Elmer's Tiny

[BenjamanQ]

I have completed my first engine project, now I'm trying my first photo upload. Please bear with me.
This little guy has a 3/16" bore and 3/16" stroke. The flywheel is 5/8" diameter, crankshaft is 1/16" diameter drill rod. That is a dime in the first picture for comparison. The second picture shows it running on one of those cans of compressed gas used to clean computer keyboards. You can throttle it up and down with the trigger on the can. Sounds like a bumble bee. The design is by Elmer Verburg and is available for free download (.pdf) from www.john-tom.com . The plans are pretty good and come with notes on machining.

I'm currently working on Elmer's VR-75, a 3/4" bore and stroke marine style steam engine with stephenson reverse link. The plans for this one also came from john-tom. I'm going to try to do a better job documenting this one step by step.

Ben

 

[righto88]

Nice work and thanks for the link.

 

[Dranreb]

Nice work Ben, you can't beat making things that move on their own..:thumbzup:

 

[Terrywerm]

Nice engine, Ben. This one almost slipped by me, though I don't know how.

I had seen the plans for this engine on the john-tom site but was never very interested in it. Your photos have piqued my interest in it however and I just may have to take a stab at this one. It would be an excellent project to tackle along with my granddaughter!

Thanks for posting!

 

[BenjamanQ]

I had the plans for a couple of years before I did anything with them. I'm glad I made it as it renewed my interest in steam power. My daughter (9) loves this little engine. She likes to run the "boiler" (spray duster) and throttle it up an down.
It is a good one to build; if your good with layout work (i.e. better than me...) you can build most of it with a surface plate and a drill press. Elmer even included a jig in the plans for drilling the port holes. I'm an old school Engineer; started back when drafting was done pencils and triangles so I really appriciate the detail that Elmer put into these plans.

 

[Fabrickator]

That's a really cool engine. I wish that you could post a video so we could hear it running. I considered building it as my first engine but the small scale intimidated me. I ended up making the Fancy instead and it was a great build. It seems that Elmer did a good job documenting his engines. I'm looking forward to making the Mill or Geared engine next.

 

[BenjamanQ]

I'll see if I can figure out how to post a video and get that up & going. I have to admit the size of this little one had me scratching my head trying to figure out how to machine a couple areas. I've found that it can be done, many here are much better at it than I am, you just have to apply sound machine techniques and think each step through. I'm working on Elmer's VR-75 (Vertical, Reversing, .750 bore & stroke) Marine Engine now and it is really a fun one to build. It can be made with bar stock making it a lot cheaper than buying a casting kit. Elmer was quite the engine designer! I love his written instructions & the old school methods of benchwork he used.

 

[Fabrickator]

You'll have a hard time believing that the Tiny is no where near the smallest "running" engine. Check this one out, it's the world's smallest and it's a twin cylinder!