# Ridley's Half Beam



## tel (Sep 4, 2009)

With the eccentric finished and installed, the half beam is getting very close - just the slide valve and nut to make and then the 'proper' assembly. Then it will be back on to the badly neglected double diagonal.


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## gbritnell (Sep 4, 2009)

Hi Tel,
Great looking work on your engine. It looks to be quite a fair sized engine. What is the diameter of the flywheel?
gbritnell


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## hitandmissman (Sep 4, 2009)

That is a very nice looking engine. Is this from plans? Love those beam engines.


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## cobra428 (Sep 4, 2009)

Very Nice Tel
That does look like a "big boy"
Tony


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## joe d (Sep 4, 2009)

Tel

Another fine-looking job of work. :bow: Can we expect the video soon? ;D

Cheers, Joe


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## mklotz (Sep 4, 2009)

That's really lovely, Tel. Someday I hope to do work like that.


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## GailInNM (Sep 4, 2009)

Very nice Tel. Lots of detail to love.
Gail in NM


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## tel (Sep 4, 2009)

Thanks blokes - it's probably not as big as it looks - flywheel is around 6 1/2 dia, roughly 3/4 bore & 1 1/2 stroke.


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## CrewCab (Sep 4, 2009)

Cracking job Tel 8) ....... it does look bigger for some reason 

CC :bow:


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## tel (Sep 4, 2009)

To give you an idea, the bulk of the fasteners are 8 and 10 BA


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## PhiberOptix (Sep 4, 2009)

tel  said:
			
		

> To give you an idea, the bulk of the fasteners are 8 and 10 BA



Excellent job tel well done :bow:

I must agree tho that It is deceptive that wheel looks HUGE, 
I am surprised Zee has not asked for coins in the picture for scale 

can we see it running please

regards
Andy


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## RobWilson (Sep 4, 2009)

GREAT JOB Tel :bow: :bow: :bow: very nice work Thm:

Regards Rob


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## Maryak (Sep 4, 2009)

Tel,

Flash as a Rat with a Gold Tooth. :bow: :bow:

It's great that one of us can hold a candle to the top class stuff shown herein.

Best Regards
Bob


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## zeeprogrammer (Sep 4, 2009)

PhiberOptix  said:
			
		

> I am surprised Zee has not asked for coins in the picture for scale
> Andy



Only cause I haven't been able to get to it. :big: New grandchild for one...and I've been causing a bit of 'trouble' in another thread. :big: :big:

But I'm free now and thanks for the reminder...Scale please! ;D (Now I have to be careful. Soon as I ever forget to include scale...hoo boy. :big

Beautiful job Tel. I'm curious about the 'support'? with the cross braces? Can you tell me a little about how you made that?

I have to echo a lot of comments here. Beam engines are one of my favorites.


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## Groewrs (Sep 5, 2009)

That's beautiful work, Tel!

Plans are from Australian Model Engineering Magazine, Nov - Dec 08 to Jul - Aug 09 Issues (141 -145). See http://www.ameng.com.au/ for more details.

Was considering building one myself, but I must concentrate on the big picture (Super Simplex) and stop getting distracted (rockeritis ;D).

Gordon


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## tel (Sep 5, 2009)

Thanks for the kind comments blokes.

Zee - the rocking column was fabricated from mild steel strips - the horizontal members and the top and bottom bushes were silver soldered in, then the diagonals soft soldered in place - they are notched in the centre to allow 'em to fit together. Then the middle bit of the top bush was cut away to allow the beam to fit in. I've done quite a few minor changes along the way as I was not completely happy with the author's way of doing things.

Today I made the slide valve and took a good few pics as I went along, so if anyone is interested ....


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## arnoldb (Sep 5, 2009)

Very nicely done Tel :bow: :bow:

And of course we're interested !

Regards, Arnold


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## vlmarshall (Sep 5, 2009)

Darn right I'm interested. ;D Looking good!


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## zeeprogrammer (Sep 5, 2009)

Ah...I suspected silver solder. Hear that Vernon?

As I said...very nice work Tel. Thanks for sharing.


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## Brian Rupnow (Sep 5, 2009)

Tel---Very nice work as usual. A magnificent looking engine!!---Brian


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## tel (Sep 5, 2009)

OK - by popular demand .... 

For some reason I'm never completely comfortable doing slide valves. Dunno why, perhaps it harks back to the days when I had to do 'em on a vertical slide in the lathe, because they are easy enough to do.

First, a look at the valve in question - my dimensions vary slightly from what is shown





The usual starting point is getting a piece of material, in this case a bit of 1/2" square brass, bung it in the vise and square one end.





With the end squared, the piece is already indicated for us - just raise the tool, crank along length + end mill diameter( in this case 1/2" + 3/8") and plough a groove thru the stock - this defines the length





Then I switched to a 3mm slot drill, and took the groove somewhat deeper. Now we have to indicate the end again, with the head of the RF30 set low enough for end mill cutting, it is a bit of a fiddle to fit in the wiggler, so back to basics - the good ol' moistened Tally Ho


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## tel (Sep 5, 2009)

Now we crank along tool diameter + web thickness and set the l/h stop. Then shove in a bit of packing equal to the required travel and set the l/h stop. The fore and aft positions are a bit trickier - I worked to scribed lines.





... and milled out the cavity to the required depth (2mm)


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## tel (Sep 5, 2009)

Now the height of the piece has to be reduced to 3/8" - again, I scribed a line, then put it back in the vise in the inverted position





Indicated the end again, and picked up the cut-off groove position. This time, take the groove somewhat deeper than the sribed line





Then mill away the excess material. Now locate the position of the spindle groove, and cut that to depth


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## tel (Sep 5, 2009)

Now we indicate the front edge, and get the slot drill over the centre of the workpiece, and cut the slot for the nut





... and we should have something that looks like this


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## tel (Sep 5, 2009)

Cut it off the stock, tidy it up a bit, and we have a valve!


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## zeeprogrammer (Sep 5, 2009)

This is great stuff. I have to make a similar valve for the horizontal mill. The manual shows a different way to do it so I'm real happy to see this.

And a bonus juicy tip in there for us newbies...Tally Ho.

Tally Ho is cigarette paper.
*Moisten *it so it sticks to the metal.
Now tool can turn (without fingers in way) and you can move it until paper whips out.

I've seen the posts on measuring and using cigarette paper. I don't recall anyone mentioning 'moisture'. This little newbie isn't the sharpest (and therefore willing to point out what may be obvious to others) but I do know there's more of me out there. That's right...many more of me. :big:

Thanks tel.


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## tel (Sep 5, 2009)

Yeah Zee - dry Tally Ho's don't stick real well to anything.


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## vlmarshall (Sep 5, 2009)

Oh! Lick the PAPER and stick it to the METAL! Oops. ;D


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## tel (Sep 12, 2009)

Gaskets drawn, printed and ready to cut out


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## Maryak (Sep 12, 2009)

tel  said:
			
		

> Yeah Zee - dry Tally Ho's don't stick real well to anything.



Except your lips; from which they remove half of the skin, if you forget to wet the end before your first drag  

Ask me how I know. :

Best Regards
Bob


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## tel (Sep 12, 2009)

Oooooh yes! We've all done that at some time or other. 'urts, don't it.


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## zeeprogrammer (Sep 12, 2009)

My big problem was when I tried to take the cig out. Cig stuck to lips, fingers moved down. Fingers always ended up at the hot spot no matter the length of the cig. I don't smoke anymore.


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## arnoldb (Sep 12, 2009)

Coming along well, Tel

What material are you using for the gaskets? - ordinary paper?



> Oooooh yes! We've all done that at some time or other. 'urts, don't it.


Yep!
Regards, Arnold


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## tel (Sep 12, 2009)

Yes Arnold, I always just use 90 gsm printer paper and oil 'em after they've been cut out


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## Maryak (Sep 12, 2009)

Plain Brown Envelope or if you have them lying around, old marine charts make excellent gasket material, as tel says oil before use.

Best Regards
Bob


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## arnoldb (Sep 13, 2009)

Thanks Tel & Bob 

Kind Regards, Arnold


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## tel (Sep 15, 2009)

*SHE'S ALIVE!!!!*

Ok, the flash has frozen the motion, but in the pic she's spinnin' over at about 300 rpm. Way too fast, I know, gonna need some tweaking.


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## 1Kenny (Sep 15, 2009)

That is a really nice looking engine, Tel.

Kenny


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## tel (Sep 15, 2009)

Now we've got a bit of motion showing, and I've got it down to a more sedate 50 rpm


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