what engines can be made with a Unimat SL1000

[808state]

Hi,
New to the hobby. I think I am going to like it. Not wanting (rather, can't right now) to drop a ton of money in a larger lathe, I picked up a Unimat sl1000. Does anyone have suggestions as to size and kind of engine that can be made with this. I have made a single cylinder wobbler as my first project. This was before i had the unimat so I made it out of wood. It runs really well. Probably going to try couple more air engines then I would like to try a simple i.c. engine. Anyone done this?
Thanks for the suggestions

P.s. how do you all cut the brass, steel, aluminum to size. I see online sites that sell pieces to the sizeneeded but what if there are rounded corners and such.

 

[vederstein]

As for techniques - look on Youtube. There are several channels that give instructional videos on metalworking.

My personal favorite is Tubalcain's channel:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBC69869E8CB708F2

I'm an engineer (not machinist) by trade/training. So I learned via the videos, asking the machinists at my workplace, and making lots of scrap. Just remember, there's always more than one way to perform an operation. So one setup may work better for the tooling you have so unless the setup is obviously dangerous, don't let anyone tell you it's wrong. Let your experiences tell you that.

As an aside, this hobby has made me a better engineer. When I'm designing a machine, I keep in the back of my head how a particular part is going to be created with the tools my workplace has available. Thus I don't often create impossible parts.

...Ved.

 

[808state]

Hi Ved...thanks for your insight to making things. Yes i have been watching tubalcain's channel on you tube and learning machining techniques. In fact the wooden wobbler i made was based on his series of mini engines..

For now, until i learn more about machining and " out of the box " methods, i wanted to see if anyone said " yes, i built so and so engine with a sl/db unimat".

 

[Tin Falcon]

Does anyone have suggestions as to size and kind of engine that can be made with this.

Small ones!!! seriously though the river queen launch engine was designed to be built on the unimat.
http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/SteamPlans3/RiverQueenEngine/RiverQueenPlansInstruction.pdf

and several of the Elmer's Engines would work as well.

http://www.john-tom.com/html/ElmersEngines.html

Tin

 

[808state]

Thanks,i'll check those out.

 

[clivel]

and several of the Elmer's Engines would work as well.

http://www.john-tom.com/html/ElmersEngines.html

Tin

My first engine was an Elmer's 25. The plans can be downloaded from Tin's link above.
I built it on a Unimat Basic which is a newer and a little bit bigger version of the SL1000.
The build thread here http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=17616 although probably not the best example to follow, may at least help you avoid some of the mistakes I made.
Clive

 

[Cogsy]

Definitely not a first engine but surely small enough to make on your lathe is the Poppin Flame Licker. Plans can be found at John-Tom as well, here's the link. Lots of examples to see on Youtube.

 

[bobm985]

Back in the mid 70's, Model Engineer had a series by Rex Tingey using the Unimat to build steam engines and workshop mods for the Unimat.
Regards, Bob

 

[808state]

@bobm985..thanks, i'll look that up to see what they made. That name looks familiar, i've come across it while searching the web.

@Cogsy..yeah, I saw that the poppin flame licker would fit the bill but then reading up on it found that the tolerences had to be really tight had precise. I better sharpen my skills first. Is a ic engine more forgiving when getting them to run?

 

[Cogsy]

An I.C. engine still has some fairly critical fits to run properly, valves need to seal, etc, but I would say they are a little more forgiving than flame lickers.