# Wyvernish Build



## Generatorgus (Sep 4, 2012)

I bought these castings at the Blue Mountain Engine Show, here in Eastern PA, last summer. 












I didnt know what they were at the time but at $25 I figured I couldnt even buy a flywheel casting for that much. 
The cylinder casting is pretty rough looking with some sand breakouts and air pockets, giving me the impression that these were cast from an original casting set, but the base, sub base and flywheels looked pretty good.
I posted them here and got a positive ID as a Wyvern, along with some links to pictures and to Hemingway Kits, the English maker of these kits.
I still needed the rest of the casting and a set of plans.
The plans kind of fell in my lap when I told an acquaintance I had the major castings for a Wyvern. He said his dad had one of these kits and he had an extra set of prints.
That problem solved I was still short the bits and pieces castings, most important being the head and carb body. I got the name of an American producer of the Wyvern and I thought I could get the missing parts from him but after a number of unanswered calls and then finding out that he no longer makes the kits, that idea dissolved. I also considered buying the parts from Hemingway, but they only listed the entire the entire casting set. I never took the time to try to contact them.
The castings sat on the shelf for most of the last year and some months as I was still trying to get my Briesh Little Brother running and I still had my half scale Henry Ford engine sitting on the work bench ALSO in not running condition.

I promised myself I wasnt going to start messing around with another engine until I got those projects finished and RUNNING.
Even though I kept trying different fixes for the not running Little Brother, I kept hitting standstills as tried to figure out what fix I should try next.
During one of the standstills and wanting to run some machinery, I brought the Wyvern castings out and made a base plate and milled the bottom of the base and mounted it on the base plate I also milled the sub base at that time.
Still, no particular plan as what to do about the missing parts.












After many hours of and a lot of failed attempts, Im proud to say that both of my non running projects are now runners.

Ive actually been working on this model for more than a few weeks now and fully intended to start posting this build a while ago, but work and a few problems with my computer caused me to postpone.
I named this the Wyvernish build because Ive finally decided to attempt to make all of the missing parts. I have no idea how this is going to work out and I have some of my own ideas Id like to inject into the project.
It will not be built faithful to the plans, hence Wyvernish.

I'm going to keep working these posts as well as the engine until I catch up to real time.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Sep 4, 2012)

I decided to sit here and work on another page.

After getting the base and sub base all squared up and milled to the proper dimensions
I figured that the next step would be to get the lower end (so to speak) started, meaning the main bearing mounts, bearings and crankshaft.
Clamped to my sine plate at the proper angle, I milled the bearing cap surfaces down to the engine centerline, the drilled and tapped the bearing cap mounting holes.







I really havent got the faintest idea how to use a sine plate properly, I just used an angle block to set it. Thats something else to put on my to do list.
My mill has a tilting head but what a pain in the butt and then I have to try to get it trammed back to square. 

Not having a clear plan on how I would fabricate the bearing caps I decided to get the rest of the base machined as per plans as far as I could go before I got to the some of the little items. Which would be the caps and the cam shaft carrier.
I up ended the base and went to work on milling the cylinder mounting surface. Then drilled and tapped the 4-40 mounting holes, also drilled the pilot hole for the sleeve.






Then hole sawed undersized and bored it to the correct size.












Im really trusting my DROs here, even though they sometimes do strange things, like adding 100 thousandths to the dimension (el cheapo stuff). I would be safer if I did a layout first, and I started to BUT. 

Oh well, enough typing for today, I think I heard the Wyvern calling me.

GUS


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## rhitee93 (Sep 4, 2012)

I'll be following along on your build Gus.  It looks like it is going to get interesting


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## idahoan (Sep 4, 2012)

All right Gus!

Another "engine from castings" to follow along with; it looks like you are of to a great start. 

Keep the updates coming. 

Dave


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## kvom (Sep 4, 2012)

Nothing wrong with setting a sine plate (or any other fixture) with an angle bar.  Without gauge blocks it's about the only accurate way.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 6, 2012)

I wanted to get going on the crankshaft and connecting rod but the material I ordered hasn&#8217;t got here yet. So I decided to cook up a scheme on how to make the bearing caps.
Planning ahead would have been good here. I wanted them to be cast iron, and the only piece I have is a 1&#8221; round I used for pistons, also I don&#8217;t have the proper radius mill and I would have to make an insert for the oiler cup boss, as I can see no way I would come up with the shape otherwise. 
It didn&#8217;t take long to realize that it would be easier for me to learn foundry and pattern making rather than scratch build the shape. I don&#8217;t have the experience.

It "ALMOST" makes me wish I had the rest of the castings, I'm starting to think this is really going to be a fight to the finish.






Back to the think tank and my new scheme would be to clone the cast iron caps on my Lil&#8217; Brother model, a lot easier to carve. I still wanted cast iron, so cast iron it would be.
Not wanting to wait to order some bar stock I decided to sacrifice a couple inches if my 1&#8221;spun cast grey iron bar.






After making a pile of chips I had a nice looking piece of bar to carve the caps out of.






Then a little more machine work to get two pieces identical length and I drilled and bolted them together with a touch of Loctite 609 in between. I didn&#8217;t want them moving around in the lathe.






PIC 1788


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## Generatorgus (Sep 6, 2012)

Then on to the little 4 jaw chucked in the bigger 3 jaw. A few more chips and this appeared. I new it was in there all the time. 











Thanks to the 609 I had to put them in the bench vise and had give them a pretty good whack to break the bond.
But they came out pretty nice.






I still have some work to do on the base around the bearing blocks, but Im still thinking about what I actually want.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Sep 7, 2012)

Still waiting for the material I ordered for the crank and conn rod, so, I took a long hard look at the cylinder. Not very pretty and I was not looking forward to boring it let alone trying to clean up the sand breakouts, air pockets and parting line. Ive been wondering since I first got the castings if it would even be useable.
Another worry , would I have enough room left on the flange end for bolts or even tiny screws.
I decided to at least machine the mounting surface the and drill the mounting holes, and that went without a hitch.






Then , maybe, I would be able to figure out what actually needed to be done to clean it up. UGH!!!! What a mess!
















I new I would probably have to try turning it on the lathe, but the water line bosses confused the issue.
&#12288;


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## Generatorgus (Sep 7, 2012)

I decided to clamp the cylinder in the mill vice and just mill enough material out and the file the rest.
Another mess, this time I got into it by myself.

I was a little to fast coming at it with the end mill and almost as soon as the mill touched it twisted in the vise, put a gouge in the cylinder and broke a brand new 5/8 mill. I cant find the picture at the moment but it will show up.
I have to put the gouged side on the bottom, maybe no one will notice, but Ill always remember its there.
At any rate I decided on the 4 jaw in the lathe and just cut away at it like Edward Scissorhands. Out of the lathe and into the bench vise for some serious file work. It actually came out fairly nice for how bad it looked before.
I somehow forgot to take pictures of that operation. See the last picture in this post.
Ive been calling this the cylinder, but it is actually the cylinder jacket, which reminds me I still have to bore it for the cylinder and the hollow it out some to form the water jacket, and I still have to make the cylinder. 
Ive not had a lot of practice boring things (although my wife seems to think differently), and Ive had difficulties with that operation.

Im not looking forward to it (I think I already said that), so Im going to postpone the inenvitable and do something a bit easier.
Make a few studs, nuts and washers. Material of choice is stainless steel.
I enjoy making hardware, a lot of repetitive operations but its almost stupid work, a kind of job like painting where you dont have to think a lot about what your doing and it looks good when your done.
And if you mess a few up its not a big loss.
I use hex stock for the nuts and threaded rod for the studs and round stock for washers.
The nuts and washers in the lathe are a drill, tap for the nuts, file, sand and cut.
Cutting the threaded rod to uniform lengths got a lot easier for me when I tried something different than just holding the rod in the vise.
I folded a piece of light gauge aluminum over the rod and squeezed it in the vise, more or less forming a thread. Loosening the vise and screwing the rod out to the proper length plus the width of the hacksaw blade gave me a more exact cut.











End result is a lot more appealing to me than stock hardware.
&#12288;





Back to the shop. I think I might have some staightening to do.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 8, 2012)

Still avoiding the boring operations, I decided to work on some of the machine work around the bearing caps. 
The areas on the inside of the base would be milled flat to the surface of the caps for the bearing flanges as well as the area below the camshaft side to make the mounting surface for the camshaft bracket.
Still not sure what I should do for the opposite outside surface I decided to just drop a 1 mill on it to match the circle of the cap. If I dont like the look of it I can always just mill it flat later to match the other side.






Now to bore the main bearing holes. I centerd on the layout dimensions drilled it a tad undersize and bored it with the boring head. I should have just enough length on the boring tool to just make it thru the bottom hole. 

I got surprised when the upper shank of the tool wouldnt fit thru the upper hole and stopped progress at about 1/16 into the bottom.






Not wanting to, but not having a longer cutter I did a  Hail Mary play and flipped the casting over recentered using the same coordinates and held my breath as I bored the rest of the hole.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I put a 5/8 bar thru both holes with no argument, a nice snug fit.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 9, 2012)

I can't help but ask this question.  Is this post in the wrong place,  should I have posted this in "Engines from Castings" ?
If so somebody please move it, I don't know how.

Judging on my experience cruising that venue some time ago , I've seen more questions about castings/kits, than actual builds, or is it just me.

Dave, I was suspecting, from your new avatar, that you might have started to work on the Pacific Vapor Engine and I found it yesterday.

Way Cool!!  'Bout Time!


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## Generatorgus (Sep 9, 2012)

But I'll continue, I'm indulging myself!!

Still avoiding the boring operations, I decided to work on some of the machine work around the bearing caps. 
The areas on the inside of the base would be milled flat to the surface of the caps for the bearing flanges as well as the area below the camshaft side to make the mounting surface for the camshaft bracket.
Still not sure what I should do for the opposite outside surface I decided to just drop a 1&#8221; mill on it to match the circle of the cap. If I don&#8217;t like the look of it I can always just mill it flat later to match the other side.






Now to bore the main bearing holes. I centered on the layout dimensions, drilled it a tad undersize and bored it with the boring head. I should have just enough length on the boring tool to just make it thru the bottom hole. 

I got surprised when the upper shank of the tool wouldn&#8217;t fit thru the upper hole and stopped progress at about 1/16&#8221; into the bottom.






Not wanting to, but not having a longer cutter I did a &#8220; Hail Mary&#8221; play and flipped the casting over recentered using the same coordinates and held my breath as I bored the rest of the hole.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I put a 1/2&#8221; bar thru both holes with no argument.






Wow, Going back thru my build, I just now realized I somehow posted the the same thing twice.  Senior moment I guess.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 9, 2012)

Knowing I would have to face my nemesis sooner or later, I decided it was time to bore the cylinder jacket.
Ill add that boring on the mill has become a breeze since I picked up a used Bridgeport boring head, the old Chinese head I had was almost unpredictable, except for the fact that what I bored was usually oversize.

Boring on the lathe, however, is another story.
OK, I had a brain fart, maybe two. Try not to laugh.






Not wanting to have to pull off the 6 3 jaw and put the much heavier finger smashing 8 4 jaw on, I devised a plan where I would mount the cylinder jacket on a 3 chunk of aluminum round I had previously used for making a bronze bearing for a real size engine, and simply mount it in the 3 jaw.
As things go something was wrong with my centering, still not wanting to mess with the big 4 jaw, I opted to stuff the jig in my little 4 jaw in my 3 jaw.
And boring it had its problems. Although I was using a 5/8 dia boring bar the bore tapered in toward the chuck end, not just a little but a lot. 
I had no difficulty cutting the outside of the jacket, so I put it off to chill spots in the iron and just persisted in boring taking very light cuts with two runs per increase. At some point, when I checked, the bore had straightened out. Wow, Im good, I thought, sometimes a brain fart works no matter how it looks.


Then to drill and tap the inlet and outlet bosses.






I didnt figure out until I started boring the cylinder, that the boring bar was too big for the starting size of 1" starting hole. The carbide tip would start cutting but the allen head lock lug for the insert started dragging very shortly after entering the bore, causing the bar to deflect.
The insert was limited as to the depth of cut, as the bore widened it got large enough to clear the screw.
Speaking of screws, Im lucky I didnt screw up both pieces.


I used a piece of the 1 ½ dia. Iron bar about a half inch longer than needed. Chucked in the 3 jaw, did the inside first and the cut the OD and formed the rim before cutting off.






The cylinder came out beautiful inside and out and the dimensions were spot on.
Instead of a light press fit, I opted for a snug fit to be fortified with Loctite.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 9, 2012)

Because I had it, I tried a piece of 1 ¼ alum bar in the new cylinder, nice snug fit.
Ready made piston. 

Skim 1 or 2 thou, 






Bore the end a bit, 






cut a couple grooves and part off.





Ready for the mill.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 9, 2012)

Drill and ream wrist (gudgeon) pin






Upended in mill vise and using a brass rod to indicate square.






Bore the small end pocket with an end mill and, whamo, new piston.
Notice there are no set screws for the gudgeon (wrist) pin. The pin floats and uses brass discs to protect the cylinder wall.







Whew!!!, I'm all typed out.

I'll almost welcome having to start a new work assignment tomorrow morning. Five weeks or so (coming home weekends), but next weekend is my local engine show, can't wait and can't miss it.
All the grandkids and nice weather predicted. We can play with some full size engines and, of course, my models.

This means no shop time for a while (maybe not a bad thing), but I may be able to get enough time next Sunday to catch up on my last two posts and can get to real time posts.

GUS


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## idahoan (Sep 9, 2012)

Wow Gus,

You are making great progress on the Wyvern; it's always fun when you can get a block of uninterrupted shop time to work on a project.

As far as the sub forum goes I'm not sure what to say; I know members some of them gone now posted casting projects in the work in progress section. After all it is a work in progress; I'm not sure what Rick intended when he originally set up the forum except maybe it was based on bar stock builds and then along came the castings?

I parked my build there (Engines from Castings) because it seemed appropriate; but I wonder if the work in progress gets more traffic?

I think either way that it really doesn't matter.

Keep up the great work,
Dave


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## cfellows (Sep 10, 2012)

Nice progress, Gus.  You've done those castings right proud.

Chuck


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## ProdEng (Sep 10, 2012)

I am enjoying your build Gus even though I don't use castings and work on a much smaller scale.  I take pleasure and encouragement from all the work that people share here and wherever you hide your build I will find it


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## vcutajar (Sep 10, 2012)

Gus

Just came across your build.  I really liked the way you put your thought to paper (computer in this case).  Pulled up a chair and will be following your progress as you go along.

Vince


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## Generatorgus (Sep 13, 2012)

Well, I put my 60 hours in 4 days into the work assighnment (spelling?, doesn't look right but..don't give a rats A>>>.), I'm pooped, but I'm home. Going to the engine show tomorrow, yeah, good.

Thanks for the words of encouragement

Dave, I had the same thoughts, but seems like a lot more, possibly more than one person can take in, happens on this sub forum. I dont think I could follow all these builds if I dedicated all my time to it, but its all good. Something for all.
Im feel humbled by the quality of your build, I could only wish to attain your skills, but it sure makes good reading and maybe, Im sure, can retain some of it.

Chuck, I followed your pipe fitting engine build with great interest and was impressed by the many different approaches you tried when things didnt meet up to your expectations.
It gave me the push I needed to carry on with my H. Ford.

Prod Engine, Vince. Im not the sharpest tack in the box, but I enjoy building, and writing (in that order) , thanks. I will include my blunders and my perceived accomplishments as this build progresses.
A screw up (in my world) is a wonderful learning instrument, and I always learn from the many.

Thanks
GUS

&#12288;
&#12288;
&#12288;


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## Generatorgus (Sep 16, 2012)

I really enjoyed the local engine show this weekend, got things all put away and just barely got enough time to get a post in.

&#12288;
Still waiting for the material I ordered for the crankshaft, I decided to try my hand at the tapered connecting rod.

Having never done either a faceplate or offset tailpiece operation, I figured that some minor disaster was waiting in the wings.
I countered bored both ends of the SS bar I had previously cut to length. Then unwrapped the never used and somewhat larger than I remembered faceplate from the plastic and Chinese cow grease protective wrap, I cleaned it up and installed it on my lathe.







Did some complex calculations and ended up with what I thought was the proper offset for the tailpiece. About halfway into the turning I figured out I forgot to divide by 2, but the thought came in time to adjust accordingly and salvage the procedure.
Came out looking like it should.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 16, 2012)

Then on to the big end bearing.
This should have been very simple and straight forward like the bearing caps, except for the radius.

I dug out a piece of flea market rectangular brass bar I recently acquired, put the big 4 jaw finger smasher on the lathe and dialed it in.






Then to the mill and cut the flats. That done I went to the band saw to cut the shape into two pieces when I realized I should probably drill the screw holes first.






Uppended in the mill, drilled the holes and finished the rest of the saw cut and faced the other piece before sawing.
Bolted together and back in the finger smasher, and I never saw this coming, when I tried to center the radiused side it would pivot instead of sliding when I adjusted the jaws. I simply could not center it and keep it the bore perpendicular.







I final inserted a longer piece of drill rod, pinned it and turned the ends in the 3 jaw.
Dont know if I explained this properly but this little sucker took a day and a half to get done.
That finally completed I made a matching SS end piece for the connecting rod, bolted together and bored for the end of the connecting rod thru the end piece and partially into the bearing. Using the drill chuck in the mill to align it , Loctitited the connecting rod into the assembly and later pinned it for backup.






Getting late, making lots of typos and I have to head out early, Ill get back to this next weekend.
GUS
&#12288;


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## Generatorgus (Sep 22, 2012)

Next the flywheels.
I inadvertently skipped ahead one post but that probably doesn&#8217;t mean much to anyone but me.
Since I already had the 4 jaw on the lathe, I didn&#8217;t have to risk losing a finger changing chucks.
First chuck the OD and indicate, but to what? I chose the hub, probably a mistake?
Then turned the face of the rim and also the hub. It went well, so on to the second one. 
Again no problems. Life is good.






&#12288;
Now to change to the 3 jaw chuck and, holding the flywheels by the hub, turn the OD , face and remaining hub.
No problem on the first flywheel, turning the OD except for this inclusion I uncovered, but I was starting to get some chatter while facing.






I said earlier that indicating to the hub was probably a mistake and I&#8217;m still not sure.
What I noticed immediately when I started the lathe after chucking the second flywheel in the 4 jaw, was the OD had more run out than the first , but the ID of the rim (between the spokes) didn&#8217;t show nearly as much run out so I blamed the poor quality castings proceeded cutting the face and hub.
At that point I decided to do the same cut on the second flywheel and then reverse the jaws and hold the flywheels by the outside of the rim to finish the cuts. This totally eliminated the chatter and made a nice smooth cut. 
I also decided that the plain face was kind of boring and crude looking, so I would make stepped rim. I flipped it around and made the step on the other side. 
I saved the drilling and reaming operations for last.






When I chucked the second flywheel, I was confronted and confused by not only the run out on the OD, but now had considerable run out on the hub as well as the ID of the rim was now looking funny, also.

As I had to remove a considerable amount of material from the first flywheel, I decided to &#8220;Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead&#8220;. 
Putting up with the interrupted cut, I removed material until I got to the proper OD.

Then reversed the jaws and grabbed the OD and proceeded to the facing and hub turning.
While facing it started to occur to me that maybe this flywheel was not cast on center and possibly the sand flasks were not well aligned during the pour.
After I finished turning, the end result was that the ID on this side appears a bit off center and the hub is tad smaller than specified. I&#8217;ll have to keep that side facing away from the normal viewing side.
After too many years in the building trades, I learned early on that if you don&#8217;t bring attention to a minor flaw, most people won&#8217;t notice. This will be my minor flaw.
All said and done, I think they came out nice and I think the stepped rim is a nice improvement.






I'll add that these flywheels are far from done, as they still need a lot of tuning with the Dremel and hand files.

GUS


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## lee9966 (Sep 22, 2012)

Looking good.  I enjoy your writing style too.

Lee


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## Generatorgus (Sep 23, 2012)

Thanks Lee, all comments appreciated, good comments more appreciated.

Now, onward and upward, I hope.


New Problem

Something is terribly wrong!






Did I cause this?

This error became way apparent, when I first put the 1 ¼ alum. bar into the bore some weeks ago when I made the piston, and I&#8217;ve been agonizing about this ever since.
Those of you with keen eyesight may also see another dark secret of mine, the bad base mounting hole (top right), caused by my dyslexic tendencies, something that has plagued me throughout my life.
I&#8217;m going real time now, as this post is about what was/is going on in my little shop this weekend.
&#12288;
First suspect, is the cylinder parallel with the base casting?
No, it&#8217;s not. I measured .004 run out in about two inches., and yes I can shim the flat at the cylinder mount to straighten it out.










But , what to do about the offset?

I first noticed something was wrong, way back when I was drilling the bearing mounts.
I&#8217;m not sure if it is yet another casting flaw or should I have been more careful with alignment when I was making my first cuts and drilling the mounting and dowel pin holes on the bottom of the base. 
Evidently I didn&#8217;t take enough pictures when I was doing these early operations, so I have to accept the fact it is more than likely my own doing and now I have to undo something.
I simply can&#8217;t accept the crankshaft being (or looking) off center between the bearings. I have to center it and make up the difference somewhere else.
&#12288;
Although it looks like more, my considerable skills at measuring tell me there is about .090 offset between the bore and the bearing mounts. Meaning I have to make up .045&#8221;, doesn&#8217;t seem like much so maybe I can grab some space here and there, and make things &#8220;appear&#8221; to be OK.
I came up a plan where I would shave a few thou. off of the right hand main bearing and the right side of the big end bearing, maybe .010 each, leaving the rest to be picked up maybe at the crank throw thickness or the small end of the connecting rod, or possibly a new piston with an offset bearing pocket.

Not wanting to start cutting away at my now precious connecting rod assembly and risk messing things up on this half baked scheme, I decided to make a simple mock conn. rod from a piece of ½&#8221; alum bar.
I made the small end width 1/8&#8221; smaller and the made a set of shims that would simulate the offset I needed.
I also made the permanent gudgeon ( I just love that word).
Now placed in the bore with the big end side resting on what will be part of the built up crankshaft (the material for the crank finally arrived) to see what things will look like with the rod offset in the piston.






In my opinion, this offset isn&#8217;t as noticeable as an offset crankshaft. 
And, the crankshaft will be my next project, so can dial in the offset a little better and make machining the small end the last step in this rather (in my eyes) complicated issue.

Late Note:  Conn rod still seems a bit off center, maybe I will have to shave the bearings as noted earlier, or readjust the shims (make new ones).


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## Generatorgus (Sep 23, 2012)

At last, the crankshaft.

My first.

The crank on my Little Brother had already been made by my now deceased friend, so I didnt have the pleasure (or pain) of having to make one for the first time.
In all of the time Ive been cruising this site, the crankshaft has been a somewhat mysterious and difficult looking process.
One piece or built up. 

I dont want to consider a one piece, in this instance, simply because of the large crank throws. At 2 ¾ dia., I would be trying to turn a 5 pound piece of steel into a half pound crankshaft, not only a lot of chips but a lot of wasted time, in my humble opinion. Besides the built up crank looks a lot easier although Ive seen some posts much to the contrary. BUT, Im all over easier as much as I love making chips. 
Sooo, I will make this 2 ¾ piece of cold rolled into 2 crank throws. I know there a lot simpler ways to make a crankshaft, but I love the look of these with the built in counterbalances.







First, slab off a couple pieces of the bar in my aging Marvel Drawcut hacksaw, allowing for the finish cuts.







Then to the 3 jaw to cut the proper thickness.






That done, a quick mock up and things look good so far.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 23, 2012)

This is why full size drawings are nice. Instead of messing around trying to lay this out , armed with an angle gauge and various other measuring tools, I took the easy street method and simply extended the cutout lines on the full scale drawing, I layed the Dychemed discs on the drawing and scribed the cutouts.






I know my lines look off, but that is mostly the effect of the lense being in the upper left corner of my fixed focus Nikon. A simple camera that fits well into my lifestyle.
Now to the bandsaw to make some more scrap iron.

And here are the cut out pieces waiting to be Lactated (lightly) together for cleaning up and boring holes. 
Thats supposed to say Loctited,, must be some sort of fixation an my part. 






That will have to wait for next weekend. 
Although todays efforts have been writing, posting, thinking, machining and more writing and posting, I have to take some time to sit in the sun with Louie (my beloved Jack Russel), on my lap, have a couple of beers and enjoy what has developed into a stellar early fall day. 
It dont get much better than this.
More next weekend, I hope.

GUS


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## idahoan (Sep 23, 2012)

Hi Gus

Darn castings anyways; they are always a compromise one way or the other. The thing about flywheels is to try to get the un-machined surfaces running as true as possible; but they will never be dead on. The inner rim where the spokes meet the rim is the most noticeable when the engine is running.

You are making great progress and I sure you will also get the cylinder/crank alignment sorted out and on to next piece on the pie.

Dave


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## rudydubya (Sep 23, 2012)

Following with interest Gus.  Especially this built-up crankshaft.

Regards,
Rudy


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## Generatorgus (Sep 29, 2012)

Dave, Yeah, I have a lot to learn about working with castings plus about a million other things related to machine work, sometimes boggles my already boggled mine.
You especially wouldn't want a peak, we would make a good "odd couple", my mind is as cluttered as my shop.
Been following your Pacific build, totally impressive, kind of scares the hell outta me, got a lot to learn.

Rudy, If screw ups are interesting to you, just keep watching.

New Post:

I was going to post this over morning coffee, but I thought it necessary to go out to the shop and grab my camera to check out what usable pics I had taken., But there were none really worth seeing, but, because this was what going on in my head this morning I am going to post it now a little before dinner.
&#12288;
The cut out crank discs now glued together, got cleaned up, drilled and 
reamed .001 under ½&#8221; and the holes are a nice snug fit with the ½&#8221; cold rolled shafts.
Looking pretty good, I stood and admired my work for a bit, and still glued up I decided to give it spin in the lathe. 






PLAN AHEAD, make decisions as to the machining sequences BEFORE you start cutting (I keep telling myself).
For some reason I just couldn&#8217;t wait to make those saw cuts on the flywheel discs and it just came back and bit me on the a&#8230;.
I should have drilled the crankpin and crankshaft holes first. The thought hit me like a brick :wall:as soon as I put the glued discs in my mill vice to clean up the sawcuts, I think it was a cinder block :fan:that gave me the next lump when I finally got around to drilling the holes.

I was figuring the cuts would only have to be somewhat approximate and I now had no accurate way to measure the centerline and if I had drilled first (or even laid a center line) I could have used the holes with short pins in them to accurately make the clean up cuts. I knew I was in trouble but continued.
End result is the OD of the crank is noticeably off center when spinning. I just know the machinery police are going to bust in any time now and cut the power in the shop and lock panel box.:hDe:
If nothing else, I think I should get a booya for good use of emoticons.


NEW PLAN. 

Clamp the still glued crank throws to my rotary table, centered on the crank hole, and mill the crank back to round. I thought of trying this on the lathe but I don&#8217;t want to feel the wrath of the brick again and so soon.
This will be today&#8217;s work after I change the oil on Mama&#8217;s car.
Wish me luck (with both).

GUS


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## IanR (Sep 29, 2012)

Just discovered this thread. If you find you need to remake the crank webs, there was a letter in Model Engineer which claimed that as designed, the engine is under balanced, and was improved by increasing the counterweight diameter to 1.6". This could be done by attaching extra weights, and your reciprocating weight is going to be a bit less than standard with an ally piston.


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## Generatorgus (Sep 29, 2012)

Ian, That kind of makes me not feel real great, considering I just deacreased the OD by about a sixteenth. Maybe by substituting alum. for the specified C. I. will lighten the load.

New Post

Good news, oil change cancelled, bad weather.
More good news, my new plan worked.
Took a while to get the rotary table setup, clamping seemed to be the big problem, but after that things went great.






All said, the crank throws are now a scant sixteenth under proper dia., but they spin nice in the lathe, although, I can&#8217;t spin the crank in the engine yet.






It&#8217;s hard to tell, but the crank is offset .028 to the left and the big end bearing another .018, total .046, half of the error. The rest of the offset will be made up at the little end. On this pic it looks like it's already offset too far, but that's just the camera angle, I think.






All in all, I feel way better than I did this morning,.
It seems correcting errors (salvaging things )is way more fun than getting in trouble.
I&#8217;ll end my workshop day here, on a positive note.

Tomorrow, I think I&#8217;ll figure out the rest of the offset problem and get the little end of the connecting rod done before I get up the courage to go on with the big glue up.
Everything seems to be on course, but sometimes the Loctite 609 grabs before you get things where you need them. Something like trying to set a piece of laminate on contact adhesive.


Stay tuned for more adventures.
GUS (the other gus, generatorgus)

PS Gus, I've been reading your post with interest.


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## Generatorgus (Oct 9, 2012)

I&#8217;ve been away from the shop for a bit. My work assignment has gotten somewhat ugly and my weekend interrupted by a wedding in Maine.

Not complaining about the wedding, had a wonderful time, but the 9 hour drive each way was exhausting and it took up a day each way. Weekend progress on the Wyvern pretty well shot.

But, because I&#8217;m &#8220;semi retired&#8221; and because I can, I decided to blow work off this week, let someone else try to unravel the mess at the jobsite (not my doing anyway) and try to salvage my sanity, if that&#8217;s even somewhat possible.

As things normally go for me, I&#8217;ve had a change of plans. After measuring, as carefully as I can, I&#8217;ve decided to leave the small end of the connecting rod for after I get the crankshaft in order. After shimming the cylinder to parallel, the offset problem has dwindled to less than I thought.
So on to the crankshaft and into the dark for me. I&#8217;ve done considerable reading on the built up crankshaft subject, about 50/50 pro and con, but built up is where I&#8217;m going.
I&#8217;ve managed a fairly snug fit for the crank pin and crankshaft to the throws and, in my mind, proper alignment will be achieved if I keep the crank throws clamped parallel when every thing is assembled.

I made a parallel shim from a piece of aluminum, a couple thousandths wider than the big end bearing.
This is the set up.






The crankshaft kept full length, is the first to be glued. The crankpin was kept in for alignment, but not glued yet. The marks on this end of the crankshaft are black marker to indicate the end that I could handle so as not to contaminate things.
After the Loctite has set up, the crankpin, cut a tad longer than to OA width of the crank throws, was next.

After that was set, I made up some pins from some .093 shafts, gleaned from an old copy machine.






With the clamps now removed, drilled appropriate diameter holes, again snug.







Then, Loctited and &#8220;pushed&#8221; the pins into place. 






Now, I&#8217;m keeping my fingers crossed that everything is OK.

Note, the crankpin and pins are left deliberately long as will be the crankshaft when I get around to cutting the portion between the throws.
While doing the fit ups I decided this look would be appropriate for a built up crank and to is much to my liking, as well as being much easier than trying to blend them in. 
The center portion of the crank will not be cut until I turn the ends to accommodate the 3/8&#8221; dia. of the flywheel and skew gear holes. I still have to do some thinking on how to secure the flywheels.

Drawings call for a 10 degree tapered split bushing and 3/8&#8221; nut to hold them in place, not sure I&#8217;m ready to attempt that. Looks a bit problematic to me. In most of the pictures of this engine I can find, the nut is always hanging out past the shaft.
I&#8217;m thinking tapered gib key, but am open to suggestions.
I&#8217;ll be going to Coolspring next week and will poke around in the museum buildings looking for ideas on this and some other thoughts I have.

Not sure what today will bring, last night (3 AM) I had to make a service call to a restaurant I do maintenancence for, got home at 5:30, the loss of sleep hasn&#8217;t hit me yet.
I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll end up in the shop, but I also have to start getting things ready for Coolspring, trailer, camper, etc.
We always get there on Tues. and stay until Sat. Makes a nice little vacation.

GUS


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## idahoan (Oct 9, 2012)

Hi Gus

I envy you being able to spend most of a week at the antique engine Mecca. 

The crankshaft is coming along nicely; I thought for a moment that maybe you were going to silver solder it together.

Dave


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## Generatorgus (Oct 10, 2012)

Dave, I can handle silver solder quite well.  What I can't (don't want to)handle is the clean up.  Seems a shame that you have to mess up something that took a whike to get looking nice. 
I know there are ways to make clean up easier but the Locitite cleans up with a paper towel.  I'm sure I'll see what happens.

I gave it a try, I like to experiment a bit, I hope it doesn't bite me on my A>>>.   If it comes apart, I can always start over, it wouldn't be the first time I had a do-over besides I need the experience.

Coolspring is a must do, lots to look at in the museum buildings as well as the show grounds.  Lots of folks from across the country as well as overseas.
I once sold a genset to a guy who had to take it home on an airplane, we had to take it apart to get it in his rental car.
It's difficult to go there and not come home with some sort of trophy, as well as a smile and the feeling that you want to go back.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Oct 11, 2012)

Although I still havent decided how Ill secure the flywheels, I decided there was no reason I couldnt at least reduce the crankshaft end diameters to fit them. 
Deciding the length I needed to reduce the cam shaft side was the big question
as I dont have the skew gears on hand yet, and they will be different than the drawings spec.
I decided that stopping just short of the main bearing had to be the answer, because regardless of the different size, any deviation can be corrected on the width and mounting height of the cam brackets in order to get the centerlines right.
One end in the 3 jaw and the other backed up by a live center in the tailstock, the flywheels now have a nesting place.






&#12288;
That done I moved right onto the connecting rod and the troublesome offset between the cylinder and main bearings.
I already made up some of the difference in the main and big end bearing and now the remainder will be taken up by the small end at the piston.
I came up with this setup and simply worked from the center of the small end dia. Using the measurements I came up with for the offset, cut the flats and then drilled and reamed the wrist pin hole.
No, thats not rust on the 2,4,6 block. Its left over bear grease that never got cleaned out when I got them.






I must have done something right as, when assembled, the piston moves nicely in the bore with no resistance, at least for the 2/3 revolution I can get from the crankshaft. And the crankshaft is running true.
Im not going to cut out that center section until Im sure where Im going with the flywheels.

Hello~~~ Backup a bit. As Im typing this I suddenly realized I forgot the small end brass bushing.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Hoo Boy, thats what I have to put up with, I get focused on something and blow right by an important step.
The engine would probably run a long time before it became an issue, but, the bushing will be included in todays to do list. 

Chore taken care of, the gudgeon now has a softer pillow.
While on a roll, I parted off a couple of 1/32 thick pads for the wrist pin ends from a piece of 3/8 brass round. Sorry to say I have no ¼ round so I had to waste some material.
The connecting rod/piston assembly is now complete.






Somehow, this picture uploaded vertical 
Also accomplished are the oil holes in the small end and piston. 
And, for the days parting shot, I glued the cylinder into the jacket and will drill and tap the oil cup hole tomorrow after Im sure the Loctite is done adhering to anything it gets near.
In the past two days I managed to stick a bearing cap to one of the main bearings and one of the crank throw spacers to the crank throw.. Not big time stuck, but I have to be more careful. A little WD or grease would go a long way to minimize this problem. Its a wonder I havent stuck my eyelids together yet or maybe worst.
All said it was well worth taking the week off. Ive relaxed some and also got some of lifes other chores done. 

Also, today became apparent to me that Im rolling along with this project and now I have to try to plan out the front end of the Wyvern. The cylinder head and carby ought to be real hoot. So far, I havent deviated too far from the plans, it will be interesting, to me, to see how this plays out.
Tomorrow I will temporarily assemble all of what is complete and take the engine to Coolspring, next week, and display it as A work in progress (go figure).
Its really nice when someone stops and gets really into the stuff youve been spending a lot of time and effort on. Kind of spurs you on.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Oct 26, 2012)

The trip to Coolspring, now a pleasant memory, was just great. The weather held and we had 3 very nice sunny days, and a bit of rain, mostly at night.
I spent a good deal of time jawboning at my set up and had to pull myself away to go see what else was going on, and there was lots.
This is one of those Coolspring moments, Thursday night after the rain, Louies feet were wet, my wife wrapped him in a towel and sat him in his stroller in front of the fire.
He sat there, warm and content, quite some time.
Also in the picture, my wife (right), and my pals girl friend (left).





&#12288;
We got home Sat afternoon, unpacked and the I headed out to the Jacktown (Blue Mountain) show Sunday. More nice fall weather and again, lots going on.
While there, I met up with Bob Herder and picked up the skew gears for the Wyvern.
With show season at end and spur gears on hand, I can now continue to make some progress with my project.
While at Coolspring, I decided that tapered keys would be my answer as to how I would attach the flywheels.
I cut the keyways in the crankshaft with a woodruff key cutter.






After that was accomplished I decided it was time to broach the keyways in the flywheels and drive skew gear. While getting ready to do so I noticed that, when viewed from the end, the keyway on the crankshaft looked a tad off center. I went back to the mill and found that I somehow used a 1/16 keyway cutter instead of the 3/32 cutter I intended to use for the crankshaft. oh:


Back in the mill and this time with the proper cutter I recut the keyways.
Then got on with the broaching, a pretty simple operation and things went well.


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## Generatorgus (Oct 26, 2012)

Now to make a couple of keys gib keys.
The last gib keys I made were done using a hacksaw and file, although I wanted to make them in the mill, I couldn&#8217;t come up with a simple way to do it. 
This time I&#8217;m using the mill.
I used a piece of 3/16&#8221; key stock and milled it to the 3/32&#8221; thickness I needed, then checked the fit.

(Yes, the flywheels still need to be cleaned up, it will be tedious work and I'm avoiding it.)






That was the easy part. At this point it would probably have been just as easy to get a file and finish the job, but I wanted to do it in the mill, and trying to hold the small piece and accurately set the angle became the only hurdle.
I have angle blocks but they are ¼&#8221; thick, so I needed to make a thin angle block a tad thinner than the key.
Easiest thing I could think of was to stack four pieces of scrap alum, and mill the angle on all four. The angle block is sanwiched between the paralells and the alum. scrap.






Then using one to set the angle on the key. Stacked in the vice are a couple of thin parallels, the thin angle block and the key.






It was still trial and error to get the thickness right, but it worked.






I&#8217;m thinking that the angle could be another degree or so (I chose 2 degrees), but the keys fit good and I&#8217;m moving on.


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## Generatorgus (Oct 28, 2012)

With all this accomplished it was finally time to remove the middle section of the crankshaft from between the throws. Band sawed rough and the cleaned up with an end mill, the crankshaft is now finished.
Reassembled, the crank can now perform its function. Mission accomplished.






With the crank now finished I can get to figuring out what modifications I have to make to the inner sideshaft bracket to make the skew gears work, being that they are a bit different from what was specified.
Right off the bat I noticed there would be a fastener problem as one of the screws would be directly behind the driven gear. I could use a flathead screw, but why not just extend the bracket and fancy it up a bit. 
Looking at a number of pictures the Wyvern engines I found, it seems that the cam bracket has been modified, suggesting that the bracket, as drawn, has been a problem child.
My version works, by if I had researched a bit before hand, I may have done it differently. 
After mapping out my strategy, I searched my metal stock and selected a piece of 7/8 square mystery brass bar, gleaned from a flea market.
Having learned at least something from passed experience, I actually took the time to lay it out on the work piece before I started cutting.
Then bandsawed some of the waste, went to the mill and started work.






After more carving I began to more fully appreciate the word casting.


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## Generatorgus (Oct 28, 2012)

As work proceeded, I decided to make some more layout marks to help avoid making an error, then went back to the mill and did some profiling and drilled the mounting holes.
It was now starting to look something like I wanted.






Now to round out the areas around the mounting holes.
Having had some problems in the past using machine screws for a pivot, either unscrewing or tightening up enough to make it difficult to turn the work, I decided to try a flat head wood screw in a piece of wood.






It worked pretty good on the first hole so I proceeded and had no problem with the remaining hole.
After rounding out the top, the piece was turned on end, the hole for the shaft drilled and reamed, then the outer diameter cut with the boring tool.






I put the shaft with the gear in the bracket and again performed a progress check.
I got a small surprise. I assumed the flat on the engine base would plenty big enough to accommodate the bracket and it wasnt. Now I could either scrap the piece and go back to the drawing board or just notch the base wee bit.






But wait 
One more teensee little problem.
(to be continued)


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## Generatorgus (Oct 29, 2012)

One more teensee little problem. Ive run out of space on the crankshaft. The hub of the flywheel is larger than the drive gear and will have to be spaced farther out.
Also the drive gear will have to be spaced away from the engine base in order to keep it centered over the driven gear. The outside of the hub is now flush with the shaft., and the gib key will protrude beyond.







I thought I allowed enough extra length on the shaft, but its now perfectly apparent that I didnt plan far enough ahead. I cant leave it like that so now I have to make some adjustments.
First and most apparent is to reduce the inner hub diameter, also while in the lathe I can trim the projection a 32nd.
Still not enough gain in space. I will reduce the thickness of the sideshaft bracket mounting and mill a bit more of the engine base. About another 32nd each. This ought to do it.
Modifications now made the results are great. All seems to be OK on that end of the engine.







Now moving to the front line.
Ive been scrutinizing the cylinder head details for about 3 or 4 months.
It will be a serious challenge for me.





&#12288;
If I think like Im going to build a casting pattern for this piece, I can see it being built of a few individual pieces.
The base, IE: cylinder cap/rocker arm brackets and side shaft bracket mounting.
This part will have to accommodate these parameters and provide a landing pad for the actual cylinder head, as well as providing part of the combustion chamber.

A few sketches, much what-iffing and Ive come up with this, as the first and easiest piece.


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## Generatorgus (Oct 29, 2012)

Also in the mix is what complications will be caused by the relocated sideshaft. 
This seems to be a fairly simple modification of the rocker arm angle, at least according to my next sketch.
Im really thinking that mastering CAD would be real handy for what Im messing with here, but Im still in old fashioned way mode, and pencil and paper should suffice my needs.






The cylinder head itself , if Ive done my homework should drop seamlessly (a much overused word) on top of part A.
My plan includes, doing a physical layout (I think Im finally learning), drilling the centers for all of the holes, and setting it up on the el cheapo rotary table and carving it up like a roast turkey.
I made the layout on the work piece as planned, the marked then bandsaw rough cuts and highlighted with a red marker. The Dykem layout was getting more scratched up as I made the layout and is now at a point where I am having some trouble discerning lines from scratches, Ill have to be careful.






Centered and clamped on the rotary table I started cutting at the left side and carefully worked toward the basic head diameter of 2".
Its a bit difficult to make out, but there is a horizontal line just above the saw cut where Im going to cut next
That line is important!


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## Generatorgus (Oct 29, 2012)

I proceeded working my way around the head diameter. Have you noticed anything, I havent yet.






This is going great, I thought, and proceeded cutting on the opposite side.
Almost at my diameter, I decided to climb cut the last couple thou. working to the left. I've read taht this will produce a smoother finish.

Ka-chunk! The backlash on this rotary table is terrible and when I started backing it up the cutter grabbed, put a divot in my cut and knocked the work piece out of center.






Probably ruined, I wondered if I could somehow work my way around this issue.
And I finally noticed I cut off the sideshaft bracket mount.:wall:







Gloom, despair and agony on me! 

This piece is now definetly riuned.
Half a days work and 50 cents worth of scrap aluminum, about a buck total, is what it amounts to.

Round one to the Dragon

Note: The Wyvern, name a mythical two legged, winged dragon, seems to be the adapted to this engine possibly because of the dual fuel carb. Also the name of a WWII single engine fighter plane that had two props.
&#12288;
Not to be beaten, when the Round 2 bell rang I started milling down the next opponent.
The first ruined piece was ¾ flea market stock and now what I have left is a drawerful of 1 flea market stock. Ill have to hire out some kid to manage the swarf.


That was yesterday after noon.

This morning Im typing up this post as we enjoy the calm before the storm.
Hurricane Sandy is at our doorstep and already wreaking havoc on the south east coastline.
The center is expected to pass about 50 miles southeast of my home here in NE PA.
Not as much a rain event as a wind event and the experts are predicting widespread power outages throughout the area.

Im prepared for that and I have a number of generators and enough fuel.
It seems the brunt of the storm damage will be along the coast and in the heavy rain areas some south of us.

Thank you Rake for wishing us safe passage. I second that. 

I will spend today in my shop working on another attempted cylinder head and keeping an eye on the storm.
GUS


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## idahoan (Oct 30, 2012)

Hi Gus

The Wyvern is coming along nicely and you are making great progress.

WRT. the backlash in your rotary table; most rotary tables have a prevision to adjust this. The worm gear is usually mounted on an eccentric and the mesh between the gears can be adjusted. I showed this to my friend on his import table which he had use for years and didn't realize it was there. If your table has this feature you should be able to completely disengage the worm and freely turn the table if you wanted or snug up and remove most if not all the backlash.

Just a thought.
Dave


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## Generatorgus (Nov 1, 2012)

Hi Dave, thanks for the advice, Ill check it out.

Ive been waiting out the, now epic, hurricane Sandy. So, somewhat fortunately, I havent put the new piece back on the rotary table. 

Although we, in our area, were fortunate to only suffer a small amount of the predicted wind damage. Mostly downed trees and a widespread power outage (2 days in my case).
I had power by generator, but the cable and computer were out.
We could mostly just guess at what damage was being wrought.
When the TV came back we got look at the horrible mess.

My heart goes out to those who suffered tragic loss from the storm.


I managed to get some work done before the lights went out. I did the new layout for the ruined base piece and again, band sawed the rough shape.
I didnt bother getting out a bigger generator yet that could run my machinery, so I spent my time ,mostly watching sideways rain and misc. things being blown around, from the relative comfort of my shop.
During that time I, starting to suffer boredom, I noticed the base piece kind of looked like the front of a locomotive.






Hmmm! 

I decided I had to do something constructive so I chose a piece of alum for the actual head, and laid out the basic square, mounting and center holes.
When the power came back, later yesterday afternoon, I band sawed it then squared it up and drilled the the holes. Also, I finally drilled and tapped the mounting holes on the cylinder.
Just to check fit I attached the new parts to the head and got a better picture of what I was trying to build.






I did the layouts on the back end of both pieces, thinking I would have less chance of having problems with the holes lining up due to runout while drilling.
I didnt have 4 screws long enough to go thru both pieces, but there are shorter screws with the heads cutoff in the other two holes.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 3, 2012)

Now Im back to the same place I was before I ruined the first piece.
Back to the mill. 
Not wanting to lose my layout, I sand blasted and wiped the part with solvent before painting the Dykem. I got much better results.
Also I went about the milling procedure a bit differently. I milled away most of the excess thickness on the front of the base piece. Leaving the rocker and sideshaft mounts full thickness.

&#12288;
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Then, set it up on the RT.
(Dave, figured out the backlash thing, my table has those provisions, but the translated instructions lose something. Thanks)
Using a center in the chuck to center on the first rocker mount and the cut the radius.
Repeating this prorocess on the other rocker mount and then the two bolt holes that need to be radiused.






Thinking back I should have cut the flats on each rocker mount while I had them centered, so I wouldnt have to go back and reset. I could have proceeded directly to the flat cut and saved a few steps.
My reasoning for doing the radius and flat cuts first was that I layed those circles out with a circle template. Not very accurate. I fealt that if I cut the cylinder radius first , which I layed out with a compass, I might not have met the intersections smoothly.
Dont know if I explained that right but all those cuts came out nice.






I then turned the piece over on the RT and finshed the rocker mount circles and cleaned up around the sideshaft mount.
Machining on that, the most complicated piece Ive ever taken on, came out looking and fitting like I wanted. (Big sigh of relief)


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## Generatorgus (Nov 3, 2012)

PICS
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 2235 




&#12288;
Now I can turn my attention back to the cylinder head proper.
Going to the lathe and mounted in the little for 4 jaw, I faced the thickness down 3/16, leaving the spark plug boss, then drilled for the ¼-32 tap that is the thread size of the sparkplug.






Then removed it from the chuck and mounted the base to it and put the assembly back in.
This time boring the hole and then tapering in to form the clestory combustion chamber.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 3, 2012)

At that point I couldnt resist tapping the plug hole and reassembling the unfinished head back on the cylinder.
Still lots of maching left, but looking good at this point.

 Before and after









More adventures to follow.
GUS


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## ronkh (Nov 3, 2012)

Keep your adventure rolling in Gus please as I have followed from the beginning and want to stay 'till the end

Kind regards,

Ron.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 4, 2012)

Ron, thanks for the encouragement. It has been and still is an adventure.

Yesterdays work on the cylinder head has put it near completion.
One surface at a time I drilled the holes for intake and exhaust valve cages and the intake and exhaust ports. Also drilling and tapping the 4-40 mounting holes as I went.






The fasteners Westbury calls for have me wondering a bit. In places where I would assume there should be larger screws for more strength he calls for # 4 screws and in other places not so needy, in my opinion, he specs # 6. In most cases there seems to be barely enough room for the # 4.
So far Ive made them all #4.
Another item is the valve cage. He uses a valve cage for the intake but not the exhaust.
Im not sure that the alum will make a good seating surface for the valve and, as there is enough room, Im going to use a valve cage for both.
Other builders of this model have made that change also.


The final chore for the day was milling some cooling fins.











They came out pretty good but there are a couple oopsies.
First was a math error caused by a simple mistake in addition when I was figuring out the spacing. A little hard to see on the pictures, the first slot on the right top, I started the cut and noticed it was too close to the adjoing slot.
I usually back up my figures with a calculator, this wasnt one of the usuallies.
The other boo-boo was that I uncovered two of the exhaust flange screw holes on the far left.
There seems to be a fairly large discrepancy between the drawings and the actual castings.
I was wanting to borrow the head casting from my pals dad, but he is in NJ about a hundred miles from here, but it may have helped me avoid one of the mistakes.
At this point Im going to carry on with the rest of the machining on the head and try to ignore what I know is going to be glaring at me. If it gets too bad I might take another crack at it.

I will also add that in the case of the head assembly I machined, I think the cast head would have made for a less cad drawing like appearance.
Maybe it will look better when I get some of the radiuses cut.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 6, 2012)

I only made a little progress the past few days.
After a lot of what-ifing I decided what I wanted to radius on the head. 
Now to do it. But first I had to do a bunch of trial cuts with the radius cutter.
My track record cutting with those tools usually ends up with overcutting and leaving a line.
After practising a while, I was coming up with a nice radius with no overcutting so I proceeded on the head.






I decided to radius only three corners. I wanted to do some more but I think I would have been getting dangerously close to interference with the valve cages and intake /exhaust mounting flanges.
I did go ahead in break most of the sharp edges a bit. I think it softened the the look some. Im also going to fill in my mistake with JB and make the groove again but not as deep.
Now to take a look at the remaining sideshaft bracket. Using a cutout copy of the part to give myself some prospective and check for possible problems.






Using the same piece of brass bar I made the other bracket from, I laid it out and then cut away some of the waste with the bandsaw.
&#12288;





Then in the mill vise making most of the required cuts.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 6, 2012)

And then finishing up on the RT






Im really starting to enjoy the RT using it now that I've got it tamed down.
The mounting holes in the bracket were drilled to the tap size so that they could serve as the drill bushings for the holes in the base piece
Then with the new piece clamped to the flat on the head base piece and on the engine I adjusted to get the sideshaft to turn freely.
.
Then the base piece tapped and the mount itself drilled for the 4-40 screws.











Reassembled to the engine I had to shim the bracket a few thou. to get the shaft to turn without binding.
I also primered the head. I think it helps ease the sore thumb look.






With the cylinder head and sideshaft bracket, I've machined half of the 16 missing castings and it's starting to look more like and engine and I haven't departed much from the original design.

Still a long way to go.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Nov 16, 2012)

Progress on the Wyvern for the last few weeks has been kind of spotty.
In between some real work and a pile of around the house chores and some pondering which direction I wanted to go with The Wyvern, I decided to start making the valve cages.
As usual I decided to make the cages some different than the drawings.
I would make the mounting flange a separate piece from the valve cage body and loctite it in place.
For the flanges, I chose a 1 square SS bar that I acquired with a lot of other 303 SS stock from a guy at a flea market. 
I started to question the alloy when the blade on my HF bandsaw came up lame, but maybe it was just time for a new blade. So I went to the old faithful Marvel Drawcut and sawed off a couple of some oversize pieces. No problem.
Then at the mill to machine the pieces to the 1/8 finish thickness. 






That operation came out OK, but it wasnt cutting like 303 and I decided it was just a harder alloy. I like SS in lieu of brass and use it when I have the stock I need, but my experience with harder materials has not been good and this seemed put a hex on continuing.
But, I continued to make a layout on one of the pieces.






My plan was to glue the slabs together, machine them and then separate, but I wanted to saw off some of the excess material first.
I cant cut trust the big hacksaw to make the cuts, so my options were to do it by hand with a hacksaw, machine the extra away or try the HF bandsaw again. 
Knowing the blade was dull and not having a spare on hand, I decided to try the bandsaw anyway.
After torturing the saw and myself for some time I managed to get that done, the burnt fingers would heal, but I really should get some new blades.
I glued the pieces together, waited and appropriate time and went back to the mill. I would start by drilling the holes and then cutting the general shape on the RT, my new favorite tool.
Not sure why, because I usually dont, I decided to center punch the middle hole and pick up the center from that. The punch I chose looked a little dull so I sharpened it up on the grinder and punched the center mark. What I didnt realize at the time was the newly sharpened tip on the punch broke off in the piece, I guess I put too sharp an angle on it.

The center finder seemed to pick up the center OK, but as I started to drill the hole the bit immediately tried to wander off. 
Since this was just a small pilot hole I went to a bigger, stiffer screw machine bit, figuring it might get back to the center alright.
The new bit didnt want to dig in so I pushed a little harder, it resisted but then began to cut. I didnt realize what was messing things up. 
The hole came out a tad off center, I would have pick up the new center and drill the other two holes, there should be enough material left to make up for the bad hole and I didnt realize until much later that the broken tip was messing things up.

Because I did the the layout from one of the flats on the flange, figuring I would save not having to mill that flat, the mounting holes were on an angle so when I drilled the remaing holes I would simply go to the bolt hole calcualtor on the Internet, get the coordinates and finish drilling the holes.
It was almost lunch time already and I was messing around here all morning, and I just wanted to get that part of this relatively simple piece done.
I got the numbers and when I dialed them in they were not lining up with the layout marks, so Iwent back to the computer and rechecked, thinking I probably just wrote a bad number down, but the X, Y was just as I had copied it. 
Maybe it was the hex working and I was hungry anyway so I went ahead and drilled the holes.

If your thinking I shouldnt have done that, you are correct. The holes were not where they should be and I was really puzzled . The flanges might be usable somewhere else, but not on this engine. Maybe I should just bury them in the back yard.

After lunch and still muttering to myself I went back to the computer, there must be a reason, and there was. It was still on the screen. I made a typo on the angle, and made it 39 instead of 30 degrees. The hex was too stong. I should have stopped on the first cut.

I shut the lights off and went outside and did some much needed leaf raking for the rest of the afternoon.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 19, 2012)

Next morning, I ordered a piece of 1x1/8 303 SS flat, as well as a few more pieces of metal for the valves and valve cages.
While waiting for the order I finally put a short 1/16 of keyway in the sideshaft for the driven skew gear also made the key. Sorry, no pics, but now I can see the shaft turn. Not a big thing but important.

I havent decided where to put the pickup for the CDI ignition yet, so, for now, Im leaving the gear end of the shaft long enough to accomdate a magnet disc.

I decided the cams where another item I could take care of while waiting for the order.
Starting in the lathe with piece of 1 SS shaft I had on hand, drilled and reamed the hole, the machined the collar.

The yellow flat on the bar is evidenly there for a set screw on whatever this shaft was used for and will soon be in my swarf bucket. The yellow is an ID mark I put on all of my SS stock for ID.










Then to the mill to prifile the cam shape using the 3 jaw mounted on the RT.






They came out looking like the cams I needed except that I decided to hand file the top radius.






Another moc fit up to check alignment with the valve holes, with a couple of alum. bars replicating the rockers. Looks like things are on track.






While I was thinking along those lines I took another look at the rockers. This looks like another experience.






Not sure why Photbucket does this. Every now and then it rotates one of my pictures.
At any rate Im open to suggestions as to how to go about making the tapered seat (hole) for the push rod on this intake rocker.
&#12288;

&#12288;


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## Generatorgus (Nov 26, 2012)

I wrote this post at least two weeks ago and didn't get around to posting it. I was waiting for some material I ordered for the valves and valve cages and in the dry spell I decided to make it. I'm still trying to decide if I like what I came up with.



Another small item is the oil cup for the big end bearing. I made the other oil cups some time ago, but held off on this one as I was not real sure how I wanted to build it.
Starting with a ½ SS round bar I used a rounding milling cutter to put a radius on it.






Parted off I drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole for the cap.






Then, again in the lathe, drilled, tapped and parted off this little 3/16 stem that would later be glued in a hole milled into the side of the body.






Then the cap is whittled out of the same ½ bar I cut the body out of.






Made a little SS locking nut to hold it in position on the bearing, and small project complete.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 26, 2012)

Now with the ordered material on hand I could start making the valve cages, but I remembered that I would need to seal both ends. For a while Ive been thinking they would only need a gasket under the flange.

When I first got the castings identified, someone set me on to an article by Brad Smith in the 1989 issue of Gas Engine Magazine, about a Wyvern he built. Brad used an o-ring at the bottom instead of the metal to metal seal at the bottom that Mr. Westbury chose. Also Brad used an o-ring in a groove to seal the valve cage body under the flange

Wondering where he got 1/32 cross section o-rings (assuming he made the cages as dimensioned on the drawings) I did a quick search and didnt find any, 1/16 was the smallest listed.
Although the dimensions in the tiny drawing in the article where unreadable, I compared drawings and figured out he increased the dia. of the lower part of the body to accommodate a 1/16 o-ring.






Not at all wanting to go back and rebore the cylinder head, I thought maybe Teflon would make a good seal. Back when I built the Little Brother, I made some seals from a Teflon rod for a fuel line compression fitting.
I substituted the Teflon seal for the ferrule. A little difficult to disassemble, but they sealed the fitting perfectly. Maybe Teflon would make a good seal in this application.


Not having a proper diameter rod on hand, I used a smaller 3/8 dia, Teflon I had used before, figuring that I would make some practice cuts. When I made the compression fitting seals I had trouble parting the little rings from the drilled out rod.
With an ID size rod in the tailstock and inside the hole I drilled in the rod for support , this is what I finally used, although it was quite apt to wandering off while starting a cut.
Pretty much accidental gettting two seals the same width.






I would need to stiffen up the blade. After trying several things, Im still having problems with the cut wandering off, but, I did manage to get some trial seals within a few thou  of the right size.






Being quite flexible I stretched the 5/16 ID seal to 3/8 quite easily by pushing it up the tapered shank of a center punch. 

But, being it stretched that easily, would it crush a lot or simply extrude through the fairly tight area when the flange was bolted down? Also will it hold up to the heat? The specs say 350-500 degrees, some better than the 392 max for Viton o-rings. 

I intend to find out. I will get on with building the valves and valve bodies. I will use Teflon at the bottom and an o-ring at the top.


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## Mike1 (Nov 26, 2012)

Hi. I have just finished my Wyvern, and looking through your threads I had some of the problems that you have had with your build, I used 1mm section viton O rings for sealing the valve cages, another problem I had was the spark plug fouling the valves, so I had to bore out the cast in spark plug boss and press in a longer boss so the plug electrode cleared valves. Mike


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## Generatorgus (Nov 27, 2012)

Mike1 said:


> Hi. I have just finished my Wyvern, and looking through your threads I had some of the problems that you have had with your build, I used 1mm section viton O rings for sealing the valve cages, another problem I had was the spark plug fouling the valves, so I had to bore out the cast in spark plug boss and press in a longer boss so the plug electrode cleared valves. Mike


 

Mike, Thanks for the info, I never thought to check metric sizes.

 Sorry to say I'm a bit confused about the "longer boss".  Can you expand on that?

 Very nice job on the Wyvern.


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## Mike1 (Nov 27, 2012)

Hi.

" Longer Boss" by this I mean the part on the cylinder head casting that is bored out and threaded for the spark plug, I bored and threaded this to size as the drawing, but when the sparkplug (CM-6) was fitted the valve head hit the electrode on opening.

In my case the plug needed a 3/16" packing washer to get the required clearance, so not liking that idea I bored out the plug hole and made a new boss to the extra length needed, bored and threaded for the plug and pressed into the cylinder head.
A better description of this item would be " Bush " hope this helps.

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Nov 28, 2012)

Mike, thanks for clearing that up. 
That, also, never crossed  my mind.  I'm using a home made 1/4-32 spark plug and I will have to make it a long reach to get the electrode closer to the action.
GUS


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## Generatorgus (Dec 2, 2012)

Well, I thought I had the valve body seal decision made, but thanks to Mike Ive got a better way.
I never thought to check metric O-ring sizes.


I try to avoid the metric thing, although I wish they had gone thru with it way back in the 70s? when it was a big debate in this country. 
Its a much easier system but we steadfastly refused to accept it and chose to maintain our archaic system of measurement.
There is no reason that I should need two sets of wrenches to work on my vehicle or have to have a decimal equivalent chart hanging in my shop. 
A lot more important things in this country should be maintained, but our measuring system should have been allowed to fade into history.
Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

I did find a 1mm size that will work for the bottom seal without any changes and I can dump the Teflon thing.
Having settled on how to seal the valve bodies it is/was time to build them.

Still sticking with a separate flange I decided to make it a clamping type with a step in the flange to engage a ring left on the OD of the body.
With a ½ SS bar in the lathe starting on the bottom end (or top, depending on which valve body your looking at) I cut the 7/16 OD and the 3/8 in OD step for the inner seal at the end.







At that point I decided to test the fit in the head and while at it I traced the location of the port.






A 1/8 dia hole was drilled and reamed thru for the valve stem and then the bottom hollowed out to the top of the port location. The body was parted off and in the mill the port holes where bored with an end mill.
Sorry, no pics, my camera battery needed charging.
Now semi complete another test fit.






Then back in the lathe the top ends were hollowed out with a drill and finished flat at the bottom to accommodate the valve springs.
Also the taper was cut by trial and error. I measured a 3 degree angle on my sketch, but I snuck up on it anyway. Just being careful, not wanting to ruin them at this point.
This time I just plain forgot to take pictures of those steps.

First part almost complete, just noticed I didn't cut the grooves for the top O-ring.


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## starnovice (Dec 2, 2012)

Nice progress Gus!  I appreciate you taking the time to explain your trials and tribulations and how you over come them.

Pat


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## Mike1 (Dec 3, 2012)

Gus. Nice to hear you found Metric O-rings, I like the separate flange idea for the valve cages, I never thought of that method.

I am finding your build very interesting and getting some good info, keep up the good work.

Mike.


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## Cogsy (Dec 3, 2012)

Here in Australia we adopted the metric system a long time ago, yet O-rings seems to be the one exception. I used to sell them by the thousands when I worked in bearing sales and I would say at least 98% are still imperial (BS numbering). But I have to say, working in mm is a heck of a lot easier than inches.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 3, 2012)

Guys, thanks for the replies.
I guess at least some of us, who are posting our builds, occasionally get the feeling that we are alone in the vacuum of the internet, putting our days toils into words and pictures. 
I have to say, posting my build requires almost as much time as the build itself, but both give me a lot of enjoyment
It is a good feeling when you here/see another voice making coment or giving you an attaboy.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Dec 3, 2012)

Then on to the flanges.
After laying out the two flanges on the newly arrived piece of 1x 1/8 hot rolled, annealed 303 SS. I went to the mill and sarted the drilling operations.
Then I got carried away and drilled the 7/16 dia. center hole, completely forgetting I wanted to use the pilot hole for centering while I was cutting the radii.
No problem at this point, just another ¾ of the stainless bar.






Then on to the RT for the radii. 










Although it worked, the centers were off some and the flanges look a little lopsided. 
But, I went ahead and drilled the center hole and milled a step in in the hole.






Ive decided that the way I did this would have been much easier with a fixture clamped in a 4 jaw chuck on the RT and with the pieces fastened thru the mounting holes. The flanges dont look that bad when they are on the valve bodies but Im thinking I will probably redo them, maybe.

I still have more flanges to make so I will make a new back plate for my little 4 jaw and mount it on the RT at a later date (when I feel like it).

In this picture they have the O-rings and trial Teflon seals installed. Im thinking these will work just fine, but Im going to order the metric O-rings, I think they will be more user friendly. 






I still have to make the valves and cut the valve seats.

GUS


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## idahoan (Dec 7, 2012)

Hi Gus

I haven't commented on your build for a while; but I wanted to know I'm still here following along. The engine is coming along nicely and you seem to be on a roll with making parts!

I may have missed it but I was wondering about the 2 piece head; is this the way the original was constructed?


Your work on the valve chests is also great!
 keep plugging along.


Dave


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## Generatorgus (Dec 8, 2012)

Dave, thanks for checking in. 
I've been eagerly watching and waiting for new posts on your build in the Engines From Castings section. That Pacific Vapor Engine is some different from ordinary and, as usual, your work is impecable.
Sorry to hear you lost your pictures. 


The original head is a one piece alum casting, and I've read that a cast iron head is/was available.

I chose to make it the head two piece because it was much easier for me to build from scratch. 
I find I'm having some difficulty trying to figure out how to make (machine) some of the casting shapes from bar stock.

I keep going back to the way of thinking that some of these shapes could be more easily built, by me, as weldments, using the same parts that would have been glue ups of the wooden casting patterns. 
BUT, I'm trying to learn how to use this machinery, which has opened up an entirely new world for me.

I've got the rockers laid out on some brass barstock for a couple of weeks and am agonizing about how I'm going to go about the machining operations. I guess it's time to pull out the stops and turn the machinery on. I'll post the results.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Dec 9, 2012)

Time to make the valves.
For the first time during this build, I finally feel like I know what Im doing.
Not just because Ive made valves before, but because I can handle the silver solder thing fairly well IMHO.

I first started using silver solder a lot of years ago when I went into my silver jewelry making period.
Then got a lot more experience when I went into my modeling era.

Note: To me an period in my life lasts for, maybe, a year to five years. 
An era last for much longer. Im still at it after 20 years or so, maybe 30.
Model engine building is the latest phase of this era.


My material of choice this time is drill rod. Usually I would choose SS, but I dont have a piece of 1/8SS rod on hand. 






Ive read that some people have experienced some problems from rust do to condensation, but Ill take a chance.

First operation for these valves is to thread the end of the valve stem for the valve keepers. 
I dont like Mr Westburys version of the valve keepers but, Ill expand on that in a bit.
I dont have any tailpiece die holders, so I use the jaws of the chuck to keep the die squared up. Works for me.











My finger is in the picture because my camera (Nikon Coolpix) seems to have trouble focusing on small objects.

I went right on to making the 5/16 dia. two piece keepers.
What I dont like about the design is that these keepers are intended to be tightened against each other to lock them on the threaded valve stem. All well and good, but, there is a problem with that.

The design of the valve cage almost or entirely covers/hides the lower keeper. No way to hold it to tighten or loosen. And if you did manage to get the two pieces locked up tight you may not be able to loosen them. But I went on and made them anyway with a small modification.
I would put small flats on each piece so I could use wrenches to tighten or loosen them.

In the lathe I put a recess a 5/16 dia rod with a ¼ end mill and then drilled and tapped the hole for the stem.
Then used a 5c square collet block in the mill vise to put opposite flats in the bar at the appropiate dimension to form one of the mating keepers.
I cut the flats large enough to accommodate both pieces.






The first piece parted off in the lathe and then the remaining piece still in the chuck was stepped down to fit the recess in the end of the first piece and also parted off. 
This is the temporary assembly. I will keep the the lower keeper exposed enough to get a thin wrench on it.
The punch marks on the clamping ring are to index the port to the head, so I won't have to guess if I pull the cages after the engine is assembled.






Mike, if your reading this, Id like to know how you approached the valve keepers on your Wyvern. On all of the pictures if Wyvern engines I could find, it seems that the builders used a number of different methods.
&#12288;
Next operation will be to silver solder the stems and heads together.
 &#12288;


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## Mike1 (Dec 9, 2012)

Gus,

I made a loose keeper which slides on the valve stem and is held in place with a home-made circlip in a groove in the valve stem, the keeper is a sliding fit in the valve cage spring housing.

The keeper is recessed for circlip, and a shoulder for the spring, hope the pictures help.

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 12, 2012)

Mike, thanks for the pics of your method, I may just go and make new valves or maybe think up a way to modify these.
&#12288;
&#12288;
&#12288;
This is my mini acetylene torch. Ive had it since the silver jewelry period. Its my go to when I need to silver solder small stuff. (Actually, smaller stuff has been 99 percent of my silver soldering experience.) Its capable of a very tiny flame (almost pencil point) for real small stuff yet it will produce a surprisingly large flame. It has several different size tips but the one on it is the only one I use.






This is my acetylene hose.  Good grief, after many years of service, I guess its time for a new set of hoses. Ive had a few gas leaks catch fire over the years mostly from a loose fitting and it usually happens when Ive got the dark glasses on, but you can feel the heat. Not funny when it happens. I can imagine a broken hose would be pretty scary.







This is the flux Im currently using, I bought it om EBay a few years back.
Im not real fussy about the flux, everything Ive ever tried seems to work well.






And last but not least, the silver solder, also an Ebay purchase. I didnt see the clear tape on the container and broke the cover when I tried to pry it open.






The solder cut into small snipits. The little squares you see are the last of the sheet solder I have left over from the jewelry thing.
The white stuff is flux. I keep the solder snips in this little plastic container.






I always mix the flux and water in the lid. The amount of water to use isnt critical, I like a thin paste.






About a nano second after I took that picture I knocked the snipit container off the counter and all was lost in in the long distance swarf from the milling machine.
I usually keep the floor swept better because its easier to find dropped screws, etc., but this time
More snipits, easy to come by.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 12, 2012)

Now to the actual soldering.
First the parts are given a bath in solvent (acetone in this case).






With the valve stem in the v-groove of my Dremel vise, I used a sex bolt for a spacer (it was handy) and it also served to help make sure the valve head was square to the stem, its sliding fit. The length was also adjusted in this setup.






Flux paste applied






And the fire lit.










And heat applied until the flux dries and melts in. 
Then the snipits placed as close to the stem as possible.
If you try to place the snipits in the flux paste before melting the flux, they will usually dance around in the steam and fall off of the work piece.






Then the heat is applied again, very lighty at first so the flux remelts and helps hold the snipits in place. The force of the flame can easily blow them away.
Keeping the flame moving so as not to overheat until the solder liquefies and hopefully runs into the joint. It will usually follow the flux, but every once in a while if the prep wasnt right or things get too hot, it will go every but where you want it.
This time it flowed perfectly.






You can see my reluctance to solder, as this mess now needs to be cleaned up. Easy on these valves, but on a more complicated piece it can be pretty difficult.
Ill add that I tried Loctite for the valves on my little H. Ford engine. The exhaust valve let go on the first hot run but the intake valve is still going strong after a lot of runs. I think the Loctite would have held up on my Little Brother, which runs very cool.
Cleaned up with the wire wheel and some of the excess length hacksawed off.






Then to the lathe to be gently faced and the seats cut.






You can see how the solder filled in the shallow chamfer and how it migrated to the uderside.










Valve cages and valves complete except for cutting and lapping the seats and I still dont like the keepers. 
I just looked back at the dates on the pics of the valve cages, about 3 weeks of spare time involved. 
Later in the build Ill make a valve seat cutter, using George Britnells plan. I made a smaller cutter for my other two engines and it worked good.


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## petertha (Dec 12, 2012)

Thanks for the realliy good silver soldering & pictures & description. This is on my 'list of skills to acquire'.
- can you elaborate on the %silver/whatever composition of the solver solder you used
- Im also interested to know what size/type of ocy/acetylene tanks you use. I'm looking at a little bit larger torch (a Meco) 'one day'. That one you show seems pretty handy for smaller size stuff.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 14, 2012)

Petertha,
Glad you like the silver soldering, I'm certainly not an expert, but I can get the job done.

This is the spec sheet fo the solder I'm using currently, the highlighted 50N.






A lot to choose from. Melting temp. is one consideration. If your soldering brass, silver you need to choose a melting point somewhat lower than the item your soldering, also in cases like silver you would want an alloy that comes in close to the color IE, higher silver content, but also costs more.
The container shown only cost $10 plus shipping and will probably last me the rest of my life.

As for torches, you can get an average sized torch and use different tip sizes to accomodate your heat requirements.
These are my tanks, I don't actually know what size you would call them, but they are fairly portable, I can still lean them on the tailgate and slide them up into the bed of my truck if needed. 

You may just notice that I put a new set of HF hoses on them.







"Choose wisely my freind."


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## Generatorgus (Dec 15, 2012)

Its time to make the rockers, there two on this engine and of course they are different from each other.

I decided a while back that at least some of the work had to be done on my rotary table, but I would have to find a better way to hold the parts. 

Quote from me on my post #66: 
Ive decided that the way I did this would have been much easier with a fixture clamped in a 4 jaw chuck on the RT and with the pieces fastened thru the mounting holes.

Im going to give that a shot, but first I have to get the little four jaw mounted on the table. So I have to make a new mount for it. Currently I have a mount on it that I can hold it in the bigger 3 jaw on my lathe.







No way I'm going to spring the cash for the material, I'll have to make it from something I have on hand.
I made a thorough search of my shop and found two candidates with the proper qualifications. The rusty cast iron adapter of some kind, on the right will be a lot easier to adapt.
I just love to repurpose something especially if I got it for free.











Faced off and the diameter turned just enough to show clean iron.






Most of the hub was parted off and the diameter and depth were cut to a close tolerance to fit the inside back of the chuck.
It was close but there was enough left on the diameter of the hub to comfortably center it.
&#12288;





Then the mounting holes drilled on the mill. 
My thoughts were to simply put the fixtured workpiece in the jaws of the chuck and the center it on the table with clamps.

I thought about making an adapter to center it. I previously made a #2 Morse taper adapter with a 1-8 thread to fit my little Sherline 3 jaw lathe chuck. I had quite a time figuring out how to get the taper correct, but somehow ended up fitting quite well in the RT.

The Sherline chuck met a horrible fate when it unscrewed while I was attempting to machine the cam for my Little Brother.

I didnt want to stop to make another Morse adapter right now.
But it didnt occur to me at the time to see if I could modify the adapter to fit this mounting plate.
Turns out the the adapter would work but I had to press a piece of iron into the mount to fit. I went at it and came up with a very workable centering adapter that also fits my little 3 jaw.
















Now I only have to figure out how to hold the workpiece.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 20, 2012)

I started work on the rocker arms at least a month ago. First making cutouts glued to alum coilstock to make sure my reconfiguration would work.
The sideshaft was relocated because of my using non specified skew gears, therefore requiring at least some change.
Also the valve clearance on this engine seems to be attained with eccentrics in the rockers.
I prefer to have a more positive way to adjust valve clearance IE: a conventional adjusting screw on the rocker, at least for the exhaust. The intake has a pushrod which should provide enough adjustment.
After I did the coilstock mockup, I figured out that the intake rocker was OK as drawn, so I would only have to rework the exhaust rocker.
I spent more time than I wanted to carving a suitable rectangle from a chunk of mystery brass. I think it was some sort of a larger bearing block, I have two pieces of this, pretty much identical, acquired from a flea market.











I made a sort of artists conception layout and made the first cut cuts in the mill.






That is where the project stalled while I tried to figure out what to do next, hence the previous post.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 20, 2012)

OK, four jaw mounted on the RT, now what?
Try to figure out some sort of fixture that would work.
Because of the size of the four jaw I quickly figured out that this getup wouldnt get the cookies baked.






So I milled an angle into the block and barely managed to get enough adjustment out of the little four jaw and got the angled adjuster end done.
Right off the bat, Im not on center with the pilot hole. This was only a warning of what was coming.






The 2x2x1 fixture block laid flat, the basic shape cut, using the center width dimension as the base and the turning the RT to line up with the end of the cut. Not exact but its not real critical dimensions.






Starting to look like the coilstock pattern.






Next the boss was cut with a ball end mill,






Then the arm thickness for this side milled.






Now it comes off of the mill for recentering to cut the end radius.
This side looks pretty good. 





&#12288;
&#12288;
Buthere we go again. Off center.  





I did some filing and sanding to see if it looked better, it did but the hole doesnt.
So I drilled it bigger, plugged it and drilled a new one on what is now the apparent center.
I stopped production to reevaluate the situation. I was evidently doing something wrong and I would have to go back to try and figure it out.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 20, 2012)

Maybe I didnt have the RT centered correctly was a possible cause.
I was using an edge finder in the center hole, touching both sides on the Y axis, and centering on that dimension and then repeating for the X. Then going back and rechecking the Y.

Maybe this isnt the way to handle it, but my cheapo indicator has a dovetail on top and the holder kind of leans and holds it off to one side, making an eccentric? sweep when I turn the drill chuck. Suffice it to say the damned thing wasnt working.

I had to correct that. Going thru some catalogues I saw an indicator holder that would hold mine from the back dovetail, so I copy-catted and made one for myself.
It seems to work good.






As I was having a problem with enough space on the little 4 jaw, I cut another 2x2x 1/2 alum fixture block and milled it to 1x1 halfway thru the 1 thickness.






Back on the chopping block the roller end centered using a pointed center finder and cut the radius on the roller end.






Center is a bit better but still off. I probably wont plug and re-drill this one as it has a ½ cam roller mounted to it, but the adjuster screw end will be. This has become a salvage mission.






Filed, sanded and itll do, but the off center thing is starting to get to me.:wall:






If anybody reading this has any suggestions, Im very open to suggestions or comments, so please speak up.


----------



## idahoan (Dec 20, 2012)

Hi Gus

Nice bit of metal sculpting there!

If that off center hole really bothers you it wouldn't be that much work to plug it and put it where it belongs.

Thanks for the update,
Dave


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## Generatorgus (Dec 25, 2012)

Dave, thanks for the advice.

Making the intake rocker arm, I thought, would be easier than the exhaust, but it turned out to be much more difficult.
First operation would be the tapered hole for the push rod. I wasnt sure how I would do it, but came across the D-bit thread. What a marvelous tool and so easy to make. It worked very well and Im sure, even if I dont ever use this again, Ill probably be using them again in the future.






Then using the same fixture block and part of the same bar as the exhaust rocker but 
with a different clamping arrangement, proceeded to carve the rocker.











In spite of a couple of oopsies it came out looking pretty good, and Ive decided to shorten the valve stems and maybe use a different style of keeper. 






Also still having problems with centering the RT with the little four jaw mounted to it.
I checked tram on my mill, it's good, but messing around with in indicator I'm finding runout while moving the head up and down. Pretty sure the column is not squre to the table. I have to investigate a little further.


Im typing this on Christmas morning and would like to wish the entire HMEM family good tidings and hopes for a wonderful new year.
GUS


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## Generatorgus (Dec 28, 2012)

:-\Having completed the most difficult part of this build, so far, the rockers arms, now I can play with making the intake valve push rod and lifter mechanism.
The lifter has a roller actuated by the cam and a slot which guides it via the side shaft.
First, milling the slot.







The roller mounting hole drilled and tapped, then the decorative tapers cut in the sides.












The push rod hole also drilled and tapped, the part was cut off from the brass bar, then shaped and cleaned up a bit.






A pair of cam rollers cut from SS bar stock.






Then three almost identical shoulder screws made from ¼ SS hex. One for the lifter and two for the rockers.











Then a little push rod cut and treaded for the lifter.
After a little tweaking this is starting to look like it might just work.







And yeah, the exhaust valve adjuster is not quite centered on the valve(just another day's lesson in the life of this amature), something else that may be addressed later on in the game.
A few more small chores and I have to start brainstorming the carb, another fairly complex part coming to test me.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




GUS


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## Generatorgus (Dec 31, 2012)

Now it&#8217;s time to come up with a plan to make the carb.
Way back when I started this build, I was thinking I&#8217;d probably end up making some sort of mixer for this engine, because I had no idea how I could conjure up something this complicated.






Still not sure I thought maybe I could accomplish some of it by making weldments.
With that thought in mind, I decided to take a shot at the top housing.
Starting with a piece of of ¾&#8220; brass bar, I made the first cuts, forming the basic shape and then parting it off.












Next the piece was rough bored to eliminate some material to make silver soldering easier, not as much mass to heat.
A slot for the mounting tabs the hold the bottom of the carb and a hole bored in the side for the flange mount.






Then a piece of ¼&#8221; x 1/8&#8221; brass bar cut for the slot and the flange tube machined and put in place.


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## Generatorgus (Dec 31, 2012)

Parts cleaned fluxed and gingerly balanced on the vice.






First the tab bar was soldered, then the piece grabbed by the tab and the tube soldered in.
The reason I turned it was the solder snips kept rolling off of the tube.






Soldering complete I could now finish machining the inside to finished dimensions.






I got so absorbed in the piece I neglected to take some pictures of the remaining machining, but it went well.






Sand blasted and then hit with the wire wheel its looking pretty good.
The flange will be added later.


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## Generatorgus (Jan 1, 2013)

Empowered by my success with the top half of the carb, I could now turn my attention to the more complicated bottom half.
Starting with a piece of 1 dia brass push bar I salvaged from a demolition job ( forgot I had a piece of the ¾ bar left), a ¼ hole was plunge cut with and end mill.






Then in the lathe the dia. cut to match the top and then parted off.











A piece of ¼ round for the needle and seat was drilled and cut to length and inserted in the now mostly exposed hole.











Plan ahead!!! At this point I decided I had gone about the machining in the wrong order and started over. Working from the bottom up. That would provide a lug to hold the piece for the internal machine work. 
The first piece I cut might have worked but I was thinking it would only come flying out of the chuck with that little bit of grab and I didnt want to distort the hole I milled in.






After parting the piece off I realized I forgot to radius the bottom. So back in the chuck, the radius was gingerly cut with a rounding mill.


----------



## Generatorgus (Jan 1, 2013)

Then I milled a slot for the mounting tab and the rough assembly scrutinized and passed.






Then everything joined in the soldering process.






Cleaned up a bit and back in the lathe the mating surface was cut smooth.
The gouge in the nearest tab was caused when the lathe tool grabbed and spun the piece in the chuck.







Then the center rough bored and a step cut in to accept the lift valve seat which I made earlier and it was loctited in place.
The ends of the mounting tab were also turned to length in this setup.






A quick trial fit and things look great so far.






Next the valve seat was cut. The piece finish bored and a 1/16&#8221; hole drilled and reamed thru the bottom for the lift valve shaft.






Still in need of some solder clean up the majority of the work on the two halves now complete, they look promising.
It took about 3 days to get this far but it was well worth it.











I'm posting this not too long after a large new years family dinner, pork and sauerkraut, crown roast and the works. It was great.Thm:

I think I need to get off me arse and walk around a bit.

Happy New Year to all.

GUS


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## idahoan (Jan 1, 2013)

Wow! great work on the carby Gus; I'm constantly amazed at how fast you turn out parts and how quickly the Wyvern  is coming along.

Thanks for taking the time to share your progress.
Dave


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## Generatorgus (Jan 2, 2013)

Thanks Dave. 

I was really worried that the carb was going to be a nightmare to build.

It seems the Wyvern is nearing completion, and I found myself looking at a picture of a Callahan this morning over on Smokstak, wondering if I could scratch build it.

This time of year, Oct. thru Jan is pretty much vacation time for me.
I work retail construction and work schedules are mostly ruled by what and how important the impending holiday is, Christmas rules the roost.

Add into that retail construction, for me at least, has been in the dumper since the great depression began a few years back.
Then factor in that I've decided to live out my days being semi-retired and what I end up with is a lot of time hibernating in my shop.
Just recently, my wife actually told be to get in my truck and go somewhere, anywhere, after I spent three weeks hiding out.
I have three real size engine projects in various stages of repair sitting 10 feet away but I can't seem to pull my self away from this project. It's just plain fun. It will be a bit of a let down when it's done.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 2, 2013)

Looks like there would be a high pucker factor in machining that carb!!! Excellent work.  How did you get it to clean up so nice after soldering?---Brian


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## Mike1 (Jan 2, 2013)

You have made a great job of the Carb a credit to your skill, having made the carb for my Wyvern from the casting kit I can say that it was a nightmare as the casting was very near to size.

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Jan 3, 2013)

Hi Brian,
Thanks, Way more pucker factor trying to figure out how I was going to go at it, once I got started,I was so happy with the way it was going, I just went with the flow.
After a some years playing around making my little static models, mostly from steel ( it's the easier solder job for me) I simply sand blast all the crap off and burnish the matte finish away with a wire wheel using the bench grinder. 
Way easier than polishing. If the piece was to be painted I would skip the wire wheel.

Mike, thanks. I was wondering if you had any problems with the size of the flange and the fastener clearance. I'm thinking I have some issues in this department. The flange tube is 3/8" dia. and the flange screw holes are 1/2" OC. 

Also I didn't agree with a lot of the fastener sizes Mr. Westbury specified, I just used what I thought would work.

I'm not totally out of the woods with the carby yet, I still have a handful of little parts to make and then cross my fingers that the thing will actually work.

GUS


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## Mike1 (Jan 3, 2013)

Hi Gus.
Yes I had the issue with the carb flange fixings I made my stud centres 9/16" used 3/16" across the flats nuts and reduced the tube diameter at the flange end just enough to let the nuts engage the studs and turn.

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks Mike, 
Unfortunately I didn't plan that far ahead.
Guess I should have stopped and did some reasearch before I started drilling..
GUS


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## Generatorgus (Jan 5, 2013)

The next logical step would be the throttle &#8220;drum&#8221; for lack of a better description.
It fits in the top half of the carb and involves a slot for a throttle stop screw, a hole for the fuel mix to pass thru, and a stem to turn it which also has a lift valve stop tapped into the top.
Kind of simple but I wanted to keep the tolerance of the diameter close to help eliminate air leaks.
Drilling and reaming the 1/16&#8221; shaft hole was the last process in turning.






Internal parts except the lift valve now fairly complete. It seemed odd to have to order a piece of 1/16&#8221; rod as I only needed about 1 ½&#8221;, but I could find nothing else to use for it in my shop. I &#8217;m still waiting for it and I still have to drill a fuel passage hole in the valve seat.






As expected the throttle drum is fairly tight in the housing, and offers almost objectionable resistance to turning, but I think it will break in nicely.
Next in line was the throttle lever a neat little piece and fun to machine.
A sloppy little layout, just to keep me on course.






Lever completed, the throttle stop screw and nut also created.






It was time to make and attach the mounting flange.
To avoid the off center problems I had with the rotab, I opted to simply drill the holes and saw cut and file the shape. It only took a few minutes.

Then attaching, using silver solder. Originally I was intending to loctite the flange on, but after roughing up the area while sand blasting and scouring it with the wire wheel, I thought it safer to use heat.






I used some thin alum. to make a heat shield.
I got this rig for Christmas from my wife. Every year I get the &#8220;what do you want for Christmas ?&#8221; inquisition and this year I decided to give her an opportunity to get me something I wanted besides socks and underwear and a Home Depot gift certificate.
&#12288;





I got out a catalog, and circled a half dozen affordable items, dog eared the pages and hand it to her and told her to choose some or all. I got two of my selections, this was one of them.
I used it to punch the holes for the heat shields and again the next day to punch the gasket for the carb halves, works great and you an actually get a hole where you want it.

I saw this coming when I drilled the center hole in the flange. I was following the drawings and thought the clearance for the screws was a tad close, but I was already committed. 

No room for the screw heads, and not much opportunity to relocate the already drilled and tapped holes in the head.
What else could I do, but gouge out some clearance with a ball end mill.






This works, but I need to make some slotted screws with a bit more clearance.. It was all I could do to get these socket hex screws tightened up, and I buggered them up some even though I was using a ball end hex key.
Probably won't be much better with slotted screws.






Now I have to figure out how to avoid this situation berfore I address the exhaust flange.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jan 5, 2013)

My, but you've done a lovely job on that carburetor. As far as the objectionable tightness of the throttle drum, try spreading a small bit of 400 or 600 grit carborundum paste suspended in oil on the drum and work it back and forth a bit by hand. It works miracles. Just be sure to clean it out real good with laquer thinners after the fact.


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## Generatorgus (Jan 6, 2013)

Thanks Brian, I'll be digging out the carborundum in a bit when I lap the valves, I'll give it a try.

GUS


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## petertha (Jan 6, 2013)

Generatorgus said:


> It was all I could do to get these socket hex screws tightened up, and I buggered them up some even though I was using a ball end hex key. Now I have to figure out how to avoid this situation berfore I address the exhaust flange


Your picture reminds me of a similar access/tightening problem I had on RC engine exhaust header. Ball ended hex drivers would not engage because the angle was too steep. To solve I cut a chunk off the 'L' part of a spare allen key & ground it perfectly flat & sharp. It had just enough capscrew socket penetration beyond the curve of the allen key, maybe 1/8". Not sure if this will help your particular geometry, but it ended my stripped bolthead issue.


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## Generatorgus (Jan 11, 2013)

Petertha, thanks for the suggestion. I used the socket head screws because they where the only ones on hand that would somwhat work for a temporary fit up. 


I had a little (maybe bigger than I think) problem with the fuel passage hole, from the needle valve to the lift valve seat.

On the drawings it is a 1/16 hole drilled square thru the angled face of the seat. That would pose no problem, but, because I floated my own boat and changed a few basic dimensions the hole now had to be started on an angle. 
Being afraid of the bit running off I used my smallest spot drill (1/8) to start and found that I accidentally exposed the dimple past the face of the seat, and am thinking it will affect the operation of the valve, letting fuel leak into the engine at even the smallest amount of throttle. Looking back, I should have started the hole with a 1/16 mill which I have.






Easiest solution , I think, would be to reface the seat, but Im thinking that will be affected by run out problems with the lathe, or may try the four jaw. As the seat is loctited in Im thinking of trying to remove the seat and making a new one, but that process seems to have its own set of problems.
Am I wrong in thinking that the this little accident will adversely affect the fuel mix?

For now maybe Ill just try to run it like that and see what happens.
Trying to keep forward motion I proceeded to the fuel inlet/jet.

I put a 3/16 hex on a piece of ¼ SS rod, using a 5C hex block in the mill, then in the lathe turned the end to accept the plastic fuel line Ill be using (temporarily I hope I havent decide what to do for a permanent fuel tank yet).
Then the inlet hole drilled to a depth about a 1/16 past the start of the hex, the piece was parted off. 






Then reversed in the chuck the diameter reduced and threaded 5-40 as designed, using the 13/16 die holder I made the day before, it works great.






Next was drilling the jet with the tiny drill bit held in a No. 1 Jacobs chuck, held in the jaws of the ½ chuck in the tailstock. The little chuck has a straight shank and I use it here or in the mill whenever I need to hold tiny drill bits.






Then a seal was made from an unidentified piece of electrical insulating material.
ID punched and sandwiched in a brass mandrel and turned to dia.
















Only a couple more parts and the carb will be complete.

I'm starting to wonder where that 1/16" rod I ordered got to.


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## Generatorgus (Jan 11, 2013)

Then the needle. 
In the past Ive used a sewing needle inserted in the end of a screw and used a separate disc loctited to the end of the screw. 
Kind of iffy trying to drill a little bitty hole on the end of a little bitty screw and hoping it will be concentric.
This time Im going to try turning the whole thing as per the plans.
Reducing the brass round in little steps worked really nice.






Then a little it of an oopsie when I got carried away turning the smaller ID of the point.
Not sure if I would have enough thread left on the piece, I forged ahead and treaded it anyway.






Then knurled the head and parted it.






All finished it had enough thread to close the needle, but I wasnt sure if I would have enough for adjustment, so I put it in the jar of shame and made another, which came out great. 






HMMM, still wondering where that 1/16" rod got to


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## metalmad (Jan 11, 2013)

Nice Carby
Top job Mate
Pete


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## Mike1 (Jan 11, 2013)

Gus. The carb valve seat, I had a similar problem as yours what I did I put the plain end of the drill into the hole having put a bit of wax (release agent ) on the shank, then I made up the groove with a bit of JB Weld, when set withdraw the drill and you are left with a nice hole where it shoud be, and I then re- seated the valve with a bit of grinding paste, upto now the carb is performing OK.

I think if you leave it as it is you may get a bit of fuel leakage.

Mike.


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## kutzdibutz (Jan 11, 2013)

Generatorgus said:


> ...  so I put it in the jar of shame and made another,  ...



LOL- brilliat!! The jar of shame! Hope you dont mind if I name my scrap bin like this as well... 

Real nice work on the carb- I always sneak a peek every now and then...

Cheers, Karsten


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## vcutajar (Jan 11, 2013)

Nice carb Gus.  I enjoy the way you describe everything that happens.  I went back to the beginning of your build and re-read it again.

Vince


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## Generatorgus (Jan 14, 2013)

Pete, Karsten, Vince, 
Thanks for the kind words and on my birthday (65).
Mike, I'll give the JB a go, not a lot to lose at any rate.

Karsten, the jar of shame has been on the window sill in my shop for some time now, somehow it never gets full, there is some good in most of my mistakes even if it's only a good lesson.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Jan 16, 2013)

Still wondering where my metal order got to, I'll have to finish the carb when it gets here.

What next? I decided to figure out what to do about the exhaust flange and the tight hole pattern.
Not only is the bolt pattern tight, but the carb and exhaust ports are very close.
The bottom of the carb is directly in line with the exhaust, meaning it will have to take a quick sharp turn.
I was thinking a simple flange wouldnt do and started brainstorming (sometimes dangerous) a different approach, sort of a fitting, to make a very sharp turn, IE: right angle.
It will be a very modified flange.

Trying a slightly different approach to using the rotab for this, I put the 3 jaw chuck on and came up with this little fixture.











Then cut a small block from a square brass bar, did a bit of layout and drilled some holes and partially milled a hole for the outlet.






The holes I drilled and tapped in my fixture were intended for give center points so I could do all the radii on the rotab. I decided to do the big ones first, and the run straight down the predetermined angle to form the flats.






When I got that done I decided to abandon the table and hand file the small radii and avoid what would probably mess things up.
A quick trial fit and, although being shoehorned in, it should work quite well.











Then I turned the outlet tube and tapped it 1/16 NPT.






Temporarily assembled another quick looksee told me I should probably recess the screws a bit.


----------



## Generatorgus (Jan 16, 2013)

Then off to the welding shop to fasten it together and a bit of cleanup.
Looks good to me.






The partially machined exhaust passage was connected by plunging a ball end mill.
I also plugged the center hole, which was unnecessary to begin with, and made a short length of exhaust pipe from brass round as I dont have any 1/16 NPT nipples.

I couldnt stand looking at the temporary screws so I decide to make a few more for the exhaust and the carb half flanges.
The screws I made for the carb mounting flange were made from a piece of ¼,303 stainless, I turned down to make the 3/16 heads.
I found a 3/16 dia. length of SS rod I didnt know I had so I decided to make these screws from it.

As soon as I started turning it I new it wasnt the more user friendly 303, but life is not always a bowl of cherries, so I continued.
I got the first one turned and threaded, but just couldnt get a decent finish turning it. 






Still getting a pretty rough finish on the second, I had another little oopsie while threading it.






A while ago I broke the only 4-40 die I had when I jammed it into the underside of one of the short screws for the carb.
This replacement just arrived in the mail and I had to get the broken screw out.
My little Exacto jewelers saw to the rescue, I managed to cut thru it but it still took some doing to get the pieces out. 
















If I had ordered a split die it may have made things a tad easier.
At any rate I got the screws made and installed.










And yes, I know fillister head SS screws are readily available but I enjoy making them even though I have a little problem now and again. 
&#12288;
Still no metal order recieved, I decided to get on the computer and find out where it got to.
On the Speedy Metals website I checked my "shopping cart" and suddenly figured out where the shipment got to, I didn't place the order. Then I finally remembered that "my account" wouldn't accept my password I got frustrated trying and shut the computer off. I got that starightened out and hopefully the metal is on it's way.

Although, having moved passed the carb for now, I'm thinking ahead about a cooling systen and fuel tank and have figured out I'll need more material fo them.


----------



## Generatorgus (Jan 20, 2013)

I figured it would be best to start building the cooling system from the engine and work my way out to a cooling tank, and havent yet decided what the tank will be made of or how it will be constructed.

I chose a piece of the 1 dia. brass door push bar for the flanges. This piece was just at the bend and I turned the bent part down to reveal valuable useable material, kind of oval but big enough for the flanges. I scratched a rough centerline with the lathe tool.











Using the same method I used to make the exhaust flange shape, I laid out the material and went to the rotab, this time slicing off two slabs at the appropriate size with my cheapa. slitting saw. The blades work nice but the arbor is a nitemare.











The first time I used the slitting saw(some time ago), I was wondering why they included a second holding screw, but when I went to change the first blade I ruined I found that the screw was seized into the arbor to a point that I ruined it getting it out.
Remembering that experience, the next time I used it I figured that I had nothing to lose by reversing the rotation(CCW). The arbor has no locking lug for the blade so, maybe the torque load is what locked it up.
Not so, that also resulted in seizing the screw. When this blade goes, so does the arbor, and good ridence:rant:Ive got to get something better.


The stems were turned, drilled and tapped ¼-40T. You may ask why that size thread?, because I had the tap and it seemed appropriate. I got the tap with a lot of new taps I flea market purchased a few years back and found a die when I was searching for a 1/16NPT die. Thought process was I already had the tap and no way Im ever going to single point turn that thread, not one of my better machining skills.

Stems inserted in the flanges, silver soldered and cleaned up and a couple of lengths of long enough to do the trick ¼ dia. SS tube threaded with the 1/4-40.
Ill rely partially on the tapered end of the tap and to help form a seal, and Loctite will really seal the deal.
















Screws made and gaskets cut






and installed on cylinder.






And a piece of swarf art added for a garnish.


----------



## Generatorgus (Jan 27, 2013)

Bumping around a bit, material not in hand to finish the carb, Ive made the cylinder water outlets, now what?
Muffler? OK A pot muffler should look right on this engine.

Poking around trying to get ideas, I found not much in the way of pictures. Fairbanks Morse used a two piece muffler, but it was not quite what I wanted.
I found this over on Smokstak : http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=112545
Wayne Grenning restoring a 10 HP Schleicher Schumm Slide Valve Engine, bottom of page, just what I wanted. Pretty interesting stuff, recommended reading.

Material? Cast iron. Yes, I have a couple pieces about the right size.
I chose the smaller 1 dia. to make the body.

Hollowed out,






Parted off and flipped around, rounded a bit and inlet hole drilled.






I decided it would look good on a base.
For that, a larger 1 ½ diameter iron bar from the Wyverns cylinder liner was used.
A lug was turned to fit the ID of the body and then a larger step turned to match the OD and trial fitted. I left a small fillet where the base and body meet.






Now held by the lug the base was shaped.
















Then a simple round flange cut a parted from a small piece of iron bar.






That piece of iron used up, for the next flange I resorted to an alternate material source,






A one piece flange and boss was turned and the rounded out to the body dia. on the mill with the boring tool.
A couple of short alignment pins cut from a dowel to hold the parts in place until the glue dried.






I wasnt intending Loctite to be used to permanently hold the muffler together, just to keep the parts in place while they were drilled and tapped 2-56. The lower screws in the side outlet actually screw into the base lug.


----------



## Generatorgus (Jan 27, 2013)

Not at all wanting to attempt making the 2-56 screws I raided my salvaged screw collection and found just enough.






Horizontal alignment for the lower flange accomplished with a homemade tool, 






Holes drilled and tapped.





Wood dowels drilled out,





Almost finished.






Only then did I notice that brain fade had kicked me in the pants.oh:

Wrong size pipe. :wall:
These are ¼-40, same size as my water piping. The exhaust is 1/16NTP.
The flanges are not big enough to redrill and tap, this muffler will not work.

I was really disappointed with myself for goofing up on something this simple but, I decided it was too nice to put in the jar and went on and finished work on the base.





















I rounded out the feet with a file, and stepped back to admire this orphaned muffler.






Very tempting to use the reduced pipe size, but it would probably affect the way the engine runs.
Ill have to start over. Maybe someday Ill build an engine just for this muffler, but for now it will be a shelf pet. It wasnt time wasted.

More to follow 
GUS


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## Generatorgus (Jan 28, 2013)

OK, get over it and build a new muffler, only this time get it right!! said my little shop buddy and all around good friend. 
At least that was what I think that look was for.






Starting at the flange size I would need, I scaled the bungled muffler to the new size, only about 5% bigger.
The 1 ½ iron bar would do for the body, but I had nothing big enough for the base.
Back in the pipe fitting bins, I dug out a donor.






In the lathe, holding the pipe cap by the rim I turned the top flat and cut the dia, to the approx. radius of the feet. Then drilled and tapped it for a ½ hex bolt. Loctited in the hole this would become a machining lug.











The threaded end was then cut flat to the bottom surface. Then to the rotab to make do the rest of the base machining.






The base completed.






Not a lot bigger than the blunder muffler, but big enough.
Though there were a few differences in construction, the rest of the muffler was done pretty much like my first try. Finished product.










Now I have to start thinking about the rest of the cooling system.


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## gus (Jan 28, 2013)

Hi GUS 

You are doing fine there. Will be monitoring this engine thread.You have a great machineshop.

Gus Teng from faraway Singapore.


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## idahoan (Jan 28, 2013)

Gus

The Muffler is a work of art! and kudos to you for not just putting a stright pipe on it; its the little details that make all the difference.


Dave


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## Generatorgus (Feb 1, 2013)

Gus, Dave,
Thanks for stopping by and the kind words.  I really like working on the smalls and/ or accessories, probably more so than the engine itself.

I have a few things in mind for this engine, a governor would be nice, I'll delve into that more when, not if, I get it running.

GUS


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## vcutajar (Feb 1, 2013)

Gus

Sorry to see that you had to do the muffler twice but as Dave said it is these details that make a model stand out.

Vince


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## Generatorgus (Feb 2, 2013)

Hi Vince, 
Making a second muffler was fun, having to make it was not.
Brain farts are way to common in my world.

Im about two weeks behind the actual build in my posts, catching up seems to be impossible so I wont even try. Ill just try to keep posting in the order I did things.

The lost metal order finally got here about then, meaning I could finally finish the carb.
Not rocket science, the carb valve was made 






and the elusive 1/16 stem was Loctited in place, and cut to length. 
Valve finished, it took about a half hour after waiting weeks for the 1/16 rod for the stem.

Now to repair the buggered up fuel inlet hole in the middle of the valve seat.
I chose to copy Mikes repair and try the JB weld method.
Not wanting to plug the fuel inlet hole or leave a big gob of JB to have to tediously lap flush, I decided to try to limit the amount I had to remove.
First was to wrap the valve face with plastic food wrap and stretch tight enough to remove as many wrinkles as possible.






Then with a drill shank inserted in the hole the JB sparingly applied and the bit removed. This would help eliminate the possibility of stuffing the hole.






At this point I realized that the leftover JB mix should have been removed from the immediate work area.






JB cleaned from hand, the valve was inserted in the carb body, weighted down to and left to set overnite.






It worked pretty well, but I probably could have gotten a the same or result by sooting the valve face to prevent sticking.






The seat lapped in really nice, the pic was blurry, but the carb got reassembled and installed on the engine.


I guess I skipped ahead a little. I forgot the part about making A George Britnell valve seat cutter, not nearly as pretty as Georges but it did the trick.

Valves lapped into the housings and installed in the head, head gaskets made (there are two) and installed, I wrapped the flyweel with masking tape and marked off and set the valve timing.
Ive finally got COMPRESSION. 

Not just a little, the engine turns freely and bounces off the compression quite nicely. I think in that respect and if the carby works, Ill have no problems getting it running. I hope!
At any rate I can see the end of the carb valve stem lift on intake so that part is apparently working.

I'm not in a real hurry to get into the usually frustrating chore of getting the engine running and there are a few more accessories such as the cooling system and fuel tank to build. 

A temporary fuel tank I have, but the cooling system will be important as I feel that this engine, not being hit and miss, will heat very quickly.
I might as well make a permanent solution, which will be a cooling tank.


----------



## Mike1 (Feb 2, 2013)

Gus. Good to hear that the JB Weld repair worked on your fuel inlet, and I can say that the same repair job on my Wyvern is giving no problem.

Mike.


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## Cogsy (Feb 2, 2013)

Generatorgus said:


> At this point I realized that the leftover JB mix should have been removed from the immediate work area.


 
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to do stuff like that. Just last night I managed to stick the palm of my left hand to my vise with some gel CA I hadn't bothered to clean up...

Great work on this build. I'm enjoying every post.


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## Generatorgus (Feb 4, 2013)

Cogsy, thanks. We all suffer from the "human condition", some more than others.

Mike, I couldn't quite glean this info from the drawings, does the throttle drum completely cover the inlet hole when in the closed position?
Also, about how much travel is allowed on the inlet valve adjustment?

Just trying to stay ahead of it when I do decide to put fuel and spark to it.  My experience, so far, has been with simple mixers.

GUS


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## Mike1 (Feb 4, 2013)

Gus.  I made the slot length in the throttle barrel just to give a 1/32" opening at the slow running position, this opening was just a guess on my part, and my engine runs slow at that setting.

However a better way may be to allow the throttle barrel to fully close the port and arrange a adjustable stop on the throttle arm. 

Again the inlet valve travel is a guess, I have no more than a 1/16" on my engine and as you say there is no detail on the drawings.

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Feb 5, 2013)

Thanks Mike, That's about the same as I guessed and did, maybe a tad larger on the intake opening.


More of the cooling system.
Ignoring the fact that I hadnt considered what I would use for a cooling tank, I proceeded to make some plumbing fittings.
I rummaged through my fitting bins and came up with one older style brass elbow, and an iron tee plus two unions.






The unions looked easier to start with, so I measured the models up and scaled them down to my chosen ¼ OD pipe size using the OD of the NPT fittings for ratios.
Surprisingly they came in pretty close to each other in what would be the final size of the components I had to make.






Hardest thing I could see would be the threads that join the union, ½ OD.
Standard ½-13 and ½-20 seemed to be too course and single point threading has been something I dont handle very well, especially internal threads.

I found I had an old ½-24 NS tap in a box of old taps I bought. Standard plug style, maybe I could cut it down and make it a bottoming style.
I took a shot at cutting tapered in off using my HF mini cutoff saw. Touched up on the grinder it looked like it might work, meaning if it did work I would only have to cut the external thread on the lathe.






A sample hole proved it would do the job. 
So, I proceeded to make a couple of joiner nuts.
Starting by plunging an end mill in the bar, the same size as the inserted seat, then opening up to the tap size with a small boring tool. And threading.






Then in the hex collet block, the hex cut,











And then back in the lathe to pretty it up and part it from the bar.






Cleaned up, these will do nicely.


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## Generatorgus (Feb 5, 2013)

The other two parts.

Now to go back and refresh myself on single point threading 101.
Maybe I should have done this before making the nuts but I sometimes get to thinking failure is not an option.
After about four or five failed attempts, the same problem.

One side of the thread seemed too steep and the other not steep enough.
I was starting to wonder about the failure option.
Thinking maybe my cutting tool wasnt ground at quite the proper angle, I dug this bit out of the box, seems to be brand new and at the proper angle. Set square to the work.






I didnt know if it was intended for threading, but took a crack at, it cut well but still the same problem.

I thought I took a picture of that, but I guess I just cut them off and tossed them in the trash.
The sample cuts would thread into the hole I previously tapped, but I had to cut the thread undersize on the diameter. Not what I wanted to settle for.
Maybe the angle setting on the cross feed?
Moved it one degree and got a better result. Two degrees better and three was the magic number.
Great, I found the problem but also found I can no longer trust the angle I set.
&#12288;
Having kind of stumbled over that hurdle the rest was EZ, .
The only exception from the real fitting was to make the joining surfaces flat and depend on an o-ring or Teflon seal.

















Next the elbow.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Feb 8, 2013)

Since I already have the exhaust and water outlets made with a rounded rim on the tube part, I wanted to keep with that theme, so the elbow I dug out of the fitting bins would be the model.
First thing was to make a small rounding tool out of a water hardening drill rod.
Simple enough.







I was only cutting brass but I figured I might as well harden it.
Quote: "I new better but did it anyway."
First lesson learned that day was not to use the dogs Styrofoam water dish for cooling a red hot piece of steel. 






The rim was burned with the torch when I pulled it off of the workbench because the water was running all over my welder.

That lesson duly noted I got busy making the half elbow pieces.
I first tried making the rim then turning the minor diameter and drilling a pilot hole.
Poor plan, it would be difficult be difficult to hold while cutting the miter, which I intended to do with an end mill.

After figuring that out I decided to make another rim farther down the same piece which was a piece of brass bolt. That ended unhappily. Holding a work piece by the threads is something I should do less often or not at all.






New plan. Drill the pilot hole, turn the small end , cut the miter with the slitting saw. (Note: In an earlier post I was complaining about the screw on thearbor being siezed. While doing this cutoff, a bit of chatter loosened it up, maybe I won't can it after all.) 
Then back in the lathe to make the rim and part it off.

For this and being the frugal person I am and not having a piece of 3/8 brass rod on hand, I sacrificed a couple of ½ brass screws that I have a few dozen of for quite a while and havent ever used one.
















For times later I had this, ready for the torch.


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## Generatorgus (Feb 8, 2013)

Both pieces ruined (more for the jar), I melted them.





&#12288;
Thinking maybe the screw I used may have a lower melting temp. than &#8220;other&#8221; brass, I got out my newly acquired Machinist Handbook, and found a page on alloys of copper.
Most of the yellow brasses had about the same melting point, so that was probably not the problem, but the thought was nagging me.

Digging thru a drawer full of salvaged small parts, I found a piece of what looked a red brass partially threaded rod, so I prceeded to make the replacements four more times.

While remaking the parts, a new thought came. Maybe the miters were a bit open on one side and that prevented the solder from flowing properly.

I devised a different plan, a bit sturdier than the fussy alligator clip thingy.
(Note: I prefer to devise a plan rather than develop one, less brain work.)






I also filed a flat spot on top to act as a landing pad for the solder.
&#12288;
Success.











It took some twisting to get the copper tubing out, which was caused only by the baked flux, most likely because I didn't clean the copper tubing.

Cleaned up some, then to the mill for drilling and tapping.






Finished product and botched pieces plus cutoffs.






Now where can I find a cooling tank?






Next day I found out PM Research makes a tree of fittings in the size I was using, easier, but...


&#12288;


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## vcutajar (Feb 8, 2013)

Nice pipe fittings Gus.

Vince


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## idahoan (Feb 8, 2013)

Hey Gus,

The fittings all look great; tedious work but it will all be worth it in the end.

I'm thinking I may take the easy way and use fittings form PM Research.

I curious to see how you approach the cooling system, thermo-siphon or maybe an engine driven circulation pump?

Dave


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## Generatorgus (Feb 10, 2013)

Hi Vince, 
Thanks, making the fittings was way easier than drilling out the SS rod for the pipe.
Just kidding.
Actually, I ordered a thick walled pipe by accident, only 1/8" ID and I did drill it out and it wasn't a lot of fun.

Dave, funny you should ask that.
Yesterday (real time) I took a 2 hr. drive on bad roads (blizzard of the century, 6" here) to the Rough and Tumble winter get together, had a nice time, but one fellow told me that the thermo siphon, which is where I'm headed, won't work, at least on an engine he tried it on. But he couldn't tell me why.
I think it will, unless the mini physics thing that sometimes effects things has someting to do with it.
If it doesn't work there's room on the side shaft to drive a little pump.

My experience with thermo syphon has been pretty good with my bigger engines and the only limit seems to be the capacity of the system (radiator or tank) and wether or not you can help cool the water.

A fan on the radiator really helps (no-brainer), I'm not sure what effect the pump circulating the water helps, although I'm sure not allowing the water to stay in the head long enough to boil is important.
At any rate, time will tell and I'll deal with the problems as they come, I'm still going to give it a try.

GUS


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## idahoan (Feb 10, 2013)

Hi Gus

My buddy runs several of his tank cooled models with thermosyphon cooling systems; The Mery Explosive engine is a double acting volume governed engine and generates quite a bit of heat. His tank is made form 3" copper pipe and is about 10" tall. It runs all day and cools just fine .  I wouldn't hesitate to do it; I don't think that guy knows what he is talking about.

Just keep in the mind the laws of physics; (heat rises) but you already knew that. My point is your return pipe should run slightly up hill and where it enters the tank it needs to be below the water level of the tank. One of my buddy's engines is a Callahan Cam Stopper; the return pipe on this engine is level. There has been times when we were at a show and because the table was a little off level pipe ended up running down hill to the tank. It's pretty easy to grab on to the pipe when the engine is running an know whether it is flowing on not. A little shim under the back end of the skid and all was well.

If the return pipe on this engine had some uphill grade to it with would be more forgiving.

I guess if if the engine ever got hot enough to boil the water it would push the steam into the tank at what ever angle the pipe was at.



Dave


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## Philjoe5 (Feb 10, 2013)

Hi Gus,
After meeting you at the Rough & Tumble winter get together and seeing this engine I had to check out your build log here.  Great documentation on an engine that's sure to be a great runner.  How do I know this?  Because your Little Brother ran without a hitch for several hours during the show

Cheers,
Phil


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## Generatorgus (Feb 15, 2013)

Phil, thanks for checking in. It was nice to meet you at the show.

Little Bro' has been a consistent good runner and has quite a few hours on it. I had a little bit of "long distance" help while builing it.


Tankonomics:

Rewind a bit, about three weeks maybe, I had already made up my mind to use a cooling tank and had to get busy and come up with something. I have some salvaged brass and copper pipe squirreled away, but the largest at 2&#8221; diameter doesn&#8217;t seem to be sufficient and looks the same when stood up in front of the engine.

Checking prices for the pipe, brass or copper. I would probably have sprung for a piece big enough to work, but what about the brass for the base and top piece. I had in mind a base similar to the pot muffler.

Whoa Nelly!! Nobody&#8217;s giving that stuff away and there is shipping on top of that. I started thinking I may have to find another way of thinking.

The Blue Mountain (Jacktown) Antique Engine and Tractor Snow Show was at hand.
A &#8220;don&#8217;t miss it&#8221; event for me. A chance to see some daylight and have a good time tossing the bull and wandering thru the outdoor flea market, looking for treasure, and I found a few.
A bit of tooling, a machinist Handbook to name a few, also a copper &#8220;what&#8217;s it&#8221; about 3 ½&#8221; dia and 12 or so inches long that may make a cooling tank. 
Some sort of expansion chamber maybe?, one end closed off and a ½&#8221; npt flange on the other. I asked how much and the guy said $20, I put the thing down and about then I noticed a brass thingy, about maybe 18&#8221; long and 1 3/8&#8221; dia, about 3/16&#8221; wall, one end closed except for a small hole, maybe a chime, which I didn&#8217;t need but I saw some value as raw material.

Having learned about &#8220;bundling&#8221; from a popular TV show, I asked how much for both, his $15 reply surprised me some, I guess he just wanted to sell something. I grabbed the deal and stowed the stuff in my truck.

The brass thing I hung on a coat hook, it gongs nicely, and the copper thing I set in front of the engine and used a couple of Sponge Bob pencils to replicate some piping.






&#8220;Something to fall back on if I can&#8217;t find anything else.&#8221; I thought.


About a week later I had the pipe fittings finished and still needed a tank and went into think TANKing mode.






It has a couple of dings but has cooling tank written all over it.

Pulling out all stops as well as anything I had that was somewhere in the realm of size and was made from brass, had to be brass.
Hmm.., not much to work with. I checked the price of brass again and decided what I had was something to work with, the parts I needed were there in that pile, I just had to find them.






Mostly electric outlet floorplates, a sink drain and a couple of brass candelsticks.
This ought to be good.!

First step was to cut off the bottom and top of the tank with the bandsaw. There were no surprises inside.
This piece, part of an outlet cover, should do nicely for the top.





Quite to my surprise, the base of this candlestick fit snuggly in the tank.











Not sure what good it would do, but because it fit, I put it in the &#8220;good&#8221; pile.
The sink basket also fit perfectly and had a flange which could be handy, but I found it was SS. 
The next piece that had any merit at all was the 1/8&#8221; thick brass disc, another electric fitting. It was bigger dia. than the tank and had three holes which might be used for some clamping rods to hold the top in place.






With the addition of some bent pieces of 12 Ga. ceiling wire I was starting to think I had most of what I needed to get started.






The tank would have to be shortened because I thought the water fittings must fit in between the two sets of rolled features on the tank.

Problem, how to get an accurate straight cut on an old piece of copper like this, which also has a rolled seem.
Thinking I could possibly hold it in the lathe and at least make a couple of straight lines around it I could snip it off, but being pretty soft I would need some sort of mandrel.

Enter the candle stick base.
Firmly pushed into the tube and grabbed in the 3 jaw I had a pretty good grip on it but the far end was wobbling and would need to be supported with the tailpiece.
It also would need a mandrel.

Did I mention I had two of these candlesticks?
Pushed in the opposite end and a live center in the screw hole I now had a firm grip and it was turning true.
Turning the chuck by hand, I scored both cut marks deeply with a sharp tool and stopped at the seam.
No pics of that setup, but I could now make slits around the tank and simply bend the pieces off along the score line.






The mandrel pushed back in place the flat bending segments were easily tapped smooth and with a little sanding I now had a nice clean edge to work from.


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## Generatorgus (Feb 15, 2013)

Next the chosen top piece was turned round and cleaned up.











Some 1/8&#8221; brazing rods cleaned up and bent added nicely to the effect I had in mind.
It didn&#8217;t take long to figure out the hooks probably wouldn&#8217;t work. I had some ideas for making the base and didn&#8217;t think I could come up with a suitable arrangement the be able to fit a nut on the bottom.

I made some, what I would call, &#8220;boot&#8221; clamps and a few decorative nuts. This would more than likely be the permanent solution because the bottom end of the rods could be treaded into what I had in mind for the base.






Some adjustment to the piping would have to be made so it would line up with the height of the tank outlets.

The brass disc mentioned earlier was modified some, one of the candestick bases and the a few footies salvaged from this outlet cover would complete the work on the base. (The candlestick base is on top of the disc and holds the bottom of the tank, it was modified a bit.)
















Then back to flange basics101, this time with bolsters for the inside of the tank, three required.
I decided to add a drain. I should get all three from this.











All finished except sealing and final assembly.
It may not tickle everyone&#8217;s fancy, but I like it, kind of medieval.  It fits in with the character of this engine being named for a mythical beast.











Dave, I got to thinking about the horizontal pipe interfering with the thermosyphon, I'm going to leave it as is and call it an experiment.


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## starnovice (Feb 15, 2013)

WOW like reading an episode of Junkyard Wars!  Great posting Gus,

Pat


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## vcutajar (Feb 15, 2013)

Love it Gus.  Way to go.

Vince


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## idahoan (Feb 15, 2013)

Hi Gus

Great update and I love your resourcefulness; The copper tank really looks the part and the rolled beads are a nice touch. There won't be any problem with the level discharge pipe; only if it runs down hill will the thermosyphon not work properly.

I picked up a couple nice copper tanks at the local flea market one time; they are about 7" tall and 3 3/4" dia., very nicely made with a bead rolled near the bottom and a nice finished edge on the top. The seams are sealed in the inside with a hard gray sealer that looks kind of like JB Weld. The guy I got them from told me that they came from a crematorium and they were used to hold ashes .

I gave my buddy Max one and he used it for the cooling tank on his Olds gearless engine. He has had a good time at the shows with the story about the tank.

Dave

PS. What is going on in the 3rd to that last picture? Work on the fitting but I haven't been able figure it out.


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 15, 2013)

You are doing some quite remarkable work there. I just took the time to go through your entire post, and I am very impressed. I don't believe I have ever seen an engine which is water cooled as yours appears to be, but with a seperate cooling tank instead of integral like the Odds and Ends engine I am building. I assume your engne is going to be throttle controlled by the carburetor, not hit and miss. Is that correct?----Brian


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## Generatorgus (Feb 17, 2013)

Hi Pat, Thanks. Junkyard Wars, never thought about it like that, but pretty well fits. 
Usually when I decide I am going to conjure something up with "on hand" materials, something usually appears at the other end of the work bench, good or bad.

Vince, I wasn't at all sure where I was going, but once I started cutting things, well.., thanks for the compliment.

Thanks Dave. I'd love to have a story like that to attach to this cooling tank. I'd still like to know what this tank originally was, maybe a runoff tank for a spitoon.
I'm thinking the water will flow, if there is a temperature difference, question is how much?
The picture in question is cutting the tank radius on the mounting surface of the flange with the boring head, just a not so good picture, I know the radius is there, not so easy to see if you don't have that information.

Brian, 
Thanks for the kind words.
Tank cooling is one of a number of common ways a lot of early engines were cooled. 






Hopper cooling became pretty standard. Of the earlier methods, I like screen cooling and may have gone that direction if I had intended to add a water pump.
Much to my dismay, this is a throttle controlled engine, no governor.
I guess you need to have an operator on duty to control the speed.
I'm going to get it running and then decide what to do about governing it.

I've been following your build, seems your always a few pages ahead. Busy, busy man you are. When do you sleep?
GUS


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## Brian Rupnow (Feb 17, 2013)

Gus--Its the middle of winter in Canada, and I don't have a whole lot of engineering (my real job) to do these days. All the shops I do work for are slow. I gave up skiing and sleigh riding about 20 years ago. I've read untill I have outread all my favourite authors and I'm waiting for them to publish. I don't watch much television. I get a lot done in my little machine shop because right now I don't have anything else to do.---Brian


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## Generatorgus (Feb 22, 2013)

Brian, If you change engineering to construction, we're running somewhat parallel lives, except I'm just not quite that ambitious.

I consider sitting on a stool, in the afternoon,with my back to the wood stove and "sipping" a beer or two and day dreaming an important part of my shop time. 
Such activity can sometimes inspire a really bright idea or maybe a brainfart.
GUS


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## Rivergypsy (Feb 22, 2013)

Lmfao - great minds think alike 

It's amazing how creative your thought processes become after some liquid inspiration


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## Generatorgus (Feb 24, 2013)

The fuel tank.
Some what like the cooling tank, my frugal side has prompted me to go the on hand materials route.

The for tank proper I have my choice of 2 brass tubing or copper pipe, I chose copper in keeping with the cooling tank theme.
Now for the ends, I have one piece of bronze bearing blank left over from some bearings I made for a little Atlas diesel I have, or cutting up a ¾ thick bass flat, that may not be thick enough for both ends. I chose the bearing material.






Its 7/8 long and large enough to make both ends, if I dont screw up.
First step would be to decide how long the tank should be (not very difficult) and cutting it to length accurately and with a nice clean cut (more difficult).

The pipe is standard water pipe with a 1/16 wall and should be strong enough to chuck in the lathe if I can support the far end with the tailstock, which was a problem., I still dont have a live center with a point large enough.
Back to the materials search.
This assortment came out of my bearing drawer. Reduce, reduce, reduce.

The babbit lined bearing is from the Atlas diesel. I tried to repour the liner and machine it in the lathe, it almost worked but proved to be too thin, hence the leftover bronze I chose for the ends.






The bearing fit very snuggly in the copper pipe, but wasnt helping anything. The collar fit tightly in the pipe and the stepped mystery bushing? fit nicely in the collar and the assembly went under the knife.






With the tank cut to length I had to decide how to close the ends.

I guess I should have said earlier that I decided to go with the three tie rod scheme used on the cooling tank.
And now I decided to try to use glass. Nothing else would look that good, at least in my eyes.

Going to a glass shop and telling the guy I would need a couple of glass discs exactly a few thousandths smaller than the 2 1/8 pipe dia. seemed to me to be unrealistic.
Maybe I could cut it. 
Ive messed around with stained glass a bit and made curved pieces, but I just couldnt see myself cutting the discs accurately. I thought I would have to go see the guy at the glass shop.

Sitting in front of the wood stove that afternoon, I had a brainfart.

Maybe, just maybe I could hold a glass cutter in the mill somehow and use the rotab. The more I thought about it seemed like it could work, maybe.
Looking at the only two glass cutters I have, I decided to try the one with staight wooden handle because it could easily be held in the drill chuck.
The first try told me that the setup was flexing and running amuck, it wouldnt stay on track and I broke the glass, but I took another try anyway, I have plenty of glass.

After breaking the second piece I was still thinking about not going to see the glass guy.
I would have to stiffen the setup. 

The cutter part on the wood handled cutter must have a shank on it, what if ..???
I pried it out and sure enough there was shank about a 1/8 square.
A little filing and it fit nicely in a 1/8 end mill holder.






This has to work.






It was working but I broke another couple of pieces because I was holding too much pressure.
A few more tries and I was home free. Scoring radial marks around the circle I could snap off the smaller pieces and end up with a fairly nice surface with a few small bumps that were easily smoothed out with a diamond sharpening block.






The piece of bearing was bored out from both ends to fit the OD of the pipe to a depth of about ¼ and then parted in the middle to form the two caps.


----------



## Generatorgus (Feb 24, 2013)

Then onto the rotab to narrow the rim and leave the bumps for the rods.






The bumps were hand filed round.

Next I selected a 3/32 brazing rod and cut three pieces for the tie rods.
Cleaned up they were threaded 3-48 on each end.






Next operation was to bolt the ends together and plunge a ¼&#8221; end mill not quite all the way thru the rim, leaving a stop for the legs.






The Rough and Tumble winter get together was the next day, I was taking the Wyvern but didn&#8217;t have time to solder the legs in and make flange footies.

I settled on drilling four holes in the wooden base setting the legs in and putting four simulated footies on and set the tank gingerly in place.






Surprisingly the tank stayed put for the 200 plus mile round trip and I had fun at the show.

Next day in my shop I made the four round flange footies and Loctited them in place, also made some decorative nuts to match those on the cooling tank.











Now I was sitting there proudly admiring my work and thinking the flange footies look like a shiny new pair of shoes.

As she is apt to do, my wife stops by for a visit. "That looks like a a dog" she says.
Cheez, if she wanted to hurt me she should have just used a stick.

Actually, I settled for the legs, I thought about the same thing.
I had envisioned using two thicker pedestals centered under the tank and just behing the caps, with bases that would reflect the base of the muffler.  I was also thinking the pedsetals may be a little too out there.
I should have stuck to what imagination wanted, but, if I'm so inclined my imagination will have it's say, the tank ends are only bolted on.


----------



## Philjoe5 (Feb 24, 2013)

Nice work Gus.  

The "Sponge Bob pencils" trick is pretty cool.  Now I'll have to find a few to store in the toolboxRof}

Phil


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## Mike1 (Feb 24, 2013)

Hi Gus.

You are getting well on with the Wyvern I like the water cooling set up and the fuel tank, it's starting to look the part, looking foward to the running stage.

Although I have my Wyvern finished I look through your threads and get some good info on the way you went about some of the operations in the build, which makes me say "why didn't I do it that way"

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Feb 25, 2013)

Phil, Thanks, it's getting there.
 Sponge Bob pencils: made for kids, 13mm lead, hard to break, I have dozens of them.  PRETTY GOOD FOR DRAWING STICK FIGURES The erasers aren't worth s...! Also not so good for finer work.

Hi Mike, It's almost done, pretty much right now it needs an ignition.

"why didn't I do it that way"
Almost every time I check out other people's posts.


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## rhitee93 (Feb 25, 2013)

It is build threads like this one that teach me how little I actually know about making things.  Truly inspiring work :bow:


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## Woodster (Feb 25, 2013)

rhitee93 said:


> It is build threads like this one that teach me how little I actually know about making things.  Truly inspiring work :bow:



I've been a TV aerial engineer for 13yrs (after 13yrs as a CNC turner) and if it's taught me one thing, it's that there are 2 dozen ways to get to the same result. It all depends on what you are taught, and the tips and tricks you pick up on the way.


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## modelman1838 (Feb 25, 2013)

HI
Have just posted a reply in Ignition circuit help thread about a cheap ignition system for my Wyvern for £7-69p which i obtained from ebay.

Hugh


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## Generatorgus (Feb 26, 2013)

Brian, thanks for the kind words.
I get real satisfaction out of utilizing things on the junk pile.
Like Woodster said, there's a lot of roads that go the same place.

Hugh, Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like a good idea. Might try it someday.
As for this engine, I made a magnet wheel for a Hall sensor, it will be mounted on the side shaft and will hide behind the flywheel.
I used the Hall type ignition (S&S) hidden in a scale model coil box to run both of my other engines. I just move it from one to the other, and now this one. Works for me, no physical contact.

















Batteries are NOS, a friend dropped them off at my place one day.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Feb 27, 2013)

Plumbing the fuel tank.

After sketching things up I started out with the compression fitting for the fuel line.
Both ends of a cut to length piece of the ¼ SS tubing were reduced and threaded 10-32.
Then in the mill vise at 45 degrees the sawed in half at what I figured would be dead center (mostly a guess) to form the two halves of the miter.






Silver soldered and cleaned up a compression nut was made.






The other threaded end is my version of a pipe thread. It'll do.

I made one of these fittings for my Lil Brother. it works well.
I use a small segment of Teflon as the ferrule.

Next in line was the check valve using the same SS tubing.






The tank flanges were also made. One each for the outlet, filler and vent.






The filler wasnt made yet in this picture, but it is of similar construction.
A basic tube with a loose collar curved to the radius of the tank.
The collars were Loctited in place, and after setting, the flanges then Loctited to the tank.
Theory being the collars more than double the contact surface for the glue. 

I built the fuel thank for Lil Brother entirely as a glue up, including the tank ends, and its still holding perfectly some two years later.











All the Wyvern fuel tank pieces now complete, except the filler cap,


----------



## Philjoe5 (Feb 27, 2013)

Great work Gus.  Maybe I'll see it running at Cabin Fever, eh?

Phil


----------



## Generatorgus (Feb 27, 2013)

Then the fuel tank assembled.











The plastic fuel line is temporary (for start up purpose only) and will be replaced by a 1/8&#8221; SS tube after the engine is running good and assembled on it&#8217;s permanent base.

Next day I discovered this.






Too much torque on at least one of the nuts, I wasn&#8217;t counting turns, just tightening, big mistake. 
The seal is formed by a 1/16&#8221; O-ring between the glass and the tank and padded with a paper gasket between the cap and the glass.
I think tightening carefully in sequence will prevent this from happening again.

Four new glass caps were made. Quite a bit rougher cut (old glass from a storm window), but I got all four pieces without any breakage.






Reassembled and torqued evenly the tank was filled with water for an overnite test, no leaks.











The grandkids pics behind the tank just for the fish(halibut/heluvit).
They were having fun at an engine show riding around in the back of my buddy&#8217;s &#8220;Hoofty&#8221; wagon(Cushman type vehicle).

I couldn&#8217;t resist flipping the flywheel to see if it draws, yes, it does. Now I think I have to pump the water out of the cylinder.

I finally made the fill cap, same design as the vent, which was the result of an &#8220;oopsy&#8221; when I was free handing a light taper on the lathe, using a ball end mill for a cutter.

I had in mind something like a pipe cap, but salvaged this shape from the already threaded vent cap. Kind of different, I believe I&#8217;ve seen a similar shape used for a governor shield. Works for me.






There's only a few things more to do before I go for "THE BIG START UP"
Which I'm very apprehensive about.:hDe:


----------



## Rivergypsy (Feb 27, 2013)

Very nice work, Gus - nearly there!!


----------



## idahoan (Feb 27, 2013)

Great progress Gus!

Thanks for the update.

Dave


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## vcutajar (Feb 27, 2013)

Can't wait Gus.  Keeping my finger crossed so that it does not give you any trouble.

Vince


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## Generatorgus (Feb 28, 2013)

Phil, you kind of snuck in between my back to back posts, I was surprised to see it there.
Yeah, I'm aiming at Cabin Fever.

Guys, thanks for the encouragement.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Mar 3, 2013)

Almost going real time now, Im getting caught up.

I filled the fuel tank with Coleman fuel, its been about three days now and holding perfectly, no leaks.

I sealed the cooling tank and tested it overnite, it had small leak which seemed to be from the bottom of the soldered seam. Not unusual, Ive had that happen before. I put a coat of fuel tank sealer on the inside of the entire tank and its now holding water.

That first water test complete it was the time to test the rest of the piping and the cylinder to liner.
For this the cylinder head was removed so I could see that joint. With the cooling tank attached and filled, about an hour later no leaks. Good show.

While it had water in it I figured I might try a preliminary test, to see if the water would thermosyphon when the cylinder was heated.
For this I used a heat gun set on low and propped it up to blow directly into the cylinder.






I also dropped a thermometer into the tank to give me an idea of the rate of flow.
The gauge is bottomed out which is about right. This time of year the our well water is really cold about 45 deg.






With the heat gun running about ten minutes, there was absolutely no flow although the cylinder was almost too hot to touch.
I noticed an air bubble in the end of the inlet pipe, telling me it might be air bound so I tipped the engine and tank back a bit and a string of bubbles came out, followed by some fairly warm water.
That made me smile a bit.

If one thermometer was good, three would be even better.
About an hour into the test, this was the result.






The glass thermometer was right below the inlet reading almost ninety.
The probe on the little one was about halfway down and the probe on the big one almost at the bottom.
Water was flowing and the cylinder was cool enough touch, even though the heat gun was heating more than just the inside of the cylinder.
And about another hour things were a bit warmer but not alarmingly.






Im thinking that I should to be able to run the engine some time and not overheat it. Ill find that out for sure when it is running.
&#12288;
I ran the test for another twenty minutes or so with not much increase in temps, and decided there was nothing further to prove. Im happy.
After another hour, all the thermometers were at right about eighty.

Next two pics show the temp at the nozzle of the heat gun and then the side of the cylinder just before I shut things down.











And yeah, I have a thing for thermometers.


While I had the two piece cylinder head off I decided to casterize it.
Casterize: (not a real word, I think) make machined parts look a little bit like castings. Simply put, this is brutalizing the part with a coarse wire wheel on the bench grinder.






I also upgraded the spark plug from the ¼-32 plug I had in there to a 1/16NPT, two piece plug I made about six months ago.






Now, with the cylinder head off and the side shaft cleared of cams, I can slide the magnet wheel on and get along with figuring out the placement of the hall sensor.

GUS

PS, Is it just me, or has the new version of Photobucket added a new layer of difficulty to adding pictures to our posts?


----------



## Philjoe5 (Mar 3, 2013)

Good progress Gus.  Can't wait to see it run.

Air bubbles will kill the thermosyphon effect for sure and if your tubing ID's are small it could be problematic.  A drop or two of rubbing alcohol will help to eliminate the problem should it become irritating.



> PS, Is it just me, or has the new version of Photobucket added a new layer of difficulty to adding pictures to our posts?


When PB ran out the beta tests of this upgrade I complained about that very same thing.  Obviously they filed my suggestions in the circular file:rant:

Phil


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## idahoan (Mar 3, 2013)

Hi Gus

Great progress; the engine is coming along nicely.

I have the same complaints about Photobucket; instead of being able to get your (img) code all from one page you have open each picture.
I used Web Shots for years with out any problem; I switch to Photobucket and in less than 4 months they say I have exceeded my bandwidth and blocked the links to all my pictures. So I give them some money and only a few of my pictures will now load. They say that is is supposed to be automatic (as far as the links working properly again); I haven't had time to look into it.

Dave


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## Generatorgus (Mar 3, 2013)

If you listen careful and try not to laugh at the dumbass who got in the camera, YOU CAN HEAR IT. 
I'M PROUD PAPA!!!!





I got the solution for the hall sensor mount figured out. I put it back together this morning, set the valve timing, then the spark.

First forty spins, nothing!! It drew fuel up to the carb, but wouldn't fire, tried a lot of things.

Then pulled the spark plug and primed it.
Yeah, it started right up.

Did it again and, yeah, it runs but the carb doesn't want to work.

Couple more different fixes, no, won't even burp.

Removed carb and primed the intake port, yes, the engine RUNS, and pretty good until the prime goes away.

Am I happy??? Hell yeah!!!;D;Dwoohoo1woohoo1woohoo1*beer**beer**beer*
And starts easily when primed, the carb doesn't work.

Carb/fuel problems can be vexing, at best.
But, there is nothing more dissapointing than the deadly silence of an engine that doesn't run.
Been there, done that.  Big time bummer!!

I'm elated and I think I'll have a couple more beers. *beer**beer*

It don't get much better than that!!!

GUS

Oh yeah, if you didn't understand the last sentence, "push rod for the intake valve".
I forgot to tighten the lock nut, when I set the timing.


----------



## Philjoe5 (Mar 3, 2013)

Excellent job Gus...the details?  You'll figure them out, but for now congratulationsThm:

Cheers,
Phil


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## idahoan (Mar 3, 2013)

Congrats Gus!!

Way to go; you will have the carby problems sorted out in no time.

Dave


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## vcutajar (Mar 4, 2013)

Congrats Gus.  I'm sure you will figure out the carb problem.

Vince


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## aarggh (Mar 4, 2013)

That fuel tank is fantastic Gus! What an awesome job mate!

cheers, Ian


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## rodw (Mar 4, 2013)

Gus this is an awesome build. As a kid, we had heaps of stationery engines with cooling tanks. Most of them were plumbed to old 44 gallon drums. I reckon your tank is a good size for the scale of the engine. If it looks like like getting too hot, just "bucket" some water out and add some more cold water.

One difference though, all of our engines were connected by a length of radiator hose to the tanks on both inlet and outlet. I would be a little bit concerned about breaking pipe fittings from vibration with your setup but then your engine is not likely to run 8 hours per day like ours did. I do like the use of unions on the plumbing though!


----------



## Rivergypsy (Mar 4, 2013)

Oh, now thats very nice - well done!! :bow:


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## Generatorgus (Mar 4, 2013)

Guys, Thanks for the oohs and ahs. It's nice to know people are watching and have taken the time to respond.
I'm kind of flabergasted that it started up so easily.

I've been a little bummed out for the last couple of days, mostly because it's kind of the end of the trail/tale. I was very somber and apprehensive yesterday morning when I started to reassemble things, my wife even asked me if something was wrong.

When it came time to start flipping the flywheel I was thinking it should run, but will it?
But at the point when I figured out it wasn't getting fuel, I kind of knew it would start if I primed it, everything fealt right, but I was surprised when it fired up immediately.

I'll give the carb some scrutiny when I get over there this morning, maybe it's something simple.
It seems pretty strange that it sucked the fuel up, but never popped or even flooded. The spark plug was dry and not even a hint that the fuel made it into the cylinder.

I never noticed, yesterday, as I was making that video (third attempt) that the intake push rod was just leaning there and not even in place under the rocker before I started.
It ran anyway, like it didn't even need the cam and rocker. I checked the video (second attempt) of the little run I made earlier and the push rod was there and in place while it was running. 

If I can't figure out whats wrong with the carb, I may just rig a quicky mixer and give the engine a good shake down run.

I'll keep you posted.

Rod, thanks for your input on the cooling tank. Pretty neat that you had real time experience with them.
I did consider that I could break a something if I plumbed it solid, I just did'nt like the thought of putting hoses somwhere on it. I think if everything is solidly mounted and shaking at the same rate maybe it will be OK. We'll see.

GUS


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## Mike1 (Mar 4, 2013)

Hi Gus.

Your engine starts with a fuel prime, would choking the carb air supply give a richer mix to get the engine running.

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Mar 4, 2013)

OK, 
After spending the last eight hours trying every trick I know, and lot of tricks I don't know, I stopped short of doing this.:wall:
Mike, yes I tried choking it several thousand times.
End of work day sitting by the stove, I get a flashback from yesterday morning.

I had to check it out. So, tomorrow morning I'm going to drive into town and visit the custom baseball hat shop. I decided to get one that says "DUMBASS"

When I was installing the exhaust valve cage yesterday morning, I noticed the index mark that told me it was oriented to the exhaust port. I made a mental note to check the already installed intake cage, but evidentally I lost the note.

Yes, it was turned the wrong way. The engine was only getting leak by vacuum. No wonder it wouldn't draw enough fuel. I'm surprised it ran at all.

I was going to wait until tomorrow to correct things but I had to try it.

It started up immediately after the fuel reached the needle and actually responded to the throttle, but I accidentally knocked the fuel line off and it quit.  My fingers are almost blistered from flywheel flipping and I decided that tomorrow is another day, hopefully a better one.

GUS


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## Mike1 (Mar 5, 2013)

Hi Gus.

Looks like you will have a running engine having found the cause of the initial problem, by the way I thought I would give my Wyvern a run up the other day, and what is normally a good starting engine it just wouldn't start, I was five minutes trying and then noticed the plug lead wasn't connected (* unbelievable* ) I can only put it down to the "age thing".

Mike.


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## metalmad (Mar 5, 2013)

Hi Guys
Cool Engine Mate 
Glad you found the problem 
Pete


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## vcutajar (Mar 5, 2013)

Gus

I am very happy you figured it out.



> So, tomorrow morning I'm going to drive into town and visit the custom baseball hat shop. I decided to get one that says "DUMBASS"


 
I should get a couple of those for myself also.

Vince


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## Generatorgus (Mar 6, 2013)

Yeah Mike, I usually forget to turn the ignition on, or off for all it matters.

A quick update.
I was making progress sorting out the needle setting and just getting to the point that it was starting to smooth out and run, but couldn't quite attain that. 
I decided to try fooling around with the ignition timing and got the magnet wheel rubbing on the hall sensor and knocked it out of service.
I did that once on my little H ford engine.

I really don't like the location of the wheel and sensor (the wheel is on the side shaft, just front side of the crankshaft). It's too inaccessable.
I'm going to abandon that location and mount it on the end of the side shaft just behind the crankshaft, where I can access it from the rear.
I have one more sensor on hand, but have ten more on order.

Right now I'm working nights doing maintainance at one of six locations I service for a national restaurant chain.
I can't get my sleep schedule right. As the song goes "the days are foggy and the nights are kind of foggy, too." 
I can't seem to muster up any ambition to play.

I can't wait to get back to sleeping nights.

GUS


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## Klaus (Mar 6, 2013)

Hi GUS,
great work , now you can take a beer!

Greetings fom croatia

Klaus


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## air-cooled (Mar 8, 2013)

Generatorgus said:


> Tankonomics:
> 
> ...
> 
> ...



This is my first post here, so I'm not sure if I can post an image link...   but do you think your "what's it" (bolded in your post above) might be a water hammer arrestor, the home plumbing type?    Some of them have a piston or diaphragm inside, but others are just empty air tanks.






Great work on your engine, by the way.     I started at the beginning and read your whole thread straight through - it's always neat to read how people approach and solve the problems they encounter in projects like this.  Thm:


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## gus (Mar 10, 2013)

rhitee93 said:


> I'll be following along on your build Gus.  It looks like it is going to get interesting





Faraway Singapore Gus also following your pregress.


Singapore Gus.(Rhymes well with GeneratorGUS.)


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## Generatorgus (Mar 11, 2013)

Klaus,  Thanks, I had a couple of beers while trying to decide what to do with the Hall sensor.

Air Cooled, welcome to the forum.  Air hammer arrestor, yes, very possible. Thanks for the comments.

Singapore Gus..Your a natural poet, does that rhyme in Chinese


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## Generatorgus (Mar 11, 2013)

OK, back to the ignition issue.

Although I hadn&#8217;t decided where or how to rig the sensor and magnet yet, I did decide I had to replace the damaged Hall sensor so I needed to wire up the one remaining sensor I had on hand.
I know this has been done on this forum before, but I&#8217;m going to post it anyway.

Soldering the fairly tiny sensor leads to the plug harness can be a bit challenging if you haven&#8217;t messed around with things like this and up until I built the Lil&#8217; Brother, lamp wire was about the smallest I ever did.

The important thing is to keep the bundle as compact as possible in order to be able to place the sensor where you want it.
Also important is to try not to overheat the sensor in the process.

This go around I decided to try three different lengths for the individual connections using shrink tubing to insulate them.











While soldering and heat shrinking the tubing I protected the sensor with a small piece of damp rag and the heat was kept to the bare minimum.
And, of course, all of the tubing should be in place &#8220;before&#8221; soldering.






The red lead did not need the smaller shrink tube, as the other leads are insulated. The prongs near the sensor seem to be stiff enough to keep them apart.
I thought I only had one sensor but I had two so I wired up a spare.
This rig will slide thru a 7/32&#8221; hole.






The one on top is one of my first attempts at doing this, I keep it for a spare.

This is the soldering iron I used, for the last three or four I&#8217;ve made up, an absolute must in IMHO.





&#12288;



After a lot of indecision as to the new location for the sensor, I had a wild thought float across the screen during an one of my afternoon fireside contemplation sessions.
&#8220;Why hide the sensor ignition, it didn&#8217;t do anything wrong. Other ignition contacts are usually put out in the open where all eyes can see them.&#8221; 

&#8220; And why not make this one TOTALLY obvious&#8221;
Would I dare? You bet!!

I dug thru some bits and pieces and came up with this mock up.
Why not?





Something like a ships engine telegraph.
Yeah, this will be fun.
&#12288;


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## Generatorgus (Mar 14, 2013)

I made a rough sketch of the parts and got right at making the post.
I chose a 5/8SS bar. I originally was going to rough the shape using the 3 jaw then part it off and go to a face plate and offset tailstock for the taper, but I got carried away and forgot to leave a lug on it for the dog to grab.
Now, I had to depend on the compound. There was just enough travel if I made a second ring feature at to top. I had to fool around awhile trying to find the angle but I managed to stumble through.











I went on to make a brass base with footies and a loose SS collar to make the mount at the rotor/sensor housing.






Also had a good save? when I knocked the open Dykem container off the counter. I caught it and managed to avoid a much larger cleanup.






The open end of the housing was turned from 1" brass round and a hole for the post drilled and reamed in the bottom. Then ¼ channels milled for the sensor and clamp.

I was intending to use flat head screws for the clamp but figured out that the clamp strap would be almost severed at the at the countersets. I would have to use pan head screws and this would hold the rotor too far away from the sensor. 






I milled the clamp channel deeper and changed my plan for a flat strap to one with a half round pressed in.

The first clamp now in the jar I sheared a new piece of brass sheet, from a donor trophy plaque. 
I have a small box full of botched or practice engraved plaques, donated by a friend. Brass and alum, they come in handy for a number of things.












Then made a simple wooden form to press the round in the strap.
The round was then pressed in using the vise and a 3/16 drill bit.















Back in the lathe the housing was parted from the stub end and a face formed then a face plate turned from SS and the housing face drilled and tapped 0-80(smallest hole Ive ever tapped, an accomplishment for me).
The assembly, waiting for Loctite.






The assembly, waiting for Loctite
















Next, the rotor.


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## Brian Rupnow (Mar 14, 2013)

Dang, Generator Gus----I like your stuff!!! Wish we lived closer to each other!!----Brian


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## Rivergypsy (Mar 15, 2013)

Very nice work, Gus!


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## Philjoe5 (Mar 15, 2013)

Very nice work Gus.  Hope to see this engine running at Cabin Fever,

Phil


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## Generatorgus (Mar 17, 2013)

Guys, thanks for the compliments.
Brian, be careful what you wish for.

I should have stopped playing with this and got more serious about getting the engine running, but I'm having fun, and it's allmost finished.

For the rotor I found the cutoff from a hex something? I made, cant remember what it was right now.
Right size, and with a little help it would make an interesting and functional rotor.
First order was to make it look somewhat armature like, 1/8 holes drilled near the points and 1/8 brass rod Loctited in. Then turned to the proper circumference and a 1/8 button magnet routed in flush on the inside. Sorry forgot to take more pix. 











Fairly critical for the glue up was getting the rotor centered in the housing, as up to now, the height was still adjustable via the loose collar.
I came up with this set up. It had to be moveable as the assembly would need to rotate into place, it worked well, but it took a while to get there.
The rotor is centered via the side shaft in a blind hole on the center of the housing.
This is the spring loaded clamping arrangement I came up with.











The timing device may still need to be shimmed in place when it is mounted on the wood base.


I figured I would need some sort of pointer on the gauge face, so this needle from a Fowler indicator fell victim. I bought a bag of these deemed unrepairable indicators, and they pretty much are, but I needed a needle and it was almost worth the five bucks I paid for them.
I gently drilled out the center insert so it would fit the new mounting screw.
















I still needed some kind of numbers to put on the dial. No way I could paint the tiny numbers, and I was getting desperate to find something. 
If I already didnt have one foot in Fantasy Land, I put both feet in.

I borrowed a worn out old Timex from my wifes defunct watches collection, shell never miss it, I thought. 











At this point I was, kind of, waiting for a silly white rabbit with a giant pocket watch to come running thru my shop shouting Im Late, Im late.

Still needs an adjuster knob.

As a fair trade, gesture I converted the otherwise worthless watch into a Willie Nelson concert collectors piece. Shell love it.






A little brass knob added and I said fairwell to the rabbit and got back to getting the engine running (almost). As a parting shot I added this into the mix. 
Not at all fuctional it should get a lot of people thinking.


----------



## Brian Rupnow (Mar 17, 2013)

That is absolutely marvelous!!!! Is that a dummy sparkplug or what gives?


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## vcutajar (Mar 17, 2013)

Gus

I wish I had your imagination.

Vince


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## Rivergypsy (Mar 17, 2013)

Absolutely love it - top job!!


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## ronkh (Mar 17, 2013)

Gus,

In the nicest possible meaning.

You are mad but bl**dy brilliant!! 
Just "watch" it with your wife!! (Come on now Gus,  she will miss it. Do you really believe not)?

Such a great build, write up and soo funny but also entertaining and a good way of learning, thank you mate!!

(By the way, this is my third look through from the beginning of your build to get some ideas and oh boy, have I learnt a lot. Again thank's).


Many kind regards,

Ron.


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## rodw (Mar 17, 2013)

Awesome, I think you will need to add a plaque on completion dedicated to the Mad Hatter from Wyvernish!


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## Generatorgus (Mar 18, 2013)

Wow, I knew was treading in some uncharted territory when I started making the ignition tower and I wasn't sure what to expect when I added the watch face and then the dummy terminal in the top. 

Thought maybe I'd get booed off of the stage.

You guys have me blushing, Thanks.

I like to mess with people's minds a little, it stirs the imagination.
The story will me that it is a magneto and the numbered dial adjusts the timing, the numbers indicating degrees BTC. 
Almost believable, almost. Not sure I can say that and keep a staight face.

Too bad I have to unhook the jumper in order to run it.
I was going to experiment a bit, I didn't know if energizing the tower would monkey up the Hall sensor, but my idea was dashed when I realized that the spark would just arc to the sideshaft. Not enough room inside for the plug wire.

GUS


----------



## Generatorgus (Mar 18, 2013)

Back to the issue at hand, get the Wyvern running right.

Somehow I figured it would spring to life and settle in to a smooth running engine.
Far from the truth.
I had to choke it to get it to start, and got it too smooth out at a reasonably slow RPM, but, inevitably, it would stall.
Looking for a solution, I came up with a few fixes.
Number one on the list, and easiest, add a grounding electrode on the spark plug.
My little H. Ford ran like a champ after I went that direction.
Some engines dont seem to need one.
Disassembled, I drilled the rim .046 and added a bent SS wire. No problem, it went smooth as silk.








I ran the 1/16 NPT die back over the treads to make sure I got any excess solder cleaned up.
Life is good, clear sailing, I thought!!

As I reinstalled the plug, near the end of its travel, I felt a little resistance. Thinking there was a little solder on the threads, I continued tightening to the final turn where there was another little resistance.

Hind sight is 20/20, I should have backed up and removed the plug, instead, I primed the engine, flipped the ignition switch and gave the flywheel a spin.
I felt what I thought was an early timing bump and spun the flywheel again. No compression.

Quick investigation, the exhaust valve was stuck open.
On removal of the spark plug, the valve closed and with my finger on the plug hole there seemed to be good compression. Close call. I thought I had ample clearance for the added electrode. The .025 gap on the plug was now 0.







Now to figure out what to do about the spark plug, it was becoming apparent that switching to a pipe thread plug wasnt such a good idea.
I could have cut the electrode off and continued spinning the flywheel with the same result, but I was still thinking that adding the electrode would be a good idea, and it would be the easiest of the fixes to try. 
&#12288;
I could pull the cylinder head plug up the old hole and re-tap it for the ¼ plug I had in it.
But I wanted to get the engine running. Maybe if I shortened up the thread on the plug and put another electrode on. There was a mark on the old electrode where it hit the valve, so I decided to shorten it up a little more than that. The tapered thread wouldnt miss a thread or two.
I milled the end of the plug down and started drilling the new hole for the electrode and broke the drill bit. Now stuck in in the hole I had to try to get the piece out.

About then I started to feel like nothing at all I did that day (Saturday) was working out.
Maybe the gnomes were messing with me or maybe the nightshift thing was stealing my mind. I just spent about a week of shop time messing around with a nonsense fantasy. (but it was a lot of fun)

At any rate, I managed to get the broken bit out of the hole. Fortunately I have spares for most of my number bits so I finished drilling and soldered another electrode to the plug.
Unfortunately the last little bit of turn in and it was just bumping the valve again.
I backed it out a bit and tried to start the engine but the compression was just not there.

Maybe the valve is bent.
I have to tear it down and see whats going on. RATS!!!!:wall::wall:

GUS


----------



## Brian Rupnow (Mar 18, 2013)

Gus--I know where your heads at. I go there just about every time I build an i.c. engine. In fact I'm sure most of the i.c. guys will tell you----building i.c. engines is fun---But it makes ya Crazy!!!!


----------



## Rivergypsy (Mar 19, 2013)

It always seems to be the last few details that drive you nuts 

Stick with it though, Gus!


----------



## Generatorgus (Mar 19, 2013)

Brian, well put.
Maybe we can start a support group.


Sunday(St Pattis Day)
I removed the engine from its temp. base, so I could work on it.
First I pulled the exhaust valve cage and took a looksee.
Aside from the normal black WD40 residue, the outward appearance was OK.
Same for the intake, but cleaner.

I pulled the valves from the housings and wiped them down a bit.
I was a little surprised that the exhaust valve was now black from the head up to the port.
Almost like I blued it.






Not seeing any sign of damage to either, I decided that lapping both valves again couldnt hurt.






What next?
Pull the cylinder head and take a look inside was my choice.
Right off, this was blatantly apparent.






Blown head gasket, or I should say eroded, maybe.






I cant say this was the problem earlier on, but it is now.
I went to see what the outer head gasket looked like and found it had vulcanized itself to the other side of the inner head.






Add to this the black exhaust valve and you dont need an instruction book to realize, that this head got really hot.

I have no idea what the composition if the gasket material is, some rubber content Im now thinking. I bought a 36 diameter disc of this material (valve gasket cutout, big valve at that) at an engine show flea market, maybe 10 years ago. At .025 thick it is has been a treasure, and its almost all used up, save for all of the small cutoffs Ive saved.

This is the first problem Ive encountered with it. I used it for the head gasket in my Lil Brother and it is doing that job well.

Kind of interesting, that the side of the blown gasket against the evidently cooler cast iron was unharmed and the outer gasket was only stuck to the inner head piece. The inner head must have gotten really hot. Maybe a design flaw on my part. It is fairly thin and has a conical hole leading to the outer head.

Even when I was first running the engine I was surprised at how hot the head got.
Im thinking too lean fuel mixture and or late timing.
Here are a couple shots of the inner side of the head, a little crowed I would say.











I have to search thru my gasket materials and see what options Ive got.
I did an improvised cylinder leak down test. With my palm over the hole and the piston pulled to BDC, it took just over two minutes to release me.











I dont think the O-rings are the culprit.
More to follow.
GUS

PS, I'm starting to get used to the new Photobucket, not so bad once you play with it for a while.


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## Mike1 (Mar 19, 2013)

Gus, Could the gasket be the cause of the over heated head, my thinking is that a finned head acts like a heat sink, and maybe your gasket is acting like a insulator and stopping full heat dissipation through the head, just a bit of food for thought.

Mike.


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## starnovice (Mar 19, 2013)

So, Mike, are you thinking that maybe a copper gasket would be better?


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## Mike1 (Mar 19, 2013)

Hi Gus. I was thinking that a very thin metal shim gasket might do the job, but I was also thinking that a lapped mating face and no gasket would be OK.

The cylinder head on my Wyvern has no gasket just a thin smear of Hylomar gasket sealer, my cylinder head is a one piece casting as supplied with the castings kit, the head does get warm but not enough to cause concern.

I'm sure you will crack the problem.
Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Mar 19, 2013)

Yeah Mike, exactly what I'm thinking. The gaskets are blocking heat transfer.

I'm not sure my cylinder head has enough cooling fins and things are definetly pointing to the "extra" part of the cyl. head as the real culprit.

I started my thinking toward cutting a cooling channel in at least the inner part, also in consideration is o-ring seal on both pieces.
Kind of iffy, the o-ring thought would not readily support cooling passages into the head. 

I'm hoping and still thinking that solving the mixture/timing issue before further mods, might solve the problem.

All suggestions more than welcome.

Seems this project is not done yet, and I'm not real dissapointed.

Mike, thanks for your input.

GUS


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## Generatorgus (Mar 25, 2013)

I havent had much free time to play and progress to get the Wyvern running right has slowed, almost to a halt.
Im thinking O-ring or maybe the Hylomar sealant would be the best solution to the hot head. But Im hesitating to put the cylinder head under the knife to cut a groove for an O-ring. And I dont think Ive ever seen Hylomar on the shelf
Although I think Im wasting my time with head gaskets, I decided to take another shot at it, this time with a different gasket material.
I had two types of gasket to try, both have graphite in them.
&#12288;
One type has metal sandwiched in, pretty much looks like a hi temp gasket material.
I tried my had at cutting a new gasket out but the material of the outer sandwich is kind of brittle and breaks away from the core metal too easily. This stuff would probably be better for larger gaskets.
The other choice is thinner and more flexible and cutable but has a textured finish that seems to rough for small applications, but maybe it will have some crush to it.
I had my doubts but went on to make the two gaskets I need.
A quick test with bubble solution showed seepage under compression, but the compression seems good.
The gaskets are already installed and I dont have much to lose by trying them.

But as long as I have the cyl head and cams removed, first Im going to correct the off center problem with the cams.
All along Ive been having an off center experience almost every time I use my RT. The cams were no different. 
At any rate Im going to plug the shaft holes in the cams, center up on the round part of the cam profile and redo the holes.
This will at least get the valves open to their intended height as I wont have to leave excessive rocker clearance due to the off center.


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## Mike1 (Mar 25, 2013)

HI Gus, Maybe Hylomar is only available here in the UK, I hope your new gasket is a success, have you given any thought to using a PTFE ( Teflon ) sealer or the tape to form a seal, I have used the PTEF plumbers tape to seal steam covers on my steam engine.

I used the tape to seal the flange on the Wyvern's intake flange.

Mike.


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## Generatorgus (Mar 28, 2013)

Mike, thanks for your suggestions.
Quick note on the Hylomar, there is a distributor in the US.
http://www.hylomarsealant.com/_resources/_html/products.html

I was going to order some if the the new gaskets didn't work.
But they did, and the engine is back to running and a lot better than it did.
I had a sustained run going for 2 or 3 minutes before I shut it down, I didn't have any water in it.
It wasn't running 100 percent though.
It wants to run rich and any attempt to lean it out more always ends up with it stalling. 
Could be the needle valve messing things up.
Remembering back when I drilled the jet, I used a #65 bit as I my cheapy small size bit set wasn't up to par for the #70 called for. I just kept rying the next larger bit until I got to one that would cut the 303SS, which isn't really tough stuff to machine. A new, better, set is in order.

Real good news is I didn't burn my finger when I felt the cylinder head.

Another reason I shut it down was one of the main bearings was spinning.

I pinned both mains which I forgot to do, and sanded the mating surface of the cap a bit to tighten the fit.

My real work has become an almost unacceptable amount, a new store build and I've become backed up with the restaurant maintanance and working nights on weekends to catch up.
Almost too much for an old guy like me and really cutting in on my fun time. I'm supposed to be semi-retired.
I'm only home today because my poor aging (89) mom ended up in the hospital.
Thankfully, she'll be OK.

When I get home from visiting today, I'll get back to the Wyvern for a bit, but my hopes to get things staightened out before Cabin Fever may be in jeopardy, it's coming up quickly.
But, if even if I don't get it straightened out, I'm taking it with me as a work in progress . 
IMHO I think it's pretty neat to look at, it makes me smile.


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## Mike1 (Mar 28, 2013)

Hi Gus.
Good to hear the Wyvern is up and running again, it looks like just a bit of fine tuning is needed and you will have a reliable engine, as you say the Wyvern is a nice looking engine.
Hope your Mom gets well soon.

Mike.


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## Philjoe5 (Mar 28, 2013)

Hi Gus,
I hope your mom is on the mend.

See you at Cabin Fever.  

Cheers,
Phil


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## Generatorgus (May 6, 2013)

Well, the Cabin Fever Expo for this year is now history, had a great time, met some more of the members, saw a lot of really nice works of art, bought a few things, also talked with others until my voice got weak, just a great time.

As well as the three days I set aside for the show, I also got a break from work for a bit, which means I got some time to survey the damage. Not real damage, just the &#8220;my shop seems to have exploded&#8221; type of damage.
I spent a couple of days putting things away, contemplated what the next step for the Wyvern would be and the needle valve issue seems to be the first on the list.

I saw only one Wyvern at Cabin Fever, a good running &#8220;work in progress&#8221;. Nicely built and the man who built it made an unusual modification to the cylinder head.
He made an automatic air start system for it which entailed a completely ground up redo of the head.
I chatted with him for a bit and asked him what size jet he was using in the carb, I was surprised to hear he used a No. 75 drill in lieu of the No 70 specified, but the engine was running perfect, couldn&#8217;t argue that.

Back in the shop, I took a look at my shiny new set of tiny drills, that No 75 was scary small, and after a bit of thought I decided that a 72 was nearly in the middle and that would be my new jet size.

Starting with a 3/16 brass hex bar (Expo purchase, two assortments 1/8 to ½, one brass and on SS). 
In the lathe drilled part way through 3/64&#8221; then rounded outside for the fuel hose and parted off, then flipped around and bumped with a spot drill and got ready to drill the chosen no. 72.

New weapon is another Expo buy (Little Machine Shop, show special, 10 percent off catalogue), precision driller, had to have it.
In the tailstock chuck and with the old Grizz turning at warp speed, I had no trouble at all pecking the bit through, should have bought one of these a while ago.





The outside was reduced and threaded 4-40, that part done. An almost amazing hole size difference.





Now to modify the old needle, which meant to cut off the machined point and drill the end to fit a No. 5 ? sewing needle. Somehow I can&#8217;t remember off hand if it was a 4 or 5.
With the head precariously grabbed in a 5C collet in the three jaw the hole was drilled the length of the drill flutes. 





The needle was then cut to length and Loctited in place.





Put back on the engine, it started readily and, with a little adjustment, got the engine running reasonably slow.
I shut it down and added water in the cooling tank and restarted it. It sounded like the timing was a tad late but I just let it run,. After a couple minutes it started slowing down and running rough and in a short time just quit.
Now what? It was turning freely and not real hot, so that wasn&#8217;t the problem.
OK, check the timing, yes in runable range. I say runable because it&#8217;s a bit difficult, for me at least, to turn the flywheel and listen for the tiny spark. At any rate runable range, to be fine tuned by trial and error when I get it RUNNING RIGHT.

I&#8217;m in the frustrating stage of engine building, working the bugs out.
The latest bug was the threaded keeper on the exhaust valve worked loose.
I didn&#8217;t like that detail when I was building it and when I saw Mike&#8217;s engine I was sorry I did the that way.

I&#8217;m going to, pretty much, take things apart and redo some sore spots.
One of which will be to O-ring the head, and I&#8217;ll deal with the threaded keepers at that time. Deal with will probably only be to Loctite them to the shafts.

Another will be to make tapered bushings for the flywheels.
I somehow got the holes too large. They seemed a good fit early on, but as the build progressed they loosened up, maybe from me spinning them on the shaft, which I did a lot. 

When I would tap the tapered key in place it was tipping the flywheel slightly causing a wobble.

Question: Should the keyway in the flywheel have been broached at an
angle to match the key??

The cam shaft side ended up with a piece of .001 shim all around to keep it from wobbling. Although I think the amateur builder was probably the main cause.

More adventures to follow.

GUS


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## Mike1 (May 6, 2013)

Hi Gus.
Good to see you back on the Wyvern build, I have the No 70 jet size on my engine and the needle just needs to be opened very slightly but I suppose the needle taper may have something to do with that, but the engine tends to run rich and I am beginning to think it needs more air through the carb, or a bit more lift on the fuel valve, something for future fiddling temperamental these little engines.

I would say a tapered keyway slot in the flywheel hub and fit the key to match the taper.

Mike.


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## gabby (May 6, 2013)

Ya just can't beat an annealed copper gasket for heat transfer and seal as it will swell at a different rate than ali or cast iron and is reusable if it is re-annealed, just my 2 bob's worth.;D


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## Generatorgus (May 8, 2013)

Hi Mike, 
I keep looking toward the carb as a part of the problem.
It was a fussy little thing to build, and I can't help but wonder about the lift valve, it must be working to some extent. 
The needle and jet are quite replaceable, and need be I'll go smaller yet.

Gabby, You have a good point there and it will be much easier than 
o-rings.  I'll poke around and see what I have for copper sheet.

Gus


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## gus (May 9, 2013)

Generatorgus said:


> Hi Mike,
> I keep looking toward the carb as a part of the problem.
> It was a fussy little thing to build, and I can't help but wonder about the lift valve, it must be working to some extent.
> The needle and jet are quite replaceable, and need be I'll go smaller yet.
> ...



Hi Gus from another Gus(Gus Teng)

When you it up and runnin ,please post video.

Meanwhile Gus is trying to fix his lazybones to get cracking and building engines!!!:wall::wall::wall:
Market is flying,trying to make a wee bitty more.Its time to sell all and get out.. Planning/budgetting to buy a Proxxon PD400 Lathe.

Regards,

Gus Teng from faraway Singapore.


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## Generatorgus (May 10, 2013)

Gus
Sometimes you have to put the fishing pole away and get back to work

Video, you bet, but it may be a while yet.  It's almost summer.

GUS


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## gabby (May 12, 2013)

Beautiful work, I sit in awe of your machine skills Thm:


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## gus (May 12, 2013)

Generatorgus said:


> Gus
> Sometimes you have to put the fishing pole away and get back to work
> 
> Video, you bet, but it may be a while yet.  It's almost summer.
> ...




Bill of Material(BOM) for Webster Engine about done.
Material list will be emailed to a local supplier.

Will need your help with the ignition system. Plan to go old fashion contact point. Later will go into the Japanese Robin Engine Electronic Ignition. Would also consider going with Briggs & Stratton System. 

Spending too much time watching the screen following stock prices and busy making $$$$.Kitty is about full. Time to stop.Come end May ,will hang up and go into machine shop again.

Been following your engine thread.

Fishing is Sat'd & Sun'd affair.

Bye, Take care.

Gus Teng.


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## gus (May 12, 2013)

Generatorgus said:


> Gus
> Sometimes you have to put the fishing pole away and get back to work
> 
> Video, you bet, but it may be a while yet.  It's almost summer.
> ...




Hi GUS,

All righty. Material on order .Will collect this Friday. Time to unwind.

As  I earlier said, Gus Teng will need your kind help with the ignition system,cylinder honing,piston ring machining/fitting/honing etc. Promise----" Take time to go from piece to piece with precision and quality in mind. Gus was not trained as a Tool Room Lathe Machinist. Two years or trade school and 32 years in the Air Compressors not best training.
My last honing excersise was a great failure.Impatience won the day,Gus was the vanquished.

Best Regards,

Gus Teng from faraway,hot & sunny Singapore.


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## Generatorgus (May 25, 2013)

Gus, good luck on the new engine, I'm hoping you'll post the build.

As predicated, my progress on the Wyvern has slowed dramatically, but not stopped.

I&#8217;ve been trying to catch up and FINISH a project I started over a year ago, which I have been posting on the Smokstak site.
http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119264

It&#8217;s a good thing that I documented it because from memory I was a little slow trying to pick up where I left off. Not good to stop in midstream.
Which I have begun to do with the Wyvern.

Keeping with that thought, I decided to go ahead and tackle the tapered inserts for the flywheels.
It makes me somewhat nervous to put the flywheels under the knife, but if I screw up I guess I can always buy new castings.

Because I don&#8217;t necessarily like the threaded nut on the flywheel as designed by Mr. Westbury, I decided to model these inserts similar to the QD type that are made for pulleys.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#quick-disconnect-bushings/=mvyn5a
I just happen to have one to model from.

My choice of material is brass, perhaps steel or SS would be better, but I think the brass should work and also be easier to machine.

Mine will not be quite as stubby and the angle of taper will be slightly more (I measured 2 deg. on the model but increased mine to 3). Don&#8217;t rightly know why, just me being me. 
The Wyvern drawings call for 10 deg inclusive which deciphers to 5deg, so I just compromised a little.

With a piece of the 1&#8221; dia glass door pull in the collet chuck, I cut the OD some longer than needed to accommodate the parting tool, then cut the ID straight, also bored and reamed for the 3/8&#8221; crankshaft. Then reset the compound for the angle and went at it.
Also a recess was cut with the parting tool just under the rim and the partially parted off.













The bar the turned around in the collet and the same cuts made on the other end.





In a square collet block and on to the mill for slitting. Before parting the pieces off I decided to switch to a hex collet block and cut some decorative work with a ball end mill. 





The cutoffs were done and they are starting to look like some pretty fancy hubcaps.









Just for practice and as a holder for facing the pieces I decided to make a practice piece of the tapered bore before I went at the flywheels.
Gently tapped into the bore, they held perfectly while facing.





This is my mini boring tool, a solid carbide cutter (Cabin Fever purchase).
The guy told me they were CNC tooling but would probably work for boring(&#8220;they&#8220;, I bought two of them for $4). With a homemade holder, it worked nicely. I&#8217;ll have to check the angle on the cutting tip, they might also be good for threading.





Boring the flywheels, which I was a tad nervous about, went without a hitch. I wasn&#8217;t sure if the interrupted cut from the keyway would cause problems.





Then on to the mill with my calculated bolt circle coordinates, to drill and tap all the holes in the hub and flywheel all in one setup, to help keep things concentric.
I did, however, tap couple index marks with a small punch to make sure they went on the correct flywheel and in the proper orientation.





I encountered a small problem when I accidentally released the quill lock and pulled the bushing out of the hole and snapped the tap on the second hole. The tap was in far enough that I could loosen it from the back with a needle nose pliers and back it out from the front. Fortunately I bought some individual replacement tap and drill sets recently(guess where?), yeah Cabin Fever.





Three clearance holes and three 2-56 tapped holes in each bushing and three 2-56 hole in the flywheel.
These are not the permanent fasteners, I have something else in mind.







Whoa!! Something just flew past my head.


Holy Mackerel Andy!! It can't be, but yes it is!!

A baby Wyvern. Astonishing;D






I hope it doesn't bite.
More to follow

GUS, just having fun here in NE PA


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## Rivergypsy (May 25, 2013)

LMFAO - nice one 

Good to see it coming on again, and nice work on those tapered collets.


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## Generatorgus (Mar 31, 2014)

This has been quite a hiatus. Almost a year.
Time really flies when your having fun. When I get stumped I usually stop work and try to figure things out. But nothing was coming to mind and I got distracted by summer. So I just let summer happen, and the Wyvernish project came to an abrupt halt. 
My apologies if I left anybody hanging.


I took my models and a few antique engines along with me as my wife and I wandered around the state visiting our usual antique engine shows. Campfires and good friends, add some cold beer.. Life was good.


Then as all good things seem to do, summer ended, which for me encompasses May thru October.
Back to the doldrums of winter weather. It's not all bad, there's nothing quite as beautiful as a fresh snowfall, before you realize you have to deal with the reality of going out in the cold and dealing with the mess Ma Nature dumped on your doorstep.
Then the heating bills start coming, more snow then severe cold, and the sound of the furnace cycling is enough to cause sever depression.
So now spring is trying to arrive and old man winter ain't giving up yet.
We just got another 5" of snow last night.


Thank God for inventing the work shop and nice warm fire in the wood stove. It really helps to keep your sanity in check. So back to work.
Around Christmas I decided to try few fixes on the Wyvern, which ran but not well enough. I brought it out from it's corner and dusted off. I started to make a list of the things that I just didn't think where right.

The two piece, tapered thread spark plug I made had a problem, as well as the cams, which due to my amateurish touch, were a tad off center. Maybe causing problems with the timing. 
The threaded valve keepers kept loosening and that would also need to be dealt with.
And then the carburetor, which I suspected was the real culprit.

The spark plug was first in line. Ive made a number of plugs at this point and always use George Britnell's method, except for the the two piece. That plug was not the original I used in this engine, but was an after thought, which didn't work out as the end of the plug interfered with the valves. I shortened the end to miss the valves, but it was now seeping.
I was thinking I would have to drill and plug the old 1/16 pipe taper I used for the plug, but found that a 5/16-32 straight thread would be just fine, after re-drilling and tapping.
I used the bold look of Corian this time. The Corian is way stiffer and seems to insulate OK. The copper washer was cut from 3/8 tubing on the lathe with a really narrow cutoff tool and using a 5/16 rod for support.






The old cams, I figured out quite a while later, were not centered very well because I used my RT horizontally on my mill. That would have worked out fine, but the column on my mill was not square to the table. The mill tram was fairly acceptable when using the quill only for work, but work pieces would be off center if I centered at one col. height and did the machining at another. I got that straightened out after spending half a day shimming the base of the column. I can finally say my mill is trammed within a couple thou.
The new cams were made with the RT vertical on the mill.
Old and new parts along with a couple of failed lower pieces for the new spark plug. 






Those easier parts done, now the more difficult carb. I fell back on George Britnell's experience again, using his air bleed carb design. The build would have been much simpler if I used his plan as drawn, but I would complicate that by disguising it to look pretty much like the original Wyvern design.
Again using a silver soldered assembly, but this time using stainless steel in lieu of brass as I did on the first one. The stainless is way less prone to melting at the high temps of soldering, and I prefer the look. 






























The engine assembled and was trial run. I would like to say it started and ran well. It started easily and ran fairly well, but too fast and was now overheating. I couldn't find the happy spot where it would run at a lower speed. The pot muffler actually charred the new/permanent wooden base it was on.
To make matters worse, the magnet wheel for the Hall ignition worked loose and the engine fired way to early and came to an immediate and damaging halt. It spun one side end of the Loctite and pinned crank shaft.


A cloud of gloom and despair hung over my shop for rest of that day and, again, the Wyvern was vanquished to the far end of my workbench. My enthusiasm was dashed and I just didn't want to look at it for a while. 


So of all things, I went and started another engine build, while the poor Wyvern was weeping in the corner, lacking my affection.


More to follow, and finally, a happy ending.


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## Philjoe5 (Mar 31, 2014)

Gus,
Bad news on the Wyvern, but eventually patience wins.

When I bent my intake valve I briefly thought it was all over.  But as you know a little time after what seems to be a major disaster seems to give proper perspective.

Cheers,
Phil


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## vcutajar (Mar 31, 2014)

Maybe during Summer you will have another look at it.  I hope so.

Vince


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## gus (Mar 31, 2014)

Hi Gus,

Plan to make my own spark plugs too. Please mail drawings. Have always been amazed by spark plugs as a kid and wandering how its made. Thanks.

Regards,

Singapore Gus aka auGUStine.


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## Generatorgus (Apr 1, 2014)

Singapore Gus, 
George Britnell's spark plug drawings are here somewhere, can't remember now exactly where. I'll find it and show you where. I do mine a bit different, but the result is basically George's sparkplug

Vince, 
You don't have to wait, at the bottom of this post is the new Youtube url.

Phil. you will see it in person at CF.



I hit a bit of a stand still with the new project I started and was bumping the shop for a bit when I decided I really must have some closure with at least one of the 5 or 6 open ended projects I've been neglecting, and piling up in my shop.


I made a quick evaluation, five full size engines, an antique model engine and at the top of the list was my Wyvern. 
Trying to figure out why it wasn't running right starting to get the best of me. I've played with a lot of engines over the years, and almost without exception have been able to get them right, except those that I deemed that the cost, whether it was time involved or physical cash outlay, where not worth the effort.


In my eyes, being that I had taken months to create it, the Wyvern must be right. 
It was again brought out of the shadows.


The times I had it running, it always seemed to be hitting too hard when it fired. The valve timing and cam duration was according to the plans. I tried different timing settings and lots of different carburetor settings on two different carbs, and compression is excellent.
I got to thinking that maybe I had over compensated the extra head gasket when I made the piston longer than specified and made the compression ratio higher than it needed to be.


I posted in Questions and Answers, Reducing engine compression. http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f26/reducing-engine-compression-ratio-22762/
I knew shortening the piston to spec should get things back where they should be, but sometimes other opinions can be helpful.


I couldn't shorten the piston as the top o-ring was to close to the top of the piston so I dished it out about a 1 dia x 1/16 deep.
I could take more but I tried that first.


I also took the advice that Rustkolector ( Jeff), gave me an the last few posts on that link.
The valve timing was adjusted as suggested.
The intake was narrowed by making an insert and the electrode on the spark plug clipped to make a larger spark gap.


I attached the ignition leads and apprehensively flipped the flywheel a couple times with no results, until I put me finger over the intake to coax the fuel in. The engine fired right up and with a couple of tweaks on the needle valve, this was the result.





I would call that fairly acceptable. The bumping sound I found to be one of the flywheel hubs was a bit loose and the noise stopped after tightening.


After some more tweaking I got it to run consistently in the low to medium 400 rpm range, and, not surprising, the needle must be adjusted richer as the fuel level drops.
I ran an entire tank of fuel in one 4 hour run, never missed a beat unless I fooled with it. 
The throttle is very responsive if I keep the revs around 500, it will only stall if I try at lower speeds. I will experiment further on that.


I'm a happy camper, now matter how long it took.
Come to think of it, my other two engines took quite a while to get running to my satisfaction


As threatened, a video is in order. The url will have to do for now until I figure out how to embed Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=i9Dg-9ez2_k

The engine seems happy at speeds in the 450- 500 range, although I can fiddle it down in the high 300s it will not sustain that speed.


I'm calling this a finished project although I still have a couple of smallish items I'd like to attend to.
I was thinking on adding a flyball governor, but I'm not sure what that will accomplish as I'm pretty much running it at idle.
Painting engines is not something I want to do, I like the look of naked cast iron. The copper tanks are going to be left to go to there more natural brown patina.

I got kind of caught up in the Wyvern dragon itself, hence the Gothic bling I added here and there.

Happy Wyvern builder GUS


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## ozzie46 (Apr 1, 2014)

Looks and sounds great Gus. Well done.

Ron


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## Philjoe5 (Apr 1, 2014)

Nice going Gus.  I'll look for it at CF

Cheers,
Phil


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## vcutajar (Apr 1, 2014)

WOW Gus.  That is really a strong runner.  Very well done.

Vince


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## idahoan (Apr 1, 2014)

Nice work Gus!

Congratulations on getting it running and then tweaking it until you were happy with it.

Dave


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