A few of my own finger engines

[Bogstandard]

Once you start making these things and learn the little secrets about them, you find it hard to stop.

Over the years I have made most probably a dozen of them and gave them all away except this first one, which still works like a cheap Chinese watch.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxk4_pTyRug" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxk4_pTyRug</a>

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

John

[sbwhart]

My finger job.



<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4UzHkv5kic" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4UzHkv5kic</a>

Stew

[smfr]

Stew, that's incredible! I can see how you could do the fluted columns on a dividing head, but how was the center of the flywheel done?

Simon

[sbwhart]

Hi Simon

The fly wheel centre is in two parts, with the fluting being done in a spin indexer with a veed cutter, you have to angle the spin indexer so that the vee runs out at you get to the centre otherwise you form a dish.





The rim of the fly wheel is made with a step on the inside, for the two parts of the centre to sit onto



The two centre parts are held in place with high strength loctite.



It's all an illusion realy done with mirrors   

Thanks for your interest.

Stew

[smfr]

Got it. I love seeing these neat tricks done for aesthetics.

Simon

[DaveH]

Very nicely done 
 
DaveH

[chuck foster]

thanks for the videos john 

i remember the "great finger engine build" that you started, although i did not compete in the build it was allot of fun to watch.

stew, thanks for showing us how you made the centers of your flywheels.

chuck

[Dean W]

What very pleasant and fun little gizmos these are.  You could make them as pretty as you like, and they would
also be safe for the young folks to play with.

[Bogstandard]

Actually Dean,

The two engines that were shown together were made for two different types of people.

The lightweight flywheel one was for little children to use, the slots and holes in the flywheel kept little fingers safe, whereas the larger one was for a gorilla sized friend of mine.

The last triple set I made were for two very good friends of mine and the third went to my late wife. She played with it almost every day, and when she left, it was given to my nephew for safe keeping within the family. Nothing is safe with me you see, I tend to give everything away at a moments notice.

John