Hi all,
Almost a year after starting, I have finished 1 of the intended 2 poppin engines! ;D
The main reason I started this was straight after I'd got my Jan Ridders Internal Valve Flame Licker running. I'd had (like a few people) quite a bit of trouble getting that one to run, so wanted to try a completely different design to see what the difference was and how the characteristics of the engine differed.
I was intending it to be a fairly quick project and I was going to build 2, 1 to keep and the other to sell to recoup some money for the workshop. Then my machine vice broke and I lost all momentum and desire to be in the workshop in winter! It's taken this long to get myself motivated again, repair the vice and get back out there. I did that in about october when I started working on a 7 1/4" loco and then the Tiny Stirling for my Dad's xmas present. This poppin will now be my dad's Birthday present to hopefully make up for the non-running stirling he got for xmas! Better than selling it on ebay... I will finish the other one for myself soon after a short break from the workshop.
I would say that poppin is a more orthodox, robust design and much easier to get to run. This ran the minute I held a flame to the port, but I had learnt a lot of valuable lessons during the Ridders build I was able to apply so it's not a fair test.
Some of the machining techniques were more complex and parts were more fiddly than the Jan Ridders design. Poppin is a good design, but it's build to quite close tolerances, or clearances should I say. There isn't a lot of room for error and unless you study everything carefully it's best to stick to the original plans as closely as possible.
Anyway, here are the pics / video. Again, I would like to thank everybody for their input during the build.
Nick
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMfmtRP4OPc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMfmtRP4OPc[/ame]
Almost a year after starting, I have finished 1 of the intended 2 poppin engines! ;D
The main reason I started this was straight after I'd got my Jan Ridders Internal Valve Flame Licker running. I'd had (like a few people) quite a bit of trouble getting that one to run, so wanted to try a completely different design to see what the difference was and how the characteristics of the engine differed.
I was intending it to be a fairly quick project and I was going to build 2, 1 to keep and the other to sell to recoup some money for the workshop. Then my machine vice broke and I lost all momentum and desire to be in the workshop in winter! It's taken this long to get myself motivated again, repair the vice and get back out there. I did that in about october when I started working on a 7 1/4" loco and then the Tiny Stirling for my Dad's xmas present. This poppin will now be my dad's Birthday present to hopefully make up for the non-running stirling he got for xmas! Better than selling it on ebay... I will finish the other one for myself soon after a short break from the workshop.
I would say that poppin is a more orthodox, robust design and much easier to get to run. This ran the minute I held a flame to the port, but I had learnt a lot of valuable lessons during the Ridders build I was able to apply so it's not a fair test.
Some of the machining techniques were more complex and parts were more fiddly than the Jan Ridders design. Poppin is a good design, but it's build to quite close tolerances, or clearances should I say. There isn't a lot of room for error and unless you study everything carefully it's best to stick to the original plans as closely as possible.
Anyway, here are the pics / video. Again, I would like to thank everybody for their input during the build.
Nick
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMfmtRP4OPc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMfmtRP4OPc[/ame]
