This Miniscule, Functioning Wooden V8 Is A Thing Of Engineering Beauty
We can’t help but wonder if YouTube channel name ‘Generic Woodworking’ is intentionally ironic, because there’s nothing ‘generic’ about what you see going on in the video above. In it, we see a young and incredibly talented woodworker create a model V8 not much bigger than a fingernail.
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He uses birch for the cylinder banks and pistons, oak veneer for the crankshaft counterweights, and barbeque skewers for crank journals and connecting rods. The parts all look incredibly fragile and so fiddly to make that he glues back together one of the counterweights when it splits rather than make a new one.
He’s even thought about the firing order - although it’s tricky to tell given how tiny everything is, we’re reasonably sure the little engine has a flat-plane crankshaft. And yes, it does function to a degree, turning over by hand or with a little assistance from a drill. You’d think a heat build-up due to friction might be an issue, but apparently, the model keeps cool despite no lubrication being used.
Car-related stuff makes up most of Generic Woodworking’s content, with several other equally impressive projects posted on the channel that are worth a look. He’s currently working on a detailed car model which includes a working (yes, wooden) speedometer, and in the past, he built a much larger and more complex model V8 with a proper working timing system and a supercharger with various moving parts.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
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