Yes, the name seems a strange contradiction, but this is a fan to keep you cool, but its powered by a hot air engine! This model is a very accurate scle model of the Lake Breeze Model A built about 1900. I saw a real one of these go at an auction once for $2,500 much to expensive for me to even consider. So when I saw Paul Jacobs with this kit at the NAMES show a couple years ago I instantly bought the kit.
Paul has done a very nice job on this kit. The casting are good aluminum castings. All the material is included, even a bunch of 1-72 bolts. The plans are excellent. The only item that I had trouble with was the base casing. It tapers just enough to make holding it to turn the underside tricky. I finally did it at a friends shop on a nice Buck 6-jaw chuck. This was large enough to swallow the upper part of the base and got just enough hold on the rim.
The kit requires both machining and sheet metal work. The fuel tank is a copper shel. Paul suggest spinning it, but I hammer formed it over a wood form. There is quite a lot of wire work, all bent and silver soldered. A couple jigs are detailed for bending the wire.
This is a fussy engine to get running. Its a tough balance between tight enough to not leak and loose enough to run. Mine ran, but just barely, when I finsihed it. I took it to the next NAMES show and Paul loosend up all the bearings, to the point I thought was sloppy loose, but it now runs fine. I've now run it several hours at shows and it gets better all the time.
Paul also supplies a Model B kit, which has the heat source as a lamp, with a glass chimney so you could read by the lamp, while getting cool. He detailed this version in and article in MODELTEC magazine.
This is a great project, but I would not suggest it for a first project. It does require some tricky work.
For information on the kit contact
Paul Jacobs 1745 Glastonberry TOledo OH 43613 419/475-7103