Estevan Model Engineering Show

[Dabbler]

@johnnielsen and I went out to Estevan, Sask for North America's oldest Model Engineering Show. It has been held since the 80s.

There were about 50 booths, and everyone was very friendly. An overview of the proceedings:



Here are a few highlights that caught my fancy:

For @PeterT a radial engine, but with a twist: Peter ( got his contact details if you are interested)




it featured 3 non-compression engines, 2 of which were working for the show:





A large number of multi-cylinder engines, but this one really impressed me:




I had to include at least one hit-and-miss engine:



We had a great day and good weather for driving. Well worth the effort.

 

[phaxtris]

I didn't even know we had such shows in Canada, cool

That's quite the long haul, i take it you guys stayed over night ?

 

[garageguy]

rats! I would have been there but lost track of the date. It would have been nice to meet you guys in person and say thanks for the help you've given to me on this board. I only live 20 mi. down the road and usually attend this show. Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[DPittman]

Damn I have been wanting to go to that for years. It was canceled during covid at least once and then another year I couldn't fit it in and then I totally forgot about it this year.

Thanks for the report and pictures.

Maybe I'll get to it next year if the good Lord is willing.

 

[Dabbler]

To keep in touch, here's all the contact info:

organizer:
Kelly Tylandsvik
emes@sakstel.net
306-461-5808
821 Phillips Place
Estevan SK
S4A 2G9

Show site:
www.estevanmodelengineeringshow.net

 

[PeterT]

For @PeterT a radial engine, but with a twist: Peter ( got his contact details if you are interested)

Thanks for picture. Small correction, that's a rotary (cylinders & crankshaft spin together as one vs radial cylinders are stationary).
Rotaries boggle my mind. Nonetheless, impressive looking. I heard there was someone on Edmonton working on one. I'll have to follow up on that.
Glad you guys had a good road trip. Hopefully something heavy followed you home LOL.

 

[Darren]

How does the rotary handle exhaust? Through the ports on top of the heads? I assume the intake charge is throught the crankcase like most 2 strokes? I've seen them before but never really gave them much thought. Pretty wild.

 

[phaxtris]

How does the rotary handle exhaust? Throught the ports on top of the heads? I assume the intake charge is throught the crankcase like most 2 strokes? I've seen them before but never really gave them much thought. Pretty wild.

straight out the head

what i dont understand is how the heck they came up with that before radial engines, i dont understand how its easier to have the whole engine spin vs just the crankshaft

 

[combustable herbage]

Looks like a great show glad you got out, I grew up about an hour north of Estevan lived right on hwy 47 that heads into it.

 

[PeterT]

Some basic rotary info. I've seen some videos of post restoration flights & they support most of what you read about them - huge gyroscopic affect, castor oil shower for the pilot, challenging blippety-blip throttle control.... The ignition system is another mind boggling thing especially considering the era.

Rotary engine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

nice cad assembly model

 

[PeterT]

There aren't too many running models of rotary's but this is one

 

[Hruul]

I went back before covid and was quite impressed, I forgot all about it this year. I have heard that Saturday is way busier (more presenter's) than Sunday. Through Kelly and his group is how I found my lathe. Great group.

 

[garageguy]

Hard to imagine what advantages ( advantage? ) they saw in spinning the whole engine as opposed to just the crank. Maybe some engineer type saw it as a challenge. Maybe it would cool better?

 

[DPittman]

I don't know about your other explanations of why the engineer designed it that way but it is definitely COOLER that way.

 

[Tom O]

Maybe they changed it so the machine guns didn’t shoot the motor off just the prop
before they got the firing timing downpacked.
Evolution at its finest.

 

[trlvn]

@Dabbler Were there any kit suppliers or other interesting vendors at the show? I had a look at the show web site but they didn't have an exhibitor list.

Craig

 

[Susquatch]

Hard to imagine what advantages ( advantage? ) they saw in spinning the whole engine as opposed to just the crank. Maybe some engineer type saw it as a challenge. Maybe it would cool better?

I'm just speculating here from the perspective of someone who worked on engine design teams for a portion of my career.

The primary application of the rotary engine at the time was aviation. Weight was a huge issue especially for early aircraft. In rotary engines, the engine itself was the flywheel and the block was very small and simple. The cooling system would be trivial. This meant a very high power to weight ratio - ideal for aircraft.

According to the wiki article that @PeterT referenced above, the main disadvantage was the air resistance that an exposed whirling engine created. A thought I had was to get rid of the attached frontal prop and make the whole engine a prop so air resistance became an advantage.

Anyway, it's virtually a certainty that a high power to weight ratio was the reason they did it. But yes, I think the inherent cooling system simplicity was another driver.

As far as I can tell, oil spray wasn't a big issue. It seems like most of them used an oil fuel mix like the old two stroke outboard engines so the oil got burned by combustion.

I think the whole thing is absolutely COOL! I'd never heard of it before you characters posted about it.

 

[Tom O]

The way I heard it because they used castor oil all the pilots had the trots And the silk scarf was to reduce swivel neck (chaffing on the neck).

 

[PeterT]

Like most recollections of the past, the real reasons might be true, false or somewhere in between. I cant find the video I'm looking for, but it was one of the restoration museums like Shuttleworth or Rhineback & they showed the classic castor smear on cowl & goggles once landed. And those planes are cared for. I'm sure some planes/engines were worse than others. Whether it was enough to cause the castor laxative sh*ts (as opposed to OMG I'm being shot at sh*ts) thats another matter. Interestingly some water cooled inline engines were developed around the same time & early radials were having teething pains. Its always an arms race of power, drag, fuel consumption, weight, reliability... The fittest survive only until the next thing takes its place. A lot of what you see in military engines had as much to do with what they didn't have in abundant or reliable quantities - specific alloys, fuels, production methods.... I'm still amazed at how nice the castings look & what they were able to machine back in the day. Mind you, they were near the pinnacle of tech & ingenuity, much like what a modern fighter is today.

Rotary Engine Theory - 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape

Those magnificent flying machines

The assassination on June 28, 1914, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, triggered a series of events that led inexorably to the outbreak of war in Europe a month later. The Great War began less than 11 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight.

www.aopa.org

 

[PeterT]

While on this aviation tangent, I just finished this (audible version) book. I knew a bit of the story, but not to the depth the book gets into. I won't spoil it it reads somewhere between a celebration of determined human genius & a Greek tragedy of how much sh*t & abuse one man had to endure within his own country. Who knows all the factors that came into play, particularly during times of conflict. But its an interesting slice of time in terms of turbine development.

Jet Man: The Making and Breaking of Frank Whittle, Genius of the Jet Revolution: Campbell-Smith, Duncan: 9781788544696: Books - Amazon.ca

Jet Man: The Making and Breaking of Frank Whittle, Genius of the Jet Revolution: Campbell-Smith, Duncan: 9781788544696: Books - Amazon.ca

www.amazon.ca