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Penny Engine- micro air powered engine!

by dorkpunch on February 22, 2015

Table of Contents
Penny Engine- micro air powered engine! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Intro: Penny Engine- micro air powered engine! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 1: Gather Supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 2: Get the tools out! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 3: Overview- The Pieces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 4: Crankshaft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 5: Cylinder and Piston. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 6: Valve Plate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 7: Assemble and test! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Intro: Penny Engine- micro air powered engine!

So I've been playing with Hot Wheels lately, and this developed as kind of a side project to something else I was working on. I've built a couple of other engines based on
other designs I've found here on instructables but this one for me takes the cake! Originally I didn't intend for it to actually work, but I thought I could at least give it a try.
And guess what? IT WORKS!!!
Here are two other instructables that helped inspire this one- the first is not a wobbler but very simple to build with cardboard and hot glue.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Toilet-Paper-Engin...
This is one of my all time favorite builds, and I used this model to design a much simpler version that I have my 8th Grade students build using only a drill press, a
welder, and basic hand tools. No instructable on that one yet, but it's coming! The FANCY version is found here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Air-Engine/
The Penny Engine is a Wobbler engine that runs on compressed air. This type of engine is called a wobbler because there is no connecting rod or wristpin- the entire
cylinder and piston pivot as the crank spins, and as it pivots side to side compressed air (or steam or compressed CO2) is ported in at the right time to push the piston
down.
There's a basic run down for you, so here's how we build it!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Step 1: Gather Supplies.

You'll need a lot of random bits and pieces as seen here. Small tubes and metal rods are usually available at hobby stores. The rod I used is actually aluminum welding
rod. Tubes came from Hobby Lobby. You will also need a chunk of scrap aluminum or other thin sheet metal to act as the frame, a teensy screw, a small spring that can
be robbed from a clicky pen, and of course a penny!

Image Notes
1. A penny for the crankshaft and flywheel.
2. Small screw. Just need one!
3. Scrap piece of aluminum sheet metal.

Step 2: Get the tools out!

Lots of tools needed, and the smaller the better. The hard part of this instructable will be drilling teensy holes. I'm using a cheapo pin drill or jewelers drill and bits that I
bought off of ebay. The Jewelers Saw also came from the same place- and a word of advice on both tools- GET EXTRA BITS and BLADES. They break VERY easily.
Everything else is pretty standard- Crazy Glue, hammer, pliers, aviation snips, file, dividers, and a tap or nut for the small screw you got.

Image Notes
1. Pin vise or jewelers drill.
2. Dividers.
3. Assorted TEENSY drill bits.
4. Tap for screw if needed, and allen wrench also for screw.
5. Jewelers saw for cutting the tubing.
6. Scribe or scratch awl for marking cuts and dimpling metal for drilling.

Step 3: Overview- The Pieces.

Here they are. Several small spacers cut from the tubing using the jewelers saw. Chunk of aluminum sheet metal for the frame, penny makes the flywheel and crankshaft.
Spring pictured is cut down from one stolen from a Bic ballpoint pen.
I took a bunch of measurements after it was built and have them written in on the drawings. These are just estimates, and I can't guarantee that these will work if you try
to replicate the engine...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Image Notes
1. Penny flywheel.
2. Crank spacers- one for the crank and one for the crank pin.
3. Crank.
4. Crank pin.
5. Cylinder.
6. Piston.
7. Cylinder pivot spacer.
8. Pivot screw and spring.
9. Valve plate.

Step 4: Crankshaft.
Start with the crank. Take your time and mark the center of the penny. Very carefully drill as straight a hole as possible that matches the size of the rod / tubing you are
going to use for the crank. I used 1/16" aluminum tubing, so my hole was 1/16".
Decide how long you want your stroke to be, and using the dividers, mark half of that distance from the crank hole. Drill another hole for the crank pin.
Cut a short length of tubing. Pinch one end of it and push it through the center crank hole. Add a drop of crazy glue and tap it in as far as you can. The pinched end will
hopefully be a very tight fit, and the glue will hold it all together without any play.
Cut another short length of tubing and repeat the process for the crank pin hole, but it should stick out the other direction.

Image Notes
1. Both holes drilled. One end of rod flattened to make a tight fit, still needs to be
tapped in with the hammer and glued.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Image Notes
1. Assembled crankshaft.

Step 5: Cylinder and Piston.

This can be the hard part. Find a piece of rod that fits nicely in some tubing. It should be able to slide freely, but be a tight enough fit that not too much air is going to
escape around the rod.
Once you have the cylinder tube, crimp about 1/4" of it tightly as shown in the pics. Mark the center of the crimped area and drill a hole big enough for the screw you
found to fit through it. Near the top of the cylinder area (below the crimped part) drill another hole. Mine was 1/16" hole. This is where the air pressure gets into the
cylinder to push the piston down.
The piston should be roughly the same length as the entire cylinder, with a hole the same size as your crank pin drilled through it on one end. This should be a loose fit,
so you may have to gently run the drill bit through it a couple of times testing with a piece of rod to make sure it spins easily in the hole.
Now its time to start on the valve plate!

Image Notes
1. Tubing for the cylinder.

Image Notes
1. Crimped tightly so air wont leak out!

Image Notes
1. Pivot hole drilled big enough for the screw to fit through, and the pressure hole
drilled into the cylinder.

Step 6: Valve Plate.

Mark where you want the cylinder to attach to the valve plate. Everything else will be measured from this hole. Using the dividers, measure the distance from the center of
the hole of the pivot on the cylinder to the center of the air hole. Transfer it to the valve plate, scribing an arc as shown in the pics.
Bend the valve plate a little past the arc you just scribed as shown. This bend allows room for the flywheel. Now you can start figuring out the rest of the holes.
The hole for the crankshaft cannot be too far from the cylinder pivot hole, or else the piston will fall out of the cylinder. Estimate at minimum that 1/4 of the piston will
remain in the cylinder with the crank pin is as at the bottom of the stroke, or as far from the cylinder as possible. Mark where the center hole needs to be. You can now
drill the pivot hole and the crank hole.
Marking the valve holes can be tricky. Install the crank and turn it so the crank pin is as far to one side as possible. Using a straight edge of some kind, line up the pivot
hole with the crank pin as shown, and mark where the straight edge crosses the arc you scribed earlier. In my pictures, the holes are already drilled to 1/16".
On the back, drill one of the holes almost all of the way through. This is to allow for the pressure tube to be installed later. I used 3/32" tubing, so the hole was drilled to
3/32".

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Image Notes
1. Piston should have at MINIMUM 1/4 of its length in the cylinder when at the
farthest out position (bottom dead center).

Image Notes
1. Mark pivot point.
2. Arc scribed from pivot point, same distance as from center of pivot hole to
pressure hole on cylinder.

Image Notes
1. Plate bent.
2. Center hole for crank marked. Estimated by measuring distance from center of
crank to crank pin, and using the 1/4 of piston in cylinder rule.

Image Notes
1. Marking line for valve plate holes- line up pivot hole with crank pin when it is
all the way to either side. Mark, then drill!

Image Notes
1. Other side.

Image Notes
1. One side drilled larger for pressure tube to be installed later- note that IT
DOES NOT GO ALL THE WAY THROUGH!!!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Step 7: Assemble and test!

Put it all together!
You will likely need to make some spacers for the crankshaft, crank pin, and cylinder pivot. The main things to keep in mind when adjusting your engine are these:
1. You need a good seal between the valve plate and the cylinder. This is achieved by making sure the cylinder is PARALLEL to the valve plate by adding a tiny spacer at
the pivot point as shown in the pics.
2. The piston needs to be spaced away from the crank / flywheel a little so it doesn't snag on it as it spins.
3. The flywheel / crankshaft shouldn't be able to wander in and out, as this will throw the piston out of alignment with the cylinder and cause binding.
4. The entire thing should move EXTREMELY EASILY. If there is binding ANYWHERE, carefully disassemble the engine piece by piece until you discover what is
causing the binding and adjust as necessary. Common areas where the engine can get hung up are the piston being too long hitting the top of the cylinder, the piston out
of alignment with the cylinder, or the cylinder pivot screw can be too tight.
I strongly recommend wearing eye protection and testing in a safe location- there is a good possibility that parts are going to turn into missiles that are going to be
bouncing around the room. Start with low pressure. I can get mine to spin a few turns with just my breath- but it feels like I'm going to pop a blood vessel... Mine seemed
to run pretty good on about 20 p.s.i., but I'm still tinkering and as I get the engine more aligned and loosened up I think it will get better.
Good luck, and have fun! Please post any questions and I will try and get them answered. I hope to amend this instructable with a better video and more accurate plans
as to the layout of holes and spacers but for now this is it.

Image Notes
1. Order of assmebly- screw through spring, cylinder, and spacer, into valve
plate. HOLE MUST GO AGAINST VALVE PLATE!!!

Image Notes
1. Crank spacer
2. Piston spacer.
3. Piston should be parallel with valve plate.

Image Notes
1. This area MUST BE AS FLAT / PARALLEL AS POSSIBLE to insure a good
seal...

Image Notes
1. Potential bind point- crank pushes piston sideways and it jams in the cylinder.
2. Potential bind point- piston is too tall / long, and it hits the top of the cylinder on
the up stroke.
3. Potential bind point- if the crank pin is crooked, as the flywheel spins it will try
to twist the piston causing it to bind.
4. Potential bind point- if the spring is too tight, it will pinch the cylinder against
the valve plate and / or pull the piston off of the crank pin. Too loose, and there
won't be a good seal for the air pressure.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Image Notes
1. Pressure tube, which was attached to an air gun on my compressor.

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

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Comments
15 comments Add Comment

AlexC5 says:

Feb 26, 2015. 11:37 AM REPLY

Pretty cool ible. on a side note I think the last thing lincon needs is another hole in his head :0

stumitch says:

Feb 26, 2015. 11:08 AM REPLY

I wouldn't agree that it is unimpressive... perhaps that was a typo. Nice job! I am looking forward to your 'ible for kids... I will use it in my gr8 metal class!

woodreaux says:

Feb 26, 2015. 10:44 AM REPLY

Technically this is a MOTOR, not an ENGINE. A motor requires an external power supply of some kind, an engine creates its own power as in a gasoline
engine versus an electric motor. I know it is a small thing but if the small things are not right.......Good effort though! nice project for getting people thinking
and doing!

Nikiniku says:

Feb 26, 2015. 9:39 AM REPLY

Very unimpressive. I was thinking of building one until I saw the power source. However, it did serve the purpose of getting me interested in other types of
mini motors, and generators. I don't know if I can build a motor powered by the heat from my hand, but I'm going to look for one now. Thanks for the
inspiration.

Nikiniku says:

Feb 26, 2015. 10:42 AM REPLY

I couldn't think of the word when I typed the above, but I can now: pinwheel. Yes, this reminds me of nothing so much as a pinwheel. A neat little toy, but
not something I want to spend much time on. Also, I have now found many reasonably priced mini-engines, but I'm still looking for something I can build
myself out of unlikely materials like popsicle sticks, paper clips, washers, rubber bands, aluminum foil, wire, etc.

DaniH10 says:

Feb 26, 2015. 7:50 AM REPLY

This is really cool man! I've been looking for a project to make for my Engineering class and I think I just found it! If you don't mind me asking, how did you
come up with/across this idea?

Wllm55 says:

Feb 26, 2015. 4:39 AM REPLY

If I make one using a quarter or fifty cent piece will it have 25 or 50 times the power?
Jk, but I had to ask!

kunfannen says:

Feb 25, 2015. 3:13 PM REPLY

Really cool! Reminds me of an old locomotive steam engine. It would work great as a small steam engine.

Ironwave says:

Feb 22, 2015. 9:38 PM REPLY

This is really nice.

Can you link the other small engin tutorials?

dorkpunch says:

Feb 23, 2015. 7:02 PM REPLY

Certainly!
Here are two others. This first one probably doesn't really qualify
but its another one I have students make and its REALLY easy to build.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Toilet-Paper-Engin...
And
this one is another I really like. I used the basic ideas of this one
to design another very simple engine I have my Grade 8 students buildno machine tools, just a drill press, a welder, and the rest all hand
tools. No instructable for that one yet, but I *am* working on it.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Air-Engine/

Ironwave says:
That heavy engine is seriously cool :-)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/

Feb 23, 2015. 9:18 PM REPLY

Ironwave says:

Feb 23, 2015. 9:11 PM REPLY

Awesome, Link me when you put up that tutorial if you remember please.
Thanks for the links!

dorkpunch says:

Feb 23, 2015. 7:37 PM REPLY

Update- added another video showing the engine being powered by BREATH! Also added a drawing to the overview section that includes several
measurements.

tomatoskins says:

Feb 23, 2015. 9:31 AM REPLY

This is so cool! How does the air escape your piston (exhaust)?

dorkpunch says:

Feb 23, 2015. 3:02 PM REPLY

There are two holes in the valve plate- one is the "intake" and the other is the "exhaust". You can actually put the air in either one- it just changes the
direction the flywheel spins.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Engine-micro-air-powered-engine/