Tom Perkins
JAN RIDDERS’
OTTO FOUR-STROKE
Tom Perkins
JAN RIDDERS’
OTTO FOUR-STROKE
Jan Ridders’ version of the Otto four-stroke engine is a popular design, and great project for a small home workshop. Tom Perkins displayed this nice example at the Midlands exhibition in 2017. It was built from stock materials using a Myford ML10 LATHE, Warco WM-14 milling machine and rotary table. Ignition is via a modified domestic gas lighter. Total build time was around 500 hours.
Details of the design and how to obtain up-to date drawings have been published on MEWS and can be found here, and the latest ignition system here.
Jan wrote of this design that there would be “no difficult fabrication techniques like casting, molding, accurate grinding, cog- or chain wheels, etc. It must be possible for every ‘moderate’ model builder like me to make this engine with simple standard lathe and milling work and from standard bar stock materials.
“So, my goal was to design and make a honest, reliable, nice and quiet running 4-stroke internal combustion engine, rather than a complex and high power machine.”