# My apprentice this summer(Moriya Fan build)



## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

Back in May I asked the group for recommendations for project for my 13 yr old nephew and I to build. I got some good ideas, but wound up with something...ummm a bit more complicated, the Moriya hot air fan! I remember the day the magazine showed up at our house in 1974, I wanted to built it since then. After his mother assured me that "working in the shop is the whole reason he is coming!" I thought why not go for it, we had exactly one month to do it, and lots of other non shop things planned as well.

Here goes...he swore the shirt was a total coincidence!


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

I didn't mention...he lives in Sweden, so we had a few other challenges too, like language and that pesky metric system! Day one, despite jet lag we jumped right into it. I also didn't mention...I decided to build two of them, since I always wanted one as well! Here is the result of the first day, two engine bases. The stock was milled to shape on a manual mill and the rest was done on a Proto Trak.


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

Next up was the cold end...lots of clunking, clunking cutting those ribs. Note my poor man's DRO's 2 indicators set up for both axis. This kind of tried his patience...but we got both done. We set up a routine where I made my part and explained the whole process, then he did his.


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

Ribs cut, now to drill then bore to size.


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

Moving over to my bigger lathe we get to work on the displacer piston and the ends that will get pressed into the end.


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

The Power Cylinder was next up....it was at this point I began to get worried about time. In the pic he is using an on/off magnet to collect the cast iron chips which I tried to keep off the ways. Yes the machine was off when he did this! He was very safety conscious...but then again I told him a lot of horror stories! I elected to make the cylinder from cast iron and planned to make the piston from graphite.


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

Here is our output after the first few days...not bad, but note that I am down a power cylinder! I was worrying about the time and the one we made together got put in his "bin"! Actually it is pretty decent progress, and we were not at all pushing it, we were putting in maybe 4-5 hours a day in.


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

OK, now for the bearing supports...without the use of the Proto Trak, I don't think we could have finished in the time we had. Note I added 2 holes near the bottom of the support. These holes would later be used to bolt the part down to profile it.


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## pjpickard (Aug 18, 2015)

Here is the profile being cut, and the young apprentice programming the Proto Trak! He really took that, and needed very little guidance after he was shown how it works. Honestly he was as least(and in many ways a lot better) than the students I teach at a local community college! By this point his English was improving by leaps and bounds and he was sort of even getting used to inches!


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## bmac2 (Aug 19, 2015)

Excellent build. Love the story and the fan. I think I was around his age the first time I used a metal lathe. Once it gets in your blood there is no going back.


  Lets see how badly google translate can butcher this.


  [FONT=&quot]utmärkt Thm:. Älskar historien och fläkten . Jag tror jag var runt hans ålder första gången jag använde en metall svarv . När det blir i ditt blod finns det ingen återvändo.[/FONT]


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## lathe nut (Aug 19, 2015)

That is great, there is hope for the future, he will never forget you for the good deeds, thanks for sharing.


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## RichD (Aug 19, 2015)

My Father spent a lot of time with me too. He's gone now, but I always feel him guiding me along.

He's a lucky young lad to have a Grandfather like you.


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

Thanks for the comments guys...since this sub forum is FINISHED engines(I wasn't sure exactly where to post) I better get on with the description...
Here are the finished bearing supports...I followed Senft's plans mostly...with the bearing supports I elected to make them one piece(another member here did the same) I felt that would make for much better alignment of the bearings. The next pic is the progress of all parts we had made so far. It's starting to look like an engine! This got his enthusiasm up a bit.


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

Here is the con rod...he liked the process of taking a raw bar and turning it into a part...by this time he could see how to read the drawings and what needed to be done to make the part. What he DIDN'T like(and I did pretty much 100% was centering it up in the 4 jaw, Hahah, too boring perhaps?


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

Here we are with the power rod end...I made this from bronze, not alum as specified. The introduction of new tools like the collet block was always an eye opener, "what is this for???"  Then the light would go off!


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

The rod end done, we screwed in the rod and loctited it in place. I tried to get him to think some of the steps thru, like "How do we get the holes to be the right distance apart"? About 20 years ago the senior machinist at a university physics shop where I worked introduced me to the sub plate. I could not live with out it now. Simple job...drill a hole for a dowel pin for the rod end, mill with a ball nose end mill for the rod, clamp it down, center drill, drill and ream, job done!

The first pis shows a cheat we did on the crank pin....rather than make it from solid, I took a 10-32 socket head screw and just modified it...took a lot less time and I like the look of the recessed hex.


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

It wasn't all shop work...since he came all the way from Sweden we had planned to do a few other activities! A local cruise night was one highlight...he pronounced a 1966 Corvette engine as "that is a REAL engine" !  Also the Strasburg railroad was a major hightlight(for me as much as anyone else!) We stayed in the Red Caboose motel, fun for kids...a bit cramped for my taste. Seems like every time I go there it is super hot and humid, and with the AC going full tilt all night...sleep was a bit compromised.


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

OK, here we go,,,here are all the parts...sorry not everything was documented, it was hard to do the "mentoring" thing and take pics at the same time!
We are now really running out of time, and its clear my engine wont make it to the finish line, so work on mine was cut off for now. The hot end gasket was a pice of "donated" material by a friend, a "machinable" ceramic, kind of nasty to machine, but worked well in the end.


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

Assembly was rather, I mean to say REALLY rushed! The excitement was over the top at this point. Obviously the stand was not made so an old lab stand and toolmakers clamp was pressed into service. At this point we were both very anxious to see if it would run.


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

My best friend back in 1974, when Live Steam came out with this series, built one of these. I followed along very closely of course.  He got it to run...after a lot of teething problems, and I have followed Stirling engine models long enough to know that there can be problems getting them to run. I had warned my nephew that this might be the case with ours too..Well guess what? It took off moments after we lit the burner! I have to say...I was somewhat surprised! I mean I didn't really think there was going to be a problem, it turned over nice and free, had good compression in the power cyl, but still it just spun into action!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/20753988951/in/datetaken/


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## pjpickard (Aug 20, 2015)

Given the excitement around getting it running, there was an "incident". My nephew found out why they call it the "hot end"! At one point when we were restarting it he grabbed the hot end, and burned his fingers. He was a real trouper though, just toughed it out, dunked it in ice water, you can see our his hand in our wine cooler.


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## gus (Aug 21, 2015)

I sure wish I had a very good and experienced instructor and uncle like you.

 I was taught by instructors mostly straight out of trade school. Their machining skills were not any better than the storekeepers. Fortunately there were ex-tradesman instructors who taught me HSS tool bit and twist drill grinding and gave me good tips in turning,milling and shaping.This was in the early 60s. 
By the 70s the trade school had very highly trained and experienced machineshop instructors and by the early 80s CNC Machining Courses were available. 

Your 13 yr old nephew will be glad to know he beat the then 16 yr old Gus 1961 in turning out fine job pieces.th_wav


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## pjpickard (Aug 23, 2015)

Better get this done! Not much to do now and just in time too! Here we are cncing the fan hub, he programmed this pretty much all on his own. I made a CAD drawing and he just plugged in the numbers. This saved a ton of time over making this by hand.


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## pjpickard (Aug 23, 2015)

Now to bend the tabs for the fan blades. I just made a simple fixture to allow the part to be held in a bench vise and bent them by eye using the protractor as shown.


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## pjpickard (Aug 23, 2015)

And that's it! I took a cue from another member here who made a similar base...I never really like the bent angles of Senft's design. Along the way I think he learned a ton...he had never done anything like this before. He, for example, never knew you could make your own screws! I hope I planted a seed for the future.

My engine is sort of done...still need to make the base! I will make a follow up on that eventually.

Thanks for following along!


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## ausdier (Aug 28, 2015)

As promised Paul.
Here is my model and render of the fan.
Hope this helps people and they like it.
Cheers.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXo4DqR2K5w[/ame]


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## kf2qd (Aug 28, 2015)

Great job. And I hope he only learned appropriate English words...


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