How to Build Your Own Solenoid-Powered V4 Engine

No dimensions are provided, so watch the video for more details. 

Next, place the cut acrylic pieces onto your CNC milling machine, and cut out the main V4 pieces. Alternatively, you could 3D print these pieces if you are not worried about them being transparent. 

Again, no dimensions are provided by the creator, so this will take some trial and error.

Drill holes and assemble the main solenoid V4 frame as shown in the video. 

Next, mark out and cut out a suitably sized piece of wood to form the base of the solenoid V4. Again, sadly, no dimensions are provided, so ensure it is big enough to mount the entire final V4 model onto. 

Once cut to size, CNC mill the wood to form a shallow recess on one face of it, as shown below. 

Sand it down, as required.

Next, mark out and drill sufficient numbers and size holes to mount the acrylic frame to the base. 

Now, it is time to make the crankshaft discs for the V4 engine. Grab a brass rod, and cut off a small length --  as shown in the video.

Then place the rod piece into a mini lathe and machine the discs, also as shown in the video. The discs made in this guide are 20mm in diameter by 5mm thick. 

You'll need 5 of them in total. 

Buff and polish, as required. 

Next, cut out a piece of the aluminum sheet, place it on your CNC milling machine, and create the piston rods required. You'll need four of these -- once for each cylinder. 

Buff and polish these pieces too. 

Next to make the crank disc and rod connecting rods. Grab your steel rods and cut them into sections, and machine as required. 

You will also need to make the solenoid "pistonhead" pieces too. 

Again, no dimensions are provided so please watch the video for more details on this section. 

With that complete, the next phase is to make the solenoid "cylinders". Take some more brass rod, and cut off 4 equally sized sections. 

Machine these brass rod pieces into cylindrical I-shaped pieces "bobbin", as shown in the video and the image below. 

These pieces will also need a suitably sized hole through the center to enable a snug fit for the piston rods you made earlier. 

With those complete, now coil copper wire around each one. You can now connect each one up to a battery, place the steel rod piston heads inside them, and test whether the heads move inside the cylinders, or not. 

Next, grab the brass discs, rods, and piston heads, and assemble the crank shaft as shown in the video and image below. 

Now, partially dismantle the acrylic V4 frame, you made earlier and insert the two ball bearings into each endplate, as shown. 

With those in place, insert the completed crankshaft to the V4 frame as shown below. 

Next, attached the piston heads to the piston rods. Now, attach the solenoid cylinders to the acrylic top plates, as shown below, and in the video. 

With that stage complete, insert the piston heads inside each solenoid, and screw the top plates into place as shown below. 

Next, feed the copper wires through the wooden base. The next step is to make the solenoid V4's basic wiring.

Take your TIP122 transistors, 100ohm resistors, LEDs (to light the acrylic frame), and 7805 voltage regulator, and copper safety pins. Now create the circuitry as detailed in the diagram below and the video. 

Next, we need to make a way to fire the solenoids in sequence to simulate a running engine. This will be done by using rotary circuit breakers. 

To make these grab some more steel rods, and machine them down, as shown in the video. Once complete, add to the end of the crankshaft and align them with the safety pins. 

With that, the solenoid V4 is basically complete. Now just add some form of a flywheel to the crankshaft, add some power, and let the solenoid engine roar!