# 1/5 IHC Famous Vertical Screen Cooled



## Jasonb

I've recently started on this model of an IHC Famous Engine, the castings are the original May Engine Works ones and have been through the hands of at least two members of this forum before being purchased by their current owner who I am building it for.

The kit contains 18 castings, 16 in iron and two in gun metal as you can see below, one of the previous owners had painted them in two shades of grey paint.







As an idea of size the flywheels finish up around 5 1/2" dia and the engine about 12" tall

The first part I tackled was the base casting, as the sides are tapered it was not going to be easy to hold so I shimmed it up on the mill and machined the top surface and tapped the four holes. I then drilled matching holes in a bit of flat alloy bar and used CSk screws to join the two, it was then a simple case of clamping the flat bar to the table so I could machine the bottom of the casting.







Next on the list was the crank case, again I machined the top then bottom and took a light skim around the 4 edges of the base flange so I would have 4 true edges to setup the casting with. I mounted it on its side between two angle plates and it was just a case of rotating 90degrees and then machining the next face.






I mounted the bearing carrier into the casting so I could bore that at the same setting as the fixed side to make sure all was in line.






And here it is with a few pivot pins fitted











The cylinder was a fairly straight forward boring and then drilling job followed by a bit of fettling with the Dremel around the various cast bosses






Finally for a change of material I did the Muffler parts, the cast elbow was from PM Research






Jason


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## b.lindsey

That is looking great Jason. You have made a lot of progress so far and it is going to be a fine looking engine! Looking forward to seeing more.

Bill


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## CMS

Yes, by all means, looking very nice. Guess it's safe to say that the nuts and studs are home brew. :bow:


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## 4156df

Jason,
Beautiful work. Also, thank you for showing the set up and machining sequence for the castings. I hope you'll keep doing that. How one makes those first cuts on a casting has always been a mystery to me, so any tips are greatly appreciated.
Dennis


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## kustomkb

Nice work Jason! 

I haven't seen many engines made from casting kits. This will be a good one to follow along.

Nice photo's too.


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## Jasonb

Well I think its time for an update on progress.

Working from the bottom up the next logical part was the cylinder head which is an iron casting split horizontally and with about a 1/16" mould shift between the two halves . Luckily there was a good machining allowance on the spigot that fits into the cylinder so that was turned first and used to hold the head in a chuck on the rotary table so the stepped casting edge could be sorted out, this took 180 passes at 2 degree intervals while working around the cast bosses.






Before I could tidy up the bosses I wanted to do the mating parts, first the Ignitor body which was fairly straight forward turning, drilling and milling






The carb followed, this again had mould shift and is not an easy item to hold so the flange and mounting holes were machined first so it could be screwed to an alloy block which gave me something to get hold of while machining the many internal cavities and passageways. I did a few of the associated parts at the same time.






The bosses were then tidied up, rather than describe it again I talked about them in this thread. The top of the head was then machined, unfortunatly the post for the rocker arm was chilled and blunted a 1/2" mill, 10mins at read heat and a slow cool sorted that out  and the head was complete.


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## Jasonb

For a change from castings I tackled the crank next. This is just a silver brazed fabrication and I also pinned the joints after soldering so it should be bomb proof, then profiled the webs and milled the 3/32" keyways. The bearings are just simple turning from SA660 bearing bronze the only problem now is that with the bearings installed I have a 7/8" gap to take a 1" wide crank ???






And this is where I'm at, well there are a few other bits part way through, needless to say more issues with chilled castings but that will have to wait for another day.






Jason


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## jpaul

Good work Jason!

I saw a YouTube video of this model on smokstak.com It's a great looking model. http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70316

Of particular interest is the mechanisms for pumping coolant and fuel. I look forward to more pictures

Thanks for sharing


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## b.lindsey

Jason, this is coming along very well indeed. Its looking more and more like the real thing. I am assuming that the castings are no longer available...is that correct? Keep up the fine work...this is going to be a beauty!!!

Bill


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## Jasonb

Thanks for the comments guys

May Engine Works sold it to Blackberry, then sold it on but the guy who has the patterns is not doing anything with them at the moment.

Jason


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## ZAPJACK

Great work, man
Where is it possible to buy the kit & drawings??
 :bow:


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## Jasonb

Unfortunatly this engihe is not available at the moment, mine is from original May Engine Works castings, it was then produced by Blackberry models who have sold the castings to someone else who is not doing anything with them at the moment.

It would be possible to make this engine without castings, I feel all the cast parts could be fabricated and I will be fabricating a few of teh smaller castings that are not usable. As I'm making this engine for someone else I will be making one for myself by fabrication in 1/4 scale, infact I started making the base "casting" this weekend, watch out for a new post covering the build.

Jason

PS PM sent


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## cfellows

Jason, I look forward to details of your 1/4 scale build. The IHC Famous has always been one of my favorites.

Chuck


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## cidrontmg

Jasonb  said:
			
		

> And this is where I'm at, well there are a few other bits part way through, needless to say more issues with chilled castings but that will have to wait for another day.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jason



 Looks like a surprised alien about to throw a WW2 hand grenade...  :big:


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## Jasonb

This seems a good time of year to catch up on progress on the Famous.

The Carb is now complete, the stailess steel needle valve has been done as have the air pipe and inlet elbow, both in brass. You can also see how the venturi is set into the casting around the jet.






The governor spool is turned from steel and slides on a bronze sleeve that is keyed to the crankshaft. The governor arms engage in the two small slots and the actuating arm has a roller that runs against the angled face.






The carrier was once again an iron casting that was hevily chilled and moved while I attempted to machine it as the tool was pushed off the hard bits, only option was to make a new one. Unlike Metalbutcher I decided to silver solder two bits of brass together as the basis of the part. This first picture shows me picking up the centre after the "T" shaped fabrication was turned over in preparation for machining out the middle






And the middle being taken out with a small flycutter as I wanted a radius fillet to the internal corners






The four mounting holes were drilled at the same setting and then used to hold the job onto a suitably tapped bit of alloy in the rotary table so the external profile could be milled






And this is the finished carrier after a bit of filing






Cont'd


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## Jasonb

Two castings are supplied for the governor weights, these had too much mould shift to be of any real use and I suspect they would be chilled like the rest of the small CI parts. So I fabricated them from 3/8" dia steel for the actual weight and 3/8x1/4" flat stock for the arms. The two pins have a flat in the middle and the thread of the tangs locate on this to hold the pins in place, casting in background.






I have slipped the assembly onto the crank back to front so you can get an idea of how it works






Two other Iron castings were salvagable after a long blast with the propane torch, they are the breather box and water pump eccentric strap/arm












The flywheels were straight forward turning and boring jobs done on the faceplate. The balance weights have to be formed by milling away the rim for 300degrees each side which was done on the rotary table. The drawings don't show one but I added a pully as it would be nice to se the engine doing something.






Cont'd


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## Jasonb

While the lathe had cast iron swarf over it I decided to tackle the last couple of parts that were from the same material.

The cylinder liner was machined from a 3 3/4 length of 40mm cast iron bar, this was roughed out .060" oversize and left for a week before final machining, the outside first then I added a fixed steady when machining the 1" bore with a 3/4" boring bar.






Note the hi-tec tool holding device 







The bore was machined .002" undersize and then finished with a sprung hone using parafin (kerosine) to stop the stones clogging. The hone was held in the toolpost so the carrage could be easily moved back and forth, paper to keep any abrasive off the machine






And the finished item with the top lip reduced to the correct size, I left it oversize to give me something to hold while boring.






I used a bit of the same cast iron to make the piston rings, here they are being parted off along with a few spares






The piston had already been made so I completed this section by doing the conrod and bearings






Well thats about it all upto date so I'll finish of with a couple of shots of the current state of play.











Jason


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## cl350rr

Jason,
that is a sweet looking engine, nice work.

Randel


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## larry1

Jason, Great looking build, really waiting to see this one run. larry


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## gbritnell

Jason,
Excellent machining work on your engine. There are so many horizontal hit and miss engines out there it's nice to see something different. 
Having worked in the casting industry for many years I'm really dumbfounded when I see parts like your governor weights. What's the sense in making a casting if you have to machine the whole thing and then to not anneal it so that it can be cut. 
I am working on an engine with some of the same casting problems so I know what you're going through.
gbritnell


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## JakeHalstrom

You are a gifted machinist. That looks just like my IHC 3 hp Famous! https://sites.google.com/site/ihcfamous/

Jake


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## steamer

Nicely done Jason....as usual! :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Dave


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## Jasonb

Thanks for all trhe kind comments.

Jake, I've actually had your site bookmarked for about six months since I found one of the images on google, it comes in handy for checking details especially as there are no assembly drawings for the model just all individual parts. Have you done any more work on it as there don't seem to have been any photos added lately?

Jason


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## JakeHalstrom

Jason,
    After having the bore sleeved I am held up with getting the flywheels and the sub-base bead blasted. My blast cabinet is not large enough to accomodate them so I have been diverting my attention to my Briggs engine projects until I find an alternative. In the meantine I have picked up some parts for the cart and have begun constructing the wooden deck for it. (Progress pages added below). Have you decided what type of fuel you 
will run your engine on? I see they used many types of fuels back in the day. My old IHC manual shows they used Gas, Gasoline, Naphtha, Kerosene, Distillate or Alcohol.  
                                        --Jake
Here is a page I added on the flywheels: 
https://sites.google.com/site/ihcfamous/page-2/ihc-famous-3-hp-flywheels
Here is my most recent progress on the cart:
https://sites.google.com/site/ihcfamous/page-2/ihc-famous-3-hp-flywheels/ihc-famous-hit-miss-engine-cart


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## Jasonb

I'm going to try either Gasoline or Colman's white gas, I would prefer a liquid as it seems a shame not to use the fuel pump. If it does not run well on those then propane will be the next choice, it is supposed to coke up the small model ignitors less.

Jason


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## mh121

Coming along very nicely Jason. I also like to run on liquid fuel and have had fun in the past with the ignitors. Was thinking of trying propane on the Rootsy to see what difference it makes, please post if you try it also.

Cheers,
MartinH


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## Cedge

Jason
You might want to experiment with a Vapor Foam carb, while you are playing with it. I run one with Coleman fuel and it's super easy to start and adjust. Super simple design and much less finicky than a needle valve carb. They look cool too....LOL

Steve


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## Jasonb

Is it really almost six months since I last posted here? Better get on and update you with progress.

The rocker arm is supplied as a casting but its not upto much and the amount of work to try and get it to look like the finished item would probably be more than fabricating so thats what I went for. The four main parts were machined up







and placed on a jig to hold them in place then coated in correction fluid to stop the silver solder sticking it all together.






Looks a bit of a mess after heating






But after a dip in acid and some emery cloth starts to look like a forging. I would like to say this was how it turned out but the first one when offered up to the engine revealed that the two critical dimensions were transposed on the drawing so the end of the rocker arm missed the top of the valve and the pushrod hit the cylinder, yet another drawing error.






While set up for fabricating small parts the fuel pump actuating lever was also done as a fabrication, there is no roller or pivot shown on the drawings so made it up :






Also did the latch out lever which was fun with all the curves and angles, works OK but did need a bit of cold setting after soldering up. The little roller runs against the angled rim of the spool.






And the last lever needed is the one that operates the pushrod and closes the fuel pump. The little plate at the end is what the latch out lever catches on. Again more errors the roller is shown reamed 1/8" but the rod has a 3/16" hole so you would either have a very sloppy fitting pin or have a job driving a 3/16" one into an 1/8" hole 







cont'd..


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## cfellows

I like what you are doing here. Opens up all kinds of possibilities. Nice work!

Chuck


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## Jasonb

After all that fabrication a bit of machining was a nice change of pace, so the timing gears were tackled next.

The blanks were turned & bored and then mounted onto an arbor so the teeth could be cut on the mill. big gear underway






And the little one on a longer arbor so the cutter would miss the chuck, which needed the centre to stop the large overhang deflecting.






The guy that I am making this for sent me some photos of a full size which showed up some shortcommings on the drawings. One was that the gears are shown as just plain discs, infact the large one is thinner in the centre and also has 3 slots so these were added along with the keyways. The water pump eccentric is also shown in this pic






and the other side shows the cam profile cut, I did a test run in alloy to make sure this bit was OK






Then it was back to fabrication of the waterpump. this is nothing like what the drawings show I based it on the photos and am far happier with the result, just need to find the right black hose as the clear is wrong but it helped to see that the pump was working OK.






Same applies to the fuel pump and plumbing all based on the photos of the full size






Well thats enough for tonight but I will leave you with a photo of how all these bits go together, more to follow in the next day or so.

Jason


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## Brian Rupnow

You are doing great work. One of the interesting things I see is the great difference in relationship of the cylinder bore versus the size of the flywheels, when compared to the Kerzel hit and miss engine I built last winter. Although my engine runs well, it doesn't give the same hit/miss cycles that you get with a full size hit and miss engine, and I strongly suspect that the flywheels are undersized to give that effect. I will be very interested to see yours run.----Brian


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## metalmad

Wonderful job
I'll be following along for sure
Pete


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## Jasonb

The drawings show a small brass fuel tank that fits into the engine base but as I wanted to use the correct pipework & fittings this would have been a bit hard to plumb up. I decided to mill a recess around the base and fit a brass plate thus making the whole base into a fuel tank, this will be sealed with an epoxy when I know no more work is needed on that part. The small boss in the middle of the plate will take a valve to allow the tank to be drained






It was then a case of plumbing up the fuel system, 1/8" feed to pump, 3/32" pump to carb, 1/8" gravity return from carb to tank and 1/8" filler. All together there are 38 parts in the fuel lines - pipes, elbows, unions etc.






As the title of the thread suggests this is a "screen cooled" engine where the water is pumped over a mesh screen which acts like a radiator. Again looking at the photos I saw that the screen appeared to have a rim around it. Not having a suitable bit of 3 1/8" dia brass in stock I bent a bit of 5/16 square around a suitable former and silver soldered the ends together then machined the ring out of it.






The drawings have the water tank as a plain bit of 2" dia tube 1 1/2" tall soldered to a square plate. This is nothing like it should be. I went for 3" dia x 2 3/4" high, separate feet and also added some half round beading to replicate the look of the ribs you get round oil drums and the like. Just needs a scale galvanized finish.






And this last shot is where I'm upto at the moment. Just got to finish the ignitor, make an oil level gauge as the crank is wet lubricated and make a scale drip feed oiler for the cylinder.






Jason


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## gbritnell

Excellent work there Jason. The extra touches like the beading add so much to the tank. I think going a little bigger is a plus. If it was made smaller and didn't cool enough you would have to remake it.
gbritnell


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## deverett

You are doing an excellent job there, Jason. Far better than I could have achieved!

Dave
The Emerald Isle


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## metalmad

absolutely magic


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## spuddevans

This is a really beautiful build that is full of character. I cant wait to see it finished and running.


Tim


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## RManley

Such a great looking engine and the level of detail is perfect. Theres nothing nice than proper copper pipework with cast joints. Im intrigued to see the timing mechanism working, somehow reminds me of a can opener :

Do you use ordinary 'tipex' type correction fluid when silver soldering?? I have never tried this but it looks like it works very well.

 Rob.


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## Jasonb

Actually all the pipework will be painted, no place for bling on a scale model for me. It would just be steel "barrel" with malable iron fittings on the full size, its just not easy to get steel in those sizes so I used copper/brass.

Yes just standard tippex stops the solder sticking where you don't want it.

Thanks for all the other comments guys.

Jason


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## mklotz

Jasonb  said:
			
		

> Actually all the pipework will be painted, no place for bling on a scale model for me.



A man after my heart! Good onya, Jason.


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## SBWHART

Bin quetly watching this engine take shape.

Lovely work Jasan

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Stew


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## 3jaw

Hate to be a downer but something doesn't look right with the gear teeth on the cam gear. It looks like either the dividing wasn't done correctly or the teeth aren't all cut to the same depth, or the blank was eccentric to the centerline of the dividing head when the teeth were being cut. Look at the crests of the teeth and you will see that they aren't all the same width. The crank gear looks a little off too. Either the teeth are cut too deep or the o.d. of the blank was too small.

Then again, I may just be seeing things.

Greg


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## Jasonb

Chuck had shifted slightly on its mounting plate so the blank was a few thou eccentric to the Rotary table axis, should not be a problem on a low reving engine like this. Does look worse in the photo than on the actual gear. The crank gear looks less off as it was further from the chuck and nearer the tail centre.


J


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## tomb29

Nice looking model and looks nicely done. I built one of the prototypes for Jim and wrote the article for the March 1995 issue of Gas Engine Magazine. I do hope you plan to paint it when you are finished. One thing I have always done was to use a two part (Imron) paint on my models. I started using One Shot sign painters paint that worked too. Paint everything that is to be painted before starting to machine and it saves a lot of work trying to paint around machined surfaces. Spot faces and all look real nice when you do this. A little run time on the engine with plenty of oil an all moving parts will get the oil into the CI and then unless you leave it out in the rain for sustained periods of time, it will not rust usually


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## AussieJimG

Reading this makes me realise just how much I still need to learn; from work holding methods through to the way you have fabricated parts and hand-finished them. The engine looks great and is an inspiration.
Jim
 :bow:


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## lazylathe

Fantastic work Jason!

Learning a lot from this post!!!

Andrew


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## Jasonb

Well I have spent a bit of time fiddling about with this one since the new year and have progressed from the odd pop through a couple of bangs to whats almost running. Most of the issues were with the ignitor but after a few rewound springs, a few more guesses of the parts that I could not read on the drawing playing with the dwell time and trip lever not to mention a sore finger from continually flicking it over its about right.

I'm not running it with the water pump at the moment so have got a couple of 5min runs out of it and will now pack it up ready to return to the guy I made it for, hopefully once he has it painted up and on a cart I'll get some photos and post them here.

Sorry the video is the wrong format, it is a Vertical engine honest 

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v156/jasonballamy/Hit n Miss/?action=view&current=VIDEO0013.mp4

J


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## mhirst121

Excellent Jason, love the water tank, gives me ideas for the R&V tank.

Cheers,
MartinH

PS. i have not forgot about the drawings ;-) Still struggling on.


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## Jasonb

Thanks Martin, I was only thinking teh other day about the pump drawings, should be worth the wait.

J


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## SBWHART

Engine pops away like a chapion Jason :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Great work

Stew


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## AussieJimG

It looks like it is on its side Jason, I would have expected it to be upside down from where I am viewing :big:

But it looks and sounds great. And I am in awe of the work you did on the small components. Thank you for sharing.

Jim


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## idahoan

What a sweet runner; it has been fun following along.
Hope to see the finished project.

Dave


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