These little air powered motors remind me of a compressed CO2 airplane engine that my father had. It was a commercial product but the idea was the same. The high pressure gas would force the single piston down the cylinder and the inertia of the crankshaft would force the piston back up for another charge. It produced quite a bit of power from a single tiny cylinder of gas. The engines that Mike Smyth builds are a true work of art, all the parts were made from either brass from a local hardware shop or plastic form a cutting board. The tools were no more complex than a drill press and a belt sander. I’m quite happy to hear that he didn’t use a computer controlled mill or some strange stereo photo polymer lithography setup to build his wonderful machines.
[via MAKEzine blog]
CS Soh’s incredible Lego compressors and pneumatic engines:
http://www.fifth-r.com/cssoh1/contents.htm