Some Of My Engines

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The Engine that started it all...  This Fleishman steam engine was give to me and my brother for Christmas when I was 6 years old.

A Stewart Turner 10V I machined from castings.  I use a lexan steam chest cover so the valve can be seen in operation.

A tiny boiler and steam engine with 3/16” bore and stroke.

These are “Mystery” engines of my own design.  There are no valves.  A closed volume of air is contained inside.  Placing a heat source at the end of the steel wool  located inside the test tube is all it takes to power the engine.  Some say this is a thermo-acoustic engine, but I don’t believe it.  The engine on top was used in development to determine the proper stroke for the piston.

An offset crank engine I call the “Leaky”. The piston is only about 0.025” long.  Near the top of the stroke, it seals closely with the cylinder wall.  The piston tilts to allow the incoming air to leak bye as the piston travels back in.  This will do several thousand RPM.

A simple rainy day project Stirling engine.

A Rinbom Stirling engine in progress.  Based on the dimensions in Senft’s book, but the stroke had to be shortened to get it to run. A water jacket will be installed on the cold end. Solid surface counter top material makes a good base for engines like this.  The hot cap for a Solar Engine sold by PM Research is the same size as the one detailed in Senft’s book and only cost about $4.

My version of the Poppin flame licker in the November 1980 Live Steam magazine.  I modified the design to use an extension spring for the valve return rather than the bent wire spring. It’s mounted to lever arm on the back side of the pivot shaft. The fixed end of the spring is on an adjustable mount. The valve is also modified to use a small disk valve rather than just a piece of shim stock.  These modifications are a great improvement over the original design.

This is a die cast pump from Ertl. It seemed a shame to have such a good looking pump that did not operate, so I modified it to actually pump. The hardest part was drilling a passage through the spout without damaging it.

A Stirling Engine made from the plans in the 1965 Popular Mechanics magazine.

The same engine mounted in a parabolic dish for solar power.

A boiler made from the PM Research kit.  More on the engine below.

Two ultra low temperature differential Stirling engines. They have run for many years sitting on top of the cable TV box.

A rainy day 22 Cal. engine.

I have only bought 2 engines made by someone else. They were both made by James Latta from the Petersburg, VA area.  James passed away in 2008.  This steam engine is completely machined from stock. The frame and crosshead are one piece. It is so well made, it will run by just blowing into the steam pipe.

This is the second engine I have made by James Latta.  It is a water cooled propane fired Stirling Engine.  I added the power take off, water pipes, and pimped it out with an eagle on top.

An oscillator engine from PM Research castings.  This is a good starter project for home shop machinists starting out.

The classic Putt-Putt boat.  If you don’t have one of these, you need to get one!  Great amazing fun for only a few bucks.  At one time, this toy had the largest world wide distribution of any toy.

A very heavy steam engine from Tiny Power castings.  The quality of Tiny Power castings seems to have dropped under the new ownership.

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