Chris's Porter Governor Build

Quote from: gipettoit looks like the function of the sliding box is to allow the governor to iterate between full speed and full retard, which would be the most efficient and reliable mode of operation, rather than operating all the time partially engaged, wearing itself out. I do wonder how prone it is to binding up without grease. all the rollers i can see are above and below, are there rollers on the side of the rail also.
If you are looking for gears similar to a hand crank drill again, you can harvest them from a 9 inch anglegrinder that has burned out.

I don't understand, can you elaborate on that? How would the sliding box effect the position of the output rod at varying speeds of rotation? I have never worked with governors before and do not understand the principals of them.

I don't know much about them either, apart from seeing them in lawnmower engines. but i assume there is a valve on the engine where this governor would be used to cut the steam. so you want something that behaves like an over center mechanism. however that would be difficult to use here because typically an over center mechanism requires a large force to set it and reset it. whereas this mechanism is stable in both positions but unstable in between, and only requires a minor force to flip it.
the box does not move at all until the max rpm is reached, then it shoots to the end of the bar, flipping instantly. an over center mechanism would require a spring to be tensioned and this can be weighted as another commenter said.

Quote from: gipettoI don't know much about them either, apart from seeing them in lawnmower engines. but i assume there is a valve on the engine where this governor would be used to cut the steam. so you want something that behaves like an over center mechanism. however that would be difficult to use here because typically an over center mechanism requires a large force to set it and reset it. whereas this mechanism is stable in both positions but unstable in between, and only requires a minor force to flip it.
the box does not move at all until the max rpm is reached, then it shoots to the end of the bar, flipping instantly. an over center mechanism would require a spring to be tensioned and this can be weighted as another commenter said.

The box does move gradually with speed changes - it doesn't move till it reaches a minimum speed, though. My cranking was not very smooth, so it looked more all-or-nothing. Other times playing with it after taking that video I got more even variations.
The horizontal lever that runs outside the frame would have a connection to the steam valve, or the expansion/cutoff valve depending on the engine.