1. Using a 90° 1/2" CPVC street elbows, cinstruct the turns of the crankshaft by putting each end into a two-sided connector. Do this on all eight to create the four sections of the crankshaft.
2. Connect two of them together with a short piece of CPVC (the sections should be parallel to each other but face in opposite directions). Do the same for the other two.
3. Now connect regular 90° elbows to each open side. This creates two identical sections of the crankshaft that are balanced on one axis.
4. Connect these two sections together with a section of CPVC. Make them perpendicular to eachother so it creates four different positions for the pisons to later connect to.
Make connecting rods from aluminum
1. Cut eight pieces from a flat piece of 1" wide aluminum.
2. Drill 5/8" holes on one side of the pieces.
3. On the opposite side, drill holes that can be used for screw holes later.
4. Connect the larger holes onto the crankshaft; two peices for each of the four sections of the crankshaft.
Construct a piston system
1. Cut four 2" tall wood pistons.
2. Drill a 1/2" down the center of each piston.
3. Cut two parallel grooves into the bottom of the pistons 1" deep.
4. Trim the excess from the grooves to the edge creating a partially squared off bottom.
5. Glue 1/2" diameter nylon spacers with 1/4" holes into the the tops and bottoms of the pistons.
6. Attach metal washers the same diameter of the pistons onto them with JB Weld.
7. Use screws to connect the connecting rods to the pistons.
Build four electromagnets
1. Cut a 1/2" diameter iron rod into four sections.
2. Coil the iron cored with copper wire until their diameter reaches 2/3 the size of the piston heads.
3. Connect the tops of the cores into a 1/2" CPVC T-joint.
4. Drill a 1/4" diameter hole into the bottom of the electromagnet core.
5. JB Weld an aluminum rod into the opening in the bottom of the core (this will guide the piston).
Assembly
1. Mount the crankshaft to the base of the housing by using a support in the middle of the crankshaft.
2. Use a piece of wood on each side to hole rge crankshaft in place by setting metal bushings into the wood.
3. Cut holes in the wood for the top support bar and install the bar with the four electromagnets hanging on their T-joints from it.
4. Put the aluminum rods into the pistons and securely fasten both sides of the housing.
Electromagnet timing
1. Use a PLC to make the electromagnets power on and off to rotate the engine.
Data Collection
- Count the number of RPM of the engine.
- Repeat this for 3 different input voltages.
- Repeat all trials two more times.
- Record the data into charts.
- Make graphs for each individual set of trials (bar graph comparing the 3 different voltages).
- Average the data for each of the three similar voltages in each trial and graph (bar graph comparing the averages of the 3 different voltages).
