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What do you want?
Alyn Foundry:
What do you want?
I’m not a fan of steam engines, of an age when there were still plenty about doing the jobs they were made for. My interest lies in the evolution of the internal combustion engine and the diversity the era spawned.
The four stroke cycle, or Otto cycle named after its inventor NA Otto became the standard for virtually every engine throughout the last two centuries. For us model engineers simple 2:1 ratio gears are readily and more importantly, cheaply available in a multitude of Metric sizes and forms. Back in the day it was timing gears, or the lack of them that dictated what kind of model was going to be built. So…. is there any interest in something new? Back to the title, what do you want? I recently acquired a Bonny wee Tom Senior ’ simplex ‘ 1/12th HP engine very easy to build and get running. Is this the sort of thing you folks want? What’s the criteria? Size, weight, material, complexity or, quite simply the price?
As they say up here in the North. ‘ speak thee mind ‘
:cheers: Graham.
Vixen:
Hello Graham,
Not sure you would want to offer the type of multi-cylinder engine which appeal to me. However, I am sure the members will have lots of ideas and requests for the engines of your preferred era.
Nice set of oil lamps there. 'Down South' we are still very excited with the running water and gas light, there is even talk about 'lectricity'. :lolb:
Cheers :cheers:
Mike
Jasonb:
I think keeping the flywheels to around 175mm (7") will appeal to more people these days. I used to be that 9" would fit a Myford gap but with more Mini-Lathes about 7" would open up the market to more. This also keeps the castings and other materials to a reasomable cost
Open crank so you can see what is going on will tend to be more appealing as well as something that runs quite slowly.
Spark ignition is probably better in these sort of 25-30mm bore engines unless you have a very out of scale hot tube
Your Little Tom would be a good candidate and is something I have been saving up a few images for. With a bit of planning the same castings could probably be used for both push rod and side rod types
Horizontal seem more popular than verticals but I think that depends a bit on the subject, you know what I have started drawing up but with 225mm flywheels and hot tube it goes against what I said above. Though it would not be hard to scale it down and run with a 1/4 x 32 plug
I've had a bit of a run on steam engines lately, another finished a couple of days ago and I do seem to like those. Next will be a Raab Stirling style engine.
Alyn Foundry:
--- Quote from: Vixen on July 01, 2025, 03:59:32 pm ---Hello Graham,
Nice set of oil lamps there. 'Down South' we are still very excited with the running water and gas light, there is even talk about 'lectricity'. :lolb:
Cheers :cheers:
Mike
--- End quote ---
Aye, the trusty 300 CP Aladdin’s all primed and ready for action. You Southerners are so lucky with your secure urban networks. The rural communities are much less fortunate, particularly in stormy weather.
:cheers: Graham.
I should have mentioned that due to collecting and exhibiting stationary engines a rare and incurable virus can be contracted called ‘ Tilley lamp fever ‘ as a consequence I now own an innumerable number of Paraffin lamps of varying degrees of rarity.
:lolb:
Jo:
No idea what you are on about Graham :headscratch:
I want to be able to go out in the workshop and after half an hour, not get brain fog and to be able to continue making swarf for the rest of the day.
Record down in rural Hampshire for electricity outages was Christmas eve to New years day inclusive, 8 days. Many a Turkey was BBQed that year but the fact it was so cold meant we could safely leave out freezer contents outside to prevent it spoiling :ThumbsUp:. My neighbour has an internet speed which peaks at 300KBps, there is a malicious rumour that the phone is due to go over to fibre optic at some point which should improve the internet speed and yet still they still try to tell us than we are an advanced country ::) The gas mains has yet to reach us :ShakeHead: and I would still be lifting water from my well except the local water company sucked the ground beneath my feet dry and were obliged to pipe water to the village and my household had to pay to connect to it to replace our private supply that they stole :rant:.
Jo
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