Overview of Oscillating Steam Engine from Little Machine Shop!!

[djpaulk]

Hahaa, it all looks like its floppin about,like a cock in a sock.Guess thats why they call it a beginers kit.Reamed eh? Maybe you should of reamed the hole in the upright for the crank shaft too,maybe waited till the morning to turn your piston o_O?, ...Blah blah blah. Anyhow,nice vid,hope it snares some young steam engineers into the hobby,its informative and thanks for posting it.

[denni4job]

one thin i dnt understand once the piston comes down hw will it come up... because oscillating steamengine has a inlet and outlet on top and bottom too. could you please specify

[saunixcomp]

@denni4job It comes back up due to centripetal force created by the flywheel

[brandoc1950]

Great video and an excellent explanation of how it works. I'm building a similar engine called Dodi, which I started about 12 years ago. :) I finally decided to finish it.

[luxibabi]

noone uses steam?! that's an obsurd comment....how do you think navy ships get where they need to go...anywho...pretty cool little engine

[saunixcomp]

@luxibabi I was referring to creating steam (e.g. a boiler) for such a small project.

[sciman001]

Machineing needed? All i have is a drill... and a screwdriver... and a hammer... THANX!

[saunixcomp]

@sciman001 Yes - of course machining is needed!!!

[sjogge123]

@sciman001 what about other tools? offcourse you can drill a hole in a squareformed piece and buy a round piece of metall and so on but lathe is veeeeeeery helpfull:) mill is also a good thing:D

[saunixcomp]

@sjogge123 Agreed!

[djpaulk]

@sciman001 Good luck :D

[DrFrankensteam]

Nice engine, good explanation of a "wobbler" engine.

[Bobbymitchell10]

drill a hole on each side of the thing that the rod connects to on the crank that would help it run smoother

[BOBKB3NZX]

Hey great job on it, a really good mod you can do for this thing early in life is give it actual crank ball bearings, it will last forever! Im pretty sure you know why. have fun'

[saunixcomp]

Great idea. Hadn't thought of it. Are there any drawbacks (aside from the cost of the bearing?)

[BOBKB3NZX]

truly no, a ball bearing as long as it is lubed every so often it will take away the crank wobble, giving you a higher rpm that can be maintained, normally all you gotta do is make a raceway to hold a bearing in place.

[cobby4321]

i just built a engine but it is double acting so it like a two cylinder of yours look on my account to see it and i am building a V twin double acting so it like a four cylinder to yours

great vid by the way five star

[n5xrq]

This was my first engine kit. The video wasn't available at the time, but I thought the written instructions were well done, though I would have gotten the video as I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.

Machining the kit gave me an appreciation for the level of care and tolerances that are required, particularly with the cylinder and piston.

I've since built the Walking Beam Stirling Kit. This kit was considerably more difficult. I'm glad I started with this little steam engine first.

[saunixcomp]

Would you recommend it as a materials kit project?

[n5xrq]

If you mean the Walking Bean Stirling Kit, yes absolutely. The kit comes with the drawings, but other then a tip sheet from LMS, there are no machining instructions. The displacer, the hot cylinder, and the hot piston are already machined for you, but that's it. The tolerances are tighter then on the steam engine for the hot cylinder. There are many small parts to make. I sometimes spent a day or two just thinking about how to hold and machine one part. I very much enjoyed it.