# Robs Howell V4



## RobConway (Nov 3, 2021)

So for someone who did machining in the 80's as part of an apprenticeship,  built one steam engine in 2019,   take on a Jerry Howell V4 ?   Better not answer that as it is very optimistic / naive  I will admit , especially when it seems every single tolerance is soo critical.  I  must be 150 hours invested so far and probably 80% the way through the machining of the block.   I thought if I can complete the block the chances of being able to complete the engine may just be achievable over the next few years.  Although shipping of parts and imperial tooling and gear cutters has been costly shipped to Australia so I am kind of financially committed now.  A couple of pics on where I am up to......    Next step I am going to make one crankshaft (flywheel end) to make 100% sure of the gear mesh between the timing gears before committing to the camshaft locations.


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## RobConway (Nov 14, 2021)

Had a test run on drilling the 1/2” cam shaft holes on a scrap piece I practise on before committing to the real thing.  Purchased a long 5mm jobber drill and then went through with the 1/2”.  Setup seems ok so next weekend will commit to the cam shaft holes and gear CB detail at the flywheel end of the block.

I also purchased one if those cheap sand blast guns AUD $ 30.00 even came with some grit.  This is a pic of a 20-30 second sand blast on my test piece.  Also interested to see it didnt erode the narrow edge where i practise drilling the 3” long camahaft.

I like this “cast” looking finish which I will do the sides of the block once complete instead of painting it.    I was really happy about how the grit removed the machining marks.


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## RobConway (Nov 21, 2021)

The test hole went soo well and clean.  Today the final cam holes didnt do as well,  maybe the speed was too low and didnt clear the swarf anyhow now have two 1/2" holes and the bearings drop in and locate OK.  Overall the dimensions seem to be comming all together which is my biggest relief.


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## RobConway (Nov 27, 2021)

Oh Dam,  Guess who did not indicate vertically the gear cover position based upon the two circle centres...   When I made a gear cover I never squared up the blank as everything machined  from the two centres.   So when I came to align the gear cover on the end of the block I stupidly used a square against a non parralel side which also seemed to align to the top of the block, which was incorrect.    Anyhow understanding a noob mistake, looks like I have to take 0.7mm off one side of the head so I can locate the valve lifter bush.    I am concerned that the push rods will not be the same dimension from the pivot of the rocker arm, which I assume means one side the valves will open more than the other.  I made a plug so I can see where the lifter needed to be drilled at 45 degrees to the centre of the camshaft.  I might have to offset the rocker arm brackets or was also thinking I could offset drill the lifter bushing and have a smaller diameter valve lifter whereby I could recover say 0.25mm in a few places to get better alignment on the right hand hand shaft.  On the left  cam I could drill the pushrod bushing on a slight angle to compensate and get the pushrod aligning back to the rocker.


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## RobConway (Nov 27, 2021)

The easiest fix would be to change the rocker arm dimension and its pivot point.   The right Cam is going to be the opposite issue it being further away from the pivot.    There got to be an easy fix ? or compromise,  is it really going to matter for an engine that will never see any real load ?  What do you think of the fix below, offset bracket pivot and make the rocker arms to new dimension as long as they pivot in the center (well loks like there is a 2% leverage effect .445 ver .455


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## gbritnell (Nov 27, 2021)

It won't make any difference at all.  I would just make the rockers to the drawing


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## RobConway (Nov 28, 2021)

Thanks @gbritnell ,  I went ahead and drilled the lifters and all holes in the head.       Exciting part next weekend in machining  the rest of the block away to reveal the "V"    I did a quick pic and I assume the actual contact point between the cam/lifter probably doesn't shift and the contact point moves from center on the face of the lifter.


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## RobConway (Nov 29, 2021)

No turning back,  I think I simply overthought my issue....


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## RobConway (Dec 5, 2021)

From 3.9kg to 500g.   No wonder my wife has been seeing glitter around the house for the last few months.


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## RobConway (Dec 11, 2021)

Flywheel weekend.   Found a nice 3/8-24 nut at the auto shop which is actually a head stud bolt,  has a star head similar to (but not) torx. Made a colar around it with a three point dog.  I will put a pin between the collar and flywheel to stop it undoing the nut when starting. I didnt have 3” steel round however did have a slice of brass nearly the right size and aluminium.  So just made the brass 10% smaller than the steel flywheel to account for weight and did an aluminium collar as didnt want a shiny brass flywheel.    So thats the backend done


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## RobConway (Dec 30, 2021)

Not much happening over the last few weeks however have completed the two heads.  I think I have learnt something about my DRO.  I used ABS and INC reference to set the two zero points for each head, as I was machining them from one piece.  The last operation of machining the two valve holes on the last head I was moving the table at the same time as I changed over from ABS to INC.  The DRO lost about 0.4mm.   Luckily it is just slightly offset vertically so just compensated with the sparkplug hole a little higher.  Seems there is some tollerance as it should still fit within the inside diameter of the valve sleeve.  
Next on the list is the valve guides and then for something different may start the radiator and mounting rails.


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## RobConway (Jan 2, 2022)

wow,  this is going to test my patience,  the first radiator tube messing around with setup took me 3 hours.  Not much deformation of the fins although at first, I thought the fin itself was 0.040" and then realsied its .026" !

Anyhow now I understand stock length and how to best hold it (I set it up at full 4" length between an er32 collet in the chuck and a centre).  I printed out the accumulative 60 measurements (for each fin) set the DRO and then went about cutting.  Luckily I had a parting tool (1.0 mm) that has a T shaped cutting edge and the top of the tool has a groove.  I dont think I could of ground a parting tool to this accuracy.

Another 7 tubes to go.... and hopefully I can get it down to less than an hour per completed tube.


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## RobConway (Jan 6, 2022)

For reference this is the blade used from an australian supplier having USA stock and ended up running at 750 rpm.  Cutting from the chuck to tailstock was better and did not cause any noticable displacement of the adjacent fin.  I might get a few more blades of differnt sizes as the profile and top surface recess did make parting a breeze.

still took 1.5 hours per tube

& yes i may of trashed my er32 18mm collet however did hold the square stock very easily. The drilled through hole (drilled 2” from each end) turned out perfect where the hole met up inside, so the tollerance was very acceptable.  I do have an MT4/er32 arbour to replace the chuck altogether however this hex er32 adapter I simply used to test the concept did so well didnt bother changing it over .
Have purchased some silver paste solder and arrives next week to finish off the radiator.


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## Ghosty (Jan 7, 2022)

Rob, Who was the Aust supplier, I'm looking for some thin cut off HSS
Cheers
Andrew


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## RobConway (Jan 7, 2022)

Didnt know what the policy was for supplier details.    the url is in the top of the pic though as took it from my phone 

As I have no real training, sharpening any tool is a challenge in term’s  of understanding optimal angles however with the profile of these its easy, and worth the fact they are 3x the cost


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## RobConway (Jan 10, 2022)

Nervously waiting for the silver solder paste to arrive to complete the radiator.   Looks like I better get fusion360 fired up for the radiator support brackets and dust off the CNC router which will be good for the engine mounting skid and rad supports. I will enjoy seeing these items being made on the cnc instead of the manual mill, albeit it will probably take me a couple of hours to sketch them up and create the gcode..


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## scooby (Jan 10, 2022)

If you don't feel like modeling them, here they are


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## RobConway (Jan 11, 2022)

@scooby   I gotta get my software sorted.  The dam Fusion360 personal use version does not convert mesh to solid object and is limited on import file formats.   I was looking at a solidwork lic for $~50 / year for personal use.  Maybe I should change software although just got the hang of the fusion CAM settings.    What are poeple using ?  My CNC uses Mach3


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## RobConway (Jan 11, 2022)

Thankyou @scooby .  A step file uploaded into fusion360 project worked flawlessly.


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## RobConway (Jan 12, 2022)

I have never made Brass name plates before so thought why not give it a try.   Although as I do not have access to a laser printer I purchased some transfer paper from a local electronics shop which is used to make PCBs which stated laser or photocopier.  So printed some Howell logo's out using a photocopier and ironed it onto some 1/16" brass plate.  The etch has gone 60 minutes in warm ferric chloride  I should probably finish it up however thought I will give it another 30 minutes.   The Howell stencil which come with the plans had very very thin characters which did not transfer that great so simply chose a font and did my own for now.  As you can see in the pic the toner has stayed on quite well.  & yes Ill remeber to stick it on the front of the radiator    I do really like the Howell "red" however think I will simply be different and go blue.


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## djswain1 (Jan 12, 2022)

RobConway said:


> I have never made Brass name plates before so thought why not give it a try.   Although as I do not have access to a laser printer I purchased some transfer paper from a local electronics shop which is used to make PCBs which stated laser or photocopier.  So printed some Howell logo's out using a photocopier and ironed it onto some 1/16" brass plate.  The etch has gone 60 minutes in warm ferric chloride  I should probably finish it up however thought I will give it another 30 minutes.   The Howell stencil which come with the plans had very very thin characters which did not transfer that great so simply chose a font and did my own for now.  As you can see in the pic the toner has stayed on quite well.  & yes Ill remeber to stick it on the front of the radiator    I do really like the Howell "red" however think I will simply be different and go blue.


That name plate looks great on your lovely radiator


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## Endamur (Jan 14, 2022)

@RobConway I am really enjoying your build.  Thanks for taking the time to post your progress… best of luck with the remainder of the project.


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## RobConway (Jan 16, 2022)

Did a little bit of "watching" this weekend whilst my  CNC router did its thing to the radiator support model.   I am not considering converting my Mill (optimum BF20)to CNC however my little CNC router table does a reasonable job as long as I dont need a tall Z.    One day I do plan an upgrade to linear rails and a better bed however it does OK at the moment .  The 1.5KW air cooled spindal has no issues with aluminium however obvisouly not up to steel or I assume brass (never tried)  So I leave the harder materials to the manual mill.
I could not imagine doing these supports on the manual mill.  So the router can take care of the supports and mounting rails this week.  I will think about making a holding jig for the rocker arm brakets, rockers and the knife&forks end rods...These may be a combo of manual mill and router.

Anyhow a pic of my little CNC router doing its thing.  Im sure you will believe me if I say I never leave the allen key in the hold down screws, oops !


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## awake (Jan 17, 2022)

Rob, is that CNC router your own design?


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## scooby (Jan 17, 2022)

When I was in machinist school in the military they would make someone wear a huge chuck key around their neck if their hands were off the key for the chuck of the lathe and they had left it in.


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## RobConway (Jan 17, 2022)

awake said:


> Rob, is that CNC router your own design?



If you google “workbee cnc” thats what the frame is modelled from.  Another one is “ox cnc”. Then its up to you on motion, software and spindle choices.  This unit limits z height to provide better rigidity however i may machine some 1/2” thick side plates another 1” taller for Z.  I made it 5 years ago ~us$1200 including the spindle and drive.  Aliexpress parts, however notice pricing has increased alot lately.

I now use a 5mm end mill and use adaptive clearing which cuts full pocket depth at 2mm load / 750mm/min  so is quite quick for these smaller parts and provides reasonable sized chips.

Time to clean up the supports and paint their inserts and start on the radiator cowling.


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## RobConway (Jan 20, 2022)

Another element ticked off the list.  Awaiting some silicon tubing so I can do a pressure test however visually the soldering of the cores and tanks looked good under the magnifying glass.  However a mounting screw in the lower tank has penerated the the interior of the lower tank, so will need to put a little loctite sealant on that screw on final assembly.  I tried to bead blast the cowling,  looks a little like undercoat grey however think it will all blend in when I also blast the block and there are a few more pieces with that finish.  After bead blasting I put a little penetrating oil sealer on it (the sealant that comes with black oxide) which dried and now stops the greasy finger prints.


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## RobConway (Feb 7, 2022)

Have not updated for a couple of weeks and wish I had made more progress.  Although have ordered some drills for the carby jets and looking at upgrading my cnc router to better handle two sided machining.

Machined the rails and took too long to make two silly little brackets for the radiator mounts.  Surprised how rigid the radiator is when mounted by a couple of small screws.  Now its on the rails it motivates me to keep adding parts.   Only 2 years to go I think….


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## RobConway (Feb 17, 2022)

Nothing ventured nothing gained,  I was getting some high quality resin 3D prints done for another project and stumbled across the fact that I can get SLM aluminium parts printed.   I wanted to give it a shot so have sent off the Howell v4 inlet manifold (thanks @scooby )to get printed/fabricated or whatever you call it !   I added a some tolerance to all the flanges in a hope I can machine them to fit.    Time will tell if it meets expectations however besides freight costs the cost I thought was quite reasonable.

There is enough to fabricate myself on this engine build so have no issue in a little helping hand….  Shame the castings are no longer available direct from Howell however this metal printing could be a good option in 2022.

Might not work out and I fabricate it myself which will also be ok although a touch disappointing 

Anyone had experience with SLM parts ?  Trust I can face the flanges reasonably well on the mill.


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## awake (Feb 18, 2022)

I look forward to hearing about / seeing the results! I wouldn't have thought this process had become affordable for the likes of us!


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## minh-thanh (Feb 18, 2022)

RobConway  !
Your radiator is so pretty !!


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## Peter Twissell (Feb 19, 2022)

Is your radiator a suitable candidate for electroforming?


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## RobConway (Feb 19, 2022)

I think from memory it needs a min wall thickness of 1mm for metal printing.  Now the cost of the radiator I think would be beyond an acceptable cost,  for me at least.  I can only guess at ~$450 as it must be 8x more material than the inlet manifold.  I dont have a step file to upload of the radiator to get priced.  However any model file you can simply upload online for an instant price.  When you commit they review and provide final costs.  For the inlet manifold online they stated $49 then when they reviewed, it went to $47 then they gave me a $5.00 first time discount,  so the part itself was only $42.

However I have noticed though they have more traditional 3Dprint good for 187 degC using a special resin which is very cost effective.  The qualitity I have seen of the resin prints looks like its injection molded.    So if I hadn't already made the fan cowling I would of got that resin printed for sure.    The only other part Im considering getting resin printed is the fan assembly as I think I could model a nice filleted blade assembly that bolts onto the pulley.   The oil gallery at the front of the engine is another aluminium SLM candidate as I could form this piece alot nicer than its square edged fabrication part in the plans.  This gallery is the oil filler as well so could extend the gallery to form a oil filler neck etc.


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## Peter Twissell (Feb 19, 2022)

Apologies Rob, I should have said manifold, not radiator.
I am electroforming manifolds for my 15cc side valve twin, 1mm thick, in copper.


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## RobConway (Feb 19, 2022)

I must do some googling on electroforming,


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## RobConway (Feb 20, 2022)

Just a small update.  Purchased a (1 tonne) arbor press to install the valve cages into the head.  When I tried to press the  bearings onto the cam shaft I cracked the small bearing flange so thought a press will help future assembly of the camshaft as well.

Small update to the heads below whilst I await the inlet manifold to be printed.  I have not machined a valve seat as yet.  Ill make a cutter in the future.


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## bluejets (Feb 21, 2022)

RobConway said:


> Purchased a (1 tonne) arbor press to install the valve cages into the head.



I can see distorted valve cages on the horizon.


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## RobConway (Feb 21, 2022)

@bluejets   Ohh Something i should keep in mind

Without loctite you could slip then in,  nearly by hand !    however with a smear of loctite they needed a little more persuasion.

Hope they will be ok however at least with a press they went in straight which I was most concerned about.   Point taken though,  thanks


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## scooby (Feb 21, 2022)

I reamed the holes in the head  13/32 (.40625) and made the valve cages .406 like  the plans say. I recall just putting green loctite in the two grooves ( and maybe a little bit between them)  I put the head on a flat surface and pushed  valve cages so it would be flush with the bottom of the head. Then wiped any loctite that got squeezed out


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## RobConway (Feb 27, 2022)

Wow wow…..  cannot believe how well the inlet manifold turned out..   SLM printed in aluminium.   I ran the face across a file and the flanges are going to machine very well I think.

I plan to use 4 threaded studs and washer/nuts for the top carby mounting.

The surface is so uniform its a thing of beauty….  Will be a shame I plan to paint it 

The cost was manageable at $47.00 however two exhaust manifolds will probably be $100 so for one-offs its OK however costs could get out of control.

So I think the inlet/exhaust manifolds and the oil gallery are very good candidates for 3D fabrication for the Howell V4. 

Any creative exhaust designs are welcome as this will be the only other parts I get printed.  I was thinking modeling the pipes of equal length like tuned extractors as the radius would be difficult to manufacture


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## RobConway (Mar 15, 2022)

Inlet manifold fitted very well so decided to get the exhaust manifold done and could not resist getting a small muffler.  Its still really a straight pipe as  decided no baffles, so its cosmetic.  Ill machine a couple of stainless steels pipes and blue the tips  to finish off the tailpipe. 

Would of been interesting to see how much JerryHowell charged for the casting.

So a little more work and hopefully by Easter will of completed the heads


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## RobConway (Mar 29, 2022)

13 days later this arrives from China….
Excited to get the heads drilled and these manifolds attached.     Oh I also did some work myself in machining the rocker arms,  i did the outside profile on the cnc and cut them out and finished on the mill.  So back to full DIY now and ill leave the SLM printing to the manifolds only.  In hindsight the Howell text is a little large but should look good in the end


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## RobConway (Apr 5, 2022)

Oh stainless quad tips,  want this in my car !

Roll on the carby,  it is definitely next


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## RobConway (Apr 27, 2022)

Completed the carby body and other bits and pieces this month.  Still have to drill the jets so a little apprehensive in drilling a 0.45mm hole.   After i finish tapping the holes I will hit it with the sand blaster to remove the machining marks.

Need to design a top plate so I can mount an alternative air filter.  Thinking like the attachment a 3 throat air intake from a supercharger.  The flaps can act as the choke on startup.

But that wraps up another month,  not much progress however simply not enough time spent in the garage.


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## RobConway (May 9, 2022)

Chipping away at some of the smaller parts now….  Distributor Drive Housing,  squared up some material on the mill and drilled / machined the shafts on the lathe before returning to the mill to finish off the features.

The dist body requires  1/4” end mill for the bearings pockets,   ordering takes weeks in an all metric country like Australia.


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## Peter Twissell (May 10, 2022)

I have an adaptor which allows me to hold a 6mm shank cutter in my boring head, so I can run the cutter off centre for odd sizes.


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## Ghosty (May 10, 2022)

RobConway said:


> The dist body requires 1/4” end mill for the bearings pockets, ordering takes weeks in an all metric country like Australia.


Rob,
I ordered 1/16" to 5/16" end mills and reamers for doing model engines as most of the old plans(30's -60's) that I have been building use these sizes, just so I have them at hand.
Cheers
Andrew


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## RobConway (May 10, 2022)

Ghosty said:


> Rob,
> I ordered 1/16" to 5/16" end mills and reamers for doing model engines as most of the old plans(30's -60's) that I have been building use these sizes, just so I have them at hand.
> Cheers
> Andrew


I did an order on Victor Machinery Exchange in the USA for reamers, taps and DP48 gear cutters when I got the plans.  In my ignorance I thought I could adapt some parts to metric,  I was incorrect !  At the time the tools plus shipping ended up maxing out my budget.  The guy at VME was very good and could handle the shipping (prior to COVID).  Although I was surprised at some parts being made in China...  I have some imperial end mills coming from China,  just a slow boat at the moment.
I should do a stock take and fill in the missing imperial end mills and reamers I suppose if I end up biulding another engine that is.

@Ghosty   Do you have a good supplier for Imperial tools you could share via DM ?

I have ordered these so if there OK will buy another set of what they have -most I do is aluminium/brass so fingers crossed these will be OK.

(edit) Oh I also see MachineryHouse (HareForbes) have imperial end mills,  Im sure I seached that site however they have a limited selection and the 1/4" in stock.  Dont mind spending $14.00 each if I can pickup although china being $4.75 I'll be comparing the China versus H&F (still China) end mills and see if they are worth the extra in the long run.


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## geo (May 10, 2022)

Millers tooling at loganholme (0738060966) will supply anything in the hare and Forbes catalog at a better price there on line have a vast range of tooling


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## lantain1982 (May 10, 2022)

I buy all my cutters from Tracy Tools in the Uk.     Mostly Goliath brands.  Shipping to Australia is reasonable and prompt.
www. tracytools.com         Worth looking up.


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## gadabout (May 10, 2022)

I buy from LPR toolmakers in Victoria, imperial as well as metric , fast delivery , quality items.
Mark


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## johwen (May 11, 2022)

AUSEE Quality Engineering products in Victoria Phone 03 97915909 are very reasonable and good service.
Website is www.ausee.com.au.
John


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## RobConway (May 27, 2022)

So being on the other side of the world its exciting get a package from USA....     although we dont enjoy the exchange rate and frieght costs.   I got the spark plugs, TIM6, coil and another set of screws and orings just in case I lose any or nic an oring.

What I did find is that Howell is now stocking the Dist cap with the spring clips now instead of the screwed down cap,  so now I have two and will use the spring clip one I think as its an easier install rather than soldering "ears" onto the dist body and tap holes for alignment.

What I didnt realise is that the coil I purchased 6-12VDC is soo dam BIG and the integrated HV cable is way too large to fit onto the dist cap.  So I can solder some smaller gauge wire onto the coil or maybe look for another smaller coil all together.  The current cable is actually potted into the coil so could cut and terminate a smaller gauge wire.  The coil stated it was good with the TIM6 ignition module.

Anyone used this particular coil ?  Although now I look at the howell web site again it is one of the smaller variety coils...  The only other is a 4 wire USA made coil in a 1" tube which is not available.









						modelengineignition - Coils
					

Coils convert  low battery voltage to very high voltage to fire the spark plug.  A coil contains two sets of internal windings - a primary and secondary, both wrapped around an iron core.  The primary winding (input) is momentarily charged by the ignition module, but interestingly enough, high




					www.model-engine-ignition.com
				




So looks like I will try and stick with this


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## Cosmo (May 28, 2022)

I need plans to build the American LaFrance horse drawn fire engine 1908 please


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## scooby (May 28, 2022)

Cosmo said:


> I need plans to build the American LaFrance horse drawn fire engine 1908 please



You should try starting a new thread asking instead of posting in this one.


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## Swifty (Yesterday at 11:47 PM)

Hi Rob, it’s great to see that you’re making progress on the engine. Making the radiator fins was a real pain for me, they always wanted to bend one way. I ended up coming from the opposite end, can’t recall if it was right to left or left to right, I had plenty of scrapped ones until I got it correct.

Paul.


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