# Kel Builds Bill's V-Twin Steamer



## kcmillin (May 2, 2010)

I Got these plans about 5 years ago from Littlemachineshop.com shortly after purchasing my Mini Lathe at the cummins tool show. I had an attempt at it back then and failed miserably, Ill blame lack of experience, and the plans have been sitting in my bottom drawer ever since. So I got a wild hair up my [email protected]# this morning and decided it was time to give it another go.

I am just building the engine for now, maybee the boiler later, and I plan on putting it on something with wheels instead of a boat.

Here is a pic of the plans cover page and what the engine should look like. (Sorry for the crappy pics, a new camera just aint in the budget right now)










I started by making the Cylinders. I am using 1 inch brass instead of the 1/2 x 3/4 the plans call for. I will be taking off most of the material.










I turned the middle down to 5/8"





Then it was time to mill a little material down and make some flat spots for the steam ports.









Since there was not much material left over to thread a hole I decided to impliment a trick that Steve is doing on his build of the Tandem. 

By first using an end mill to make a 1/4" pocket 






I then soldered in a 1/4 inch piece of brass.





Here they are after milling the 1/4" stub down and drilling and tapping the holes.





Drilling the holes through the caps and into the cylinder. These will be for 2-56 screws. (sorry no pics of the end caps)





It was then time to mill it down to look good. Off the the rotary table I go.





Here is the before and after.









Thats it for now fellas.


Kel


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## zeeprogrammer (May 2, 2010)

LMS still sells those plans.
I'd thought about it myself.
I'll be watching your build...I'm sure it'll be interesting.


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## 4156df (May 2, 2010)

Hi Kel,
I'm looking forward to following along with your build. Looks like you've got a good start.
Dennis


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## kcmillin (May 3, 2010)

Hi Zee and Dennis, thank you for showing interest.

Zee, these plans are full of good info, plenty of little notes from the designer, makes it easy to understand. He seems take advantage of the opportunity to "Pimp" a set of plans he made for this device known as a "Rike Vise". Named so after the designer, Bill Reichert. It seems like it could have some uses, pretty simple device, but I probobly should not go into great detail about it.

Anyway, tomorrow looks like it might be a little to windy to put siding on the wall, so I might get some more work done on the little steamer. 

Kel


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## kcmillin (May 4, 2010)

Well I got the Glands made this morning, finished just before I call a call into work. We werent there for very long though. Darn Wind.

Anyway here are some pics. 

I did not have any M&M's but I do have an 'M' and 'N'









on to more mill'n

Kel


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## SAM in LA (May 4, 2010)

Kel,

Looks like you are making steady progress.

Keep up the good work.

SAM


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## kcmillin (May 5, 2010)

Thanks Sam, there has been a bit of crappy weather so I got a few days off to get some milli'n done.

I decided to make the frame today. I did not have any 3/8 thick brass plate, but I did have 1/4". This poses a slight problem. There is 6 deep holes the pass each other to connect the steam ports with the intake and exhaust holes. Its a real mess of holes. I found I have enough room in a 1/4 inch piece if I drop the drill size by from .096 -.086. This only leaves .020 between the outside of the frame and a 2 inch deep hole .086 wide. Needless to say I was a little worried about drilling through. So with a peck drill method taking only .025 off at a time I managed to make all 6 holes ranging from 1.375 to 2 inch deep. It took a long time.

Here are the steam ports and frame. (the deep holes are from the side and top, you cannot see them in the picture)





and after cutting to shape. 





There was yet another problem with the 1/4 inch thick plate. The plans cal for there to be 1/4 inch threaded holes on either side for the intake and exhaust plumbing. Well with only .020 between my .086 hole and the side of the frame there was some planning to do.

I drilled two 1/4 inch holes in the back of the frame with and endmill so I could connect to the steam holes. I now made two threaded bungs to solder over those holes.










all there is left to do is plug the six holes that are used to connect all the steam ports and then a little polishing and the frame/complex manifold will be done.

Thanks for lookin in.

Kel


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## SAM in LA (May 5, 2010)

Kel,

It sounds like you were able to overcome quit a challenge in drilling accurate, deep holes. 3 dimensional thinking at its best.

Regards,

SAM


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## Deanofid (May 5, 2010)

Good going so far, Kel. I don't know how the wind affects your paycheck, but it sure seems to work out well for your shop time. Some guys have all the luck.
; )

Good thread. Keep it up!

Dean


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## kcmillin (May 6, 2010)

Deanofid  said:
			
		

> Good going so far, Kel. I don't know how the wind affects your paycheck, but it sure seems to work out well for your shop time. Some guys have all the luck.
> ; )
> 
> Good thread. Keep it up!
> ...



My paycheck feels the wind indeed, but milli'n helps me forget about that, until I need a new tool that is. 

Funny, the one thing that helps me forget about money is the biggest money sucker I have. Sweet Sweet Irony. 

Kel


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## kcmillin (May 7, 2010)

Had a little bit of time today to get some small parts made. 

I decided to make the little rods that hold the cylinders to the 'block' with a spring.

I made them out of 1/4 inch brass hex. The first thing I did was turn the long side down to the required dimention, then put some 6-32 threads on the end. After than was done I turned the other side of the 'nut' down to .105 for the 4-40 threads in the cylinders.





After that was done I had to cut it off the parent bar and put the threads on the other end. This posed a problem, I did not want to chuck it in the 3 jaw and ruin my shaft, so I went with a 'tap wrench' approach to uding a die.

While holding the die in my hand I used a 1/4 inch socket to turn the part into the die....like so.





thanks for lookin in.

Kel


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## SAM in LA (May 7, 2010)

Kel,

Looking good.

Clever how you threaded the small end of the rod.

SAM


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## kcmillin (May 8, 2010)

Got the rest of the small bits done today. Sorry for lack of pictures, I had it all together before I could take any more.



















And I got some trials done with it. It runs really smooth right away, very little leakage without packing in the pistons or glands. Ill let her run for a few hours checking on it and adding oil as needed.

Here is the Vid.





Ill get more pics when I tare it apart to clean it.

Kel


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## zeeprogrammer (May 8, 2010)

Congratulations Kel.
Nice.
Are you still thinking of making a boiler?


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## kcmillin (May 8, 2010)

zeeprogrammer  said:
			
		

> Are you still thinking of making a boiler?



Yes, I think Ime gonna give it a proper go at it this time too. I just gotta get some material for it first.

Kel


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## kcmillin (May 8, 2010)

Here I got it runnin a little better, I used teflon tape as packing for the piston and the glands. I have run oil straight through the air line into the engine, this gives it a good rinse every time I give her a squirt. after a couple times of that the oil comes out clean. but what a mess it makes. 

I have it running prety slow on 7 psi. I know I say 2 psi in the video, I read the guage wrong, :hDe: *club*




Currently it is running, and has been for about 4 hours. 

Kel


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## Maryak (May 8, 2010)

Kel,

Very nice :bow: - even at 7psi 

Best Regards
Bob


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## ksouers (May 8, 2010)

Very nice, Kel.
Very smooth and even power. Excellent!

You are really cranking out the projects. You don't drag your feet at all, do you?


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## Jack B (May 8, 2010)

Nice Build Kel.            Jack B


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## Deanofid (May 8, 2010)

Done already, Kel? You're a real mover, mister.
It runs down slow very well. Maybe it's a characteristic of this engine type. I made a 90° V-2 oscillator about 10 years back. Mine was not pretty at all, but ran nice at low psi. Yours ticks over just great!

I hope when you get your new camera, you'll do some more vids of all your engines. I'd like to see them better, (meaning I like your stuff!).

Nice one you have here!
I guess someone has to ask... _*what's next?*_

Dean


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## kcmillin (May 8, 2010)

Thanks Bob, Kevin, and Dean. 

I was very happy when she turned over for the first time without any major fiddling. It has actually been about 5 years in the making, more or less. This was my Third attempt at this engine. 1 complete failure and 1 quasi-failure. The phrase "We learn from our Mistakes" could not be any more true. When it came time to build the parts I already knew what didn't work, so it was just a matter of properly making the little guy. 

I guess you could say my rivalry with this engine has finally come to an end............for know.


I am planning on making a boiler for this just like the plans. It is a water tube boiler and pretty straight forward construction. Just a matter of getting all the materials needed for the job. Who knows, the whole boat maybe. 


Thanks for lookin


Kel


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## SAM in LA (May 9, 2010)

Kel,

Your engine sure runs smoothly.

I'll be following your boiler build with interest.

SAM


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## kcmillin (May 11, 2010)

SAM in LA  said:
			
		

> Kel,
> 
> Your engine sure runs smoothly.
> 
> ...



Thanks Sam, yes it does run very smooth, and is very quite too. One design change I made that might help this out is that I put ball bearings for the crankshaft. It turns over very nicely. Also I used alot of oil to "break" it in.

Kel


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## kcmillin (May 11, 2010)

Got some more progress done today. This engine will require a forward/stop/reverse valve for R/C control.

I decided not to go with the design given in the plans, a little over complicated construction for a simple valve. 

So I decided to go with a piston type valve, most typically used in double acting steam engines instead of sliding valve.

I started with a 3/4 inch brass bar 1.5" long with a 3/8 hole drilled and reamed and honed. Then started to drill the 5 port holes.

here are the two on the bottom that go to either side of the engine.






Now for the exhaust holes, these need to be at 45 deg off center of the bottom holes to make clearance for the end cap screws. This is not critical so I just used a small square with a 45 on one side.





Next up was the valve itself. I made this from brass also. 





To connect the valve with the ports on the engine is posing to be a problem. But I think I got it figures out now. 
There will be two upright posts on top of the rear bearing block. These will double as steam passages from the valve to a 1/8" piece of copper tube which will connect it to the engine.





To connect the uprights to the copper line I need some protrusions at 90 deg 
cant think of what these would be called?

To meet up with the 1/4 inch uprights I used a 1/4 inch end mill to make a saddle for it to sit on.





Then I brought it to the lathe and turned it down and cut it off.





Then all that's left is to solder it to the uprights, and drill the hole through.





That's all for now. 

I get my new camera tomorrow, the Casio EX-FH20, so my pictures and video will be much improved. A really cool feature of this camera is that it can shoot video at 30, 210, 420, or 1000 frames per second. (Surprisingly good quality too) That will make for some super slow motion video, a tool I have always wished for but never thought I could afford. It is currently on sale at BestBuy.com Very affordable, even compared to point and shoots.

Kel


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## kustomkb (May 11, 2010)

Nice progress Kel!

I look forward to the high quality pictures to go with the top quality work!


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## SAM in LA (May 12, 2010)

Kel,

Looking good.

SAM


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## kcmillin (May 13, 2010)

Here are some pic of what I have so far. 

There is rubber hose where I will have copper line when using a boiler.

http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy292/kcmillin/th_51.jpg









Video coming Soon to a Computer screen near you.

Kel


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## SAM in LA (May 13, 2010)

Kel,

Your engine has an "Industrial" look to it.

I'm looking forward to seeing it run, especially since your camera can do tricks.

SAM


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## Deanofid (May 13, 2010)

So _that's_ what it looks like!
; )

Just pullin' yer leg, Kel. Looks good. New camera sure helps us guys on the forum, too.

Dean


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## kcmillin (May 13, 2010)

Here is a good vid of this engine. I have the forward/stop/reverse valve operating now.





Thanks for watchin.

Kel


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## Deanofid (May 13, 2010)

Really does run great, Kel. The reversing valve is slick!

Dean


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## SAM in LA (May 14, 2010)

Kel,

Quick change from forward to reverse and it doesn't look like the clutch suffers one bit.   What other tricks do you have up your sleeve. :big: Keep up the good work.

SAM


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