Steve Peirce,     Uniontown, OH    revspyder1@earthlink.net            7/7/2003

 Liberty        Compressed Air Engine

   This is another attempt at getting closer to George Luhrs in size and quality with the twist of simplicity and to make plans available. The concept behind it is to design an engine with all the impressive detail, machineable with small hobby size machines as well as full size machines, impressive miniature size and the ability for a novice to build with little trouble. An engine that will run as well as it looks with as few moving parts as possible and little to no maintenance required, in short a small non-temperamental engine!...which I think is an oxi-moron.  So far it is a 90% success....I'm still working on the Temperamental part!....................
 
  A little more information about the engine itself. It's a CO-2 or compressed air powered engine, about a 1/16th scale equivalent of a 8 hp brigges and straton. Its just under 2 inches tall. Vertical single cylinder design with a Pan style head. 1/4 inch bore and stroke. 1.200 Dia. Flywheel and has all the detail of a working Gas engine, from a miniature spark plug and wire, magneto, muffler, gas tank and carburetor complete with a visible throttle plate and 2 fuel mixture screws, to the valve push rods, oil dip stick and starter rope . It has all the bells and whistles!
 
  I designed this engine in less then an hour and built it in a week, I have just about 40 hours of work in it at this point. There is no special talent required to build an engine this small, believe it or not, but the true joy is in how fast they build, remember the smaller the part the less material has to be cut, the less material has to be removed the faster the production. 70% or more of the time in it is in set up and fore thought as to handling the small parts for machining.

 

 Engine complete!  All I need is a source of air and a Yo-Yo string!

 

I hooked a piece of brass tube to an air line at work and held it up to the intake port in the head. Even with air leaking around the tube the engine ran perfectly at 20-25 PSI. It ran so well, I was amazed! and sounded just as good. The exhaust is fairly quite and the valve work added a slight valve tick. It was really beautiful.

 

 

 

  

Final assembly is done on the engine I just need to poly-urethane the base and make a small handle for the starter rope.

Still debating on a name, since it was completed on the 4th I was thinking something patriotic like "Liberty 250" or "Patriot 250" but I should have thought about it before I painted it green, if I had painted it blue and red would have been better.

I was going to call it the Uni-Pee "Universal Power Equipment Engine". but I don't know if I like the name, maybe "Tornado 250"

any     

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been working on a Pan Head Co-2 engine.

Maxum 250 Uni-Pee        (.250 C.I., Universal Power Equipment Engine)

1/4 inch stroke, 1/4 bore, single cylinder, vertical, Pan Head, compressed air motor.

When completed it will have everything a gas engine would have in the way of detail, the valve rods, sparkplug, ignition system, carburetor, exhaust and such will just be for show, as it is a CO-2 powered engine, but it will look and hopefully sound, at least a little bit  like a small gas engine.

 

 

  Here it is at 16 hours in.

 

 

 

 So far I have 24 hours in it and I am slowed to a stop, as I just got home from work and I have to be back in 6 hours to pull a double shift and I may have to perform a wedding this weekend. Did I mention I was a minister?

Jack of all trades! that's where the "Rev" in my e-mail comes from, I was a chaplin in a motorcycle club for 10 years.

  The guy I have been talking to in Washington state is busy photo copying the original Blueprints of a Willamette Douplex Loader Steam Donkey for me, now that's going to be a major project!

  I did manage to squeeze in the oil dip stick and Magneto last night before bed. I think I am going to press an aluminum rind over the outside of the flywheel to bring the Dia. up a little. here is the latest.

 

 

 

  Now this is a small spark plug!

   

 

Started on the Carb tonight, but will have to hold here until I get the hypo tubing.

what do you think of the choke plate? I have some really nice details planed for the carb including two adjuster knobs.

 

 

  Finished up the Carburetor and exhaust last night, only thing left is the fuel tank and paint.

I decided to go a little bigger on the flywheel and use brass tubing for the fuel line/air line.

 I may have to paint the Carb as it may be too small to polish without damaging the adjuster screws.

Don't mind the sloppy assembly, it's just sitting partly together to get a picture.

 

 

 

 Well I’m down to the fuel line to complete the engine, but I think I will have to go with hypo tubing. The brass tubing is proving to hard to get into tight bends and looks very out of scale.

 

   Here is almost the latest. I did manage to polish the carb, but once this show is over...I'm Letting it tarnish!

I already have the crank case painted and the flywheel is painted and pinstriped, I'll send photos later.

I am having a lot of trouble with my high speed internet connection and I’m back to dial up modem for

now.