anyone know of a site with free plans for a flyball governor? Somebody over on the Home Shop Machinist website is looking for a set of FREE plans. I don't have any plans, and although I could design a set, its more cost effective to modify a set of existing plans.---This subject brings up a funny story from my youth.--Read on if interested---

I grew up in the kinder, gentler, far more poverty stricken world of the 1950's. I have a firm belief that it wasn't necessity that was the mother of invention---poverty was. The lack of money created a world of tinkerers and inventors, simply because there was no money to buy the proper tool or machine. An older friend of mine, named Leonard had built a portable buzz saw for cutting firewood. This was basically a 48" diameter circular saw mounted on the chassis of a model A Ford, circa 1930 or 1931. The lengths of wood were lifted onto a tilting carriage, and the carriage was tilted into the saw to cut up lengths of firewood. The saw was driven by a flat belt and pulley arrangement that came from the rear of the old Fords transmission. Now, Leonard had a problem----The old 4 cylinder Ford engine had babbit bearings, so it did not take kindly to prolonged high speed revving. However, if someone didn't open the throttle and give it some gas when the log engaged the saw, the engine would stall. Leonard was a veteran tinkerer, and somehow come into the posession of a set of flyball governors off an old steam train. He mounted them with a belt drive from the Ford engine, and hooked them up to the carburetor with a system of levers and pulleys. The theory was quite simple---under no load conditions the old Ford would set there idling, but as soon as the log engaged the buzz saw, the rpm's would drop off, and the flyball governors would open the throttle automatically. this was a perfectly good working theory!!! The problem was that Leonard somehow got one of his lever arrangements bass ackwards. When the last bolt was tightened, and the last brace welded in place, Leonard went to test his creation. He started the Ford---that part worked perfect. As soon as it started however, the flyballs began to fly outward from centrifugal force, and the farther out they flew, the more the lever mechanism opened the throttle. The engine went from zero to a zillion rpm's in the blink of an eye. Leonard leaped from the drivers seat and raced around the car to pull off the coil wire and shut down the engine---and at the same time the flyball governor self destructed (it too was by then doing a zillion rpm's). One of the steel balls flew and hit poor Leonard directly in the kneecap and broke it into a dozen peices--then the old Ford engine self destucted in a scream of tortured babbit bearings and shattered castings!! Leonard eventually recovered, though he walked with a limp ever afterwards. We all survived the 1950's, but it certainly was a time that gave rise to a lot of interesting stories.---Brian
 
Hi Brian
Do a search for teh patent covering the Pickering govenor. I have the drawings for a two and a three ball but no way of scanning them. If that fails give the lady at MERL a call I know she has them for about a monkey a shot. I know they post all over the world.
 
Here are a couple of pictures that I came up with after a fairly intense internet search. There are a lot of postings about Pickering governors, but I couldn't find a link to the patent drawings, and I couldn't find any clear pictures either. There is a lot of reference made to Watts governor which looks like the same thing to me. One of the links led me to an adverisement for a book called "507 Mechanical Movements" which looked like fascinating fodder for tips on a machine to run with one of my steam engines for exhibit purposes.
Centrifugal_governor.png

flyballgovernor-1.gif
 
An interesting expression derives from Flyball Governors "Balls to the Wall". Most people when they here it immediately put their minds in the gutter, but it means running at all out speed.
Regards,
Gerald
 
"The Boy's Book of Engine Building" (Google Books) has a chapter on model engine fittings and there is a section on Governors. Kinda simple stuff but some good ideas.

 
steamboatmodel said:
An interesting expression derives from Flyball Governors "Balls to the Wall". Most people when they here it immediately put their minds in the gutter, but it means running at all out speed.
Regards,
Gerald

I discovered that a little while ago. I think it was watching a video on Jay Leno's garage and he explained that. I have had a lot of fun explaining it to people.

Eric
 
Live and Learn, I always thought it was "Balls Out" which meant maximum speed ???

Regards
Bob
 
HI
MERL do have all the patents for the Pickering and a few others. The UK patent office also holds many of them. When I started restoring my Marshal I went to MERL for drawings of the cylinder block and the internals of the steam chest. The govenor was one of the drawing sheets that came up. The MERL database is hard work but the woman that runs it is brilliant.
 
compound driver 2 said:
HI
MERL do have all the patents for the Pickering and a few others. The UK patent office also holds many of them. When I started restoring my Marshal I went to MERL for drawings of the cylinder block and the internals of the steam chest. The govenor was one of the drawing sheets that came up. The MERL database is hard work but the woman that runs it is brilliant.
What the heck is MERL??? I just did an internet search and there are about 100 different MERLs, ranging from research laboratories to Country and western singers!!!
 
According to several internet sources the balls to the wall phrase comes from aviators during WWII pushing the throttles all the way forward or touching the Gage panel. It still means full throttle though.
Tin
 
Museum of english rural life. its the largest repository of engine drawings and holds the full Fowler collection. All are accesable to the public
 
I'm not getting your picture here Brian. Somewhere tho', I have some drawings for a working governor - I'll see if I can winkle 'em out
 
tel said:
I'm not getting your picture here Brian. Somewhere tho', I have some drawings for a working governor - I'll see if I can winkle 'em out

Tel--I'm not sure why you're not getting the picture--Its pasted in from photobucket same as all my other pics. If you have some plans, that would be great.--thanks----Brian
 
Dunno either, but I'm getting it now. I'll hunt out wot I have later in the day - when I can get into the workshop without waking the sleeping dragon.

Here's one I made from the dwgs - but the body has been modified (read totally changed)

rvgov3.jpg
 

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