Plans, projects and How-to's for Home Machinists and Other Makers
Jan Ridders recently updated his plans for a vertical flame eater engine that he originally made in 2003 as a birthday present for his son Marc. He made a number of improvements and redrew the plans using a CAD program. Jan says this engine is “more forceful and noisy” than his Stirling engine models.… Read the rest
You won’t need a mill to make this nice looking steam engine that was designed to be an easy-to-make project to teach basic machining skills to beginners. The free plans come in both US and metric versions and they include 24 pages of helpful instructions.
It was designed by members of the Home Model Engine Machinist (HMEM) forum, led by “black85vette,” who proposed designing a very basic and easy-to-build engine that could be built by someone without a lot of experience or tooling. … Read the rest
This is not just a set of free plans for a working model steam engine. It’s a well-written, well-organized, profusely illustrated 113-page tutorial about machining metal.
If you’re an inexperienced machinist who at least knows the basics I would strongly encourage you to download these plans and build this engine. Don’t let the picture fool you – this is not a difficult engine to build. … Read the rest
I needed to cut a piece of glass tube to a certain length and this is how I did it using my mini-lathe, an inexpensive diamond blade, some masking tape and WD-40.
The Stirling Engine I’m building uses a glass tube for the power cylinder. It calls for one with an outside diameter of 16 mm and a length of 26 mm (1.02-inches), although those dimensions are not critical. … Read the rest
