Popular Mechanics 1963 engine

[lampy]

Has anyone built this engine? http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/PopMechanicsEngine1963.pdf
I'm in the process of building this and have most of the parts completed. The first problem I'm having is the Valve piston hitting the top of the steam chest with the eccentric at bottom dead center. I did a quick check of my dimensions and everything looks good. Just trying to figure out if it is me or if the plan dimensions are wrong.

 

[lampy]

Working through the dimensions in the plans, I've come up with the connecting rod being .25" longer than it should be...
The distance from the centerline of the crankshaft to the top of the steam chest is about 2.8".
The distance from the top of the valve piston to the centerline of the crank at TDC is 3.063".
I'll double check everything but this matches up with what I'm seeing when I mock it up on the bench.

 

[Tug40]

This looks very interesting.

 

[lampy]

It's a runner! Shortening the rod did the trick. I tried downloading a video but got this message " The uploaded file does not have an allowed extension. " It had a bit of a knock at first but played with the timing of the eccentric made it much better. There is still work to be done but I couldn't wait, had to see if it would run.
Edit: I created a facebook page and posted a link to the video...

 

[stevehuckss396]

Its kinda cool to see someone build an engine that was designed a year before I was around.

 

[MrMetric]

You young punk! (you only beat me by a few years)

It is also neat that someone is going the annals of history, finding things our parent/grandparents/etc were tinkering with, and giving them a whirl. Kudos to you Lampy

 

[Modelman]

Has anyone built this engine? http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/PopMechanicsEngine1963.pdf
I'm in the process of building this and have most of the parts completed. The first problem I'm having is the Valve piston hitting the top of the steam chest with the eccentric at bottom dead center. I did a quick check of my dimensions and everything looks good. Just trying to figure out if it is me or if the plan dimensions are wrong.

I was a subscriber to PM back then. I was 16 years old at the time and built some of this engine in High school metal shop that had 2 Logan lathes. Never got it completed and what I did make is long gone now. Now at 73 I have several engines under my belt and more to come I hope. The model engine bug bit me when quite young. I still might have the PM issues on this. Thanks for posting. Brings back happy memories.

Has anyone built this engine? http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/PopMechanicsEngine1963.pdf
I'm in the process of building this and have most of the parts completed. The first problem I'm having is the Valve piston hitting the top of the steam chest with the eccentric at bottom dead center. I did a quick check of my dimensions and everything looks good. Just trying to figure out if it is me or if the plan dimensions are wrong.

 

[Henry K]

Looks like a lot of fun to build. I think I will try it. Do you run it on compressed air or steam. Did you build the boiler? I wonder how leaky and, sticky, the safety valve would be.

 

[stevehuckss396]

It is also neat that someone is going the annals of history, finding things our parent/grandparents/etc were tinkering with, and giving them a whirl. Kudos to you Lampy

My metal club inherited a members collection after his passing. The oldest one is from 1908 and after the middle 30's every one for every year is there up to about 2010ish. When I retire I'm going to search them and find all the engine projects and build a few cool ones.

 

[lampy]

Looks like a lot of fun to build. I think I will try it. Do you run it on compressed air or steam. Did you build the boiler? I wonder how leaky and, sticky, the safety valve would be.

It's running on compressed air for now. I did build the boiler and fired it up, my first boiler build. The safety valve did blow little bubbles while it was running but it was able to build enough pressure to run a wobbler. The safety valve did seem to work, I pressurized the boiler with air and it would start bleeding off pressure at around 40 psi. It wasn't what I would call consistent but it seemed to function.
https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=2b9392fee58901619de238c44afa3815&oe=5F85FBF9

 

[Henry K]

I wonder if stripping the pressure safety relief valve from a Presto pressure cooker would work. They can go up to 15 psi. Would you engine run on 15 psi (air)?

 

[lampy]

I wonder if stripping the pressure safety relief valve from a Presto pressure cooker would work. They can go up to 15 psi. Would you engine run on 15 psi (air)?

After only a few minutes of run time I was able to drop the pressure down to less than 10 psi according to the gauge on my little HF compressor. 15 PSI should be plenty. Being my first boiler it did take a few tries to get the heat right and enough steam to run the wobbler. I have plans and most of the supplies to my second boiler.

 

[lampy]

https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=2b9392fee58901619de238c44afa3815&oe=5F85FBF9

 

[vederstein]

Simple engines can be satisfying too.

Great job!

...Ved

 

[scottyp]

Cool - I might have to build one!

 

[lampy]

Cool - I might have to build one!

I found the plans a bit of a challenge to follow, constantly bouncing back and forth between the text and the drawings to get all the dimensions and details needed for the build.
I did make a minor change. Instead of soldering the eccentric in place I extended the end of the crank and threaded it for a 10-32 nut and used that to clamp everything in place. I only have about 15 minutes of run time on the engine but so far the timing hasn't changed.

 

[Richard Hed]

Has anyone built this engine? http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/PopMechanicsEngine1963.pdf
I'm in the process of building this and have most of the parts completed. The first problem I'm having is the Valve piston hitting the top of the steam chest with the eccentric at bottom dead center. I did a quick check of my dimensions and everything looks good. Just trying to figure out if it is me or if the plan dimensions are wrong.

Do you happen to have part 2? I'm interested in building it later. I would check all the drawings to see if THEY are the problem. If so, you might be able to shave a few thou off somewhere. Usually there is some place, maybe two places you could shave a few thous.

 

[lampy]

Steam Engine Plans There are a bunch of plans on this site.
http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/Steam Engines/PopMechanicsBoiler1963.pdf This is a link to the boiler plans
Hopefully the links above work. It's to John-Tom engine plans.
I did find a problem with the plans. The connecting rod for the Valve-piston is too long. I built it according to the plans and the valve-piston was hitting the top of the steam chest with the eccentric at bottom dead center. This prevented the crank from turning. I shortened the rod from the 1.312" in the drawing to 1.1" (1.19" from the wrist pin to where the rod is soldered to the brass ring) This is the only issue I had with the plans.

 

[Noitoen]

Its kinda cool to see someone build an engine that was designed a year before I was around.

Funny, I thought the same thing. I've read many copies of the PM magazine of the time but I can't find the May 1964 issue online. This is the month I was born.

 

[Danuzzo]

Very nice little engine.