What should I do for my project?

[DrewSmith007]

I'm in a manufacturing processes class, and the lab is basically machine shop 101. We have to do a small project from design through production, and I was wondering what you guys think would be a fun project. I don't have any real limitations, except it can't be very big. I can use aluminum, brass if needed, and steel if necessary. I can probably use plastic, and the shop has an injection molding machine, so thats a possibility too. I'm basically limited to a manual mill and manual lathe, but I do have access to a CNC mill and lathe, I just have to convince the instructor it's necessary.

So far, All I've come up with is a small stirling engine, like this:

http://sci-toys.com/my_toys/stirling_engine.jpg

It doesn't have to actually work, but it would be nice if it did. I could use brass and aluminum together to have a cool contrast.

Anyway, what do you all think? Any ideas are greatly appreciated, and of course I'll document the whole thing and put up some pix.

[Andre' B]

This is a nice first project.
http://www.pmresearchinc.com/store/c...4&cat=4&page=1
That combined with a report on the history of oscillating steam engines would be good. You will find that while now saying oscillating steam engine is the same a saying toy engine, at one time there were some very big oscillating engines in use, the Great Eastern used them to turn it's paddle wheels.


This one is a bit more complicated, more operations you have to think thru ahead of time because sometimes doing one operation before this other one can make a third op very difficult.
http://www.pmresearchinc.com/store/c...6&cat=4&page=1

They also have a number of other engines and a neat line of kits for make little model machine tools.