This is the third engine I have made, it was completed earlier in 2025, but I have only recently got around to photographing & videoing it.

It is made to a Jason Ballamy design. LINK HERE

I have no access to a CNC mill, but I decided to make the elliptical base using a manual woodworking router. (Full face Visor required!!!)

I also really really like the flywheel with curved spokes, that Jason made using his CNC mill.

So I fabricated one with a mild steel rim and hub. I made an aluminium centre piece, again using the woodworking router, plus quite a bit of file and emery work, with a bit of Milliput to form a fillet.

For the curious, a retractable pin in the router table is used to follow a template fixed to the underside of a spoil board, the piece to be machined is fixed to the top of the spoil board. The router head can be plunged up & down using a foot pedal, the spoil board needs to be big enough to add a bit of mass to proceedings and to keep one’s fingers away from the cutter, ideally fitted with a couple of handles.

I scalloped the edges of the tension nut by racking a HSS lathe tool back and forth, using the lathe carriage.

I also managed to turn a handle on the end of the reversing lever, once I’d found a piece of free-cutting mild steel. It took me a few goes as the first piece of steel I used turned out to be a bit brittle.

The finished Engine.

Mark.