Oscillating Steam Engine (December 5th, 2008)
I made a small oscillating steam engine for a final project at school recently. It's a fairly simple design to make, and I built this one with no real previous experience with metalworking. I've messed around in my dad's woodshop since I was old enough to know not to stick my fingers in saws, so I guess the concepts carry over. Another challenge was actually getting to use the mill and lathe because the course was overloaded and there were lines to everything. However, I think the engine came out decently despite a number of problems I had.
This isn't the latest picture of all the parts, but it's close enough. The only changes are I added two washers between the crank and flywheel, and got rid of the washer under the spring. I've got a set "plans" here, but they have no measurements. This is mainly because I didn't use any precise measurements to build the engine. Really, you only need to get five holes in the right spot, and then just build everything else to fit.
I made a small oscillating steam engine for a final project at school recently. It's a fairly simple design to make, and I built this one with no real previous experience with metalworking. I've messed around in my dad's woodshop since I was old enough to know not to stick my fingers in saws, so I guess the concepts carry over. Another challenge was actually getting to use the mill and lathe because the course was overloaded and there were lines to everything. However, I think the engine came out decently despite a number of problems I had.
I had a tough time getting it to work at first, but now that it's broken in it runs pretty good. I've yet to come up with a decent way of getting air to it though. I've just been holding an air nozzle to the copper pipes with a piece of foam acting as a gasket. There seems to be quite a bit of air leaking around the nozzle, and it won't run with less than 35 psi. Once I come up with a good way to get air to the machine I'll find the minimum air pressure it'll run on.