Rope drive engine

**mklotz** · Apr 11, 2016, 03:49 PM

This is my version of Elmer Verburg's rope drive engine. Two double acting cylinders are connected to the flywheel with 90 degree quadrature so the engine is self-starting. A common manifold feeds air/steam to the cylinders through a valve controlled by the functional governor.

The rope is a single loop of heavy gauge packing, three strand twine. (Splicing twine is a very tedious job.) The grooves on the flywheel and layshaft pulley are parallel. (Many people assume they must be threads.) The idler uses a weight to take up any slack in the rope due to moisture, etc.

**jotasierra** · Sep 22, 2016, 05:57 PM

Una joya Mklotz, felicitaciones.

**jjr2001** · Apr 23, 2017, 12:05 PM

That is amazing. Two pistons and all that rope running in perfect order. Love it.
Cheers, JR

**Hans Pearson** · Apr 25, 2017, 10:55 AM

Neat, Like the way the rope is transferred back to the beginning of the run.

**mklotz** · Apr 25, 2017, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Hans Pearson

Neat, Like the way the rope is transferred back to the beginning of the run.

And it's functional, too. Rope drives suffered in damp conditions when the rope would stretch and thereby lose traction. Incorporating the pulley loaded by the dangling weight provided an automatic tensioning device that took up the slack and kept the rope transmitting power.