Stirling's First

Having built a number of Hot Air Engines over the years, both scale and generic, I decided it would be interesting to build a scale model patterened after Robert Stirling's first engine patented in 1816 and built in 1818. It was used to pump water out of a rock quarry. There are no pictures of the actual engine and the illustrations found in a number of books were drawn from the patent drawings. Models have been built of this engine, but I have never seen any plans of such, so I proceeded to draw up my own.
In addition to working up the linkage mechanism, I had to accommodate the materials that were on hand. Simply something that most model makers do anyway.
There were concerns if it would even run because the timing was somewhat different that most hot air engines and not not too much could be done to change it and still look like the illustration.


When it was to a point where the engine part was complete, heat was applied to the hot end with a small Butane torch, and as soon as it was heated sufficiently it ran beautifully.
Being satisfied with the initial test, construction proceeded until it was finished and placed on display, as seen in the first two pictures.

Twin Cylinder Geared Wobbler

Another fun little engine has just been completed. It is not a scale model of anything that I know of, simply an interesting mechanism to watch in action. The inspiration to build it came from watching a video of a similar engine on the Internet. It is nearly all brass, and weighs in at three pounds. Construction time was about 2 weeks, considerably quicker than the last model.

Here is a short video of it in action.

Corliss Steam Engine Model

Last week, after being under construction for 4 months, a scale model of a Corliss Steam engine was completed. At one time Corliss Engines were the state of the art workhorses of heavy industry. There were two of them that powered all the machinery in the sugar factory in Centerfield where I grew up. They had Manila rope drive from the flywheel to the jackshaft on the second floor, with pulleys and belts running everywhere. The engines were so dynamic with all the valve motion, etc. Is there any wonder that I was fascinated with them even as a small boy. The factory and engines are gone now. I was of the last generation to be able see them working, and to be able work in the same factory with them thumping away. My model is not a scale engine of the sugar factory engines, but still a Corliss design.

Thermo Acoustic Engine

Way back on June 1 2007 I completed a Thermo Acoustic Engine that actually runs. Just don't ask me how or why, because I don't know. I had bought a book authored by Warbrooke over in New Zealand about building one, and I built it per the instructions, but that engine would not even attempt to run. I gave it up as a hoax. Then later I seen some videos on the Internet, and also acquired another book written by Roy Darlington in England. Roys book had a short 4 page chapter on them. No plans, but a good description, so I proceeded to build another one, and by golly it actually runs under its own power. Not very fast, but it does run. Here take a look.

Hand Cranked Box Organ

May first 2009 marked the completion of a little crank organ, after being under construction for two months. Instructions for building were found on John Smith's web site in England. However for some reason that site seemed to vanish shortly after building the organ. The music rolls are still available from Melvin Wright, another English web site.
It was awkward to move around and find a place to place it while playing, so a stand with wheels followed a month or so later.
The top is hinged so that it can be opened up and you can look down inside and see the working mechanism. The crank operates bellows to pump air and also powers the punched paper roll that distributes the air to the 20 pipes to play the tunes. It works somewhat like a player piano.The last picture is of it being demonstrated at an antique machinery show in Huntsville Utah.
Friends Guy and Westley each videoed it and posted the videos on You Tube.

Kaleidoscope

A couple weeks ago I completed a Kaleidoscope of my own design configuration. The reason for building it was that I had some high quality front faced mirrors that had been salvaged out of some kind of copy equipment, and they needed something useful to do, rather than just laying around. The rest of the machine was built from some brass drain pipe, and the gears machined from brass valve stems, and the walnut from left over pieces. Sure, it was work, but now all these things have a useful purpose in life.
The interesting thing, was that in reading some history, I found that the Kaleidoscope was invented by David Brewster in 1816, the same year that Robert Stirling invented the hot air engine. (I've built a bunch of hot air engine models) Both men attended the university of Edinburgh in Scotland, they may have known each other. Although the Kaleidoscope is more or less a toy or object of fascination, David went on and did a lot of research and development with optics, and other fields of science. David was the inventor of the Fresnel lens that was used in light houses all over the world. A very respected gentleman.

Jackhammer

I just finished building a little jackhammer a couple days ago, for no reason other than I was curious how they worked, and there is no better way to find out than to build a working model.
The display stand is a small burl from a Popular tree. It is not a bolder, but a good representation of one.
Yes, it does go Rat-a-tat-tat, or maybe more of a Putt Putt Putt, but it does work, and only requires a few pounds pressure from an Air Brush Compressor.

7" Atlas Shaper

On the middle day of July I had the oportunity to acquire a couple Atlas metal shapers that were being disposed of at the local high school. Actually it was a bunch of shaper parts in various states of assembly or disassembly, which ever way you'd like to say. Although I already had a shaper that is seldom used, I simply could not pass up something like that. In their day shapers were state of the art machines. However, they, like model T Fords, have become obsolete. They are no longer manufactured and seldom used, but they are fun to play with. You can still do machining operations with them, but not near as efficiently as with a milling machine.
One looked like it was almost complete, and the other was missing many of its parts.
Having no other project to work on at the time, I immediately started working on the better of the two. Who ever had worked on it before me had left out some internal parts and had others installed incorrectly, so it was torn completely down and started over.

About 5 or 6 days later I had it back together and operational. A lot of time was spent getting all the slide ways adjusted to minimum clearance without any binding. Several parts needed repairs, and the tool post was missing completely, so a new one was machined. Everything was in excellent condition and being so complete, with guards and even the original Atlas motor, it was exchanged with the old shaper on the cabinet. I have not decided what to do with the old one yet.
Here is a little video of it in operation shaving of a block of metal.
The finish is just beautiful, as smooth as a spanked baby's bum.

That is not the end of the story. The spare parts shaper were give to my friend Lowell. He needed a table and a few of the internal parts to finish up the restoration of a machine that he has been working at for the past couple years. Needless to say he seemed quite happy too. His machine is shown below in its state of restoration as of a couple days ago.

Flutter Mill

I have not been able to think up another project to work on, and to
keep from going nuts from boredom in the mean time, I made a Pantanenome
(pan-ta-nen-o-mee). I do not know why they call them that, the word is
not even in the dictionary. It means "all winds", and is supposed to
spin no matter what the direction of the wind. I tested it during
construction, and it does. It was mounted on top of the 6 foot chain link
fence that runs across the back yard separating us from the school yard.
In my research it appears that Pantanenomes originated in France, and maybe
that is why the word is not listed in an English dictionary. The inventor claims that
they will turn by wind from any direction, except perpendicular to the axis, however
that is true of most any propeller type wind mill, and all of them are more efficient
when oriented properly into the wind.
It is kind of fun to build replicas of wacky old inventions.

Miniature Punch Press

The newest creation to emerge from the workshop is a miniature punch press just about 8" tall, and was completed just yesterday, July 2nd, 2010. Surprisingly it even works, quite well in fact.

Here it is shaping out dime sized pie tins. For what use? By mice, of course!

Dundee Foundry Engine

Recently I became intrigued by a patent design sketch shown in a book about model Stirling engines, and ended up building a model. A 45 hp double displacer engine built in 1843 to power the machinery of the Dundee Foundry, in the UK. The original engine ran for four years before failing due to poor materials of that day that could not withstand the intense heat.

There was not much to go on in the sketch, but that provides a lot of liberty to the builder. It was necessary to modify a couple things to make a working engine, but I tried to maintain a resemblance to the sketch. I hope you like it.

ROCK CRUSHER

The project for March was a model of a vintage Jaw Type Rock Crusher. It is a tough little bugger and will actually crush real rocks. However that takes more torque than the little electric motor provides, so I just use it to crush cough drops.

To prove it, these rocks were crushed during the testing stages.



Here it is munching some cough drops.

Hypocycloidal Steam Engine

February was a good month to stay indoors and construct another scale model. This time it was a model of a Hypocycloidal steam engine. That is just a fancy tongue twisting word for geared crank engine. The original engine was invented in 1802 in England by a gentleman named Matthew Murray.
Building of this model was pretty simple and straight forward. The most interesting part was machining the internal toothed ring gear, I done that on the milling machine using it like a hand powered vertical shaper. Even though it is a lot of work there is a lot of satisfaction in making your own gears, especially if they need to have a special shape of some kind. When finished the engine turned out to be smooth running with an interesting motion.

Section Car

January marked the completion of a scale model hand pumped antique railroad section

8 Stomp 'ore Mill

Another object for the display room has just been completed. It is a whimsical facsimile of the century old stamp mill ore crushing machines.

Steeple Engine

Near the end of October a model of a Steeple Engine was completed. The plan was acquired out of the book titled Historic Engines Worth Modeling, by Anthony Mount, an Englishman. The reason for picking this one was that it had a different kind of connecting rod than and that I have built so far. The design provides for a shorter engine than the usual cross head arrangement. The author stated that it was designed as a marine engine, however the only ones ever built were used on land. After studying the plans, I determined that by changing the plan slightly, all I needed to make was a steeple pattern. For all the rest I was able to use existing patterns that I had made for other models. As can be seen in the video it is a smooth running engine.

Fancy Calipers

Have you ever wondered just how much some people have between the ears? Well, with my new fancy calipers it is not difficult to measure.
In my case, if you are wondering, it turned out to be mostly just space!

Treadle power wood turning lathe

On September 28 2009 I completed the construction of a 1/12 scale model of a wood turning lathe built from a kit P M Research castings given to me by my friend Paul Kuhni. Paul is 87 and reached a point in life where he just cannot tolerate standing at his lathe anymore. Although in the past he has built many marvelous models.
This is the smallest scale that I have worked to, and there were some pretty small parts, bit I managed just fine.
Normally I do not work with kits, as I prefer to scratch build things, but I guess there are exceptions to all rules.

Hay Fork

In 1986 a small building in the shape of an old gambrel roof barn was built in the back yard for storage and display of models and collected things. This was a common shape of a barn used a century ago to store hay. Although this barn will never be used to store hay, I thought that it would be neat to have a miniature Jackson type hay fork hanging from a trolley under the gable end like there would have been on the original barns, used to hoist loose hay up off the wagons through a big door and into the barn.
Last weekend that desire was fulfilled when I got a miniature fork hung up. The use of this type of hay handling was discontinued about 60 years ago when farmers switched over from putting hay up loose to bailing it.

Panther Pup Gasoline Engine

Last Friday, August 21st, I completed another little engine to put on display. It is called a Panther Pup. It is fully functional four cylinder engine, although not a scale model of of any particular prototype. Just another fun little thing to build.