You probably have as much equipment as the designer had. Give it a go, there will be plenty of help available on here if you are not sure of some operations.

The possible issue with castings is that replacements can be expensive if you make a bad mistake. With a bar stock engine you just cut off another piece and start again. Most of the loss is just your time.

The Kiwi was designed by Edgar Westbury. At the time he was the civilian boss of the apprentice and officer training workshop at RAF Cranwell.

I have just seen Hopper's posting. Simple Stuart steam engines are a good start

JA

Edited By JA on 17/01/2020 20:05:33

My advice (from a complete novice) is build tools first.

Brass tipped nocker / hammer

Tap follower

Tail stock die holder

Tap wrench

T nuts

Maybe a QCTP if you don't already have one.

Harrold hall has a web site with lots and lots off free plans that are easy to follow. All made from cheap bar stock and once made very useful. Then progress to kits and castings, but saying that if you have the cash crack on as it may get costly buying signal items from kits that you fooked up learning.

Turn the question around a bit, is there an IC engine which is very simple to make, probably quite inefficient, but at least would go pop pop.

Hi Simon,

I built the Kiwi Mk 2 as my second ic engine. I would say that it would be quite ambitious as a first engine project, but achievable and very satisfying. I estimate that it took me about 300 hours to finish it. The build notes, by Westbury, that come with the kit are very good. There is another build thread on model engine maker forum which I found useful in addition to the one mentioned by Jason.

Alternatively, you could try the Atom Minor Mk 3, also from Hemingway, which is a simpler (and quicker to build) two stroke engine which sounds almost as good as the Kiwi when it's running. I built this as my first engine. The booklet on this build gives an excellent guide to construction for a beginner.

Regards

Clive

Hello Simon,

My ambition has always been greater than my ability! My advice is to choose something that takes your interest and take it slowly, one piece at a time. This is a great place for advice feel free to ask. As has been said before, there are no silly questions only silly answers

Best Wishes, David

One other factor to take into account is are you happy working with old designs that will be in imperial and need imperial tools unless you feel able to decide on suitable metric alternatives?

Another vote in favour of starting small. I find plenty of 'simple' projects quite challenging enough thank you! It depends on the individual though: I respond best to mid-paced learning where it's neither easy or difficult. Challenge is good for me, but not if it turns into frustration because I skipped a skill earlier. Others like to be pushed harder, and don't care how full their scrap box gets!

As a complete beginner I worked through projects easiest parts first because I needed to build skills and confidence. Now I'm half-competent, I'm more inclined to do hard parts first, because that's where the learning is! Also, I know once the hard parts are done, the easy stuff will come naturally.

Dave

Hi I built The Kiwi about 2 years ago on a Clark lathe and lick you self taught the engine runs well . I have a series of pics of construction which I got from the HMEM web site a chap there built one, if you could use them I could email them, I also have video of mine running.

Donald

This is the vertical slide setup I used on my minilathe. I think that the vertical slide was a Machine Mart one and I drilled and tapped the cross slide to fit it. The first picture is milling a cavity in an oil reservoir. The second one is the set up I used for milling camshafts. The depth for each cut is set using the DTI and the G cramp keeps everything a bit more rigid.