I have been building engines of all sizes for most of my life. As a kid I worked on all kinds of models, free flight and "u"control airplanes, model boats, and model cars. I fixed and re-built small engines, and as a teen worked on cars. In order to do these things,I learned how to use many tools, including the machine shop equipment needed to make and repair parts. I worked my way through school in a machine shop. My education consisted of a degree in mechanical technology, which prepared me to be a metallurigist, a tool and dye designer, draftsman, machine tool operator and a mechanical engineer, all of which I have used both in my business and with my hobbies. Soon after I graduated, I decided to set up my own shop in my basement. For over 35 years, until I retired in '98, I was self-employed in the machine shop industry. At first, manufacturing parts for aerospace corporations, then doing design, research and development work for several private firms. I have also designed and built unique machinery for a few local companies. I have been very fortunate to enjoy my livelihood. Over the years, when my machines were not tied up with customer work, I would build models of engines and also many pieces of miniature apparatus, such as a drag saw, washing machine, cement mixer, water pump, grinder and others to show how the engines were used. My hobby equipment consists of the same full size industrial machinery that was used for my machine shop business. I design and build all my own specialized tooling used to make the parts for my model engines. This includes gear cutting, miniature bolt making and special cutters. Designing and building running gas engines, smaller and smaller, has been my goal for the past several years. Both their size and getting them to run reliably is a challenge, and that challenge is what keeps my interest. Each time I achieve a goal in one size, I want to try to make the next one smaller. My largest engines are 7/8" bore Hit and Miss engines. The mid-size engines are 7/16" and 3/8" bore Hit and Miss. Some are scale and some are my own design. The small engines are all my own design. They are 1/4" and 1/8" bore, 4 cycle, spark plug ignition and throttle governed. The smallest engine I have designed and scratch built is a 1/8" bore, 5/32" stroke,single cylinder, 4 cycle, overhead valve, spark plug ignition engine.It runs, but I am still trying to get this one to run as well as all my others. In April, 2000, I won first prize with my 4 cylinder, 4 cycle, ignition engine, in the Sherline Machinist's Challenge at the N.A.M.E.S. show in Michigan, (shown under "Feature 4 CYL Engine") I designed and built it from scratch, and until this past year,this engine was the most difficult to design so that it would run. The engine took over 600 hours to complete. In 2001, I designed and scratch built a running, 5 cylinder, 4 cycle radial,spark plug ignition engine, which took over 800 hours to complete.This engine won first prize this year in the Sherline contest and also won me the "Metalworking Craftsman of the Year" award from the Joe Martin Foundation for Excellence in Craftmanship. (Shown under Feature 5 CYL Radial Engine") Until 1999, all the engines I had designed and built were single cylinder, 4 cycle engines.In 2000,the challenge was to build a small multi-cylinder, 4 cycle engine and to have it run reliably. All my engines are overhead valve, spark plug ignition engines. They all run using homemade coils for make-and-break ignition and miniature model airplane type coils for spark plug ignition. These are mounted in battery boxes, or in the base of each engine.The spark plugs I make for these engines range in size from 1/4-32 thread for the large engines, 6-40 thread for the mid-size ones, and 2-64 and 0-80 thread for the small engines. At the many shows I attend each year, my display is set up on an 8' diameter round table with me in the center. A small steam tractor, under steam, travels around the outside edge of the table all day, while the gas engines run on the inside edge. I have displayed this exhibit at shows from Maine to Florida, Arizona to Minnesota at Steam & Gas shows and Model Engineering shows. Over the years, many of the engines have also been featured in an assortment of magizines, some of which are listed under "Magazine Articles".