Member postings for Gas_mantle.

A lot is going to depend on how accurately machined your engine is, provided it turns over freely and has decent compression the compressor you mention should run it for short demo purposes under no load. I suspect at that price the compressor will be poorly made and probably prove unreliable for anything more than a few minutes light running though.

I built a potty mill a few years ago, mine isn't the most accurately machined engine in the land but it turns over freely and does have a piston ring, gaskets etc. It easily runs on one of these, admittedly they are a bit more expensive but that compressor will run the engine indefinitely and at a fairly high speed under a light load if need be

Looks to be a nice engine

Good to see you back at it Iain, I'm still following along with interest.

Jason just as a matter of interest what is that engine in your last photo?

The point is the £10bn the UK 'gives' in foreign aid isn't altruistic, it's a common misconception that we give away money to help the starving. In reality we (and the other western nations) donate enough money to keep the people alive who produce our cheap produce.

Donating money to a starving country comes with strings attached, we don't give away money for nothing, if you think that then you are naive.

I'd love to see the cathedral restored but I find it offensive to think the Catholic Church worth billions will accept privately donated money. Either they pay or leave it as a damaged structure like Coventry cathedral

You ought to read Chris Hitchens book 'The missionary position.' it highlights the corruption in the Catholic Church years before the current paedophile accusations came to light.

Mother Theresa set up the 'House of the dying' in Calcutta on the premise she was helping the sick. In reality she was accepting donations left, right and centre from all walks of life yet none (or very little) was going to the needy. The vast majority was spent on spreading Catholicism and banking the wealth whilst covering up corruption.

If the Catholic Church want their cathedral fixed it's time they put their hand in their pocket and paid themselves.

The thing to bear in mind is the Catholic Church (who presumably are the owners?) are one of the weathliest institutions on the earth, they don't declare tax and the accusations of their organised paedophilia are hard to ignore.

If they want to have their cathedral restored that's fine but they ought to pay for it themselves. I find it disgraceful that an organisation as wealthy as the Catholic Church are possibly going to accept public donations that could be better used on the real needy.

As far as I'm concerned any donations to save the cathedral are going into the pockets of a glorified paedophile racket.

I'm sure the starving millions will sleep happily tonight after reading that sonnet and knowing the money is being put to good use

Well said, if someone has a few million to spare isn't it sad they haven't had the urge to want to put it to use helping the starving, sick etc.

Hi Iain,

I've been thinking what you said about cutting a large cylinder from solid, this engine on ebay is similar to what I was hoping to achieve from square stock

Edited By Gas_mantle. on 24/03/2019 18:41:02

Edited By Gas_mantle. on 24/03/2019 18:46:00

Edited By Gas_mantle. on 24/03/2019 18:50:29

I hope it does get published, there are countless articles featuring complex models but the beginners often seem to get forgotten. The grasshopper is a super engine to build for those with limited experience or tooling and I'm sure it will get a lot of interest

Hi Iain,

I have most of the materials and the flywheel casting so I'm committed to starting it soon but haven't yet finalised how I'm going to cut the cylinder and so haven't yet bought the stock for it.

Last year I made a little entablature engine using the technique Jason explained for the cylinder earlier in this thread. I thought I could just about squeeze a 60mm bore from an 85mm square with care but I may need to look again at the maths. The bore I'm aiming for is approx 60mm and about 80mm stroke but if it ends up at 55mm then that isn't a problem.

Peter

Hi Iain,

I've just seen your thread and it looks like you are making great progress, I was recommended to read about your build as I want to build something of a similar size as a horizontal engine. I haven't read through the thread in it's entirety yet but it looks to be an interesting one to follow.

My hope is to try to cut a large cylinder about 60mm bore from a 85mm cast iron square bar, I wasn't sure it it was practical on a hobby machine but it looks like my lathe and mill are similar a similar size to yours.

I look forward to an update on your progress.

Thanks John, there are a couple of other videos of it on my youtube channel :-

Hi JC54.

I made one of these a couple of years ago and found it a great engine to build. The drawings are easy to understand and it doesn't need any specialist tooling to make one. I build mine at 1.5x scale so it a fairly big engine, I still run it on air or steam every now and again

I haven't got the exhaust piped up here so there is steam everywhere but you get the idea 

Edited By Gas_mantle. on 16/03/2019 18:57:12

Rik, I've never been to the Midlands show so can't comment on that but I did do a photo walk thro of the 2018 Doncaster show that may give you some idea what to expect :-

Thanks Stew,

It was my first 'proper' engine and I really enjoyed making it, I'd recommend it to any other beginner with limited experience.

Funnily enough with my current engine just about finished I'm about to start making a biggish horizontal engine of my own design but the Potty engine will for the basis of the proportions. I'll make the parts a bit more decorative and more like the real thing but it will have Potty ancestry

Hi, sorry, just seen this.

As Jason says I did finish it and then made a sister engine 'the potty grasshopper'.

It's a bit rough round the edges but I'm finding with a bit more experience and more tooling that each engine is better tan the last. I've just about finished a replica Stuart no4, it's painted so now just adding the final details

Thanks Jason, I didn't realise it was as large a competition as that.

Is there just a single category or is there a beginner section ?

My cheapo Chinesium knurling tool gives good results for the money - only £15 with 2 sets of wheels.