# Building a bigger Easton & Anderson Grasshopper



## Jasonb (Sep 16, 2012)

Some of you may have seen in the past me mention myintension to build this engine in a bigger size, well Ive started.

It will be based on the 1/12th scale model byAnthony Mount that was serialised in EIM and also reproduced in his secondbook. Plans are also available from BruceEngineering as well as castings.

I intend to double the size to 1/6th scale and havingrecently obtained some photos of the original engine will try to make minetruer to that. This will result in an engine with the following spec.

Length 15 ½

Width 10 ¼

Height 14

Flywheel dia 10 ¾

Bore & stroke 1 7/8x 2

The prototype was quite a small beam engine, most peoplethink of the large waterworks pumping engines when a beam engine is mentionedbut this one was smaller and would likely have been used in a mill or factoryto drive overhead line shafting. Thats why it can be built at a relativelylarge 1/6th scale and still fit the flywheel on my lathe (just).

I probably wont do a bit by bit build but just show some ofthe more interesting parts which will mostly be the fabrication of the itemsthat are supplied as castings in the Bruce model and anything else that I thinkothers may be interested in.













J


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## Jasonb (Sep 16, 2012)

Ill make a start with the two crankshaft pedestalls, theseare basically the same except the outboard one is longer to compensate for notsitting on the engines base casting.

I started by machining some cast iron block to 2 x 11/16section then mounted it on its side in the mill vice and using the ARC functionon the DRO cut a ¼ radius quadrant with querk on one edge.





And then the opposite edge





The same process was carried out on the other edges until Ihad two embryo pedestals, the bases were cut to 4 long from 1x3/8 flat steeland drilled for mounting bolts and small discs added for a raised cast areaaround the hole.







The CI blocks were then drilled and tapped so they could bescrewed and loctited to the bases, Yes there is a place for socket head screwson period engines and that place is out of sight





Once the loctite had set I could locate the bearing heightsfrom the base of the fabrication and using the boring head these were cut to7/8 dia, note the plug gauge in the second photo used to ensure the holematched the already machined bearings.









This work was done before I got the photos of the originalfrom which I can see that the bearings should have had flat tops but Ill stickwith a bit of artistic licence. The tops were radiused using the ARC functionagain.





Then a ½ endmill was used to cut flats for the nuts to seaton and a 3/8 hole bored for a boss to take the oil cups. Holes were drilledfor the studs, clearance down to the ctr line and tapped below.





A slitting saw was the fitted and used to split the blocksin two.





A bit of hand work was then required to round off all theexternal corners to help get that cast look.





Followed by an application of JB Weld and plastic metal tofillet all the internal corners.





While that lot set I machined up some 1BA studs, washers, nutsand locknuts. Finally the filler was smoothed off and a coat of primer sprayedon to see if the filler looked OK, I think it did.









J


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## AussieJimG (Sep 16, 2012)

That's looking good Jason, I will follow you on this if you don't mind, I need the knowledge and will enjoy the journey.

Jim


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## vcutajar (Sep 16, 2012)

Following you and learning as you progress.

Vince


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## ProdEng (Sep 17, 2012)

A very nice looking engine with some challenging fabrication.  Look forward to seeing how it goes.


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## gus (Sep 17, 2012)

Your old fashion Bearing Pedestals brings back 1949 memories. In our neighbourhood no customers believe in ball bearings. Steam operated sawmills prefer Pedestal Bearings with oil sump and a hung oil ring that brings lube oil on the shaft and bearings.
Overhead drive pulleys would same bearings with oil top up yearly.They don't run dry.

Your bearing pedestals are very well made. Truly a great craftsman.


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## Herbiev (Sep 17, 2012)

A really great build Jason. Please keep the photos coming


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## Jasonb (Sep 23, 2012)

The cylinder top cover started as a disc sawn off a length of 80mm dia cast iron bar, this was held in the outside jaws and the internal spigot formed.






It was then revered in the chuck and held by the spigot while the top profile was machined I copied the shape in the photos rather than that of Anthony Mount's (AM from now on) design, the curve was done freehandand then fine tuned with a file.






Then over to the mill and the centre was located






The PCD function on the DRO was used to place the stud holes around the edge and the ones for the gland studs. I found on the Benson that if I doubled up the fixings then they seemed too big so on this engine I will be going buy what looks right rather than just double the size of everything.






The photo of the full size suggests there is a recess in the top of the piston rod packing gland to catch oil from the drip feed oiler so this was added rather than a plain gland as per AM's drawings. I like to make the studs and fixings as I go along so here it is done.






J


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## Jasonb (Sep 23, 2012)

The prototype has a large air pump that would have blown cold air through a condenser, this can be made as a working pump or a dummy, I'm going to do the dummy at the moment but may add some internals at a later date.
I was in two minds whether to machine the pump body from a solid lump of 40mm cast iron block or fabricate, as this will be a heavy engine when done I opted for fabrication as it will be a bit lighter. A rummage around failed to find a suitable bit of 3/16" plate for the base flange so a few offcuts were welded together and then machined to give the required 2.5" square followed buy boring out for the tube with a boring head.




While the boring head was set to the correct dia I used it to flycut the end of a 3/4" bar to form a boss for the air pipe.




The top flange was cut from 1/4" plate and a stepped hole bored in the lathe, then holding by this hole the outside was turned round but left a little oversize.




The tube that goes between the two flanges was made from some that was a bit too big in diameter so I worked out what needed to be cut from the circumference and cut out the waste. Here you can see the parts ready to be soldered together.




And after silver soldering




After sitting in the pickle while I watched the F1 qualifying and a quick scrub the assembly was put back on the lathe and the top flange turned true to the base and to final size of 2.5" dia x 7/32" thick.




A bit more cleaning had it looking like this after which I added JB weld to all the internal corners to get that filleted cast look and left it overnight to harden.




While the JB Weld was going off I made the top cover, very similar to the cylinder cover but as the curved top which is not shown on AM's drawings runs right down to the flat bolting surface it was not ideal to use a file to refine the shape without marking the flat face. Solution was to hold a bit of bar in the tool post to act as a rest and then hand turn the curve, this posed photo will give an idea of how I did it with a woodturning scraper.




This morning the JB Weld could be smoothed off and a bit of primer added, then machine the gland and screw it all together.


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## AussieJimG (Sep 23, 2012)

Good work and great photos Jason, I am still following

Jim


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## Jasonb (Oct 7, 2012)

Next up was the pulley that would have taken the drive from the engine upto overhead lineshafting via a flat belt. The photos show a few differences between the original and AM's interpretation such as 4 spokes vs 6, a split clamped hub and a narrower rim.

I started with the hub, a bit of 1" bar was drilled 1/4" and parted off then two shallow 3/8" grooves milled in opposite sides to take a couple of lengths of 3/8" sq bar






The three parts were silver soldered together then drilled for the clamping bolts after which they were cleaned up and all edges rounded off. I subsequently drilled the hub out a bit under finished size so there was less metal to heat up on the next soldering stage.






I drew the pulley out full size on a bit of paper and used that to determine the positions of the various arcs to form the spokes. These were then marked out on some 1/8" sheet and cut & filed to shape, testing against the drawing for fit.






A nice man on e-bay provided some 100mm OD x 4mm wall EWR tube and a suitable length was sawn off, the ends were tidied up overlength on the lathe.






When heating the rim of a flywheel or pully it tends to expand which can make the gap between rim & spoke too large for the solder or pull against the hub and distort the finished item when it cools. I decided to solder in two stages, the first being the spokes to the rim. Each spoke was set on a nut to pack it upto height and an off cut used as a makeshift hub, the spokes were then solderd into place.






A quick clean up of the inner spoke ends and the hub was set in place with a toolmakers clamp to ensure the previously soldered lugs would not move. This way I could heat the hub and not have the rim expand.






And here it is after a dip in the pickle and a light wire brush to remove flux.






Back to the lathe held it by the inside of the rim to bore the hub true and profile the rim to a slight crown. If you look at the lines on the rim you will see it is in 5 sections, the middle is parallel to the lathe axis, the ones either side of that are at 1deg and the outer section at 2deg, these will be blended later into a shallow crown.






And here is the finished pully, you will see that before soldering I added a 1/64th slot 0.040" deep around the middle of the hub to look like a dummy split line.






Just a little work to clean up the solder fillets, coat of paint and then mount on an arbour to blend the rim and thats another part off the list.






J


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## seagar (Oct 7, 2012)

Very nice.Thanks for sharing.

Ian (seagar).


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## Herbiev (Oct 7, 2012)

Jason. I am really enjoying this. The photos and craftmanship are superb


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## lee9966 (Oct 8, 2012)

Nice tutorial.  I really like the use of JB Weld to make the casting look, I must try that!

Lee


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## Jasonb (Oct 12, 2012)

Thanks for all the kind comments, now can you tell what this is yet?






Two discs were cut off my ever shrinking piece of 80mm dia cast iron bar by hand to approx 1/2" thick and are to become the eccentric straps. These were then poped into the lathe and faced off to give a finished thickness of 3/8".






I then did a quick bit of layout with a pencil to see roughly how much I could take off to get a flat reference face, this and the next few stages were all done with the discs held vertically in the mill vice and cut with a 1/2" endmill.






With the reference face established the discs were blued and marked out with the height gauge and the four extremities cut, you will notice I have left an 1/8" strip in the middle to allow for cutting and cleaning up the face.






The flat faces for the bolts were then machined and some of the waste removed just by eyeballing clear of the line. The holes were also drilled at this setting. In addition I formed a flat to screw an oil cup into, these can be seen on the original photo but are not on AM's drawings






The discs were then cut in half with a hacksaw and machined back to the line, the socket head screws are only there while there is more machining to be done.






The centres were marked and the strap mounted in the 4-jaw to bore the hole to 1 3/4".






They were then held by this hole on the rotary table to clean up the outside profile using a 1/4" FC-3 cutter






I then knocked up some filing buttons to round off the bolting lugs, quick tip when doing this the nut often works loose so give it a quick tap with a hammer which makes it slightly oval and it won't come loose again.






Add a couple of fitted bolts, nuts & locknuts and thats them done save for a bit of clean up before final assembly.






Any one want to guess what percentage of the original discs ended up as swarf? answeres in a day or two.

J


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## RManley (Oct 12, 2012)

As always Jason, this is going to be a first class model.  Castings are becoming less and less important in the days of JB weld!  

Are you in the UK and if so are you going to the midlands exhibition next week?


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## Herbiev (Oct 12, 2012)

Great build log. Good clear photos


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## Jasonb (Oct 13, 2012)

RManley said:


> Are you in the UK and if so are you going to the midlands exhibition next week?


 
Yes and No

Its a bit close date wise to Sandown and as I;m only 1/2hr away from there thats where I will be going.

J


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## metalmad (Oct 13, 2012)

Hi Jason
Fabulous work on the pulley as usual
inspiring!
Pete


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## Jasonb (Oct 20, 2012)

With the eccentric straps done the next logical parts were the sheaves, they were roughed out from 2" bar when taking a break from sawing off the CI for the straps.






With the straps completed they could be used to test fit the final sizing of the sheaves, I then parted them most of the way through finishing off with a hacksaw.






Then poped back in the lathe and using the soft jaws they were faced off to finished thickness






The throw was then marked out and punched with the optical punch and once clocked true in the 4-jaw the hole was bored.






Just a couple of grub screw holes to finish them off and here they are with their straps.






Jason


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## Jasonb (Oct 21, 2012)

For the base of the engine I had intended to use a length of 125x65x15 PFC (parallel flange channel) that I had conviently over ordered on an order for some other work related structural steel. Having now got pictures of the actual engine I had to rethink my methods therefore I will make the top of the base from 5mm steel plate and the sides from 1 1/2" x 5/8" alloy.

You know when you are building bigger engines because you can't cut right through the part with a hacksaw  : , so the angle grinder with a thin cutting disc was used to complete the cuts and give me a piece approx 5" x17"







After some very basic layout using a pencil and marker the sheet was fixed to the mill table on some MDF packing.






The first job was to add another hold down in the middle of some waste followed by cutting the two holes for the pump and cylinder base using a boring head and their associated fixing holes.






As work progressed I had to reset the plate as its length was just over the 360mm travel of the X3s table. Having studied the old photos again tonight I need to make this rectangular hole larger but its easy enough to reset on the mill.






The final bit of profiling was done on the rotary table as the crank hole needs to have a rounded end where it meets the cylinder base.






And here it is just about done except for a few odd holes and the above mentioned cutout.






J


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## AussieJimG (Oct 22, 2012)

I am enjoying this and learning a lot as well. Thank you Jason.

Jim


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## gus (Oct 22, 2012)

AussieJimG said:


> Good work and great photos Jason, I am still following
> 
> Jim



Hi Jim

I am now at Thornleigh,Sydney heading for Bandanoon to see me 89 year old boss. Heading back tonite for some good Hongkong Chinese food.Will have Sydney oysters too.


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## gus (Oct 23, 2012)

Strap very well crafted. For those un-informed,will have a had time guessing that it was either a very well done investment casting
of semi hand mademachined.

Gus,now in Sydney.


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## Jasonb (Oct 28, 2012)

The cylinder of this engine is raised above the bed casting buy what can be described as an upturned can with flanges top and bottom and a few webs thrown in for good measure. So starting off with a couple of squares of 5mm steel plate approx 3" square these were put in the 4-jaw and suitable holes bored.






They were then held by the newly formed hole to turn the outside a little over finished diameter having first sawn the corners off.






A piece of scaffold tube became the donor for the central tube






Here are the basic parts, the old rusty pole turned out quite nicely and there is also a brass top that will form the cylinder bottom cover so no risk of rusting.






The two rings were then held on the rotary table to mill some location slots for the reinforcing webs






And matching grooves cut along the tube. As I don't have  a tube centre for the R/T tailstock the angle plate up against the end of the tube reduces any risk of it tilting.






The webs were machined from various offcuts of 1/8" plate, here they are all held together to have the radius cut using a home ground radius corner cutter from a blunt slot drill, I prefer this type of cutter to a ball nose one as they remove metal quicker.






And here are all the parts ready to be silver soldered together.






Seems a shame to make them all black and dirty






A soak in the pickle soon sorted most of that out and it was then back onto the lathe to have all the finished surfaces machined to size.











After a final clean up I added fillets to all the internal corners, as these are quite hard to get at to sand rather than use JBWeld I opted for milliput which is more like a putty and can be shaped and blended before it sets, a wet artists paintbrush helps as well as a ball ended tool.






And here it is with a bit of paint on.






I'd like to say the elongated top holes are a special design feature but they are the result of not having the work on centre when setting out the PCD 

J


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## mikegw1961 (Oct 28, 2012)

Jason

Top quality work as usual.


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## AussieJimG (Oct 29, 2012)

Millput, wet artist's brush and ball ended tool eh, must remember that. It certainly did the job. This is a great learning experience Jason, Thanks.

Jim


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## Jasonb (Nov 14, 2012)

The end frame pivots in a pair of bearing blocks, as they suited being silver soldered together I made the various parts from steel with a bit of machining allowance on the height.






The semi-circular receess in the main blocks were cut by clamping the two blocks together and drilling then milling down the joint.






And here are all the bits soldered together






After a quick clean-up the tops were sawn off and then milled down to thickness. The holes in the base were tapped and those in the top opened out to clearance size.






I could then bolt the halves together and bore the holes for the bearings.






The final step was to add some thin brass to get the correct look around the fixing holes, drill and tap for the oil cup and then add some studs and bronze bearings.






Finally add a bit of paint and we are one step further to completion, I think I will drop the nuts down to the next hex size as they look a touch big.






J


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## petertha (Nov 14, 2012)

Jasonb said:


> And here are all the parts ready to be silver soldered together.
> Seems a shame to make them all black and dirty
> A soak in the pickle soon sorted most of that out and it was then back onto the lathe to have all the finished surfaces machined to size.
> J


 
Jason, those are very nice looking joints & finished parts. I would really like to learn more about your your silver soldering setup & procedures one day... torch, solder, flux, cleaning & treating...


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## rourkek4 (Nov 15, 2012)

Absolutely loving this build! I am one of those quite readers on this site. I sit back and admire some of the approaches taken, especially when it comes to mimicking castings. I will keep saving away for my own machinery (after the wedding and whatever else gets put in front of them for me  )


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## rhitee93 (Nov 15, 2012)

Masterful work Jason :bow:


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## Jasonb (Nov 20, 2012)

Peter, there is nothing special about my soldering setup. 1" nozzle on a torch supplied from a 3.9kg Propane bottle. Esyflow solder, Tenacity No5 flux and a few odd insulation bricks. Chuck it into the pickle which is the dry acid crystals mixed with water for a while then quick scrub under hot water with a fine wire brush.

Back to the build

The old photos show a piece of diamond chequer plate below the beam suppot pivot that is missing from AM's model, this was most likely to give access to the air pump below the base. There are some sheets of so called chequer plate sold for models but they are not that accurate and even the ones for 7.25" locos looked too small so I had to make some.
Starting with a piece of 1/8" brass I used a 3/16 cutter in the mill to make passes 0.020" deep with a rib of 0.020" wide between at an angle of 15deg, its not that easy to see due to reflections and tool marks but hopefully the second shot shows whats going on.











Next the piece of brass was stood up in the vice at an angle of 15deg the other way and a 0.025" slitting saw used to cut grooves at the same spacing that teh milling had done cutting through the ribs and into the base metal by another 0.020". Thats a bit of 1/2" flat bar I have got the brass clamped to as it would flap about too much on its own.






Some 0.020" brass sheet was held between scraps of MDF and the same slitting saw used to cut narrow strips off the brass, these were over height at about 1/16" wide.






These strips were then given a light coat of soft solder paint pushed into the saw slots and heated to melt the solder






After a clean up they were machined back to height, the stray ends removed and the plate cut to final size






A quick spray of primer and it looks half decent.






As a side not the set up for cutting the brass strips could also be used to trim a larger piece of timber down to provide nice miniature planks for cylinder lagging, these are the MDF offcuts but I don't think that sthe right material for this particular engine






J


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## rhitee93 (Nov 20, 2012)

That last post, my friends, defines "Attention to detail".

Very impressive level of dedication!  :bow:


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## idahoan (Nov 20, 2012)

Nice work Jason,

It's always a pleasure to watch you work!

Dave


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## RManley (Nov 21, 2012)

Now that is a very ingenious way of producing plate.  I&#8217;ll be filing that one away for future use!  

Rob.


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## gus (Nov 22, 2012)

idahoan said:


> Nice work Jason,
> 
> It's always a pleasure to watch you work!
> 
> Dave



Hi Jason,

Me too. You have set a good example which I will follow. My work is sloppy and not great to look at. Perhaps I should not gone on to take my equivalent of HND(Higher National Diploma,Engineering) and moved on to a desk/field job after completing apprenticeship. 

Gus.


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## AussieJimG (Nov 23, 2012)

The bar was just raised a couple of notches.

Jim


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## Jasonb (Dec 2, 2012)

You may remember that back when I started on the base in this thread that I mentioned the sides would be built up with aluminium strip, well I happened to be passing my local stockholders and poped in to pick up the ali.

First job was to machine a 1/16" rebate into the top edge to locate it against the edge of the steel plate, I could then attach the ali with some countersunk screws.






Following that the mill vice was clamped down with a bit of packing under one end so that it was slightly tilted, this gave me the desired "draught" angle to mimic a casting and the majority of the waste was machined away with a 5/8 end mill.






That was followed up with a 1/2" ball nose cutter to put the cove on the bottom edge, the top was rounded with a home ground cutter.






This left the ends square so they went back into the mill to have the profile put on the ends.






I also cut some pockets into the edging under the bearing supports to take brackets which were given a shallow concave face. The rebates of the four edgings were coated with a slow set epoxy adhesive and screwed into position, the joints and screw holes filled with JB Weld which was also used to stick the brackets in place
.





Once set the JB Weld was cleaned up, fillets added with Milliput and then the whole thing given a quick blast of primer, here it is with a few of the other parts in place.











J


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## aonemarine (Dec 2, 2012)

It's really starting to take shape,  beautiful work!


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## Jasonb (Dec 9, 2012)

One of the larger fabrications on this engine is the rocker frame that supports one end of the beam, I started off by making the bearing housings that go at the top of the frame, these were machined down to 7/16" from 1/2" material and drilled tapping size then I started to machine the semi circular ends.






A drill was placed in the bolt holes to act as a pivot and the curve roughed out in stages and the facets were then filed smooth






The blocks were then cut in half and a male and female formed and the holes tapped in the body and opened up to clearance in the caps






The hole for the bronze bearings was then drilled and finished with the boring head






A small amount was skimmed off the bottom half so that when the cap is screwed down it will grip the bearing






A hole was tapped in the cap to take an oiler






Finally a spigot was formed on the end of the bearing block to lacate in the side members of the frame






I had been trying out a few methods to make the oval sections for the frame and in the end settled on compressing 10mm steel tube in the vice followed by a quick lick on the linisher, this is a short sample and is what I used for the sides and X braces, the two curved parts were machined from flat bar and bent to shape






Jumping forward a bit all the tubes were cut and scribed to fit together and then placed into a jig made from some structural C section which was notched to hold two rods at the correct spacing.






Some fire bricks were packed up in the channel to help support the parts, correction fluid applied to the two rods then the bearing blocks were clamped to these and all the parts assembled before being silver soldered together.











After a bit of a clean-up, lick of JB Weld and a coat of primer this is how it turned out.











Next up are the beams


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## AussieJimG (Dec 9, 2012)

Still following, lost in admiration for the way in which you make those complicated parts.

Jim


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## idahoan (Dec 9, 2012)

Hi Jason

Great update!

Thanks for taking time to share your progress with us.

Dave


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## Jasonb (Dec 16, 2012)

Next up is the beam or more presisely the beams as there are a pair mounted back to back with all the rods etc fitted between. I started out with two pieces of aluminium flat bar 3/8"x 2" just over the required 11" long and squared off one end.







They were then blued and stood vertically on the squared end and clipped to an angle plate to mark out the hole positions. Mostly now I don't do this prefering to just locate an edge/end and use the DRO to position the holes but I wanted to mark in the outer diameters of the bosses.






Here the bosses have been scribed in and the outline drawn to touch the various radii






The beams were then clocked true on the mill and the holes all drilled using the DRO, the largest hole was finished with the boring head. I tend to use stub length drills in the common sizes as it saves having to crank the mill head up and down so much, they are also more rigid so tend not to wander.






The vertical bandsaw was used to trim off the waste from around the outside and then the edges were flycut back to the layout lines.






I set a pair of buttons in the back tee slot of the mill with a parallel against them, this then gave me a reference face to set the beams against rather than having to clock them in for each of the eight edges. I then used a 3 flute FC-3 type cutter to remove half the thickness of the plate. The edges were offset from my ref parallel and I stopped just clear of the scribed boss outlines. 






With as much metal removed as possible I setup the rotary table and using various mounting mandrels proceded to round off the two ends and around each boss






This shows all the milling completed






Rather than use a ball nose or radius corner cutter to do all this milling I opted for a square edged one as they are far quicker at removing metal and there were also several cutter diameters needed but only one fillet radius. I put all the fillets in using Milliput putty as there is no need for any structural strength here, its just cosmetic.






A good heavy coat of primer was stippled into the recesses to give a little "cast" texture followed by a blast from the spray can.






The remaining work was just carful turning to produce all the various spindles and spacers, this used about 18" of mostly 5/8" dia steel rod and luckily it all went together without getting jammed.






J


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## RManley (Dec 16, 2012)

This is going to be quite a special model.  Following as ever 

Where did you go for the digital readout for your mill?  My new SX3 is being delivered next week... 

Rob.


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## Jasonb (Dec 16, 2012)

Allendale / Machine DRO call them what you will. They are the GS500 slim scales & covers and universal console.

I believe you can get similar from singapore via e-bay for less.

J


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## gus (Dec 17, 2012)

Hi Jason,
 Gus planning to buy a DRO too. Missed the 6 sets Heidehahns I bought for the Ingersoll-Rand plant,in Singapore for the Leblonde Precision lathes,Bridgeports and the heavy plate rollers etc.
 But my three open sided Balcony Machineshop makes me think twice because a bad rain storm will do some damages. Also planning to put in a bigger "Sakai" Vertical Mill to take heavier cuts. The current mini mill cannot operate too long w/o motor overheating.
If budget permits,will close up the three open sides and have w/shop airconned.Keep you posted.


By now.About to work on my second attempt to make the QCTP with cam lock.


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## starnovice (Dec 24, 2012)

Gus, you have mentioned your balcony several times.  Do you do anything to protect your machines?

Pat


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## kutzdibutz (Dec 24, 2012)

Well people, sit back and observe another POM coming along! (has to become a POM!!)

Jason, great work there!!

Cheers, Karsten


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## Jasonb (Dec 26, 2012)

With the beam and end support frame done I decided to tackle the cylinder next as this will eventually allow me to support the other end of the beam. I started with the base flange, this was sawn into a octagon from some 5/8"x4" flat brass bar and held in the 4-jaw to trepan out the centre. I went almost half way from each side then took it out of the lathe and gave the middle a whack with a hammer and the central disc dropped out.






The bore was cleaned up and then used to hold the flange by while the outer edge was machined round.






I then preceeded to do the same for the top flange but from 1/4" thick material, it was just as I finished trepanning out the middle that I remembered I should not have cut the corners off :wall: so substituted a piece of 1/4" steel as I did not have another piece of brass large enough






The main tube of the cylinder started life as a length of 2 1/2" hollow cast bronze 






The outside was turned down to 2.375" and spigots formed on the ends for the flanges to fit onto. At this stage the bore was left undersize for finishing after fabrication, the overall length was also 1/16" bigger than needed so the flanges could be skimmed back true to the finished bore.






A lump of bronze was sawn to give me a finished block of 3.25 x 1.5 x 1.75 and this was flycut to get all faces square.






Finally a bit of 1/8" brass sheet was cut to make the flange for the valve chest cover to bolt to and here are the roughed out parts.






I used a boring head to cut the curved face of the valve chest






The chest was then cut off at 20degrees, the chamber roughly hollowed out and the angled face flycut. I also cut a matching hole in the bolting flange and added a few 10BA CSK screws to hold the two together when soldered.











Starting to look a bit more like the original now






As the cylinder was comming together it became obvious that I would have difficulty holding it to take any heavy cuts off once assembled as I could not get it into my fixed steady so I decided to do a bit more work on it before soldering. Also the valve chest needed quite a bit of heating to get the solder to flow and by removing any unwanted metal the bulk would be reduced making for slightly easier heating. Here is the cylinder barrel getting opened out.






I also shaped the top flange, now you can see why I needed the corners, they will support the "A" frames which help retain the beam.






Once all the parts had been machined I silver soldered them together, It went OK but not what I would call perfect as it was hard to get enough heat into the big lumps of bronze. Once cleaned up I spent a long time clocking the cylinder true in the 4-jaw both for concentricity and alignment to the lathe axis, changed the QCTP to the 4-way that came with the lathe so I could mount a 7/8" boring bar and just skimmed the bore with several very light passes followed by similar light cuts to the top flange.






On a safety note, don't try this unless you know what you are doing there is a lot of unbalanced metal hanging a long way out the chuck. If in doubt then don't. 

This post is getting a bit long now, next time I will true up the other faces and start adding the 64 assorted holes!!

J


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## Jasonb (Jan 3, 2013)

With the top of the cylinder turned true to the bore it was a simple job to bolt that surface to the mill table and machine the bottom and to get the final overall length.






After that the flange around the valve chest was skimmed






I then clamped the cylinder between two angle plates and finish machined the valve chest and drilled the ports. Anthony mount quite often uses drilled ports rather than milled slots which are a lot easier to deal with and seem to work just as well on engines that are unlikely to do any real work.  






The exhaust passageway was then drilled through and the hole threaded and spot faced to 5/8". A similar hole was added on the other side for the steam inlet






With the cylinder stood the right way up the centre was located and the two steam passages drilled down to the ports and milled through into the cylinder. These are a little closer to the outside edge than I would have ideally liked but not being 100% happy that the solder had flowed between tube and valve block I decided not to drill diagonally as this would pass through the joint line.






The other end was tackled next, first by clocking the bore






Then with clenched buttocks I proceeded to drill the two 4mm holes through the bronze, as you can see by the amount of drill left in the chuck jaws the holes are quite deep!!






While at this setting I milled the passages as per the top, added stud holes and the two gland holes for the valve rods with their associated stud holes.






The 5BA valve chest cover mounting holes were than drilled and tapped






There are several odd bosses and flanges on the casting these were knocked up and fixed with JB Weld






And after a bit of a clean up and drilling the pipe flanges I gave the cylinder a coat of etch and this is how it looks at the moment, The last photo will give an idea of the size. I have also bonded on two rings of moisture resistant MDF to help support the planking that will be used to lag the cylinder





















J


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## Jasonb (Jan 11, 2013)

As the flange on the valve chest is angled the cover is not the usual flat plate so has to be angled to match the chest. There is also quite a radius to the top so I started out with a strip of brass and held this against a 1/2" rod in the mill vice. The Rod was set level on a pair of 123 blocks so the brass could be checked for true with a square against the top of the vice jaw.






It was then just a case of holding a block of wood agaist the brass and gently bending it over, the block of wood helps keep the bend where you want it and the rest of the strip stays straight.






I was a bit short of 1/8" brass sheet so silver soldered the flange from 4 bits of 5/8x1/8 flat which I have an excess of, two oversize triangles for the sides also came out of this flat.






The bent strip and sides were then silver soldered together, cleaned up and the 1/8" edges rounded over






This assemble was then Silver soldered to teh flange, I used an old toolmakers clamp to make sure things stayed together






And after a quick scrub under the tap we can see a nice small fillet of solder






The mounting holes were then drilled and a small bezel for the makers plate soft soldered on.






J


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## Jasonb (Jan 20, 2013)

You may remember that when I was cutting the brass strips for the chequer plate that I said the method may work for cutting planking to go around cylinders, well now is the time to try it out. 

I had some old mahogany that I ripped out of a house that was built about 1908-1909, it was the tops of some shelves in the alcoves either side of a fireplace that I replaced with this. It was machined down to 3/8" thick which was the width of plank that I wanted and then cut to the correct length to fit between the cylinder end covers.






I then held it in the mill vice and used a slitting saw to slice of 1/16" strips which will need little if any further work






And here they are tried up against the cylinder, there are a couple of brass bands to add and some small screws that will go into the MDF rings below.











Bit of a short one this week but I will make up for that in the next installment.

J


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## Jasonb (Feb 3, 2013)

Next on the list was the conrod, this is made from a 9" length of 5/8 x 1 1/4 flat steel






When this was cut I thought that while I was setting up the machines for the conrod that I may as well do all the other similar rods in one go so also cut some steel for the two eccentric rods, pump rod and two tie rods






After squaring off the ends to length each bar was held on end and the two bolt clearance holes drilled together with a small centre hole formed with a BS 0 centre drill






Each bar in turn was then held in the 4-jaw with tailstock support to reduce the majority to a cylinder followed by adding a slight taper to each end for about 1/3 of the length






The tapers were then blended by hand to give the traditional fish bellied shape






I then set the rods to one side and cut some bronze and steel for the bearings and end caps






The bronze was then machined to thickness with a flycutter






Before being tinned with soft solder prior to being sweated together






The bearings were then flycut down to the finished sizes






Then set up a stop on the mill vice so the bearings and plates can be drilled for the bolts






And here they all are ready for assembly






Well actually the bearings were bored first and the widths reduced to leave a raised section around the bore






With then now assembled the narrow edges could be turned and recessed











Must be doing something right as the two tie rods seem to have ended up the same length






And them all completed






Well I said it wass going to be a long one, so will the flywheel thats comming next.

J


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## AussieJimG (Feb 4, 2013)

You make it look sooo easy. Very deceptive. They look great.

Jim


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## gus (Feb 5, 2013)

starnovice said:


> Gus, you have mentioned your balcony several times.  Do you do anything to protect your machines?
> 
> Pat



Hi Pat,

There is an oversized awning roof to keep away the hot sun and rain.
It is 99 % weather proof but on a very bad day some fine water drops do get in but the floor and machine tools doesn't get wet. Rust is not a big problem its the damp that upsets me. However some WD 40 helps.

Digital Calipers are stored in the house. May consider a very simple DRO and make it detachable easily. I missed the "HeiddenHahns" DROs and the Leblonde Regal Lathes.


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## RonGinger (Feb 5, 2013)

This is a great build log, Thank you for doing it. I have seen several techniques I may be able to use.

I like your fabrication of large parts with silver solder. It appears they are soldered at one heat, is this correct? Do you apply the solder as the joint gets hot from a long stick, or do you cut pieces of solder and lay them around the part so they melt into position? 

How do you deal with mixed horizontal and vertical joints, like in that base 'can' with the top and bottom and all the gusset pieces?


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## metalmad (Feb 6, 2013)

Lovely Job Jason 
Pete


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## Jasonb (Feb 6, 2013)

Ron I generally try to do it in one heat but if it needs two then I try to arrange something to hold the previously soldered parts together.(see pully and valve chest cover) The second time the solder is heated it will not melt at the same temp as the new joint but there is still a risk of things moving even with step soldering where different temp solders are used.

I feed the stick in when I see the flux turn to a liquid.

If you look at the cylinder base you should see that all the webs fit into small radial groves in the flanges so they can't move during soldering. And as I don't use the loose bits of solder there is no risk of them all dropping to the bottom, just feed in the stick where its needed


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## Jasonb (Feb 12, 2013)

When I first started to think about scaling this engine up I had intended to machine the flywheel from a slice off a 10" dia CI bar but having got the additional photos I had to have a rethink due to the barring holes in the outer rim, these were used to manually turn the engine over to a point where it would self start.

I eventually settled on the idea of a built up flywheel consisting of a "spoked cog" with a ring either side to give the the rim some thickness and add the webs to form the "+" section spokes plus a hub. I did think about milling out the spokes and the 66 barring holes but in the end opted for having them waterjet cut from 8mm mild steel with the two rings from 6mm material. A drawing was produced in Alibre and e-mailed to the cutters for a quote.






When this came back the price was OK so the order was placed and a few days later I got a mail to say come and collect, this is what I came back with, you can see that all the internal and external corners of the barring holes are radiused as per my drawing.











The first job was to join the cog and rings together so I set them up on teh rotary table with teh centre finder and while that was in the mill used it to set the wheel true to the Y axis, notice how accurate the 6mm notches are as they hold two 6mm drills in place to locate a straight bar against.






I then clamped the three parts together and drilled through them all M3 tapping size






Followed by clearance size in the top two layers and a counter bore for the M3 socket screw heads.






Once out of the mill the lower ring was tapped and a trial fit done, you can also see that I have drilled two dowel holes in each spoke, more on them later.






The two piece hub was a simple turning job from 1.5" bar with the same M3 holes added. 






The parts were then all degreased and the rim put together with a smear of slow set Araldite adhesive, the hub with loctite. Here you can see things starting to take shape 






And a detail across the rim edge which just shows the "draft" angle left by the waterjet cutter.






After the adhesive had been left for a day or two to set the flywheel was mounted on the lathe, luckily it could just be held by my 160mm 4-jaw. I was then just a case of taking the lightest skim off the rim to true things up, turn the side of teh ring to give a slight step and take 1.5mm off the sides of the spokes to get them down to 5mm overall.






Next I turned my attention to the spoke webs, I had got a quote to have these water jet cut as well bit it was a bit pricy so I just cut them from 5mm plate with the hacksaw and cleaned them up on the mill.






Two holes were drilled and Csk in each following which a bit of 1/8" welding rod was passed through the holes before being snipped off.






These rod ends were then peined over like a rivit and the webs were not going anywhere.






The final job was to fillet all the internal corners with Milliput and then give the flywheel a quick blast of primer.











J


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## rourkek4 (Feb 12, 2013)

This is my favourite thread on this site, jumped up when i got the email to say you had made a new entry!


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## Rivergypsy (Feb 13, 2013)

Now that I like - very nice work indeed 

I've been pondering the 10" flywheel for my entablature engine, and how to fabricate it, so this has been interesting - thanks!


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## AussieJimG (Feb 13, 2013)

Bloody brilliant. 

Jim


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## ChooChooMike (Feb 15, 2013)

:bow:th_confused0052

Great build log and WOW ! Excellent results thus far !!

Mike


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## Jasonb (Mar 2, 2013)

Next on the agenda are the "A" frame supports that the beam tie bars fix to. I started out by marking the shape onto an odd bit of 1.5mm plate, clamped it to a second piece, rough sawed the two out and then filed to the final shape.







Next a couple of strips of the same material were cut off, I find the easiest way to cut thin sheet is to place it between two scraps of MDF as this stops it flapping about and jamming the saw blade.






These were then just bent by hand and tweaked until they followed the shape of the "A" I also machined up a bit of 3/8x 5/16 with a slot in the top to form the feet.






Some slightly thinner material was cut & bent to form the inner flanges and then the lot silver soldered together along with a flat piece of plate for the cross tie. After that I soft soldered in a piece of copper to complete the flanges as it was getting hard to hold any more pieces together for silver soldering.






Finally some brass disks were soft soldered on to form the bosses where the rods and tie bar fix






The flanges and bosses were then all milled back to the correct widths, the outside one is narrower than the feet and the inner ones narrower still. Fillets added with Miliput, primed and a few simple turned parts from steel and another part can be crossed off the list.






J


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## sssfox (Mar 2, 2013)

Jason,

You make this stuff look soooooo easy, it's giving me a complex.
Your technique is incredible and the final product looks nothing like the materials you used.

I guess I need to get some sheet metal and start practicing.

Thanks for showing this.
Steve Fox


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## Jasonb (Mar 10, 2013)

The Vertical movement of the valve rods is transfered from the horizontal movement of the eccentrics by cross shafts which run in beraing blocks. These are of a far simpler design than the ones for the crank and ladder frame shown earlier and were just milled and drilled from steel.






These were then cut with a slitting saw and some bronze split bearings added






And here they are with the rods in place and one of the levers, there are several other levers which are basic milling work with the rotary table so I won't detail them here.






What I will show is the way I fabricate links rather than the more common method of turning from flat stock and then rounding off the ends. Start by cross drilling some overlength rod that will become the eyes of the links to fit the bit in the middle. A few punch marks on the rod hold things in the right place while they are soldered











Once cleaned up one of the eyes can be held in the lathe and carefully faced back to length and bored, followed by the other






As the eyes are getting a bit short now its best to transfer to the mill and flycut the two eyes to length.






And the finished pair of links






And here are all the bits together.











J


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## AussieJimG (Mar 11, 2013)

Your fabrications are always innovative. I enjoy them.

Jim


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## gus (Mar 13, 2013)

Very well done and finished.


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## Jasonb (Mar 24, 2013)

Next on the list is the piston and rod, this has a marine type end so first machine some steel and bronze






These were then machined up in the same way as the other rod ends so I won't detail them again






I like to use aluminium for my pistons to keep the recipricating weight down which helps with a smoother running engine at low revs so a lump of 2" stock was machined down to 1 7/8"






The groove was put in and the dia left 10thou or so oversize before parting off and a recess cut for the lock nut






The rod was then screwed into the piston and used to hold it by while the it was skimmed down to finished size and thats it about done











J


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## Jasonb (Mar 24, 2013)

The Steam enters the valve chest by a tightly bent flanged elbow. These cannot easily be bent and carving from solid takes a while so one method that I have adopted in the past is to use a standard compression plumbing elbow, in this case 12mm.






Throw away the nuts and olives and loctite one end onto a suitably sized piece of rod. Turn off the external thread from the mandrel end and saw the other off before milling flush






Then turn up a couple of suitable flanges with spigots to locate them into the modified elbow






Then silver solder the bits together






After a quick clean up the elbow can be held in the mill and a light skim taken off the face of the flanges to ensure they are at right angles






While set up true the bolt holes are easily drilled letting the DRO work out the positions






While the PCD settings were in the DRO I also bashed out the exhaust pipework, here it is along with the elbow in the foreground






J


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## Jasonb (Apr 1, 2013)

As a change from metal bashing I'll detail how I made the base for this engine.

A few strips were ripped off an old salvaged mahogany shelf, run through the planer and a simple moulding cut on the spindle moulder but similar could be done with a router. These were then cut with the mitre saw and fixed to the edge of a 12mm MR MDF board. A "box" was made to stand the engine on and a few off cuts glued together to form the plinth for the outboard bearing block. Holes for the flywheel and pump pits were cut and lined with more MDF. Overall size is appox 450mm x 300mm (18"x12")






I had decided to go for a stone look, to simulate this drywall filler was mixed with wood glue and water, the glue helps the filler stick to the MDF and also makes it a bit more workable. Some strips of 2mm thick board were used to allow me to screed the filler to an even thickness. This was left to set up for about 30mins then as it started to firm up the surface was textured by lightly dabbing a rough stone onto the surface in a random pattern.

Then the pattern of the joints was scribed into the soft filler with the back of a snap off knife blade. I cut a few scraps of MDF to the stone size and stacked them one on top of the other to scribe each sucsessive course. The verticals were done by eye from a marked out "rod" making sure that the bond carried around the plinth.






The joints were then refined, the odd chipped corner added and any loose material lightly removed with a soft brush






The insides of the pits were treated in the same way and the final stage was to do the paving slabs, you can't really do it all in one go as the filler will have firmed up too much before you can get it all textured and jointed.






After leaving to dry for a few days all the filler was given a coat of craft acrylic paint and left to dry overnight. The next stage is to apply oil washes, these are coats of heavily thinned artists oil colours in this case raw umber. You can see how the wash accentuates the joints and texture of the stone wheer it has been applied to one wall.






And here is the base after several washes, more can be applied to areas of shadow/dirt such as the pits and where the base joins the plinth. The odd stone is also given an extra wash to save them all looking the same.






The final step is to dry brush some of the base acrylic colour lightened with increasing amounts of white to add heighlights to the stone.






J


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## Banjoe (Apr 1, 2013)

Thanks for sharing your amazing talent for turning raw metal into works of art.


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## Rivergypsy (Apr 2, 2013)

Very nicely done, Jason - that looks good! Have you done a trial assembly onto the base yet?


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## Jasonb (Apr 2, 2013)

Yes but you wil have to wait for some pictures. I wanted to get the base done so I could air test the engine which will be ready for that this comming weekend.

J


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## Rivergypsy (Apr 2, 2013)

Lovely job - I'm looking forward to it!


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## Jasonb (Apr 21, 2013)

After the brief interlude for the base its time to get back to some metalwork. The governor is mounted on a Tee shaped pipe arrangement where the bottom leg of the tee allows any condensate to gather and is fitted with a drain cock so any water can be blown down.

Not much to say here as its basically just pipes and flanges, the tee joint was formed by plunge cutting with an slotdrill the same 12mm dia as the tube to the midpoint and the short piece had its end coped to he internal bore, again with an end mill.






Add a bit of silver solder and this is the assembled part.






The gears were cut on the end of a bit of 5/8" brass






The governor itself was made from 1.5" brass, starting with a lump for the main body this was drilled, bored and then a 1"x40tpi thread cut in the end.






The top section was then mounted up in the lathe and a matching male thread cut using the body to check the fit.






After which some of the outside was turned to profile






The body was then put back in the chuck and used to hold the top while the remainder was shaped and a hole put down the top.






The two parts were then transfered to the rotary table on the mill and further shape added to the top with a 1/2" slotdrill that had its corners ground to a radius which creates the fillets to give the cast look.






The inside of the cut out was cleaned up with a long reach cutter. The next thing was to locate the cross hole for the governor drive shaft which I did my mounting one gear in the collet and checked the mesh against the other. With things running sweetly the R/T was turned 90 deg and the hole drilled as well as a slot to locate the stiffening web






With the drive shaft tube soldered in I added the holes to take the inlet and outlet flanges.






And here is the main body ready to have the flanges soldered in place. 






More to follow.


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## Jasonb (Apr 21, 2013)

I missed out a few photos of the next stages but this is what I have.
The parts for the regulator valve prior to soldering.






The profile of the valve handwheel was machined on the lathe before transfering to the R/t to first cut the spokes






And then remove the waste






While the R/T was set up I used it to cut the two large radii on the stuffing gland






I decided to use commercial balls for the governor, these are 303 stainless and reasonably easy to drill in their supplied state. A split collet was used to hold them for drilling






These were loctited to the arms, I also made the small tee shaped legs that stop the balls dropping too far











As this engine is only likely to run on air I added a finishing touch with some "Slaters" letters, these are 2mm high






And here are a few shots of all the bits fitted together, the eagle eyed of you (Jo) will also spot the bracket to support the other end of teh governor drive shaft.
















J


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## jwcnc1911 (Apr 21, 2013)

This build is just fantastic!  I'm having a hard time seeing this engine, would you take a picture with a 6 inch scale or something for reference?  Beautiful work on the governor there!


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## Rivergypsy (Apr 22, 2013)

Very, very nice work, Jason; you've got some lovely detail on that. Any chance of some pictures of the whole assembly yet, please?


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## gus (Apr 22, 2013)

Jasonb said:


> I missed out a few photos of the next stages but this is what I have.
> The parts for the regulator valve prior to soldering.
> 
> 
> ...



The speed governor amazed me since day one when I saw it running in the Heat Engine Lab In College 1961. 
Great Job and superb finishin/workmanship. Did you cast/make the Tangye valve body? If so please advise plan source.

Regards,

Gus Teng.


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## Jasonb (May 8, 2013)

Thanks for all the comments, I have included a tape measure in one of the shots, 6" rule looked a bit lost. There is also a Coke Can in one of the earlier cylinder photos to give an idea of size.

So with just about all the important parts made I like to test the engine before any painting is done which reduces the risk of chipped paint if you have to strip things down again. I did not bother with any gaskets, gland or piston packing but it seems to show promise. The engine tends to speed up a bit on the down stroke due to gravity so a bit of resistance from the packing should help there.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VesnzqvZ3W4[/ame]


With that out of the way I could get on with a few of the cosmetics. Firstly there are about 14 oil cups needed for the bearings, these were made from 1/4" hex brass using a small form tool to cut the neck.







Job done






The big end also has a little oil pot clamped to the conrod and the oil is applied via a small dia copper pipe.






The piston rod is also lubricated in a similar way but has a lidded box rather than a pot which fixes to one of the beam supports






The engine was then stripped down and all the "cast" parts painted, I just used a satin black spray can rather than the airbrush as I find the slightly rougher texture the can gives better suits the surface of the original. Golf tees are handy to stop paint getting into holes and at the same time provide a useful handle to save marking the paint.






In total there are 38 fabricated parts which would have been castings on the original, I had a littel count up and they are made up from 194 separate pieces of metal.






After a couple of days to allow the paint to harden off the cylinder could be lagged. The strips of wood were tacked to the MDF rings I had previously fitted with a small blob of superglue. Then two strips of 1/4" wide brass were cut from sheet (thought I had some boiler banding) and the heads of some 1/16" brass rivits slotted to look like screws and again fixed into their holes with superglue.






Well the next post should be the completed engine.

J


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## rhitee93 (May 8, 2013)

Some of you guys across the pond just blow me away.  That is another stunning engine you have made.  :bow:


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## Rivergypsy (May 9, 2013)

Very well done, Jason - that really is beautiful!! Thm:Thm:Thm:

Another engine joins the to-do list


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## gus (May 10, 2013)

Please post video when engine is up and running.


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## Jasonb (May 21, 2013)

Photos and video of the finished engine are here

J


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