I've been doing a bit more design work on this project. I've been thinking of how I want to steer the trike. Not wanting to use a servo to do this job I contemplated using a steam engine. I've been looking at the J P Duval twin double action wobbler.
Found here :
http://jpduval.free.fr/Moteurs_vapeur_simples/MV%20deo%2010x20.pdfIt's very similar to the horizontal engine Bogs shows at the beginning of this thread. I like that design very much since it's double acting and self starting, plus no complicated linkage to control reversing the engine or speed. It's all done with one valve.
On Bogs engine there is a gear reduction of 3 to 1. He says it's very powerful with the reduction. While looking at the Crabfu steam site I noticed he used a lot of Tamiya gear boxes to drive his steam powered vehicles so I did a little research and found a place here in the US that sells these gear boxes. They can be found here:
http://www.servocity.com/html/tamiya_gearboxes.htmlI purchased both the dual motor drive and the planetary drive.
I've been in contact with Bogs about what size I should make the steam engine to drive the steering and he suggested 3/16" bore by 3/8" stroke. This engine will then be hooked to the planetary gear box, this in turn will drive a threaded shaft that will have a nut on the threads that will be attached to a geared rack that will drive a pinion on the steering shaft. It's an idea and I don't know if it'll work. Just think of it as a steam powered power steering.
I'm also rethinking the goose neck front end. I'm thinking of making it with angled lines instead. This needs to be researched further and before this engine is designed and built. I'll need the chassis built up for the main engine which is going to be a pretty standard piston valve engine.
Hopefully soon I'll have more to add to the build thread. I've got some of the rear wheel parts roughed out and ready for some finishing work. I still need to assemble the chassis before the wheels will be made. Also I need to come up with an axle size for the rear wheels and weather I want to use a friction bearing or ball bearings for the axles to ride in. Right now I'm awaiting for some drill rod to arrive so I can determine what size I'm going to make the rear axles.
Not much is going to happen with in the next three weeks. Vacation coming up for the 4th. Going to spend it up at the Islands. So not much modeling will be done other than dreaming about how to build this model.
Regards,
Bernd