My Elbow Engine

[Bogstandard]

Hi All,
Now that I have been shown how to do it I should be able to show you a few pics of my build.
The flywheel was made from a lump of 1" thick ali plate that had been donated to me a couple of months back, just waiting for a job like this.

The bearing blocks I made from cast iron, I find it is a much better bearing surface for brass rather than the steel that was on the plan. The cast iron came from old window sash weights, I find I can get about 12" of 11/2" diameter bar from one weight for a cost of 30 pence (about 50 cents US). I decided to use ali plate for the flywheel upright as well so this has a duplicate cast iron bearing bolted to it and upright location dimensions changed slightly.
You have most probably gathered by now that I don't use much full price material, most of mine comes from scrapyards and friends and I throw no raw materials away until it can be of no further use. This engine will cost less than £4 ($8 US) to make, and most of that was to buy the silver steel (drill rod)

John

 

[tattoomike68]

Thats beautiful , so nice I see it is the forum banner picture.

 

[rake60]

Now how did that get there?

Beautiful engine, and the work on your version looks perfect!
You have to give us a video when it's finished.

Thanks for the permission to use it as our current logo.

 

[Bogstandard]

Got a lot further today, all assembled and running, will post a vid later.
First pic shows the bits including a few extra that I mentioned last time.
I used 0.005" PTFE sheet for all the gaskets
I also decided to make a front 'spinner', to cover up the mounting screws for the extra bearing, don't think it looks too bad. It only took about half an hour on the lathe and I used a piece of square tool steel as a graver to carve it to shape.
Nothing is really polished up yet, that will come later when I show all my engines at the local steam engine rally in September.

The engine does need a fair amount of lube, and I think that it mentions on the plans that it throws it about a bit, in fact when finished running the engine is absolutely filthy with oil everywhere, so not one for running in the lounge to show off to friends, unless you keep the speed right down, which is what I will do when it is on display, looks a lot more impressive the slower it runs.

John

 

[Bogstandard]

Tried to embed this vid but it didn't work, so here is the url

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZRKNlY7enM[/ame]

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5ZRKNlY7enM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>


Now what to make next?

John

Edited to add video- mike

 

[lugnut]

:shock: John that is the most exciting little engine I have ever seen! I have to find the plans and make an attempt.
Wish me some luck
Mel

 

[Bogstandard]

Hi Mel,
Glad you like it, I can't stop turning it over just to see the operation of it, makes me go cross eyed.
The plans are already in the plans section, but here they are again
http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/ElbowEngine.pdf

Just print them out.

John

 

[tattoomike68]

Thats fantastic, I was telling the guys at my brothers shop about it, I will have to make one too and show them.

As far as a next project I was talking with a friend and he told me I should build a little boiler that runs on barbecue charcoal. Its easy to find and burns hot and long. Something to think about.

 

[Bogstandard]

Thanks for the good comments lads, if there is anything you need to help you with your builds, don't be afraid to ask, there is no such thing as a silly question, just a silly person for not asking.
I had no problems making this engine, just problems getting it to run, I think I made all the tolerances too tight for my own good.
I have seen plans for a five cylinder version but I just can't remember where I saw them. Thats a sure sign of losing your marbles, and I've only got a few left.
But please do remember I have been doing this for over forty years, so what is very easily done by me can be a bit offputting for you new to the art of making miniature engines, if you can't get something to run don't throw it away or lose your temper with it, put it away carefully and come back to it after you have got a little bit more experience, then I can guarantee that you will get it running in no time, you will be able to trace where you went wrong in the first place.
Still can't get the grin off my face seeing this running so well.

John

 

[lugnut]

John, the Little Maching Shop has the plans for the five cylinder one and they want :shock: $11.00 for them. Would five cylinder run smooth than a 3 cylinder? I can bet it would put more years on ya!
Mel

 

[tattoomike68]

John, the Little Maching Shop has the plans fot he five cylinder one and they want :shock: $11.00 for them. Would five cylinder run smooth than a 3 cylinder? I can bet it would put more years on ya!
Mel

As cool as 5 cylinders would be I dont think the folks around here would need a print.

Most of the members here are wizzards and the rest are folks picking thier brains. (im picking brains myself) :wink:

 

[Hal]

John

How tight did you fit the 90° rods. And did you build a jig to bend them all the same??

NICE work by the way. Fun to watch it run.


Hal

 

[rake60]

John your build of that engine is one of the best bar stock works I've ever
seen, and the video is perfect!

EXCELLENT!

 

[wareagle]

This is a very interesting engine. The Snow is another, but I think this one takes the cigar. This is in the list of "someday" builds!

Thank you for sharing! Outstanding craftsmanship!

 

[Bogstandard]

Hal, The rods were standard 1/4" silver steel, and the holes were reamed 1/4", so the running fit would be approx.0.0005". But I think that is too tight, as the engine is getting better the more it runs, but if I did another one I would do the same again, without trying to change the fits.
As for the bending, I just machined up a couple of steel bars with a hole reamed in the end of each one (make them about 12" long, I only made mine about 4" and my fingers were burning, had to hold them with wet cloths), heated up the middle bit and bent it something like, do NOT quench them to cool them down, they will go hard as rock and brittle. After that I just 'tweaked' them using the steel bending bars until they were truly square. A word of warning, don't try and force the engine to turn, it will knock the pistons out of square again. I found thru trial and error that the mounting holes in the baseplate on the horizontal bearing should be made a sloppy fit to allow the engine to find its own centres then gently tighten the bolts until it will rotate both ways by gently turning the flywheel. Oil used for running was Diesel multigrade, only because I had a gallon left after my last oil change, but it does have detergents in it and tends to keep the engine a bit cleaner by supending all the dirt in it so that it wipes off easily (in fact I use this oil for everything in my workshop, for at least the last ten years, on the understanding that if it can keep the insides of a filthy running diesel engine going, it will have no trouble doing the same for my machinery).
Would this engine suit a total beginner, No, but if you have a couple of wobblers under your belt then no problems, there are so few parts you can concentrate on getting a good fit on all pieces, just take your time. If I was to build another one I could most probably do it in about a couple of days, now that the learning curve is over.
Rake, I am not doing this for praise, but it is appreciated, I just wanted to share my experiences with like minded people and hopefully get a few beginners started on the way to making their first engine and getting 'hooked'. Manual machining is becoming a dying art, and it is definitely an artform, (I try to change just a little thing on each engine to make it personal just to me), so anything we can do to promote it to be carried on is definitely for the good. All the kids I show my engines to think they have been made in the far east and want to know where to buy one from, they don't believe that beautiful little things like this can be made by people in their homes, sweating away, swearing to themselves, with grimy, cut and gnarled hands, striving to produce a new life from lumps of lifeless metal. Ready to leave behind for the next generations to admire, and hopefully carry on the tradition.
Wareagle, I would just love to make something like the Snow engine, I too think it is a work of great beauty, but something like that is a very long term project, and to put it bluntly, I don't think I would be able to finish a very long term project like that, so I concentrate on engines that I know I can finish to a reasonable standard within a couple of months.
I have rambled on a bit here, but if it has encouraged just one person to go out and do it, that is enough for me.

John

 

[Cedge]

John
While I have not yet built an Elbow Engine, I've had the pleasure of putting one into running shape after a failed attempt by another collector. It's an amazingly elegant design in its simpicity and as mentioned, rather hypnotic when running. With only 5 moving parts, it's almost mind boggling to realize it's a 6 cylinder machine.

That little bugger had me muttering to myself and I had it a part and back together dozens of times before finally grokking what the combined malfuntions were. I figured out very quickly that the 90° bends had to be dead spot on, but the darned thing would run 4 or 5 turns and stop. This happened over and over until the process of elimination narrowed it down to one piston set. The solution was to remove about .020 from one end, preventing it from striking the bearing surface. Such a simple design, so few parts, but a very dickens to trouble shoot without drawings....LOL

You've done yourself proud with the execution on what has long been one of my favorite designs, and one which is very quickly coming to the top of my project list.

 

[Bogstandard]

Hi Cedge,
I have visited your site many times, and keep going back to see if there is anything new, you are doing a wonderful job of bringing engines back to life and displaying them how they should be, a real credit to yourself.
I took special interest in the Krick marine. I had one of these a few years back, lovely engine, totally no power in it (leaks everywhere) but it was the boiler that really hit me as the bad design. They used a gas burner with a brass boiler. The gas, while running dezinc'd the internal surface of the chimney and after a few months started to leak water thru minute holes on the inside, where it had been 'eaten away' by the gas fumes. Put my finger up the chimney to check where the water was coming from and pushed a hole thru with my finger, so the boiler was duly sent to that place where old boilers go, the trashcan.
I mentioned in another post about the pistons being overlength after being bent, and about them having to be totally square, in fact because they are difficult to check for squareness because of the round profile, I had a friend double check them for me.
My dog learned a whole bunch of new words that he had never heard before. But isn't that what it is all about, the making is fairly easy (for me at least), getting them to run afterwards and spotting your mistakes is the fun part, and the final elation and cheshire cat grin that you get when it finally comes to life is priceless, at my age better than sex any day. And because I try to do a project every couple of months, I have a permanent grin.

John

 

[Cedge]

John
Thanks for the kind words on my site. I've enjoyed sharing my collection with others and have met some darned intersting people in the process. Saving the engines and putting them back in shape has been a tremendous amount of fun, but you've managed to change my direction a bit.

I've been on the long learning curve for a couple of years now and I'm feeling fairly confident in my ability to get out of tight corners while avoiding disaster. I fell in lust with the Elbow engine when I did the repairs on the one I mentioned above, but I kept putting it off "until I know what I'm doing". Your's is the 4th such engine I've seen in action and it's time I got off the pot and put one together.

I'm doing my own freestyle interpretation to the basic Elbow. It's already coaxed a bit of bronze from much the horded stock, so I guess it's "in for a penny in for a pound....(grin). I began the project last night and I'm blaming you for the anticipated loss of sleep...LOL. Wish me luck.

Steve

 

[tattoomike68]

I see you have a page on the lewiston Idaho high school. I used to work in Lapwai, Idaho where many of the guys there went to Lewiston high school and took the machine shop class. The guys all loved that class.

At my brothers shop there is one of the engines that they bought from a hobbie store in lewiston, one like this one.

http://www.cedesign.net/steam/lewiston.htm

There needs to be more high schools with a class like they have at Lewiston.

 

[Cedge]

Mike
I had the pleasure of speaking with the teacher of their shop class. Not only should more schools have classes like his, they should all have infectiously enthusiastic instructors like him. Sadly, I've long forgotten his name, but not his positive attitude. Lewiston High School breaks the shop class stereotype of "only dorks, dweeps and low apptitude types take metal shop". He obviously attracts many of the brightest students and its not hard to see why.

I watch with concern as so many school districts, nationwide are dropping, vocational training from their budgets. If you aren't college bound, they offer very little to help you get a solid footing. It's showing its effect in a lack of domestically trained skilled tradesmen and a lack of self sufficiency among those of this and the coming generation. Honorable skilled labor is now pretty much the domain of our immigrant population. We're poorer for it, I'm afraid.

Steve