The Internet Craftsmanship Museum Presents:

Ron Colonna’s work came to the attention of the Joe Martin Foundation in 2002 through the recommendation of Robert Washburn, former publisher of Strictly IC magazine. Ron’s work covers engines in both live steam and gas, and he has contributed much to the hobby of model engineering through the articles and book he has written about producing some of the projects.  

A builder with a knack for engines from an early age

Ron always enjoyed building things and would spend most of his time working with his father’s tools when his friends were out playing ball. At an early age, he made many of his own toys. Things such as boomerangs, animal traps, model airplanes, go-carts, and such, were turned out on a regular basis. Not having a lot of money to spend, many of his projects involved trips to the junkyard or a look through things his neighbors thought were no longer useful.

Model airplanes were a big part of his early interest in engines. He was always disappointed when my models didn’t turn out like those pictured on the box. Ron joined a local model airplane club, and after talking with and learning from the pros, his models started to look more presentable. Whenever an engine didn’t perform the way he thought it should, he would work it over, polishing ports, swapping parts, and blending fuels until it started easily and ran with increased power.

Ron soon progressed to bigger engines such as those found on lawn mowers, mini bikes, and go-carts. His older brother and he built a go-cart from old bicycle frames, straightening tubing and putting things together according to a set of plans they’d found in Popular Mechanics. A neighbor gave them the engine. He had taken it all apart and had it all stuffed in a fruit basket and was going to toss it out. (Hence the expression “basket case”.) Ron rebuilt it and had it running like new in no time.

Ron in his shop at the mill. His 12" Craftsman/Atlas lathe is in the background. His shop is quite modest in size and takes up only one corner of his basement next to the furnace. (Click photo for larger image.)

All Ron’s courses in high school were College Prep even though he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to attend college. In eleventh and twelfth grades he attended a technical school program in Electronics. He went to tech school in the mornings and high school in the afternoons. He enjoyed that program and learned enough to earn some money fixing appliances for the neighbors. By word of mouth, this almost got to be a full time job.

When he graduated, Ron took a job in the local steel mill. He worked on the casting floor of the blast furnace for six months. It was hot and heavy work and not what he wanted to do, even though the money was good. He soon signed up as an apprentice Millwright. This kept him in touch with things mechanical and he learned how to repair some very complex machines. The best thing about the job was that it included a four-year deferment from the military. The Vietnam War was raging and he wanted no part of that; however, he finished the program in a little over a year. He kept taking the tests and passing them, all the while making more money as his job class rose towards being a Journeyman. As soon as he took the final test he was considered through with the course and his draft papers showed up in the mail before his Journeyman’s papers ever did.

Ron was drafted and sent to Vietnam in the spring of 1968. He ended up in an armored unit and spent a little over a month being shot at before being severely wounded by a gunshot to the spine. He was retired from the Army on a disability pension at 21 years of age. Being a partial paraplegic, he was eligible for a free education. He attended Penn State University and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

After college Ron was married and worked part time designing and building pollution control monitoring equipment for a company owned by his uncle. Tess-Com produces this type of equipment and sells it to heavy industry all over the world. He designed a package using specific ion electrodes that is still being sold today.

About this time he acquired a lathe and began using it to make some small parts for these types of instruments. A milling machine followed shortly afterwards.

Since he was only working part time, Ron found he had some free time for model building. He was still building model airplanes, only now had progressed from U-Control to Radio Controlled planes. Getting better with his machinery, he thought he would try to build a steam locomotive. He built LBSC’s Virginia in 3½ inch gauge and joined the West Penn Live Steamers club shortly after completing it. The engine ran extremely well and the Live Steam bug bit him. He went on to build several other locomotives and became an associate member at the Pennsylvania Live Steamers. His stable of locomotives includes two versions of the Virginia design in 3 ½ inch and 4 ¾ inch gauges, a Pacific type locomotive, a Consolidation, and a Hudson all in 3 ½ inch gauges. He also built a Case traction engine in 2-inch scale and a model of an amusement park locomotive for Crown Metal Products in 1-inch scale.

Ron started building internal combustion engines as a change of pace. Through a construction article in Home Shop Machinist magazine he became acquainted with Robert Washburn. He built Robert’s “Sky Charger” engine and corresponded with him about some of the finer points of machining it. Bob went on to publish Strictly IC and later asked if Ron would like to build an engine and write a construction article for him. Ron settled on the quarter scale “Cirrus Mark I”, a Merrit Zimmerman design. Merrit supplied the castings and drawings and Ron machined the engine, wrote the machining instructions and took the photographs of the work in progress. He ran the finished engine along side of Merrit’s original at the Second Annual NAMES (North American Model Engineering Society) Expo in Ann Arbor that year. He was happy and relieved when it ran well and that everyone he talked to enjoyed the article. He continued building IC engines and took them to display at the various model shows he attends. He run them whenever someone asks, and many times when they don’t!

Ron’s latest project has been the most work intensive of them all.  He built a quarter scale Offenhauser 270 racing engine from bar stock, produced all the drawings with CAD and wrote a book of instructions to show others how to do it.  He had heard about the powerful and famous Offys while growing up but really got excited about them after his oldest son gave him a book about them as a Father’s Day gift.  He was able to pick up a couple of side view drawings and looked up copies of some articles Bob Washburn had referred him to a few years earlier.  A couple of photos in the book along with those two drawings and descriptive articles were all he had to work from.  Interest among the many model builders he has met has been good, and several builders of the engine have sent him photos of their finished engines.  Ron feels an attachment to these engines even though others built them.  He says, “It’s a great feeling and a great hobby.”

2004 Contest Winning "Whizzer" Motorbike

(L) Ron receives his plaque and award check from Foundation director Craig Libuse at the North America Model Engineering Society Exposition in Detroit in 2002 for winning the Sherline Machinist's Challenge. Ron's detailed "Whizzer" motor bike (Center and Right) took top prize in the contest for miniature machining craftsmen. Awards in the contest are based on votes given by spectators at the show who pick their favorites from all the entries presented. (Click on any photo to view a larger version of the image.)

Selection as 2008 Metalworking Craftsman of the Year

Ron was selected to be the twelfth person to receive the Foundation's top award because of his extensive contributions to the hobby both through his construction of many engines but also for the additional step he has taken to pass on some of that knowledge to others through the writing of magazine articles and production of a book on how to build the Offy 270. In addition, is skill in this field is attested to not only by how nice the engines look but also by the fact that each is a good, reliable runner. As a past winner of Sherline's Machinist's Challenge contest, the winner of which is selected by the spectators at the annual NAMES show, Ron's work is also obviously popular with the show-goers who inspect it in person. Ron will be receiving an award plaque and a check for $2000.00 at the NAMES show on April 20, 2008. His work will be on display in a special area set aside for the winner of this award, and he will be there to run his engines and discuss their construction.

See Ron’s personal web site at: http://www.ronsmodelengines.com.

See videos of some of Ron's engines running on YouTube.com at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ronsmodelengines.

Here are a number of examples of Ron Colonna's work:

(Click photos for larger images.)

New Submissions Welcomed

If you have additional information on a project or builder shown on this site that your would like to contribute, please e-mail craig@CraftsmanshipMuseum.com. We also welcome new contributions. Please see our page at www.CraftsmanshipMuseum.com/newsubmit.htm for a submission form and guidelines for submitting descriptive copy and photos for a new project.

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