NAMES 2000

Richard and Roy arrived at Detroit Wayne County airport late Thursday night. We had learned last year that you had to arrive early on set up day if you wanted a good spot. Those NAMES modelers arrive early! So, early Friday morning we were setting up our display. Richard had his new cam driven Stirling, but Roy had to make do with some of last year's models. He has two scale models under construction - in fact, both have run - but finish painting is taking much longer than planned.

It seems that this year's show, although probably a bit larger than last year's, had fewer Stirling engines and flame lickers. Many of them we had seen before, but there were a few new ones, and those that were there were very high quality, as you will see from the photos below:

	Let's begin with a couple of non-stirling engines, two beautifully done Corliss engines by William Huxhold of Canada. near the bottom right of the photo (click on the photos for a larger view) you will see a penny coin. This will give you some idea of the scale of these engines! I asked Bill if the dash pots were really working models, and he replied "Of course!", and commented that it took him about a week to get the engines adjusted to run as he wished.
Dick Sanders is an old standby at not only NAMES, but also PRIME. He is another Stirling enthusiast, and is shown here with two of his creations.
	Here is Dick again, with the fancier of his two engines. This one sports a transparent displacer cylinder and a colorful plastic beam arm
Dr. Ernie Fordham showed one of the more intriguing exhibits. Tiny CO2 engines from Czechoslovakia. He had single cylinder models that could not have had bores greater than .125", 2 and 4 cylinder opposed engines, and an inline 4. One of the engines was powering a small free flight balsa model, which ascended in a graceful spiral, and then descended just as gracefully. Most of the time Ernie caught it gently, but on one occasion, it came in a bit low, and a spectator caught it rather ungracefully. Ernie was able to repair the damage over night!
	Our table mate was displaying an 1896 Ford, which he is building from an exhibited full sized model at the Ford Museum. His workmanship is excellent, and the engine is a work of art. Unfortunately, my notes do not reflect his name.
On the other side of our exhibit was a young man who has been building models since he was in elementary school - he is now in his second year of mechanical engineering. he was here with a young neighbor, who worked most of Saturday getting a little oscillating steamer to run. In the foreground is an antique Stirling that he has restored, and just behind that is his meat grinder engine, which you will see more of below.
	Here are two views of the Meat Grinder engine. It is, in fact, a dual fuel engine! It will run as an internal combustion engine, or as it did at the show, on steam or compressed air! Quite an original idea and configuration, I think you will agree.
And here is his neighbor, at the air control for the meat grinder engine. It was great to see two of the younger generation interested in mechanical models.
	And now for some more Stirling engines, these made by Harold Robbins of Windsor, Ontario.
Robert Hesse of Ann Arbor, Michigan made this brake fluid can Stirling 32 years ago!
	Here we see Neal James explaining a finer point of Stirling engines to Rich Ahrens.
Rich has made these Lake Breeze fans from castings. Beautiful workmanship!
	Rich Puleo from Massachusetts shows fine workmanship on two Stirling powered fans.
Lloyd Wilhite of Windsor, Missouri with his two Lake Breeze fans. The larger is from castings, but Lloyd saw the smaller in a Lake Breeze catalog, and just had to make one. I think he did a bang-up job!
	Larry Lamp was our "across the aisle" neighbor last year. he was having problems with his coffee can Stirling, but replaced the aluminum power piston with a graphite one, and has a sweet running engine now. His son was hawking a ring and chain puzzle trick at a very reasonable price. Check him out if you are at NAMES next year!
Joe Fishback is an Atlanta neighbor, and our table mate. Joe just can't resist the tiny engines! Last year he was at NAMES with a little oscillator about the size of a large bean, and this year added a vertical engine of about the same size. This one sports a rotary valve!
	And... Here's Richard! With the cam driven Stirling, the South Pointing Penguin and the cnc milled butterfly. Who says grown men can't have fun?
And last but hopefully not least, is Roy's side of the exhibit. Sorry, but nothing here that you can't see elsewhere in our pages, but everything ran beautifully, and wowed a few innocent souls! See you next year!