Stover Hit 'N Miss Engine |
|
|
Jerry says that
although this little Stover hit
'n miss engine doesn't look all
that impressive, it was quite a
challenge. Particularly
difficult and unique to this
model is a scale 3/4"
square functional Wico magneto.
It took about 5 hours to wind
each of the two coils and only
one out of 5 worked. Jerry put
about 350 hours into the magneto
alone. He has not seen another
working one this small and is kind
of proud of it, but he said he
wouldn't want to do it again. |
Grasshopper Horizontal Steam Engine |
|
 |
This "grasshopper" steam engine is made in a very small scale. Note the works of a women's wristwatch in the foreground to compare the size of the tiny fasteners in the watch to the even smaller fasteners made for the steam engine. |
Tiny Oscillating Steam Engine |
|
 |
The world record holder for "World's Smallest Steam Engine" according to the Guinness Book of World's Records is the "Thumbnail Steam Engine" built by Iqbal Ahmed in Nagpur, India. It can be seen on his page in this museum. This engine built by Jerry Kieffer is smaller, lighter and has a flywheel built up of a hub, rim and six individual spokes. It is mounted on a stand that allows it to be run when compressed air is supplied to the fitting. This is an oscillating engine rather than a horizontal as built by Mr. Ahmed, so the two are not exactly a direct comparison, but it does make for an interesting discussion. A quarter dollar coin is used for size comparison in these photos. |
 |
The tiny engine sits atop a stand that functions both to display it and to supply a place to hook an air line to run it. The vertical support is a tube that screws into the intake port to supply pressure to the engine. |
 |
Two close-up photos the steam engine itself.
It is .40" long. (The width of Washington's face from nose to hair on the
US Quarter coin is .50".) The flywheel is .25" in diameter. The bore is
.059" and the stroke is .060". This engine can now be seen on display in
the Foundation's museum in Vista, CA. Despite its tiny size, it is still large compared to the one below. |
Extremely Small Dual-Flywheel Steam Engine in Wood Box |
|
 |
World's smallest? This engine explores the minimum size a working steam engine can actually be built using machining technology. A quarter shows how small this oak finger jointed box really is. Inside the felt lined box is what we believe to be the world's smallest twin-flywheel steam engine. The whole engine will fit inside the 1/4" flywheel of the engine shown in the previous section. |
 |
This tiny engine weighs just 3.5 grains. It has a bore of .029" and a stroke of .032". Injecting air into the .008" intake port with a hypodermic needle will get the two little flywheels spinning away. |
 |
At shows, Jerry displays the tiny engine and its fitted box on top of the eraser of a pencil. (Yes, that is a standard #2 pencil, not an oversize one.) |
Miniature Oilers |
|
 |
Jerry makes oilers of various sizes for different projects. These are fully functional and constructed just like the full-size originals using glass, not clear plastic. |
Miniature Tools |
|
 |
This tiny "monkey wrench" is fully functional. It fits in nicely sitting on the workbench of Jerry's miniature machine shop model. |
Miniature Spark Plugs |
|
|
Jerry makes the spark plugs for his engine
with the same attention to detail as the rest of the engine. These plugs
represent four different types of prototype sparkplugs but in scale. Jerry
says, "The first one is a 1/4 scale "Rentz 775 spark intensifier spark
plug". It was designed to give a hotter spark when starting a farm type
(or others). The engine and then could be set back to normal spark after
starting. You would first open a gap in the glass area before starting.
This would mean that the coil would have to build up enough spark to jump
the upper gap as well as the normal gap in the combustion area. That
produced a much hotter spark in the combustion area when starting. After
the engine started the upper gap could be closed for normal running
operation reducing coil overheating etc. The second plug is a standard
1/6th scale Champion plug typical of what was The third plug is a 1/6th scale Champion Air cooled Harley Davidson
plug Fourth is a 1/4 scale Champion "Toledo" primer plug used in early cars and other engines for priming each cylinder before starting. Each of the plugs is fully functional and operates as the original. Each is used to run various model engines when on display at shows. Also, as shown in the second photo, each plug disassembles like the original for cleaning and inspection. All insulators were machined from millable ceramic using carbide tooling." |
Cam Grinding Machine |
|
Final photo shows grinder in use grinding two left lobes of the 1/8" John Deere tractor model engine. The lobes on the right are as they come off the milling machine. |
In order to be able to make proper cams for his running engines, Jerry designed and built this camshaft grinder. He used the cast iron base from a discarded table saw. A Federal dial indicator was a $10.00 flea market purchase. The rest was made from bar stock. The power is supplied by the headstock/motor/speed control from his Sherline lathe. Total cost was under $60.00 not including the Sherline power unit. With it he can grind just about any model engine camshaft.
For his seminar at the April, 2004 North American Model Engineering Society Expo in Detroit Jerry will be detailing the construction and use of this tool. |
