Here are some of my steam projects.  They're a long way from perfection, but I'm happy with the progression in quality.  One of these days I'll build one that's really impressive - if I live long enough - but in the meantime, each one is a little more complex (and better done) than the one before.

	Lucy, the See-Through Steam Engine This was my first steam engine project, and it's pretty crude.  I followed an Ed Warren design, which was meant to be simple enough for a first project.  Though my machining left a lot to be desired, Ed's design was very forgiving, and the engine ran ok.  The cylinder is made of plastic, so you can see the brass piston running inside it.  A single-acting wobbler with a 1/4" bore and 1" stroke.
Milly  Another Ed Warren design, and my second engine.  This single-acting wobbler has a 1/8" bore and 1/4" stroke.  It's mounted via epoxy glue on some sort of commemorative coin that is a little larger than a quarter.  It has such a small flywheel that it has to run fast or not at all.
	Nameless This is my third engine, and the first one of my own design.  It took longer to make it run than it took to build it.  Too much friction.  When it finally dawned on me to add a little oil, it took off like a scared cat.  Now that it's broken in, it runs just fine.  This single-action wobbler has a 1/4" bore and a 1/2" stroke.  Its horizontally- mounted multi-colored flywheel makes an interesting pattern when it's running slowly (about 300 rpm).  When it runs fast, the colors tend to blend together.
Brassy Babe I got such a kick out of Brassy that I drew up the plans and posted them elsewhere on this site.  It was my fourth engine and the second of my own design.  (None of these are really my own design, in that they all follow the same principle of operation.  What I mean by "my own design" is that I did not follow someone else's plan.  I'm sure you'll find other steam engines that look like this one.)  Brassy is a single-action wobbler with a 1/4" bore and 1/2" stroke.  She's been so much fun to operate and show to friends that she's nearly worn out. Here's a link to some other people's versions.
	Big Bertha This double-acting wobbler is my fifth engine, and the third of my own design.  She has a 1/2" bore and 1" stroke.  She needs about 30 psi to start, but then will run nicely on about 10 psi.  Her flywheel is so heavy that when you cut off the air at full speed she'll "keep on keepin' on" for 10 seconds or so.  This is my first one with sleeve bearings on the crankshaft.  That made a big difference in operation.  The hole visible on the cylinder head is for a bolt that I've misplaced.  I need to replace that.
Rudy Kouhoupt Design Rudy featured this engine in his excellent video on building steam engines.  I built the one in the left picture first, and liked it so much I built two more.  In his video, Rudy got his going on lung power.  Either he has more wind than I have or his workmanship is better, for I need 5 psi from a compressor to run these.  I suspect he did a better job.  But all three of them will run smoothly at about 120 rpm and 5 psi.  Push them up to 30 psi or so and they really move. This is a single-action mill engine, with a 7/16" bore and 3/4" stroke.  It's different from a wobbler in that it has a valve operated by an eccentric to gate the air in and out of the cylinder; a wobbler has a port hole in the cylinder that passes over two ports in the frame as the cylinder pivots on a spring-loaded bolt. Incidentally, Rudy's video is excellent, teaching the viewer basic machining practices while he/she builds a really fine little engine.

The Siamese Twins I used elements of the Rudy Kouhoupt engine to build this 2-banger. Both main cylinders and both valve cylinders are drilled into the same block. I learned a lot of new things in construction of this engine, including silver soldering the throws on the crankshaft, and building couplings to attach the piston rods to the throws. A diary of this project, including a short movie of it in operation, is at -- Siamese Twins

The Radical Radial Actually, it's not so radical, but I've always been a sucker for alliteration. I designed this after having a brainstorm about tying four cylinders to the same point on the crankshaft in such a way that when one cylinder is correctly timed, they all are. After many mistakes and restarts, I finally got it going. Some of my mistakes resulted in scrapped parts, and others I decided I could live with. As with the Siamese Twins, I learned a lot. If I were to do this one again (and I might) there would be a lot of changes. One of these would be to locate the valve cylinders much closer to the main cylinders. A diary of this project, with a short movie, is at Radical Radial.

Twin Wobbler This guy was an experiment that went wrong. (Or at least it showed a flaw in a theory I had.) But it runs well and looks ok, so I went ahead and finished it. Details in Twin Wobbler.

The Radical Radial - Take Two Rad-2 has several improvements over Rad-1, making it simpler yet more elegant than its predecessor. The four piston rods of Rad-1 were replaced by two Scotch Yoke type rods, each one connected to two pistons. The cylinders are mounted directly on the frame, eliminating the mounting plates. The valve chests were built into the cylinder blocks, putting them much closer to the cylinders and shortening the drive chain. What was an access hole on Rad-1 is now the bearing for the drive shaft, and the flywheel is mounted on the other side of the frame. Finally, the manifold and associated plumbing are inside the frame, out of sight. The frame is mounted on one post instead of two. The overall result is a definite improvement over Rad-1, delivering the same power with fewer parts and a slimmer profile.

Details in Rad-2.

Double-Acting Upright Siamese Twins -- March 2000 John Parrot sent me a picture of his version of the Siamese Twins. I liked it so much I decided to build my own -- except this one is double acting, with the crankshaft throws at 90 degrees out of phase instead of 180 degrees, making it self-starting. Also, to avoid a tangle of tubing I built the steam manifold into the cylinder block, with a single nipple for steam or air. A couple of new (for me) processes went into this engine -- CNC and powder coating. The top and bottom frames, the blue bearing blocks, the piston and valve linkages were all done with a Taig mill operating under CNC, controlled by an old Packard Bell 486SX (1970s vintage) laptop running in DOS. Drawings were done with Vector 9.3 with G-codes saved to floppy and transferred to the laptop. The bearing blocks are aluminum, powder- coated to blue. That worked great. I tried to powder- coat the top and bottom frames with chrome, but the bottom one is slightly less than perfect -- ok, a LOT less than perfect. I'll do that one over after I've moved. Click here to see it run. (3MB)

Pegasus -- A Small Beam Engine This engine started out as a half-size version of Ed Warren's Peggy, but reducing some of his smaller parts to half-size made them too small to be useable. So, much of the engine was redesigned to accomodate the smaller size. Writeup at Pegasus.

I Spy -- A See-Through Mill Engine I built this little guy to show off a sort of complicated (for me) flywheel I was especially pleased with. The cylinder/valve block is a single piece of plexiglass, so that the operation of the piston and valve can be seen in all their glory. The project turned out well, and the engine can be run on lung power -- if you have great lungs! Writeup and plans at I Spy.

Hand Held I built this little wobbler as a birthday gift for a nine-year-old friend. He'd been visiting my shop every chance he got, fascinated with the steam engines and the tools used to make them. The only claim to fame this little engine has is that it has an extra-long frame so that he can hold it in his hand while he blows into the nipple to make it run. This single-acting engine has a 1/2" bore and 3/4" stroke. Writeup and plans at Hand Held.

Double Wobbler This single-acting 2-cylinder engine has a 1" bore and 3/4" stroke, and is a powerhouse by comparison to those above. It is the largest bore engine I have done so far, and I was afraid that with its brass pistons the weight of the cylinders might be too much for it. I needn't have worried; it runs like a champ! Writeup and plans at Double Wobbler.

A Neat Little Flywheel Most of my flywheels have been one-piece affairs, simple to make and nondescript. The one pictured at right is made up of 11 pieces, and required making a jig for concentric assembly. This flywheel was a project in itself, rather than part of a steam engine project. Later I built a steam engine (I Spy) to accomodate it, and later still built another flywheel for "Hand Held" (pictured above). Since then I've built several flywheels to this design, with each one taking less time that the one before. The first one took about 15 hours, including planning, making the jig, and doing the writeup. The writeup is at Flywheel.

Brassy Babe -- Take Two

I finally got back in the shop after a year's absence due to other interests (touring the San Juan Islands in a small boat). I was thinking of doing a really challenging project, but discovered that my already limited skills had suffered from non-use. I decided to get back in the game gradually, with this version of Brassy Babe. This one has a half-inch bore and stroke, and its frame is in two pieces -- and the crankshaft rides in bronze bearings. (My first Brassy Babe is almost worn out, for it ran without bearings.) The only real inovation for me in this engine is the fact that I drew the plans in detail before starting to build. Up to then I made only rough plans, and modified them as needed in building the engine. I made "as built" plans for this website after the engine was completed. This time I drew the plans in detail before starting to build, and followed them religiously to find out if my planning was valid. It was. Writeup for this engine is at Babe-2, with a link to the plans.

Building a Crankshaft

Crankshaft construction is an easy project after you have done it once, but it can be a little intimidating the first time -- at least it was for me. Luckily, years ago I came upon an article showing how to do it. I can't find that article any more, so I've written a short one of my own, showing how I do it. Click here to see it.