# Moteur Oscillant double effet



## SBWHART (Aug 2, 2010)

his is going to be a batch build of a very good French design of a twin cylinder double acting revering verticle engine, these engines build up into a powerful engine that have many applications.

The drawing are available free her http://jpduval.free.fr/Plans_moteurs_vapeur_p1.htm

Its important with a batch build to keep the parts the same size as best you can, this way you can use stops to allow quick set ups.

First up the cylinders.

I dropped on a bit of brass bar at the scrappy that was close to size, so first job rough cut the to length and fly cut the section to size.







Then using the Keats angle plate, face them all off to same length.






Then on one cylinder only drill a nice deep centre for the bore position. 






Now the next bit is where the Keats comes into its own, if I was just making one I could have used a independant four jaw chuck and picked up the bore position with a clock, but as I'm doing more than one this would have been a pain.

Clamps the cylinder in the Keats and with the Keats loose on the face plate, wind a centre tight into the cylinder, this pulls the bore onto the centre line of the lathe, clamp the Keats tight to the face plate.






The parallel on the face plate is their to stop the Keats slipping and to act as a counterbalance.

Thats it all you have to do is drill a ream change to next cylinder repeat, repeat, 






This lost took just over an hour.






To position the rest of the holes in the cylinders, just use your vice stop so when you've got one positioned just keep changing them round until all are done change position for next hole repeat repeat, where required the holes were tapped using my tapping stand.






For the end cap holes that are on a PCD and positional relationship to the air ports I made jig, that had a small dowel that located in the air port, this is it in use.






And with a finished cylinder.






Stew


----------



## SAM in LA (Aug 2, 2010)

Stew,

I am very impressed.

I'm not sure I could build one of these since I don't read French. :big:

I'll be watching closely.

SAM


----------



## Blogwitch (Aug 2, 2010)

Sam,

You don't really need to be able to read French, as long as you can work in metric or convert to imperial.

Just by looking at the French words, you can usually get the gist of what material is in use, that goes the same for German plans as well. 
I do speak both languages, but not very well, just enough to get me to where I want to go, to eat well, and to find somewhere to sleep and of course, a toilet, just the basics in life.

If you still can't do it, then you only have to ask.

These engines make a very powerful but compact engine to run on steam. I have made dozens of them, slightly modified to aid production and looks, just as Stew is doing.


John


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 2, 2010)

Sam Like John

I have just enough to get buy, you'd be suprized at to how many words are similar, and how easy it is to get you self understood with simple words and gestures, I can remember buying a cast iron frying pan from a market in France and wanted to ask if it was none stick, I just said teflon and the reply came back none, we've still got the pan. 

Moteur Oscillant double effet is the French Name of the Engine just think of it as Motor Oscillating Double Acting badly spelt that way you will have no problem understanding it. :big:

Being an English speaker helps a lot most people in europe have a smattering of English and love trying it out on a native speaker.

Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 3, 2010)

Thanks Lads

I needed some shed time today to get over the stress of taking my 85 year old Dad his 87 year old sister and my 88 year old aunt out for a drive and a pub lunch all three are hard of hearing and wear hearing aids of sorts that never seem to work right, on top of that my Dads sister has a very strong scots accent. I spent the time repeating and translating the conversations that were crossing over and getting mixed up whilst trying to drive, answering the same question time and time again like:- where are we "Buxton", two minutes later where are we "Buxton", two minutes later where are we "Buxton" two minutes later where are we " F*****g New York"

 :lol:

Any way back on topic

For drilling the holes in the cylinders and keeping them all the same depth I fitted little sleeves over the drills to act as depth stops, for the smaller drill I glued the sleeves in place for the larger one a slit the sleeves and pinched the slit in slightly, to keep them in place at the set depth. You put the drill in the chuck so that the sleeve is hard up against its jaws and tighten up on the drill shank, you then simply drill the hole as far as the sleeve and thats it all the holes are the same depth.

This will give you the idea.






Next job I made a start on the crank webs, the drawing calls for two webs but I'm doing the build with three webs per engine this is one of Johns design improvements to give a more positive power take off.

Skim down a length of brass bar to 28mm and then slice off 6 mm wide discs.






I'm using a 1/16" part off blade to reduce wastage, I didn't part off all the way the last 1/8 I finished off with a small hack saw this way the disc wouldn't get trapped by the centre.

Next face off one side flip over and face to 5mm thickness, using a round nosed tool this gives a nice finish, when doing a batch try and get a real good finish off the machine this cuts down on post machining polishing.






Set up again and centre drill them rough drill and ream 4mm with a machine reamer, its not important for the hole to be concentric with the OD most of the OD will be chopped away, the critical feature is the hole centres for the crank off set, which will be tomorrows job.

Her we are doing the last one with the rest threaded on a bit of 4mm bar.






Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 7, 2010)

Next op with the crank webs drill the off set holes, there will be two types 7 with one off set for the power take off and 14 with two off set for the engine crank.

First turn a mandrel with a nice fitting location diameter and a short length threaded M4, and a deep centre in the end

Then over onto the mill grip the mandrel in a chuck and with the chuck loose on the table wind a centre down tight into the centre in the mandrel, clamp the chuck firmly to the able thats it the mandrel is now accurately centered under the mill, zero your dials and off set 10mm.






Drill first off set hole 4mm in all the webs.






Put 7 aside then off set 10mm the other way and drill a four mill hole in the mandrel to take a pin, then using the first hole drilled in the web and a peg use this to locate for the second hole.






Drill the remaining webs with a 2mm hole.

Here they are all done with the mandrel






Stew


----------



## Brian Rupnow (Aug 7, 2010)

I opened the link and had a look at all the French plans. There is some majorly good stuff on there. Some very, very powerfull twin and quad double acting oscillators. The French language is minimal. The fact that the dimensions are metric really isn't a problem for me.----Brian


----------



## doubletop (Aug 8, 2010)

Stew

You are working through this nicely and your use of jigs is interesting. As it has 4 hole fixing for the cylinder heads I assume its this one you are doing, with Johns mods






and my attempt






I didn't find understanding French an issue either, drawings tend to be a common language.

Pete


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 8, 2010)

Hi Pete

I'm doing the verticle one with Johns mods, John has loaned me the Horizontal one for a guide, I have had it on air a couple of times and as you can expect from anything John has built it runs absolutly fantastic as smoothe as silk. 

As for the use of jigs I worked in a industry that had very long production runs of products, everything was jig and tooled up to maximise output and efficiency, its something I just can't get out of the habbit of, but I do try and keep them as simple as posible, ther's no sence in taking three days to make a jig for a job that would take 1/2 a day to machine without it.

Stew


----------



## doubletop (Aug 9, 2010)

Stew

Its a nice engine and mine runs nice and smoothly now as well. No doubt Johns just purrs. 

I'm watching the thread with interest for tips on the way I should have done it, especially the main pillar as I did mine within days of my mill arriving. A case of learning on the job.

Pete


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi Pete

Your engine looks very well built I was interested to see that you didn,t follow the plans exactly, used pins into the side of the cylinders for the springs as John's build, instead of the yolk shown on the drawing, this change simplifies machining a lot, and you've added the bearing block to the power take off too. 

What did you use for piston packing I've been looking to source Viton or PTFE O rings but can't find any of the correct metric size I'm thinking of using PTFE string.

I'm still thinking about how to takle the standard, the air passage ways look as though they could be easy to get wrong. I think I may drill the central hole first using the keats in the lathe then with job in my machine vice drill one hole as a datum then make a jig to position the rest, getting all the holes to the correct depth may pose a problem.

Cheers

Stew
Stew


----------



## doubletop (Aug 9, 2010)

A first I didn't like the double spring approach in the plans and had an idea of putting a rectangular yoke over the pistons and fixed to the main column with spring loaded balls pressing the outer face of the pistons. That got all to complicated so to get it going followed Johns example but with 8BA SS screws. It worked well so the yoke idea was scrapped and now needs 4 proper pins making.
Stew

Originally I had nothing for the piston packing and only a small twist of ptfe tape in the glands. It worked well as it was relatively loose. As I said thought I'd give O rings a go but I'm not happy with the result as it was too tight but haven't done anything to rectify the problem. 

I had some metric O rings in a Champion kit





(whether they are Viton I don't know) and some small imperial ones from Bruce Engineering. I used a 10mm O/D for the piston and a 1/4" O/D for the gland after opening it out to 1/4" from 6mm.

I found the air steam passages pretty easy once you get your head around what goes where and so long as you are methodical with them. With your use of jigs and sleeves on the drills you should be right. Both sides are symmetrical

John did point out that the drawing on the regulator/reversing valve was wrong. I think its something to do with the lever being 45deg out. It didn't affect me as I didn't mill the slot on the top and just used some 2mm silver steel rod with a nylon ball on the end. If you are planning RC you are likely to follow the drawing so just check. Youv'e probably discoverd this already but the thing I hadn't realized that this valve not only changes direction it provides speed control as well, a nice surprise.

I followed Johns example on the output shaft. There's no point of an engine and no way to get the power out. I happened to have a set of very nice stainless bearings that I rescued from the scrap some years back that were made for the job, same shaft size, flanges etc just perfect. With you making so many engines you are going to need a few.

As I said I'm watching with interest.

Pete


----------



## Blogwitch (Aug 9, 2010)

Stew,

The rings are standard Viton 8mm bore with a 1mm cross section. I got mine from Blackgates. For grooving I can easily make you up an exact size grooving tool.

You control how much side pressure on the cylinder walls by the depth of groove you put them in.

Say you have exactly 10mm bore, and you groove out exactly 1mm deep into the piston. Then you wouldn't get any pressure on the cylinder walls, but by making the grooves say 0.05mm shallower (as an example), you can increase the sidewall pressure. Working to such fine depths is a bit of a pig, but I am sure it will only take a few minutes on my lathe.

After the short run in period, the o-ring will wear it's own flat on the side, giving you a perfect but low friction seal. I used to supply a couple of spare o-rings to the customer, that should keep it going for at least a couple of years heavy running, after that, he would be expected to source his own.

John


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 9, 2010)

John/Pete

Thanks for the info I'll give Blackgates a ring I can't get my head round how their web site works.

Stew


----------



## Blogwitch (Aug 9, 2010)

You've just found out Stew, you can't order off their website. Either phone, email or post.

John


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 17, 2010)

Well back in the shop after a short holiday with our son and his wife, he lives near Edinburgh (Scotland), August always a good time to visit Edinburgh as its festival time lots of plays and things going on managed to see a couple of fringe plays very good really enjoyed them.

Still got to order the O rings

Back to the build:- next job to shape the webs, drilling the holes all off the same jig lets you set them up like this.






Then nibble nibble nibble, flip them over nibble nibble nibble and you've got them milled out.






For drilling the pinch hole use a couple of dowels to get them level and set your vice stop, center drill the first one then the next then the next etc etc etc. Then drill them all tapping drill, then drill half way through clearance then slot drill 2mm drill for the screw head.






Then using the same trick over to the tapping stand for tapping.






The next job is to split the webs but for that I need to make a Arbour for a 1mm thick slitting saw, that's a job for tomorrow.

Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 18, 2010)

OK up bright and early this morning.

First job make the mandrel for the slitting saw. I like to make the washers at the same time this way they are custom made for the mandrell and work a lot better.

Her it is, along with the 1mm thick slitting saw I'm going to use John gave it to me a while a go its very good quality, thanks John.






You can see the benefit her of making the washers for it to give a good clamping area.






To set the webs up I used the two dowel method again to get it level, but this time as I've got to remove the dowels I only set up two webs at a time.






And her we are cutting through into the third hole.






That's it it took about 30 minutes to slit all 14.

This should show what the third hole is for, It's make the web into a pinch clamp to hold the journals in place.


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 19, 2010)

Made a start on the Standards, the drawing calls for 20mm square brass, I failed to find a supplier to sell me the small qty I wanted, most had a miniumum order qty of 500 kg, Macmoddels had 7/8" in stock and as its close I had a run out to collect it and save the postage.






Cut to length with a hack saw the bar end with the chamfer looked as though it might not clean up.






Then with a self centering four jaw and a back stop, face them all off to the same length.











The chamfer didn't clean off :bang: :bang: :bang: but it looks like it just might be fit for use after milling to size.

Using a fly cutter mill to 20mm square, to do this I first roughed two side to give a square of about 20.8, then set the mill to take a cut down to size, locked everything and at this setting skimmed the remaining sides to get all to the same size, I like to work on the + side so the sizee I have is 20.2.







The chamfer just left a slight witness this can be my keaper.

Next some hole drilling, First thing I did was scribble up a crib sheet, so that I don't get mixed up. Then using an edge fider first centred the mill up on the centre line of the bar, then again with the edge fnder found the end of the bar, and moved the table onto the 4mm hole position, and made this my datum position so everything was zeroed up.






First hole centre then drill undersize to leave a wisker for a 4mm hand reamer.


Now for the steam ports, this is just a mater of chasing arround the datum + and - on the cordinates first with a centre drill then a 2.2mm drill.











Then x and y back on zero and off set to bring you to the bearing coordinate.

Centre drill then roughing then 1/2" drill.






And finaly finish off with a 13mm hand reamer:- I'd tried this drill combination out first on a bit of scrap brass to make shure i got a good fit on the bearing.






Just a trial fit of the few parts to see how it looks.






I've got the rest to do now but that a job for tomorrow

Stew


----------



## arnoldb (Aug 20, 2010)

You're cracking along well on this lot Stew  - thanks for showing!

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 20, 2010)

Thanks Arnold

One of the things that atracted me to this design is its simplicity that it redily lends its self to a multiple build.

Well not much to show for new set ups as I've spent the morning machining the rest of the standards. With the vice stops all that's required is to keep loading the standards to the vice making sure that they are hard up against the stop and down on the parallels.

This is the stop in use.






And this is them all drilled 






Not finished yet another four sides to drill but not quite as complicated.

This bits off Topic fftopic: but I'd show you a pic of the most useful bit of kit I have.






The humble two inch paint brush.

It changes this






Into this in seconds






Keeping the work area clear of swarf is critical, trapped swarf will move the job off datum and throw it out of square, and if its between the vice jaw and the job it will mark the job.

When doing repeat parts an operation that requires multi tools I like to keep the tools easy at hand in a box along with all the other bits required.






The six inch rule is for a quick check that the first hole is going in the right place if that ones right all the rest will be.

And the small lead hammer is it tap the work down onto the parallels the lead gives a dead blow, that stops the work jumping back off the parallels its something to do with the way the lead absorbs the energy of the blow, I think it can be explained by one of Mr Newton's Laws but my physics is not up to a better explanation.

Stew


----------



## Blogwitch (Aug 20, 2010)

They are coming along very nicely now Stew.

I know that soon you will be cutting the slot in the standard for the flywheel.

It is now where you can make a totally different looking engine, and rather than have the flywheel inside the standard, it could be mounted on the engine takeoff, so the big slot would not be required. In fact the engine runs perfectly well without the flywheel on at all, as shown by my horizontal version.

BTW, the tip on cleaning off is a very good one, I always clean off before taking the part out of the vice, that way, there is even less chance of things getting down into the jaws and parallel area, and it doesn't knock the paras out of position.


John


----------



## bearcar1 (Aug 20, 2010)

Beautiful looking parts Stew, it is interesting to see repeatability in action. I too was 'taught' to brush away the dead pieces from the work before removing the part from the vise as John stated. There's nothing like finding scars on the side of a part caused by a bit of a shaving getting trapped between the vise jaws and the part. I'm enjoying this ride tremendously.

BC1
Jim


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 20, 2010)

Thanks Lads

John that interesting what you say about the flywheel I think I'll leave one unfinished and have a bit of an experiment. I've been trying to nip round one afternoon all week, but things have got in the way I'll see if I can sneak away tomorrow.

Very good point about cleaning before opening the vice:- I do try to do that, but I must admit I often I forget and take the work out first.

Cheers

Stew


----------



## cfellows (Aug 20, 2010)

Stew, sorry I hadn't weighed in on this build before now. I've always loved that engine design since I first saw Bog's build. In your usual fashion, you're doing a fantastic job.

Chuck


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 21, 2010)

Thanks chuck

I think my shop Gremlins have got one of my little spanner, I wish a new what the little buggers are building.

A good mornings work done. drilling and tapping for the inlet and exhausts ports.

When starting on a new feature I like to mark the first one out, then with a bit of calculation work out the coordinates for the DRO, coming at it in two different ways gives you a check that you've got the features in the correct position.







Another thing that can go wrong when your doing multiple parts is that you end up loading the work the wrong way, so it helps to mark the end/side your working on and to store them in the box all the same way.






With everything correct it was just a matter of spotting with a centre drill turning the job round to do the other side etc etc then swapping over to the drill to depth repeat repeat next hole position repeat repeat.

To get the depth correct I used the DRO on the mill.






Then over onto the tapping stand to tap M2:- John put me onto a cheap supply of HSS taps but I'd already bought a set of carbon taps so I decided to use these to get the use out of them, these taps are good quality UK manufacture, It always pays to use good sharp taps as bluntness is one of the main causes of a broken tap.

Her we are a very satisfying morning work.






And an introduction to another brush this time an old toothbrush the stiff bristles are just the ticket for clearing the swarf from the tap, clogged taps are another cause of breakages.

Cheers

Stew


----------



## NickG (Aug 21, 2010)

Reply #16 on: August 18, 2010, 04:49:49 AM »

... that was bright and early!!!

Just found this Stew, you did say you were going to do this - a masterclass once again.

Thanks 

Nick


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 22, 2010)

Thanks Nick

Another good mornings work.

First job was to do a little mod on the ports. I spent a very pleasant couple of hours with John yesterday afternoon tucking into a bowl of wild plumbs he'd picked and chatting, we got onto these engines and he told me of a little mod to the design he carried out. The pipe work connects to the standard with a bit of a flange coupling that bolts flush to it, what John does is to extend the pipe through this coupling so that it protrudes through into the standard this makes for a better air seal, the crap o cad shows what I mean. so first thing I sunk a 1/8" slot drill 3mm deep into the feed hole.






Next job was to drill the connecting holes down the end of the standard 2 holes are 27mm deep and 2 are 6mm deep if you mix them up you've got a scrapper. To get the standard square I took advantage of the squareness of my vice I simply bolted a parallel to the side and butted the job up to this, then by use of the edge finder got the centre of the standard drilled m2.5 tapping in the centre then used the PCD feature of my DRO to find the position of the other holes, I did the two 6mm deep holes first, followed by the 27mm deep holes again I marked the correct face to load the job into the vice on all the standards so I didn't load them wrong.






When all drilled I then tapped the M2.5 centre hole on the tapping stand: the V black is just to add a bit of support.







Here we are all done just one face left now before I mill the slot for the fly wheel.






Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 24, 2010)

On we go:-

Four holes were drilled and tapped M3 in the base, the set up for this was the same as for the other end so no pics.

Last job on the standard mill out the slot to take the fly wheel, first a 9.5mm hole was drilled through, then using a nice new 10mm end mill the extended part of the slot was mill in all the components:- like this






The the slot was milled out all the way through as far as the 9.5mm hole:- like this






Her they are six of the seven done, the Seventh I've put to one side to experiment with later.






Stew


----------



## doubletop (Aug 24, 2010)

Stew

The through hole is a great idea but as you are milling the extended slots from both sides there is a likelihood that they are slightly out of alignment. Evidenced by the second to last shot where there is a slight ridge on the right hand face.

I see it has disappeared in the last shot. I am not trying to be a smart arse but had the same problem doing mine and tried to fix it by skimming at full depth.What is your 9.5mm through hole became an oval or a step at the transition to the extended slot. I scrapped my first one (it was my first ever attempt at milling) and my second was was better but not perfect.

Any tips on the sequence?

Pete


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 24, 2010)

Hi Pete

I ended up with a slight witness mark where the slots met from the opposite side only a couple of thou easily cleaned off. The through hole at 9.5 left .5 (.25 cut) for the mill to clean out. When cutting slots you tend to get a bit of flexing so I try to keep the set up as stiff as possible:-quill and cutter kept as short as posable, the Y axis locked, vertical axis locked for each cut, and alway cut from the same end, with a nice sharp cutter, I keep sharp cutters for this sort of work as they blunt I relegate them to less fussy jobs, I was taking 1 mm deep cuts per pass. If you try cutting a blind slot or a slot in a plate you find the end of the slot looks like a comer, caused by the cutter deflected at the ends, I found that it help to drill a through hole at the end just a bit smaller than the cutter dia.

Hope this helps

Stew


----------



## Blogwitch (Aug 24, 2010)

Having made a few of these, I would just like to mention that the main slot in the standard is purely cosmetic, so that it looks pretty. As long as it doesn't pentrate into the transfer ports at the top, and is the correct width (or near enough), then it makes no difference. It is only there to give clearance around the flywheel.


Bogs


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 24, 2010)

John' s hit the nail on the head. I was going to use a 3/8 end mill, close enough, I'd forgotten I'd bought three 10mm mills from RDG at the Harrogate show £1 each they were selling them cheep as the thread was wrong but as I use ER32 that doesn't matter, a nice little bargain.

I worked in a design office and we held what we called feature classification meetings where we went through a product feature by feature classifying them as to their criticality, against Function, Safety, appearance , etc.

We had four levels of criticality:-Critical, Major, Minor, Open, So in the case of the slot width that would be classified as Minor for function all its got to do is clear the flywheel, but Major for appearance its got to look OK, as I'm planning on selling them on, if you we're making for yourself then it's what pleases you.

My Bargain cutters are another good example of this, the thread is critical to function with a clarkson type holder but to me with a ER32 its open.

When I'm planning on a new build I always try and work out what are the key features, the only draw back with this is your own ignorance, as it's not always easy to spot the key features, thats why its better, if you can, to talk thing over with other people and listen to and try and understand what they are saying.

Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 24, 2010)

Thanks for your interest Pat

One important trick when doing multiples is to start with parts all the same size, with the standards the blanks were all machined within 0.05 mm of each other, that way using the stops the variation in position for each subsequent feature would be 0.05 mm, you don't want to start adjusting for each individual part. What you're doing is transferring the accuracy of your machinery and set ups into your parts, thats an important concept to grasp.

Stew


----------



## Blogwitch (Aug 25, 2010)

Pat,

I have always found that jigs and fixtures for multiple items assists greatly. I use them a lot.

Say you want to make ten items, each, if made separately would take an hour each, to set up and machine.

It might take two or three hours to make a fixture or jig, but would then allow ten parts to be made exactly the same at only 15mins apiece or less.

Not only does it at least halve the production time, but the stress levels fall dramatically, because you don't have to worry about all the separate setups required, just drop the bit in, tighten up and press the button.

Those jigs, when finished with are then put in a little cardboard box and marked up what is was used for. Then if ever the same things need to be made again, all the hard work has already been done.

Bogs


----------



## doubletop (Aug 26, 2010)

sbwhart  said:
			
		

> Hi Pete
> 
> I ended up with a slight witness mark where the slots met from the opposite side only a couple of thou easily cleaned off. The through hole at 9.5 left .5 (.25 cut) ..............



Stew

Thanks for the explanation and sorry for the delayed acknowledgment, I've been a bit busy. I'm still learning what can be done with the mill. I don't think I've even tried cuts anywhere near 1mm. Perhaps I should give it a go

Pete


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 26, 2010)

No Problem Pete, Milling sure dose open up a lot of possibilities.

The next bits to make call for a fair bit of turning, the first part is the pipe coupling nothing complicated about the turning so didn't take any pics. To drill the clamp holes I made a little jig, this is it in use.






This is it with the the parts.






Next operation mill the flats I made some little plugs to fit in the holes so that I could sit them on top of the vice and bring the holes level.






Then I sat the milled side on a parallel to mill the other.






This sort of worked but I was not happy with it I've got another similar part to make so may think up another method.

And here they are all done and how they fasten the pipe to the Standard.






Stew


----------



## Blogwitch (Aug 26, 2010)

Stew,

If you look in my Paddleducks book, I think I explained how to machine those flanges.

If you use just a couple of 1mm diameter rods (drills) thru the holes, and lay them on top of the vice jaws, if you don't tighten up the vice too much so that you damage the tube ferrule, you can just flat off one side, turn it over and do the other one, all at the same setting. Machine full depth, but machine the side of the flange not the top, maybe three or four swipes to complete taking the material off, or even a fine slitting saw will wack it off in one go with no problems.

John


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 26, 2010)

Thanks John

I'll give that a go 

Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 27, 2010)

The next bit is the stuffing box come cylinder head thingy :scratch:

Another job with a lot of lathe work.

Turn down a goodly length enough to make 2 or 3 from






Turn down, drill, part off, Turn down, drill, part off, turn down another goodly length repeat repeat repeat.






And you end up with a box of bits.






These are not finished yet I've got to turn the register for the cylinder on the other end, Drill some holes WITH A JIG. and square the flange off, but before I do that I'm going to pick the boiler job up again for a couple of days I hope fingers crossed and all that.

Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 29, 2010)

Spent a bit of time making the jig to drill the holes in this gland thingy

Here we are with a drilled part.






Thought I'd point out a few design features of the jig.

The base is relieved so that it sits flat.






The plain diameter clears the job to give the drill guide location thats concentric with the job.






Make sure you can hold the jig safely, my first attempt was made with a noggin of steel from my scrap box than I realized my fingers would be close to the drill as it came through the job, I thought Ill just after be careful, but then thought my time would be less painfully used making a new one than waiting in the ER room.






Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Aug 31, 2010)

To finish this part off

Mount back stop in the head stock and face to length turn register to 10mm dia*1mm length, then using the two wire trick mill the flats for a nice match on the cylinder.







Here they are with one in place and studs in place that will take the gland seal.






Now for the other end, this cap is only 3.5mm thick with no through centre hole so its not to easy to jig up, time for another approach:- Turn 17mm dia, a goodly length, enough to make all the caps plus a bit. Then over to the mill, using the PCD feature of the DRO drill the holes full depth of the drill.






Back to the lathe turn up 10 mm register and part off, repeat repeat repeat, until no more holes left then back onto the mill drill four more holes full depth of drill again back to lathe etc etc, I got 7 parts out of each cycle so it was nice and quick.






Then mill the flats as before, and her we are all finished.






Getting a good collection of parts still quite a few to go though.

Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Sep 10, 2010)

I've not done an update on this for over a week, reasons being a short holiday, domestic duties, and I was beginning to repeat myself, lot of the bits required similar techniques with stops etc, so I just got on with making bits until something interesting came along.

The rotary valve is the interesting bit ;D

I've gone away from the drawing with this one because John tipped be off that the drawing put the arm in a awkward position, and he added a stop to the movement.

The first job was to drill and part off some brass, then mill a 5.5mm slot across the middle.

This slot becomes the reference feature for the position of the air ports, so to get this location correct I first turned up a mandrel and with this on the rotary table milled a location key in it for the slot.

Like this






The valve was then fastened to it and using the rotary table and a 2mm slot drill the ports and the stop slot milled.






When using a rotary table its all to easy to get lost, so with a soft pencil I mark the degrease on the scale I want to work too.

Her they are with the crib sheet I used.






And here's a box of bits.






I've got enough bits to do a trial assembly to see how it all fits:- The base and take off is from Johns spare box.






I'm going to have to do a bit of bling work soon.

This job is going on the back burner for a couple of days, its the club Gala next week (18th Sept) so I want to see if I can get my boiler finished and some of my model polished up to add to the show, if any of you Guys live in the South Cheshire area the club is located between Crewe and Nantwich behind the Peacock Pub, if you want to drop in and have a look round and a ride on one of the locos.

Stew


----------



## SBWHART (Sep 21, 2010)

Well got this off the back shelf, and made a start on the piston,con rod, and big end assy.

I'm making the piston and big end out of ally bronze which has good wear properties.

First Job skim three lengths of bar down to 10mm the same size will do for the big ends. Ally bronze is not that easy to machine its very sticky and generates a lot of frictional heat, but John advised be to use a slower RPM, and it worked a treat.






The pistons were then drilled a tapped and parted off from one of these lengths.

I'm not making the big ends to the drawing I'm going to make them square more big end shape if you know what I mean

So over to the mill and with the spin indexer mill the 10mm bars to 7mm square.

At this point thing went wrong with the first bar I was planning to drill 4mm holes along the bar for the bearings but I had too much flex in the set up even with a centre and a jack under the bar the holes were coming out all shapes,






Plan B scrap the bar off turn and mill another one up, and drill them in the vice.






With a self centering four jaw in the lathe and using a bit of 4mm rod through one of the cross holes as a stop, face, turn step, drill and tap M3, not forgetting to drill a 1.5mm 3mm dia register hole, this will help pull the con rod concentric when its screwed home.






Remove the cross bar first before turning.






Check that I'd got the correct hole centre.






Whilst I'd got the spin indexer set up I fluted a couple of bars to make knobs out of for the displacement lubricator.






Her are the con rod ends finished and a couple of lose assemblies.






Last job of the day clean the pistons a rods and glue with thread lock, I'll leave them over night so I can make a start on turning the pistons to size in the morning.






Stew


----------



## NickG (Sep 22, 2010)

Great work Stew - love the way you seem to be knocking all of these parts out for fun!! I seem to get bored after 1 or 2 of the same part! Should be a decent little earner if you are planning to sell a few, somebody is selling similar engines on ebay for a shocking price!

Nick


----------



## SBWHART (Sep 22, 2010)

Thanks Nick

Those ebay engine have plane phos bronze bearings and don't have a lubricator, the ones I'm building will have four roller bearings and come complete with a displacement lubricator.

Stew


----------



## NickG (Sep 23, 2010)

Excellent, hopefully people will snap them up then!

I need to do something like this to fund some workshop activity really as my money seems to be drying up! Need to get much better first though :big:

Nick


----------



## SBWHART (Sep 28, 2010)

Thanks Nick

Things have slowed down a bit on this job:-

It's amazing how a six month old rug rat can distract you enough to keep you out of the shed. 

Any way finished off the pistons the only pic I took was of the set up to final turn the OD to size with a nice sharp honed tool.






Then I went on and knocked out the power take off bearing housings, nothing too interesting on these I've shown similar set ups before.






Now this will interest you:- the Base Plate.

This is made from brass sheet so first job cut seven out to rough size and stick them together with two way tape, and give the bundle a squeeze in the vice.






I then milled the two opposite long sides clean and parallel.

Then with the bundle clamped together as an insurance drill the four corner holes 3mm as each hole was drilled a stuck a m3 cap screw in it just in case things wanted to move.






Then bolted the plates together this make the bundle nice a secure for milling.






Then mill down the short edges to clean them to size






Then blue the job and mark out the cuts and the rest of the hole position.






Then chain drill 3.5mm.






Then connect the chain up with a 4mm slot drill.






I struggled to get them apart so put them in a cup of boiling water to soften the glue and cleaned them off with petrol.

That's it Job done.






Stew


----------



## NickG (Oct 1, 2010)

What a great method!


----------



## SBWHART (Oct 27, 2010)

Thanks Nick

Since getting back from China I've finished of the base girders sorry no pics and started on the displacement lubricator.

Decided to fabricate the lubricator up from copper tube as this will save on material, making from solid would just reduce a lot of good material into swarf.

These are the bits for the body.






I've fitted a bleed nipple into the base so that the water can drained off and the oil top up, without taking the engine off steam.

Bits silver soldered together and a trial fitting on the engine to see how they look.






Still got to drill the steam hole in the pipe and make some caps, and that all of the bits made for the engines, next job up a bit of bling and set up an assy line.

Stew


----------



## arnoldb (Oct 27, 2010)

Looks good Stew Thm: - excellent work on the silver soldering :bow:

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## NickG (Oct 28, 2010)

Yeah, nice lubricator Stew. Can't wait to see them all come together. :bow:


----------



## bearcar1 (Oct 28, 2010)

I'm likin' the let's not hog out a solid piece and leave all the $$$ on the floor idea, Stew. Welcome home BTW. I really enjoy seeing such judicious usage of materials. Well done.

BC1
Jim


----------



## Blogwitch (Oct 28, 2010)

There is a bit of a kickback on that Jim. 

The silver solder used was most probably worth a lot more, as both Stew and myself use the same scrappies, and brass bar is usually fairly cheap.

You win some, you .................


Bogs


----------



## SBWHART (Nov 4, 2010)

Well got No 1 running I went through a bit of learning curve, had to do a little bit of fettling and run the tight spots out with a power drill for a couple of minutes with plenty of oil, its now nice and free and running as sweat as a nut, and the forward and reverse works like a dream.

Her it is all oiled up and ready to go.






I'll post a vid when I get the rest running.

      

Stew


----------



## Blogwitch (Nov 4, 2010)

That's what comes with building a well designed engine Stew, they are almost bombproof.

Can't wait to see them all running.


John


----------



## HS93 (Nov 4, 2010)

Bogstandard  said:
			
		

> That's what comes with building a well designed engine Stew, they are almost bombproof.
> 
> Can't wait to see them all running.
> 
> ...



at once :big:

is there a reason why the engines have a thin base plate i know its supported by the nice alloy pieces is it for weight, it must make it harder to get the crank running true, but it works so I must be wrong

Nice build though


Peter


----------



## SBWHART (Nov 5, 2010)

Thanks John, I'm planning on linking them up series hopefully it will result in an interesting run, I was amazed at how responsive the reverse valve was ended up playing a tune on the engine with it.

Peter,

The base is more or less to drawing, I guess you could put it on a solid base if you wish, but as it is its very stable.
The crank is only attached to the standard, the power take off drive is quite a lose fit on the crank so alignment of the power take off housing isn't a problem.

Hope this helps

Stew


----------



## NickG (Nov 5, 2010)

Looks brilliant Stew, :bow:


----------



## cfellows (Nov 5, 2010)

Great looking engine, Stew. Looking forward to hearing it run!

Chuck


----------



## doubletop (Nov 6, 2010)

Stew



			
				sbwhart  said:
			
		

> I was amazed at how responsive the reverse valve was ended up playing a tune on the engine with it.



Me too; when I made mine. I expected nothing more than "forward to go forward back to go back" and was astonished to find it gave neutral and speed control. Ideal for radio control (and hence the row of holes in the actuator lever)



			
				sbwhart  said:
			
		

> I'm planning on linking them up series hopefully it will result in an interesting run,



Parallel otherwise the one at the end of the line would be gasping for air. ;D ;D ;D

Great job 

Pete


----------



## SBWHART (Nov 7, 2010)

Thanks Chaps

Thinking about Peters comment on the stability of the base, I've bin running it lose on my surface plate, decided to clamp it to a chunk of wood to see if this would have any effects, and it does seem to run better.

Her's the vid of the no 1 running.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRJ9s9h4nlE&layer_token=143fa5b93328b9a5[/ame]

Enjoy

Stew


----------



## winklmj (Nov 8, 2010)

Aswesome job. Neat looking and running engine(s). :bow:


----------



## SBWHART (Nov 8, 2010)

Thanks for your kind comments Mike.

Stew


----------



## bearcar1 (Nov 8, 2010)

SMOOooooOOOTH! Nicely done Stew, what a great runner and it looks terrific as well. Thm:

BC1
Jim


----------



## arnoldb (Nov 8, 2010)

Very well done indeed Stew !

Darn, now that one's on my "Have to build one" list as well, and its all your fault :big:

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## SBWHART (Nov 8, 2010)

Thanks Jim/Arnold

Sounds like the old projectitus is breaking out again :big:

Stew


----------



## Maryak (Nov 8, 2010)

Stew,

Very Nice build. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## cfellows (Nov 8, 2010)

Nice runner and a great looking engine. This is one of my favorites of the small, bar stock steam engines.

Chuck


----------



## kustomkb (Nov 8, 2010)

Nice job Stew!

Runs and looks great.


----------



## SBWHART (Nov 9, 2010)

Thanks Chaps

All I've got to do is do the same trick six times over with this lot:-







 ;D :big: ;D :big:

Stew


----------



## NickG (Nov 10, 2010)

Stew, that runs perfectly. Will be a brilliant powerplant for the boat people. :bow:

Nick


----------



## SBWHART (Nov 19, 2010)

Thanks for you comments Guys

Well the last week as bin a bit slow in the shop domesitc duties called but I've managed to change this






Into this






Times Seven






I made a crude manifold and tried running all seven at once but the best I could do was six, some of the ports on the manifold were hogging all the air, so the supply to some of the engines was low, but you'll get the idea.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2szI_OkvrEQ[/ame]

Stew


----------



## doubletop (Nov 19, 2010)

Nice one Stew

Just need a lot of oil, leave them running and go for a long cold warm beer (or cup of tea). Once run in they'll go on 5psi

Well done

Pete


----------



## Blogwitch (Nov 19, 2010)

Very nice indeed Stew, just like juggling handsful of worms.

Hope to see them in the flesh over the weekend.


John


----------



## winklmj (Nov 19, 2010)

Call in the Terminator...the machines are multiplying.


----------



## NickG (Nov 19, 2010)

They were trying to get away too! Stew, absolutely brilliant :bow:, just need to make the 7 boats now ... Get cracking! :big:

Nick


----------



## cfellows (Jun 23, 2011)

I've been looking at the plans for this engine with an eye toward converting it to a slight larger version using inches instead of metric and spotted a couple of things that I questioned. 

The port in the cylinders is 1.7mm whereas the matching ports in the frame are 2.2mm. I understand that spacing of the holes in the frame is important to get the correct overlap during power strokes with no overlap at top and bottom dead center. However, couldn't the same goal be achieved by making both the cylinder and frame holes the same size, say 1.9mm? Or is there a good, thermodynamic reason to decrease the size of the steam passages as you get closer to the working end?

Another question that came up is the axial positioning of the cylinder holes. Why not move them closer to the cylinder ends, perhaps obviating the need for the axial transfer hole from the inlet port to the cylinder exit. This would also allow the use of larger holes in both the cylinder and frame for the passage of steam since the two frame holes would have to be further apart.

Chuck


----------



## doubletop (Jun 23, 2011)

Chuck

I took the view that the larger holes in the port face allowed the port to be fully open for a longer period otherwise it will only be fully open at one point in the stroke. Look at the port as being a 2.2mm x 1.9mm slot. If you move it further out the slot would need to be longer to cover the same angular change.

Pete


----------



## fcheslop (Jun 23, 2011)

Hi Chuck,I build this engine at a reduced scale to go into a small steam launch I'm currently building and have drilled the ports so theres a 2 thou overlap on the holes as its seems to be common practice on oscillators that are going to work for a living although it does waste a little steam it improves the performance greatly as the port opens sooner on the inlet and closes later on the exhaust.Theres a book called Model Stationary Engines sorry i cannot remember the author and he goes into the porting of oscillators as does Tubal Cain in his simple steam books
best wishes Frazer


----------



## SBWHART (Jun 24, 2011)

> Theres a book called Model Stationary Engines sorry i cannot remember the author and he goes into the porting of oscillators as does Tubal Cain in his simple steam books



Hi the book refered to is:- Model Stationary and Marine Steam Engines by K.N.Harris it was published by Percival Marshal & Co First Edition 1958 revised 1964 I don't think it will be in print any more and i can't find an ISBN number on it. I got my copy as payment for some work I did on a friends Model traction engine.

Any party interested in the info can send me a PM, (I'm not trying to sell or pass the book on)






Stew


----------



## Bluechip (Jun 24, 2011)

Stew

It appears to be available here .. UK source

http://www.teepublishing.co.uk/book...ngines/model-stationary-marine-steam-engines/

I think we should both get a copy .. mines a bit tatty, like yours. ;D

Dave BC


----------



## steamboatmodel (Jun 24, 2011)

I have a list of steam related books on RC Groups,
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1226384

"Model Stationary and Marine Steam Engines" by K.N.Harris
Found online PDF copy:
http://www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/JF/424/19-423.pdf
Regards,
Gerald.


----------



## cfellows (Jun 24, 2011)

Thanks for the suggestion, Stew, and thank you, Gerald, for providing the link to Harris's book. I downloaded a copy and am looking over it.

Stew, are you planning to put your engine in something like a boat?

Chuck


----------



## SBWHART (Jun 24, 2011)

> Stew, are you planning to put your engine in something like a boat?



Hi Chuck:- no I have no plans for a boat, but I'm toying with idea of linking it up to a bubble machine like Brian showed, for the club summer gala the kids would love it.

Stew


----------

