June Dorkbot-SF: Steampunk

The June dorkbot-sf takes place this Wednesday, June 6th at 21 Grand in Oakland and features Kimric Smythe discussing “The Modern Steam Engine”, Liam McNamara talking about his “Clockworks” installation at Burning Man 2005 and Kinetic Steam Works presenting their Burning Man 2007 project Steampunk Tree House.

Here’s Kimric’s video of his Uniflow Steam Engine.

This is a single acting, partial Uniflow steam engine. I built it out of a old air compressor, and mostly stuff that can be made with a metal saw and a drill press. A small lathe would make some of it easier. The intake valve is a poppet whistle type valve. The engine pictured is running on air at 18psi. It picks up speed until it gets up to about 60psi when the speed of the engine causes the exhaust valve to “float” at which point it becomes true uniflow engine. It is nearly impossible to start it whithout the exhaust valve engaged. At this point I have no cutoff adjustment that can be made while it is running.