Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

The problem with actual working tools like this is that the force needed to operate it is rarely constant, but rather varies from easy to hard depending on the vagaries of the medium being worked.

Our little steam engines, and other model power sources, do not generally respond well to such variations in the work load, and typically stall out when the load rapidly increases.

A very low gear ratio can overcome this problem to a great degree, if you have some form of transmission to provide that low gearing and if you don't mind having the operation take a long time.