ELGIN CUTLASS PISTOL

   For something unique and different this time I made a replica of an Elgin Cutlass Pistol. They were invented in 1837 by George Elgin, at a time when close combat was often with the use of knives, or swords. Adding a gun seemed like would be quite an improvement. The US Navy purchased 150 of them, and some were issued for use in the 4 year Wilkes South Pacific Exploring Expedition.
   They were the only pistol to ever be fitted with a knife, and the first to use a percussion cap, which gives them some historical significance. However the small number manufactured, is probably a testament to their usefulness in combat.

 Construction started by finding some good pictures of the pistol on the Internet, then enlarging them to the full size to be used as patterns. The main frame was cut out of the ugliest scrap I could find. Actually the only one I had with enough mass to it.

 Bits and pieces were slowly pared away to get down to the desired size.

 The barrel simply started as a strip of 7/8" steel plate. This pistol was a smooth bore, so it only required drilling it out to .540" (54 Caliber). Lot of chips milled off to get it to octagon shape.

The blade was sawed out of 11/32"plate. That was too thick for the blade, but needed to be about that thick to look right for the knuckle guards which are integral.

The excess thickness was milled off the blade in the milling machine using a fly cutter. Not a very efficient way of manufacturing, but OK I guess for a one of a kind replica. It got the job done.

 The lock parts were hidden from view in all pictures, so I had to guess at what they looked like. You see what I ended up with in the above picture. It works good and that is what counts. The main spring was cut from a piece of 2" wide x .048" thick heavy strapping or banding material. At first it was too soft so it was hardened and tempered. Now it works fine.

            The handle or grip was carved out of a piece of walnut.
Finally this morning after being under construction for a month it is complete and ready to be placed on display, as shown in the first picture of this posting. Although probably not the best fighting weapon, hopefully it will be a good conversation piece.

NON COMPRESSION ENGINE

Time to add a new engine to the collection, and this one is a Non Compression gas engine. As I understand it was a concept being experimented with 100 or so years ago. The engines run on 2 cycle. A fuel charge is drawn in for part of a stroke, then the spark plug fires, igniting the fuel and driving the piston the rest of the stroke. The return stroke of the piston is exhaust, and the cycle starts over again.
The engines start and run fairly well, but simply do not develop any amount of usable power. That is why you never see anything but a replica model of one now days.

As with most any engine, a cylinder, crank, and flywheels, etc. were needed, and to expedite the job I poured castings, using some other castings that I had on hand a foundry patterns. Extras were poured in case there were defects I would not have to do it all over again. There were a couple minor defects, but I was easily able to pick out a set of good castings and proceed. (In a pinch I could have used all of them)

Machining proceeded, the engine was fitted with a cast iron sleeve in the cylinder and ball bearings for the crankshaft

The piston and piston ring were machined out of a hunk of automobile cam shaft. That is a high quality cast iron.

I elected to make a roller cam follower to operate the exhaust valve. Those 1/32" diameter cotter pins used to hold the pivot pins were a little delicate, but that is all part of the hobby.

The cylinder head was machined out of 416 stainless steel, and it is fitted with one of my homemade spark plugs. The valves look very much like automotive valves, but heads are only slightly larger than 1/4".      The intake is atmospherically aspirated, similar to most any old single cylinder engine.

Finally on April 15th it was ready for testing to see if it would run. Here is the video. Take a look for yourself.

During the initial testing the engine was running on propane using the demand regulator that I built last year. It will also run on gasoline using a vapor carburetor. And the ignition buzz coil is also one shown in a previous posting.

EXERCISE MACHINE

I'm not sure what inspired this project. Perhaps it was because Daughter in law Angie teaches classes at Golds Gym. Considerable time was spent browsing through images on the Internet of people exercising, and various kinds of exercise equipment trying to pick things that could be worked into an automaton and provide interest.

To start the process, silhouette type figures were cut out of hard wood using a scroll saw.

The blocks were then shaped with a Dremel rotary tool. Not exact, but close enough for whimsy. The figures are about 5" tall, and the faces about the size of a fingernail. Some parts were carved separately and either glued or pined in place. Dressmaker pins were were used for a lot of joints and mechanical connections. If some things look out of proportion it is because and artiest is licensed to exaggerate to attract attention to the work. There was a lot of preliminary fitting and testing as the work progressed, as can be seen in the above picture.

I prefer to not copy other people's work, but the Hula Hoop girl that I seen on You Tube was so unique that I had to bend my rules. All the rest of the figures of my own design. That was the most complicated figure, and it took 9 days to build.

The Hula girl is driven by gears, and I elected to make peg gears, because I think they are classic.

Motion is transmitted from the crank to the figures by cams, gears and pulleys. Here is a view into the mechanical compartment.
    Finally after working at it doing something every day, 7 days a week for a month and a half it became a working machine yesterday afternoon.

Now instead of going through a strenuous routine, all I''ll have to do is turn the crank a few turns and I'll have my exercising done for the day!

WHERE MILK COMES FROM

About the first of the year friend Lowell got a new Dremel tool, and when a friend gets a tool, I want one too, besides, anyone who is anybody in hobby circles has a Dremel, so that was reason enough for me to get one too.

When I got it home I had to use it for something to justify it's existence, so I carved a cow out of a block of wood, looking at images from the internet as a reference.

Followed by a little milker person sitting on a stool. His arms were formed out of metal, because people who milk cows by hand get real "strong" arms.

Then came the tail. Cows are always swatting flies with their tail, and also the milker who is milking them. There is a bucket to catch the milk and then machinery under the platform that makes everything work, and last of all, a gaudy paint job. I'm not sure what kind of a cow it is, but suspect some kind of  cross breed. I've been told that Artists are licensed to paint things any color they want.

EGG FACTORY

Time for another whimsical project. The inspiration for this one came from a video sent to me by my friend Lorien Francis of plywood paddle toy with chickens around the edge pecking at a feed pan in the center. I do not care to copy other things exactly so it kind of evolved from there with my own ideas.

I wanted to have a roller track with ball bearing (eggs) rolling down it, and for that I needed something to recirculate the balls back to the starting point. So first order of business was designing and building an egg pump. No need to build the rest if that did not work.

A stared wheel somewhat like one in a corn planter pushes the balls one at a time into the copper tube. It worked surprisingly well.

Castings were needed for the project, so I proceeded to make patterns, and would you believe the day I needed to do the castings a storm moved in and the temperature dropped from about the 60's to 20 degrees. Because of the melting furnace exhaust, I have to run it outside. So I got all the molds rammed up, then opened the door long enough to melt and pour the metal, then moved things back inside and shut the door again. Actually the door only needed to be open for about 30 or 40 minutes.

Whew! All the castings turned out good, so I only had to do it once, and could proceed with the project in a warm workshop. Work proceeded a little bit each day as time permitted. Finally by Christmas day some of the parts were ready to receive paint.

By now the temperature is way to cold to paint outside, and spray painting is not a good thing to do inside so I set up a little temporary paint booth with filters and an exhaust fan to blow the fumes out the window via a dryer duct.

With parts painted final assembly could begin. Here is a view of the underside of the egg factory. It is OK here, but I would not advise you to stand under a real egg factory and look up. The mechanism is chain driven. I had some miniature roller chain, but no sprockets of the right size so I had to machine them from scratch. They are a little tricky to machine, but that is one of the challenges I enjoy in my project building. Daughter Liz thought it ought to make a clucking sound, but how do you do that mechanically? Friend Ira suggested a wood slat rubbed against a star wheel so after a little experimenting, that is what I did. It is a fair representation of a clucking sound.
     Finally, last night after weeks of fussing with it, it became an operational EGG FACTORY. 
Here is a video for you to look at.

SILVER ANGEL ENGINE

Back in July of this year I completed a Silver angel engine as designed by the late Bob Shores of Florida. It is not a scale model of any particular prototype, but a rather interesting design in itself.

It was an interesting project to build and not all that difficult as models go. All machined from solid stock, except for the flywheel which is a casting.

During the process a demand regulator was constructed so it could be run on propane rather than gasoline.

I even built my own spark plugs to use in it.

Finally it was completed. It did not have much compression. Cranking it with an electric drill, it would pop a little, but simply would not keep running by it's self. Disappointed, I set it aside for a while and built several other projects. But I was bothered by the fact that it had little compression and would not run. I assumed the valves were leaking, so a few days ago I took it apart and re lapped the valves with a polishing compound. Still no compression. But when I removed the spark plug and put a finger over the hole, lots of compression. A little more investigation revealed that the packing nut holding the insulator in was hardly finger tight. After getting that sealed up tight, it runs like--- well an old hit and miss engine ought to run. Take a look at the video and see for yourself.

LAUNCH ENGINE

My friend Dan Jenkins who lives in Idaho, had purchased plans and a materials kit for a miniature Launch Engine from Little Machine Shop in California. Dan finished his engine a couple months ago, and he thought I ought to look at the plans, so he mailed them down to me. They arrived just as I was finishing up on the Gyro Governor project, and being without a workshop project I immediately started to work on it. It was a quickie job and took less than a week, even though I only worked on it a couple hours a day. A few things were changed from the plan to accommodate materials that I had on hand, and the diameter of the rotary valve was reduced, I certainly did not want to experience another problem like I had with the Comber engine of several weeks ago. Other than that I followed the plan. This little engine took off running the first time air was applied, and it runs equally well in either direction depending on which port is hooked to the supply. Fun little engine for "Show and Tell".

It has already been placed on a display shelf along with some other similar sized models. Below is a video showing the little Launch Engine in action.

PEPY GYROSCOPIC GOVERNOR

A couple weeks ago I was thumbing through one of my old mechanical books looking for inspiration of something mechanically unusual to build for a next project, when I noticed a simple illustration of a gyroscopic governor. That triggered my memory of seeing one many years ago, at an antique machinery show. Searching my old photographs turned up a single picture of it. That seemed like a suitable project. I've never seen a governor like it before or since. At least it ought to make for a good conversation piece. I have no idea what it was used on, but suspect it was probably some kind of internal combustion engine. The name plate says it was built by Harris Machinery Co. in Minneapolis.

A casting for the governor yoke required making a new pattern, but for the rest of the castings I was able to use on hand patterns and things. I rammed up extra molds so I would not have to make another heat in case of defects, but it turned out I did not need them. I can use the spares for other projects or simply remelt them.

Work on it progress a little bit at a time over the past couple weeks until today when it became a completed model. It certainly works, but perhaps not as smoothly and efficiently as a fly ball or fly weight type governor. Perhaps that is why we no longer see them in use. But for me it is a fascinating bit of history. It deserves a spot on the display shelves.
     Here is a short video. Notice how the control lever moves as the speed of rotation is changed.

COMBER ROTARY ENGINE

 After working on it since the first part of September, on the 16th I completed a model of a Comber rotary engine, using plans taken from the book "Elmer's Engines". Although it would spin free and easy when turned by hand, it refused to even try to run when air pressure was applied, even up to 120psi. Needless to say I was quite disappointed and did not know what to do about it. Good friend Mike Nay came to my rescue. He searched the HEME website and found other builders of the same engine had experienced problems and solved them with slight design changes. Those changes would have been so easy initially had I known about them, but a major rebuild now, but then what good is an engine that will not run.

  Shown in the above picture is the engine rebuilt with a 1/16" larger cylinder bore and 3/16" smaller rotary valve diameter. WOW, what a difference it made. The engine runs very well now on almost no air pressure at all. Take a look at the video below.

LITTLE WOODPECKER

Last week I was feeling kind of down and needed something to cheer myself up a bit, so I carved out a little woodpecker. It was quick and easy. He is a lively little fellow and it makes me smile to watch him. Take a look for yourself.

SCATTER GATHER

It was a time for another project of a whimsical nature, not good for anything except maybe amusement. After considerable thought a scatter gather machine was chosen. In a way it sort of reflects my own personality. It has gears and a crank, things that I really like, and besides that it is quite "eccentric".

     As is normal for scratch built ideas it required some pattern work, castings, and machining.

           Here is a video of it in action. It cycles every 4 turns of the crank.

VAN DE GRAAFF generator

After completing the Wimshurst machine I decided to build a Van de Graaff static generator. I wanted to build one anyway.

First order of business was to gather some materials. A couple stainless steel bowls from K-Mart, a piece of PVC conduit from Lowe's, an old sewing machine motor, etc.

The construction was reasonably simple. It is simply a belt that runs on pulleys, one at the top and one at the bottom, and then there are brushes quite similar to the ones that I made for the Wimshurst machine at each end to pick off the static. The two bowls were fastened together to form a reasonably close approximation of a sphere which serves as a collector of electrons at the top.

Most instructions specify using a gum rubber belt, but one claimed vinyl coated polyester worked better so that is what I used. Shown here being super glued into an endless belt.

 Here it is finished setting on the work bench ready for testing. The wand with the door knob on the end is for discharging the static, but it turns out that using my hand is easier. Besides it really impresses people when I take a 3" or 4" spark without flinching.

And finally set up in the display room for demonstration. It will certainly generate static producing real long sparks, occasionally some nearly a foot. Interestingly they are almost painless when they strike your skin. One time I got zapped right on the end of the nose as I reached over to shut it off. I've had varying degrees of success getting it to make people's hair stand on end.

BUT it does a real job on a large Blond Barbie Doll head. She gets a real charge out of demonstrating it!