A Millersville Student Engine

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MillersvilleProf

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This is a steam engine project that I have had my students build for the past several years. I do change parts specifications slightly in between classes to avoid the occasional part recycling that sometimes occurs when things are turned in. It is a good introductory project well suited to our 100 level Materials and Processes class. The parts are largely turned on one of our 7x16 LMS lathes, but the base is done on one of the 13" Clausings in the lab to give some more exposure to the larger lathes. As students move up to the 200 level classes more emphasis is placed on full size equipment. I have a set of modified plans I made for this engine which I will make available soon in the plans area if anyone is interested.

I have long been an advocate for using bench top metal lathes in education. I feel they offer a way for (the numerous) programs that have lost there programs to regain a base level of material processing, even if they no longer have the use of former spaces. In these instances projects need to be scaled to fit the smaller machines. This isn't really a bad thing as it uses less material and a student can still learn important fundamentals from the experience.
 

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Here is a good example. This is a part of one of my labs where I have six of the 7x16" lathes on one bench. The bench takes up about the same work area as one of our Clausing lathes and the six 7x16 lathes fully loaded cost about half of what we would pay for a new lathe comparable to the Clausing. Power wise all these lathes run easily off of two 20 amp circuits with no issues.
 

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Very interesting. I appreciate the post. I am still working on my 1st model engine (wobbler), using Taig lathe and mill, which are, as I am sure you are aware, much smaller than the 7x lathes; but, I must admit that the Taig lathe capabilities are far greater than would appear, based on size.
 
The Taig is an excellent machine and very precise. I own an older one and have been very impressed with it. I recently ordered both a CNC Taig lathe and mill for the university equipped with 1/2" ball screws and the lathe has the new 5C headstock fo use in a small prototyping lab away from our larger CNC equipment. Looking forward to playing with those in the near future.
 
I agree that the Taig lathe is very precise, and excellent machine. Also, their customer service is excellent.
 
It would be interesting to learn more about the Millersville program/curriculum. Is it a vocational school, industrial arts, other? Associated with a university?
 
They are being run on compressed air, but steam would work as well. On average about 20-30 pounds. We test them at the end of the semester and it's always fun to see whose will run on the least amount of air. I had a technology education major a few years ago that did an exceptionally nice job on her engine. We got it to keep running down at only three pounds of air. She had never used a machine tool of any kind before taking the class and produced not only the best functioning engine, but also the best finished.
 
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