tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
The Burrell crosshead guide or maybe the trunk guide. Must admit that I need to study the history of steam engines and the naming of parts. Anyway, back to this miniature traction engine design and make. The crosshead guide supports the joint on the two-part conrod design. It is the sliding mechanism for the conrod … Read more
The master conrod for the five cylinder rotary worried me since the beginning of this project because there is so much involved in machining it. Machinging the small end of the master conrod with it held on the rotary table. The Unimat 3 as a milling machine is just perfect for this type of work … Read more
My initial thoughts for the conrod for this single valve poppet engine were to make it from mild steel as I could make it thin to make it light, but an aluminium conrod would have a bigger cross-section for a given weight. The conrod, abbreviation of “connecting rod”, connects the piston to the crankshaft. This … Read more
The part in an internal combustion engine that connects the piston to the crankshaft. It changes reciprocating motion of the piston into rotary motion of the crankshaft or vice versa. A connecting rod consists of a pin-end, a shank section, and a crank-end. Pin-end and crank-end pinholes at the upper and lower ends are machined … Read more
This Transitional Engine conrod is a two-piece crank design with a slider. This is traditional steam engine design. As this is meant to be an engine that has started life as a steam engine I thought it would be ok to make it from mild steel. I calculated the distance between centres and then accurately … Read more
The slider crank linkage is common in steam engine design as it removes the side forces from the piston and from the connecting rod that is sealed by the gland as it passes into the cylinder. This schematic shows the without and then with a support for the jointed conrod. There are many different designs … Read more