BoCam
Member
Hi everyone! I've been lurking here for some time and I thought I posted this introduction quite a while ago but it was on a different site. 
I'm new to machining and sort of new to engine building! Actually my first encounter was over 40 years ago in high school when a friend brought a steam engine to our wood shop class (I guess it was called a wobbler). He just wanted to build a wooden base for his engine but I decided I wanted to build the entire engine out of wood! The wood shop teacher said "If you build it and it runs you get an A." I ran it on compressed air and it took more pressure than it's metal counterpart but I got and A in that class. But i haven't done anything like it since.
More recently I took my high school age kids to the Craftsmanship museum in Carlsbad, CA
https://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/ and was actually inspired by all the different models in general and specifically the miniature engines they had running on display! I was particularly intrigued by the "Fire Eater engine" demonstration. I had never seen anything like it. As luck would have it I (semi) recently purchased a Harbor Freight mill/lathe combo tool for another project, this was my first adventure in machining. In my typical fashion, I plunged headlong into looking up a set of plans and am currently getting close to finishing a Phillip Duclos fire eater. After looking around on this forum I realized I made a few mistakes but nothing that can't be fixed and I'm having a great time doing it!
Thanks,
Bob
I'm new to machining and sort of new to engine building! Actually my first encounter was over 40 years ago in high school when a friend brought a steam engine to our wood shop class (I guess it was called a wobbler). He just wanted to build a wooden base for his engine but I decided I wanted to build the entire engine out of wood! The wood shop teacher said "If you build it and it runs you get an A." I ran it on compressed air and it took more pressure than it's metal counterpart but I got and A in that class.
But i haven't done anything like it since.More recently I took my high school age kids to the Craftsmanship museum in Carlsbad, CA
https://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/ and was actually inspired by all the different models in general and specifically the miniature engines they had running on display! I was particularly intrigued by the "Fire Eater engine" demonstration. I had never seen anything like it. As luck would have it I (semi) recently purchased a Harbor Freight mill/lathe combo tool for another project, this was my first adventure in machining. In my typical fashion, I plunged headlong into looking up a set of plans and am currently getting close to finishing a Phillip Duclos fire eater. After looking around on this forum I realized I made a few mistakes but nothing that can't be fixed and I'm having a great time doing it!
Thanks,
Bob
