532 E. Parkland Avenue Evansville, Indiana 47711
The Gas Engine Magazine is my favorite magazine, especially the
Model Maker’s Corner.
I am 72 years old, a retired machinist. I have been building
model steam, gas, and hot air engines for 10 years.
So far, I have built seven Hit and Miss engines, one Ericsson
Hot Air engine and three Maytag engines. For the ignition on the
Hit and Miss engines I use a glow-plug, using one C size Ni-cad
battery, and burning gasoline or propane. I have to leave the
current on all during the run. By using the glow-plug ignition I
never have any ignition trouble.
All of my engines run without rings on the piston. The piston is
fitted with very little clearance.
The half-size Maytag upright is made from a set of Brad Smith
castings. I recommend this engine to anybody that wants a good
looking and running engine. It has a 1′ stroke and 1′ bore.
The ? size Maytag upright I made from scratch using Brad
Smith’s drawings. It has a ?’ bore and stroke and runs just
like the bigger one.
My good friend, Jim White, brought me a box containing a Maytag
Twin engine all apart. With a lot of encouragement from Jim and
another friend, Steve Reisinger, I got busy and started measuring
everything by two.
To make a magneto for this engine was out of my line so I used
two airplane glow-plugs and a C-size battery for each glow-plug.
After choking the engine once, it starts on the first push of the
kick starter. It runs with little vibration and it also runs
cool.
This engine was made entirely from scrap metal except the gears
for the kick starter.