If you're one of those people that loves to learn, you'll simply learn, all the time at every opportunity. If you keep learning long enough, sooner or later your mind will begin to overflow into the real world. That pretty much describes J. Joachim Hall. He's a self taught and home schooled builder and college student. He's quite a maker who loves everything mechanical, electrical and electronic. He decided to build an internal combustion engine, a two stroke, and after doing some pencil sketches in a spiral bound notebook, simply got to work. How hard could it be?
Let's see, he does have a home workshop, but no machine tools, no CAD software or CNC milling machines, but since he understands how a two stroke engine operates, it's simple, right? Scratch build an engine from a few odds and ends in your home workshop. Make your own cylinder, head, piston, connecting rod, ... uh huh, ...
If you want to set aside some time, he has a series of six YouTube videos on his own channel, Makerj101, that cover the entire project from pencil sketches to initial start up and he definitely is happy when it lights up for the first time. Oh, by the way, he already had built himself a steam engine, a stirling engine, a bench power supply, a Tesla coil, ... you get the idea. He's a builder.
The beginning
There are no guarantees in life, but I'm guessing he has a pretty bright future. So, what were you building when you were a teenager?
Source: Popular Mechanics