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
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
A double eccentric for the Burrell will give forward and reverse. As this engine is tiny I machined the pair as one. This was machined from a piece of 1/2″ diameter mild steel. My steps were: Cutoff ~50mm length of 1/2″ diameter mild steel round bar More length than required to ensure stable holding in … Read more
The saddle and the Burrell boiler have been on the bench for a while. Most of the delay was down to me struggling with the design and location of the steam valve. The Saddle The saddle was designed to allow me to split the cylinder and ports to make it all easier to make. This … Read more
Inspiration for Steam Valve Design When I originally looked at the steam valve for the Burrell I read a number of references and article and then listed the following points: Smooth the steam flow path. Can the valve reliably shut steam flow off completely? Does the valve provide enough control? Does the valve work at … Read more
This short video clearly shows the relationship between crankshaft, conrods and cylinders for the rotary engine. In rotary engines the crankcase rotates with the propeller. The conrods rotate about the crank pin. These two rotational axes are parallel and half the length of the stroke apart. In this way the early engines removed the need … Read more
This week I spent some time simplifying the oscillating engine that I made some years. The goal being to make a more elegant design that I could produce in CAD. The oscillating engine started life as a project to build on my then new Warco WM240B lathe. It ran briefly as a simple oscillating engine … Read more
How Many Parts in an Engine? I was wondering and thinking about the oscillating steam engine plans that I have just produced in CAD. This is a very simple engine. There are 21 separate parts in this exploded assembly drawing, of which 19 parts need to be made from stock material. However, this drawing does … Read more
Looking for inspiration for a steam valve design. Thought I would share a bit of a search of the internet, books and reference papers. I’ve already discussed the different options for the Burrell Steam Valve principle of operation: Make a valve part of the saddle Fit a standard steam valve to the side of the … Read more
All the time I’ve been making the cylinder and saddle I’ve been concerned with the Burrell steam valve. How do I control the steam? I think I have three options: Make a valve part of the saddle Fit a standard steam valve to the side of the saddle Fit remote standard valve and run pipes back … Read more