tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
Solenoid tractor gears or more precisely the connecting of the rotational output from the motor to the wheels. Accomplished using 1.5 mod brass gears machined using the Genmitsu 3018-pro cnc machine. In the first part of this build I made a solenoid that generated 5x the force of the original motor. I then created an … Read more
Sometimes I have to build something that is different and in my head, this time a solenoid tractor. Firstly I needed to make a more powerful solenoid motor. Solenoid Motor The original model engine, designed to be a take on the horizontal steam engine. The solenoid armature running as a piston through the centre of … Read more
Henk Kaan started with the plans for the solenoid motor, from these he modified and improved the design: The drawings are clear, and the rest was “improving by doing”. The microswitch you used seems to be smaller than the switch that I could get. Therefore I looked for a new position for the switch. The … Read more
The Burrell crankshaft and layshaft gears join the crankshaft to the differential and the differential to the wheels. The crankshaft gear was made from phosphor bronze and as you see in the video this slides so that you can select between drive and neutral. At first these gears look complicated, but they are actually quite … Read more
The Burrell eccentric pushrods are rather small, the inside diameter of the strap is just 10mm. This is a 1/20th scale traction engine and so they will be quite small. Two off to give forward and reverse. I made the 2 eccentric straps up from 1.8mm thick brass. I had to mill to this thickness from … Read more
The Burrell conrod has taken some time to get to as I’ve been waiting to fix the boiler location. First part to make up was the big end. As this part is so small I decided to make this from a piece of phosphor bronze and not have an insert. I use an ER25 square … Read more
Moving forward to completion with my Heron of Alexandria engine and it has turned into Heron meets War of the Worlds. Pressing the form for the “sphere” and the initial runs were covered in my original post Heron of Alexandria Steam Engine. Since then I spent some time playing with ideas for the stand and … Read more
Sometimes you get an idea in your head and mine was to make a Heron of Alexandria Steam Engine. Heron’s Aeolipile reaction steam engine from circa 10–70 AD is just an interesting toy. But maybe it inspired a few people on the 2000 year timeline of engines? First of all it is worth watching the engine … Read more
OK, I cheated, not so much machining a ratchet as working out how to create a ratchet in Carbide Create. A quick mention for Carbide Create as it is free for the basic version and for what I do this is enough. This software is easy to use and very flexible. Previously I used this … Read more
It is always exciting to see builds of our engine plans, this one especially so as it will be the oscillating engine on steam. Up until now I have only run this engine on compressed air. This build is by Michael Prady and this is a great mix of original design, changes in materials and … Read more