"It wasn't completed, though all the parts were made. It needed the paint and the final touches ... a lot of work."
But it's been worth it, he says, because it seems to be people's favorite engine.
"There's lots of working motion on that engine, and lots of detail, and I think it's a nice engine, too," he says.
If You Build Them, They Will Come
"For years I had seen models that somebody else had made," he says, "and then I saw some ads for information to make some models, so I ordered the plans and casting, and started building it."
That was a model of the Associated Gas engine, called a "Little Brother," so named because, like many of the scaled-down versions, it couldn't be made exactly to scale of the Associated engine it was patterned after.
"Sometimes in that smaller scale, you've got to do a little changing of the size of parts to make them work," Dave says.
"I get plans from people, or out of books, and I say, 'I think I'm going to build that one.'"
Another one that he's built is a Robinson hot-air engine.
"I made all the parts for that one," he says. "I've got a mill, and a lathe, and a pliers and screwdriver and hammer and chisel, as far as that goes, so I use whatever tools it takes to do it. I don't have a fancy mill - I have what you call a mill drill - but it works."