tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
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
The number of times I modify or design a machine and guess at the rotational speed is ridiculous, then I saw the Fitnate Digital Tachometer and for ~£16 I thought it was worth a go. This is the DT-2234A and is a non-contact optical tacho. This comes in a neat zipped pouch. It works really … Read more
My CNC spoil board is aluminium. 5mm thick with 4mm threaded holes drilled at a pitch of 20mm. However, the table on the Genmitsu 3018-pro is not quite flat. Hence my need to machine this to create a flat working area. Material for a Spoil Board The spoil board can be made from a number … Read more
Just been looking for materials to make a project and was concerned by the variation in the price of brass sheet, hence thought I would do some calculations. The main calculation was to work out the volume, then work out the weight so that I could then calculate the £/kg column. This then allowed me … Read more
With any milling machine you need mass and stiffness, so I decided to make a Genmitsu 3018-pro stiffening bracket. The template was cut out from a thick-ish piece of cardboard. You can see that I had to extend the template to add the leg that fits onto the top of the side chassis rail. Using … Read more
As much as I’ve upgraded the Genmitsu 3018-pro it has struggled to machine or engrave brass, therefore I thought I would try sprung d-bit engraving. This sounds a bit counterintuitive with a CNC machine, but this is a tiny CNC lacking in power. I thought that a small amount of compliance in the Z-axis would … Read more
The latest status of the Burrell traction engine, you can find links to all of the posts on the build on the Miniature Traction Engine page. Here though is a brief youtube showing me moving it around and some stills of the engine to date. The firebox door opens and took me a little while … Read more
Time to make the Burrell hub caps. I made the hub caps for the front wheels some time ago. I do need to go back and change the bolts from steel to brass, but otherwise these are finished. The rear axle for the Burrell is a fixed solid piece of 1/4″ phosphor bronze. This is … Read more