# 1/6 scale P&W R1830



## Bill Gruby (Jan 17, 2012)

I have finally begun this project. I have the rear gearbox bores (17 of them) completed and the geared oil pump almost complete. About 110 hrs so far.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 17, 2012)

More pix


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 17, 2012)

There is no real order to the pix, I took them randomly. Sorry, I will restore order with the next post and new pix. The end is 2500+ hrs away. LOL


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## lazylathe (Jan 17, 2012)

Hi Bill,

Looks amazing, even though i will have to google to see what you are building! ;D

What is the machine you are using in the second to last picture??
Looks to be quite a contraption!

Andrew


Ps i found a pic!!
Looks very complicated to my untrained eye!
But the picture is a cool one, so i will share!!


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## Herbiev (Jan 17, 2012)

Hi Bill. Looking great so far. I will be following along with grea interest :bow:


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 17, 2012)

Sorry about the jumping around. I have taken many pictures so far. Andy that ia a 1947 Fellows Gear Shaping Machine. Those tiny blanks in my hand above had their teeth cut with it.

 This will be my second Radial. The first was a Hodgesons 18 cylinder. Close to 3000 hrs went into that one. Wish I had kept it.

 "Billy G"


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## metalmad (Jan 17, 2012)

Hi Bill
ill be following along for sure 
do you have any pics of the Hodgson?
Round motors rock ;D
Pete


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 17, 2012)

Unfortunately Pete, I don't. I built it for a friend back in the early 90s. I didn't have a computer then. I really wish I had taken them. That was some build. There will be plenty for this build though. This is a pic of the finished pump gears.

 "Billy G"


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## b.lindsey (Jan 17, 2012)

Looking good so far Bill. Definitely one to watch and I admire you for undertaking such an ambitious project. Its nice to see the first chips flying!!

Bill


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 17, 2012)

Thank you all for the kind words. Now, there are 6 / 2-56 holes .375 deep at the bottom of one of the counterbores in the gear case. The c/bore is over 2 inches deep. A normal tap wrench would not do the job, Not enough room to get it in there. I fabricated this tapping tool and guide to do the job, not real pretty but it will work. The #50 tap drill uses the same technique.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 19, 2012)

The oil pump is installed. Those 2-56 threaded holes were a bear. LOL Next will be the crankshaft. Everything will start linking together once that is done.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 20, 2012)

The pump is installed and was tested dry at 2500 RPM for 5 consecutive minutes. We used a rubber air nozzle asd a friction driver against the face of the gear. Relatively low noise for unlubricated steel gears (4140). Very smooth operation. So far so good, on the crankshaft.

 "Billy G"


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## Teza (Jan 20, 2012)

Great work so far Bill Thm:
I've set aside the next 2500 hours, hitched up my trailer and coming along for the ride ;D

Terry


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 21, 2012)

May take a little longer, LOL. The crankcase is three pieces, The split is centered on each cylinder row. Started it today. The blank on top of the lathe weighs 27 ozs. The almost finished rear section weighs 8.5 ozs. Quite a reduction. 173 total hrs. so far.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 23, 2012)

Crankcase Blanks ready for milling.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 27, 2012)

OK, let's add one more piece, the "Defuser Housing. This part pushed the capacity of my Jet 9X20 to it's limit. Chuck jaws missed the ways by less than 1/4 inch.

 Tomorrow I drill, tap, and bolt together what I have so far. All 4-40 this time.

 "Billy G"


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## napoleonb (Jan 28, 2012)

Love your work, do you work by bought plans or did you make the drawings yourself?
Would love to see the plans for this one.

Napoleon


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 28, 2012)

The prints for this engine were done by Bob Roach out of Australia. They are not Cad. They are hand drawn. Sorry,I cannot show them here as they are copyrighted. Thank you for the kind words.

 You can access more info on this engine from the Vernal Engineering site. Just google Vernal Engineering.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 29, 2012)

Boy -- You sure get bounced around in here. This is one busy boarg. Congratulations to all you builders. Some nice work out there.

 OK 14 cylinders are up next. 4140 pre stressed. 14 plus one set-up piece. Also need to make a special mandrel for machining these. Bores will be done in the 3 w and changing to my ER 40 to hold the mandrel. If I pull this off in 120 hrs or less I will have beaten the odds. LOL

 "Billy G"


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## steamer (Jan 29, 2012)

4140 ht stock it tough stuff....is it needed?

That will be a b)$)*# to machine ....lots of people use 12L14 for cylinders with no issues.....

Dave


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 29, 2012)

Yes it's needed because of the thin wall of the cylinder. To coin a phrase, " we can cut it" LOL Have used this before for speed engines in the "C and D" classes. Should present no problems. Thanks for looking.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Jan 31, 2012)

A special arbor is needed to turn the different ODs and fins on the cylinder. I made this one from scrap 7075. To keep the cylinders fron slipping under tool cutting pressure there will be a key at the chuck end. The first two pictures show it being turned in my ER 40 set-up. Last is the finished turning ready to have the key put in.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 1, 2012)

I didn't have a thru spindle stop for the 9X20 and needed it to sizt the length of the cylinder blanks. I fabricated this on fron a length of 1/2-13 threaded rod and some scrap that was beggiong to be used.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 10, 2012)

The Turbo Fan arrived yesterday. It is usable for this project. I hope to complete the modification by Sunday.It will be a little more work than I expected. 

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 10, 2012)

Anybody still here? If you look at the picture in the last post carefully you will see the severe damage someone did to the hub. I had no choice but to remove the old hub and turn a new one to be pressed in. You will see a special chuck when I bore the impeller for the new hub.

 Also you guys building, that is some nice work you are doing.

 "Billy G"


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## vcutajar (Feb 10, 2012)

Hi Bill

I have been following your build with great interest. From where did you get the turbofan?

Vince


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## mu38&Bg# (Feb 10, 2012)

I'm fairly certain that's not damage. It would have been material removed to achieve dynamic balance. It is strange though that there would be material removed on oppposite sides.


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## steamer (Feb 10, 2012)

I'm following along too Bill.  I'm watching!... ;D

Dave


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 10, 2012)

I knew you guys were there. LOL 
 There is more material removed from one side than the other. I looks like they went too far and had to compensate. Either way it has a new hub now. Press fit and Lock Tite will do. This is not the drive end. The other end has 2 keys 180 apart. Tomorrow I will finish it up. I want it to sit for 24 hrs.

 "Billy G"


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## gbritnell (Feb 10, 2012)

I haven't posted much but I'm definitely watching. When I decided on a radial I thought about building a larger one like you're doing but opted for something a bit smaller. 
gbritnell


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## b.lindsey (Feb 10, 2012)

I'm still here too Bill....watching with interest

Bill


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## Admiral_dk (Feb 10, 2012)

Oh YES SIR - We're her !

I'm ALWAYS following the complicated and the interesting builds, but rarely commenting them, since I prefer the build tread to contain only the build + really useful comments (and I rarely have any  ).


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## metalmad (Feb 10, 2012)

Hi Bill
Still here mate
u would have to drive me off with a stick and even then i wouldn't be far away  :big:
Pete


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## ozzie46 (Feb 10, 2012)

Yup, what the others have said.  :bow: :bow:

 Ron


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 10, 2012)

vcutajar  said:
			
		

> Hi Bill
> 
> I have been following your build with great interest. From where did you get the turbofan?
> 
> Vince



 Sorry I missed this one Vince. I scored the Turbo Fan on Ebay. Look under Turbo Charger Wheels. You will find plenty of them.

 "Billy G"


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## ninefinger (Feb 10, 2012)

I'll be watching with great interest I have the Bob Roach drawings for the 1/6 Wasp Jr which shares many of the same parts. Your racing way ahead of me thou - at my current rate I'm making a part once every 6 months or so...

Mike


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 10, 2012)

Mike;
 I haven't seen a set of the Wasp Jr. prints but the 1830 prints have some that are marked Wasp Jr. 


 "Billy G"


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## ninefinger (Feb 10, 2012)

Hi Bill,

The Wasp Jr drawings came first - my set has 15 Nov 1993 on the first drawing. I believe that the 1830 was only completed in the last 2 years or so. I'd have to check on it at http://www.modelenginenews.org/ to be sure - great website and its how I found the drawings existed in the first place. There were regular updates as the 1830 was being prototyped by somebody in the UK, from Bob Roachs drawings in Australia with castings from Vernal Eng. in the USA.

I choose the Wasp Jr. as there are a few local operational examples that I get to see and I just love it. If anybody could spot me the $300k + I could just go buy the full size engine installed in a plane http://www.vintagewings.ca/Aircraft/tabid/66/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/18/language/en-CA/Beech-D-17S-Staggerwing.aspx

Mike


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 11, 2012)

The OD was not difficult to turn on the fan. It is now down to its finish size, 60mm. I am going to fill between the vanes with spray foam before I reshape them. I am hoping it will help to stabilize them.In any case extremely light cuts and steady as you go.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 11, 2012)

Ground that lathe tool by hand. I still got it LOL. Now to finish the bore and its a done deal.

 "Billy G"


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## mu38&Bg# (Feb 11, 2012)

That looks nice.


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 11, 2012)

Thank you Greg. I have to add that it did scare me a couple of times during turning.

 "Billy G"


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## mu38&Bg# (Feb 12, 2012)

Yes, I'm sure. Thinking about the huge form tool and impeller blades made _me_ cringe.


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 12, 2012)

I still need to bore the fan to 12mm. I also need to face the spigot off the back end. This requires holding the fan with the fins in. A few minutes at the grinding wheel and an old file produced a form tool for the radius of the fins to ride on. It's too late in the game to damage them.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 13, 2012)

Now to ream that bore to finish size and this is a done deal. The undercut section on the bottom is for a fibre washer to run on.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 19, 2012)

OK -- Grandkids have left. I neede to work on the intake plumbing at this stage. A new tubing bender was needed because of the tight inside radius (8mm). Cerro-Bend will be used to fill the tubes for this step.

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 20, 2012)

Gonna be a boring day. LOL 14 cylinders to get to where the silver one is in the second picture. It's going to be a looooong day.

 "Billy G"


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## steamer (Feb 24, 2012)

Nice tube bender Bill, I'll be watching!

Your absolutely right ,14 of those in Chrome Moly is not going to happen fast. Carbide drills or just keep sharpening?

Dave


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 24, 2012)

Material is 4140. It's been slow goin drilling those 15 holes. Heat build up is a major problem. Started with 3/8, then 1/2 then 3/4 and bored to .865. It took a few hours, around 20 I guess. It wasn't easy keeping that finish either. LOL Now they are going to have the ODs done and then lastly the fins. Fins will be a challenge, they are .3mm thick spaced .6mm apart. Pitch or movement of the tool for each of the 16 fins is .9mm. This is tight quarters. LOL

 I also found this site for painless conversion from metric to english. Lust plug in the number.


http://www.worldwidemetric.com/measurements.html

 "Billy G"  ;D


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## Teza (Feb 24, 2012)

Great work Bill, you can obviously focus on the individual tasks and not be put off by the whole picture :-*
Thanks for the link to the conversion calc should come in handy, imperial lathe and mics metric mill dtis :wall:

Cheers
Terry


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 24, 2012)

Thank you for the kind words. We try. LOL

 "Billy G"


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## steamer (Feb 24, 2012)

Have at it Bill...!
Dave


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 25, 2012)

I knew this was gonna take some time but-- this is 1 hour and 16 minutes work at the blank stage. 13 more to go. It's fun though and this is how I relax. That's odd, relaxing under pressure. Works for me. ;D

 "Billy G"


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 25, 2012)

First one was done with the arbor in the 3 jaw. Great results. The next 3 were done with the ER40 set up. Super results. No run out to speak of. This is #5 in the set up. Will continue tomorrow. Concrete floor is too much for these old feet. LOL Notice I'm cutting with HSS not carbide. The finish is as good as it gets, just have to run a little faster.

 "Billy G"


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