I’ve started thinking about how I might build a solenoid engine. I bought a couple solenoids on Amazon, Uxcell brand, and they seem to have quite a bit of zip to them, so I’ve been looking into how to mount them to a block in a way that would allow them to rotate around an axis, eliminating the need for the connecting rod to rotate with the piston head, which in this case is just the armature of the solenoid.
Pictured below is the first three attempts at printing a little box to hold a solenoid. The little wings on the side have 1/8″ holes in them that will fit over a rod, allowing the solenoid assemblies (I plan on having two of those) to lie directly over the crankshaft and rotate back and forth with the cranks.
You can see the design process as it unfolded, first with no venting on the sides, then with vertical venting and finally diagonal venting to allow the solenoids’ windings to cool off better during operation. I don’t know how much of a problem heat will be, though, since I’ll be running somehow around half the rated service voltage of the solenoids, at 50% duty cycle to boot.
I did melt the diagonal vents a little with a heat gun while trying to de-string the object. Oops.