The boldest part of this build is that there was never a drawing set to follow. Gussechan worked largely on the fly from nothing more than a rough sketch, and doing that as a machinist education project takes real nerve. The finished assembly still lines up neatly, which is the hard part when you are inventing each piece as you cut it.
The engine is a small desktop flame-licker, machined mostly from brass and steel. A horizontal cylinder sits at the center with a vertical port on top and support brackets around it. A large polished flywheel is attached to the crankshaft mechanism, and black socket head cap screws hold down the cylinder head and the valve mounting brackets. Above an angled brass tube there is a pivoting valve flap plus a curved metal heat shield, and a tall cylindrical brass container stands next to the head. A side-mounted fuel reservoir with a burner wick, a sliding valve and a connecting rod round out the assembly.
When it runs, a lit flame from the wick sits directly beside the intake port on the cylinder head. The sliding valve opens and pulls the flame into the cylinder bore, and the flywheel keeps turning through the power and exhaust strokes. That is a satisfying sequence to trace from part to part.
Two loose ends remain. Some parts in the build were found pieces rather than fresh stock, and there is no complete set of plans for the engine. Anyone wanting to reproduce it would be improvising nearly as much as the maker did.
Project by Gussechan. Watch it on their YouTube channel: