Lathes! We don’t need no stinkin lathes!

[4156df]

Doing some clean up and ran across this. I’ve had it for quite awhile and have no idea who made it. It clearly shows that you don’t need a lot of expensive gear to make an engine. The pistons are wood. They’re not turned, because you can see knife marks from where they were whittled. There’s a groove with string wound in it for rings. The valve is hand filed. Also note the roller skate wheel flywheel.

I put air to it and it wants to run, but the pistons have dried out and shrunk so there’s too much leakage. It could also do with a larger flywheel.

I think I would have liked the guy who built this.

Regards,
Dennis

 

[mklotz]

It makes one wonder why Heron of Alexandria didn't put together a real (as we know it) steam engine instead of the Aeolipile.

 

[kcmillin]

Incredible, you found this?

The wood looks recycled, and that is one old roller skate wheel.

You might have to carbon date it.

kel

 

[Shopguy]

Dennis
Kind'a shows what can be done without a lot of fancy tooling. Somebody put a lot of thought and time into that engine and probably was justifiably proud of the result. A collectors item no less. It would be interesting to know how old it might be.
Regards,
Ernie J

 

[tmuir]

Thats just crying for some new packing around the piston and been returned to running state.

Its amazing what you can make with minimal tools if you think about it.

The engine here was made by someone just using a drill and a hacksaw blade as the cutting tool.

More details here.
http://www.freewebs.com/mamodsteam/otherengines.htm

 

[New_Guy]

remarkable a real feet of ingenuity