Projects In Metal

The Hired Man

I scaled and built my Hired Man model hit and miss gasoline engine from plans for the full scale engine, that was built and sold by Associated Engine company back in the 1920's and 30's, and was used as a utility engine on farms amongst other usage.

I originally built this model hit and miss gas engine quite a number of years back, and it now for the most part resides on my desk. The engine is quite tiny with a 3/4" bore and a 3/4" stroke, but is a fine runner as it runs merrily along generating electricity to power the light. The cooling fan mounted along side the air-cooled cylinder is also powered by a tiny belt off of the crank.
The belts used on this model were originally used inside of automotive cassete decks for powering the tape drive mechanism.

The engine is belted to a 12 volt motor in a housing I turned out of aluminum, to give the appearence of a generator. Of course, you all know that if you turn a electric motor as I am doing here, the motor will generate the rated voltage of the motor. In this case the motor in question is a 12 volt motor.

The voltage being generated is powering the lamp. Notice anything unusual about the clear-lamp-shade, of course you do, as the shade is a modified cover from a disposable paint-spray-can, that I turned the brass pieces on my lathe to fit the shade.

How about the recycled base that once was the base of a 16mm home-movie-projector. The original switch is now the on off switch for the engine and the lamp (2 position), is mounted on a raised portion of the base where the original lamp that lit up the projector stood, when changing the film.

Possibly the most interesting part of the complete model is the working volt meter, that was gutted from a miniature (1 inch dia,) automotive gauge set, and I then fabricated the brass bezel for this 12 volt meter to give it a old fashioned appearance.

I then mounted the gauge in the position where there originaly was a variable-controlled-knob that varied the speed of the 16mm projector motor. When the hit and miss engine is running, you can controll the lamp-intensity, by adjusting the speed of the hit and miss engine. The voltage being generated is indicated on the volt-meter.

Beneath the base, is where I mounted the miniature coil and battery required for the engine's sparkplug. A tip for those of you who build miniature hit and miss engines, I found that my engines run better on Coleman campstove fuel, instead of gasolene, as the tiny 1/4 by28 plugs foul less.

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