| Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs |
| Ikea engine! Experimental engine runs! |
| << < (2/2) |
| stirling lad:
Hi, please excuse my ignorance ( total clueless newbie) but whats this called, how does it work and all the other questions like how hard are they to make? is there a link to somewhere i can find out about, and how to make one of these? oops sorry... I like it!... it doesnt look to complicated ... right up my street. ..Mike... |
| John Hill:
Hi Mike It is a solenoid engine, you could make one to resemble just about any type of piston engine but instead of a piston and cylinder there is an electrical coil and a switch attached to the crankshaft to switch current to the coil at the correct time to pull the 'piston' into the coil. There are plenty on the web, just Google "solenoid engine". John |
| madjackghengis:
Hi John, I watched the videos, I feel your frustration, what you describe in taking video is what I've experienced with digital pictures, the camera takes the picture when it's ready, not when I push the button. I haven't built a solenoid engine since I was a small boy, but the inverse force/distance relationship has always been the stumbling block for electric motors of every sort, even three phase motors which have their most torque at start up, opposite that of single phase motors. I was thinking that perhaps if you allow the solenoid plunger to go past TDC, you would then have the plunger in the middle of its stroke when it has the greatest pull, and if you opened the contacts as the plunger crossed fully enclosed, and added a capacitor, the current would reverse in the solenoid at that point, and the capacitor would provide current to pull the plunger back into the solenoid, and in effect, make it double acting as a steam engine. There is no doubt that running it on d.c. is the most efficient way unless you get it running syncronous to the frequency of the a.c. current, in which case, you might be able to have the plunger go past TDC during the zero current cross-over point, and then the next "peak" would be pulling the plunger back in. I can't say I've ever tried it, but I will if I can shoe-horn it into all the other projects. A very interesting proposition though, and worthy of further investigation. :bow: :beer: Cheers, mad jack |
| John Hill:
Hi Jack, going past TDC is not possible with the type of solenoid that has a pole piece over the end but that is the type that seems to have the most pull although only in the last part of the 'stroke'. My idea I was experimenting with was to stop the armature before TDC by putting a slot in the connecting rod. I suppose if I made the pole piece loose fitting the piston could push it up a bit as it goes over TDC. Your idea of synchronous operation is interesting, although mains frequency would be a rather fast machine! Of course a commutator would be a way to achieve double acting. I must say I had not considered a capacitor in the way you suggest, so thats worth investigating too! Meanwhile, I have received some of the new finger nipping magnets and I think it is time to put them to use. I am thinking that a magnetic piston could be drawn in one end of the coil and expelled out the other giving a long smooth power stroke instead of the short strong pull of the closed end solenoid I have been playing with. John |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Previous page |