Cabin Fever York PA USA

Cabin Fever Model Engineering Show York PA, 2013 pictures

Cabin Fever is a model engineering show and auction at the York Pennsylvania USA fairgrounds that focuses on model engines that run on tracks, fly, move dirt, float on water and all the tools used to create them. This is a collection of pictures from the 2013 expo.

Auction

Tables of stuff to be sold, bare tables with stuff sold, and crowd bidding on current items

There are lots arranged on tables. A crowd moves from lot to lot with an auctioneer.

Before Electricity

Manufacturing and machine shops depended upon steam or water power. Usually there was one engine and it supported a multistory building that distributed a turning crankshaft through out the building. These are models of these old days showing all the parts.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing is being done in most major cities because it is fun, it doesn't require a lot of knowledge to start banging and an intuitive knowledge of metal phases, quinching, hardness, brittleness can be built and later studied.

Bridges

Was hoping to see a variety of railroad bridge trusses built and displayed.

Casting

Casting appears to be easy. There was one outdoor demonstration and another person indoors talked about starting the process with a 3D printer.

Clock Repair

Clock mechanism repair and construction was on display in two locations.

magnetic gears

Compressed Air

There were all types of engines designed to run on all types of fuels. But most were designed to also run on compressed air. There were standard fittings and connectors. Some people hid these connections in their displays/motor mounts.

Dirt

There was a pile of dirt for models of earth moving and digging equipment to work on.

Education Demos

The group "Gravity is Optional" demonstrated tricks/demonstrations associated with magnets and center of gravity with an educational goal.

bird balancing on a cup .. center of gravity illusion
pendulum hanging magnents were stopped by another magnent
triangular shaped dowel was shown to have the same circumference as a tube .. counter intuitive
non-symetrical center of gravity causes spinnign to change into vibration, to spining in the opposite direction
the surface did not matter, could be done by attaching coins to a soda bottle
Mardi Gras beads on a spinning pulley mount could be distorted while spinning and it would hold the distortion for a while

Engines

There were over 100 engines of different shapes and sizes. Most had one or two cylinders.

Some engines are classified by the type of fuel they are designed for: gas, diesel, steam. Some are classified by how the moving parts relate to each other: piston, rotary, turbine, quasi-turbine. Some are classified by characteristics of the heating and cooling cycle of each revolution (otto, rankine (steam), stirling etc.) or piston arrangement (straight, slant, V). Others are named after a designer. Some have significant symbolic archetypal influence within the engine design community. Without stopping and talking to the owner, or reading about each engine, it was impossible classify each. So there are around 50 unclassified engines.

Flying

There was a net hung from the ceiling in which to fly blimps, helicopters and airplanes. Nothing flew in these pictures, but the nets are a necessary safety precaution.

Marble

Marbles rolling down complicated wood contraptions that required turning a knob:

Pond

It looked like the boats in the pond were all being driven by batteries and piloted by RC. Around the pond were boats with various types of motors. These were not hooked to the compressed air system. The boats did not appear to have Airsoft turrents or damage associated with re-enacting naval battles. The pond was deep enough for all the boats, but still one could wade out and get a dead boat.

RailRoads

There were two railroads indoors and one outdoors plus various railroad related engines scattered throughout.

Tools

3D Printing

There was a Makerbot Replicator with two print heads and heated table live making parts. Owner uses it to create molds for casting. There was also a RepRap made out of plexiglass rather than printed parts.