About Plans

All of our plans projects are machined from metal bar stock (supplied by the builder) and no castings are required.  This is the lowest cost way for you to build as the metals can usually be purchased from metal salvage yards for around $2.00 or so per pound for aluminum, brass and stainless steel.  But as can be seen, most of the model engines are designed to look like they were in fact made from castings instead of rectangular blocks and round bars of metal.  

Please note - we do not have any ready to run engines or bolt together engine kits for sale. The plans are for model engines - the engines can be scaled to any size, but no claims of suitability for practical power generation are made.

The Plans Set drawings are high quality computer generated drawings using a professional CAD (Computer Aided Design) program and printed on 8-1/2" x 11" sheets with a laser printer.  This permits you to insert them in plastic sheet protectors so they won't get soiled as you use them in the shop.  Dimensions are in U.S. inch decimals - no fractions - which makes it easy for you to change the scale of your model to suit your machine tool capacity or the materials you have on hand or have access to. Multiply dimensions by 25.4 to obtain millimeter dimensions. 

Plans do not come with a separate "Bill of Materials" sheet, but Jerry does advise what type of material should be used on each part drawing in the plans.

Generally the plans do not contain assembly instructions.  Jerry always presumed if you were smart enough to build the parts, you would know how to assemble them.  On complicated areas, Jerry does provide cut-away views.  Most all plan sets contain from 1 to 5 pages of construction notes to assist with some machining, assembly, and operation.  The plans are very detailed and complete, and any experienced builder (and most novices) should have no trouble at all.

All drawings are copyright protected and all rights to them are reserved by Outpost Enterprises, LTD.  Shop working copies may be made by the purchaser for his own use only.  It is a violation of copyright law to sell or give copies away.  We will make specific exceptions for educational institutions, please contact us.   Plan sets are not returnable unless we make a mistake and send the wrong one - in that event we will do whatever it takes to make a correction.

PDF Downloads of our plans are now available.  Look for the "PDF Download" button in the engine detail page.  We encourage everyone to use this method, especially overseas customers.  You'll save money and time.

We offer the complete plans of the Rider Pumping Engine as an example of Jerry's work for $1.00.  We would give them away, but $1 is the minimum charge of our PDF handler.  Click link near bottom of Home page for details