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The Return of No. 83, a Hot Air Engine
Country Bubba:
Know what you mean about the lpt problem for cnc. I have two cncs that are run by TurboCnc. I like the program and have even developed some custom features for it. But unfortunately, I am down to my last two computers that will run dos and have lpt and the compiler (for Pascal) won't run on this win10 piece of crap!
Some people call it progress, but I call it planned obsolescence and a few other censored words! :jaw:
There is a lot to be said when you build something from the ground up and know HOW it works so most of the time you can fix it.
Have a great day
vtsteam:
Hi Country Bubba. :beer:
Yes, I used TurboCNC for a long time, too. Shows you how simple CNC needs to be DOS and a few megabytes of code will do it.
I did finally get my foam cutter working with an old Thinkpad T43 with a parallel port. It runs Jedicut, for foam cutting under windows XP.
That laptop will probably run TurboCNC, too, for my gantry mill. I was mainly using LinuxCNC when the Thinkpad 600Es died. The T43 technically shouldn't run LinuxCNC because of a latency issue, but there is a possible workaround for that I may try.
Presently trying to convert the mill to arduino/grbl as detailed elsewhere on the forum. Hope to be finally off of this irritating CNC stuff and back onto No 83 again shortly.
Manual control, organic intelligence, forever! :lol:
vtsteam:
Okay engineers, back on engines! Not a big part, but progress none-the--less. A new connecting rod, this time with a ball bearing pressed into the big end.
If you could call it big. It's a 3mm bearing. I will have to re-pin the flywheel, since the former bearing was 1/8". I don't have any 3mm rod, so I'll have to turn down some 1/8". Well maybe grind it down with the lathe's milling attachment.
vtsteam:
I actually didn't want to re-pin the flywheel, because I'd like to be able to revert the engine to its original running condition. Also it's good to be able to go back when comparing tests while experimenting. So I took the opportunity to make a new aluminum flywheel. Something I'd already planned as an experiment.
The old flywheel was steel, and possibly heavier than needed. I did like the way it looked, though, so rather then making a smaller flywheel, I switched materials to aluminum. That should reduce the weight by two thirds, yet still look the part. I hope this new wheel will have enough inertia.
Guess we'll find out! :ddb:
vtsteam:
And as a result of changing from 1/8" to 3mm on the flywheel, the old crankshaft link for the displacer no longer clamped properly to the flywheel crankpin. So I had to make another.
And that one also turned out to be a problem because the displacer just "ticked" the end of its cylinder. If I tried to adjust, it would tick at either the hot end, or the cold end. But never missing both. So that means the throw (and pin spacing) is just a tiny bit to large. I'll have to make another. :wack:
Heading out to the shop again right now. I want to have the engine running this evening. :loco:
Two down, one more to go:
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