I do love working with brass!

Its easy to work, not

hard on tools, and shines up so nicely. A perfect
material for a beginner in this hobby. Heres the first
steam engine I designed myself. Its a single-acting
wobbler, which means it has only one power stroke;
inertia from the flywheel pushes the piston down for
the next stroke. Its not strong enough to move any-
thing but itself, but it does so with the enthusiasm of a
dog chasing its tail, and its just as much fun to watch!
The engine is all brass, except for four parts: the 2-56 x
1/2 screw, the spring, the crank pin, and the core of the
flywheel.
The flywheel is brass except for its core, which used to
be part of the armature of a small electric motor. The first
flywheel was 1/8 thick x 1-1/4 diameter, and was too
light for this engine. This one is 5/8 thick, and the engine
runs a lot better with it. It needs the additional weight for
the unpowered return stroke.
The lesson for me in this was, just because a motor is
burned out doesnt mean its useless. Many parts are
salvageable, including commutators, ball bearings, shafts,
screws and so forth. I now greet a burned-out appliance
with mixed feelings: frustration because probably I have
to buy a new one, and anticipation to see what I can
salvage from its innards.
This was a fun project and a challenge for me. If you have more experience it may not be as much of a challenge,
but hopefully it will still be fun.
If you build Brassy Babe, Id like to hear from you.
A link to my email address is on my home page.
B BRASSY RASSY B BABE ABE
A S A SINGLE INGLE-A -ACTING CTING W WOBBLER OBBLER
F FOR OR B BEGINNERS EGINNERS
The disassembled engine. The input tube is threaded
and sealed with Loctite, which is why it is shown in place.
Another hole (barely visible in the photograph) is opposite
and the same size as the one for the input tube. Air (or
steam) exhausts through this port. We could just as
easily put the input tube in that hole instead; this would
reverse the engines direction.
Note the two holes in the side of the cylinder. The top
one is threaded to accept a 2-56 screw that passes
through a spring and the top of the triangle of holes in the
frame, to hold the cylinder snug against the frame. The
bottom one accepts air from the left-bottom hole of that
triangle and exhausts air through the right-bottom hole.
Note the crank pin attached to the piston. (More Loctite)
Thanks to Ed Warren for his books on model
steam engines. He presents interesting projects
and useful metal working tips in his books
Home Made Steam Engines, Volumes 1 and
2. These are published by Camelback Books
and are available from MODELTEC Magazine.
Copyright 2001, 2002. All rights reserved. See Terms of Use.
August 1999
by
David Goodfellow
davegood@gte.net
These plans originally were drawn 1 to 1, but they
were too small for easy reading. They are shown
here not to scale.
Frame
A
B
C
D
1
1.8
1.0 0.3 0.3
A A
Make from 1x1x1.75 brass. Drill 1/ 16 x 7/ 16 hole
A and countersink 7/ 32 x 1/ 4 deep. Tap 4-20 for inlet
and exhaust tubes. 1 each, front and back. Drill hole B,
1/ 8 for crank shaft. Drill hole C 3/ 32. On back side,
countersink 11/ 64 x 3/ 16 deep for spring. Drill hole D
(2) 1/ 16 dia. x 3/ 16 deep, to meet hole A (2). See
Sequence, last page.
Cylinder Block
E
F
G
2
1.0
0.12
0.35
Make from 1 x 0.45 x 0.3 brass. Drill
cylinder E 3/ 16 dia. x 0.9 deep. Drill
hole F 1/ 16 dia. to break into cylinder
E. Tap 2-56 to barely break into
cylinder. Do not make full threads into
cylinder; you want the 2-56 screw to jam
before entering the cylinder. Drill air
inlet G 1/ 16 dia. x 0.25 to break into
cylinder E.
Piston
H
3
1.6
1.05
0.4
See text Make from 3/ 16 brass rod. Mill flats on both sides as
shown, each 3/ 64 deep. (Actually, only one side needs to
be milled, to allow clearance for the crank disk.) Drill 1/
16 hole H for crank pin. (I cut 3/ 16 from the shank
of a broken 1/ 16 drill bit for the crank pin.) Insert pin
into hole H flush on one side, and seal with Loctite or
other suitable adhesive.
6. Screw/ Spring (not shown).
Make or scrounge spring to fit on
2-57 x 1/ 2 screw to hold cylinder
block against frame. The spring
from a ball point pen should work
well. I made mine, from the
thinnest piece of piano wire I
could find. Cut to 3/ 8.
Make from 1-1/ 4 brass round. Drill center hole K 1/ 8 dia. Turn
as desired, and cut off at 5/ 8 thick.
Crankshaft/Crank
4
0.25 0.55
0.075
1.0
0.125
I
Make from 5/8 brass round. Turn 1 down to .125 diameter. Turn 1/16 down to
.25 diameter. Turn 1/16 down to 0.55 diameter, and part it off. Drill hole I 1/
16.
Flywheel
J
5
0.625
1.25
Some Notes on Brassy Babe
The previous two pages should give you all the information you need to
build Brassy. Im using a Taige lathe and a Sherline mill. Both machines
loaf on a job this small; no challenge for them at all. Plenty of challenge
for me, though, as a newcomer to the hobby. This page gives some notes
on the design, and some of the practices I employ.
First, almost every instruction given on the plans is negotiable. The plans
just show how I made the engine, and theyre not locked in concrete.
Second, in case you havent already gathered that, I am new to this hobby
and the way I have done things is not necessarily the best way. With that in
mind, heres some of my reasoning
for the way I designed certain parts:
Sequence: Shape the frame and
drill holes B and C so that you can
mount the cylinder block and
crank/ crankshaft. That way, you
can verify the locations of holes A
and D before drilling them; a
mistake in locating these holes
equals a ruined part.
Crank: The crank is 1/ 8 thick
because anything thicker would
interfere with the piston, making it
necessary to go to a larger piston
block to provide the necessary
clearance. Further, I chose to turn
half the thickness down to 1/ 4
diameter to reduce the rubbing area
on the frame. Less friction is a
good thing.
Piston: I milled flats on the piston
to provide clearance where it rides
over the crank. It was only neces-
sary to mill one side but I milled
them both because I liked the look.
That doesnt leave much support for
the crank pin but evidently theres
enough thickness left, as the assem-
bly seems to be holding together ok.
I used Loctite to secure the pin to
the piston. You could use epoxy
glue or some other adhesive, but I
chose Loctite because I knew that
if for some reason I wanted that pin
out of there the Loctite would
release it with a little heat applied.
Note that the piston is a lot longer
than it needs to be. You could cut it
off just above the crank pin. I left it
on because (to me, at least) it looks
nifty in operation.
Spring: I wound the spring from
the smallest diameter piano wire I
could find. I chucked a 1-inch
length of 1/ 16 steel in the lathe,
took a couple of wraps of piano
wire around it and anchored the
throwaway end to a nearby wall.
Then I held the useable end with
pliers and flipped the lathe on and
off at slow speed. Instant coil, and
it worked the first time. Take safety
precautions if you try this, though;
the average piano wire is tougher
than the average eye. Cut to length
and youre done.
Flywheel: The flywheel is a little
small for this engine. Brassy runs
better with a larger flywheel; I made
another one 5/ 8 thick, and the
extra weight improved operation.
This one is kind of interesting in
that its 3-spoke center is part of the
commutator of a small, burned out
electric motor. The commutator is
made up of laminated wafers of the
shape shown in the photo. I used
two of the wafers, one inletted on
each side. Its attached to the crank
shaft with Loctite. The wafers are
painted black and the faced area
between the wafer and the rim is
painted red. I used a cheap brand
of fingernail polish, and it wasnt all
that good. A mistake.
Spring Hole: I countersunk the
hole for the spring because I didnt
want the screw sticking out too far.
It looks better this way, and if I ever
put a larger flywheel on Brassy, it
would need to clear the spring.
Locating the port holes (D, on
the Frame drawing): Im sure
these can be located trigonometri-
cally, but Im not a trigonometrist.
Instead I mounted the cylinder
block to the frame with a piece of
broken 1/ 16 drill bit, sharpened to
a point, in hole G, then rotated
the flywheel to run the cylinder
block through its arc. Then I drilled
the ports at each end of the arc
scribed on the frame. It worked just
fine.
Cylinder Block, hole F. In the
plans I suggest drilling this hole
through, into the cylinder and then
stopping short of tapping through.
This is an Ed Warren tip, and I
thank him for it. If you do it this
way the screw will jam and not fall
out during operation. If you tap all
the way through youll have to use a
shorter screw and use Loctite on it
to hold it in. This would be messy
and make disassembly a pain in the
backside - so much so that if I made
that mistake Id make a new cylinder
block.
Extra Note on Crank and Crank-
shaft: I first made this in three
pieces: crank, shaft and washer, and
put them together with Loctite.
This was messy, and I could not
bond these pieces square. So I
rebuilt that assembly as a single part.
Engine performance (and appear-
ance) improved dramatically.
Moral? Save yourself some grief
and do it right the first time!
davegood@gte.net