# Mega Cyclone



## Powder keg (Dec 23, 2009)

While cleaning up I found some Bronze that I had squirreled a way to build the Cyclone. I'm calling this engine the Mega Cyclone because I'm making this engine twice as big as the plans call for. I'll be changing a few Items to make it easier to build. But most of the parts will be as drawn. Just bigger) This engine is neat because the engine spins and the crank is stationary. I have a 19" 3 bladed prop that I'll fit to the engine. The pistons will be 1.250" in dia.

Here Is the first page from the plans.







I have the crank valve turned. I'll mill the steam ports into it. The plans call for the ports to be made from a couple pieces silver soldered in. I think this will be easier? I left the bearing surfaces a few tho. Bigger and I'll turn them to size after the ports are milled.






Here are the parts I managed to get turned today. The crank bearing housing will get a piece of cast iron pressed into it for the bearing.






I'll start on the crank case next. These pieces will have a fair amount of mill work done to them.


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## cobra428 (Dec 23, 2009)

Powder keg,

Where in the world did you find a Pabst can? Next is Reingold? Or Black Label?

Tony


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## Metal Butcher (Dec 23, 2009)

Hi Powder Keg. Nice looking project, I like its old school look and feel.

Are the plans copyrighted, or can you disclose where they can be found, or looked at?

Thanks.

-MB


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## Powder keg (Dec 23, 2009)

Have a whole cooler full of them Pabst cans) 

The plans are from Popular mechanics maybe? Around 1952ish Maybe Mechanix illustrated. I don't remember. And I can't find the original(


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## Metal Butcher (Dec 23, 2009)

cobra428  said:
			
		

> Powder keg,
> 
> Where in the world did you find a Pabst can? Next is Reingold? Or Black Label?
> 
> Tony



A buddy up in Canada drinks 'Black Label', its been available. I remember seeing 'Pabst' recently in Cleveland Ohio stores. Never heard of 'Reinhold'. I stopped drinking a long time ago (shortly after prohibition was lifted, I think). ;D

Any way, back on topic.

Powder Keg, thanks for the info on the build plans.

I'm looking forward to following your build thread posts, good luck! 

-MB


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## Powder keg (Dec 24, 2009)

The plans were printed in Science and Mechanix in 1952. It was two articles the first was the engine. The second was the boiler. I'll make them into a PDF and put them in the plans section. The copies I have are OK. There are a couple of areas that are harder to read than the rest. I think I have it all figured out though. I'm redrawing most of the pieces to make it easier for me. I'll post those also.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!


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## Powder keg (Dec 26, 2009)

I didn't get much done today. I did start roughing out the pistons and the crank bearing. I'm using some scrap cast iron. It turns out it's not the best quality though. It has a few inclusions/holes in it. I think it'll be OK though. There will be extra room for oil)

Here is the chunk I have. The Big CNC mill at work has a 5000 pound counter balance weight that holds the head up. The chain broke on it and it dropped. When it hit it knocked 2 of these off the base.






I'm cutting it up to make pistons out of.






I set them up in my 4 jaw and turned the pieces round. I'll press the bearing into the housing in the morning.


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## Deanofid (Dec 26, 2009)

That's some hunk of iron, Wes.
More pics, (of pistons & such) please!

Dean


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## rake60 (Dec 26, 2009)

cobra428  said:
			
		

> Powder keg,
> 
> Where in the world did you find a Pabst can? Next is Reingold? Or Black Label?
> 
> Tony



Hey! I know all of those brands!
I also know exactly where to find the Imodium tablets at the local drug store.  

You have my attention Wes.
Anxiously awaiting for the next update!

Rick


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## Metal Butcher (Dec 27, 2009)

Wow, That's a whopper of a cast iron chunk! It looks like an awful heavy piece to lift, but after a little slicing and dicing it will lighten right up.

It's also my belief that the cast in porosity will help to hold a lot of oil.

I have the identical vintage of band saw, and I just couldn't be with out it. 

Your project is very fascinating, I'll be watching with keen interest.

-MB


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## Powder keg (Dec 27, 2009)

I'm glad there's interest. I think it is a pretty neat looking model. The way it works it should be terribly fast also? I don't have many pictures today. I mainly was making square bars into round bars on my old lathe. Pretty boring stuff. I can post a video? I'll start posting a bunch when the bars start getting turned into pistons and bearings and such. I want to make the cylinders then fit the pistons to them. So they will probably be next'ish) I tend to bounce around a little. But I'll get it.


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## kvom (Dec 27, 2009)

As I recall, that type of engine was used in early WWI fighter planes. An unfortunate side effect was the gyroscopic force that made these planes very hard to land.


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## capjak (Dec 27, 2009)

Regarding the use of that type of engine in a WWI airplane, I believe it was called a LeRohne Rotary. We had four rotary engines in the metal shop at my high school back in the mid fifties. The instructor had served in the RAF during WWII and would start them up once a year. He lived across the street from me and made sure that I was there when he did it. Also, as I recall, Cole Palen who operated the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in the mid sixties used to fly a reproduction WWI plane. The speed of the engine was controlled by shorting out the magnetos when you wanted to reduce the speed of the engine. The sound that it made when he was coming in for a landing made an old hit n miss engine sound smooth.


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## Powder keg (Dec 27, 2009)

I managed to get all the square stuff turned round. Here I'm drilling out the crankcase bearing. i like Black and white machine shop pictures\o/

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqmruljZvpc[/ame]






Once drilled, I could bore it out. Since it will be pressed into the bearing housing, I left the bore small. I'll bore it out to size after it is pressed together.






I have a little press in the shed. Man its cold out there. I left about .003" interference between the two pieces. It took about 1000 pounds to assemble the tro pieces.






I cut the piece a little long on my bandsaw. I'll just trim it to legnth while I have it set up to bore it to final size.






I'll spend the rest of the day working on the drawings.


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## Deanofid (Dec 27, 2009)

Powder keg  said:
			
		

> i like Black and white machine shop pictures\o/



Me too, sometimes. Reminds me of the good ol' days of HSM.
Thanks for the extra pics, Wes. This should be an interesting build to watch!

Dean


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## Powder keg (Dec 29, 2009)

A few of the pieces on my version of the Cyclone I'm changing a little. The Crank Disc/Pin was drawn as two separate parts. I thought it would be more fun to make them as a single piece. I had a piece of that cast iron almost big enough. It's a little small on the OD, but it just has to keep the crank bearing on. I think it will work fine. It has a .750" "throw" so a one inch indicator was out of the question to indicate it in. I ended up marking out the center and using a center point out of a wiggler set to locate the center of the pin. I got the piece pretty close then I used a indicator on the shaft to dial it in. It's not the best way to do this, but it's all I had and I wanted to start cutting metal\o/

Here I am just starting.






About half way through.






Done!!!






Ok, not done, done. But close. I need to drill a bolt hole in the center of the pin for a keeper. Then I'll saw it off a little long and face off the other side.

I took a short video so you could see some action. I'm taking .125" off the diameter here.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfpF10Js5pw[/ame]

More later.....


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## Deanofid (Dec 30, 2009)

Nice work on the crank disc/pin, Wes. Thanks for action shot, too!

Dean


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## Powder keg (Jan 2, 2010)

Thanks Dean!!!

I cut the crank disc/pin off the bar with my band saw. I then chucked it up, on the pin, in the collet chuck on my little South bend. I was able to face the part off to length pretty easily this way. I think I need to start on the base for this engine pretty soon so I have a place to put some of my pieces. Here is a quick picture. There is a hole all the way through the pin so the con rods can get a little lube.






Thanks for looking.


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## Powder keg (Jan 3, 2010)

I had to clean off my welding table for this shot. Here are a couple of the pieces for the base I'm going to build for this engine. The ring will be cut off at the white lines and the slug at the top will be machined and then welded to the arch. I still need to come up with some feet for the arch to be welded to. 






This will give me a place to put my engine pieces)


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## cfellows (Jan 8, 2010)

Gonna be a nice looking engine. That's gonna be a pretty big chunk of spinning metal when you get it fired up. However, I don't think balance and vibration is much of an issue with rotary engines. Have you figured out about what the total diameter will be?

Chuck


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## Powder keg (Jan 8, 2010)

I think it will be around 10" in diameter Chuck. I got the metal for the con rods cut out today. In the morning I'll start squaring up the blocks.


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## cfellows (Jan 8, 2010)

Ugh... con rods are my least favorite things to do. Very nice when done right, but a lot of work. I probably need to spend some time standardizing my methods and making some jigs.

Chuck


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## Powder keg (Jan 8, 2010)

I've only made a few engines. I think Con rods are my least favorite part. These won't be too fancy. They'll be on the inside. I seem to have a hard time making them look nice. Maybe these bigger ones will be easier?


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 9, 2010)

Was I reading that right? 0.125" off the diameter in one pass? That must be a sizable machine...I get scared around the .01 mark with my mini-lathe.

Appreciated seeing the video. It helps me a lot as I've still got a lot to learn about speeds and feeds.


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## Powder keg (Jan 9, 2010)

We have an Ameraseiki CNC lathe at work with a 30 HP spindle motor on it. 2 weeks ago we were roughing some shafts with 1 inch cuts off the diameter. Other than it sounding like someone was shooting gravel at the door you couldn't tell that we were taking such a big cut. The load meter was hitting 110% at times ;D

If you have any questions Zeep just ask. But experience is the best teacher. You just have to make lots of chips.


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## Powder keg (Jan 9, 2010)

The crank valve has been bugging me so I decided to work on that some today. I set up my dividing head and lined everything up.







I set up my height gauge to the center of the valve then scribed some indexing lines on it. 






I couldn't find my edge finder, So I used a piece of paper. That will be close enough for these slots. 






I then started machining key ways around the shaft the "hard way". It went pretty good. My Chinese end mill went dull, but I made it through.






After I had the keys machined I needed to drill a port to connect the intake port to the hole in the center of the shaft. I started with a center drill.






I then drilled the hole to size.






Here Is what I have now. There are a few more holes that get drilled and tapped yet. It will take a few more setups to get them though.


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## stevehuckss396 (Jan 9, 2010)

Powder keg  said:
			
		

> I'm making this engine twice as big as the plans call for. This engine is neat because the engine spins and the crank is stationary.



I found this funny because I am about 95% done with a 5 cylinder that works like yours only i shrunk it down from mega to 1/3rd size. 

I'll be watching!


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## Deanofid (Jan 9, 2010)

Thanks for the progress shots, Wes.
Man, I hate it when an end mill starts giving up the ghost in a cut. That's how it always happens. ; )

Dean


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## Powder keg (Jan 17, 2010)

I managed to donate 2 con rods to the scrap bin today. Having troubles. I have a .3125" reamer that is chattering BAD!!! I was going as slow as my mill will go????? I might just drill the holes? Maybe I'll do a few more test holes???


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## Deanofid (Jan 17, 2010)

Sounds like time for the mythical D reamer, Wes.
: )

Can you drill them large enough to bush them, and save the ruined rods?


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## Maryak (Jan 17, 2010)

Wes,

A short steep taper at the start of the hole sometimes helps get a reamer started without chatter.

Hope this helps and bad luck about the rods.

Best Regards
Bob


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## Powder keg (Jan 17, 2010)

I'll have to look into those D reamers. I have a heat treat oven now\o/ I could have a chance to use it ;D There's not enough room for sleeve I don't think?


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## Seanol (Jan 17, 2010)

I made a d bit reamer for my rocking engine bore and it worked perfect. It was brass though.

I followed the instructions given here before and had no problem making it.

I did file the relief on the front and side before heat treat and I used water hardening rod, quenched in oil with no temper done.

Worked really well. Another way to go might be a tool makers reamer. Just remove metal on the bias, like slicing a rod on the diagonal.

Haven't tried that yet.

Good luck, and sorry about the rods,

Sean


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## Powder keg (Jan 18, 2010)

Well I have some drill rod to make the D bits out of. Just no time now ??? Maybe after work tomorrow? I'm curious to see how they work now. It can't be much worse than the reamer I used thats for sure\o/


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## 1hand (Jan 18, 2010)

PK;

When you make them, could you take some pics? I like to see how you go about doing that.

Matt


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## Powder keg (Jan 19, 2010)

You bet!


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## Powder keg (Jan 20, 2010)

I have a good start on my D bit reamers. 






I just need to grind the end relief on it. I don't think I'll even heat treat them? I'm just cutting brass.


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## Seanol (Jan 20, 2010)

Wes,
You might want to mill the side, not the top. That will give a gradual taper to the tool instead of an abrupt end. This stress riser could make the tool prone to crack at that joint.

I heat treated mine because I wanted it around for a long time. I don't know if it will matter otherwise.

If you need a pic I will get one up tomorrow as the camera is at work :

Sean


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## Powder keg (Jan 21, 2010)

Thanks for the tip Sean. I'll reember that for the next one)


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## Powder keg (Jan 22, 2010)

Tried a couple test holes. the bits need to be heat treated. I messed the bit up that I made. Well, I decided to go back and see what's up with the reamer. Turns out that I drilled the hole to small and the reamer was cutting too much. I now have three Con rods drilled and reamed. I think I'm going to finish them up on the rotary table.


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 24, 2010)

Are there any pics of the con rods? I'd also like to see the finished (non-mythical) D-reamer. No need to do a special shot...just throw them in sometime. Thanks.

As you know...I have much to learn...but that M&M didn't escape my notice...something not right about it. ;D


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