Compressed Air Radial Engine

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cfellows:
The springs I use look like they are out of a ballpoint pen and have a wire size of about .013". They are also about 3/4" long and are virtually uncompressed when placed in the head. My air compressor runs up to 120PSI and I don't use a pressure regulator. Rather, I just use an inline ball valve to meter the amount of air. However, it seems I recall measuring the pressure one time and coming up with about 40 PSI.

Chuck

cfellows:
The work I finished yesterday and today doesn't look like much, but I am happy to report that all the engine internals inside the crankcase are completed. Also completed is all the timing gear and cam assembly including the valve lifters. All that remains are the pistons, the the rocker arm assemblies, push rods, air supply hookups, and exhaust pipes. Fit and finish to this point all seem as good as I've ever done and the engine turns over smoothly with a drill, albeit, still a little tight.

Here you can kind of see the master connecting rod and a bit of the crank assembly.

Here's another shot of the cam gears and cam, lots of oil on everything.

The front of the engine, showing the beefy, 5/16 crankshaft.

And and overall side shot, again showing the cam and cam gears.

Later, I'll post some pictures of the engine disassembled to better show off the internals.

Chuck

saw:
It looking realy good :clap: :clap:

cfellows:
After a bit of a hiatus while I worked on another project, finishing my latest telescope in time to view Saturn which is now appearing in the late evening sky, I've gotten back to work on the radial. Here are some pictures of work being done on the push rod assemblies. The push rods are 3/32" drill rod, but I didn't have a 3-48 die, so I turned the ends of the push rods down to .081" so I could thread the ends 2-56. Here is the beginning of the 3 clevises which will attach the push rods to the outboard end of the rocker arm. These are made from 3/16" square steel and I used a 3/32" slotting saw to cut the slot in the end.

And here are the (almost) finished clevises threaded on to the end of the push rods with the 2-56 lock nuts in place:

Still have to drill the holes in the ends of the clevises to accept the clevis pin.

I'm getting pretty close to having this engine running. I still have to complete the pistons, exhaust manifolds, and the rest of the valve assemblies. Also gotta figure out what I'm going to do for a prop. I would like to make another steel prop for it's flywheel attributes. Still noodling around what I want to do.

Chuck

cfellows:
Here's a picture of the roughed out flywheel. Looks suspiciously like a propeller, huh? It's made from 3/16" thick steel and is about 10" long. I wanted the look of the old wooden propellers, but also needed the weight of the steel. Still got some shaping to do, but don't want to remove too much of the weight. Also want to keep it nice and rounded on the ends and edges so if a finger gets in the way, it won't remove said digit.

I'm getting close now. Got the pistons and the exhaust manifolds done. As soon as I can sort out the air inlet manifold assembly, I'll be ready for a test run.

Chuck

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