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Ryan's Engine

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Bearcar1:
  Some 45+ years ago, while in attendance of my Grandfather's funeral, I ran across an article that was featured in the January 1963 issue of Popular Mechanics on building a small vertical steam engine. Now being just a young lad at that time and having attained a love for steam engines from hanging around with Grandpa in the shop, I was certain I could build one and dreamed about how cool that would be. The only problem was, how? I did not want to ask my Dad to take time away from his work and the availability and cost of materials at that time was pretty scarce, so I settled upon making one in my head and spent hours on end for days at a time looking at the drawings and daydreaming about it. Over time, other things in life came along and my interest was drawn away from the matter but still, through all the years since that time, that engine article has surfaced several times to once again re-kindle my inner desire of building one. Just recently, I was at a visitation service and while there, ran into a friend of mine and his young grandson Ryan. On the drive home, for whatever reason, I began to think about my Grandfather and that engine article once again. Ryan was about the same age as I was when I found that article and I thought why not build the thing and give it to him as a present. The fact that I now had both the tooling and the skill sets needed for just such a project, and a motivation, by the time I got home I had convinced myself this would be my next project. So, pull up a thumb *ahem* chair and have a seat, 'coz  here we go.

After scrounging around in the seconds drawers, I came up with a nasty looking remnant of and old "who knows what that was" piece of 3/16" steel plate and I proceeded to cut the base part out. First I had to use a torch to soften up whatever coating was on the piece and scrape it off, followed by some judicious chain drilling and a rather lengthy session of character building (using a file) to arrive at what is shown. Not much to look at but it is a good start.


BC1
Jim

lazylathe:
This looks lie it will be a fun project Bill!

Consider the chair pulled up, front and centre!


Andrew

Dean W:
Hi Jim.  I remember when Pop Mech used to have actual cool mechanical stuff, like steam engines!  It's neat that you
thought of that all these years later.
You did a nice job of "character building" on that piece.  Off to a good start.   :)

Bearcar1:
Thanks Andrew, it should be a fun ride. Glad to have you along.

Dean, you as well. Yes, PM magazine did have some neat articles once upon a time, model rockets, steam engines, simple toys, everything a kid could dream of. As far as the character building, I dunno about that last part but DOG GONNIT do my hands ache  from it!  :o ;D


I did some more poking around in the drawer and came up with a few more bits and bobs that I think I can use in this project. A length of brass bar for the cylinder, the beginnings of a flywheel from some long ago abandoned project and a bronze bearing bush from an old tractor along with a short drop of steel I plan to use for the crankshaft. That round slug is a piece of nickel alloy that was the cutout from some decorative moulding used on the old financial trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade building so this project will possess a wee bit of historical virtue. I plan to use it as the crank disk. 8)


Thanks for looking guys.

BC1
Jim

zeeprogrammer:
Very nice story and the engine will be a nice present.

Popular Mechanics always got my imagination going when I was a kid. But the only article I can remember was a project for building your own submarine. It was nothing more than a fiberglass pod with releasable ballast. A float was attached by pipes hinged on either side. Drew in air from one float to the other.

Do you have a picture of the engine?

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