Walking Beam Steam Engine

[Dataporter]

Here are some photos of this winter's project for me. The plans are from the book "Working Steam Engines" by Rudy Kouhoupt.
The walking beam is made from Stainless Steel and the protective sheet has not been removed, that's why it looks a little funky.
After I finish the rest of the parts and finish fitting everything, I will remove the protective sheet and hopefully the mirror finish underneath will be intact...
Not too many parts to go. Getting really antsy to see it run!
Dave

 

[Kevinb71]

Looks like a fun project to do. Keep us up to date on progress. The picss really help.

 

[davidh]

neat project. waiting to see it all put together. . . maybe I should take the time to actually make something nice instead of always fixing crap. . .

 

[bpratl]

Dave, it looks like a great fun project. Is that a kit or did you fabricate all the parts from scratch?

Bob

 

[Dataporter]

Dave, it looks like a great fun project. Is that a kit or did you fabricate all the parts from scratch?

Bob

Not a kit! I have Rudy Kouhoupt's book "Working Steam Engines" which only contains blue prints, no instructions or text for that matter. All parts were fabricated from bar stock, tubing or sheet metal.

For example, the rim of the flywheel is cut from a piece of rusty 4" ID steam pipe, the hub of the flywheel is a piece of 7/8" steel rod, the spokes are 1/4" steel rod. I machined these pieces close to finished size and then silver soldered them together. Then I finished the machining of the flywheel in one last setup so that the face of the hub, the hole for the crankshaft, and the outside of the flywheel are perfectly concentric (otherwise it looks like crap when spinning!).

The brass tube that will be the column supporting the walking beam is cut from a solid brass shower curtain rod that a friend was going to throw away! <gasp!>

_Dave

 

[Terrywerm]

Nice work, Dave! Looking forward to seeing the finished engine. I do hope you will be able to post a video for us!

I have admired Rudy Kouhoupt's work ever since I was a kid and some of his designs, including the walking beam engine, appeared in Popular Mechanics magazine. He also designed a model traction engine that was published the same way. I now have a number of books with his engine designs in them, and they are all very good. I do not yet have the plans for the traction engine, but one of these days I will order that book also.

 

[bpratl]

Dave...I'm impressed, the flywheel fabrication looked too good to be a home brew, that is why I thought that it was a kit.
That book will be added to my library. Thanks for posting,
Bob

 

[mjonkman]

Hi Dave

Your engine is coming along quite nicely, I'm actually working on the same engine as you are though I'm a little further behind. I've got the wood base, aluminum plate and the column completed as well as the bearing blocks for the eccentric and I just finished the flywheel.

If it helps, the original engine was posted in Popular Mechanics, August 1969 page 156.

http://books.google.com/books?id=69...epage&q=popular mechanics august 1969&f=false

I've attached some of the images of where I'm at. I just finished the cylinder on the weekend (no images). I turned the flywheel out of 4140 slug I got off of eBay and wrote a computer program to help me design the look of the wheel and give me a list of all the operations needed to cut it on my manual mill with my rotary table. I used a 5" long 1/2" brass pipe for the column, turning off the thread and cutting to length.

I've been debating making beam and the spring beam out of brass plate instead of steel. I paid a mint for a 12" x 12" sheet of 1/32" brass, but now I'm uncertain as to whether it would be strong enough or whether the holes would wear too easily. But I figured at the time I bought the brass sheet that it would look really nice all polished up vs painted steel. Wasn't really thinking of stainless at the time, that might be a better idea.

 

[Dataporter]

MJ - you must be my brother from another Mother! How fricken cool it this! I'll have to read that Popular Mechanic article!
Your flywheel is awesome! Brass for the beams would be cool! When you mount the stretcher and the entablature between the spring beams, it is surprisingly sturdy! And the spacers make the beam sturdy, too. I don't think wear will be an issue. Machining the ss was a pain in the neck and somewhat lower... I used the ss because is was the closest thing I had to 1/32" thick. I don't understand why, but I am so happy you replied to this thread.

Best regards
Dave

 

[mjonkman]

LOL Dave

The funny thing about this engine, back when I was in high school, must have been 16 or so at the time, I was researching a paper I was writing at a library in a nearby city and stumbled across the article. Then after I got home I found a copy of the original print in a file cabinet of stuff my dad had cut out of old Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, etc. Either way I have the original article cut out of the magazine. Long story short I started building the engine back then out of all steel, didn't have no brass around to speak of. I gave up after making the column and the end caps as well as the block for the entablature - right around the time I broke my 2-56 tap off in the 4th hole. I couldn't afford another tap for a while, though I eventually replaced it. Fast forward several decades I started up again, and would't you know it, broke the same tap off in the same exact hole :-( Least this time I could afford the replacement. Rudy was probably building that engine about the time I was born.. I was a little over a year old when Popular Mechanics published that article.

So you might say that I'm finally going to finish what I started about 30 yrs ago. I started the engine using the Popular Mechanics article which is the opposite of the book (which I bought this past fall). It has lots of writing, but no detailed drawings. I doubt I would have been fully successful just with the article. But if I would just read the article I might quit making bumbling mistakes like drilling and tapping all the holes in the cylinder block *before* making the parts that are to be screwed onto it. Somedays I'm the village idiot when it comes to sequencing things - I needed to make the cylinder to make it so I could fit the end caps, but not drill the holes until I transferred the holes through the caps. I'll have to see how accurate I can get the holes, if they don't quite line up I'll remake the cylinder. Got lots of metal and umm... I made a couple of other mistakes on the cylinder that I had to correct with some silver solder and a small brass plug.

If I ever get this done it will be my first working engine of any kind.

Here is a question for you to ponder.. Since we are both making the same engine, should I post my progress and experiences in this thread or start a new thread? I don't want to steal any of your thunder so I'll let you make the call on that. I'm fine either way and it makes sense both ways as well.

Sincerely
Mark R. Jonkman