# Design and build side-shaft hit and miss engine from bar stock



## Brian Rupnow (Nov 14, 2018)

I have spent enough hours this summer frittering away my shop hours on flame-sucker engines, Sterling engines, and clutches. My plan for the coming winter is to design and build a side-shaft hit and miss engine from bar-stock. I have built enough engines now that the only really "new" thing will be the gears that run the side-shaft, and the governor that controls the "hit and miss" action. I hope to purchase gears, bearings, etcetera from commercial dealers so that when I eventually have a running engine, other people will be able to buy the same parts from the same dealers. The engine will be water cooled, with a horizontal cylinder, 1" bore and 1 3/8" stroke. The intake will be an atmospheric valve with no cam to actuate it. Probably about 90% of this engine will be similar to parts I have machined before on the Kerzel and the "Odds and Ends" engine from Philip Duclos. I don't plan on using a Viton o-ring for a piston ring, because although they create a wonderful seal on the piston, I think they have enough residual "drag" that they prevent the engine from having very many "miss" cycles. In fact, I hope to use no rings at all, but will lap the piston into the cylinder for an air tight fit like I did on my marine engine. I hope to aim for a compression ratio of about 4.5:1. Ignition will be the Dodge points and condenser that I have used on all of my other i.c. engines. Both piston and cylinder will be grey cast iron, and the flywheels (2-of) will be 6" diameter. I am still doing research on the cam and governors, and haven't fully decided what I will use. Whatever it is will no doubt be a copy of someone else's successful design.---Brian Rupnow


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## Ghosty (Nov 14, 2018)

Hi Brian,
I will be watching, good luck with it.
Cheers
Andrew


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 14, 2018)

George Britnel showed me pictures of how the governor works on a "domestic stovepipe" hit and miss engine, which he has recreated on a very small "tiny" hit and miss engine--It took me a while to get my head around this, but I think I have it. Things are not modelled to any particular scale, but that's okay for "show and tell".  Red indicates the flywheel. The light blue indicates the round part which fits over the flywheel with about half a thou radial clearance. The slot milled in the center of that light blue part is long enough to give the offset required. The light blue part has a rod extending from one side of it thru the pink counterweight and thru the spring and thru the light brown bracket. The pink counterweight is firmly attached to the rod. The rod goes thru the light brown bracket with a clearance fit.--Normally, at zero rpm, the spring holds the light blue part centered on the crankshaft. As the rpm increases centrifugal force makes the pink weight want to move away from center, and as it does it pulls the blue part away from center until it is limited by the other end of the slot coming up against the crankshaft. The dark blue eccentric strap and rod which runs out to the bell crank doesn't move at zero rpm. as nothing is eccentric. As rpm's climb and the light blue part becomes more and more eccentric to the crankshaft, the eccentric strap follows it and the rod extending from the eccentric strap moves in a linear motion to operate the bell crank at the far end to lock out the exhaust valve.----Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 14, 2018)

Something about the previous explanation troubles me. Obviously, the counterweight and the light blue part it is attached to have to rotate with the flywheel in order for centrifugal force to pull the light blue part off center. At zero rpm when the light blue part is centered on the crankshaft, the dark blue eccentric strap and attached rod isn't going to move.---But--As soon as the light blue part is pulled off center the eccentric strap is going to follow it, and the rod attached to that eccentric strap is going to move back and forth. Somehow I think that the rod attached to the eccentric strap shouldn't be bopping back and forth to do it's job properly. What am I doing wrong?


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 14, 2018)

Okay--George came thru with an explanation---"You're correct about the strap and lock-out rod moving back and forth. The trick of this is when the rod moves forward it pushes the lock-out lever into contact with the rocker arm but the lock out lever isn't fixed to the lock out rod rather the lock-out rod slides through the lock-out lever so it only pushed it in one direction. There is a stop on the lock-out shaft that moves the lock-out lever. If you look at picture 9422 you will see that the end of the lock-out rod is threaded and has 2 nuts on it. The one nut is for adjusting how far the lock-out lever moves and the other is the lock nut. The travel of the eccentric has to be greater than the required movement for the lock-out lever so that's where the adjusting nuts come into play."
gbritnell.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 14, 2018)

I have checked out the two part numbers for the helical gears from "Martin" in USA that are on the engine being built by Craig DeShong. The 12 tooth helical gear is part #BS1612-2 and sells for $38 USA. The 24 tooth helical gear is part #BS1624-2 and sells for $63 USA. That comes out at $101 American money and $133 Canadian money. Ouch!!! Maybe it's a good thing that I'm rich instead of good looking.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 15, 2018)

And as it unwinds--the part numbers I got from Craig DeShong are for straight tooth bevel gears, not helical gears. I think he may have mistakenly given me part numbers for the governor gears on his engine, not the helical gears. The prices I gave in an earlier post were for straight tooth bevel gears, not helical gears.--I will still probably have to buy those gears, as I do intend to have a governor on the new engine I design. DeBolt has a set of helical gears with the right ratio and a reasonable size, but I can't reach anybody at DeBolt.--I sent DeBolt 3 emails yesterday and they were all answered with an email from Paul at DeBolt with no message nor attachment. I called them this morning and left a message, but I can't do much now until I hear back from them. I don't even want to start the design of the engine till I get these gears figured out.


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## terryp (Nov 15, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> And as it unwinds--the part numbers I got from Craig DeShong are for straight tooth bevel gears, not helical gears. I think he may have mistakenly given me part numbers for the governor gears on his engine, not the helical gears. The prices I gave in an earlier post were for straight tooth bevel gears, not helical gears.--I will still probably have to buy those gears, as I do intend to have a governor on the new engine I design. DeBolt has a set of helical gears with the right ratio and a reasonable size, but I can't reach anybody at DeBolt.--I sent DeBolt 3 emails yesterday and they were all answered with an email from Paul at DeBolt with no message nor attachment. I called them this morning and left a message, but I can't do much now until I hear back from them. I don't even want to start the design of the engine till I get these gears figured out.


Wow Brian, Hit and Miss engines have always fascinated me having collected and restored a few. The sideshaft engines are especially attractive because of all the moving and wiggling parts. I am finishing up my second model engine now, working toward I.C. someday. Will be watching with interest and envy. Terry from Texas

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Model Engines mobile app


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## terryp (Nov 15, 2018)

T

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Model Engines mobile app


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 15, 2018)

We're good!!! I just got a phone call from Paul Debolt at Debolt Machine and he is still in business and plans on staying in business. I ordered the helical gears from him, and I also ordered the "Martin" straight tooth bevel gears that will run the governor from the Canadian company I was dealing with. I won't do anymore design work until I have these gears in my hands. --Brian


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## terryp (Nov 15, 2018)

Almost done, over a year in the making. Building experience toward more complex I.C. engines. Terry







Sent from my Moto E (4) using Model Engines mobile app


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## CFLBob (Nov 15, 2018)

I'll be watching this one, too.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 15, 2018)

I bought the two bevel gears because I like the style of governor used on the Bob Herder side shaft engine currently being built by Craig DeShong. I want to marry that style of governor to the circular cam disc as used on the Silver Angel engine. This will let my cylinder head be much closer to a "conventional" style of cylinder head rather than having to assemble two piece valves inside the cylinder head as Craig has done. I haven't put a lot of thought into just how I will do that yet, but I think it will be possible.


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## CFLBob (Nov 15, 2018)

Brian, what program do you model in?   

I do my modeling in Rhino and something like that second pic (cam?) would require making an inverse shape to "Boolean" with a flat cylinder.   The profile might need to be done freehand.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 15, 2018)

Bob--I work in Solidworks, and I am aware that the image of the cam is not technically correct. I just did a quick model so people would be aware of what type of cam I was talking about.---Brian


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## CFLBob (Nov 15, 2018)

You're a mile ahead of me, Brian.  Which isn't surprising.   I didn't know or even think the cam was wrong.

My version of Rhino is now obsolete; they came out with a new one a few months ago.  I either keep using it or go on the search for something else - probably Fusion 360.  

There are lots of reasons to go with Fusion.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 15, 2018)

I am going to try and use a CM10 sparkplug on this engine because they are available at any autoparts store. Anything smaller is generally more expensive and can only be ordered from specialty suppliers. With a 1" cylinder, I'm sure I can make it fit, because I have three or four other 1" bore engines, and there is just enough room in the cylinder head for two 3/8" diameter valve heads and the 10 mm sparkplug.


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## marvin hedberg (Nov 16, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> I am going to try and use a CM10 sparkplug on this engine because they are available at any autoparts store. Anything smaller is generally more expensive and can only be ordered from specialty suppliers. With a 1" cylinder, I'm sure I can make it fit, because I have three or four other 1" bore engines, and there is just enough room in the cylinder head for two 3/8" diameter valve heads and the 10 mm sparkplug.


if you need a smaller plug, these are available   http://sparkplugs.morrisonandmarvin.com/index.php


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 16, 2018)

After watching many more videos of full size "Domestic Stovepipe" engines, thigs are beginning to come clearer. The Domestic Stovepipe engines have a circular disc cam, similar to the cam on the Silver Angel. It has a really nice governor set-up which rides on one flywheel and connects to the exhaust valve lockout lever with a long pushrod. The beauty of this style of governor is that you don't have to shell out any cash for miter gears to run the governor shaft. On the Bob Herder hit and miss engine like Craig DeShong is building, the sideshaft, running at 1/2 of the crankshaft speed has a conventional shaped cam to run the exhaust valve. The problem with that is that the pivot point of the rocker arm is rotated 90 degrees from "normal", which leads to a really strange cylinder head into which the valves must be assembled in pieces.---and--It costs an extra hundred dollars for bevel bears to run the governor shaft.  However--It looks really neat, with the exposed governor setting up on the side of the engine.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 16, 2018)

So without worrying about scale too much, we want a model of the Bob Herder hit and miss governor pivoting an exhaust valve lockout mechanism similar to that used on the Domestic Stovepipe engine. This will do it. That green colored link will have to have a spherical rod end on the right hand end to let things move without binding.


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## Barnbikes (Nov 16, 2018)

I realize you are probably aiming for a simpler engine but maybe you could watch some videos on Otto slide-valve engines or maybe some on cam stop engines. Little more challenge.

Cool little video I watched lately. Nice vertical side shaft engine at 2:34.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 17, 2018)

This is an interesting model. I have remodelled the sideshaft governor to the correct size, and just for the heck of it positioned it in the approximate place it would go on the "Odds and Ends" hit and miss engine. The "odds and ends" engine has a 1" bore and 1 3/8" stroke, same as the sideshaft engine I will be designing. The side-shaft engine flywheels will be 6" diameter instead of the 5" on the Odds and ends engine, but all in all its fairly close to the same size. The governor doesn't "overwhelm" the engine visually.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 17, 2018)

Barnbikes--I've watched a hundred videos of side shaft engines in the past two weeks. There is an amazing lot of information on the web, if you can ferret it out.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 17, 2018)

Since I don't have my gears yet, the only part of the engine available to work on is the governor, which I now have modelled to scale. Nice rotary table work doing the very top part. I'm having a devil of a time to get a good picture. With shop lights off, its too dark, but not dark enough for the flash to work. With both spotlights focused on the part it all washes out. This is the third try with my camera.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 18, 2018)

This morning I made up a pair of filing buttons. If you have heard of filing buttons and weren't sure what they are---I have to file a nice radius on both ends of the governor top. If it was a big piece, I would free-hand it on my big stationary belt sander. Being such a small piece, I wouldn't be able to do that and have it come out looking right. So--filing buttons are made up from 01 steel, having the correct outer diameter and center hole and flame hardened. They are assembled as you see in the picture with a piece of the correct diameter shaft (.093" in this case.) Now when I file the radii on the aluminum governor cap, the hardened filing buttons will stop me from cutting too deep with my file and ending up with wonky looking radii on the aluminum part.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 18, 2018)

And here we have the finished governor top. You can see the radius that is filed on both ends, where the cross holes are. It isn't perfect, but it's light-years beyond what I could have done freehand. I have a tin can where I keep all of my filing buttons as I make them. They can be used again and again without damage, because they are very very hard after the flame heat treatment.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 18, 2018)

The brass governor parts are very small, way smaller than my comfort level. I chose to make my governor weights from pieces that are machined, then silver soldered together. This of course required me to make a "one time use" welding fixture to position the parts for silver soldering. After the soldering is done, I may have to cut it apart to free the components, that is why it is a "one time use' jig. The solid brass ring will be cut into four pieces, two of which are silver soldered  to the "pivot ears" and two which will become scrap.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 19, 2018)

As I suspected, the welding fixture had to be cut away after the silver soldering was completed. This was not really a matter of the solder sticking to the aluminum welding fixture. It's just that the brass pieces were a very close tolerance fit into the aluminum fixture. When I make an aluminum fixture like that, about half the time parts of the aluminum melt while the silver solder is being applied. It doesn't bond to the brass, but it manages to mechanically lock to the brass weldment. It cut away very cleanly and the soldered joints came out looking very good.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 19, 2018)

Not quite there yet, but getting darned close. Both of my bevel gears came in, still waiting for helical gears. I have a bunch of "real" work calling me so probably won't post anymore of this today.---Brian


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## Cogsy (Nov 20, 2018)

Brian - As you're a fan of unusual mechanical designs I thought I'd mention something I came across today that I've never seen, possibly so you can file it away in the memory banks for future usage if you desire. Basically, it was a 'normal' horizontal engine, with a  normally operated exhaust valve. However, instead of an atmospheric intake valve, it was cam actuated. All pretty standard stuff, except the same 'pushrod' operated both intake and exhaust valves. The exhaust used a rocker arm but the pushrod had another arm attached to it and simply pulled down on the intake to activate it. I couldn't see it but the cam must have had both a peak for the exhaust and a 'valley' for the intake, along with a central nominal diameter. Plus the pushrod (push-pull rod?) had to have some sort of spring keeping it in contact with the cam and strong enough to overcome the intake spring force. It's not an engine I can see running currently but I imagine it's an interesting motion that would scale fairly easily.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 20, 2018)

Still working on models, no real machining content.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 20, 2018)

My helical gears from Debolt showed up in the mail today, and I am very impressed. They look like good quality gears. The one which has an extended hub on one side will get a couple of set screws drilled and tapped thru the extended hub to hold it to the camshaft. I'm not exactly sure how to attach the other gear to the crankshaft at this point. I also stopped by my metal supplier guy today and picked up two 1" long cuts from a hotrolled 6" diameter mild steel bar for $25.00. In the background of the helical gears you can see the two 1/2" ball bearings that will support the crankshaft. The seals will be removed and the grease washed out, then a bit of light oil applied to them.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 20, 2018)

A plan is slowly working it's way thru my head---


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 21, 2018)

Well, it can't really be this easy but here it is with one flywheel hidden. 1" bore and 1 3/8" stroke with 6" diameter flywheels. The devil is in the details, and I haven't even thought too much about the cylinder head and cam yet, but I think it's kind of cute.


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## JohnBDownunder (Nov 21, 2018)

Brian, 
I always enjoy your posts / machining adventures, and I learn heaps.
      In post #24 you mentioned having trouble lighting the photograph (either dark or washed out). A trick I have used in the past is simply put a facial tissue or similar over the flash head to cut the emitted light. Also softens /  disperses the flash. Might help another time and maybe worth a try.
John B


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 22, 2018)

So, today we got a bit more serious about just how we were going to support the sideshaft, and ended up with two bolt on brackets complete with oilite bronze bushings. Yes, we had to carve a bit out of the side of the waterjacket to give clearance for the flyweights of the governor when they were spinning around. We also carved a bit out of the waterjacket and the sideplate a bit farther down to clear the largest bevel gear. A fancy top was whittled out for the waterjacket, and the tops of those swishy looking bearing caps were modified to something I like better. Everything fits so far. I had to move the sideshaft out away from the centerline of the engine to get the clearances I required. Thats alright though, because the helical crankshaft gear doesn't have to have the helical camshaft gear riding exactly in the center. It can move about 0.100" from center and still have all the teeth engage. The narrow vertical portion of the sideplates below the waterjacket seemed to be a bit skinny, so it got about 5/8" taller and cutout in the waterjacket part got 5/8" taller to accommodate it. I don't yet know just how I am going to secure the cast iron cylinder in the waterjacket, but will probably put a "head" on the end farthest from the crankshaft and a ring of counterbored shcs. to secure the cylinder.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 22, 2018)

I'm getting right down to where the bear shat in the buckwheat now. I was originally going to leave the flywheel webs solid, but I didn't like the look, so added some holes. I tried a 1" diameter hole but it didn't look right, so I ended up with 1 1/4" diameter holes. That's all well and good on the computer screen, but the largest drill and end mill I have are only 1" diameter. I rooted thru all of my different cylinder head models, and ended up stealing the cylinder head, head gasket, valve cages, valves, valve springs, and valve retainers from the Rockerblock engine to use on this hit and miss engine. The cylinder head model got reworked a bit, but not a lot. I have to have all of the cylinder head stuff in place before I can start to think too much about the exhaust valve lockout mechanism.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 22, 2018)

I've been kind of expecting that this would happen. The length of the valve stem (which has to be this long to allow for a spring and spring retainer) dictates where the rocker arm and pivot should go. The "cam follower bearing" is a bearing I happened to have already, which measures 0.864" diameter. The diameter of the cam follower bearing dictates where the rotary cam has to be. As a consequence of this, the governor will have to move to the left as far as I can take it.--I'll do that tomorrow.


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## CFLBob (Nov 22, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> o I ended up with 1 1/4" diameter holes. That's all well and good on the computer screen, but the largest drill and end mill I have are only 1" diameter.


Boring head?


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 23, 2018)

It has been a very interesting morning, trying to find room for the governor up near the head of the engine.--And it wasn't until I had spent 2 hours moving it up there that I realized the governor works in reverse to what I needed.--So, the governor pivot was moved to the other side of the stem post centerline. This allows the governor to work the way I needed it to. I have attached two pictures--One shows the governor engaged and locking out the exhaust valve by preventing the rocker arm from rocking to close the exhaust valve. The other picture shows the governor disengaged, which allows the rocker arm to rock normally and open and close the exhaust valve.


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## Johno1958 (Nov 23, 2018)

G'day Brian.
I never really understood how this type hit n miss mechanism worked until this close up post.
Thank you.
Cheers
John


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 25, 2018)

I haven't given up nor ran away. There is an amazing amount of farting around, making small bits, and fitting to this governor. I only have a couple of small spacers yet to make, and the "bump" which gets silver soldered to the brass part in the foreground, for the governor to push on when engaged. Everything else on the entire engine is just repeats of work I have done before, but I want to assemble and test run the governor first.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 27, 2018)

Here's a new wrinkle on this type of governor. Obviously you need a spring like the yellow one to move the governor weights and associated bits back into the "not engaged" position when the engine slows down and the governor weights are no longer swung out away from the stempost by centrifugal force. However, I've had to add an extra threaded post and a couple of nuts to prevent the governor from moving too far into the engaged position. If the governor weights fly out at any more than a 40 degree angle, they get jammed there and won't come back into the correct position.


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 29, 2018)

If you remember, when I was first looking at this project I purchased a set of 2:1 ratio helical gears off Ebay. The cost was under $12 US funds, so I ordered them, figuring "What do I have to lose?". I went ahead and bought  a different set of helical gears from DeBolt for $75 US and they arrived promptly and they were fine. I've been deluged by a spate of "real work" to the point where I haven't been able to do any work on this new engine recently. Today my Ebay gears came in the mail, and I'm quite impressed. The Ebay gears are in the foreground, with the gears from DeBolt setting closer to the partly finished governor.
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338413729&icep_item=262691511022


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 1, 2018)

Yesterday afternoon and this morning, I've finally found enough time to finish this governor. I must admit, I had serious doubts about this one working. However, Craig DeShong just completed a hit and miss engine that was bought as a casting kit, using the same design (I copied his) and he got stellar results. His engine runs beautifully. I haven't done anything yet on the actual engine, because I've built as number of previous internal combustion engines, and there will be nothing really "new" about this one----Except the governor.


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## CFLBob (Dec 1, 2018)

Very cool!  I think I could watch that governor for hours.  Watching the brass weights move in and out and the system respond as it should is entertaining.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 2, 2018)

This is one of my least favorite jobs when building an engine. I have yet to find a "good" way to trepan the side of a flywheel. It isn't too horrible when using an aluminum center with a steel outer rim, but when you make the entire one piece flywheel from a single piece of steel, this job makes me crazy. There is simply no good way to go about it. I have one side of this flywheel done, except for a clean up cut. The carbide tools cut really well, but leave a rather ugly finish. the HSS tools leave a lovely finish but dull very quickly.  When I do the far side of this flywheel, I will make a series of plunge cuts near the center hub (a total of 3/8" deep) and try using a brazed carbide turning tool to make successive cuts from the center out towards the rim.


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## SmithDoor (Dec 2, 2018)

Looks great 
I like no casting 

Dave


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 2, 2018)

So there we are!! One done and one to go. When I machined the second side, I found it to be easier if I took about 6 plunge cuts to full depth (3/8") nearest to the hub with a .093" wide parting blade HSS with the heel relieved quite a lot so it wouldn't rub. At that point I had a wide enough slot to get the end of a brazed carbide boring bar in there, and make repeated passes 0.010" depth of cut from the slot out towards the rim. This took a heck of a lot of cuts, but was easier to control. I will use that same method when I do the second flywheel.


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## jimsshop1 (Dec 3, 2018)

Following along Brian. I would like to do a side shaft engine some day but with a different style governor. That one looks too fiddley! I learn a lot from you and I thank you.

Jim in Pa


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 3, 2018)

And now I have two of them!! My poor little shop looks like swarf mountain, but I'm pleased with the way these turned out.  I still need to broach keyways, add set screws, and put in the 1 1/4" holes in the webs, but the lathe work is done. I'm going to completely finish these guys before I start on any of the other parts, but it's all progress.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 3, 2018)

Jim--All governors have fiddly bits. I have built flyball governors, hit and miss flywheel mounted governors, and this type of governor, and trust me, they all have fiddly bits.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 3, 2018)

Who can tell me how to edit my profile? I can't find where to do that now that the forum software has been updated.---Brian


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## JohnBDownunder (Dec 4, 2018)

Brian, I think that if you click on the little man icon, -actually looks like a chess pawn, at the top right of the page (On my PC anyway) you will go to your profile page. 
See how you go.
John B


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## Cogsy (Dec 4, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Who can tell me how to edit my profile? I can't find where to do that now that the forum software has been updated.---Brian


You can change almost everything about your profile from the little man icon in the top right of each page. If there's something you can't find give me a yell and I can help you out.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 4, 2018)

Thanks Guys,---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 4, 2018)

Even with having to use the boring head to end up with 1 1/4" holes in the flywheel web, it wasn't that bad.  The web is 1/4" thick, so I went around once using the DRO and a 3/8" dia. countersink. Then stepped right up to a full 1" drill, the biggest I have, and went around once with that. Then I put in the boring head and set it to bore a 1.150" dia. hole and went around once, then opened it out to bore a full 1 1/4" hole and went around one more time. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. The keyways are broached in each flywheel and the set screw holes are tapped.


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## jimsshop1 (Dec 4, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Jim--All governors have fiddly bits. I have built flyball governors, hit and miss flywheel mounted governors, and this type of governor, and trust me, they all have fiddly bits.



Yes Brian, I remember those fiddly parts on the Kerzel governor that I built. But I got it right the first time!


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## nel2lar (Dec 4, 2018)

Brian
You have had my attention on this build and when I saw the governor, well I have been watching very close.
Very nice.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 5, 2018)

Today I finished up both flywheels. These larger, heavier flywheels are going to demand something heartier than a 3/8" crankshaft. While rummaging through one of my boxes of "things"  I found a pair of lovely 1/2" inside diameter ball bearings, so that is what I will use, and make the crankshaft 1/2" diameter. I was lucky enough to find that a piece of 1.5" diameter stock is large enough to turn the crankshaft from solid, so I went to my favourite metal supplier today and picked up a piece of 1144 stressproof steel. Turning crankshafts from solid is not my favourite thing to do, but I have done it before successfully, so hopefully this will go well.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 6, 2018)

I'm having a very "cranky" morning. You can only buy 1144 stress-proof steel in rounds. It doesn't come in flatbar.-So--I have the length of round stock clamped down and am flattening one side of it. I didn't want to cut the side off in the bandsaw, because my bandsaw has no fence. I have to take off 0.5" of material, and am taking 0.015" depth of cut at 500 rpm. I have taken 0.300" off in theis picture, and have 0.200 left to go. This is one of the few times I think about having a powered axis in the X plane. Once I get this side finished, I was going to flip the part over and do the other side in the mill, but after all the cranking I've been doing, I think I will make up a fixture and bandsaw most of the other side away.


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## CFLBob (Dec 6, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> This is one of the few times I think about having a powered axis in the X plane



This is why I put CNC on my mill.  It never gets distracted and loses its place.  That brings disadvantages along with the good.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 6, 2018)

HAH!!! Old age and treachery and a bandsaw wins again. My bandsaw is slower than the second coming, but is still faster than milling all that material away. Now back to the milling machine for the final dressing.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 8, 2018)

So here we are, with the 1 5/8" round of 1144 stress proof flattened on both sides and countersink holes drilled in each end for lathe centers. I have a rather sketchy machinists clamp with a bolt tapped into it for a drive dog, and the con rod journal turned to 0.502" diameter. Next step will be to glue a spacer into the gap, saw away as much waste material as  I can, then turn the other diameters.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 8, 2018)

This is the point at which you really, really want to be sure what part stays and what part gets sawn off and discarded. You will also see the spacer glued into the gap that was opened in the previous step.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 8, 2018)

It's been a long day, but a worthy one. The one piece crankshaft turned out fine. I still have to trim the ends to get rid of the counterbores, and put the keyways in, but that will be for tomorrow.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 9, 2018)

This morning I trimmed the crankshaft to length, and cut the keyways in both ends of it. I'm just playing a bit now on the CAD. This thing is going to need a gas tank, and although I have always mounted my tanks on the outside of my engines, I have a lot of room available between the engine sideplates. I'm thinking of making up a tank that fits between the sideplates, with one end butting up against the "tower" that holds the cylinder and the cooling water and the other end hanging out the open end with a filler cap on it. The tank outlet would run right thru the bottom of the "tower" and come out the opposite end where it would hook to a line running up to the carburetor. I think it gives the engine a much cleaner look with the gas tank there instead of mounted on the side.


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## jimsshop1 (Dec 9, 2018)

Brian,

 That's a massive pair of flywheels for such a tiny crankshaft! You are going to make sure this one has enough inertia to get the hit-miss to function properly and with the ball bearings it should coast on for ever before needing a fire stroke again. Nice work. I just built 2 cranks using the same method you used. One is a 1" for a larger engine I'm building and the other is 1/2". They are nerve wracking for sure and the smaller ones even more. I'm following along and still searching for the proper bevel gears at a reasonable price for the larger J&E Junior engine I want to convert to a side shaft. Thanks for what you do to keep this hobby interesting. I have a friend in neighboring New York state that is building a Nanzy along with the one I'm building. We are only 25 miles from each other so it's easy to visit.

Jim in Pa


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 9, 2018)

Jim--It is really nice to have someone in the same hobby close enough to drive to in half an hour. I have a fellow here in Barrie, who is interested in the hobby, but he has a thousand other things going on in his life at the same time, so I don't see him very often.---Brian


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## jimsshop1 (Dec 9, 2018)

Dan is a dairy farmer by trade and has no spare time from spring planting to fall harvest but in the winter all he has to do is milk the cows twice a day so he gets some modeling done in between. He has an Amish lad do the messy chores. Dan had built a nice Farm Boy hit miss and then lost interest because he didn't know anyone else in the hobby until he met me at Cool Springs a couple years ago. Now we are {building friends} so to speak. He is not much of a internet person so I doubt he knows about this forum yet, but he soon will! Have a nice day Brian.


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## olympic (Dec 10, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Jim--It is really nice to have someone in the same hobby close enough to drive to in half an hour. I have a fellow here in Barrie, who is interested in the hobby, but he has a thousand other things going on in his life at the same time, so I don't see him very often.---Brian



Brian,

You could always bop on over to Busy Bee tools and ask around about hobbyists with similar interests. When I lived in Barrie (until about 10 years ago) there was a transplanted Englishman (name escapes me entirely now) who used to go into Busy Bee regularly to buy tools and sundries; maybe he's there still. There were at least two other fellows around, too (Fred Something and another forgotten man! I know, this doesn't help.).

Of course, if I and my old Logan lathe were still on Sunnidale Rd. I'm sure I could find you...


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 10, 2018)

The old English guy is dead. My friend in Barrie bought all his machine shop equipment from his widow. I don't know a Fred.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 10, 2018)

I had "real work" today, so nothing done on the engine. I did however order enough aluminum to make the base, both side plates, and the "tower" which holds the cylinder and is the water reservoir. This cost about $75 Canadian. I will pick it up tomorrow. All that leaves outstanding is material for the cast iron cylinder and piston, and I may go to a bronze rod--not sure about that yet. I'm having ongoing issues with my back from standing at the machines all day, so a day of "real work" not only makes me a bit of money, but means I get to set in my computer chair all day and not have an aching back at the end of the day.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 12, 2018)

I've been way to busy with real work (everybody is spending their budget money before the year turns over) to do much hobby machining. I did however, squeeze an hour out tonight to modify the helical gear set. The camshaft gear comes in at 0.370" diameter bore, so needed to be reamed to .375. The crankshaft gear comes in way oversize in the bore, so it had to have a steel bushing made and loctited in place to fit my 1/2" crankshaft. There was nowhere to put set screws in it, so I turned 3/16" of tooth off one side and put in two #6 set screws and a keyway. In this picture I had them both up and running in my milling machine, and they mesh just fine. I probably won't get much free time between now and Christmas, but I will post any further work that gets done on the engine.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 15, 2018)

I've managed to find enough time in the evenings and this morning to whittle out a pair of sideplates and bearing caps. There is some fettling and sanding yet required, but it is progress. That piece they are resting on is destined to become the base.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 15, 2018)

I have the baseplate up on the mill now, and before I start putting holes in it, I am running that ornamental fillet around the four sides. That fillet makes a baseplate very pretty, but putting the fillet in is not one of the more fun aspects of machining. I have a 5/8" ball nose endmill, and it clunks and thumps like crazy. It takes numerous passes, and even after your finished machining the part, it still requires a fair bit of sanding with 200 grit paper wrapped around a dowel to get all of the wavy lines out of the fillet. It actually machines a lot better with "climb" milling  than it does with conventional milling.


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## Cogsy (Dec 15, 2018)

I have used tungsten wood router bits to make such decorative features in the past and they work incredibly well in aluminium. I was nervous to try at first as the cutter looks nothing like a 'normal' cutter for metal, but had no issues at all. For only a couple of $$ it's worth your while to grab one and have a test on a bit of scrap.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 16, 2018)

OH MY!!!!    Everything fits, everything goes round and round and up and down. All the parts I've made are together for the first time, and I'm stoked. The helical gears mesh properly. Next thing on the build list will probably be the tower that holds the cylinder and becomes the water jacket.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 16, 2018)

After an intense afternoon of Christmas shopping with good wife, I escaped to the shop and made the support block (with bronze bushing) for the side-shaft. I have hidden the near side flywheel so you can see the part I'm talking about, colored grey, right next to the pink helical gear.Something was rotten in Denmark, because when I tightened the bolts which held it in place, nothing would turn. Ah Poop!!! Some detective work showed that the backing of the support was about .006" short. I have an old ratty set of feeler gauges, and since I didn't want to remake the part, my .006" feeler gauged sacrificed it's life as a shim under the block. Now everything turns freely. I am absolutely fascinated by this engine. Some engines I build, and they work, and I'm pleased. Other engines like this one grab my heart and give it a squeeze. Probably it's silly to be so taken with a collection of steel, aluminum and brass parts, but it always surprises me and makes me feel great when it happens.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 16, 2018)

And if you wondered what was lurking under the far side flywheel, well here it is. My "standard" set of Chrysler ignition points, setting on a mounting plate with a handle that lets me advance or retard the timing while I'm setting up the engine to run. It's a little more work to do it this way, and once the timing is set, it never gets adjusted again. I have found that it is a great help when first setting up an engine to run at the best idle, to be able to adjust the timing while the engine is actually running.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 17, 2018)

I am just in the initial stages of marking out cut lines on the piece of 2 1/2" square piece of aluminum which will become my cooling tower. Since the bore will be somewhat complicated by being larger internally than at the outside ends, it can't be done with a conventional boring head. So--I dragged the model over onto my lathe faceplate. this immediately shows me two things. #1--the part will fit okay for turning, as it doesn't stick out beyond the edges of the faceplate. #2---I don't want to trim it to length until after I have bored it. By leaving it full length, I can put a bolt thru the top (above what is shown as the open end of the water reservoir) to bolt it to the faceplate, then trim it to length after it has been bored.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 17, 2018)

After what seemed like an awful lot of bandsawing and milling, we have the part which becomes the cylinder mount and water reservoir. It fits very well where I intended it to. You can see a line scribed about 3/4" down from the top which is actually the height that it will end up at. For now I will leave that 3/4" on and drill a hole thru it to use as a mount for that end when I attach it to the faceplate of my lathe. There will be a hole thru the other end for the gas-line from my tank to run thru. It will do for the bolted connection at the other end when I attach it to the faceplate.


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## rodue (Dec 18, 2018)

My first engine to build from bar stock and 1/8 cold rolled steel I did buy the fly wheels and spent many hours machining them to the scale of a International  M


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 18, 2018)

Well, the good news is that out of 10 tapped holes in the water reservoir, all of them lined up with the holes in the sideplates and governor block, and all the bolts went in with no fuss. That always kind of surprises me and makes me feel good. I finished up the design work that was going to keep me busy until Christmas, so should be able to get a bit more done on the engine now. I think probably tomorrow I will mount the water reservoir/cylinder mount on either the faceplate (or maybe the 4 jaw) on my lathe and put the cylinder hole in it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 18, 2018)

The other good thing is that the flyweights on the governor don't fly out far enough to smack the corner of the reservoir. The CAD showed that they would miss it, but not by very much. I wasn't terribly concerned, because if they had I can cut some material away from that corner without breaking through to the inside of the reservoir. Regardless of what the CAD shows me, I like to actually see the parts made in metal and assembled to confirm it.


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## CFLBob (Dec 18, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Regardless of what the CAD shows me, I like to actually see the parts made in metal and assembled to confirm it.



It's the same in circuit design, FWIW.  Computer models are fine, but I never thought a circuit was good until it was built and behavior matched the model.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 19, 2018)

Rather than mess around with critical press fits between the cylinder and the water reservoir to prevent leaks, I am going to o-ring the water reservoir same as I did on the Rockerblock engine. This demands only a "close sliding fit" between the cylinder and the water reservoir, and with a 1/16" o-ring and some silicone applied during assembly, it seals very well and doesn't leak a drop of water.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 19, 2018)

I decided to use the four jaw chuck rather than the faceplate. I figured the part was less apt to move when held in the four jaw chuck. In this shot I have just used my largest drill (1") to get all the way thru. You will also see that this time I decided to use some cardboard under the chuck jaws. I generally forget that and then have to contend with the marks that the jaws leave afterwards. Now I will switch over to my boring tools and finish boring out the cylinder hole and the larger diameter that surrounds it for a "water gallery". I will also put in the o-ring grooves in each side before I tear down the set-up.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 19, 2018)

It's been a very boring day. My butt is totally kicked!!! I'm going to wash my hands, go upstairs, and make an early start on the Christmas Baileys.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 20, 2018)

Anybody out there want to put in a bid on a mountain of cast iron swarf? I can guarantee that it's fresh!!


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## Ghosty (Dec 20, 2018)

What a mess Lots of cleaning


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 20, 2018)

Laydieeees and Gentlemennn--to amaze and delight you, we have--TADA---a cylinder, finished and bolted in place. It isn't honed nor lapped yet on the inside. That will happen after the piston gets made.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 20, 2018)

Ghosty---that's why God made shop vacs and work rags.---Brian


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## werowance (Dec 20, 2018)

looking good


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## nel2lar (Dec 20, 2018)

Brian
Starting to really take shape, looking great.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 21, 2018)

This morning I had five hours of "real" work. This afternoon I machined a cast iron piston. It is completely finished other than external lapping. It is larger than the cylinder bore by .002" to .003". I have ordered some #8 to 12 micron diamond lapping compound, and it should be here before Christmas.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 22, 2018)

Today I will machine a con rod. My initial idea was to make one from bronze, but none of my suppliers have bronze in stock in the size I wanted. That's okay. I will build one from aluminum. I have many engines with 6061 aluminum connecting rods and they work just fine. I like to build my con rods as one piece and then cut the caps loose with a slitting saw, bolt them back together, then drill and ream the "big end" hole.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 22, 2018)

In this shot we have the second step of machining the connecting rod. The first step was to machine a piece of 1/2" aluminum stock down from 1/2" to 7/16". The small end has the 3/16" hole drilled and reamed. All of the other holes are what form the radii between surfaces on the rod.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 22, 2018)

So---Today was con-rod day. I can't believe it, but it has taken the entire day to make this little beastie. I wanted to post a pic of it installed on the engine, but it doesn't fit. How can that be? It fits perfectly on a piece of 1/2" cold rolled round stock. Out comes the micrometer, and guess what.--The center journal on my one piece crankshaft isn't 0.500". It is 0.520" diameter. POOP!!! I'm not even going to try to set that crankshaft up in the 4 jaw chuck again. I will now figure out how to set up the con-rod in my mill and open the big end up to 0.520".  Don't let all of those pill bottles in the background disturb you. I get a fresh supply of them full of pills every month, and the old bottles are perfect containers for teensy weensy little bolts and nuts.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 23, 2018)

So here we are. Two things going on here. One shows the con-rod sandwiched between two scrap pieces of aluminum plate and set up in the vice to be bored out to 0.520" diameter to match the oversized crankshaft journal, and a second picture of the con-rod in place in the engine assembly. There is currently no piston in there---I'm waiting for some diamond lapping paste.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 23, 2018)

I haven't given a lot of thought about carburation nor exhaust yet. The rocker arm for the exhaust valve sets at the bottom of the head, so consequently the carburetor and intake valve will get the port closest to the top of the engine. I think that for a carburetor I will use a variation of Malcolm Stride's Jaguar carb, with the throttle removed and a solid carb body. My fuel line from the built in gas tank is going to run out from that hole in the very bottom of the cooling reservoir block, so it may be interesting getting a fuel line from down there up to where the carburetor is.


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## gbritnell (Dec 24, 2018)

Posts: 1812
















* Re: Design and build side shaft hit and miss engine from bar stock *
« *Reply #144 on:* *Today* at 12:02:29 PM »

Quote
Modify
Remove
Brian,
On most of the hit and miss engines the valve set-up is horizontal whether pushrod operated or by shaft like yours. The exhaust is generally to the outside with different configurations for the intake. On Associated engines there is a tower over the intake on which the exhaust pivots while on others like the Domestic side shaft the valves are staggered so the exhaust rocker arm can pass by. Stacking them like you have will still allow for an operating engine but will just look very different from conventional hit and miss designs.
gbritnell


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## nel2lar (Dec 24, 2018)

gbritnell
I think that is what makes Brian's builds so special, he can come up with combination that work. And look good too.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 25, 2018)

My diamond lapping compound came in yesterday. This morning, bright and early before the Christmas crowd gets here I got up and diamond lapped the piston into the cylinder. I think it went quite successfully. the piston and the inside of the cylinder have taken on a dull grey finish, and the piston will not fall thru the cylinder, but will go with a slight push. If I hold my hand over one end of the cylinder and try to push the piston thru from the other end, it air-locks and won't go.


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## xj35s (Dec 25, 2018)

very much enjoying this build. That is going to be an excellent piece of equipment when done. Looking forward to hearing it, Because that's the best part of a hit n' miss!!!


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 25, 2018)

The Christmas crowd has come and gone, and I have reassembled the engine.  Everything goes round and round, and has amazing compression when I seal the end of the cylinder with the palm of my hand. This is a good sign.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 25, 2018)

For anybody that didn't quite get it about the gas line----These small engines will lift fuel at least 1" up from a tank, due to the vacuum created by the venturi in the carburetor. However, when the engine goes into it's "miss" cycle and no air is being pulled in thru the carburetor, the vacuum disappears---and all the gas in the line will run back down into the tank due to gravity. Then when the engine has slowed down enough to "hit" again, it can't because the gas has all ran down into the tank. To prevent that from happening, a check valve is installed in the vertical portion of the gas line. This check valve allows gasoline to flow from the tank towards the carburetor, but as soon as the gas tries to flow back down into the tank, the orange colored ball "seats" in the conical portion of line just below it and won't let the gas run back to the tank. When the engine slows down enough to want to "hit" again, it has a supply of gas right there waiting for it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 26, 2018)

The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things---And the only two major parts left are the cylinder head and the face cam. I will stick with something that I know relatively well, and make the cylinder head.


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## nel2lar (Dec 26, 2018)

Brian
Very nice design and solving a big problem with no difficulty. Looking good.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 27, 2018)

This is my first shot at designing a face cam. On the right you can see the conventional can for the "odds and ends" hit and miss engine. On the left is the face cam for the sideshaft engine I am designing.--Opinions please.--Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 27, 2018)

A good start was made on the cylinder head today. All of the lathe work is now finished, and the next move will be over to the milling machine.--A little story here--I have two metal suppliers in Barrie. One is a fab shop that's been around forever, they do excellent work, and they sell material over the counter. My other supplier is a young guy who does nothing except warehousing and selling material cut to length. I wanted a 1 foot length of 2 1/4" diameter aluminum. The young guy is shut down for Christmas holiday. I went to the fab shop today, and asked "How much for a 1 foot length"? The answer was $17.00. Okay, I can live with that. BUT---Unless I can find a "short" out by the rack, there is going to be a fifteen minute minimum labor charge if somebody has to cut it for me. The fifteen minute labor charge would be $18.00 The labor charge would be more than the material. I said "Screw it!" and came home and whittled my cylinder head out of a piece of plate.


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## Barnbikes (Dec 27, 2018)

Very interested in your cam design. 
I have been looking at a 2 cylinder engine remake.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 28, 2018)

So--Here we have it---a beautiful cylinder head. All the holes ended up in the right place. When I went to use my electronic angle finder to measure the 20 degree sloping face, the battery was dead. Trying to get the back open to put in a new battery broke the plastic housing. I have an old gravity actuated angle finder that I used instead. It's kind of critical, because if the angle is off by much, the spark-plug hole which is drilled blind can come out into the valve guide holes and that is very bad ju-ju. I was lucky, and the sparkplug hole come out on the far side exactly where it was supposed to. You will also see, setting beside the cylinder head, a pair of Viton O-rings which will seal the interface between the outside of the cylinder and the water reservoir.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 28, 2018)

With cylinder head finished and bolted in place, and cylinder o-ringed and siliconed into water reservoir, this thing is beginning to look like an engine. Very soon I'm going to have to dive into the unknown and make a face cam. George Britnel and Jason have been guiding me along on this. I'm still not certain I have the total picture sorted out in my head, but I'm running out of parts to make. One good thing is that these parts (the cam follower and face-cam) are on the outside of the engine, so if I mess something up, I don't have to tear the entire engine down to correct it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 28, 2018)

After much heavy thinking and going slightly crazy in the process, I decided to let the power of my Solidworks software do this face cam thing for me. The area which appears as solid black in the drawing is flat, representing the area where the valve will not be influenced by the cam. I have decided to cut the profile with the side of a a 5/8" endmill and to use a 5/8" diameter cam follower. I greatly appreciate the help I received from Jason and from George Britnell.----Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

Today I'm going to try something a little different, and make the face cam. It is definitely different than anything I've machined before, and should make for an interesting day. I will post pictures as it develops. First we start out with a solid model, and then using the math data from the model I will machine the part.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

I know from my drawing that the outside diameter of the face cam is 1 1/4". I found a piece of 1 1/4" dia. cold rolled steel and chucked it up in the three jaw, and took a couple of passes to clean up the end. I also know that the face cam will be 1/2" thick, with a 3/8" dia. hole thru the center. so--I drilled and reamed a 0.375" dia. hole 0.8" deep in the end of the piece of steel. I also know that there will be a 7/8" diameter recess by 0.188" deep in the face, so a 7/8" diameter milling cutter was held in the tailstock chuck and plunged 3/16" deep. If I wanted to, I could now part off the piece to the thickness I need.--However--I know there will be some rotary table work before I'm finished, so I will leave the piece about 3" long to give a "chucking stub".


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

With a couple of dimensions added to the drawing, I can see that a very large portion of the face cam is flat, with no curvature to it. That is the 0.931" dimension on the left side of the drawing. So, with the part held vertically in my rotary table chuck, I will machine that flat area away to a total of 0.157" deep.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

The part has been set up vertically in the 3-jaw chuck on my rotary table, and all of the "flat" area has been cut away to a depth of 0.157". The small remaining bit that hasn't been machined away is going to become the actual profile.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

Once the preceding steps have been accomplished, it comes down to basically 2 plunge cuts with a 5/8" endmill. Of course there is a bit of head scratching as to just where the plunge cuts have to be. Once they have been completed, the face-cam looks like this. Only one profiling step left, and that is using a file to "break" the sharp corners at the beginning of the remaining "lobe" area.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

-And here is the face cam finished, roosting safely where it is intended to go. Will it work?--Well, probably. I won't know until everything else is finished and I try to start the engine. These little hit and miss engines are pretty forgiving.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

Man, I'm livin' large today!!! Finished the face cam this morning, laid down for my old man's nap this afternoon, then got up and made the ignition cam. And just as I finished the ignition cam, goodwife showed up from her part time job at the library and took me out to eat at A & W. Life don't get much better than that!!!


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## Johno1958 (Dec 29, 2018)

Looking great Brian.
I am so glad your a fast builder as I really am looking forward for this one to run.
Cheers
John


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## Ghosty (Dec 29, 2018)

Brian, at the rate that you are getting this engine done, it will be finished before the end of the year. Still looking great and cant wait to see it run.
Happy New Year to you, your good wife and family from me and mine.
Cheers
Andrew


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## nel2lar (Dec 29, 2018)

Brian
The build has taken some very interesting twists, enjoyed it all. I have a fab shop 2o miles from me it has a new owner and they will not sell anything but by the book. They get cutting on everything.
Have a Happy, Healthy New Year
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 29, 2018)

Guys, I greatly appreciate you stopping by and saying Hi. Sometimes it feels like I am posting into a vacuum. I have no doubts about the engine running. If there is an issue, I predict it will be in getting the governor driven lockout to engage successfully. Sometimes with things like this, computer modelling will take you only so far. You have to "build it and see if it works."


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## CFLBob (Dec 29, 2018)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Guys, I greatly appreciate you stopping by and saying Hi. Sometimes it feels like I am posting into a vacuum. I have no doubts about the engine running. If there is an issue, I predict it will be in getting the governor driven lockout to engage successfully. Sometimes with things like this, computer modelling will take you only so far. You have to "build it and see if it works."



I'm sure there are many who read every post.  I keep my mouth shut because I think I've probably not added anything worthwhile in the times I have posted a reply. 

I'm waiting to see it run, like all the others.


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## JohnBDownunder (Dec 30, 2018)

Oh No, Definitely not posting into a vacuum Brian. I along with I suspect many others check on the progress daily. So, even if I don't post, (mostly for the same reason as CFLBob above) I do enjoy all your posts and hope one day to make one of these hit and  missy engines. 
Keep posting please, 
I wanna see it run.
John B


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## minh-thanh (Dec 30, 2018)

for me, I thanks you for what you share about how to do it , Not only in this project.
Keep posting, please !!


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## Foozer (Dec 30, 2018)

Always read your stuff - Enjoy how you figure things out to get em working . . .
Robert


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 30, 2018)

It's no fun having an ignition cam if you don't have the rest of the parts that go with it. Today I made the ignition points mounting block and adjusting handle. I keep an old set of Dodge ignition points that I use for "set up" purposes only. Everything fits in behind the flywheel, which has been removed for this picture. My original design of the points mounting block allowed for adjusting the timing while the engine was running. I realized that I couldn't use the same method for this engine, but I redesigned the mounting block and put in two slotted adjustment holes which can be easily accessed thru the holes in the flywheel web--just not while the engine is running.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 30, 2018)

A really good sign this evening!!---I filled the water reservoir with water and nothing appears to be leaking. There are six bolts which break thru into the water reservoir, and they were all coated with clear silicone on the threads before they were installed. The sides from which the cylinder enters and the side where it exits were both sealed with viton O-rings and silicone when the cylinder was installed. I am going to make a very fancy polished top from brass to fit the top of the reservoir, and either Loctite or J.B. weld it into place, and I had to be sure I had no leaks before doing this. I will leave it full of water overnight and hope there are no puddles around the engine when I get up tomorrow.


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## Bighoss (Dec 31, 2018)

I follow all your posts I have not made any model engines yet but I want to one day.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 31, 2018)

This morning I machined the valve cages from brass. These "cages" have a dual function. They guide the valve by way of the reamed center hole, and they also have the valve seat machined in them using a special tool after the Loctite has set up for 24 hours. They are machined to be very slightly larger than the 0.394" holes thru the cylinder head, and are pressed and loctited into the head. The inside of the holes in the head have been degreased using a q-tip and laquer thinners. No cutting oil was used when the valve cages were machined, so they don't need degreasing. Also in the picture, you will see a piece of cold rolled steel that I use for a "pusher" so that I don't deform the valve cages while pressing them into place in the cylinder head. There will be another hole thru the sides of these cages for the inlet and exhaust ports, but it will be drilled thru both cylinder head and valve guides after the Loctite has "set" for 24 hours.


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## Brian Rupnow (Dec 31, 2018)

Both valve cages are now pressed into place. At the last minute I decided not to use my arbor press, and just used my bench vise to push the cages into place. The "pusher" didn't get used. The holes in the cylinder head were reamed to 0.394". The valve cages were turned to 0.395" except for the shoulder. I seem to be getting better at this "press fit" business. The recess you see in the top/outside of the valve cages is in there to keep the valve springs centered when they are assembled with the valve which passes thru this guide.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

Today we are going to start the new year off with a valve tutorial. For all of you guys with years of experience, this will be kinda like teaching your grandma how to suck eggs. For all the new-bees following, this method has proven to be "tried and true" for me. There are two critical areas on a valve. The most critical is of course the valve face which seals against the seat in the valve cage. The second critical area is the shank of the valve itself. It must fit into a reamed hole in the valve cage, and "run true" without sticking or being sloppy. In the two attached pictures, you will see one short piece of scrap with a 0.125" hole drilled and reamed thru it. Why??--Because, as the valve is being turned down to be a "good sliding fit" in the valve cage, we need something with a very precise 0.125" diameter hole to
 keep checking the size of the shank we are turning on the valve. This is an area where I have been burned before by taking measurements with a micrometer and trusting them to give me a "good sliding fit". With the 0.125" reamed hole in the piece of scrap, I can exactly replicate the hole in the valve caged which was reamed with the same reamer. I do NOT recommend using the brass valve cage as a checking guide. I have damaged brass valve cages in the past by doing that. The second picture shows a piece of 1/2" cold rolled in the 3 jaw chuck, with a portion of it turnmed to 0.375". Why--because no 3 jaw chuck has 0 runout. my chuck has about .003" total indicated runout, and I want the head of the valve to be perfectly concentric with the shank. Doing it this way ensures concentricity between valve stem and valve head.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

When I make valves, I cut the valve seats in the valve cages to an included angle of 90 degrees with a special tool I will show in a later post. I like to make my valves with a 92 degrees included angle. This seems to work best for me when it comes to lapping the valves into their seats for an air tight seal.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

In order to cut this angle, the topslide is swung around until the protractor is showing 46 degrees. This essentially means turning the top slide almost completely around and locking it in that position. Now with the lathe set up like this, it means I can reduce the shank to the correct diameter, and then use the topslide to cut the 46 degree angle without changing any set-ups.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

Now we are at the stage where deflection becomes the enemy. Whatever the length of your valve-stem is, divide it by 3 and that becomes the length which you machine. I am using a brand new HSS cutter here, and taking 0.010" depth of cut. My target diameter is 0.135" diameter. When I'm getting close to the finished diameter, I reduce my depth of cut to 0.005", and taking the same cut over two or three times, because at this diameter, the work will spring away from the tool. I am leaving the part 0.010" oversize for a reason.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

Second verse-Same as the first. In this shot we have machined the second "third" of the full length. Again, remember to not take a great depth of cut (0.010", then 0.005" when you get close to the target diameter of 0.135"), and take repeat cuts at the same setting because of material spring-back. Also--If you do slip and let the diameter go lower than 0.125", you have ruined the part and will have to start over again. That is why we are leaving that 0.010" oversize, to give ourself a safety buffer.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

Now we get to the last third of the valve stem. Very much the same as the previous two steps, but when you get down to 0.135" diameter over the full length there is one more thing to do. we have left 0.010" oversize on the full length of the stem. Now you could work it down the rest of the way with 200 grit carborundum cloth, but it would take an awful lot of polishing. I prefer to back the cutting tool all the way out past the end of the valve stem and advance it .002", then take two or three cuts full length at that setting. Then advance it another .002" and take two or three full length cuts at that setting. Measure the portion of stem closest to the chuck, and you should be down to about 0.127". Don't measure out at the unsupported end, because it will have deflected away from the cutter and will give a false reading. And remember--measure very carefully. If we go below 0.125", we have ruined the part. Now is the time to very carefully start polishing with your carborundum paper--and remember--the part will be larger at the unsupported end than the other end. Work the part down and keep trying to slip your test piece with the reamed hole in it over the valve stem. This is a rather ticklish business, and best learned by experience. Just be sure to shut the lathe off and check frequently with your test piece. You don't want to end up with the stem undersize. once you have reached a point where your test piece will slide all the way, you are ready for the next step.


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## CFLBob (Jan 1, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Second verse-Same as the first



Henry, is that you?  Or should I say " 'en-er-ee "?


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

Once you have worked the stem down with carborundum paper or emery cloth (This always takes far longer than I thought it would) to a point where your test piece slides all the way up to the end of the stem, you are ready for the next step. (Note that I didn't say the LAST step). Since we already have the topslide set over at the angle we want to cut, we take light machining cuts until we have formed the angled face of the valve. Be careful not to undercut the stem while you are doing this. I would love to say that my valve faces always come out perfectly smooth with a mirror finish,but they don't. That will be taken care of when we are ready to lap the valve into the seat. Do NOT part the valve off from the parent stock at this time. Take it out of the lathe and leave two or three inches of unturned stock to act as a handle while lapping the valve into the valve guide.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

CFLBob--You're showing your age. I thought of Herman's Hermits when I typed that.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

We're closing in on the last steps now. The valves have to have a cross hole drilled thru the ends for a valve collar retention pin. I drill a 1 mm (.039") dia. hole and use a 1mm piece of music wire thru it to keep things together.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 1, 2019)

Okay, we're going to wind this up for today. Setting on top of the pill bottle is the absolutely wonderful, magical valve seating tool, designed by and copied from George Britnell. This is the tool that takes all of the heartache out of leaking valves. Just push it into the valve cage from the bottom as shown, push medium hard, and rotate it about three times. That will put in a perfect valve seat every time, concentric to the guide portion of the valve cage. This has to be the best tool I have in my entire engine building arsenal.---Thank you George!!! And the last shot shows the newly made valve setting in what will be it's final home, after lapping the valve into the seat and cutting off the extended handle.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 2, 2019)

Today I caught a two hour break in the middle of a design job, waiting for information---So, I hustled my butt into the machine shop and made a second valve. The only time I ever wish I had a toolpost grinder is when I make valves. It would be SO nice to grind the face of the valve when I have the valve set up in the lathe. The valves will work just fine once they are lapped into their respective seats, but gee, it would be nice to put a ground finish on them.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 3, 2019)

This morning I lapped the valves into their seats and trimmed the handles off the end of the valves. Spring retainers were made from brass and the springs were installed. The spring on the exhaust valve seems about right. The spring on the intake valve may be a little bit too strong for an atmospheric valve, but  I will find that out as work progresses. I have an assortment of different springs that I bought for a project, and if I can find a spring in the box that will work, it saves me from having to buy one.A head gasket was made from 0.030" general purpose gasket paper from the automotive store, and the cylinder head mounted in place. These engines run cool enough that I don't bother to use some high tech heat resistant material for a head gasket.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 3, 2019)

And for all of you who have been ragging on me for years to not hold a milling cutter in a chuck---Today you get to have the last laugh. I have been saving a beautiful piece of brass to make a polished top for the water reservoir. I went to relieve it all around the edges this morning, and decided to use my newest milling cutter, which happens to be 7/16" diameter. I actually was going to use a proper collet to hold the cutter, but the shank on the damned thing is 7/16" also. I only have two sizes of collets, 3/8" and 1/2"----so---I held it in the chuck. A picture is better than a thousand words. That cut in the brass was supposed to be parallel to the top and bottom. Ah POOP!!! And that was the only brass I had. The cutter pulled out of the chuck and was heading for China and I didn't notice till it was too late.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 3, 2019)

Now that I am totally disgusted with myself for ruining a perfectly good piece of brass, I think I'll do something else. I'm running out of things to build, but I want to see how things look up around the face cam and rocker arm. I think I will make the rocker arm support. Remember---"If at first you don't succeed--Screw it!! Do something else instead!!!"


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 4, 2019)

I woke up far too early this morning and decided I should do something before I have to disappear for a 10:00 meeting. I managed to get the rocker arm support finished and silver soldered together, and made up a cam follower wheel from 01 steel, with an oilite bushing. Depending on what happens at the meeting, I may try and finish the rocker arm today.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 4, 2019)

Milestone event today. Everything related to the face cam is assembled, and it goes thru all the monkey motion in a most pleasing manner. All I have left to do is make the lock-out rod from the governor, make a fancy top for the governor, and build a carburetor.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 4, 2019)

How do you edit a post now? I've been reading thru this whole article tonight, and I see I have a mistake in post #137. I don't know what I have to do to edit the post and correct it.


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## Ghosty (Jan 4, 2019)

Brian, at the bottom of the post at your name and date the "edit" button is there.
Cheers


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## nel2lar (Jan 4, 2019)

Brian
It is so wonderful to hear the astatic feelings in your voice. I think you have always done very nice design work and to hear you say you are happy is like the icecream on the cake. I have enjoyed all you do.
Nelson


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## minh-thanh (Jan 5, 2019)

I'm waiting to see it run, and I think it will be great in the way it runs..


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 5, 2019)

Thanks ghosty--I found it and fixed it. I had originally written 'An included angle of 45 degrees'--It should have said "An included angle of 90 degrees."---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 5, 2019)

Back in 2016 I had the notion that my Kerzel hit and miss engine would run better with heavier flywheels and a larger carburetor.--It didn't, but I have saved that carburetor and a one way valve for the future. The future has arrived. That engine and the one way gasoline valve will be mounted on my sideshaft engine.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 6, 2019)

The carb is mounted on the engine. It didn't go without some drama. I had finished and assembled things--it looked a bit crooked so I tweaked it just a teeny bit with my wrench to correct it---And it broke the fitting off right flush with the cylinder head. I was able to carry the whole engine in and mount it on my milling table, drill out the broken stub of brass fitting from the cylinder head, make up a new fitting and reassemble everything.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 6, 2019)

Sometimes I really hate the Macro setting on my digital camera. It shows up things that I can't even see with the naked eye!!!


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## CFLBob (Jan 6, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Sometimes I really hate the Macro setting on my digital camera. It shows up things that I can't even see with the naked eye!!!



I use that to my advantage.  With the macro mode I see things I miss with a 10x magnifier.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 6, 2019)

I'm almost ready to try and start this critter!!! Tomorrow morning I will install the one way valve in the gas line below the carburetor. I have just finished setting the valve timing. It doesn't need much more than a new spark-plug and a new set of points. It doesn't need the fancy brass top on the water reservoir to run. I can rig a temporary gas tank.  I will try to start the engine as a conventional 4 cycle engine first. Once I have accomplished that, I will play with setting up the hit and miss action.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 7, 2019)

And for those of you who were wondering about the "latching" and "unlatching" of the governor lockout dog, here are two very interesting pictures. The actual "lockout rod" is in fact, a #10 socket head capscrew (temporary, for now) screwed thru the governor arm. The first picture shows the governor engaged. The brass governor arm has tipped down under the influence of the counterweights flying out from centrifugal force. The #10 shcs screwed thru the governor arm prevents the rocker arm from releasing pressure on the exhaust valve, holding it open. This is the "miss" cycle. The second picture shows what is going on during the "hit" cycle. The governor has slowed down, and the governor arm with the shcs thru it has tipped up. The rocker arm is now free to let the exhaust valve close, and the engine will now fire.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 7, 2019)

The one way fuel flow valve I had saved wasn't going to fit my carburetor set-up, so I hade a new one this morning and Loctited it onto the existing carb fuel inlet. I will probably leave a flex line on there to connect with the gas tank pipe (once the gas tank is made). For now, the flex line can attach to a temporary tank until I am satisfied that the engine is going to run.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 7, 2019)

This was three steps forward and one step back day. I finished up and installed the one way fuel valve in the morning. In the afternoon I had to go out and buy a piece of brass to replace the one I screwed up. (top for the water reservoir). Then I went to my automotive supply house and bought a new sparkplug, points and condenser for the engine. Then I went to a tooling shop and bought an assortment of new center drills. (the old ones I bought 11 years ago were all dull.) Then I came home, installed the new sparkplug, went to install the new points, and found they had given me the wrong ones. Had very high winds here this afternoon and every ten minutes the electricity went out. Finally about 4:30 I decided to call it a day.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 8, 2019)

The new points and condenser are installed and the engine is timed, both ignition and valve timing. The new brass top for the water reservoir has had a "step" machined all the way around it so it can set down 1/8" down into the top of the reservoir and be 1/4" proud of it on the top side. (This time it is only 3/8" material, not 1/2" and this time I used a collet to hold my 1/2" endmill to do the job.)  I still have to profile the exposed sides to match the reservoir sides and put the hole in the center to get water into it.  I may have to machine a small "keeper" to restrain the hot wire running to the points so it doesn't rub on the flywheel. Something I have noticed is that the sideshaft gears add a lot of stiffness to the rotation of the engine. Without the sideshaft in place, a flip of them big flywheels will make them spin till the cows come home. With the sideshaft in place, not so much at all. I hope that running the engine for half an hour under it's own power will loosen things up a lot more.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 9, 2019)

Hah!!! Got it right this time.  That brass top looks good setting on top of the water reservoir. Of course it's on there with a goodly amount of J.B. Weld, so I can't do anymore on the engine today. Maybe tomorrow I will try and start it.


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## CFLBob (Jan 9, 2019)

This is probably a dumb question, but do you take it apart and paint or otherwise finish parts once it's working?


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 9, 2019)

No--I don't finish any more, just clean-up. I don't paint anything. Aluminum and brass hold there surface finish fine without doing much of anything to them, and the few steel parts have enough oil on them that I've never had them rust.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 9, 2019)

This will be my fourth hit and miss engine. I started with the Kerzel about 10 years ago. Then I moved up a step and built Philip Duclos' "Odds and Ends" engine. Then I built a somewhat modified version of Philip Duclos' "Whatzit" engine. This will be my first self designed hit and miss engine. I have borrowed the "Side-shaft" concept from a build by Craig Deshong, and the face cam is used on the model "Silver Angel" and on many full size "Stovepipe Domestic" engines.


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## CFLBob (Jan 9, 2019)

I don't think I paid enough attention to the hit or miss concept until I started following this build.  I think I have some idea of how the governor runs it for a little a while and then when it starts to slow down it lets the engine start again. 

The only ones I've seen in real life have been at shows, and I totally missed the springs and weights in one wheel to serve the purpose of the centrifugal governor you have.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 9, 2019)

I remember seeing a couple of them when I was a kid in the early 1950's. The problem with them in Canada is that people would fill them with water and use them and then forget to drain the water. In the fall the water would freeze solid and break the casting around the water reservoir. My uncle had one on a small buzz saw. It had a bad crack in the water jacket but he plugged it (mostly) with some shop rags and had a water hose running into it replacing water that ran out thru the crack. This was back at a time when there was no hydro electricity in my part of Ontario, and every night when I come home from school my job was to fill the woodbox and pump two pails of water and bring them into the house and set them on the counter for my mother. Father and I went to see some-one he knew from the army, (They were all WW2 veterans), and that guy had a hit and miss engine running his well pump with a crank driven off one of the flywheels. I was pretty darned impressed by that.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 10, 2019)

Today was "finishing up day". I made a small wire clamp up from brass and drilled and tapped the base for it to keep the "hot wire" away from the rotating flywheel. I cross-drilled the end of the crankshaft and tapped in a hardened 1/8" split pin for the starter spud to engage with, built the starter spud (you can see it laying in the foreground) and a final shot of the starter spud in place on the end of the crankshaft. It fits into my variable speed electric drill and becomes my "engine starter".


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## nel2lar (Jan 10, 2019)

Brian
You have done a beautiful and inspiring build with the side shafter. I have enjoy seeing how you cope with every thing along the was. Very nice!
Congratulation on the completion.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 10, 2019)

And now we're in "troubleshoot" mode. Engine is finished except for gas tank. I have a temporary fuel tank rigged, and two fire extinguishers right beside me. Engine turns over freely, but doesn't have a lot of compression. That's okay, non of my engines had much compression until they fired half a dozen times, which "seats" the valves better than any lapping can. If choked by finger over the carburetor inlet while turning it with the drill, I can see fuel rushing up thru the transparent gas line. I'm getting fuel up to the carburetor okay. If sparkplug is unscrewed and lain on the cylinder head, I've got lots of spark and visually it is coming at the correct time in the sequence of piston movement. Valve timing is spot on, with exhaust valve popping open just as the piston begins to move up on exhaust stroke, and closing just as piston reaches the top dead center. There is very little lead or lag on the valve timing in this engine. It opens and closes within 180 degrees of crankshaft movement. Governor is not hooked up right now. I have to get the engine running first, then I start to play with the governor. I squirted dawn dish-soap around cylinder head to cylinder connection and ran the engine with my electric drill. No bubbling anywhere, so head gasket is not leaking. I have very, very little fuel, and I think I just toasted my electric drill (it's been going funny for a while now). Next step is to run up to my hardware store and buy a new drill and a can of Coleman fuel.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 10, 2019)

Another thing to check is adequate clearance between the rocker arm and the end of the exhaust valve. There should be .005" to .008" of clearance when the valve is not "up" on the cam. If the exhaust valve is not being allowed to close completely, all the compression leaks away thru the exhaust port.  I think perhaps the spring on my atmospheric inlet valve is too strong. I judge this by "feel", by pushing on the end of the exhaust valve stem. It is a delicate balance. The spring has to be strong enough to close the valve but weak enough to be pulled open by the vacuum created when the piston is travelling towards bottom dead center on the intake stroke.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 10, 2019)

I have had engines start up and run first time I tried them. I have had engines which made me pull hair out of my already bald head. This engine has a leaky intake valve. How can I tell?--If I spin the flywheels when the piston is going into the compression stroke, it just turns as if there was no cylinder head on it. If I hold my finger over the carburetor inlet and do the same thing, the flywheels bounce back. If I hold my finger over the carburetor throat and turn the engine thru what would normally be the intake stroke, then move my finger off the carb throat, it will pop like a champagne cork. This tells me that the exhaust valve is sealing okay.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 11, 2019)

Damn--I just entered a big post and it disappeared. I pulled the cylinder head off this morning and relapped the intake valve and that solved my compression issues. I kept on clipping one coil at a time off the intake valve spring until I could see the intake valve bobbing open and closed as the motor was turned over by the drill. The engine runs quite happily along with the drill, firing as I expect it to but when I pull the drill away the engine slows down and stops after about 15 seconds. I seem to be having a gas starvation issue. I may have to try it without that ball check valve in the fuel line to see if that has anything to do with the fuel issue.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 11, 2019)

My butt is kicked for today. I pulled the home made carb off and put a Traxxas 4033 carb on to see what would happen, and removed the one way check valve from the gas line.  Same thing happened. Engine would start if I held my finger over the air intake on the carburetor, but not well enough to stay running on it's own. I advanced the ignition timing a few degrees to see if that would make any difference, but no real notable difference was seen. Even with the leaky intake valve fixed, I'm not getting the compression I would expect to have. So--Weak compression with very poor ability to pull gas into the carburetor--My piston may not be sealing in the cylinder as well as I would have liked. Tomorrow I will make a different piston with an o-ring on it and see what difference that makes.


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## jimsshop1 (Jan 11, 2019)

Come on Brian, I know you can do it!


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## nel2lar (Jan 11, 2019)

Brian
I feel for you and your frustration, everything says it should but. Good luck and stick with it and maybe it will click and pop away.
Another thing when writing a long post I like to use one of my word programs to write my post. Then copy and paste my post.
Hang in there.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 12, 2019)

Okay Gents--Just so we keep this straight: First try--engine would fire along with drill driving it but only if I held my hand over the carb intake to choke it. This points out lack of fuel, so I tried unscrewing the hi speed jet as much as I could, but that did nothing to fix the problem.****During the course of doing this, the engine had very low compression---it spun too easily .  A check and some diagnostics showed that the intake valve was leaking quite badly. I pulled of the cylinder head and relapped the intake valve, and the compression came up considerably. While the head was off and the intake valve was free of it's spring, I clipped one full coil from the intake valve spring.
**** This did nothing to improve the situation, so after checking my valve and ignition timing to be absolutely sure it was correct, I decided that perhaps the carb venturi vacuum wasn't strong enough to overcome the check ball in my gas line. I removed the check ball and at the same time switched over to a Traxxas aeroplane carburetor which I know works properly (The spare carb I've had laying around for two years was a bit of an unknown). This was the carburetor off the Rockerblock engine, which ran very well. The problem remained the same.
**** I tried lifting the fuel tank higher, but this made no difference.
**** The intake spring still seemed a bit stiff to me, so I removed it and cut another full coil from it. This didn't change my original problem of engine starting and running with drill, but then dying away when the drill was removed.
****I removed the rocker arm and took another 0.01" off the head of the shcs which contacts the end of the exhaust valve to be absolutely sure that the exhaust valve was not being held open.
**** I took another half coil off the intake valve spring, but I think that now I've taken too much off it, so will put in a new spring this morning.
**** I pulled out the sparkplug (which is brand new) and laid it on the water reservoir while turning the flywheels by hand. Lots of spark, coming at what I judge to be the correct time.
**** I had very little Coleman fuel, so I purchased a new can, hoping that new fuel might make a difference,---It didn't.
**** One of the things I did notice during all of this, is that the governor is operating just as I had hoped it would, however I don't have it hooked up yet, and won't until I have the engine running properly.
****Todays plan is to first try a slightly longer intake valve spring. If that doesn't fix things I will take one flywheel off and try the engine with only one flywheel. This shouldn't make a difference, but I have seen stranger things happen. These flywheels are 1" wide, so if the engine decided it will run with one flywheel, I can thin both flywheels down to get rid of a lot of the weight.
****If none of the above things fix the problem, I will make a new piston with a Viton o-ring on it.
**** Beyond that, if the engine still hasn't decided to run, I will have to seriously consider that perhaps my face cam is the culprit, but I hope not. I'm really proud of that face cam.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 12, 2019)

A slightly longer inlet valve spring didn't do it. I thought about this for 30 seconds and then decided to pull the existing iron piston and groove it for an o-ring. Normally I make my o-ring grooves 0.058" deep x 0.093" wide, which works well with a nominal 1/16" cross section o-ring. They aren't really 1/16".--In truth they are 0.070" in cross section. I made the groove for this one 0.060" deep.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 12, 2019)

Lack of suckage has been discovered. The elbow which screws into the top of the cylinder (part of the intake manifold from carburetor) was cracked on the back side where I couldn't see it. Of course it has left me with a mess, and broken off flush with the top of the cylinder. So, once again the cylinder head goes up on the mill to remove the broken off shank. Bad as this may sound, it is a relief to know why the engine wasn't pulling up gas from the carburetor.


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## xj35s (Jan 12, 2019)

a lot of work. It'll be sweet though.


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## nel2lar (Jan 12, 2019)

Brian
Things are looking up. Good eye to catch the little culprits until you work through then. You will get it, just stick with it and I am positive it will make you happy too.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 12, 2019)

Engine with new fitting to replace cracked one in intake manifold  is now picking up fuel from the carburetor on it's own without need for manually choking the carburetor. Getting many short runs, which has me grabbing for the camera, but then it dies out and quits. I thought perhaps the two flywheels were too much weight for a 1" bore engine, so I removed one flywheel, but that didn't change anything. I'm about to give it up for today. The Traxxas carb is a throttled carburetor, and now that I have the engine sucking up fuel on it's own, I may trade back to the hit and miss carb tomorrow.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 12, 2019)

I've spent the last three hours going over everything I knew or thought I knew about small i.c. engines and carburetors. I knew I was missing something, but couldn't remember what it was. Okay kiddies, here it is.  The speed of air flowing thru the carburetor is directly proportional to how many times the piston goes from top dead center to bottom dead center in a given period of time. Small high rpm engines can get away with large bore carburetors because at the rpm range they run, the air must flow very fast through the carburetor throat. The venturi effect that creates the vacuum to pull gas up from the tank is created in direct relationship to how fast the air is flowing through the carburetor. On small SLOW rpm engines as I have designed here, the air flowing through a large bore carburetor doesn't have to go nearly as fast, so the venturi effect is much less, and consequently it won't lift the gas from the tank as quickly and efficiently as we would like. To compensate for that, low rpm engines use a smaller bore carburetor, which makes the air flow faster. This in turn makes the venturi effect greater, and allows the engine to lift gas up from the tank as efficiently as we want it to.  There is no doubt in my mind that the cracked fitting in my intake manifold was allowing air to come in thru the crack, so as a consequence the fuel wasn't being lifted up from the tank at all unless I manually choked the carb with my finger. The part I couldn't understand was why, after I had replaced the cracked fitting, didn't the engine run and keep running. The Traxxas carburetor has a 6 mm bore--that is 0.236". My engine would only run with the throttle almost completely closed, and even then would die out within 15 to 20 seconds after the drill was disengaged. My plan for tomorrow is to make a new carburetor with a smaller bore, similar to the carb that was used on the Kerzel and Upshur hit and miss engines, with a 3/16" bore.


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## nel2lar (Jan 12, 2019)

Brian
Good thinking and now till the new carb have a good night rest. I know I work more in my sleep when faced with something puzzling me. I think you are on to something. I want to hear I'm happy!  You do it so well.
Good luck
Nelson


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## JohnBDownunder (Jan 12, 2019)

Brian,
        As is usual with any of your posts I found this to be great reading and an easily followed thread. Hopefully I will recall a lot of the stuff I have leaned from this and your other threads when I need it.
Thank you for posting,
John B


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 13, 2019)

All things cometh to he who waiteth---If he worketh like Hell while he waiteth!! I put the smaller bore non throttled carburetor on this morning, fiddled with the ignition timing a little bit, and away we go. I think my heart may explode!!!  I may fill the reservoir with water, start the engine, and do nothing else today except set and watch the engine run.


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## CFLBob (Jan 13, 2019)

It looks like an engine!  Not quite done yet but lots of progress in the last 24 hours.

Congrats!!


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## xj35s (Jan 13, 2019)

This is awesome. Sure enjoyed following along. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 13, 2019)

Someone asked if I was going to give any information about the new carb that is currently on the engine. This is the carb, and the download link will get you all the details from a web hosting site.




http://www.mediafire.com/file/wh1gifgyeutf3vt/HIT_AND_MISS_ENGINE_CARBURETOR.zip/file


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 13, 2019)

This video shows a bit of close up detail on the face cam. I had never built a face-cam before, so I'm rather thrilled.


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## Johno1958 (Jan 13, 2019)

Congratulations Brian she is ticking over like clock work.
Cheers
John


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## nel2lar (Jan 13, 2019)

Brian
As usual very nice job. You stuck with it and prevailed.
Wonderful build, Congratulation on the run.
Nelson


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## minh-thanh (Jan 14, 2019)

Congratulations Brian !
Thanks for sharing about how you do it and how you find the cause it not run.
Thanks you !


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## popnrattle (Jan 14, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> My butt is kicked for today. I pulled the home made carb off and put a Traxxas 4033 carb on to see what would happen, and removed the one way check valve from the gas line.  Same thing happened. Engine would start if I held my finger over the air intake on the carburetor, but not well enough to stay running on it's own. I advanced the ignition timing a few degrees to see if that would make any difference, but no real notable difference was seen. Even with the leaky intake valve fixed, I'm not getting the compression I would expect to have. So--Weak compression with very poor ability to pull gas into the carburetor--My piston may not be sealing in the cylinder as well as I would have liked. Tomorrow I will make a different piston with an o-ring on it and see what difference that makes.





Several years ago Cfellows(Chuck) gave me some insight into making the O-rings work. He said you need the groove about .010 wider than the O-ring so it can "roll" a bit at top and bottom DC and the bottom ring groove about .010 bigger than ID of your O-ring. Thats what I do and I got almost no leakage and they only cost about a buck. There easy on the bore too. (Thanks Chuck!) I also put a little 2-cycle oil in the Camp fuel to help lube it. Later, RT.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 14, 2019)

I have spent a couple of hours this afternoon "fine tuning" the engine. It has a very fine range on the needle valve, to hit the "sweet spot" where it runs at maximum rpm and runs at that rpm consistently without faltering. I have also been playing with the length and strength of the intake valve spring. It is very close now, almost time to add in the link that lets my governor come into play for the hit and miss action. It is running right on the edge of "scary fast".


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## CFLBob (Jan 14, 2019)

Brian, I've lost track.  Does the engine have the piston with O-ring?  

If it is, what is the O-ring made of to withstand that heat? 

Thanks.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 14, 2019)

The piston has a Viton o-ring now, which is a heat resistant material. I'm not sure if it is a polymer or something rubber based. See post #183.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 15, 2019)

Today I am messing around with the hit and miss function of this engine. It definitely works. Engine fires up, gains rpm., up to a point where the governor lever tilts down and the threaded rod blocks the rocker arm from releasing the exhaust valve. Engine goes into miss cycle, and rapidly slows down until rocker arms is released. Exhaust valve is allowed to release, then engine  tries to run again but doesn't quite make it. I have found that my anti-backflow valve isn't working, so while the engine is missing, all the gas in my gas line is running back into the tank. I broke down this morning and ordered  an anti-backflow valve from a hobby shop in Mississauga. It has a neoprene ball in it, which should do a lot better at keeping the gas in the gas line.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 15, 2019)

I will probably work on the gas tank now, because everything else is finished. Measurements show that a tank 1" wide x 1.5" tall, x 5 1/2" long will fit the location I have shown in the 3D model. There are a number of ways I could go about building this tank, but since I have no equipment for welding aluminum I may make it out of steel rectangular tubing with ends and filler neck and outlet tube silver soldered into place.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 15, 2019)

I'm having an easy day today, so thought I would build the gas tank. Laying on the chair you see the rectangular steel tube 1" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" wall, a piece of 1" x 1/8" stl. flat bar, a brass or bronze pipe cap, and a 90 degree black iron pipe elbow. I have already cut the extra length that I didn't need from the elbow, by screwing it to a 1/2" straight pipe nipple and cutting it off in the lathe.


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## johwen (Jan 15, 2019)

Hi Brian,
Try a smaller carburetor bore size and i think you will find it will run slower and pick up petrol easier. With piston rings I make my own and put two rings in the groove with the gap set at 180 apart I use 2 narrow rings i a .0625 ring groove seal very well and hold compression. Cheers John


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 15, 2019)

With the little bronze or brass pipe cap gets screwed onto a matching pipe nipple and then set up in the lathe, it changes quickly from an ugly duckling to a pretty gas cap.---And yes, I know my lathe is pig dirty. I can do things two ways. I can use my lathe dirty until the project ends and I thoroughly clean it up, or I can keep it nice and clean and never do any work.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 15, 2019)

This is as much as I'm going to do today. That pipe elbow has been welded to the endcap on the inside with my mig welder. Not continuous---just three good tacks to keep things from moving when I solder that end with the elbow onto the end of the rectangular tube. I have to solder the elbow to the endplate at the same time to get everything leakproof. I'm going to mig weld those little "bolting ears" also.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 16, 2019)

Today we have a 99% finished gas tank. It isn't pretty but very little of it is exposed when it is bolted into place. I may actually splash a bit of gasoline resistant chassis black paint on it before installing it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 16, 2019)

TADA!!! We have a finished and installed gas tank. Everything fits. I will hook up the pipe from the other end when I get the anti-flowback valve that  I have ordered


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## sieby (Jan 16, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> The piston has a Viton o-ring now, which is a heat resistant material. I'm not sure if it is a polymer or something rubber based. See post #183.


Hi Brian - i am from Australia - how can I get hold of the plans for the  Hit and Miss Engine. Nev Sieby


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 16, 2019)

I have been notified by Canada Post that my new anti-backflow valve will arrive tomorrow. At that point, the voodoo will begin. Setting up the governor on a hit and miss engine is kind of a black art. On other engines like the Kerzel and the Odds and Ends hit and miss, the only variable is the strength of the governor springs. On this engine there is going to be a whole whack of variables. First I start out with the assumption that my flywheels are heavy enough. I'm sure that if anything, they are probably too heavy, but I don't really know. This leaves a few other variables. One is the strength of the compression spring that holds the governor normally disengaged. Another is the amount of engagement between the governor latch rod and the rocker arm. A third may possibly be the second threaded adjustment rod that determines how far out the governor weights are allowed to fly. Should my carburetor adjustment be richer, or leaner. I hope to figure all of this out in the coming week. I've came a long way on this project since it began four weeks ago. Everything to this point in time has been successful. The engine runs (and keeps running). The water reservoir doesn't leak. I will find out tomorrow if there are any leaks in my new gas tank. (I've tried it with tap water, but Coleman fuel will leak thru spots that tap water won't.) Wish me luck guys, it's been a fun ride.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 16, 2019)

Sieby--I will be selling plans to this engine for $25.00 Canadian funds, but your a bit too early. I still have to get the hit and miss part of things sorted. I just checked and there are about 65 drawings. Some of those will be redundant, as I have switched carburetors a couple of times. I accept Paypal paid into my account there which is under my email address [email protected]  I do advise you to wait a couple of weeks until I have had a chance to "clean up" the engineering files and get the hit and miss function sorted out. If you DO send any money to my Paypal account, please state which engine plans you want, because I have quite a few different ones.---Brian Rupnow


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## JohnBDownunder (Jan 16, 2019)

Still looking great Brian.
One thing I don't seem to see is venting of the gas tank. I would think it must be there somewhere or a partial vacuum will stop fuel flow.

Tank cap a loose fit?
Or tiny hole in the cap that I cannot see??
I have new specs after the cataract opp so???
John B


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 17, 2019)

Johny my boy, you're getting old and blind like me. Either that or else I didn't have the hole in there before I posted the picture. anyways, There is a 1 mm hole thru the center of the gas cap so the tank doesn't vacuum lock. I used to not put that hole in the gas cap, and just loosen the cap to run the engine.--It didn't work. Those caps are quite heavy, and are screwed to a tapered pipe thread. Engine vibration will cause the cap to screw itself shut to the point where the engine won't run.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 17, 2019)

My incredibly small anti-backflow valve showed up today. It's not very big, but it doesn't have to be any bigger. This goes into the gas line between the carburetor and the gas tank to keep all the fuel from running back into the tank when the engine is in "miss" cycle. I had built one of these, but it didn't work consistently and I didn't feel like messing with it. Mine was made with a 3/16" diameter steel ball. I think this bought one has a neoprene ball.


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## JohnBDownunder (Jan 17, 2019)

Ha Ha, Brian,
       Yep started my 78th orbit of the sun last August. Strange isn't it that most of us do not think as old folk should? I figure I'm thinking in about my 40s or so. Age becomes clear to me tho whenever I attempt anything physically demanding. So as far as possible I avoid that dastardly stuff.
  Messing in my shed sure beats work. I LOVE   being retired. 
  Oh, and a 1mm hole may or may not have been present, and I could easily miss it. I'm always getting in strife from SWMBO for not seeing tiny specks on the kitchen bench etc. 
John B


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 18, 2019)

Engine is running steadily and consistently now, using fuel from it's own tank. Plumbing the tank got a little crazy  but it all worked out well and incorporated my new anti-backflow valve. nothing appears to be leaking. It's setting beside me here on my office desk, running like crazy. Next thing will be to set up the governor.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 18, 2019)

Doom, despair, and agony on me---the damned purchased anti backflow valve from Sullivan #S756 doesn't work. Not only doesn't it work, but when I called Great Hobbies in Mississauga where I purchased it, they won't send me another one, claiming I have to ship this faulty one back to them at my expense ($11.00) before they will send me a second valve to try. I am at an impasse now. Not sure what to do. Their customer service man is supposed to call me back this afternoon. If he doesn't make me happy, I may drive to Mississauga and pull his arms and legs off!!!


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 18, 2019)

I just got the call from Great Hobbies telling me that this Sullivan valve will only operate if there is "back pressure" from the line on the outflow side of the valve, to seat the ball. I think they ---well--it doesn't matter what I think. Fact is, I'm out $35 and don't have a solution to the problem. I can try building another one myself, with a smaller ball (My first one had a 3/16" diameter ball) which may have been too heavy for the venturi vacuum to lift of the seat. If anybody knows of  a source for a purchased anti backflow valve that doesn't rely on back-pressure in the line to make it work, please tell me.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 18, 2019)

Oh well--You live--you learn!! I did a little research as to why my own check valve didn't work as well as I would have liked. I was on the right track, but I had my check ball setting in a tapered seat, which was cut by the end of a drill. Conventional wisdom seems to be that you shouldn't have a tapered seat. Just a square cut end on the part which the ball sets against. Before assembling, set ball on top of part it seals with and give it one good whack with a hammer. Not enough to deform the outside of the part, but enough to form a very small area which conforms exactly to the shape of the ball which formed it. I will now build another check valve like this.


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## mayhugh1 (Jan 18, 2019)

The Sullivan valve probably doesn't have a spring. Look inside, you may be able to add one or change their plastic ball to a metal one.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 18, 2019)

. I broke the shear-pin in my lathe today. I have wondered ever since I bought that lathe what would happen if I ran it past the limits in power feed. Now I know---"SNAP" and that's all she wrote. It has a brass shear pin 1/8" diameter x 1" long between the gear box and the rod that runs along the front of the lathe to move the carriage. I was power feeding towards center, not parallel to the ways. I adjusted the angle of cut, and that moved the cutting tool towards the front of the lathe. I never wound it across manually because I had been taking many cuts exactly the same. Ran out of travel and broke the pin. I have removed the broken pin and will buy a piece of 1/8" dia. brass tomorrow to make a new one. The good news in this is that nothing broke except the pin.


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## johwen (Jan 18, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Doom, despair, and agony on me---the damned purchased anti backflow valve from Sullivan #S756 doesn't work. Not only doesn't it work, but when I called Great Hobbies in Mississauga where I purchased it, they won't send me another one, claiming I have to ship this faulty one back to them at my expense ($11.00) before they will send me a second valve to try. I am at an impasse now. Not sure what to do. Their customer service man is supposed to call me back this afternoon. If he doesn't make me happy, I may drive to Mississauga and pull his arms and legs off!!!


Brian,
I make my own valves and use a smaller ball say 5/32 diam as they are lighter and tap the ball on the seat to get a good seal. I use a brass or alumiium body for the valve. A smaller choke diameter will raise vacuum with the slower engine speed Cheers and good luck with your good looking engine. cheers John


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## TonyM (Jan 19, 2019)

Hi Brian
Have you tried fitting a reasonably long length of tubing, holding it vertically up and filling it gradually to see what head of fuel is needed to seat the valve. I would have thought that once the fuel line was full that would be enough to seat the valve. It might be as simple as moving the check valve closer to the base and perhaps lengthening the line above  to give the backpressure required.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 19, 2019)

These past two days have been difficult. It seems like all of my engine building skills have deserted me. The engine has not ran properly since I put the new gas tank in place. There are a thousand of these small model hit and miss engines out there with the fuel tanks in the base of the engine. They don't have any problem pulling fuel up from the tank, and they don't have a problem losing their gas back into the tank during their miss cycles. There are a limited number of things that can effect these small engines. Compression, ignition, valve timing, strength of spring on intake valve, and fuel delivery. Everything is fine on my engine except perhaps the fuel delivery. I have to try some other things, one being a spare fuel tank set up to be just below the carburetor.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 19, 2019)

Ah Ha--something is rotten in this low mounted fuel tank. Now I have to determine if the engine won't pull fuel up from a base mounted tank, or if it won't pull it up thru my anti flowback valve. I suspect the anti flowback valve to be the culprit. Engine runs just fine on a tank mounted  up very close to the underside of the carburetor. (I said "High carburetor" I meant "High fuel tank".)


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 19, 2019)

The engine would lift fuel up from the tank when cranked with my electric drill. The engine would start with my electric drill, and then run for about one full minute and quit, as if it had run out of gas. Current theory is that the venturi created vacuum was strong enough to lift the fuel up from the tank when the drill was driving the motor, but when the drill was taken away the venturi created vacuum wasn't strong enough to keep the 3/16" steel ball off the seat AND suck the fuel up. I have taken the 3/16" steel ball out and substituted a 1/8" diameter steel ball--and yes, I give  the 1/8" ball a whack with the hammer to "seat" it in the end of the tube, then discarded that ball and put in a new one. Loctite on the two sections of valve is drying as we speak, and in half an hour we will try that lower tank again.


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## Ghosty (Jan 19, 2019)

Brian, what if you used an elbow on the intake and dropped the carby down below the spark plug, or make up an intake out of some brass tube bent around the head down below the plug, just a thought.

Cheers
Andrew


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 19, 2019)

Yes Cameron, there is a 0.039" hole thru the center of the screw on filler cap. Update--Engine now runs like a fiend on gas from the lower tank. What did I change?--I took the 3/16" check ball out and put in a 1/8" steel ball. If I shut off the engine, the fuel drains past my home made check valve and runs back down into the tank. This says a lot for my diagnostic skills but gives me very poor marks as a check valve maker. Conclusion--there wasn't enough vacuum to lift a 3/16" ball but there is enough to lift a 1/8" ball. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make a check valve that works. In fairness to myself, I modified the existing 3/16 ball check valve to accept the 1/8" ball. The ball seat may have been a bit screwball because of this. I will try one more time to make a check valve that actually works with a 1/8" steel ball.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 19, 2019)

Andrew--On a hit and miss engine, the intake runner should be kept as short as possible. That is because, as the engine slows down during the miss cycle, and then tries to "hit" again, you need to have the fuel vapour "right there" or the engine will just slow down and stop before it has a chance to suck vapour thru a long intake runner.--I'm not practicing what I preach because my carburetor could be 3/4" shorter than it is. I robbed that carb off one of my other engines just to get the engine up and running. All of the things I'm testing and checking for to this stage don't care if the intake runner is too long---but---the intent is that this is going to be a hit and miss engine .


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 19, 2019)

It's been a long day. I'm going to do this one more time and Loctite it so it can set up overnight.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 20, 2019)

There is great joy in Mudville (Casey at the bat)--The newest and latest anti-flowback valve that I built yesterday evening at the end of the day works. The engine starts and runs well on the tank mounted in the base, and when I shut the engine off the fuel in the fuel line does not run back into the tank. This is what I have been trying to achieve.---Brian


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## CFLBob (Jan 20, 2019)




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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 20, 2019)

My engine is right on the ragged edge of hitting and missing. I don't want to gas myself, so I'm setting in my office with the door open to outside. I'm about to quit because there isn't much to choose between gassing yourself to death and freezing to death. I have things adjusted so that at a specific rpm the governor arm tips and prevents the exhaust valve from closing. The engine slows down, and the governor doesn't tip the other way soon enough and the engine just dies. OR--I have the adjustments set so that the governor arm disengages freely, but then it doesn't want to tip down and hold the exhaust valve open. I have had it hitting and missing beautifully if I operate the governor lever by hand. I think it is simply a matter of refinement now.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 20, 2019)

Time for a summary. The engine does start and run very well. This always gives me a complete thrill every times it happens. Yes, it does suck up gas from the tank in the base without any trouble. My initial problems with this was using a carburetor with too large a bore. The air doesn't flow fast enough thru a large bore carburetor to create sufficient venturi effect, and you don't have enough vacuum to lift the fuel.  When I went to a smaller bore carburetor, that improved the vacuum, and it sucks up fuel with no trouble.  The anti backflow valve gave me some problems, mainly because the 3/16" ball I was using was too heavy. When built with the smaller 1/8" ball as in the second drawing I posted, it performs well to keep all of the fuel from draining back into the tank when the engine stops. The carburetor is intended to be used with a hit and miss governor system, and consequently has no throttle plate. When ran without the governor hooked up, the engine runs fast enough to be rather frightening, and the only way to slow it down is to open the needle valve in the carburetor to the point where it is running too rich, however it does slow things down a bit. The flywheels are very heavy at 6" diameter and 1" wide, however that doesn't really affect an engine which has no acceleration curve and runs at a constant speed. The engine has "loosened up" a lot with all of the running it has been doing. As in all of my other i.c. engines with steel valves and brass seats, the compression has improved remarkably after being ran for a while. I am using one 1/16" Viton ring on the piston, in a groove .093" wide x 0.060" deep. The face cam seems to be a success. I had never built a face cam before, and my thanks go out to George Britnell and to Jason for help with the design. My next step will be to tame the hit and miss function so that it operates smoothly.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 21, 2019)

Still in set up mode here, trying to get the hit and miss action sorted out. I changed from a shcs to a piece of 1/2" dia. cold rolled round and milled a notch in the rocker arm.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 21, 2019)

I've worked enough today. I can not find that sweet spot for the hit and miss action. I believe I have tried every combination of spring pressure on both ends of the governor pivot, have added weights, have taken away weights, and that bit of action seen in the last video was about the best hit and miss action I've had.  I may have to make a design change to something, but right at the moment I'm not sure what. One thing that I've seen, and seen repeatedly, is that the action of the rocker arm is so fast that the portion of governor which is supposed to interact with the rocker arm to hold the exhaust valve open doesn't have a chance to get in where it has to be to stop the rocker arm.--Hope you understood that!!! You can see a good example of what I am talking about in the last 10 or 15 seconds of the video. I have to think on this for a while.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 21, 2019)

Bear with me folks.--Thinking out loud here. When the engine is running like it did in the last 10 or 15 seconds of the video, and the latch won't engage, if I touch the end of the governor arm very lightly, the latch will engage. It seems to need a little more force than the flyweights provide to make it engage. The way to fix that is to either run the engine faster or to make the governor weights a little heavier. I don't have much control on how fast the engine runs. Without the governor in place it goes so damned fast its rather terrifying. The engine speed is totally a function of the governor. HOWEVER---I can make the governor weights heavier. If I do, the governor will provide more force to make the latch engage every time the engine speed starts to pick up. The other end of the stick, is that the latch has to disengage before the engine slows down so much that it dies out. At low speed such as near the end of a "miss cycle" the governor weights aren't having much effect on the rocking governor arm. The compression spring on the other side of the governor arm pivot provides the force required to disengage the latch and return the governor balls closer to the stem post, and enter the "Hit cycle" again. The simplest design change I can make right now is to add some weight to the governor arms. I will make the added weight removeable so that if that doesn't work I can return things to what they were.


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## johwen (Jan 21, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Ah Ha--something is rotten in this low mounted fuel tank. Now I have to determine if the engine won't pull fuel up from a base mounted tank, or if it won't pull it up thru my anti flowback valve. I suspect the anti flowback valve to be the culprit. Engine runs just fine on a tank mounted  up very close to the underside of the carburetor. (I said "High carburetor" I meant "High fuel tank".)



Hello again Brian never give up as you will win. May I suggest as another follower has suggested Place the carb direct on the cylinder head. I believe your problem will end then Your new foot valve has overcome the drain back and smaller venturi overcomes the slow running. Bringing the carb closer will cure the the drag time in getting the gas flow starting almost immediately the the exhaust valve is released. Cheers John


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## CFLBob (Jan 21, 2019)

Sounds like a job for a fishing sinker.   I'd be looking for a way to use something like this  or maybe a kit like this.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 21, 2019)

And this is the right point in a build to trot out my favourite governor story.
I grew up in the kinder, gentler, far more poverty stricken world of the 1950's. I have a firm belief that it wasn't necessity that was the mother of invention---poverty was. The lack of money created a world of tinkerers and inventors, simply because there was no money to buy the proper tool or machine. An older friend of mine, named Leonard had built a portable buzz saw for cutting firewood. This was basically a 48" diameter circular saw mounted on the chassis of a model A Ford, circa 1930 or 1931. The lengths of wood were lifted onto a tilting carriage, and the carriage was tilted into the saw to cut up lengths of firewood. The saw was driven by a flat belt and pulley arrangement that came from the rear of the old Fords transmission. Now, Leonard had a problem----The old 4 cylinder Ford engine had babbit bearings, so it did not take kindly to prolonged high speed revving. However, if someone didn't open the throttle and give it some gas when the log engaged the saw, the engine would stall. Leonard was a veteran tinkerer, and somehow come into the possession of a set of flyball governors off an old steam engine. He mounted them with a belt drive from the Ford engine, and hooked them up to the carburetor with a system of levers and pulleys. The theory was quite simple---under no load conditions the old Ford would set there idling, but as soon as the log engaged the buzz saw, the rpm's would drop off, and the flyball governors would open the throttle automatically. This was a perfectly good working theory!!! The problem was that Leonard somehow got one of his lever arrangements bass ackwards. When the last bolt was tightened, and the last brace welded in place, Leonard went to test his creation. He started the Ford---that part worked perfect. As soon as it started however, the flyballs began to fly outward from centrifugal force, and the farther out they flew, the more the lever mechanism opened the throttle. The engine went from zero to a zillion rpm's in the blink of an eye. Leonard leaped from the drivers seat and raced around the car to pull off the coil wire and shut down the engine---and at the same time the flyball governor self-destructed (it too was by then doing a zillion rpm's). One of the steel balls flew  and hit poor Leonard directly in the kneecap and broke it into a dozen pieces--then the old Ford engine self-destructed in a scream of tortured babbit bearings and shattered castings!! Leonard eventually recovered, though he walked with a limp ever afterwards. We all survived the 1950's, but it certainly was a time that gave rise to a lot of interesting stories.---Brian.


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## petertha (Jan 21, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> . I broke the shear-pin in my lathe today. I have wondered ever since I bought that lathe what would happen if I ran it past the limits in power feed. Now I know



Do you not have a clutch mechanism between the power feed rod & the headstock shaft that it engages? Its kind of a rudimentary affair. Looks like a cylindrical collar with 2 set screws which act on compression springs which act on bearing balls which sit in matching divots. When the power feed sees torque resistance (set by the springs) they disconnect the drive to the power feed rod engagement & make an audible racket (balls are out of divots). The shear pin is typically the last line of defense & it s a steel roll pin if it has a clutch. At least this is the most common arrangement I have seen on almost every Asian lathe but maybe you have a different flavor. My (14x40) threading screw rod has only a brass shear pin, no clutch.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 21, 2019)

No, no clutch at all. Just the brass shear pin. This worried me at first, and I did seek out a shaft mounted torque limiting clutch to install. The price was $400, so I decided to suck it up and work with what I had. I did design and build a spring loaded carriage stop, which works great.--If you run into it with power feed, it just slides along. If you disengage the power feed and crank up to the stop by hand, it gives a good repeatable stop that you definitely feel. I was running the compound rest in the Y axis when I busted the shear pin. I'm happy to know that a brass shear pin actually does shear and not take out half the gear train.


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## nel2lar (Jan 21, 2019)

it is nice to have a weak link.
Looking good Brian
Nelson


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## JohnBDownunder (Jan 22, 2019)

Congratulations again Brian, 
    listening to the hit n miss it sounded to me that the engine needed quite a few hits to get up to speed, then coast for a similar time? I wonder if it just may be worth removing the off side flywheel and see what happens??? 
     Probably weird thinking on my part only because I hear a friend's, "Farm Boy" running in the model cage at our local agricultural show amidst the other models. His little engine runs almost non-stop for the three show days. 
I Look forward to the next installment.
John B


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 24, 2019)

Ever since Photobucket got all crazy a year or so ago I have used a paid subscription to Image Shack. Image Shack has now quit working for me and I can not reach anybody at their head office in California to help me to get it working again. I have been very happy with Image Shack up until now.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 24, 2019)

No joy with the hit and miss action. The engine itself runs great, but I am afraid I am going to have to go for a redesign of the hit and miss mechanism. I will post this YouTube link, and then I probably won't post anymore on this engine until I have sorted out the hitting and missing. For some reason my Image Shack service has stopped working and I can't find anyone there to help get things sorted out, so I have lost my ability to post still pictures. Gahhhhhh


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 25, 2019)

I may have solved my problems with Image Shack. This picture (if it shows up) shows that the weights added to my governor weights were not assed as in the 3D model I posted. I decided to mount the weights to the underside of the weights instead. They are less apt to hit the side of the cooling water tower when added like this.---Brian


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## minh-thanh (Jan 25, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> I may have solved my problems with Image Shack. This picture (if it shows up) shows that the weights added to my governor weights were not assed as in the 3D model I posted. I decided to mount the weights to the underside of the weights instead. They are less apt to hit the side of the cooling water tower when added like this.---Brian


Brian.
I don't see picture


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## minh-thanh (Jan 25, 2019)

Brian.
I have a question :


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 25, 2019)

Minh Tranh--No, when the engine runs fast that end goes down.--Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 25, 2019)

For the past two weeks something has been fishy with the images. Some folks see them, some don't. For 2 or 3 days I tried to contact Image Shack to complain, but there is no way to contact them directly. My account is a paid account, so it should work fine all the time. Last night I thought "Maybe if I just log out then log back in to Image shack that will do something, and it did. I can now post pictures again. I really don't know whats going on.


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## CFLBob (Jan 25, 2019)

If you can see that image, it must be that you can see them and we can't.  I can't see it and couldn't see the one a couple of hours ago that Minh Tranh commented on.  

I can upload pictures directly here, and they seem to work, with the "upload a file" button on the lower right.   I've never used any of the services.


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## Barnbikes (Jan 25, 2019)

The email notice I got on my phone shows the picture but when I come to the website it is not there.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 25, 2019)

I need to talk with a tech person who is running this forum. My pictures are showing up on all the other forums except this one.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 25, 2019)

I spent most of today fighting the good fight. By the end of the day, I had achieved the closest to hitting and missing that I have seen since building the engine. I think that my flywheels need to be trimmed of some weight, and will do that tomorrow.---Brian


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## minh-thanh (Jan 25, 2019)

Brain !
I asked because I watched your video, in about 53 seconds, I saw  the engine was slow, it go down  
I have watched it many times but I still don't understand why



Brian Rupnow said:


> No joy with the hit and miss action. The engine itself runs great, but I am afraid I am going to have to go for a redesign of the hit and miss mechanism. I will post this YouTube link, and then I probably won't post anymore on this engine until I have sorted out the hitting and missing. For some reason my Image Shack service has stopped working and I can't find anyone there to help get things sorted out, so I have lost my ability to post still pictures. Gahhhhhh


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## Cogsy (Jan 25, 2019)

Just my opinion Brian, but I just looked at your "Engine running scary fast" video again and I think your hit and miss issues might be carb related. Basically, I think you're lacking a bit of power. I remember when building/running your first hit and miss design, without the governor hooked up the engine would run so fast that it would self destruct (I can't remember who actually had an ungoverned high-speed failure during the build but one of us did) and there is a lot of flywheel on that engine as well. While this engine runs at a reasonable pace, it's not exactly screamingly fast without the governor, so I don't think it's making full power with that carb. Making a bigger bang on the 'hits' will reduce the number of hits required to get it back up to speed, plus accelerate the engine further into the 'miss' RPM region and give longer 'miss' times.

Btw - I have no idea about your picture issue, although it seems weird to me that you were having an issue with Image shack and this forum at the exact same time. My money's still on an Image shack issue. Hopefully the tech people will have some idea.


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## ShopShoe (Jan 26, 2019)

Brian,

That's a great Hit-and-Miss action. I'm looking forward to the slimmed down dual flywheels.

--ShopShoe


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 26, 2019)

So---Here we are, hitting and missing with both flywheels on. I set the flywheels up in my lathe and turned 1/8" material from both sides to lighten them. Building the engine and getting it to run consistently was the easy part. Getting the hit and miss to work consistently has driven me to -----poetry??
What is better than Spring, and a maidens kisses
---When your hit and miss engine hitses and misses!!!


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## Johno1958 (Jan 26, 2019)

Now I can't see the video, post 261


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 26, 2019)

I have tweaked the viewability of the latest video. For some reason they had it as private instead of public. Someone please let me know if you can see the video now.---Brian


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## Ghosty (Jan 26, 2019)

Brian, no problem seeing the video


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 26, 2019)

Thanks Ghosty.  I've had quite a struggle with the hit and miss mechanism to get it to this stage. The governor itself works amazingly well. The problems I have had were more to do with how the governor "shakes hands" with the engine. The engine itself was relatively straightforward, for a "first of". I have a bit of tidy up work to do on the engineering drawings and then I will be selling drawing packages of the entire engine.  The next person to build this engine won't have to do a lot of the "trial and error" stuff that I have sorted out---Brian.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 26, 2019)

There has to be something wrong with the forum software. My still pictures are showing up in all the other forums I post on. I will try to reach Angie and see what is going on.


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## JohnBDownunder (Jan 27, 2019)

Brian, I can see both videos but like many others no still pics.
Your hit and miss now sounds much more "gooder" .  Just like I reckon it should. 
   A bit of tidying up or refinement as you say but either way it's a good'un.
Congrats,
John B


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 27, 2019)

I have contacted Angie by email to try and get things sorted out. My pictures show up fine on the other forums where I post.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 27, 2019)

If anyone would like a complete set of engineering drawings to build this engine with it's governor, I charge $25 Canadian funds for the total package. You can send it to my Paypal account  where I am registered under [email protected]  and please specify which engine you want plans for. This is not an engine for first time builders. I would say that to build this engine you should have at least two or three other successful builds of i.c. engines completed. It is not a particularly cheap engine to build either, because of the two sets of gears involved. The drawings are in inch measurements and will not be offered in metric. You will need both a lathe and a mill to build this engine. There are approximately 50 drawings. At present, I do not know of anyone else in the world offering drawing packages for a side shaft hit and miss engine made totally from bar stock, no castings.--Brian Rupnow


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 27, 2019)

All of the drawings have been updated and saved as pdf files. I have never seen a governor like this before, but it works and that's what matters. It is mind bending to get your head around it. There is a total of 60 drawing sheets.


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## werowance (Jan 28, 2019)

Nice build Brian,  I really like the cam action and the bevel gears in the design.  its nice to watch it run.


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## nel2lar (Jan 28, 2019)

Brian
You have done a very nice build on your unique engine and hopefully we will see more taking on the build. 
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 28, 2019)

I have thought long and hard about how happy I am with this engine, and I'm not terribly impressed---yet. I am going to make a few changes. The engine and the governor remain essentially unchanged, however the face cam and the cylinder head are going to change radically. Craig Deshong would quickly recognize what's going on here.---


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## bmac2 (Jan 28, 2019)

Chalk up another runner. Great work Brian.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 29, 2019)

I am going to change directions now. Although the engine ran, and ran very well after I muddled through the carburetor and anti backflow valve issues, I'm simply not satisfied with the hit and miss action from the engine in its current state. I am going back to a much more conventional cam shape which will act on the exhaust valve thru the rocker arm.  The basic engine remains unchanged, and 95% of the governor remains the same. The changes will mainly be in the cylinder head, and the fact that the valve stems now set vertically and extend thru the underside of the cylinder head. I have seen this set-up on another hit and miss engine where it worked very well.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 29, 2019)

I've even been able to find a spot for the carburetor. The carburetor sets much lower than it did on the first go-round, but it is still above the top of the gas tank. I might have to put an extension on the carburetor needle valve to keep my fingers away from the revolving cam. Tomorrow I will make the new cylinder head. I can re-use the valves, valve cages, valve springs, spring retainers, and exhaust pipe and carburetor.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 30, 2019)

So--If you were wondering what I'm doing today---this is it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 30, 2019)

People always like to see "in process" shots. I checked my stock this morning and all of my 1" aluminum was about 0.015" undersize, but I did find a bar of 3 x 1 1/4" stock. I cut out a piece on my bandsaw, then squared it up and milled it to 1" thick. The bolt pattern was laid out, drilled, and counterbored for #6 SHCS. Since I had set the part up in my mill vice and zeroed on the sparkplug (which is also the center of the cylinder)I drilled the hole for an M10 sparkplug. I then flipped the part over and plunged 0.7" with a 1" diameter endmill, then set up my boring head to put in the 1.181" diameter counterbore.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 31, 2019)

I love my rotary table. It lets me do things that none of my other machines can do.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 31, 2019)

Progress today on the new cylinder head design. It bolts on where it is supposed to. After mounting it I seen that there was potential for interference between the governor weights and the corner. Fortunately there is a lot of material in the corners, so I was able to remove some material. I may have to take a bit out of the water reservoir for clearance as well, but I will take a "wait and see" attitude with that.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 1, 2019)

Here is a blurry photo (Sorry about that) of the cap plate that bolts onto the top of the cylinder head. The two round dowels attached to the underside of the bar are only in there as "space occupiers". If I don't put them in, it messes with the engine compression ratio.


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## CFLBob (Feb 1, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> If I don't put them in, it messes with the engine compression ratio.



Could you explain that?  

Do you mean spinning the flywheels and watching or feeling how it works?  I would guess that with both of them there it would keep the engine from turning - or from turning easily.  I must not be visualizing it properly.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 1, 2019)

Okay--time for a lesson--Remember old flathead Ford V8 engines, where hotrodders would "plane the heads" for a faster engine. What they were effectively doing was decreasing the room in the top of the combustion chamber to increase engine compression, which made a much "peppier" engine. On the other hand, if the combustion chamber gets larger, then the compression ratio drops, and the engine has lower compression and lazy performance. I have made my combustion chamber larger than it was before, so the plugs are in there to replace the material I machined away. A hit and miss engine runs best with a compression ratio of 3.5:1 up to 5:1.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 1, 2019)

That's it for today. Valve cages are finished and installed with press fit and Loctite. One cage was about .00025 oversize, which was where I wanted it to be. The other came out right "size on size" so I knurled the outside diameter to get a press fit. Knurling increases the o.d. by up to .005". In the picture you can see the 7/16" dowels that are in there basically to take up space. They are bolted to the brass top plate.


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## nel2lar (Feb 1, 2019)

Bob
The cylinders take up space which reduces the actual volume of air to be compressed, kind of like taking a head and shaving several thousands off to increase compression. Only the air in the cylinder can be compressed not the metal, larger volume of air will drop the ratio. It is a very special designed valve system and it would be nice to see a CAD animatronics of all the parts working.
Beautiful job Brian.
Nelson


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## CFLBob (Feb 1, 2019)

Thanks Brian and Nelson.  When I saw the two dowels, I just saw them taking up space and reducing the compressible volume.  

I don't have a good enough mental picture of what it looks like in there and how it operates.


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## nel2lar (Feb 1, 2019)

Brian 
what have I done to upset you?
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 1, 2019)

Nelson--nothing that I can think of. Why do you think that?---Brian


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## nel2lar (Feb 2, 2019)

Brian
I was feeling a cold shoulder treatment. My mistake. Enjoying the turn you are putting this engine through, love the improvements.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 2, 2019)

The new cylinder head is finished and bolted in place. As you can see, the valve stems now exit through the bottom of the head and the exhaust pipe sticks out sideways. The bolt on brass cap provided me with a way to insert the valves and lap the valve cages which were pressed in from the opposite side. I toyed with two or three different places to have the carburetor mounted, and settled for the one shown because I didn't want to cover any of the head bolts. I will have to make sure I have a good silicone boot on that sparkplug, or adjusting the needle valve on the carb could be a "shocking" experience. Tomorrow I will make the new cam and rocker arm.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 2, 2019)

Nelson--sorry if I gave you that impression. I post on three international forums, and often, if someone doesn't ask me a direct question, I don't respond to them. I am glad to hear from you and anyone else who find my builds entertaining, but I may not answer every post you put up on the thread.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 2, 2019)

The rocker arm for this new head design is going to be "interesting". Not a real challenge as far as making the part--I will make it in two pieces bolted together. It is however, a very different shape!!


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 3, 2019)

Nothing here for you experienced guys, but a "newbee' is asking about the cam making process. First picture shows a piece of 1 1/4" material in the lathe, turned to the two diameters which will be on the cam, and drilled and reamed to .375". Next picture shows piece parted off to finished length. Next picture shows the layout lines where I am going to remove material.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 3, 2019)

First picture shows most excess material milled away leaving 3 "points". Next picture shows two of the "points" removed on my stationary belt sander, and third picture shows the finished cam in the position it is going to set in the engine.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 3, 2019)

This is the drawing I was working from. Remember--If the cam follower is a round bearing you can get away with a straight sided cam like this. If however you have a flat tappet then the sides or "flanks" of the cam should be curved, and that makes the cam much more complex and difficult to machine.


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## minh-thanh (Feb 3, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> A hit and miss engine runs best with a compression ratio of 3.5:1 up to 5:1.


Brian !
Can I use that compression ratio for other 4 stroke engines ??


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 3, 2019)

Yes, although 3.5:1 is getting towards the low end of the scale. For generic 4 cycle engines I would say to keep it between 4.5:1 and 7:1.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 4, 2019)

I spent the whole day making itsy bitsy pieces. Not the shoulder bolt. I bought it. Not the piece of 3/8" rod, but I did use it as a mandrel to turn the strange looking rocker arm end on. The other part of the rocker arm which is covered with purple layout dye got to this stage before I realized I was working from an out of date drawing. I may be able to make a save there, I'm not sure yet. The L shaped piece of 1/4" steel plate will get welded to the sideshaft support block to replace the one which is currently there. There is something downright sinful about working so damned hard for a whole day and only making three pieces, one of which may be wrong.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 5, 2019)

Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do. My mill has amazing headroom, and this set-up used every inch of it. This was drilling, reaming, and threading the sideplate for a 3/8" shoulder bolt on which the new rocker arm will rock.


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## CFLBob (Feb 5, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> There is something downright sinful about working so damned hard for a whole day and only making three pieces, one of which may be wrong.



For perspective, you still get much more done than I do most days.  It's mostly because of the way I set up my shop - that everything has to be done under CNC control.  I was faster when I could walk up to the mill, fasten something to the table (or clamp in the vise) and then turn the handles. 

But still - you get more done than I do.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 5, 2019)

Check this out. This is so cool!!! I have replaced the face cam with a more conventionally shaped cam, and added a really strange rocker arm. I love it when the real parts operate just like my cad program said they would. There was nothing wrong with the face cam I had on the engine originally, but there were problems involving consistent latching of the exhaust valve lockout mechanism from the governor. In order to change this (and hopefully improve it), I had to change the style of cam I was using.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 6, 2019)

So---Here we are again. It looks almost the same as it did the last time around, but there are changes. The face cam is gone, replaced by a conventionally shaped cam, and my wonderful rocker arm as seen in the previous video. The head is completely changed, and the brass tilting part of the governor arm has had the pivot moved around to the other side of the stem post. All I have to do now is make my new lockout arm and we'll try this rodeo again!!


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 7, 2019)

The more I thought about how close that carburetor was to the sparkplug, the more it bothered me. It isn't the shock that bothers me so much--It's where you move your hand to involuntarily when you get the shock. I have never been hurt by any of my engines so far, but there are a lot of things going on up at the front of this engine. I don't want to get a shock, jerk away from it, and feed my fingers into the meatgrinder. The engine has been retimed, both valve timing and ignition timing. It is ready to go except for the small manifold that bolts onto the engine to channel gasoline from the gas tank up to the carburetor. I also have to incorporate my anti-backflow valve into the manifold.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 7, 2019)

Here is an interesting fact. The face cam I made for this engine had all of the action imparted to the valve in a 90 degree segment. Because of the 1:2 ratio between the crankshaft and camshaft, that means that all of the valve movement occurred in 180 degrees. The engine ran, and seemed to run relatively well. The new cam, which is patterned after the Odds and Ends hit and miss engine by Philip Duclos has 128 degrees of cam influence, which results in a whopping 256 degrees of crankshaft rotation. Since there are only 180 degrees of crankshaft rotation as the piston moves from bottom dead center to top dead center on the exhaust stroke, that means that the remaining 76 degrees has to be used up before and after the piston is at bottom dead center and then at top dead center. This is normal on internal combustion engines, and is highly theoretical, because when you take the clearance between the rocker arm and the end of the valve stem into consideration, the "lead" and "lag"  of the valve action isn't as much as the theoretical numbers would have you believe. Hit and miss engines are not a high revving engine, so it probably won't make as big a difference, but it will be interesting to see.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 8, 2019)

Today I made the last piece for this engine, and what a snaky piece it it!!! This is the manifold that connects to the base of the cooling reservoir and forms a leakproof seal with the extended tube from the gas tank, and channels fuel through it's many galleries to the anti backflow valve and then to the carburetor. There will be a piece of transparent fuel line connecting the anti-backflow fitting to the carburetor, which allows me to see what's going on with the fuel. Right now the piece has half a dozen brass plugs held in place with J.B. weld, and after it sets up overnight I will add it to the machine and see if it runs.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 9, 2019)

Good news--Engine is firing consistently when spun by drill, which eases my mind somewhat about having enough compression to fire with the new head on. (The new head has a larger combustion chamber than the old head had.) Since I also had to make new valve cages for the new cylinder head, (couldn't re-use the old ones) I was concerned about the valves sealing but it seems they are going to seal all right. --The old valves were installed and lapped into the new seats through that access hatch in the top of the cylinder head. Flywheels will bounce back when spun by hand against compression. I have hurt my back, so I'm trying not to do too much for a few days, but I had to try this new configuration out to see what was going to happen. When I had the cylinder head off, I measured the distance from the head of the piston to the end of the cylinder at top dead center, and I have about 0.176" there. If I have to, I can add that much to the top of the piston to bring the compression ratio higher. This is probably all for today, but it's looking quite good so far.---Brian


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## nel2lar (Feb 9, 2019)

Brian
I think it is VERY COOL. Nice job working something special out.
Good job
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 9, 2019)

Hi Nelson. I did alter the cam profile this afternoon, on the advice of George Britnell. George is very knowledgeable about design and construction of small engines. I have the engine firing consistently, but not quite to the point where it will take off and run on it's own without the variable speed drill I use as a starter. I have spark, I have fuel, and I have the ignition and valve timing correct. The two things left which would cause the engine to not start are #1--Too much friction as the engine is still quite "stiff" because it is new, and #2-there is a lot more room inside the cylinder head now, which gives lower compression than in the previous design. I have room to add 0.200" to the end of the piston to increase the overall compression, and since that is the easiest thing to do I may do that tomorrow. as far as "stiffness" of the engine, I can always oil everything up good and then drive the engine with a v-belt from my 1/2 HP. electric motor for a couple of hours.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 10, 2019)

So--If we want the engine compression to come up higher, we can make the cavity in the cylinder head smaller---OR--we can make the piston longer. In my situation it was much easier to make the piston longer. Using information from my CAD system, I determined how much longer it could be, and what diameter it had to have. The diameter had to be a tiny bit smaller than the actual piston size, because the piston was already designed and lapped as a "precision fit" in the cylinder. I assembled the lengthened piston to the rod and the rod to the crankshaft and turned the engine over by hand to be sure nothing interfered.  Nothing did, so I pulled it apart again, put a dab of J.B.Quickweld on the threads of each bolt and reassembled the lengthened piston. Now I'm off to get some lunch, and by the time I'm finished eating, everything will be ready to go back together.


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## nel2lar (Feb 10, 2019)

Victory is in sight. I believe you got it.
Nelson


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## Johno1958 (Feb 10, 2019)

G,day Brian. I find what you have done with your piston very interesting. On low speed engines like these a two piece piston design may be an excellent way of experimenting 
with different compression's with an added bonus of the wist pin never accidentally moving and scoring the bore .
Cheers
John


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 10, 2019)

Hi John--I've had a frustrating day today. I have removed/fixed all the things that would keep the engine from running, and it still doesn't want to run on it's own. I have one more trick to try, and if it doesn't run then it's going up on the workbench to be driven by my 1/2 horsepower electric motor until any residual "stiffness"  goes away.


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## minh-thanh (Feb 10, 2019)

While learning more about the engine, I changed the combustion chamber by changing the connecting rod (making it longer or shorter) And now I have seen my stupid .
Thanks Brian !!


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 12, 2019)

I'm not having a lot of luck here. I played all day yesterday, doing all the usual tricks to get a engine started. Valve timing, ignition timing, carburetor settings. I even set the engine up in my main garage and ran it with a 110 volt electric motor for a couple of hours to get rid of any tight spots. No Joy!! Engine fires right up and runs along with the starter drill, but doesn't want to keep going on it's own. I am having an issue with the intake valve seizing open. I have never had that happen before, so I've been theorizing as to why this is happening. I think that there is a flaw in the design of the rocker arm, and that "at speed" the rocker arm which should only move the exhaust valve is being "flung" out so hard by the cam that it is over-travelling and hitting the intake valve. That is my current reasoning, so today I will investigate the rocker arm design. Will also do a bit of research and calculate the engines current compression ratio.


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## TonyM (Feb 12, 2019)

Hi Brian. To test your theory how about a temporary tension spring on the valve end of the rocker to control the bounce.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 12, 2019)

I spent the best part of this morning redesigning the rocker arm so it gives a lot more clearance to the intake valve. While I was deeply into the design, I noticed that the length and positioning of the arm which has the cam follower on it was not correct. I'm not certain how that happened, but it did. I will now embark on making a new rocker arm and cam follower arm. S&*t happens!!---and Tony M--I thought of that, and it may still happen.--Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 12, 2019)

Here is an interesting model of the cylinder head I have designed and machined. The two holes that extend up to the bolted cap plate are machined into the body of the cylinder head to allow insertion of the valves. In my original design, the two orange colored dowels were simply there to fill up the holes and cut down on the amount of "free space" in the burn chamber. Now that I've had time to play with the engine a bit, the thought occurred to me---"I could cut down even more of the burn chamber space if I extended the dowels  to a point just clear of the valves heads when the valves were open." They would have to be machined on the end to provide clearance for the sparkplug, but that poses no difficulty.---Brian


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## nel2lar (Feb 12, 2019)

Brian 
I was looking at your diagram and my thought is to re-make the head. I know that is a too much but here is my idea. Drop the hole for the plug down with just enough clearance to not get hit by the valves. Now the big one the combustion chamber be not be the circle but a cut as a slot just wide enough to have valve clearance. The spark plug hole bored just deep enough to allow for clearance of the electrode and deep enough to prevent the spark from jumping to the metal instead of the electrode.
Was the engine running before you changed the cam and redesign?
I believe you are going to get it, hang in there.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 12, 2019)

Nelson--You're late to the show. I have designed a new head very close to what you are suggesting, but I'm not ready to go there yet. The engine ran fine before I changed to the new head design. Did you not see the videos that I have posted links to earlier in this thread? See post #261.---Brian


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## johwen (Feb 13, 2019)

Brian Rupnow said:


> I'm not having a lot of luck here. I played all day yesterday, doing all the usual tricks to get a engine started. Valve timing, ignition timing, carburetor settings. I even set the engine up in my main garage and ran it with a 110 volt electric motor for a couple of hours to get rid of any tight spots. No Joy!! Engine fires right up and runs along with the starter drill, but doesn't want to keep going on it's own. I am having an issue with the intake valve seizing open. I have never had that happen before, so I've been theorizing as to why this is happening. I think that there is a flaw in the design of the rocker arm, and that "at speed" the rocker arm which should only move the exhaust valve is being "flung" out so hard by the cam that it is over-travelling and hitting the intake valve. That is my current reasoning, so today I will investigate the rocker arm design. Will also do a bit of research and calculate the engines current compression ratio.


The Problem as I see it is the mass of the rocker arm at the cam end out weigh the  opposite end by a large amount. the pivot for the  the rocker ar is too far off centre. I would shorten the rocker arm on the cam side and put the roller  under the centreline of the cam shaft. The rocker on the cam shaft end should be no heavier than the valve end. I shore if you do that you will have a sweet running engine to your Satisfaction Cheers, John from Johwen


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 13, 2019)

I can't get the engine to run on it's own. I have just about exhausted my bag full of "small engine tricks". The engine fires right up and runs along with the drill while I am cranking it, but slows down and quits as soon as the drill is disconnected. There are only about four things that can affect an engine like this. Ignition timing, valve timing, carburetor adjustment and shape of the cam itself. I have flogged all of these settings right to death, and I still don't have a running engine. It's a shame too, because this is such a neat design. I know that the carb is good, because I took it off one of my other 1" bore hit and miss engines. I have to leave this thing alone for a while now, and hope that I am struck by a new idea.-----Brian


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## CFLBob (Feb 13, 2019)

FWIW, I'm skeptical about the changes when you went from the cam profile in post 304 to the one in post 308.  They're about as different as I can imagine.  304 has broad lobe, almost 0.180 total while 308 isn't even .050.  I can't see how they could have the same action.  Since it ran much better on 304, I'd be really tempted to go back to that.  Or go halfway back and see if it gets better.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 13, 2019)

The flywheels bounce back when you flip them over by hand. Compression is good. The piston fit is very good, and at one point I persuaded myself to put one Viton ring on it. The engine seems to lack power. When you start an engine with a drill, like I commonly do, you can feel it when the engine surges ahead and wants to outrun the drill. My engine doesn't do that. It fires right along with the drill very happily, but I don't feel that surge of power which makes you think that the engine wants to run on it's own. I know it's not a matter of ignition timing, valve timing, nor carburetor. I think I will revisit the cam itself, and make a cam with a longer dwell as I had originally planned on doing, and begin to open the exhaust about 40 degrees before bottom dead center, and have it close right at top dead center. I really like this design, and I don't want to abandon it.


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## nel2lar (Feb 13, 2019)

Brian
I was looking at your drawing page #317. I thought you had it running but have you had it running steady with this head config?
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 14, 2019)

Not yet.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 14, 2019)

Since the engine fires quite regularly while being driven by the drill motor, it heats itself up quite rapidly. This morning I got up and machined a different cam, reverting to the first cam I had before George Britnell suggested the one which I have been using. I didn't think it would make any difference, and it didn't. The engine still fires quite merrily along with the drill, but won't take off and run on it's own. I am at the point now where I am seriously thinking of a different head design. A "newbee" on one of the forums I post on suggested threading the outside diameter of the valve cages, fitting the valve, and then screwing the cages with installed valve into the head from the bottom. Something like that could work, and I know that a number of full size hit and miss engines were set up in a similar manner. I believe the problem I am having with my engine stems from having too large a burn chamber in the head. It is the only possible thing I can think of. I'm not exactly new at this business, this is my thirtieth engine. The outside diameter of my current valve cages is 0.394" (10 mm) and I don't think I could comfortably thread them and leave a thick enough wall, but if I do go for a new design they can be made larger.---Or they could be made to fit into a reamed hole in the cylinder head and held there by a retainer with a viton o-ring seal. A conclusion could be made that with a 1" bore, the engine just doesn't have enough power to run a sideshaft set of gears and a second set of gears which runs the governor, but obviously that's not correct because the engine did function quite well when I had the first cylinder head on it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 14, 2019)

I'm not saying I will do this----BUT --If I did make the valve cages and valves and valve springs and keepers two discreet assemblies, and just pressed/Loctited them in from the bottom, I could cut down on a ton of "burn space" in the cylinder head.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 14, 2019)

Massive calculating and head scratching shows that in order for the new strange cylinder head to have the same cubic inch space as the first round cylinder head (with which the engine ran) it would have to be shaped like this. And even this would require the valve cages, valves, spring retainers and springs to be assembled as stand alone units and pressed/loctited in from the bottom of the cylinder head.---But---It's February, and I don't have anything else to do--- the current cylinder head which I have been trying to start the engine with (unsuccessfully) is about 4 times larger in terms of cubic inch space inside it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 14, 2019)

And I suppose that if I was afraid of the compression shooting out the entire valve cage, valve, and all the associated guts, I could groove the head of the valve cages and bolt on a retainer plate.--Although in reality, I've never had an engine do that.


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## nel2lar (Feb 14, 2019)

Brian
That is the design I was talking about. I do not know but it seems to take away a lot of extra variables.
Good Luck
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 15, 2019)

Okay--more insomnia inspired ideas--Since the exhaust valve is operated by a cam and must have clearance overhead to lift fully (0.156") plus about 1/16" extra clearance , the cavity over the head of the exhaust valve must remain as I have shown it. However--The intake valve is atmospheric, and never raises more than about 0.080" off it's seat, so the overhead on the side above the intake valve can be lower as I have shown it here. What I am trying to do here is cut down as much space as I possibly can in the "burn chamber" to give the engine higher compression. My piston, at top dead center is 0.176" from the end of the cylinder. Since I have drilled and tapped the top of the cylinder for a "space filler", I can also put a 0.176" thick spacer on the end of the cylinder if I have to in order to drive the compression even higher.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 15, 2019)

Hang on boys, here we go again. Third times a charm, right?


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## redryder (Feb 16, 2019)

Hi Brian, I’m glad to see you are still having fun with this project.

While I am not a machinist, I am quite good mechanically. I am very good at getting things to run and run smoothly and slowly. Forgive me if I offer any already stale advice as I have not had a good look at your thread until this morning.

By the looks of things back around posts 227 and 237, you have more than enough compression. 
These engines will run smoother and slower on lower compression and not the other way around. They also don’t seem to gain from valves overlapping each other or overlapping top or bottom dead center. (I think somewhere you mentioned opening an exhaust valve 40 degrees before bottom dead center. I think this might only help on a high speed high performance engine designed with tuned scavenging exhaust system) I am still not quite grasping why you pulled the head off a good running engine to replace it with something else….. Unless it was for the pure fun of it which is always important!

Another area to address is spring pressures. A common mistake is to use too much spring in multiple places. In the end of the day you want a system with a delicate balance, ie no excessive mechanical pressures making delicate adjustments and balances near unachievable. I have swapped in lower tension springs in multiple places on several engines to get them to run right. I once had a Galloway model that with the exception of the valve springs, all the others were way to stiff.

Most of my  best running model engines have exhaust valves that remain closed until bottom dead center. They also have low compression which helps them run at a scale scale speed. The compression ratio in my Springfield model is 3 ½ to 1. Wayne Grenning did much experimenting to come up with that during the development phase of that project. My Callahan also has low compression as do several others. You can find some of these on my YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/user/reddrryder/videos


Gil


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 16, 2019)

Before I go ahead and scrounge the valve cages and valves out of the previous head and put them into the new head, I thought a "comparison shot" of the burn chamber in the two heads would be interesting. The new cylinder "burn chamber" is roughly 1/3 of the size of the old "burn chamber".


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## mayhugh1 (Feb 16, 2019)

It's not just size that matters. Once ignited by the plug, the flame front needs to flow smoothly and fill the combustion chamber in order to burn the whole charge. If there is a lot of metal in its way, the flame can be extinguished early by its cooler surfaces resulting in an incomplete burn and only of fraction of the available energy in the fuel making it to the crankshaft.  - Terry


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 16, 2019)

For what I'm doing, it isn't imperative that I know the cubic inch displacement of the burn chamber in the head. I do know "smaller" from "bigger" without having to do a lot of measuring. The burn chamber in this new head is approximately 2/3 smaller than that of the previous head. And---On my engine the piston stops 0.176" short of the end of the cylinder when it is at top dead center. I have drilled and tapped the top of the piston so that if necessary I can add spacers to the end of it, up to a total of 0.170" in order to play with compression ratios. My whole family (all eleven of us) went out to a nice restaurant in Alliston this afternoon to celebrate oldest granddaughters 15th birthday and her younger brothers 8th birthday. Much cake was eaten and much fun was had. Then I came home, had my old mans nap for an hour, then finished the new cylinder head and pressed/loctited in the valve assemblies. This was a rather nasty experience, trying to get Loctite on the cages but not on the valves themselves. After everything was pressed into place I cleaned up the valve faces  with Q-tips, and put the entire head in my mill vice with enough pressure to raise the valve faces away from  the seats , and it can set up overnight. These valves were sealing very well against the seats in the previous head, and it is my fondest hope that they will seal as well in this new head. If not, I can take the springs and keepers off, grip the shank of the valve in my small hand chuck, and lap them a bit more.


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## nel2lar (Feb 16, 2019)

Brian 
That was exactly what I was talking about. You were ahead of me.
Let the run begin.
Nelson


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 17, 2019)

This is a diagnostic tool I have been meaning to build for some time. The metal piece of sparkplug can be whatever fits your particular engine.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 17, 2019)

Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. I did finish the new head and put it on the engine. Everything fits, but no compression. So--I did make the new screw into the sparkplug hole compression tester. Put some air on it, and I had air leaks everywhere. I had attached a 1" diameter slug of aluminum to the top of the piston in the previous head incarnation, but it was too long for the newest head, so I took it off and made a new one  which was only 0.170" long---worked fine as I have 0.176" from head of piston to end of cylinder at top dead center. Will pull the head off to see what the heck is going on. Think I'll go up north tomorrow and see my mother. She is 98 years old and not doing too well right now.


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## Johno1958 (Feb 17, 2019)

Yes have some time off it and see your mother. I wish her well.
John


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 18, 2019)

Today is the first time in two months that I haven't been dying from lower back pain.--I didn't stand for hours at the lathe or mill today. What a strange coincidence!!! Instead goodwife and I made the 200Km trip up north to see my 89 year old aunt and my 98 year old mother. Aunty is just a bright and sparkling as she ever was. Mom---Well, mom isn't doing too well. She did know me and Aunty, wasn't real sure about goodwife until I reminded her. She isn't in any pain, but is a bit befuddled. She is very well cared for in the seniors home where she lives. Tomorrow I will pull the new cylinder head off the engine (Only four bolts to remove) and start chasing down air leaks. The valve and cage assemblies weren't really a hard press fit into the new cylinder, so I doubt that I have distorted anything. I may get out my jar of #600 compound and lap them both a bit. Due to the nature of this cylinder head, I can't get the valves out again, but I can access the valve stems and get my finger chuck on them to lap them into the seats a bit. There could be some Loctite on the valve faces or seats.--It was messy getting the loctited valve assemblies into the head. Nothing is stuck, that has to move. The valves sealed tighter than a ducks butt in the previous Frankenhead, so nothing should really have changed.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 18, 2019)

Thank you Johno. Redryder--Sorry, didn't see your post until just now. I used to read the Red Ryder comic strip in the old Family Herald newspaper when I was a kid. You were asking about a reason to tear down a running engine. I have four hit and miss engines that I have built, the Odds and Ends designed by Philip Duclos, the Kerzel, designed by David Kerzel from Florida, the "Whatsit" engine by Philip Duclos, and the original Rupnow hit and miss which I designed and built about 10 years ago. They all "Sorta, Kinda" work. I like to push myself into new areas of engine design, and with this current engine I am doing exactly that. Prior to this I had never designed or built a side-shaft engine. I had never designed nor machined a face cam. Those were two new things that were successes. The hit and miss function was a marriage of one kind of governor and a separate kind of valve lockout mechanism, and they did work but not as well as I would have liked. Now that I don't do a lot of professional engineering design work, I have to fill up the days with something, and this engine research is something which pleases me.--Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 19, 2019)

Just so you can see what I'm dealing with---I pulled the cylinder head off this morning, took off the valve springs and retainers, and lapped both valves, first with 350 grit, then again with 600 grit. You can see the dull ring around one of the valves which is the actual contact surface that touches the valve seat. Now, using the old "blow your guts out test",if I hold the exhaust valve closed and blow in the exhaust pipe, it is completely air-tight--no air gets past the valve. If I hold the intake valve closed and blow into the carburetor air inlet, again things are absolutely air-tight. I even called my tool shop this morning and asked them about ordering a new finger chuck for me.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 19, 2019)

Head is back on engine. Good compression. Same old, same old, fires just great with drill, dies away when drill is removed. I'm running out of things to try here. Last resort is a different carburetor.


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## CFLBob (Feb 19, 2019)

Brian, what kind of fuel does this engine run on?  

Since I don't recall seeing anything about an oil pan and pump, I gather there's a mix of fuel and oil?  Is that a critical ratio?


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 19, 2019)

Okay--Here we go. First run with third head design on it. This has not been an easy engine. I am having a difficult time getting "sustained runs". This video truly is the first run that lasted longer than 20 seconds. It ran for about 5 minutes before slowing down and stopping. In this video the hit and miss is not hooked up yet. I have to get the engine to run more predictably and constantly before worrying to much about hitting and missing. Bob--the engine runs on Naptha gas with a bit of oil added to it to lubricate the piston. It is not a critical mixture.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 19, 2019)

After a LOT of investigating, remeasuring everything, I found that the exhaust cam had only .094" of lift, not the 0.156" that is called for. The previous video shows the engine running with the bad cam, but I simply couldn't get the repeatability and consistency I need. Once I switched to a cam with the required lift, everything settled right down and now I can run the engine until I shut it off with the switch. Jeez, what a struggle. I don't know how I made the bad cam--must have miss-measured is all I can think of. Tomorrow I will reconnect the hit and miss mechanism. This is a huge relief, finding out what was wrong. Ringo--Each engine is different, and even without a throttle each engine will find it's own "happy rpm" to run at. You can speed it up or slow it down (some) by adjusting the needle valve, but ultimately you want to find at what rpm the engine is happiest and leave the needle valve in that position when you hook up the hit and miss mechanism. Some engines will run in an acceptable rpm range without a throttle, while some will spiral completely out of control, scaring you half to death and have you grabbing for the shut off switch. I am running on a temporary gas tank right now, so I have to switch back to the proper tank and anti-backflow valve and make sure everything still operates correctly.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 19, 2019)

And here we are---correct exhaust cam, third and final cylinder head, and using the original base mounted gas tank and anti-backflow valve.


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## nel2lar (Feb 19, 2019)

Brian
It is h*ll when something will not do what it was made to do. You had your share of challenges and you were victorious. Be proud my friend you deserve a real big HATS OFF to you.
Very nice I'll be watching the completion.
Cheers
Nelson


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## JohnBDownunder (Feb 19, 2019)

Oh goody. 
        I _think_ it was Winston Churchill who used the phrase, "Never Give Up",  in one of his speeches. *That*, you have stuck to, so all kudos to you.     Now we all wait to see it doing the Hit and Miss dance.
       As with all your posts Brian, I thoroughly enjoy the journey you take us on.
Congrats,
John B


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## ShopShoe (Feb 20, 2019)

Brian,

Congratulations. I have been following your engines for years and I had no doubt that you would sort this one out. As it stands you have a very smooth and steady runner without the hit and miss and I really like it like that. BUT, I like hit-and-miss action too so I'm sure I'll like that iteration of this engine as well

Thank You again for your "warts and all" posts of your progress every time. I can learn just as much from your troubleshooting as I can from a totally-successful-every-time build.

--ShopShoe


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## werowance (Feb 20, 2019)

Very nice.  complex head design and nice to watch it run.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 20, 2019)

Okay fellows---This is it. Engine starts, runs, hits, and misses. I will continue to fiddle with things which should provide less hits and longer misses, but the engine and hit and miss features are completed. This has been an interesting 9 week thrash, I've learned a few things, been surprised a couple of times, and been frustrated beyond all belief at times. All of the difficult stuff has been sorted out, and drawings updated as I went along. If you are a skilled engine builder with two or three internal combustion engines under your belt, this would be a great engine to build. No castings are involved, just bar stock. Thank you all for following the build and commenting. If you want to buy a set of plans (there are about 50 drawings), Send $25 Canadian funds to my Paypal account where I am registered under my email address  [email protected]  I send out my drawings electronically, as .pdf files soo that you need no proprietary software to open and read them.---Brian Rupnow


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## LorenOtto (Feb 20, 2019)

Congratulations Brian on another great episode of watching Brian create an engine.  Thanks you for sharing.


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## Johno1958 (Feb 20, 2019)

Congratulations Brian. She runs like a charm.
Cheers
John


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 20, 2019)

Synopsis---I'm glad this engine is finished. I'm somewhat disappointed that it doesn't have a better hit and miss ratio. Biggest finding is that when you add in a set of helical gears for the sideshaft and a set of bevel gears for the governor, the engine "coasts" like a lead balloon. With or without the Viton o-ring on the piston this engine does not coast well.--at least not with 6" diameter flywheels. On a full size engine or on a larger scale model with possibly 8" flywheels and a 1.25" bore piston I'm sure that the "coasting" would be greatly improved. The governor works very well. It is rather complex, but it does function better than I had thought it would, and is very sensitive to changes in rpm. I have always had a sense of great "mystery" when it comes to face cams, but after the first rendition of this engine with a face cam, and thanks to help from a couple of forum members, I wouldn't be afraid to design and machine a face cam again. This is the first engine I have ever built with an "internal" fuel tank mounted in the engine base. It worked out very well, and the anti backflow valve I designed and built really does work well, and keeps the fuel from draining back into the tank when the engine is in "miss" mode. The strange "Frankenhead" I designed and built to allow installing the valves from the top of the cylinder head didn't work. I never really come up with an exact answer as to why it didn't work, but I surmise that the burn chamber created was simply to large. The third and final cylinder head, in which the valves, valve cages, springs and retainers were inserted as "sub assemblies" really did work out well. I had never thought of doing it that way, and I give thanks to "Ringo", a relative newcomer to one of the forums I post on for suggesting it. The basic structure of the engine including the water reservoir, sideplates, base, crankshaft, and ball bearings is pretty standard fare for this type of engine, as are the cylinder piston and connecting rod. It's been an engine which provided me good entertainment for two months or so, and made me stretch my machining abilities to a higher level. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, said Hi, or even had a look at what I was doing.---Brian Rupnow


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 21, 2019)

When I built this engine, I "borrowed" a carburetor from one of my other hit and miss engines. Now that the main build fever has tapered off a bit, I will build a new carburetor specifically for this engine. I had a few issues with carburetor placement, necessitated by going rapidly thru three different head designs. I don't really want to make any more changes to the final third head, but I do want a carburetor that sets up really close to the head and has adequate clearance from the sparkplug. This design, although it requires a clearance notch on the land which centers the sparkplug in the head and a couple of tapped #6 holes, gives me everything I wanted. It sets up close to the head, it has adequate clearance form the sparkplug, and it's not going to get whacked by the revolving cam.--And best of all, I found a piece of brass big enough to make it in my "brass drawer".


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 22, 2019)

The carb body, while small, ends up being quite complex.


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## CFLBob (Feb 22, 2019)

Very entertaining to watch, Brian, so congrats on a nice running little engine.  I've watched that video twice already. 

How old is the concept for hit and miss regulation of RPMs?  Pretty sure I told you I had never seen or heard of one until my first encounter  with one at NAMES.  I'd guess it must be during the early adoption of the IC engine, so late 1800s?


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 22, 2019)

CFLBob---Google is your friend. I don't really know off the top of my head. Probably mid 1800's.---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit-and-miss_engine


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 22, 2019)

This isn't exactly micro-surgery, but it's darn close. I will make up the two 1/4" plugs and solder them in later today.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 23, 2019)

And this is as much carburetor as I can build today. I need some very small drills, which can only be bought at a toolshop to finish this off, and they are closed on the weekends.


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## Foozer (Feb 23, 2019)

At this age 1/4 inch is micro-surgery . . .


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 23, 2019)

I couldn't go any farther with the carburetor today, due to a lack of miniature drills.---But--I could fit the carburetor to the cylinder head and make what changes were necessary (drill and tap two holes in cylinder head, and a small counterbore over the port hole for an o-ring). I didn't really want to machine anything today, but goodwife has a cold and didn't feel like going out. Everything fits and clears like I had anticipated, so I'm happy on that account.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 25, 2019)

Making carburetors is not terribly difficult, just a bit time consuming. I drove across town in a blizzard today and got the 0.040" and 0.052" diameter drills I needed. Came home and carefully drilled the holes in all the right pieces, and just about to finish up here. In final assembly, I screw the needle valve top (knurled part) down onto the fuel jet until it bottoms out against the carburetor body, then back it off two full turns.  I have a selection of sewing needles from the local fabric shop, and I find one that slides all the way in until it bottoms out against an shoulder in the fuel jet. To be sure, I use the old "blow your guts out" trick on the end which the fuel line will eventually connect to. If you can't blow any air through unless you pull the needle back a bit, you have found the right size needle. I will now clip whatever part of the needle sticks out past the top of the knurled part, and solder the needle to the knurled part while everything is assembled. You will also see a tube of "seal all" laying beside the carburetor. After the parts have cooled off a bit, I unscrew the knurled part (which now has the needle attached to it), loosen off the hex nut, and put a dab of seal all on both sides of the fuel jet where it exits from the body, then quickly reassemble everything. If you don't use the seal all to seal things, the carburetor will suck air around the jet rather than sucking up fuel from the tank. Don't ask me how I know that!!


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 25, 2019)

The only other bit of carburetor wisdom that I have is this. Those lovely, shiny sewing needles have some kind of clear coat on them to prevent them from rusting while setting on the shelf. Before I try and silver solder them to the knurled part, I soak them in laquer thinners for about 5 minutes, then wipe them down with a clean dry rag and rub the area that will actually see solder on a very fine bit of sandpaper. If you don't do this, the solder will all pool up around the end of the needle but not flow onto it.


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## werowance (Feb 26, 2019)

teenie tiny fiddly bits and parts to work with.  how do you do it?   great job


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## wgpeters (Feb 27, 2019)

I'm hoping to see it run with its new carb!


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 27, 2019)

wgpeters---Me too. Actually, that train has already left the station. I decided that my newest carburetor which was supposed to seal with a rubber o-ring wasn't sealing. At that point I had to make a decision between shooting myself in the head or building another carburetor that screwed into the tapped 5/16" hole in the cylinder head. The newest carburetor is setting in a jar of citric acid pickling solution at I type this, and in about 20 minutes I will take it out, scrub off all the black nasties, and install the fuel jet, and needle valve into it. Then---We'll see!!!---Brian


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## wgpeters (Feb 27, 2019)

Brian,  I admire your patience and stick toitiveness


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 27, 2019)

"The best laid plans of mice and men"---I think perhaps Robby Burns may have built small engines as a hobby. My great little new carburetor that was supposed to seal tight against the head with a small o-ring---didn't!!! I played all day yesterday with no success, so today I built carburetor #4, which goes back to sealing on the 5/16" tapped thread in the cylinder head. It wasn't that bad--I got to salvage the fuel jet and the nut and needle from the o-ring carb that didn't work. Tomorrow, after the Loctite and seal all has had overnight to dry, we'll try this dance again.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 11, 2019)

I'm back, after a 10 day rest from this engine. I needed a break, because it wasn't working up to it's full potential, and I had totally ran out of ideas. I have had problems right from day one with this engine, where it would fire along with the drill driving it, but then gradually die away and quit when the drill was removed. Sometimes it would run for 5 or 6 minutes, long enough to get a video of it,  and then gradually die away and quit. I tried a different cam and cam follower---no joy. I tried a couple of different carburetors---no joy. I think that today I have isolated the cause of all my heart-ache. There is something very, very fishy about either the position of the gas tank (in the base) or with that anti backflow valve which now has the 1/8" check ball in it. Today I changed back to my carburetor with a 0.156" throat and the gas tank from a different engine mounted about 1/2" below the carburetor throat, and the engine ran for 15 minutes straight and didn't offer to quit. I actually had to shut it off with the switch. This amazed me so much that I started it three or four more times, and each time I had to shut it off with the switch. I am going to see today about getting a 3/32" steel ball for the anti backflow device. Also, I have to devise a mechanism for the governor which lets me increase or decrease the pressure of the compression spring in the governor while the engine is running, so I can fine tune the hitting and missing.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 11, 2019)

This is the exhaust cam I am using on this engine. Keep in mind that the angles are somewhat theoretical. I made no allowance for the gap of about .008" between the end of the exhaust valve stem and the part of the rocker arm that contacts it. This gap, called "valve lash" is necessary when the cam is not acting on the rocker arm, otherwise the exhaust valve would be held open and leak. The numbers say that the valve will begin to open about 40 degrees before the piston is at bottom dead center, remain open thru the full 180 degrees of piston travel as it moves from bottom dead center up to top dead center and then closes. The reality is that it begins to open about 20 degrees before bottom dead center, however it still must totally close when the piston reaches top dead center. If it remains open past top dead center, the atmospheric intake valve won't open until the exhaust valve is fully closed. I finally got around to checking the compression ratio on this engine, and it is very close to 7:1 ratio.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 11, 2019)

And just for interests sake--This is how I intend to add a "counter-spring" and adjuster to fine tune the point at which the governor kicks in and out.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 12, 2019)

The counter-spring for the governor has been built and installed. It works. You can definitely change the rpm at which the governor engages. It is a very delicate adjustment. Now I need to address the carburetor one more time, because it is running on a borrowed carburetor.  This engine does not have a great "coast" mode. I'm not sure if it's simply a matter of flywheel diameter and engine bore, or if there is just too much inherent friction from the helical gears running the sideshaft and the bevel gears which operate the governor weights. This is basically the same engine as was built by Craig Deshong, based on a 1905 Myers hit and miss engine. His model has 8 1/2" dia. flywheels and I "think" a 1.25" bore cylinder. His engine runs marvelously, and has a much longer "coast cycle" than this one does.


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## CFLBob (Mar 12, 2019)

I'll be interested in watching that run as you adjust it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 15, 2019)

Just so ya know I'm not being totally slothful up here---Newest carburetor with 0.156" bore and bag of 100
3/32" steel balls in a plastic bag. I'm having a terrible fight with my arthritis this past week, so I'm not moving quite as fast as I usually do.--Going in on Monday for a cortisone shot in my left knee. Hope to have new carb mounted and new anti backflow made sometime over the weekend.--Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 15, 2019)

Going to a 0.094" (3/32") diameter  steel ball lets me make a much more simplified anti-backflow valve.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 15, 2019)

Very happy to report that new carburetor works fine. Engine is running and starting consistently with new carburetor. I will post details of new carburetor tomorrow.---Also hope to finish new anti-flowback valve tomorrow.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 16, 2019)

Finally--With the 3/32" steel ball in the anti backflow valve and the new carburetor with the 0.156" throat diameter, we are running off the main gas tank in the base and getting sustained runs. I am going to post drawings details of the new carburetor, take a final video, and then this thing is done like dinner.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 16, 2019)

As promised, here is the new carburetor drawing. It actually has a total of four sheets to it. I am posting an image of the first page here. The full four pages can be downloaded from the attached link.---Brian





http://www.mediafire.com/file/7b03o2fo3b9bfns/CARBURETOR_0.156_RUPNOW_WITH_OFFSET.JPG/file


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 16, 2019)

Here we go---Final video time. This has kept me entertained/drove me crazy since mid December, and I'm not sorry to be leaving it behind. Thanks very much to all of you who followed this long post. I have learned a lot on the way, and discovered a couple of new things, and now I will leave it behind.---Brian Rupnow


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## Johno1958 (Mar 16, 2019)

Good on you Brian she runs very well  and I can hear the miss action. No doubt about it you put in the long hard yards and you got a lovely runner.
Cheers 
John


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## JohnBDownunder (Mar 17, 2019)

No! 
  Thank You Brian.
      If you had not posted your adventures / misadventures in building this engine I feel we would all have missed a great thread and learning experience. 
      You sure made some modifications along the way, some worked, some didn't, but all made for interesting time in front of the computer even down here in OZ.

John B


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## DavidLloyd2 (Mar 17, 2019)

Very nice engine Brian

DavidLloyd


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 23, 2019)

The fat lady hasn't sang yet on this engine. The engine runs, you have seen that in the videos. There is still 10" of snow in my yard, and the temperatures are still below freezing here in the daytime. When the weather warms up enough that I can get this engine off the corner of my desk and out into the main garage, with the big garage doors open, I will be able to do a lot more playing with the hit and miss action without the potential of gassing myself.----Brian


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## Keith140 (Mar 23, 2019)

Hi I am progressing well with my farm boy but would like some advise, how much of the oring on the piston should be proud of the piston?  I have made the grove 110 tho deep but have about 1/3 of the o ring showing proud. I have also made the piston a very good sliding fit regards to all Keith


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 23, 2019)

Keith--Measure the cross sectional diameter of your o-ring.--They are always different than what they are listed at. Cut the piston groove so that 0.010" of ring sticks above the piston surface. The rings I use are listed as 1/16" O-rings, but they actually measure 0.070" in cross section. I cut my piston groove 0.060" deep.---Brian


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## Keith140 (Mar 23, 2019)

Many thanks Brian , I constantly refur to your fantastic thread and have lost count of the times of have read it, no doubt I will be back here again! Regards keith


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## Brian Rupnow (May 28, 2019)

Today I finally got around to taking this engine out to my main garage where I could run it for as long as I wanted with the garage doors open. I haven't been happy with this engine. It seemed to me that driving two sets of gears (one set of helical for the camshaft and one set of bevel gears on the governor) made it simply too stiff to coast any amount of time when in miss mode.  When I build an engine in the dead of winter, I can only run it on the corner of my desk in my design office, and I'm always afraid that I might gas myself with carbon monoxide. Consequently, the gears and bushing surfaces never get a chance to totally "wear in" and eliminate any "friction points". I've had it running now without the "governor lever" on it for about an hour and it hasn't boiled the water in the cooling reservoir. The carburetor on it still seems very "fussy". There is an extremely small band between going so slow that it starves and stalls, or going so fast that it wants to disintegrate. I will keep you posted on any improvements that I make.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 5, 2019)

After rebuilding the carburetor and installing a new Viton ring on the piston, the engine is running as good as it is ever going to. This is the final video of it running, and I'm quite pleased with it. I do sell the plans for $25 Canadian funds.---Brian Rupnow


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## JohnBDownunder (Jun 6, 2019)

Looks good and sounds a really good hit and miss engine.
As usual another great watch. 
Thanks for the journey Brian.
Regards,
John B


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 21, 2019)

I'm terribly bored today, and as a result of having cataract surgery on both eyes (I've had one done, waiting another week before they do the other) I can't see well enough to read, or design, or machine something. And those are damned near all that I do. I have this sideshaft hit and miss engine set up in my main garage, and it starts so easily and runs so well that I now have about 10 hours run time on it. I just took a vide of it running today, because I can at least see well enough to do that.


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## Ghosty (Jul 21, 2019)

Brian, It takes a lot of skill to machine a crankshaft like that.


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## JohnBDownunder (Jul 22, 2019)

Always a joy to watch your engines run Brian. Hit n Miss are my favourite regardless of maker. 
Must come from being a boy when these things were in general use. Shows perhaps, that I too am an old codger of 78 orbits around the sun.


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