# Arnold on Elmer's #43



## arnoldb (Apr 24, 2011)

I've been out of the shop for quite a while now due to non-shop-related burn injuries to both my hands. After spending a most frustrating 5 weeks just watching TV and waiting for things to heal up, I'm ready for the shop again, and wanted a fairly simple project to get back into the swing of things.
I tossed a number of Elmer's engines in a hat, and drew #43 ;D

Once again, I'll be using metric fasteners and shafting to suit my needs, and I won't necessarily be making all pieces exactly to Elmer's plans.

On Friday I started assembling whatever I could scrounge to start the build:






Friday afternoon saw the base done from some hot-rolled steel bar:





The column followed on Saturday - also from hot-rolled; I went for a single angled side on each side instead of having a parallel bit at the top of the column. I just used a pair of drills to get a suitable angle to mill it off at:





Main bearing was a very quick turning, reaming and parting job from phosphor bronze:





Instead of making the reversing slide from solid, I turned up a bit of brass to 5mm diameter, and drilled a 5mm hole with a generous chamfer into a bit of steel off-cut:





Out with the torch and the silver solder, and joined together:





Then I just mounted the lot in the collet chuck on the rotary table, and milled out the slot in the steel bit:





For Saturday, I ended up with this handful of bits; not much, but some progress:





At least the whole lot fits together like it should :big::





This morning, I started with the reverse lever - just laid it out, centered the RT on the mill, mounted the fixture plate, and clamped the workpiece to that on top of some scrap aluminium, and centered on the pivot hole:





A little while later, after some judicious drilling and milling:





Then I turned up a bush to fit the hole drilled in the reversing lever and to fit the reversing slide's shaft:





And silver soldered the two together and cleaned things up a bit:





Zee's bane followed... A bit of ornamental turning and shaping with a small file:





Screwed into a nut, heated bright red hot on the thin part with a small torch, and bent over with gentle pressure from a bit of flat steel while keeping the stem red-hot. Bent like a charm ;D:





Trying to get a bit of a polish on the inside of the corner is a problem, but some rope (the type that butchers use to tie up a roast) dipped in metal polish quickly gets into the back bits:





Handle done:





And today's assembly shot:





Regards, Arnold


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## bearcar1 (Apr 24, 2011)

Yeah mate, I too am glad that you are back in the hunt again. I was beginning to wonder if something had happened to you. It is ALWAYS a real pleasure to see what you are accomplishing in the shop. This #43 will be a real beauty when you are done. Nice work so far. :bow:

BC1
Jim


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## TuxMan (Apr 25, 2011)

Great start to what promises to be a fine engine. Glad to see that you are back in your shop

I will be following this build closely.

Eric


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## b.lindsey (Apr 25, 2011)

Wonderful progress Arnold, and I'm glad the hands are better now. Nice result on that reversing lever and especially the handle!!

Regards,
Bill


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## lazylathe (Apr 25, 2011)

Good to see you back on form Arnold!!!

Great progress so far!
I can see that this is going to be another excellent engine!!! ;D

Andrew


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## Foozer (Apr 25, 2011)

Wondered what happen to you, glad to hear your still breathing and yet once again setting the bar up a notch.


Robert


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## Ken I (Apr 25, 2011)

Nice work Arnold your threads invariably hold new tips.

Sorry about the hands - glad you are all healed up and back on form.

What happened ? fell into the braai after too many Windhoeks ?

Regards,
      Ken


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## metalmad (Apr 25, 2011)

HI Arnold
Glad u are on the mend 
that engine looks great so far :bow:
Pete


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## maverick (Apr 25, 2011)

Great looking build that I will eagerly follow. A reversing engine is on my short list, so this may be it.
And what a great way to choose it, tossing the numbers in a hat.


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## arnoldb (Apr 25, 2011)

Many thanks Gents, it's really good to be making chips again  Sometimes a little reality check makes one appreciate the good things in life even more.

"What happened ? fell into the braai after too many Windhoeks ?"
Not exactly... Was at a friend's place and the Braai was lit with turpentine. Knocked the open bottle over spilling the stuff all over and caught fire. Instead of ending with a belly full of Windhoek and braaivleis, I ended up with a saline drip and hospital food : I hope that's the last time in my life I have to do the "burning man" impression; from now on I'm taking along my own braai lighters :big:.

Today's little bits...

A start on the crank web from some hot-rolled rod - drilling the tap-hole for the crank screw on the rotary table as it was convenient:





After parting it off, and pressing onto some 5mm silver steel and a bit of cleanup, the crankshaft was done:





For the eccentric, I cleaned up a bit of the same hot rolled rod as for the web, and used a dial indicator to get the correct offset:




Then it was a fairly simple turning job to finish it off.

With the mill still centered over the RT, I couldn't be bothered to crank the table back to the vise for drilling the grub screw hole in the eccentric, so I just used the drill press:





The completed eccentric on the crank shaft:





The eccentric strap followed; I strayed a bit from Elmer's design and just kept to the crucial dimensions. Here I'm boring it to fit the eccentric:





Today's bits; looks like I'm on a "make three bits per day" streak :big::





Tomorrow might be less done, as I have to attend to some matters in town... At least, a part of those concern getting some new "toys" for the shop ;D

Regards, Arnold


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## ShopShoe (Apr 25, 2011)

Arnold,

You are doing a GREAT job on this. I have also started this engine as my first (I want to understand the valve action). I am on a slower learning curve and keep detouring to other projects. You can bet I am following this.


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## Maryak (Apr 25, 2011)

Arnold,

Sorry to read about your accident 

Good to see you back in the shop and hard at it. 

Best Regards
Bob


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## Groomengineering (Apr 26, 2011)

Ouch! Sorry to hear about the hands. #43 looks to be coming along very nicely. Great job (as usual ;D )!

Cheers

Jeff


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## vascon2196 (Apr 26, 2011)

Love it...great!!!!!


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## nfk (Apr 27, 2011)

You`r doing an amazing job!
And i love the detail of the handle, it looks great!

Norberto


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## PeeWee (Apr 27, 2011)

following with great interest, lovely finishes


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## arnoldb (Apr 27, 2011)

Thank you Gents 

Yesterday I didn't get anything done as I was shopping around in town and had to attend to some other matters. This morning, I collected the results of said shopping around ;D:





That broke the 3-part streak, but at least I got three bits done for today:

First up was a block of phosphor bronze milled to 0.1mm over size on the bearing surfaces for the sliding block and then slit off:




I carefully filed the bearing surfaces flat to remove the toolmarks, and then flat-lapped it on some 600 grit emery to be a good smooth-sliding fit in the tilting guide. Took 10 minutes to machine the block and a good 30 more minutes to finish it off...

Next the eccentric rod; I milled some brass to size for width and depth and left it a couple of mm over-long:




After squaring up, I drilled and reamed the one end, and drilled and tapped the other end.
Then I centered it up in the 4-jaw on the lathe and drilled a tiny hole for tailstock support, and carefully turned it down length-wise. Sorry, no pictures :-[

A bit of 5mm hex brass was used to turn the "eccentric pin" from; Elmer shows slotted screws for these, but I prefer hex-head screws. Finished bunch 'o bits for the day:





And assembled:





Regards, Arnold


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## lazylathe (Apr 27, 2011)

Awesome stuff!!!! ;D

Now it is starting to look like something!!

Thanks for putting in the time it took you to complete the tasks!! ;D
You know what i am talking about!!!

As always excellent work!

Andrew


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## metalmad (Apr 27, 2011)

looking great mate
umm that curved slotted thingy with the handle is giving me ideas with my ignition ring on the "Sow"
I always planed to slot it to make timing easy,but a handle now that's interesting!!
Pete


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## Ken I (Apr 28, 2011)

Great work as usual Arnold. Nice bit of shopping.

A word of caution on that compressor - I have one very similar.

You should start and stop it with the control valve (red button) as this depressurises the pipe (between compressor & check valve entry port to reciever) and gives the compressor just enough "unloaded" time at startup to get up to speed.

If you start it from the mains (when pressurised) it will stall and burnout.

I mention this because I left mine unattended - there was a power failure whilst the machine was in the run cycle - when the power came back on it stalled and burned out.

I have introduced a pinhole leak into my connecting pipe which depressurises the line in about 10 seconds after shutdown. Of course a power failure of less than 10 seconds can still cause a stall (again you have to be unfortunate if it happens during a running cycle). 

You can have similar stall and burnout problems because of undervoltage "brownouts" we are suffering in our neck of the woods by Eskom - I'm not sure how reliable your electrical supply is up there. I've added a manual relief valve to the line which I can open, start the compressor and close again once it is up to speed for starting under brownout conditions.

As a precaution I try not to leave mine on whilst unattended.

FYI

Ken


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## arnoldb (Apr 29, 2011)

Thanks Andrew  - the planning, set-up and finishing takes a lot longer than the machining :big: I'll try and add more detail like that - that is if I remember to check the times; I don't do clock-watching while in the shop ;D

Pete, thanks mate; you keep at it; I'll need all the tips and ideas I can get on the Kerzel... My knowledge of IC engines is limited to getting "electrified" by a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower many years ago; I still hate mowing the lawn :big:

Ken, thanks for the heads-up on the compressor; I'll keep an eye on it. I rigorously switch off all machines in my shop when I'm done for the day; in fact, I modified my mill to have a master power switch for just that reason. I _think_ our power is a bit more dependable than RSA's, though I don't know for how much longer :big:

Yesterday, I [email protected] around with a block of aluminium. The markings on the 1" square bar are indicative that this is an extrusion, and I expected it to be a bit gummy while machining:






It was gummy, and left a lot of burrs from fly-cutting:





Even though not ideal for the job, it's what I had available, so I carried on trimming it down to size with a 16mm end mill:





I ended up with the cylinder block and marked it out for the cylinder bore:





Then I spent quite a while mentally running the machining processes through my head. I was spoilt for choice on machining the bore; it could go on the 4-jaw on the lathe, or I could do it on the mill using drills and a reamer or the boring head. Even though the aluminium was gummy, I opted for the easy way of drilling and reaming, with lots of meths for lubricant while reaming:




If the reamer left a bad finish, I could have bored out the cylinder with the boring head in the same position, but fortunately it came out OK with just the reamer.

Before starting on the top of the cylinder, I drilled the exhaust passage on the side; it just makes it easier to drill the exhaust port on the top to the correct depth:





Then I started on the top. Drilled the exhaust port through, and milled the steam passages. The plans call for 1/8" passages 1/16" deep. I don't have a 3mm slot mill, so I used a 2mm one and to compensate for the width, I milled the slots 2mm deep rather than the 1.6mm called for:





With the ports milled deeper, I had to calculate new angles for drilling the ports through to the bore; a quick bit of rough sketching and trigonometry sorted that:





Come on daddy; the maths is boring:





With the new angles marked, I started off the passages with the 2mm center-cutting slot mill:




That was followed with a 2mm drill.

Came out spot-on:





After a quick rub-down on emery, the cylinder block looks fairly presentable:





Two bits of brass plate and a bit of perspex followed:




The thinner brass plate is for the valve face, and the perspex and thicker brass plate are for exchangeable valve chest covers; the perspex for running on air and showing off the valve mechanism, and the brass one should I run the engine on live steam at some future point.

I machined the three down as a sandwich, with the perspex clamped between the brass plates, and the thicker, sturdier brass plate at the top, as end mills are inclined to want to pull up work pieces. With the perspex in the middle, it would be less inclined to want to crack or break:





Shop time ran out yesterday before I could carry on; I'll continue today:





Regards, Arnold


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## coopertje (Apr 29, 2011)

Hi Arnold,

Nice job on the "non-machineable" alu part! Your work looks really fantastic.... :bow: :bow: :bow:

Its a pleasue to follow along!

Regards Jeroen


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## arnoldb (Apr 29, 2011)

Thanks Jeroen. Fortunately the ali worked OK with sharp toolbits and some methylated spirits 

I spent six hours in the shop today, and don't have too much to show for it :

Stacked up the valve- and cover plates on the block in the mill vise and clamped the lot up with a business card folded double to take up the minute difference in size between the parts, and coordinate-drilled the screw holes - first with a center drill to start each hole accurately, then down to threading depth in the cylinder block with a 1.6mm drill for M2 tapping, and finally 2mm clearance just through the loose plates to the top of the block :





Then I started milling out the port holes in the valve plate with a 1.5mm slot mill:





The valve plate after a bit of flat lapping. I'm not happy with it; I think I used over-heavy cuts while milling the slots, so they are very untidy. I might just re-do this part to make it better:





The steam chest followed from some 8mm aluminium plate. Fortunately this is a better alloy to machine than the bit I made the cylinder block from. I finished the block to near-final dimensions on the width, and chucked it up in the 4-jaw on the lathe to turn the round bits on it, and also to drill the holes for the valve rod. The hole in the back must be 1.6mm, with the one in the front 2mm. I drilled deep enough with the 2mm drill through the block to just reach the point where the 1.6mm hole had to continue - that's about 28mm deep. Then I had to drill the last bit with the 1.6mm drill, whis is fairly short, so I barely had 6mm of it's shank chucked in the drill chuck:




My old girl (the ML7) is a bit slow for these small drills at max 800RPM, so it takes peck drilling at a slow feed and frequent cleaning with a drop of meths on the drill tip each time it comes out. This is where I really find an advantage using meths as lubricant on aluminium over WD40 and such; the oily cutting fluids tend to make the swarf cling to the drill bit, thus clogging up the flutes more quickly. The meths just make it slide past, hence I can take deeper pecks while drilling - 3 to 4mm deep pecks are easily done with a 1.6mm drill.

A bunch of milling followed to clear out the hole in the steam chest. I roughed out most of the material with a 4mm 2-flute slot mill, and then followed with many fine passes with a 2mm end mill to get it to size and sort of neat-looking:





I used the brass valve cover as a template to drill the holes through the steam chest:





All done with the steam chest. After a couple of minutes of rubbing over sand paper to tidy it up; it came out satisfactorily  - unlike the darn valve plate : :





Regards, Arnold


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## BillC (Apr 29, 2011)

I had to look up Windhoek, Namibia....You are a good ways South and probably about just about opposite weather from where we are. So you're going into winter....Good time for the shop! Good time for model engines....and this one looks just fine too! Nice work.

BillC


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## Ken I (Apr 30, 2011)

BillC, Windhoek is also an exceptionally fine beer brewed in those parts - to German purity laws - only water, yeast, hops & malt are permitted - no addition of corns & sugars allowed. No seaweed extract or any of the other witch's brew of chemicals used by most commercial brewers.

My favourite tipple.

Ken


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## arnoldb (Apr 30, 2011)

Thanks BillC - Yes, us lot in the Southern hemisphere are going into winter now. Not too bad here in Namiba though; it rarely goes below freezing in winter and basically shop time is good all year round. Even though Namibia's a bit out of the way, it's a stunningly beautiful country - surprisingly the 24th largest in the world and our population is only around 2.6 million people at the moment. I like the wide open spaces, and as Ken mentioned, we have darn good beer here, some of these have won prestigious international awards ;D

This afternoon I started on the cross head. I used a bit of 16mm square brass bar that I have - and as it is already on size on the dimensions, I couldn't allow for any trimming off on the square bits, so I carefully clocked it up true in the 4-jaw chuck:




The overhang from the chuck is a bit long, but I didn't want to saw a bit off it - as that results in waste later on. I only have this bit of 16mm square brass, so neither wastage nor failure is an option; it's a great incentive to get things done right the first time :big:

First I turned up and parted off the cylinder head. That was a simple job - I didn't take any photos. Then turned down the outside of the cross head to dimension; I love turning brass, as it's really easy to get a good finish on it:





The hole in the cross-head would have been easy to ream, but I don't have machine reamers; only hand reamers and those can't ream all the way into a blind hole because of the taper on the tips. This hole must be smooth and accurate all the way through to the blind bore at the back. Not feeling in any mood to make up a d-bit from silver steel for the job, I drilled the hole out to 7.5mm and used my small home-made boring bar to bore it out to 7.8mm. The boring bar barely fit in the hole:





Before moving to the mill, I also cleaned up the back of the workpiece to 12mm - this is for leaving a register ring to fit in the cylinder bore and parting off later:





On to the mill; the excess square stock made it easy to clamp up the workpiece in the vise, so this was a quick and simple job, taking care not to take too heavy cuts as material was removed:





Finally back to the 4-jaw for parting off. As the register was already turned, I could just part it off without completely re-centering the workpiece in the chuck:





The results of today's work:




The boss on the cover plate is not to plans - I left it to add something interesting to what would otherwise just be a square cover plate.

Regards, Arnold


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## vascon2196 (Apr 30, 2011)

How do make it look so awesome so fast!?!?!?

Great job!!!!!!

Chris


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## metalmad (Apr 30, 2011)

looking great mate
Pete


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## BillC (Apr 30, 2011)

Let's see now....no freezing weather, plenty of good beer, your dog nearby, a nice shop and apparently a pretty good camera. I'm quite sure that you have it made. I also like the 'wide open spaces' idea too. You folks need to require a return trip ticket for visitors or you'll have squatters....taking up space and wanting to drink beer for free, just like here in the USA..... Don't mind me...I get on a soap box once in a while....Your "work" and the excellent photos are very enjoyable.

Watch that Ken guy...he's into a lot of stuff - we'll probably find out that he's a brain surgeon too.... But he drinks beer so he's OK!

BillC


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## arnoldb (May 1, 2011)

Chris, Pete - thanks Gents 

 :big:, BillC, I don't quite have it made, but that's half the fun of life here. Immigration laws are a bit strict; you'll most likely need a return ticket, but anyone from HMEM who pops over here would be most welcome to a couple of free beers ;D. Camera's nothing too fancy; a Canon Powershot SX20 IS; a great all-rounder. Oh, and I'll watch Ken - though its not surprising that he's into a lot of things; down in these areas we have to multi-skill ;D

Today's little bitty bits...

Drilling the mounting holes for the cross-head was a bit of a challenge. The index on the back of it fits the cylinder bore tightly, so there's no room for movement and later "fudging" to adjust things. And to make matters even worse, there was no way for me to center drill the holes first - I don't have spotting drills, and my center drills are all of the short variety...
In addition, the 1.6mm tap drill is barely long enough. I ended up marking out the hole locations on the cross-head, and using my scriber pressing a deep indentation in each location. As the cross-head is a tight fit to the block, it would most likely stay put while drilling; I couldn't clamp it to the block. I carefully drilled the holes by lightly pressing the drill bit into the indentations before starting up the mill motor. After the first hole, I stuck another 1.6mm drill in the hole just to make sure things couldn't move:





The cylinder head was a lot easier, as I could clamp it down:





Turning up the piston was a really quick job. Here it is half-way done and still 0.05mm over size, with the back side parted off partly, and a good chamfer added on either end. Also, being the normal lazy rotter that I am, I couldn't be bothered to set up a tool to turn the oil grooves; I used a triangular needle file to add them - and got my dimensions slightly out; old eyeball MK1 didn't quite do it:




After adding the chamfers and oil grooves, I turned it down to size - 11.98mm to fit the 12mm bore. Then I center drilled it, drilled it 2.5mm for M3 tapping, added a section drilled out to 3.2mm (I'll be using 3.2mm brazing rod as the piston rod) and tapped it M3 before parting it off fully.

On to the piston rod - which was a bit of a challenge to make. First, some 3.2mm brazing rod in the collet chuck, turned down to 3mm for 1/8" and threaded M3 with the tailstock die holder:





Then I turned a bit of brass down to a still-tight fit in the cross-head, and drilled it out 3.2mm with a generous chamfer in the start of the hole before parting it off. I left the parted off side a bit rough around the center hole - which made the bit a tight slide along the brazing rod. Seems a lot of boo-hah over a simple bit, but there's some method to my madness. As I wanted to silver solder the brass bit to the rod, it would need cleaning up later, and if I made it a good fit in the cross-head, it would be too small after cleaning it up after the soldering process. The chamfer was needed for a place for the solder to dam into and thoroughly join both parts, as the clearance between the hole and the rod was too small for the solder to properly wick in. In retrospect, it would have been a better idea to file slight flats on the rod to leave more space for the solder to wick in; too late now though; the job's done.
Here it's fluxed up and ready for soldering:





I heated the lot from the right-hand side till it glowed dull red, and just touched the solder stick to it - job done:




It looks horrible doesn't it ? :big:

Oh well, after a bit of cleanup, it looked OK, and I could carry on - drilling the cross-pin hole:





Cut slots and flats with a slitting saw - very carefully, as this is not a very stable set-up:





Piston rod done:





Some 4.8mm brass bar, and a couple of holes poked in it:





With the tooling plate installed in the vise, I clamped the lot down. The cap screw screwed down on the right of the workpiece is acting as a stop, as the part needs to be flipped around for some up-coming machining. I've mentioned before that I'm a lazy so-and-so, and this is more laziness ;D:




Oh, and have I mentioned how much I love this tooling plate ? - It's some of the most useful tool-making time I've spent!

A bit of milling:





Flipped over after de-burring, and ready for some more:





And even more milling - here I've already removed the clamp on the right; that was in place while milling:





A couple of facets milled off around the edges:





And a short while later after some filing and emery, I ended up with the connecting rod done:




This was a quick job; took me just three hours to make, including a couple of smoke breaks, a visit to the kitchen for coffee, scratching Zorro's the mutt's head, time spent pondering the machining steps to take, and about 30 minutes actually machining it and 30 more with the files and emery :big:

The bits are coming together now - and they even seem to fit :





Regards, Arnold


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## Ken I (May 1, 2011)

Lovely work Arnold - your workrate puts me to shame.

When you need a long centre / spot drill - just thin the chisel point of a drill down to the exact centre - A'La a spotting drill and it works just fine.

You can do this on the corner of a bench wheel or use a 
Dremmel.

BillC - no brain surgeon - my medical knowledge goes no futher than band-aids.

As Arnold said - in our neck of the woods you have to multitask.
Most of my engineering has been in automotive but having my own business designing machines has dragged me into mines, explosive bunkers and even beneath a reactor.

Hey - now that I think of it one of my robots is being used for brain surgery - proton beam therapy - the patient is mounted on the robot (in a bed or chair) with the targeting mask being picked up by cameras so that the computers can orientate the tumour into the beam path.

http://www.iucf.indiana.edu/proton/docs/denton02a.pdf

(This is in Indiana - copied from Ithemba labs in Cape Town - gets only a brief mention in the article.)
Photo attatched shows robot with most of its additional coverings removed (In practice you can't see it - don't want to frighten the patients any more than they already are - life threatening illness and all.)

Ken


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## reFlad (May 1, 2011)

Arnold,
Very impressive work, and you make it look so easy! Welcome Back!

Ronald.


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## arnoldb (May 2, 2011)

Thanks Ken - I do have slow workdays like today though.

Ronald, Thanks  - The simpler bits does feel easier to make than when I started with model engineering - but then again, my tooling arsenal has increased quite a bit as well, so many of the jobs are much easier to do. It all still takes quite a bit of effort and time though, but that's part of the fun 

A single bit made for today, as well as the first boo-boo of the build.

First I turned some 2mm brazing rod down to 1.6mm for 3/8". Brazing rod is tough to turn, and when it's this thin, the toolbit must be super sharp and dead on center:




The photo makes the turned piece look taper, but it is actually pretty close to parrallel with the tailstock side only 0.01mm thicker than the headstock side - that's from flexing, but is close enough for this bit.

The piece was extended further from the chuck, and I ran the 2mm die nut over it to add some threads:





Then I made the boo-boo - I cut it off too short after miscalculating the length, and had to re-do it. The second one didn't come out as well as the first - the die nut caught on the turned-down bit, but I was in no mood to re-make it yet again, so I silver soldered a block of brass to the end, and finished the part. It operates smoothly in the valve chest, so the light threads on the thin section won't be a problem:





Regards, Arnold


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## b.lindsey (May 2, 2011)

Still looking fantastic Arnold. Coming together very nicely now!!!

Bill


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## BillC (May 2, 2011)

Ken I  said:
			
		

> Lovely work Arnold - your workrate puts me to shame.
> 
> When you need a long centre / spot drill - just thin the chisel point of a drill down to the exact centre - A'La a spotting drill and it works just fine.
> 
> ...



I read an article recently about the robotics that are becoming the surgeons of tomorrow (with the Surgical MD in the forefront of course) and doing it in magnificent fashion so that very little incision is needed. I would have thought someone as modest as Ken would have mentioned it.....Too much Ken!

Arnold, Multitasking....: I always thought that multitasking was doing your job plus the job of many around that don't quite have the attention span or desire....Yes, I know what you mean though, and being poor (such as I) necessitates multitasking if one desires to get something done. I know of something that I could do for you in your shop though....drink lots of your beer and build you a CNC mill.....darn; I wish I could really do that!

Great and fun project to follow along with Arnold - you're having fun and it is very evident!

BillC


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## arnoldb (May 3, 2011)

Thanks very much Both Bills 

Yes, I'm having fun ;D. While I love my day-job as "IT Guy", the rewards are different. If one does a good job in IT, one gets long-term satisfaction of systems running/programs not crashing and happy users and so on, but rarely at the end of each work day a sense of being able to show and touch what was done for the day. Model engineering bridges that gap - even if I made a boo-boo there's something to show for the work  Guess I'm lucky both ways then!

Today I started off on the valve - but before I started, I fashioned up a Rube Goldberg style air supply from the compressor. There was lots of small milling going to go on, and I didn't buy the new compressor for nothing! A block of bronze (the plans call for brass, but bronze would be just dandy) - and I started milling it to size; no mark-out or anything; this was going to be done by the mill dials only:





The 6mm end mill I used to trim the block down is definitely in need of replacement :big: - it left a lot of steps on the sides. I used a 2mm end mill to mill the central slot, and the "other side" of the valve; the air flow was set to go over the workpiece, and this pulled the chips right out of the slots while milling:





After milling the cross-slot, I used a slitting saw to slice off the valve from the parent stock:





After a quick de-burr, I flipped the valve over and milled the port face with a 1.5mm slot mill; this is where the air supply really came into it's own. Not much pressure; just 10 psi, but it cleared the chips out of that hole making it a breeze to finish:





After some quick flat-lapping with 800 emery on the glass plate:





And cleaning up on the sides, and ends, the valve was finished:





Then I started on the valve nut - once again no mark-out and just using the mill dials to size it on 3 sides and drill the tapping hole:





Tapped it M2 with my bad-looking handle and tap guide; Elmer specifies the tapping here as "Close", so instead of tapping all the way through with the last tap in the set, I stopped it when I felt it just starting offering less resistance to tapping torque before going all the way through:





Just for exercise, I used the junior hacksaw to saw off the nut:




An then filed it down to size on the sawn-off side.

After a light rub-down on emery, the nut came out to satisfaction:





The valve and nut fits just dandy in the steam chest, with about 0.1mm of free play on the valve to the nut ;D:





Then I turned up two crank screws from some 5mm hex brass rod:




To my horror, I just noticed some burrs left on them :-[

Things are finally getting to a point now; I laid out all the bits to check what's still missing:





The to-do list - surprisingly long still!!!
1. Obviously, the flywheel - I hope to get cracking on that tomorrow.
2. There's a couple of parts that still need cleanup to remove burrs and toolmarks. The column actually still needs quite a bit of work now that I look at it.
3. The cylinder block needs to be tapped M2 in 12 mounting holes - Yes, I'll be doing studs 'n nuts again, and I can't do the studs before a final cleanup of the block.
4. Make said nuts from brass/bronze... there's a lot of tapping and filing work in my future :big: Fortunately I have quite a bit of M2 threaded bronze rod left.
5. A lick of paint - yes, this time some parts will get painted!
6. A final once-over with a buff on some parts and a bit of polymer car polish on those.
7. Wooden base - and all the work associated with that :
8. Final assembly - hopefully it will run :-\

Regards, Arnold


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## lazylathe (May 3, 2011)

Thanks for the update Arnold!!!

The ruler gives me some idea to it's dimensions, i imagined it to be a lot bigger that that!

Great work as usual and i love the Heath-Robinson air blower!!!!

Looking forward to seeing this one completed!

Andrew


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## vascon2196 (May 3, 2011)

:bow:


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## arnoldb (May 4, 2011)

Andrew, Chris, thank you gentlemen.

Yes, it's a smallish engine; in fact, all Elmer's engines are fairly small. Sorry, I forgot to add the "scale" to many of the pictures :-[ - Now where's Zee - he'd give me a right grilling for that!

Today the flywheel received attention

I started off with a bit of 55mm cast iron I had lying about; slightly too large and a lot will be wasted, but that's what I had on hand:





My chuck's inside jaws can't open up large enough to safely hold it, so I had to use the outside jaws. With the stock on the short side, I had to figure out a way to get in there to turn it, and also checked for adequate clearances all round so that I wouldn't run anything into the chuck jaws:





Turned down to size; not the greatest finish, as I used the toolbit shown in the previous photo "for the wrong job" :big: :





The normal toolbit I have for trepanning out flywheels was a bit big for this one, so I had to grind up a new narrower one. Turned out OK, but I had a tiny bit of chatter in the rounded corners:





Then I just center drilled, drilled and reamed the flywheel to fit the crankshaft:





Then I flipped the flywheel in the chuck and cleaned down the other side and trepanned it. I spent some time thinking about milling spokes in the flywheel, but decided against it, and just went for drilled holes. To be a bit "otherwise" I went for seven instead of the traditional six - that meant calculating the odd angles and practicing dialling those in on the rotary table:




I couldn't drill the holes all the way through, for fear of running into the chuck jaws, so I drilled them till I could just feel the drill bit want to run through.

Then finished the holes on the drill press with the cross-vise. The drill press is much less rigid than the mill, so the drill bit follows the pre-drilled holes easier and hence much neater:





As a final step, I drilled and tapped a hole at an angle in the hub to take an M3 grub screw (set screw). Elmer's plans show the grub screw through the outer rim, but I don't like that too much, hence the digression from the plans. That completed machining on the flywheel:





Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (May 4, 2011)

Just now got caught up with this one, Arnold. It's a fun build log for a nice little engine.
I know it was days back, but glad you came out of the fire incident okay!

Nice new compressor that you bought there. Now you just need to buy a pack of M&Ms. ; )

Dean


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## lazylathe (May 5, 2011)

7 instead of six holes!
Looks like someone likes doing maths! ;D

Looking great Arnold!
At this rate you will be finished this one and be able to do one more before you return to work!!! :big:

Are we going to get a video of this one running??

Andrew


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## b.lindsey (May 5, 2011)

Looks like you're in the home stretch now Arnold...still looking very good and nicely documented too!!

Bill


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## arnoldb (May 5, 2011)

Thanks Dean  - In stereotypical male fashion I went to the shop this afternoon to buy M&Ms and ground coffee, and returned with a whole lot of stuff except for those :big:. The rule will have to do for today's photos, and I'll have to drink instant coffee tomorrow morning :

Andrew, Thanks; And yes, I quite like doing maths ;D I doubt I'll be able to finish another during my leave; there are some other things that need attention, but I'll start on another project - though not in as much detail, as that one is pretty well documented here on HMEM. Yes, I will post one of my bad videos once it's running :big:

Thanks Bill  - The home stretch is longer than I thought though :big:

The last bits are always the hardest - and time consuming!

I gave the cylinder block the once-over with the set of M2 taps - which fortunately turned out well, then a final rub-down on emery in all the needed areas to get the finish I wanted and then started to add the studding - with a bit of thread retainer on each stud, and some stainless steel nuts to unscrew off the studs once cut to "clean" the threads:






While waiting for that lot to set a bit, I started making nuts. The nuts in the previous photo are normal M2 stainless steel nuts, and while I could use those, they don't have pleasing proportions (at least to my taste). So I went about the business of filing a bit of hex on some 3.2mm brazing rod, center drilling, drilling it 1.6mm and tapping it M2, and then parting off 2 nuts at a time with the jig-saw-blade parting tool. :




As usual, some nuts went flying while parting off, so the shop monster ended up with a selection of small nuts called "Dammit", "Sheisse" and so on - I hope he enjoys their company :big: A simple process followed; make a couple of nuts, clip off studding on the block and add more to it and so on.

I eventually ended with a selection of nuts - four thicker ones for the cylinder cover, and eight thinner ones for the cylinder heads - with an extra one that was christened "Lucky" - all still needing some de-burring:





As I started putting bits together, something became obvious... Steam or air would run through the valve chest, push down the valve and go through the port faces and so on - except for ? - Where the heck would it come from ??? I'd not made a steam connector! And even worse, I never even made the hole in the valve chest to fit it to Rof} That was easily remedied with a quick bit of turning:





And a bit of drilling and tapping:





Now things are coming together:





Still quite a bit left to do though... Like watching paint dry... Again... :big:

Regards, Arnold


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## bearcar1 (May 5, 2011)

And I'm still stuck back on dividing a circle into 7 equal parts. Let's see now, divide 360 by seven and carry the ones and then.... oh never mind. ;D A truly inspirational job Arnold, as always, good clean entertainment at it's finest. Good thing you discovered the missing air connection, that could have been a real embarrassment come 'show time'. :big:

"uh, pardon me folks for just a moment, uh, we are experiencing some uh, minor difficulties here and, uh, we expect to have them fixed sometime .... soon, uh, I hope"  Rof}

BC1
Jim


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## mklotz (May 5, 2011)

> And yes, I quite like doing maths



Ah, a kindred spirit. But, you realize, Arnold, that saying that is grounds for getting us kicked out of the machinists' fraternity. 



> "Sheisse" and so on



Funny, I've got a shop monster named that too. His twin is "Blauen Donner Wetter", whom I inherited from my Grossvater.

Great work on the engine. I have a particular fondness for that one. It was the third engine I built and I still use it to show people how a D-valve functions. (Like you, I made a transparent cover for the valve chest.)


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## Ken I (May 6, 2011)

Arnold,
     When I gang part off parts like your nuts - I prefer not to feed the shop monster (mine is a particularly mean spirited beast).

So I hold a piece of rod or wire down the drilled hole with my right hand whilst parting with my left.

I'm left handed which makes it easier I suppose - but you could also use a rod in the drill chuck / tailstock.

Ken


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## Chaffe (May 6, 2011)

Coming along nicley! watching with great intrest


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## arnoldb (May 6, 2011)

Thanks Jim :big: - I gave myself a good kick in the butt over the steam connector.

Marv, Thank you - I "stole" YOUR idea for the valve cover; imitation and all that ;D. I'll take my chances with the maths, just like you; it's just too handy to have around the shop for me to ignore it! At least I didn't inherit a second shop monster - my grandfather appears to be hanging on to his :big:. I hope my rendition of the #43 will also attract interest when I show it; it's been on my to-build list for quite a while.

Thanks Ken; I never thought of doing it manually! I simply skipped the step for clamping up a bit of rod to catch the nut because of the extra tool change; as I would have to remove the tap from the tailstock and insert it again just after each part-of to clean the starting threads for the next nut... I have a new mini lathe on order mostly to cope with making these small bits; I'll definitely build a turret for it; that will make life a lot easier.

Thanks Chaffe 

I've been playing around with paint rattle cans in between for the last couple of days. This was the lion's share of my learning experience on this build. I planned to add a wooden base to the engine, but completely forgot to make mounting holes in the base for that, and only after I got a half-decent paint finish on it realised that, so for now the engine will remain without it. I'll make the wood bit later; once the paint has cured well enough so that I can modify the engine base.

The flywheel and base went OK with the painting, but the column gave me hell; I ended up stripping and re-doing it three times... It's still not quite up to what I'd like, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it another time... For the next paint jobs, I'll invest in better paint and get my airbrush up and running; the rattle cans just does not do it for me. Also, I wanted a slightly lighter shade of blue; this one is bordering on black.

So for now, the engine is done:

























A video of it running; this was just after I got it going, so things were a bit stiff; here running at about 7 psi for the most part. Please excuse the dang dirty paws, painted fingernail and oil dripped everywhere on the engine :-[
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5At2gCa7oyo[/ame]

After about 10 minutes of running, it settled in nicely, and I could bring down the pressure to about 3 psi:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx8MQjtY56g[/ame]

Thank you to all who followed along and all the nice comments and valuable input.

Kind regards, Arnold
Darn - it's good to be back in the shop ;D


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## coopertje (May 6, 2011)

Congratulations Arnold, runs beautiful! Very well done and sooo quick!  :bow:

Nice color too, matches very well with the metal and brass parts.

Regards Jeroen


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## Foozer (May 6, 2011)

Lovely job. the blue towel really helps to POP the unit.


Robert


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## AndyS (May 6, 2011)

Very nice Arnold. 

Not only an excellent engine at the end but also a most informative thread too.

I really must improve my skills and get around to finishing one of my projects.

Cheers

Andy


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## b.lindsey (May 6, 2011)

Great finish to a most enjoyable thread Arnold. And a nice runner it is too!!!! 

Bill


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## firebird (May 6, 2011)

Hi Arnold

VERY VERY VERY NICE th_wav

Cheers

Rich


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## Deanofid (May 6, 2011)

You did a great job Arnold... Again! 
It sure runs down nice, and the paint scheme looks just right. Good job man!


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## mklotz (May 6, 2011)

Beautiful job. It looks super and runs perfectly.


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## lazylathe (May 6, 2011)

You have done it again Arnold! th_wav

Beautiful engine and great paintwork!
Runs really well!

Now i have to really start focusing and start building something!

Andrew


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## BillC (May 6, 2011)

Most enjoyable sequence and a fine model - Arnold is an artist! 

 You could run that on CO2 so it would really stay cool! A seal-able container with a delivery tube to a throttle valve and a chunk of CO2 (dry ice) and some water.....choo-choo...

BillC


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## vascon2196 (May 6, 2011)

I love Elmers Engines. You make it look easy! You made this engine look AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!

 :bow: :bow: :bow:

Chris


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## bearcar1 (May 6, 2011)

What a beauty Arnold. You DO make it all look so very simple and easy. Runs a treat as well.

BC1
Jim


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## reFlad (May 6, 2011)

Arnold,
You have a great talent. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Ronald


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## Ken I (May 7, 2011)

Arnold,
     A beautiful build - and so fast it makes my head spin - once again applause for your posting for everyone to follow.

Regards,
       Ken


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## metalmad (May 7, 2011)

wow, u dont muck around do u
nice one mate
Pete


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## Maryak (May 7, 2011)

Arnold,

Great Job. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## arnoldb (May 7, 2011)

Gentlemen, Thank you for the compliments; it is much appreciated :bow:

I'll start on my next project tomorrow; I've resisted the urge to build a Cracker up to now, but resistance is futile. I won't be posting a full build log on the cracker though; that's been done very well here on HMEM. I've completed the track layout on my stoep, so I have a place to run it. Old Fred the loco needs a couple of repairs made - and I'm going to convert it to run on gas as well; meths and plastic rail ties don't work out too well :

Kind regards, Arnold


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## mp409mm (Jul 6, 2013)

"Oh, and have I mentioned how much I love this tooling plate ? - It's some of the most useful tool-making time I've spent!"


Hi, thank you for your informative sequences how you made thismodel, which I hope I will try to build

One point which I think is very important it the tooling Plate, which seemswas construct by you. I tried to find some information how to build one but nosuccess.

Can you please give us more information how to construct one and how to use its'main advantages. Thank you for your thread and your help.

Alfred.


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