Dolbeer Steam Donkey (Les Proper Design)

Tonight I was able to get my steam donkey project to successfully run on steam! 

I’ve been working on and off for almost 2 years on this, and have learned much more than I could have hoped for! The plans for this can be found in LSOR 2018 issue 3/4/5, those issues are in the digital library on village press and can be read if you have a subscription.

Here is a video, and some photos. The eagle eyed among you may notice that the photos show the connecting rod attached to the crank with an eccentric, while the video has a crank pin. When I was building the engine and running it on air I bent the crank rod, likely due to the wrong timing and too much air. This caused me to go the route of the eccentric so I could have the third crank bearing. After having trouble getting it to run I got in touch with Les and he advised changing that to a crank pin. That change, along with denatured alcohol in the fuel pan instead of sterno gel was enough to get it running.


https://youtu.be/V-wdUCY6A44?is=bS50MqR-ylqva_jl

Quote from: Rledoux313Tonight I was able to get my steam donkey project to successfully run on steam! 

I’ve been working on and off for almost 2 years on this, and have learned much more than I could have hoped for! The plans for this can be found in LSOR 2018 issue 3/4/5, those issues are in the digital library on village press and can be read if you have a subscription.

Here is a video, and some photos. The eagle eyed among you may notice that the photos show the connecting rod attached to the crank with an eccentric, while the video has a crank pin. When I was building the engine and running it on air I bent the crank rod, likely due to the wrong timing and too much air. This caused me to go the route of the eccentric so I could have the third crank bearing. After having trouble getting it to run I got in touch with Les and he advised changing that to a crank pin. That change, along with denatured alcohol in the fuel pan instead of sterno gel was enough to get it running.

Excellent!!  Great work, runs very well. 


Whats the burner? Alcohol?

nice little model, congratulations, and did you also make the crown gear under the large horizontal flywheel ? I'm looking for a way to cut gears like that.

Very nice, well done, it looks and runs great! 

Nicely done, lovely to hear engines actually running on steam.

Quote from: crueby

Quote from: Rledoux313Tonight I was able to get my steam donkey project to successfully run on steam! 

I’ve been working on and off for almost 2 years on this, and have learned much more than I could have hoped for! The plans for this can be found in LSOR 2018 issue 3/4/5, those issues are in the digital library on village press and can be read if you have a subscription.

Here is a video, and some photos. The eagle eyed among you may notice that the photos show the connecting rod attached to the crank with an eccentric, while the video has a crank pin. When I was building the engine and running it on air I bent the crank rod, likely due to the wrong timing and too much air. This caused me to go the route of the eccentric so I could have the third crank bearing. After having trouble getting it to run I got in touch with Les and he advised changing that to a crank pin. That change, along with denatured alcohol in the fuel pan instead of sterno gel was enough to get it running.

Excellent!!  Great work, runs very well. 


Whats the burner? Alcohol?

Yes, I am using denatured alcohol in the burner.

Quote from: Zephyrinnice little model, congratulations, and did you also make the crown gear under the large horizontal flywheel ? I'm looking for a way to cut gears like that.

Thanks! The gears are out of a fishing reel.

Thanks everybody! 

Well done, looks great and runs nicely.