Remember your first?

[stevehuckss396]

I was going through some old pictures and found these. They were taken in January of 2007. This is the first engine I made that actually runs. It was built with some donated brass that someone could do without. It was machined on a brand new lathe and mill that I had little idea how to use. I cannot remember where I got the plans but they were free from somewhere. This were not the first pieces that I ever made but they were done at the very start of my engine building history. I can still remember the day it first ran. The quality is terrible. Nothing fit the way it should. It took forever to build. Other than all that, It's still my favorite.






Where did your engine building start? Post some pictures of your first finished project.

[KB]

"3 sisters" circa 1996, from plans found on the internet, when I first went on-line. The site is still up;  http://npmccabe.tripod.com/3sisters.htm

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02BlGgvtcKM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02BlGgvtcKM</a>

It was built using a lathe and drill press. The flywheel was fancied up, many years later.




-Kevin

[sshire]

Steve
My first engine ran about three weeks short of two years ago.
All I had was a mill; no lathe. It's a Stan Bray design, "Slim Sam."
As with yours, it was a bit wobbly, but it ran!

[spuddevans]

This is my 1st Engine, an Elmers #25




Built back when I didn't know what I was doing. ( I still don't know what I'm doing, but I have got much more proficient at making mistakes now )


Tim

[tvoght]

I dove right in with a casting set! The PM Research #2 is still a good runner. About 9-10 years ago using my trusty Taig lathe with milling slide.



--Tim

[b.lindsey]

 As i recall ...Elmer's Tiny was my first and longer ago that I care to remember

Bill

[Jo]

Mine was a Stuart 10V  .

Jo

[mklotz]

The first engine I started was Rudy Kouhoupt's marine engine.



Back in the early 70s I purchased the plans through Popular Mechanics and set to work to make it with my Unimat.  I finished a fair number of the parts but was interrupted by a six month consulting trip to Paris followed by living for a year in Bremen while I consulted on the European Space Lab.
Every time I returned to the engine I was upset by the poor quality of some of the parts and would begin remaking them.

After a period of this my wife suggested that maybe I should build something simpler so I would have a success under my belt to bolster my confidence.  I took her advice and built Elmer's Standby.



Shortly after finishing the Standby, I finished the marine engine.  So, technically, the Standby is my first although in my mind Rudy's engine is my personal first.

[Dan Rowe]

My first was the Stuart hammer. I used my Sherline lathe to line bore the cylinder.



Dan

[Mosey]

Confession is good for the soul.
My first was an Upshur Farm engine, which was made with a Benchmaster mill and SouthBend lathe. It didn't run. So I took it to Dick Upshur, who fixed it and ran it. He gave me 2 pages of single spaced handwritten notes explaining why it didn't run. I still like it even though it is poorly made.
Mosey

[vcutajar]

This is my first and only engine (up till now).  I guess I jumped into the deep end with my eyes open.



Took me more than a year to finish it and had to redo the piston to make it run.

Vince

[tangler]

Stuart 10V for me as well.  Made on a Zyto 3 3/8" with a vertical slide in 198something.  The reversing gear is later - still not timed and pinned.

Rod

[tel]

Also a Stuart 10V - 1979. Runs as well now as it did back then. All I had was the Myford and some very rudimentary tooling.

[garym]

My first project was my only project so far. It took me all last year but I didn't half learn a lot. It's in my avatar but here's a better picture. A translation from the one on Steve's workshop http://www.steves-workshop.co.uk/steammodels/simpleoscil/simpleoscil.htm

Gary

[Dave Otto]

This is my first; another Rudy engine.

I built this at work during lunch breaks and after hours. This was before I had any machine tools at home; sometime in the early eighties.

I was always going to finish it with proper hardware, paint, and a nice wood base; well I'm not dead yet so there is still time!

Dave