# Building Elmer's Fancy



## arnoldb (Jul 25, 2009)

Well, Rocker fever has passed, but Engine Building fever definitely not...
I started on Elmer's Fancy, and will build as close to original plans as possible, but to the highest finish I can 
Deviation from the original build plans will be to make shafts, holes and screws to the closest metric equivalents, I'll be using aluminium for the column and might "personalise" the flywheel.

Started with the column - turned the bottom dowel, turned space for the decorative foot, and turned the rest down to 5/8" up to the chuck as suggested by Elmer. Then laid out for the rest of the detail:






Part-way through turning the detail:




Nearly made a boo-boo on the taper bit; calculated the angle at which to set the topslide from Elmer's dimensions (nice doing trigonometry for a change), but forgot to halve it! Fortunately I realised this in time, as the initial cut angle just looked wrong.

This is where I stopped tonight:




To turn the round part at the foot, I just took a piece of 6mm silver steel, drilled a 4mm hole through it at a slight angle; then used the bench grinder to grind it to shape to make a form tool. Then heat treated it and a final couple of pushes over the oilstone & it worked a treat  - forgot to take a picture though. 

Wanted to carry on today, but had to stop due to severe chatter & cold feet - not on the project, but on my body  - It's terribly cold here in Windhoek today and my workshop's not very warm ;D

Regards, Arnold


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## BMyers (Jul 25, 2009)

WOW ! If one piece looks that nice, I cant wait to see the rest


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## Foozer (Jul 25, 2009)

NO NO NO No No No no no no


Going to the Docs, see if there is a shot to be had to avoid the new strain of mental illness, if not

A thou or 2ml of Tequila should be sufficient self medication till the new strain passes. 

Looking good though

Robert


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## vlmarshall (Jul 25, 2009)

Foozer  said:
			
		

> NO NO NO No No No no no no
> Going to the Docs, see if there is a shot to be had to avoid the new strain of mental illness, if not
> A thou or 2ml of Tequila should be sufficient self medication till the new strain passes.


You're not SUPPOSED to fight it, Foozer! ;D


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## rleete (Jul 25, 2009)

Vernon  said:
			
		

> You're not SUPPOSED to fight it, Foozer! ;D



You _can't_ fight it. Might as well just get started.


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## arnoldb (Jul 25, 2009)

> WOW ! If one piece looks that nice, I cant wait to see the rest


 Thanks very much BMyers - I'll try to keep it that way 

Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Jul 25, 2009)

Robert, Vernon & rleete

This seems to be new strain - must have originated with Robert though.
Some other members also caught it - the "build it & bling it" strain ! Rof} 
My previous symptoms were to "just get the dang thing built" - now I want to make it & make it purty :big:
Ah well, if you can't beat it, join it ! :big:


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## RobWilson (Jul 26, 2009)

Hi Arnold,
great looking column,brings back memory's of the fun i had building my Fancy
Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Jul 26, 2009)

Thanks very much Rob 
Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Jul 26, 2009)

Did some more work on the column today.

I don't want to spoil the finish on the column, so clamped it with paper as protection in the vice, and set about milling the flats using the vertical slide on the Myford:





Flats finished, drilled & reamed holes for the main bearing and pivot shaft. I don't have a 3mm reamer yet, so made a d-bit reamer from some 3mm piano wire for the pivot hole:





Next up I made the drill-jig and spacer bush, then drilled the ports; just clamped the myford's machine vice in the cross-vice in the drill press & went for it:





Then, with the machine vice still in the drill press cross vice, I rotated the column 90 deg in the machine vice and cross-drilled the hole for the steam connection.
After that, the machine vice went back to the vertical slide on the Myford, column turned another 90 deg, and milled the flywheel clearance on the foot of the column, as well as drilled out the spring clearance for the pivot shaft. I found a spring that I hope will work.
Ended here tonight: column complete (except for base), and special bits & bobs needed to get to this stage.





Don't know if I will find shop time during the week to carry on; if not I'll have to wait for next weekend.

Regards, Arnold


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## SBWHART (Jul 26, 2009)

Hi Arnold

Looking great ;D nicely shown stage by machining methods.

Have fun

Stew


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## arnoldb (Jul 26, 2009)

Thanks Stew!



> nicely shown stage by machining methods.


Thanks; could get more detail, but would bore everyone to death showing tramming in the vertical slide each time I need it Rof}
Kind regards, Arnold


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## Foozer (Jul 26, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> Thanks Stew!
> Thanks; could get more detail, but would bore everyone to death showing tramming in the vertical slide each time I need it Rof}
> Kind regards, Arnold



On the lathe? That gets old real quick. Glad its just not me who has that fun time 

Robert


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## steamer (Jul 26, 2009)

Foozer,

its a fatal disease, and there is no known cure.... ;D

Just accept it an move on.....

Dave


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## arnoldb (Jul 27, 2009)

Foozer  said:
			
		

> On the lathe? That gets old real quick. Glad its just not me who has that fun time
> 
> Robert


Yep - on the lathe; you know the feeling: 30 minutes setup for a 5 minute job. Makes one try and think ahead to get as many of the milled parts as possible done in one go ;D

Regards, Arnold


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## Maryak (Jul 27, 2009)

Arnold,

A column worthy of holding up Nelson Mandela's front porch. :bow: :bow: Well I think I'm on the right cotinent anyway :

Best Regards
Bob


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## arnoldb (Jul 27, 2009)

Maryak  said:
			
		

> Arnold,
> 
> A column worthy of holding up Nelson Mandela's front porch. :bow: :bow: Well I think I'm on the right cotinent anyway :
> 
> ...


Thanks Bob - much appreciated. Right continent, - a quick hop across the border and I can present it to him; might be a bit short for his mansion though 
Kind Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Jul 30, 2009)

Managed to get some more done; not much, but some.

I was running low on raw material for this build, so I splurged on a 400mm length of 25mm square brass stock - bigger than I need, but that's all the supplier had.
After recuperating from the price-shock on Monday and Tuesday ;D , did a bit on Wednesday:

For the engine's cylinder, I sawed off a piece of the brass square at just over the needed 1 1/4" (to allow facing off the bandsaw marks). As the cylinder requires a rectangular profile along the length, I then sawed off another piece on one of the sides leaving just over the required 1/2" thickness. No way I was going to turn the unneeded just-under 1/2" slab into to swarf. Next photo shows the last cut - I made some add-on parts for my bandsaw to work with smaller pieces. (It also shows I REALLY need to clean the saw :hDe: )





After that I just faced the block to size and marked out & punched for the cylinder bore and pivot shaft - as I stopped last night:





This evening, I bored the cylinder - first center drilled, drilled 4mm with frequent back-outs, then drilled 9.5mm (just under size) being VERY careful to go to the right depth:





Then bored out using the silver steel boring bar I made a couple of weeks ago (that thing is HANDY!) For the finishing passes with the boring bar, I just locked the myford's carriage to the leadscrew & used the leadscrew handweel rather than the apron wheel; it makes for an easier and more controllable fine-feed. Then turned the outside down to leave the tubular extrusion like in Elmer's plans. Stopped here for now - boring bar, bored cylinder & boring photo:





Regards, Arnold


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## CrewCab (Jul 30, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> boring photo:



 ........... Most certainly NOT boring Arnold .......... the column alone is worthy of it's own thread and then you have the boring bar and finished cylinder .............. top class work feller ........... gives us something to aim at  8)

CC


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## RobWilson (Jul 30, 2009)

Great work Arnold  Thm: really nice job of both parts, its great making then using the tool, did you forge over the end of the silver steel first , then grind it to shape ?
Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Jul 30, 2009)

CC, Rob: many thanks - I *really* appreciate your input.

CC: 





> gives us something to aim at


 - Thank you; I feel honoured, but there are a LOT of other members of HMEM who gives a better target to aim at; I'm still trying to aim there 

Rob: 





> did you forge over the end of the silver steel first , then grind it to shape ?


 Uhm, no... :hDe: Uhm... I cheated :-[
On my other build (my "first" engine - that is now rapidly moving down the line :-[ ), I made a "wrong" connecting rod from silver steel (the flats on the head were not parallel to the shaft).
Cheap miser that I am, instead of throwing it away, I cut off the head through the hole, then ground the profile as needed from what was left, and then hardened it. I didn't bother to temper it again, just slipped it over the oilstone a couple of times to get some nice cutting surfaces. For brass and aluminium, that should be OK, but if I need to do steel or interrupted cuts with it, I'll have to temper it a bit...

Crap-O-Cad attached of turning a con rod into a boring bar - might be useful for someone , but you will have to turn your head a bit (sorry) 







Regards, Arnold
[Edit: turned the picture right way around]


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## RobWilson (Jul 31, 2009)

Hi Arnold . Thanks for the description and a stiff neck  ;D ,.......... there is nothing wrong with a bit of recycling ,i have a pile of bits ready for modification.

Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Jul 31, 2009)

Pleasure Rob; Apologies for the stiff neck though 
Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Aug 1, 2009)

Had some more fun today...

First turned the 3mm pivot shaft from the only piece of 6mm brass rod I have & threaded the end M3. Took a photo of that but it's so out of focus I can't show it here :hDe:

Elmer suggests an aluminium "plug" in the cylinder bore when you solder the pivot pin to the block to prevent solder from flowing into the cylinder. He also suggests putting some packing over the cylinder bore opening when machining the recesses on the block face. I combined these requirements (and a "no burrs left in the cylinder option  ) by taking the piece of aluminium off-cut that was left when I made the column - it had about a 6mm length on it that was machined the same size as the column's head; the rest was thicker, but _just_ long enough to use . I just chucked it on the thinner machined section, and turned down the rest to fit fairly tightly into the bore. In fact, when I tested it, the fit was so close, that I couldn't push the cylinder much more than 5 mm over it; it would just pop right off again from air pressure in the cylinder.

Not wanting to struggle to get it out later because of an air-lock, I drilled a 5mm hole through the plug; if needed I can then use it as a mandrel and/or lap later in the build 

Then I set up the cylinder block (with the aluminium plug pressed in) in the 4-jaw and centered on the pivot hole. Elmer mentions that you must use a dial test indicator to check the squareness. I don't have a DTI yet, so used my favorite dial indicator. I know my lathe faces slightly concave, so rather than tramming like Elmer suggests, I just took alternative readings on the ends by rotating the chuck and used the chuck spanner's handle as a lever between the brass plug and chuck face to get things squared. Then a test on a "circle" closer to the pivot hole with the dial indicator showed no discernible run-out; meaning the cylinder face was square on all sides.

By now, you should be tired of reading, so here's a picture of how I did the set-up to turn the recesses and pivot hole:





Easy going; turned the recesses to 0.4mm deep and drilled the pivot shaft's hole. With the aluminium plug inside, I drilled the 3mm pivot hole _just_ till the first aluminium swarf came out, so the hole is not entirely through the brass - leaving some retaining shoulders and no burrs in the cylinder. Then to make life easier while soldering, I put a generous fillet in the hole using a countersink.

I turned the aluminium plug in the cylinder to get away from the "dent" left by the drill. Got everything right for soldering - all cleaned up etc.
Then the FUN started :fan: - the pivot shaft was WAY to loose in it's hole :wall: - I measured, thought, reflected, and then looked at my drill set; _I drilled the darn pivot hole 3.5mm and not 3mm !!!_ :rant:.

After a cup of coffee I decided next best was to make a new pivot shaft; just turn it 3.5mm for the section that goes into the cylinder block and 3mm for the rest. Problem was, I didn't have brass stock left for it. OK, some 6mm silver steel turned down should do the job. Turned a new shaft; used emery to get the 3mm section bang on size for the column, and then proceeded to turn the 3.5mm section under-size again! :rant: :rant:

Well, third-time lucky ??? Made a soap advertisement pivot shaft (of the New! Improved! variety) - it worked! - was still slightly loose in the hole - ideal for soldering. Not wanting to struggle with it moving when soldering, I used the rough beaks on my big vice to put some raises & dents on the 3.5mm section - worked a charm; I needed to lightly tap the shaft into place, it didn't wiggle a bit in the hole and was nice and square in all directions, leaving nice room for the solder to wick in  (If this seems like a cheat - yes it is, but it beats the heck out of trying to get punch marks on the shaft to get it to stay put ;D)

So ended off this evening with this:




2 shafts now useless for this build - for the photo wall-of-shame; they will be re-used , the aluminium "multi-purpose" bit with the dent left by drilling, and the cylinder block with shaft eventually attached.

At least little Fancy's column and cylinder block could come together - some bling still needed though : 





Regards, Arnold


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## CrewCab (Aug 1, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> After a cup of coffee I decided next best was to make a new pivot shaft .........................  and then proceeded to turn the 3.5mm section under-size again! :rant: :rant:



Don't fret Arnold ................. I think we all have that same Tee Shirt if we're honest ;D ............. thanks for sharing 8) .... you recovered so that's good .... and, can I say, it's a very enjoyable thread 

CC


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## RobWilson (Aug 1, 2009)

Great photo build Arnold , looks like you will have it up and running in no time Thm:
Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Aug 1, 2009)

Thanks CC & Rob 



			
				CrewCab  said:
			
		

> Don't fret Arnold ................. I think we all have that same Tee Shirt if we're honest ;D ...........


Thanks CC - Darn - thought I had a unique Tee Shirt - didn't know it was in fashion :big: Rof} . 



			
				RobWilson  said:
			
		

> Great photo build Arnold , looks like you will have it up and running in no time Thm:
> Regards Rob


Thanks Rob - I need to improve a lot of my skills though... Machining definitely, and as it turns out, Photography as well!! ;D

Kind Regards, Arnold


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## Maryak (Aug 1, 2009)

RobWilson  said:
			
		

> Great photo build Arnold , looks like you will have it up and running in no time Thm:
> Regards Rob



Ditto. :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## RobWilson (Aug 1, 2009)

Hi , Arnold , your machining gets the  Thm: from me ,looks like your doing a real fine job of the engine, still have stiff neck from crap o cad photo . ;D 
Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Aug 1, 2009)

Maryak  said:
			
		

> Ditto. :bow:
> 
> Best Regards
> Bob


Thank you very much Bob - I'm just trying to learn & apply from you and the other members !! 



			
				RobWilson  said:
			
		

> Hi , Arnold , your machining gets the  Thm: from me ,looks like your doing a real fine job of the engine, still have stiff neck from crap o cad photo . ;D
> Regards Rob


Uhm.... scratch.gif Shucks... scratch.gif ... Rob, thank you very much for the comment on my machining. How can I help with the stiff neck? - I'll try not to put a foot photo wrong again !

Kind Regards, Arnold


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## SBWHART (Aug 2, 2009)

Coming together nice Arnold

Good write up thanks for sharing.

Stew


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## arnoldb (Aug 2, 2009)

SBWHART  said:
			
		

> Coming together nice Arnold
> 
> Good write up thanks for sharing.
> 
> Stew


Thanks very much Stew
Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Aug 2, 2009)

The quest continues...

Having gone to bed last night not having any 6mm brass rod left (too little anyway) I woke this morning with an idea :idea:
Once again, it's cheating (I know) :hDe:, but I didn't want to turn a length of 12 mm brass down to mostly 3mm for the con rod.
My idea was to use some 3.2mm "brass" brazing rod that I have, and solder the 6mm piece on for the big-end link:





So I turned a bit of the brazing rod down to 3mm, drilled a 3mm hole in the piece of 6mm rod, and soldered them together. At least my silver soldering is improving; in fact I'm actually starting to _like_ it - still not pretty, but improving:





I then showed some grit, and proceeded to clean up the "con-rod in making" with a bit of filing and a lot of emery & oil.
Looking at the plans, I saw that I had forgotten to cut the threads on the piston end - scratch.gif - Easy, just chuck it up with the lump that has to become the big end in the space behind the chuck jaws and thread it, right ? :noidea: - No Go! - it's too short! :wall:

So, turned a "collet" out of 6mm drill rod: Could only find a broken 3.2 mm drill :rant: - so used my M4 tap drill (3.3mm) to drill a hole through. Then with the dremel, cut 2 grooves part-way on the length, and one slot all the way through the center. Chucked the con rod in this in the 3-jaw; worked a treat to turn down from 3.2mm to 3mm & thread the piston end. Sorry- forgot to take a photo....

Before setting up the vertical slide for milling, I first turned the piston - got it bang on size by just turning:





.

Turned some odd-spaced :hDe: oil grooves on the piston. Then center drilled, drilled 2.5mm to a bit past part-off point and then bored (well... "drilled") the piston inside to depth. Then with 3mm tap in the tailstock drill, just tapped the 3mm thread in the top of the piston:




To get a better feel for the tapping, I just set the Myford up as if I want to use back-gear, then leave the back-gear selector in high speed setting. With this set-up, the chuck is very loose to turn by hand and gives nice "feel" for threading.

Parted off the piston - a piece of 1.6mm brazing rod in the tailstock chuck prevented it from going in the swarf-heap:





.

Then I set up the vertical slide, and using the collet I made earlier to grip the con rod, I milled one flat face on the big end, marked it out, center drilled, and drilled and reamed a 2mm hole through it. With a piece of 2mm piano wire in the jaws of the tailstock chuck (now inserted in the headstock  ) I just removed the con rod (collet and all) from the milling vice, turned it 180 deg, and shoved it over the piano wire in the chuck. Then I brought the carriage with the vertical slide back, and just clamped the collet up again - this way everything stays in alignment, and the next face on the big end is nice ans parallel with the original. - Once again, I forgot to take a photo!

This is where I ended for tonight: A piston and con rod:





And screwed together:





Initially and intentionally, I left the thread on the connecting rod slightly short - I needed to add a couple more threads to the con rod, but got pretty close. Elmer's plans calls for this entire assembly to be 1 1/2" long, and my calipers shows overall length when screwed together 1.4995" - should be close enough 

Darn - wish it was weekend again... 
Regards, Arnold


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## rleete (Aug 2, 2009)

Good, steady progress. You'll get there before you know it.


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## Foozer (Aug 2, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> The quest continues...
> 
> Having gone to bed last night not having any 6mm brass rod left (too little anyway) I woke this morning with an idea
> 
> Regards, Arnold



Thats when I go back to sleep . . .

Looking good, I need a nap after reading what you went through to get the con rod built 

Robert


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## arnoldb (Aug 2, 2009)

Thanks rleete & Robert 


			
				Foozer  said:
			
		

> Thats when I go back to sleep . . .


I keep forgetting the time zones across the globe... :big:



			
				Foozer  said:
			
		

> Looking good, I need a nap after reading what you went through to get the con rod built


 ??? - The thought of making all that lot, or just boring ? :big: - Now it's beddy-bye time for me.

Regards, Arnold


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## Foozer (Aug 2, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> The thought of making all that lot
> Regards, Arnold



"Necessity, who is the mother of invention" - Plato

She works hard does she not

Not boring at all 

Robert


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## arnoldb (Aug 6, 2009)

Foozer  said:
			
		

> "Necessity, who is the mother of invention" - Plato
> 
> She works hard does she not
> 
> ...



 ;D - poor old mum; rarely gets a break  - Thanks Robert!

Gave her a break for a change today - came home all cranky from work, and decided some stress could be turned into chips; nothing spectacular; just _something_ for a change.

As I was already feeling "cranky" - I decided to leave the Fancy's crank for later.

Earlier this week I found some substitute "loctite" suitable for retaining bearings & bushes, so just did a simple turning job - made the main bearing bush. A simple job - turn-drill-ream&part , but oh-so-relaxing (and it beats ironing shirts / washing floors :big: )
Pressed it into place in the column with some of the retaining compound so it can set. 
Drilled the port hole in the cylinder block & cleaned up the burrs, then put the spares together to get an idea what I let myself in for:




The "ugly" hole at the top of the column is where I'll press in the steam pipe.

Still lots to do: crankshaft, flywheel, base (I bet Fancy's getting tired of lying down  ), some "bling" & a coat of varnish to protect the bling, and yes, a nicer nut on the pivot shaft 

Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Aug 6, 2009)

Looking very good Arnold :bow: Thm: looks like it will be running in no time
Regards Rob


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## Maryak (Aug 6, 2009)

Arnold,

Nice work :bow: As Rob says not long now before a runner. ;D

Best Regards
Bob


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## arnoldb (Aug 6, 2009)

Thank you Rob and Bob for your interest & support!
I'm also itching to get "her" running! - about 60% complete? - the last 5% will take the most time 
Kind regards, Arnold


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## vlmarshall (Aug 6, 2009)

Nice progress! Looking good.



			
				arnoldb  said:
			
		

> I'm also itching to get "her" running! - about 60% complete? - the last 5% will take the most time



Yeah, how do they say it, " The first half of a project takes 95% of the time planned for completion, and the the last half takes the other 95%." ... or something like that. ;D


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## arnoldb (Aug 6, 2009)

Thanks Vernon 


			
				Vernon  said:
			
		

> Yeah, how do they say it, " The first half of a project takes 95% of the time planned for completion, and the the last half takes the other 95%." ... or something like that. ;D


Oh yes, I learned that here on HMEM ;D - though I'm not exactly a statistician :-[ - Rof}
Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Aug 6, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> Thank you Rob and Bob for your interest & support!
> I'm also itching to get "her" running! - about 60% complete? - the last 5% will take the most time
> Kind regards, Arnold



Have you some idea in mined Arnold

Regards Rob


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## bearcar1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Your Fancy, she is coming along quite nicely Arnold. Well done.

BC1
Jim


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## Foozer (Aug 6, 2009)

Vernon  said:
			
		

> Nice progress! Looking good.
> 
> Yeah, how do they say it, " The first half of a project takes 95% of the time planned for completion, and the the last half takes the other 95%." ... or something like that. ;D



first 95 % of the task takes first 50% of the time, last 5% of task takes the other 50% of time

Redo takes, well we dont redo, do we 

Robert


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## vlmarshall (Aug 6, 2009)

Foozer  said:
			
		

> first 95 % of the task takes first 50% of the time, last 5% of task takes the other 50% of time


Haha, yeah that's it, thanks, Foozer. ;D


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## Deanofid (Aug 6, 2009)

This one is coming along great, Arnold. Good write up and photos too. 
Thanks for sharing, and keep up the good work!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Aug 7, 2009)

bearcar1  said:
			
		

> Your Fancy, she is coming along quite nicely Arnold. Well done.
> 
> BC1
> Jim



Thanks BC1! 
Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Aug 7, 2009)

Deanofid  said:
			
		

> This one is coming along great, Arnold. Good write up and photos too.
> Thanks for sharing, and keep up the good work!
> 
> Dean


Thanks Dean  - I'll try my best 
Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Aug 8, 2009)

RobWilson  said:
			
		

> Have you some idea in mined Arnold


Rob, when you posted that, I didn't have much of an idea yet - I left one of my braincells pondering (I don't have many, so as a result I didn't get much done for the last couple of days ;D) When I started with Fancy, I wanted to make her, well, _fancy_ - or at least as _fancy_ as I can :

Now for the progress...

This morning I started on the crankshaft. I decided to use brass for the web, so chucked and faced a bit of 3/4" brass. Then I used my smallest center-drill to just touch the stock, to get the center. I marked out the web while mounted (the center dimple is needed for the compasses to get the crank pin offset). For marking out, I really like the Myford's flat bed-ways - a quick wipe over the bed (to get rid of swarf) and drop (well, carefully place) a square on the bed & mark out:






Then, using the toolpost as a "steady" for my wrist, I punched marks for the crank pin and for the holes to help machine the web contour. I decided to make the crank-pin hole and machine the contour on the web before parting it off, so I set up the vertical slide and dividing head, transferred the chuck, and drilled the needed holes:





Then I put the the 4-jaw on the spindle with a centered 4mm bit and milled (well, gashed/hacked :hDe the web profile:




Notice the deep scratch left on the web surface by the biggish chunk of brass (similar to the one still left in the top of the photo) breaking off. That was very nearly a sticky-brown-pants moment...

For now, I don't have a riser block for the dividing head to fit it directly to the short cross-slide, nor do I have any way of mounting the chuck more rigidly to the cross-slide. There is also no way to mount the dividing head directly to the vertical slide and get in the ranges needed to mill this job, so I had to resort to using a cross-slide extension I made about a year ago - hence the non-rigidity in this milling set-up:





I then transferred the job back to the spindle, drilled the hole for the main shaft, faced off the scratch (fortunately I left some "meat"), and parted the web off. A quick turning job for the main shaft (from silver steel) to press-fit in the web with some "loctite", and then used my cheapy-Dremel-like tool to polish the web. The main shaft is handy for clamping the assembly in the big vice for polishing; shaft protected by a leather welding glove . Then I cut some 2mm piano wire for the crank pin with the Dremel (I use my Real Dremel for more important jobs  ) and, thoroughly cleaned, I pressed it in (yes, with loctite  ). It's easier to polish the web face first - without the crank pin in the way :big: ) - so, one crank done:





If, by this point in reading, you haven't fallen asleep yet, I must compliment you on your tenacity Thm:

The singular braincell I left on duty for an idea eventually did have one! - make the flywheel from the cast iron specially obtained for the purpose, and mill 5 spokes in it with the flywheel locking pin and screw hidden inside of one of the spokes. Wow - brilliant idea :noidea: - except, after today's milling I'm not keen to repeat that! So I called a meeting between all the brain cells present (a couple were away chasing girls - I hope one of them gets lucky!).
Once I was able to impress the importance of the matter on the present brain cells, they came up with nearly as an insane solution as the original - build a multi-part flywheel - "mystery metal tube" for the outer part - from an old printer, 6 brass spokes (one of which doubles as the flywheel locking screw) - made from 2mm "brass" brazing rod, and a 12mm hub made from silver steel.... INSANE, but what the heck, I'll try it; if it fails, I'll just make a "plain" flywheel...

Center drilling the hub for one of the spoke locations - lots of 1.6mm holes after that :big: :




Today was finished off with 2mm threads in each of the hub's spoke locations (except for the one "plain" 2mm hole in one location for the "locking pin/spoke"

Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Aug 9, 2009)

Very nice Arnold,looks like your Brain cells are in good working order ;D i see your ML7 has some good attachments,Dividing head and tapper turning attachment ,tool envy :big: 
Regards Rob


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## CrewCab (Aug 9, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> So I called a meeting between all the brain cells present (a couple were away chasing girls - I hope one of them gets lucky!).



Your brain cells have an active life Arnold, just hope they don't form a union :

Nice work, the crank's turned out well 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




CC


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## arnoldb (Aug 9, 2009)

RobWilson  said:
			
		

> Very nice Arnold,looks like your Brain cells are in good working order ;D i see your ML7 has some good attachments,Dividing head and tapper turning attachment ,tool envy :big:
> Regards Rob


Thanks Rob. Yes, I lucked out with the Myford - basically full kit, except for QC box and long crosslide. One thing I REALLY like about it is the clutch 
Have never used the TTA, but will soon have reason to. Fancy's done; next up will be some tool making, including 2MT collets; can't afford to import them 



			
				CrewCab  said:
			
		

> Your brain cells have an active life Arnold, just hope they don't form a union :
> 
> Nice work, the crank's turned out well
> 
> ...


Thanks CC  - I'm a dictator; No unions allowed in my head :big:


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## arnoldb (Aug 9, 2009)

Well, Fancy is complete; didn't turn out quite as well as I wanted, but practice makes perfect...

This morning I finished the flywheel assembly: first time I can recall that I had both my lathe's chucks holding work-in-progress; 3-jaw with the hub-to-be and 4-jaw with the rim-to-be after getting drilled & tapped using the dividing head:





Both were just parted of after above photo - the hub only after I drilled and reamed it to size for the axle.

Then I made the flywheel spokes from brass brazing rod, and threaded one end each for M2 to screw into the hub. These brazing rods are strangely difficult to get threaded; the die just does not want to "bite" to start, so I had to file a fairly significant taper on each before threading.
Then I assembled the lot with loctite on all the treads and the parts in the rim.
Hub assembled & excess rod crudely clipped off using side-cutters:




To make up the missing spoke - which is also the locking pin, I shortened an M3 grub screw, and cut and filed a bit of brazing rod to the correct length for the assembly. Some of the spokes were intruding into the shaft hole, so I drilled the hole out in the drill press, then reamed to size again; that got rid of the protrusions. Then I turned the excess bits on the rim down in the lathe using the grub screw & lock-spoke to clamp to an arbor.
Polishing the spokes in situ to get rid of some excess loctite & dings from the installation nearly stumped me - but I settled on a leather thong coated with metal polish; one spoke at a time; this worked a treat  Unfortunately, it runs with a bit of an up-down wobble; can't figure out how to correct that :-[

Then I turned a base, and while still in the lathe, used the tailstock to press in the column. The red bit you see is a leather welding glove between the top of the column and the tailstock drill chuck to prevent damage to the top of the column:





After this, I pressed in the steam pipe in the vice - once again using the welding glove to protect everything. I knew it was home when I heard a strange kgrtz sound; the pipe punched a neat hole through the glove & Ihad to fish out the round bit of leather from inside the pipe...

Then I (crudely) polished the cylinder block, cleaned everything, assembled with some thin oil, and gave it a trial run. Something's still a bit stiff, but at about 10 PSI she started up and ran. All brass components are polished; the flywheel is "semi" polished, and the aluminium column and base are as-machined.

I still wanted to make a nice nut for the pivot shaft and given everything a clear lacquer coat to protect it, but that will have to wait for now.

So here's Fancy (I hate my camera; it highlights the defects! :big: ):











I'm still struggling to upload the video of her running - will link to that as soon as it's done.
Movie: A bit of a big file :Here

I hope my effort is worthy of it's name! - and a BIG thanks to everyone who supported me through this build :bow: !
Kind Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Aug 9, 2009)

great job Arnold :bow: :bow: :bow: looks well with a spoke'd flywheel,very nice, what are you going to build now ? ? ? ?  ;D
Regards Rob


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## zeeprogrammer (Aug 9, 2009)

Nice Arnold!
I almost missed this. I was gone when you started it.
Read the whole thread. Very worthwhile.
Thanks!
Can't wait for the video.


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## arnoldb (Aug 9, 2009)

Thanks Rob & Zee  - just added the video link, but a bit of a big file for a small video...



			
				RobWilson  said:
			
		

> what are you going to build now ? ? ? ?


Rob, for now, I have some "Unfinished business" - that needs to get done, then some tooling is up for it... to make life easier!
After that, well, I'm kicking a couple of ideas around; still have to choose ;D

Zee - Your absence was very conspicuous FWIW I missed you on the forum!  Hope you had a good time overseas with the wife 

Regards, Arnold


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## zeeprogrammer (Aug 9, 2009)

Thanks Arnold...I appreciate that.

Yes. Had a great time overseas.
She comes home for good in a week.
Hopefully I won't go missing again...but she's already got my time planned...weeding, home improvement, cleaning...all the things I was supposed to be doing while she was gone. ;D

Tried the video but it doesn't work for me. I'll try again later.


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## CrewCab (Aug 9, 2009)

That does look well Arnold 8) ............ if those are the pictures with a "crap" camera it's gonna look dam good with a better one ;D

I like the flywheel, particularly the use of the grub screw to lock one spoke to the crank, I'll file that one away to copy borrow later 

The video ain't working for me either I'm afraid 

CC


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## Maryak (Aug 9, 2009)

Arnold,

Congratulations on a really great build. :bow: :bow:

Sorry mate but I can't access the video - says 404 Error site not found on this server - whatever that means ;D.

Best Regards
Bob


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## kustomkb (Aug 9, 2009)

Well done!

It looks great.


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## Foozer (Aug 9, 2009)

Another one down, a fancy "Fancy"

good job

Robert


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## Deanofid (Aug 9, 2009)

You made it live up to its' name, Arnold, and don't blame the camera... It looks gooood!
Nice work!

Dean


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## rake60 (Aug 10, 2009)

Well done Arnold! Thm:

Rick


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## arnoldb (Aug 10, 2009)

Thanks for the positive responses CC, Bob, kustomkb, Robert, Dean & Rick !  - This one was lots of fun to build.

I'll have a look at the video link tonight (at work now  ) - it looked like it uploaded to my hosting site last night, but apparently it didn't.... - sorry about that :-[



> Hopefully I won't go missing again...but she's already got my time planned...weeding, home improvement, cleaning...all the things I was supposed to be doing while she was gone. Grin


 - Zee, can I recommend a smaller garden ? 



> I like the flywheel, particularly the use of the grub screw to lock one spoke to the crank, I'll file that one away to copy borrow later


 - CC, you are welcome - its for free!

Kind Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Aug 10, 2009)

OK, succeeded in uploading the video; also managed to shrink it a bit 
You can get it Here
Regards, Arnold


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## rake60 (Aug 10, 2009)

Great video Arnold.

I took the liberty of uploading it to youtube so
it could be embedded here.

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

Beautiful craftsmanship! :bow:

Rick


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## CrewCab (Aug 10, 2009)

Well I was sure I'd posted a reply as I had to download an adobe viewer to see the video  : ........... oh well, ......... dementia's not too painful is it chaps ???

Top notch Arnold  8) , and a very nice runner ............ well done Sir :bow:

CC


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## RobWilson (Aug 10, 2009)

Runnnnnnnnnnnnnns Great Arnold Thm:

Regards Rob


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## zeeprogrammer (Aug 10, 2009)

Nice runner Arnold.
Glad to see the video.
What's next?


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## arnoldb (Aug 11, 2009)

rake60  said:
			
		

> Great video Arnold.
> 
> I took the liberty of uploading it to youtube so
> it could be embedded here.
> ...


Wow - thanks very much Rick, both for the compliment and uploading to YouTube :bow: (I've given up trying to upload to YouTube from here in Windhoek; bandwidth just does not cut it)
Kind Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Aug 11, 2009)

CrewCab  said:
			
		

> Well I was sure I'd posted a reply as I had to download an adobe viewer to see the video : ........... oh well, ......... dementia's not too painful is it chaps ???


 - Sorry CC :-[ ; I'll try to figure out more suitable formats for the videos - some research needed . Dementia painful ??? - hasn't hurt me a bit yet :big:

CC, Rob, Zee, Once again thank you very much for the compliments  - it is much appreciated!

Zee, upcoming, I'm going to finish the first engine I started on - it's time to get it done. I also took a cue from Marv, and kept a (quickly growing!) list of tooling and accessories while I was building the rocker and fancy, so there is quite a bit of tool/accessory making coming as well. After that ? Don't know yet.

Kind Regards, Arnold


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## SBWHART (Aug 13, 2009)

ITS A RUNNER

 :big:  :big:


Well done Robert nice job.

Have fun

Stew


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## arnoldb (Aug 13, 2009)

Thanks Stew - much appreciated 
Regards, Arnold


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## bearcar1 (Aug 13, 2009)

Oh nicely done Arnold! A real treat to see run indeed. You mention that the flywheel runs with a bit of runout but I cannot perceive any in the video, it runs super. Again, well done.

BC1
Jim


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## arnoldb (Aug 13, 2009)

Thank you BC1  - Fortunately the video quality is not too great, so you don't see the runout that well 
Kind regards, Arnold


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## PhiberOptix (Aug 13, 2009)

Arnold, 

Well done, that's one beautiful looking and running model too :bow: 

top notch 

regards
Andy


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## arnoldb (Aug 14, 2009)

Thank you Andy 
Regards, Arnold


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## kvom (Aug 14, 2009)

Very nice work, and well documented. Thanks.


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## arnoldb (Aug 16, 2009)

Thank you for the compliment kvom 
Regards, Arnold


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## Fabrickator (Mar 24, 2014)

Arnold,

You did a great job on you "Fancy".  I am almost done with mine and it was fun to see how someone else may have dealt with the different parts of the build. I generally document my builds and post a bunch of pics.  For some reason, I got started on this and said screw it.  Now I now wish that I had taken the time.  I still have to finish shaping my crank and complete the final fit and assy.

The piston, rod and cylinder were a bit dodgy for me as I have never built anything this small.  I've worked with close tolerences in fitting pistons, cylinders and bearings in motorcyle and auto race engines all my life, but nothing like working on this little bugger.


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