They would have acheived absolutely nothing. About as useful for a CNC tech with no old-school training would be at a manual mill. The machine is the small part. The loads and loads of background and supporting tech / knowledge is what makes it kick.
Oh very well done Tim, that extra cylinder really does transform the engine. It's sounds so happy at the lower speeds: I could listen to that all day long. Perhaps you should do one of those 5hr films of it just ticking over, just like the ones of fireplaces, fish tanks or waterfalls. Personally I think this makes for a perfect stationary engine where it's wobbliness and high centre of gravity don't matter. Perhaps you could convert a compressor into a loco engine? Sturdy and compact and you'd have a nice output shaft as well. Many have high and low pressure cylinders of course.
fireless steam locos are not unknown - having a fixed steam plant and just a storage tank of steam on the locomotive to run from and think there may have been some air-powered ones as well - having a windmill running a compressor to fill tanks and then using the air to run a train sounds like a fantastic idea. Might be better to have the tanks fixed to the train and fill it from a storage tank so not so much fiddling around and heavy lifting.
Air powered locomotives have been extensively used in the mining industry around the world. They have the added benefit of not filling the mines with exhaust fumes nor provide any source of accidental fires.
@@Gin-toki but being a career underground miner, in an actual working mine these locos were not as efficient as say battery powered locos, our one air powered loco was relegated to shaft area shunting duty as it could to compete at all with our battery powered locos.
@@frederickmoller True, do however remember the pneumatic locos were from a time prior to electricity being really widespread, let alone batterypowered equipment.
@@liamholcroft7212There has been many times our planet has faced dire times. Not so much in written history but that is a very small partion of our time. Something could happen in 10 years or maybe tomorrow. All it takes is a massive solar flare and it could fry most modern tech with electro magnetic pulse, for one example. Some people are very relied on current state of things. It brings confort to handle low tech if poo hits the fan.
@@liamholcroft7212 Maybe about 9000 years ago last time. There has been lots of cool technology and markings describing them found from time before that. Mostly tin foil hat-stuff, some very interesting and a bit conserning too. Seems like some technologies have been reinvented after that time period.
For more torque you could split the air out from the valves on the left to the push stroke on the left and return stroke on the right, and split the air out on the right to the right push stroke and left pull stroke. It will use a bunch more air wont go faster but at least you will get more force.
Also good demonstration of why internal combustion engines were such a game changer! Just slap a 10 horse engine on a frame, add a 2 gallon petrol tank, and you have a loco! Easy! Lol! Steam and pneumatic engines are very challenging because of their power source. As others have mentioned a wood gas powered engine maybe your best bet. You have plenty of wood.
Totally amazing, it was guys like yourself who would have developed the steam engine back in the 1700s & 1800s. Really do love seeing people developing & designing engines over the polished builds from bought plans (although not wrong).
I don't care what others may say, but your engine there is a thing of beauty! Personally, I would try going with the windmill working a compressor, and changing out compress air tanks for your mini locomotive. But, that is just me and the idea would be for hauling the woodchip wagons. More power than that and I am unsure. However, I have the utmost faith in you! Whatever you end up with in the final run will be practical and beautiful.
We just love watching what you do we bet your glad to have Sandra and Flora and Trudy home safe and sound.Happy Easter 🐣 with best wishes and regards.💚💚💚💚💚👧👧👧👧👨👨👨🐔🐔
When I was a kid we would break rusty joints by applying heat first, always worked. But a hammer would shake those things loose sometimes too. Cool gizmo:)
Very good progress. You would likely need very high pressure gas bottles to store sufficient compressed air to power the engine. I think they would need a couple of thousand PSI pressure to get any worthwhile air duration. I cannot imagine a wind powered machine able to generate such pressure. There is a small car made in India which uses compressed air to power the vehicle. Look up Tata Airpod for more information. Well done Tim the two cylinders are working relatively smooth. What a fight to get the cylinder head off. Dave.
I think I the key to generating 3000psi tanks of air will be sourcing a BAC (breathing air compressor), perhaps on government liquidation from a fire department upgrading their self-contained breathing air equipment? I have seen them come up at auction on occasion in my area. Now that I'm thinking about it harder, you could achieve thousands of psi using a multi-stage compressor made from hydraulic cylinders, starting with larger diameters compressing into smaller diameter and shorter stroke cylinders and so-on until the desired pressure is reached. Lots of math would be involved.
Anything over 3-bar starts getting more expensive, and lossy. I'd expect this could run on closer to 100psi, easily made with stuff from the pound store.
Tim, I think you could get bonus free power by connecting the out-stroke of one cylinder to the in-stroke of the other. The plumbing is already there for it.. if that makes sense
You are able to make both cylinders double sided by tying the right side cylinder to the left side cam and vice versa. Because the cylinders are on opposite side, (and should be oppositly timed) you should be able to tie into the opposite sides cam to run the currently unpowered side of both cylinders. Awesome work, great sound and a artistic flare
Reminds me of air powered washing machine I once made for agitating metal parts in soapy water. I made a metal box that held the water and put on a frame stand to rock back and forth. Then hooked small air cylinder to rock it with a valve similar to valve body on automatic transmission to direct the air and change positions with each rock. If you put air to it without filling with water it would walk around the floor.
Found this channel today. Thanks Tim. I'll do some exploring. If you decide to use steam, you run into some pretty serious certification requirements. Best to stick to compressed air.
Another fabulous creation, Tim. I'm so glad I found your channel. The railway is looking better all the time. To transfer power to the wheels, have a look at some ride-on lawnmowers that use two discs either side of a rubber roller set at 90 degrees to the rotation of the discs. This is a combination clutch, reduction-gear and reverse in one. It changes the direction of rotation of the output shaft by pressing the roller up against one or the other of the discs. Old Cox brand mowers used this arrangement which was easily visible by lifting up the seat. Two old car brake discs and a small, solid rubber wheel attached to an axle would work.
I have to admit, this one earned a like just for jumping on the pound store pipe spanner. I would have liked it anyway, but that deserved it's own like!
If you want to store compressed air efficiently, you would need quite high pressures. I don't know how big your cilynders are exactly, but i would quess a stroke of about 70cm and the 5cm diameter. So that would be 1,35 Liters per stroke per cylinder. So at 100 RPM around 270 Liters per minute, if your working pressure is 1 bar (wich it won't be, cause you want power). A SCBA Tank at 300 bar (six liter internal volume at atmospheric pressure) holds around 1660 Liters ((Volume times pressure) divided by 1.1). So that would be gone in six minutes, if you have no leaks and want to depressurize completly, wich you wouldn't want, because then moisture can get into the tank. Also, for those pressures, a very expensive compressor is necessary, and the bottles aren't cheap either... So lets go for a somewhat cheaper option, 200 bar and maybe argon-cylinders (for welding and stuff). Those probably cost the same as a used SCBA bottle, but with more volume and usable air inside. The compressor problem is still there, but you can use a normal welding pressure reducer. Although you might want to combine multiple tanks on the loco, to have enough air... Just be sure you know what you are doing, because high pressure air is very dangerous!
Yes, I use welding gas bottles which come in 10, 20 and 50 litre sizes and are supplied at 200psi. But what kind of compressor would fill them, I wonder?
@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 Now i'm no expert on this, just a voluntary firefighter who knows how far you get with a 6 Liter airtank at 300 bar... Gets you about 30 minutes, and humans use around 50 liters of air per minute. I think your engine will use more... 200 psi or 200 bar? If its just 200 psi i think most car climate-compressors can do that, although they don't move that much volume... For 200 bar i have no clue, probably something industrial, maybe for scuba diving?
@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 Tim: I am REALLY enjoying your channel. Thanks so much for it.Remember how much power you lose if you use a pressure regulator. If you run your engine on, say, 50 psi air then at the end of the run, when your tank pressure is around 50 psi you will be using all of the energy in the air. But at the beginning of the run, you will be throttling the pressure from 200 to 50 psi. three quarters of the mechanical work you put into the air to compress it to 200 will be lost as heat and you will extract mechanical energy only from the last quarter of the energy you put into compressing the air as it expands from 50 psi to atmospheric pressure.
You could use the energy efficiently if you had a variable cutoff valving system, so that you take in much less 200 psi air per stroke (earlier cutoff) than 50 psi air (late cutoff). Variable cutoff is a very elegant solution (see Corliss steam valve - one of my favorite mechanical linkages ever) but complicated to execute.
You don't need another set of valves to utilise the 'rod end' of each cylinder. Simply "T" into the piston side of cylinder #1 and run a hose to the rod end of cylinder #2, and visa versa for the other side. It should (approximately) halve your speed and double your torque. Awesome video!!!
Tephlon plumbers tape to seal the threaded connections on the compressed air fittings would help with the hissing noise and probably save air over the long run.
I like the trefoil detail on the mounting plate and the beautiful cutouts on the valving pushrods. Remember steam /air trype engines are inneficient. Try putting little blades on the perimiter of your flywheel and use your compressed air to drive blades. Air piston is inneficient, too many reciprocating parts.
This is so neat! You are literally reinventing the wheel. Of course the engineering is way above my pay grade, nevertheless it is very enjoyable to watch!
AirEngResearch It was interesting to see how you designed the Air Engine and it works pretty well. I went through the same trials and errors developing the Car Air Engine I am currently working on!
I would say opening up the unused ports to reduce resistance. It's a pretty long stroke, and that means a lot of air going in and out. A large opening can reduce that a lot, and might make it faster.
I just subscribed!!! Love the video!! As for my suggestion you can use a small DC permanent magnet motor with a small rubber wheel on it to rub the outside of your fly wheel and generate electricity to used in other ways. Maybe a Loco with an electric motor that can go in forward and reverse with a flip of a switch while you’re generating all the power you need on board. If you want to compress air at a high pressure in some welding tanks I know that air-conditioned pumps in cars can get you around 300 psi without a problem you could probably even run one on your windmill to compress the air ….. but we both know steam would be a lot more fun!!
Many of the mine locomotives used here in Western Canada at the beginning of the 20th century ran on compressed air until replaced by electric ones. Steam was too dangerous for use underground. Keeping it as a compressed air engine would make sense (and would be safer too) as long as you had a large enough reservoir for the distance being covered.
Opposed pistons you say? Why, it's a BOXER engine!! :-) Love this build and how hypnotic it is to watch it in slow motion. Looking forward to seeing more, esp. if there's a steam conversion in the future. Best regards, Capt. Blackheart Charlie Key West, Conch Republic
For reversing the flywheel direction, could adding air to the other side of the cylinder work (i.e. push the piston back into the cylinder)? Sure, less power, due to smaller surface area, but it would go backwards.
@@theothertonydutch yeah, you'd need valve gear - not necessarily Walschaerts, but anything along those lines would do. It is, however, quite a complex installation, especially with two cylinders.
What he mentioned in this video was that there would be far less surface area on that side of the piston head for the air to push on, so it would produce far less power, and he didn't think it was worth the effort of trying
Hey Tim, keep in mind the Auto Industry already solved this. What you need now is an old stick shift transmission or gear box. Petrol Engines only crank in one direction so revers happens by changing the gears to make the output go in the opposite direction. Granted with this set up I don't see you going much being gear one and revers but it should help save you time.
*_@Way Out West - Workshop Stuff_* 7:30 You can probably do something with belts (or with gears). With belts, if you have them "un-crossed" (like: 0 ) then it runs eg. forwards, but if you run the belts "crossed" (like: 8 ) then it can run in reversed direction. Same thing with gears, eg. an even numbers of gears runs forward, and an odd number of gears runs backwards, then it's just a question of what means to use to engage the gears, or what method to (un-)cross the belts, that can probably be done manually (when standing still & breaks engages. Warning!: for crushing hand injuries, if not careful).
Another option to consider rather than steam is an air reheater before the engine. The air gets cold as it expands from the tank, and loses some oomph in the process. Some compressed air trolleys used little coal stoves or bottles of nearly boiling water to do the reheating, though you can likely get away with pretty much anything that can raise the temperature. My personal favorite idea is to pair an air engine with a biochar kiln, lots of heat to spare there!
i know a way to make a simple reverser gear box that is in line that could be clutchless so if memory serves corect, you can take a diferential (preferably a locking diferential) 1 axle is imput and the other is output, you lock the gears together to move forward, to reverse you just lock the carier portion of it (could lock it from the bull gear) cant wait to see where this project goes/
Hi Tim, do some research, the paper mills in Kent used to run fireless engines, one near me in Dartford had some compressesd air locos, and if I recall one in Sittingbourne Kent was narrow guage as well 👍
You project is coming right along Tim and looking great while doing so. If you want to power things with it in the shop how about a rubber drive wheel that contacts the flywheel and then runs a belt or chain to the "driven" device? I can see a large blade sawmill, sander or drill press being run by that machine.
I am amazed with your ingenuity and no doubt you could make an compressed air powered engine for your train but have you considered electric, an old mobility scooter would easily provide the parts required,
I suggest that you should introduce a oiler between the compressor and the cylinders to stop the piston rings wearing away on a dry or dirty cylinders or a squirt of oil in the breathing holes
Before you jump to steam power you should consider making your joints and moving parts less cantankerous. One of those pivots seems like its banging every time it contracts. Threaded bolts arent the best option but its cool to see that it works. If you do jump to steam however you're gonna need a big enough boilerwith a safety valve.
7:31 I think some angle iron welded up in a large box should be really cheap/ free if you look in a construction site dumpster. Also I figure you'd need at least 150PSI to drive anything, the engine and boiler will be heavy.
One way you could make the engine reversible would be to modify the cams to work like slip eccentrics. The cams would need to be free to rotate on the flywheel shaft and there would need to be two stops to limit the amount of rotation. This gives the cams two operating positions according to which direction the shaft is turning. The two stops need to be set so that the cam timing is correct for each direction of rotation. A simple way to change direction is to turn the flywheel by hand in the desired direction. The friction of the cam followers against the cams will cause the cams to remain stationary until the cams come up against the stop for that direction of rotation.
Well, if you're manly playing around, and having fun, please continue, we're all having fun following this project. But if you want a practical suggestion, just use a horse, or donkey to pull the cart, or if you must use an engine, find a way to run an electric motor on a car battery. It's a lot of fun watching this channel, keep up the good work 👍
For a place with access to a trompe or the ideal conditions to build one for access to high volume low pressure air I could see that as a relatively viable source of energy for potential electricity generation. Not the most efficient but generally speaking free to us since gravity and water would be doing the work to pressurize the air.
Actually when the air pushes on the nut side of the cylinder your measurements are correct but what it pushes on the rod side of the cylinder the area of force would be increasing with the amount of rod that is in the cylinder. The air pushes on the flat surface where the seals are as well as on the circumference of the rod as well. It isn't intuitive and is something most overlook but is indeed the case. Awesome project sir.
If you have a stream or river nearby, you could build a trompe, a water powered air compressor with no moving parts, and use that to power it. You would need a high drop in the water to get high enough pressure, though.
That is pretty good. One way to test how much power it has is to take a 2x4 on a hinge and attach it to the frame and then using your foot or level apply pressure to the wheel. If it stalls right out then there is no power if you can apply a small amount you have a bit of power if you can apply great force then its got some good power. When you said a windmill for compressed air. Years ago before my neighbors shop burnt down he built a windmill compressor. I am not exactly sure how he did it. I seen him testing it on a truck a few times. From what I seen and can guess is that he had a windmill and built the frame and everything for the pitman arm to do the stroke. He built this all out of the top section maybe 10 feet or so or a couple meters. I am not sure what compressor he used. Yet his goal was to install a bunch of tanks below in the frame to store the air and the compressor was a pretty large one. My other neighbor had a 500 to maybe 1000 gallon steel tank that sat outside his shop and the label on the tank stated that it was rated for 300 psi. He used his larger compressor to keep it full all the time and had hose reel and everything on it for when he needed it outside for air tools or what ever. He had regulators and all kinds of things on it. Depending on your area you may be able to buy a very large propane tank which are rated for 300 psi or better. The label will tell you the working pressure which I think is 250psi. Depending on the type of compressor you get you should be able to find something for 200 psi. I am not sure how long something like this would work for maybe run time of 30 mins if you had a 100 gallon air tank rated for 200 psi. Though my other idea would be if you can find a air starter or hydraulic motor? I am not sure sure if you seen my comment about the air starter that I had at one time? I am pretty sure I wrote something. Hydraulic motors are rated at flow rates so I would think the lowest flow rate would work. I also have a hand oil pump that came off of a deep fryer transfer pump. I was thinking maybe that might work with air and or steam? Ah maybe not. Though I do think a hydraulic motor might work. I do not have one on hand right now. 200 miles away I know where the one I gave my friend if he could find it. I might ask him and maybe if he knows where it is apply some air to it and see it that works. As for this set up looks so much better and might be pretty powerful.
thanks, William. Yes, there could be many ways to proceed. I must have missed your comment on the air starter - sorry. I looked them up and they do seem a good idea, but I can't find a secondhand one in Ireland
Such a wonderful series to watch!! I've done just about all of them in less than a day! I'm greatly looking forward to seeing where this goes, it's all so very interesting. I had a bit of a suggestion which popped into my head when I saw that flywheel. What if you modeled your little locomotive after the one built by Richard Trevithick? The flywheel you have there looks much like the one on that loco. Of course change certain things and modernize it a bit, but that would be a good homage to one of the founding fathers of rail transport. It'll be interesting to see how all your projects mesh together! Good luck in the future!!
Fun fact- this is very much like how a "Heisler" type steam locomotive is set up! The pistons are set horizontally either side of the locomotive, much like you have yours set. When steam is applied, it turns a flywheel and driveshaft. The driveshaft is coupled to the 2 bogies on the locomotive, which then drives the locomotive forward or backward when the pistons are in motion. The Heisler is not known for speed, but for its torque, ability to climb steep grades, and tractive effort.
You can also try lubricating your engine. It will help a little bit more with the friction and the movement of the machine so it could run more efficiently. You know to keep things lubricated
Been thinking about your motor and think that you could probably do with reducing the amount of air as the speed goes up. My thinking behind that is that the amount of time available to expand the air and extract useful work from it is going down as the speed increases. Conversely you want to introduce more air as the speed drops to prevent stalling. This is your torque curve. Having increasing torque available as speed drops is called 'torque backup'.
They have a locomotive in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania that was just that. It looked like a regular engine but instead of a normal boiler it was a huge compressed air tank. The sign said it was used for short maintenance runs or something if I recall correctly.
Love it very cool. I think I see a small issue Watching it slowly the piston on the right you should close the intake sooner, its resisting the motion. Also on the right pistons stroke you should open the intake a smidge before you close the exhaust otherwise its pulling a vaccum! its going to waste a little of the flywheels energy pulling the vaccum for a 10th of a second but at higher rpms it adds up quickly(this is also adding to vibrations) . I think it will make it run at much higher rpms if you do this.
Have you thought to connect the unused sides of the pistons together? The air (maybe pressured) can do some useful work. Also, try to use the wheel to power another air compressor and see the efficiency (by comparing the volumes of used air vs the accumulated compressed air).
Altho I kinda wonder how much power is lost in each stroke of the individual pistons. I think a good way to have a rough idea is to disconnect all hoses, then put the pistons vertical and extended and see what weight at the top is needed to make the rod come down. Thats the friction that needs overcoming. Or perhaps theres a better way to test it, maybe just air pressure plus a very accurate gauge
Fascinating work Tim! Just to throw a bit of a curve ball at you, I don't know if you're familiar but there is a train; British Rail Class 139 that is driven by the energy stored by a flywheel on board. Not sure if it's even feasible but it might be food thought.
Battery electric locomotives have been used in small underground mines for over a century. So have windmill generators for charging. That may be a more productive avenue. Alternately Briggs and Stratton or Honda would easily do what you want.
Just a though: If you added 2 selector valves (1 IN, 2 OUT, ) to the lines going to the cylinders (they are 2 per cylinder, but they could be just one) and connected the new additiona lines to the reverse chamber you could get the engine to run in reverse simply by switching the positions of these 2 valves. Let's say that when they are both switched to chamber A (equivalent to the current connection) the engine runs forward, when they are both switched to chamber B the engine would run in reverse because at any given angle of the flywheel the air would be distributed(timed) in the same way, but the forces resulting from each cylinder would be reversed( and about 40% smaller). I know the reverse would be powered by a smaller effective area (about 60%) of the cylinder and therefore be less powerful but that might be OK for a "reverse" obtained with so few additional components and complexity (only 2 valves and piping/connectors). Switching them in different ways (like AB or BA) it would result in a sort of parking brake.
With the low rpm and hopefully higher torque + two wheel drive on this loco, I think an old tractor gearbox from a small tractor with 2 or 3 gears, and a reverse would work well for this project. It might be around $100, at least when I looked for one online in the area near me. However, I don't know the pricing in ireland, where it is probably more expensive. Good luck, and love the video!
To reduce vibrations (and also flexing of air tubing) you can mount the air pistons in place and, instead of direct linkages to the crankpin, add in a hinged mainrod like a full-scale steam locomotive. With that, you'd have less off-balanced mass throwing itself around the flywheel's axis. (Mind, there is math involved in figuring out the correct piston stroke length vs mainrod length that I am woefully unfamiliar with.)
With this piston arrangement, when one piston is pushing, the other is retracting, so you could theoretically pipe the air supply that pushes the first piston into the "pulling" section of the second piston (and vice-versa). You could have dual acting pistons for the cost of a few additional hoses... That should get you maybe 50% more power (assuming same pressure, and no volume restriction). Another advantage of doing it this way is that you could get the same power out of this engine with lower pressure (but higher volume) which might be more suitable for some air/steam source...
You could increase the efficiency (and make it double acting) if you connect the both output-ports. Just put hydraulic fluid into it or an emulsified oil/water mix aka cooling fluid for cutting to avoid compression-losses :) Probably also possible to do this with a slight "angle" to get the pistons unable to stop at dead center, but you would loose some efficiencies this way (as you need to add some air which then get's compressed and decompressed on each stroke, like a spring).
Just imagine what the pioneers of the industrial revolution could have achieved with access to a CNC plasma cutter!
Also, *what we will be able to do* if we can give every creative person access to a makerspace!
@@ericlotze7724 And of course share all the makables with each other.
they'd have beaten children twice as hard for half the effort!
They would have acheived absolutely nothing.
About as useful for a CNC tech with no old-school training would be at a manual mill.
The machine is the small part. The loads and loads of background and supporting tech / knowledge is what makes it kick.
Imagine what we could do now with stuff from the future
Oh very well done Tim, that extra cylinder really does transform the engine. It's sounds so happy at the lower speeds: I could listen to that all day long. Perhaps you should do one of those 5hr films of it just ticking over, just like the ones of fireplaces, fish tanks or waterfalls. Personally I think this makes for a perfect stationary engine where it's wobbliness and high centre of gravity don't matter.
Perhaps you could convert a compressor into a loco engine? Sturdy and compact and you'd have a nice output shaft as well. Many have high and low pressure cylinders of course.
I'll have a think about that too - thanks
The clatter of a mechanical control is also something I could hear endlessly. It's as much a treat for the ears, mind and eyes.
fireless steam locos are not unknown - having a fixed steam plant and just a storage tank of steam on the locomotive to run from and think there may have been some air-powered ones as well - having a windmill running a compressor to fill tanks and then using the air to run a train sounds like a fantastic idea. Might be better to have the tanks fixed to the train and fill it from a storage tank so not so much fiddling around and heavy lifting.
Mining locomotives were often air powered but not necesserily with on-board tanks. It really depends on the application of course.
It's a good idea for prototyping, but let's be honest, we all want to see a proper steam loco.
Air powered locomotives have been extensively used in the mining industry around the world.
They have the added benefit of not filling the mines with exhaust fumes nor provide any source of accidental fires.
@@Gin-toki but being a career underground miner, in an actual working mine these locos were not as efficient as say battery powered locos, our one air powered loco was relegated to shaft area shunting duty as it could to compete at all with our battery powered locos.
@@frederickmoller True, do however remember the pneumatic locos were from a time prior to electricity being really widespread, let alone batterypowered equipment.
The friendship between you and Will is a delight to witness.
You both seem to have such fun, even in moments of adversity.
Love the sound it makes, people like Tim will be needed after the next apocalypse.
next? when was the first?
@@liamholcroft7212 Are you a hermit? Look around you, the worlds going to shit. The WEF have big plans to nail you to one place or see you off!
@@liamholcroft7212There has been many times our planet has faced dire times. Not so much in written history but that is a very small partion of our time. Something could happen in 10 years or maybe tomorrow.
All it takes is a massive solar flare and it could fry most modern tech with electro magnetic pulse, for one example.
Some people are very relied on current state of things. It brings confort to handle low tech if poo hits the fan.
@@Teknopottu I'm not saying it's not useful if shtf, I'm asking when was the first time we had world wide societal collapse.
@@liamholcroft7212 Maybe about 9000 years ago last time. There has been lots of cool technology and markings describing them found from time before that. Mostly tin foil hat-stuff, some very interesting and a bit conserning too. Seems like some technologies have been reinvented after that time period.
For more torque you could split the air out from the valves on the left to the push stroke on the left and return stroke on the right, and split the air out on the right to the right push stroke and left pull stroke. It will use a bunch more air wont go faster but at least you will get more force.
That’s s a great idea, I totally agree, I think more torque is exactly what this needs, it doesn't need to be much faster.
Like push and pull at the same time?
@@lemmetellyousomething679 yes
What a wonderful thing Tim, I could watch that going round and round all day!
Also good demonstration of why internal combustion engines were such a game changer! Just slap a 10 horse engine on a frame, add a 2 gallon petrol tank, and you have a loco! Easy! Lol! Steam and pneumatic engines are very challenging because of their power source. As others have mentioned a wood gas powered engine maybe your best bet. You have plenty of wood.
Totally amazing, it was guys like yourself who would have developed the steam engine back in the 1700s & 1800s.
Really do love seeing people developing & designing engines over the polished builds from bought plans (although not wrong).
I don't care what others may say, but your engine there is a thing of beauty!
Personally, I would try going with the windmill working a compressor, and changing out compress air tanks for your mini locomotive. But, that is just me and the idea would be for hauling the woodchip wagons. More power than that and I am unsure.
However, I have the utmost faith in you! Whatever you end up with in the final run will be practical and beautiful.
5 seconds in and a distinct "Ivor the Engine" sound....great stuff.YOu must be getting there Tim well done
We just love watching what you do we bet your glad to have Sandra and Flora and Trudy home safe and sound.Happy Easter 🐣 with best wishes and regards.💚💚💚💚💚👧👧👧👧👨👨👨🐔🐔
When I was a kid we would break rusty joints by applying heat first, always worked. But a hammer would shake those things loose sometimes too. Cool gizmo:)
By far one if the coolest things I've seen wish I was as smart and had the tools to build like that
My father, my grandfather, and my great grandfather, who is a blacksmith would love this Channel…
The gearbox off a boat with an in board engine has a simple forward /neutral /reverse action, built-in clutch, not too heavy... Worth a look.
Very good progress. You would likely need very high pressure gas bottles to store sufficient compressed air to power the engine. I think they would need a couple of thousand PSI pressure to get any worthwhile air duration. I cannot imagine a wind powered machine able to generate such pressure.
There is a small car made in India which uses compressed air to power the vehicle. Look up Tata Airpod for more information.
Well done Tim the two cylinders are working relatively smooth. What a fight to get the cylinder head off.
Dave.
I think I the key to generating 3000psi tanks of air will be sourcing a BAC (breathing air compressor), perhaps on government liquidation from a fire department upgrading their self-contained breathing air equipment? I have seen them come up at auction on occasion in my area. Now that I'm thinking about it harder, you could achieve thousands of psi using a multi-stage compressor made from hydraulic cylinders, starting with larger diameters compressing into smaller diameter and shorter stroke cylinders and so-on until the desired pressure is reached. Lots of math would be involved.
Anything over 3-bar starts getting more expensive, and lossy. I'd expect this could run on closer to 100psi, easily made with stuff from the pound store.
Tim, I think you could get bonus free power by connecting the out-stroke of one cylinder to the in-stroke of the other. The plumbing is already there for it.. if that makes sense
You are able to make both cylinders double sided by tying the right side cylinder to the left side cam and vice versa. Because the cylinders are on opposite side, (and should be oppositly timed) you should be able to tie into the opposite sides cam to run the currently unpowered side of both cylinders.
Awesome work, great sound and a artistic flare
Reminds me of air powered washing machine I once made for agitating metal parts in soapy water. I made a metal box that held the water and put on a frame stand to rock back and forth. Then hooked small air cylinder to rock it with a valve similar to valve body on automatic transmission to direct the air and change positions with each rock.
If you put air to it without filling with water it would walk around the floor.
I think the rocket boiler you were working on has great promise for providing steam for the engine.
I don't think it is large enough to provide enough steam, he needs to build a bigger version of that boiler.
@@Henning_S. Bigger boiler bigger boom!
@@wideyxyz2271 yes, of course he needs to make sure it is safe, ideally he can use an already pressure tested Propane bottle as a boiler...
Amazing. It’s spinning twice as fast with two cylinders :)
Looks cool.
Found this channel today. Thanks Tim. I'll do some exploring.
If you decide to use steam, you run into some pretty serious certification requirements. Best to stick to compressed air.
Another fabulous creation, Tim. I'm so glad I found your channel. The railway is looking better all the time.
To transfer power to the wheels, have a look at some ride-on lawnmowers that use two discs either side of a rubber roller set at 90 degrees to the rotation of the discs. This is a combination clutch, reduction-gear and reverse in one. It changes the direction of rotation of the output shaft by pressing the roller up against one or the other of the discs. Old Cox brand mowers used this arrangement which was easily visible by lifting up the seat.
Two old car brake discs and a small, solid rubber wheel attached to an axle would work.
Thanks Andy. Yes I've come across a few different examples but never in real life. I like them though.
I have to admit, this one earned a like just for jumping on the pound store pipe spanner.
I would have liked it anyway, but that deserved it's own like!
You are a pure GENIOUS SIR 👍👌🧐😇 Cheers 🍻
I love the way you give everything an artistic flourish with your plasma cutter, i.e. the cutouts on the pushrods. Very cool!
Thank you very much for sharing your projects.
They are inspiring.
If you want to store compressed air efficiently, you would need quite high pressures. I don't know how big your cilynders are exactly, but i would quess a stroke of about 70cm and the 5cm diameter. So that would be 1,35 Liters per stroke per cylinder. So at 100 RPM around 270 Liters per minute, if your working pressure is 1 bar (wich it won't be, cause you want power).
A SCBA Tank at 300 bar (six liter internal volume at atmospheric pressure) holds around 1660 Liters ((Volume times pressure) divided by 1.1). So that would be gone in six minutes, if you have no leaks and want to depressurize completly, wich you wouldn't want, because then moisture can get into the tank. Also, for those pressures, a very expensive compressor is necessary, and the bottles aren't cheap either...
So lets go for a somewhat cheaper option, 200 bar and maybe argon-cylinders (for welding and stuff). Those probably cost the same as a used SCBA bottle, but with more volume and usable air inside. The compressor problem is still there, but you can use a normal welding pressure reducer. Although you might want to combine multiple tanks on the loco, to have enough air...
Just be sure you know what you are doing, because high pressure air is very dangerous!
Yes, I use welding gas bottles which come in 10, 20 and 50 litre sizes and are supplied at 200psi. But what kind of compressor would fill them, I wonder?
@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 Now i'm no expert on this, just a voluntary firefighter who knows how far you get with a 6 Liter airtank at 300 bar... Gets you about 30 minutes, and humans use around 50 liters of air per minute. I think your engine will use more...
200 psi or 200 bar? If its just 200 psi i think most car climate-compressors can do that, although they don't move that much volume...
For 200 bar i have no clue, probably something industrial, maybe for scuba diving?
@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 Tim: I am REALLY enjoying your channel. Thanks so much for it.Remember how much power you lose if you use a pressure regulator. If you run your engine on, say, 50 psi air then at the end of the run, when your tank pressure is around 50 psi you will be using all of the energy in the air. But at the beginning of the run, you will be throttling the pressure from 200 to 50 psi. three quarters of the mechanical work you put into the air to compress it to 200 will be lost as heat and you will extract mechanical energy only from the last quarter of the energy you put into compressing the air as it expands from 50 psi to atmospheric pressure.
You could use the energy efficiently if you had a variable cutoff valving system, so that you take in much less 200 psi air per stroke (earlier cutoff) than 50 psi air (late cutoff). Variable cutoff is a very elegant solution (see Corliss steam valve - one of my favorite mechanical linkages ever) but complicated to execute.
@@jonathanherz3298 Very interesting! So much to learn!
You don't need another set of valves to utilise the 'rod end' of each cylinder. Simply "T" into the piston side of cylinder #1 and run a hose to the rod end of cylinder #2, and visa versa for the other side. It should (approximately) halve your speed and double your torque. Awesome video!!!
Well done! I made a vacuum pump of similar configuration using plastic pipe for the cylinders .
Tephlon plumbers tape to seal the threaded connections on the compressed air fittings would help with the hissing noise and probably save air over the long run.
That's a pretty impressive pipe wrench for a pound shop special!
A little detail: the arms depressing the valves are beautiful.
I like the trefoil detail on the mounting plate and the beautiful cutouts on the valving pushrods. Remember steam /air trype engines are inneficient. Try putting little blades on the perimiter of your flywheel and use your compressed air to drive blades. Air piston is inneficient, too many reciprocating parts.
This is so neat! You are literally reinventing the wheel. Of course the engineering is way above my pay grade, nevertheless it is very enjoyable to watch!
Marvellous Tim your a genius.Happy Easter again.🇮🇪🇮🇪💯💯💯💯💯
AirEngResearch
It was interesting to see how you designed the Air Engine and it works pretty well.
I went through the same trials and errors developing the Car Air Engine I am currently working on!
I just wish I had more time to experiment..
I think you are a very clever man.
Impressive buggering bar you have there. The engine sounds are pure poetry - great work!
Great work Tim! I'm sure if you had the time, you could build a whole steam engine out of old pipes and scrap metal. Amazing stuff.
I would say opening up the unused ports to reduce resistance. It's a pretty long stroke, and that means a lot of air going in and out. A large opening can reduce that a lot, and might make it faster.
I just subscribed!!! Love the video!!
As for my suggestion you can use a small DC permanent magnet motor with a small rubber wheel on it to rub the outside of your fly wheel and generate electricity to used in other ways. Maybe a Loco with an electric motor that can go in forward and reverse with a flip of a switch while you’re generating all the power you need on board.
If you want to compress air at a high pressure in some welding tanks I know that air-conditioned pumps in cars can get you around 300 psi without a problem you could probably even run one on your windmill to compress the air ….. but we both know steam would be a lot more fun!!
You're right, Ben - steam would be more fun, but a lot more work.
Many of the mine locomotives used here in Western Canada at the beginning of the 20th century ran on compressed air until replaced by electric ones. Steam was too dangerous for use underground. Keeping it as a compressed air engine would make sense (and would be safer too) as long as you had a large enough reservoir for the distance being covered.
Now that Sandra is back home again you will have a bit more time to get this working the way you want it to. Well done.
Opposed pistons you say? Why, it's a BOXER engine!! :-) Love this build and how hypnotic it is to watch it in slow motion. Looking forward to seeing more, esp. if there's a steam conversion in the future.
Best regards,
Capt. Blackheart Charlie
Key West, Conch Republic
For reversing the flywheel direction, could adding air to the other side of the cylinder work (i.e. push the piston back into the cylinder)?
Sure, less power, due to smaller surface area, but it would go backwards.
I think you need some kind of walschaerts gear or something? I am not extremely technical but I have seen it done in Lego.
@@theothertonydutch yeah, you'd need valve gear - not necessarily Walschaerts, but anything along those lines would do. It is, however, quite a complex installation, especially with two cylinders.
What he mentioned in this video was that there would be far less surface area on that side of the piston head for the air to push on, so it would produce far less power, and he didn't think it was worth the effort of trying
It would be easier to add hoses and hand valves to change which cylinder gets the air.
blitherlingly amazing. Utterly outstanding. I commend your engineering ability and wish I could be as well versed in such a field to do the same.
The British mantra of making do with what you have is prevalent throughout your entire channel
Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us.
Well, we're Irish, but thanks anyway : - )
I love the sound of this guy’s voice and the way he talks.
Hey Tim, keep in mind the Auto Industry already solved this. What you need now is an old stick shift transmission or gear box. Petrol Engines only crank in one direction so revers happens by changing the gears to make the output go in the opposite direction. Granted with this set up I don't see you going much being gear one and revers but it should help save you time.
Great work Tim! If you glued some magnets to the rim and added copper wiry bits around it you could generate power to run the compressor!
*_@Way Out West - Workshop Stuff_* 7:30 You can probably do something with belts (or with gears).
With belts, if you have them "un-crossed" (like: 0 ) then it runs eg. forwards, but if you run the belts "crossed" (like: 8 ) then it can run in reversed direction.
Same thing with gears, eg. an even numbers of gears runs forward, and an odd number of gears runs backwards, then it's just a question of what means to use to engage the gears, or what method to (un-)cross the belts, that can probably be done manually (when standing still & breaks engages. Warning!: for crushing hand injuries, if not careful).
Another option to consider rather than steam is an air reheater before the engine. The air gets cold as it expands from the tank, and loses some oomph in the process. Some compressed air trolleys used little coal stoves or bottles of nearly boiling water to do the reheating, though you can likely get away with pretty much anything that can raise the temperature. My personal favorite idea is to pair an air engine with a biochar kiln, lots of heat to spare there!
Interesting!
i know a way to make a simple reverser gear box that is in line that could be clutchless
so if memory serves corect, you can take a diferential (preferably a locking diferential) 1 axle is imput and the other is output, you lock the gears together to move forward, to reverse you just lock the carier portion of it (could lock it from the bull gear)
cant wait to see where this project goes/
Fascinating. Like watching the evolution of the steam engine 1810
Hi Tim, do some research, the paper mills in Kent used to run fireless engines, one near me in Dartford had some compressesd air locos, and if I recall one in Sittingbourne Kent was narrow guage as well 👍
I think the windmill idea is amazing! Love where all this is going, thanks for sharing Tim :)
You project is coming right along Tim and looking great while doing so. If you want to power things with it in the shop how about a rubber drive wheel that contacts the flywheel and then runs a belt or chain to the "driven" device? I can see a large blade sawmill, sander or drill press being run by that machine.
I am amazed with your ingenuity and no doubt you could make an compressed air powered engine for your train but have you considered electric, an old mobility scooter would easily provide the parts required,
Very nice. It reminds me of the Lego pneumatic engines i used to make.
I suggest that you should introduce a oiler between the compressor and the cylinders to stop the piston rings wearing away on a dry or dirty cylinders or a squirt of oil in the breathing holes
This would be a really dope power train for a pneumatic motorcycle
Before you jump to steam power you should consider making your joints and moving parts less cantankerous. One of those pivots seems like its banging every time it contracts. Threaded bolts arent the best option but its cool to see that it works.
If you do jump to steam however you're gonna need a big enough boilerwith a safety valve.
As you said Tim - it makes all the right noises 😀 lovely 🥰
Enjoyed the video. I like to make things from stuff I have lying around, too.
7:31 I think some angle iron welded up in a large box should be really cheap/ free if you look in a construction site dumpster. Also I figure you'd need at least 150PSI to drive anything, the engine and boiler will be heavy.
One way you could make the engine reversible would be to modify the cams to work like slip eccentrics. The cams would need to be free to rotate on the flywheel shaft and there would need to be two stops to limit the amount of rotation. This gives the cams two operating positions according to which direction the shaft is turning. The two stops need to be set so that the cam timing is correct for each direction of rotation. A simple way to change direction is to turn the flywheel by hand in the desired direction. The friction of the cam followers against the cams will cause the cams to remain stationary until the cams come up against the stop for that direction of rotation.
Yes, that would be one way to do it. I'll have a think...
Well, if you're manly playing around, and having fun, please continue, we're all having fun following this project.
But if you want a practical suggestion, just use a horse, or donkey to pull the cart, or if you must use an engine, find a way to run an electric motor on a car battery.
It's a lot of fun watching this channel, keep up the good work 👍
Speechless!
Happy Easter
Frank
Makes a lovely noise. Great work 👍
Your a good engineer Tim, very clever design.
A tumbler gear set on the output might be easier than making the engine reversible. They're simple, just 2 gears in between the output and the wheels.
Good idea - thanks, Kevin
Lookin pretty good with double the whammy
For a place with access to a trompe or the ideal conditions to build one for access to high volume low pressure air I could see that as a relatively viable source of energy for potential electricity generation. Not the most efficient but generally speaking free to us since gravity and water would be doing the work to pressurize the air.
Actually when the air pushes on the nut side of the cylinder your measurements are correct but what it pushes on the rod side of the cylinder the area of force would be increasing with the amount of rod that is in the cylinder. The air pushes on the flat surface where the seals are as well as on the circumference of the rod as well. It isn't intuitive and is something most overlook but is indeed the case. Awesome project sir.
If you have a stream or river nearby, you could build a trompe, a water powered air compressor with no moving parts, and use that to power it. You would need a high drop in the water to get high enough pressure, though.
That is pretty good. One way to test how much power it has is to take a 2x4 on a hinge and attach it to the frame and then using your foot or level apply pressure to the wheel. If it stalls right out then there is no power if you can apply a small amount you have a bit of power if you can apply great force then its got some good power.
When you said a windmill for compressed air. Years ago before my neighbors shop burnt down he built a windmill compressor. I am not exactly sure how he did it. I seen him testing it on a truck a few times. From what I seen and can guess is that he had a windmill and built the frame and everything for the pitman arm to do the stroke. He built this all out of the top section maybe 10 feet or so or a couple meters. I am not sure what compressor he used. Yet his goal was to install a bunch of tanks below in the frame to store the air and the compressor was a pretty large one. My other neighbor had a 500 to maybe 1000 gallon steel tank that sat outside his shop and the label on the tank stated that it was rated for 300 psi. He used his larger compressor to keep it full all the time and had hose reel and everything on it for when he needed it outside for air tools or what ever. He had regulators and all kinds of things on it.
Depending on your area you may be able to buy a very large propane tank which are rated for 300 psi or better. The label will tell you the working pressure which I think is 250psi. Depending on the type of compressor you get you should be able to find something for 200 psi.
I am not sure how long something like this would work for maybe run time of 30 mins if you had a 100 gallon air tank rated for 200 psi.
Though my other idea would be if you can find a air starter or hydraulic motor?
I am not sure sure if you seen my comment about the air starter that I had at one time? I am pretty sure I wrote something. Hydraulic motors are rated at flow rates so I would think the lowest flow rate would work. I also have a hand oil pump that came off of a deep fryer transfer pump. I was thinking maybe that might work with air and or steam? Ah maybe not. Though I do think a hydraulic motor might work. I do not have one on hand right now. 200 miles away I know where the one I gave my friend if he could find it. I might ask him and maybe if he knows where it is apply some air to it and see it that works.
As for this set up looks so much better and might be pretty powerful.
thanks, William. Yes, there could be many ways to proceed. I must have missed your comment on the air starter - sorry. I looked them up and they do seem a good idea, but I can't find a secondhand one in Ireland
I could listen to that all day!
Such a wonderful series to watch!! I've done just about all of them in less than a day! I'm greatly looking forward to seeing where this goes, it's all so very interesting. I had a bit of a suggestion which popped into my head when I saw that flywheel. What if you modeled your little locomotive after the one built by Richard Trevithick? The flywheel you have there looks much like the one on that loco. Of course change certain things and modernize it a bit, but that would be a good homage to one of the founding fathers of rail transport.
It'll be interesting to see how all your projects mesh together! Good luck in the future!!
Thanks, Marcks. Welcome aboard!
Fun fact- this is very much like how a "Heisler" type steam locomotive is set up! The pistons are set horizontally either side of the locomotive, much like you have yours set. When steam is applied, it turns a flywheel and driveshaft. The driveshaft is coupled to the 2 bogies on the locomotive, which then drives the locomotive forward or backward when the pistons are in motion. The Heisler is not known for speed, but for its torque, ability to climb steep grades, and tractive effort.
Yes, they're interesting aren't they?
You can also try lubricating your engine. It will help a little bit more with the friction and the movement of the machine so it could run more efficiently. You know to keep things lubricated
Been thinking about your motor and think that you could probably do with reducing the amount of air as the speed goes up. My thinking behind that is that the amount of time available to expand the air and extract useful work from it is going down as the speed increases. Conversely you want to introduce more air as the speed drops to prevent stalling. This is your torque curve. Having increasing torque available as speed drops is called 'torque backup'.
I agree David - but I wonder how I could do that
@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 perhaps a mechanical governor to throttle the air flow with speed?
That is an amazing contraption and I mean that in the nicest way. You are always thinking Tim. Fun video.. 👍
They have a locomotive in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania that was just that. It looked like a regular engine but instead of a normal boiler it was a huge compressed air tank. The sign said it was used for short maintenance runs or something if I recall correctly.
Love it very cool. I think I see a small issue
Watching it slowly the piston on the right you should close the intake sooner, its resisting the motion.
Also on the right pistons stroke you should open the intake a smidge before you close the exhaust otherwise its pulling a vaccum! its going to waste a little of the flywheels energy pulling the vaccum for a 10th of a second but at higher rpms it adds up quickly(this is also adding to vibrations) .
I think it will make it run at much higher rpms if you do this.
Thanks for the tips!
Have you thought to connect the unused sides of the pistons together? The air (maybe pressured) can do some useful work.
Also, try to use the wheel to power another air compressor and see the efficiency (by comparing the volumes of used air vs the accumulated compressed air).
This sits on the very edge between amish and normal. Very cool project imo
Altho I kinda wonder how much power is lost in each stroke of the individual pistons. I think a good way to have a rough idea is to disconnect all hoses, then put the pistons vertical and extended and see what weight at the top is needed to make the rod come down. Thats the friction that needs overcoming. Or perhaps theres a better way to test it, maybe just air pressure plus a very accurate gauge
Fascinating work Tim! Just to throw a bit of a curve ball at you, I don't know if you're familiar but there is a train; British Rail Class 139 that is driven by the energy stored by a flywheel on board.
Not sure if it's even feasible but it might be food thought.
Battery electric locomotives have been used in small underground mines for over a century. So have windmill generators for charging. That may be a more productive avenue.
Alternately Briggs and Stratton or Honda would easily do what you want.
1:25 i just imagine someone using a torque wrench on his bicycle having a heart attack seeing this
You better be careful! In history there is already a guy fighting windmills!
Just a though:
If you added 2 selector valves (1 IN, 2 OUT, ) to the lines going to the cylinders (they are 2 per cylinder, but they could be just one) and connected the new additiona lines to the reverse chamber you could get the engine to run in reverse simply by switching the positions of these 2 valves.
Let's say that when they are both switched to chamber A (equivalent to the current connection) the engine runs forward, when they are both switched to chamber B the engine would run in reverse because at any given angle of the flywheel the air would be distributed(timed) in the same way, but the forces resulting from each cylinder would be reversed( and about 40% smaller). I know the reverse would be powered by a smaller effective area (about 60%) of the cylinder and therefore be less powerful but that might be OK for a "reverse" obtained with so few additional components and complexity (only 2 valves and piping/connectors).
Switching them in different ways (like AB or BA) it would result in a sort of parking brake.
I've used that same method - pipewrench on the floor & jumping on it.
You said it - what fun!
With the low rpm and hopefully higher torque + two wheel drive on this loco, I think an old tractor gearbox from a small tractor with 2 or 3 gears, and a reverse would work well for this project. It might be around $100, at least when I looked for one online in the area near me. However, I don't know the pricing in ireland, where it is probably more expensive. Good luck, and love the video!
To reduce vibrations (and also flexing of air tubing) you can mount the air pistons in place and, instead of direct linkages to the crankpin, add in a hinged mainrod like a full-scale steam locomotive. With that, you'd have less off-balanced mass throwing itself around the flywheel's axis.
(Mind, there is math involved in figuring out the correct piston stroke length vs mainrod length that I am woefully unfamiliar with.)
Festinating, would love to see experiments with compressed air cylinders, my gut says they will be hard to compress, but experiments must be done!
With this piston arrangement, when one piston is pushing, the other is retracting, so you could theoretically pipe the air supply that pushes the first piston into the "pulling" section of the second piston (and vice-versa). You could have dual acting pistons for the cost of a few additional hoses... That should get you maybe 50% more power (assuming same pressure, and no volume restriction). Another advantage of doing it this way is that you could get the same power out of this engine with lower pressure (but higher volume) which might be more suitable for some air/steam source...
You could increase the efficiency (and make it double acting) if you connect the both output-ports. Just put hydraulic fluid into it or an emulsified oil/water mix aka cooling fluid for cutting to avoid compression-losses :)
Probably also possible to do this with a slight "angle" to get the pistons unable to stop at dead center, but you would loose some efficiencies this way (as you need to add some air which then get's compressed and decompressed on each stroke, like a spring).
Fantastic engine! Well done sir!