![]() If you can't find one Home Depot sells them. I used the wire from one of those little red flags you see stuck in lawns to mark the sprinkler system. It should be a 45mm long piece of ~18 AWG wire. If you still can't open the PDF here is a link to a high resolution PNG image of the plans. If you can't open the link to the PDF here is a direct link to it. Some people are having trouble opening the attached PDFs, if you are too try the links below. "Parts Only No Measurements" is exactly the same but without any measurements printed on the page good for cutting out and gluing to your wood as a guide. "Parts Only With Measurement" includes a layout of all the parts you will need to cut out of wood as well as the lengths for the wire and brass tubing parts. Vice (optional) Plans: Attached are two PDF files.Tubing Cutter ($5) - you should also be able to find one at most hardware stores.Drill (or better yet a drill press) and bits.Floral stem wire or piano wire (~24AWG).HomeDepot sprinkler marker flags or piano wire (~18AWG).Plastic Tubing (to connect your compressed air supply).Heavy washers with a diameter less than that of the tea light.Brass Tubing: (find some at your local RC hobby shop) 13/32" for the piston and 7/16" x 0.014" for the cylinder.The only things I had to buy were the brass tubing, tubing cutter, and some wire. ![]() Most of the materials and tools for this project you will likely already have around the house. This causes the crankshaft to turn, thus tilting the cylinder over to the left and allowing the air to exit the cylinder though the exhaust port as the piston comes back up. As the cylinder tilts to the right it aligns with the compressed air port allowing air to flow into the cylinder and push down the piston. The main body on the other hand has two ports, one for the compressed air and one for exhaust. The cylinder has one port at it's top which is pressed up against the main body of the engine. If you watch the video below you will see that the cylinder on this engine actually moves back and forth as the flywheel turns (it oscillates!), this action is what opens and closes the ports which let compressed air enter the engine and exhaust air leave. This type of engine is called an Oscillating Steam Engine. This just means that the engine relies more heavily on the momentum of the flywheel to keep it running but is a lot simpler to build. How it Works: You could read my lengthy description below or you could check out the totally awesome animation by the guys over at find it here! I should note that this animation is of a "double acting" engine, in that is has ports on both the bottom and the top of the cylinder where mine is a "single acting" engine with ports just on the top. I am a very visual teacher so be sure to read the 'Image Notes' (hover your mouse over the yellow boxes on the images), it will likely make my instructions clearer. A simple solution to this problem would be to replace the wood parts with aluminum ones. In the presence of steam the wood would swell and warp causing problems. ) I should also note that even if you did build a boiler this engine probably wouldn't work well because many of it's major components are wood. If you don't have a compressor a bicycle pump works well too, it's just a lot more work for you. Instead I run the steam engine on compressed air. This instructable does not include instructions on how to build a boiler to produce steam. Some Things to Note: First off I should state that this steam engine is only a steam engine. I built this engine in one day and for under $10 in materials so I think it's safe to call it a success. The point of this project was really to see how cheaply and easily a miniature steam engine could be built. Yet looking at the actual mechanism which allows them to run they are really quite simple so I decided to try and make one on the cheap. After doing a bit of research I found miniature steam engines cost hundreds of dollars or require some very advanced skills and tools to build. The Idea: Recently I saw a video of a remote controlled boat powered by a miniature steam engine and was instantly hooked on the idea.
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