# PM Research No. 1 Build



## rhitee93 (Mar 25, 2012)

A build log for a PM Research No.1 engine.

Hi all, I thought I would start a thread to share my build of a PMR #1BI from a casting kit. I am actually about 10 hours into this build so it will take me a few posts to catch up.

First, here is a shot of all the castings that come with the kit. I have only built one engine from castings before, so I am not a expert at quality, but for the most part these seem pretty good. For reference, the flywheel will finish out at over 6", and the bore will be 1".


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## rhitee93 (Mar 25, 2012)

I decided to start working with the flywheel for a few reasons. First, it is the easiest to plan out the order of the machining operations. Second, it was the one part that I was afraid would be a bit of a mouthful for my 10&#8221; lathe so I wanted to try it out to see what issues I would have. Third, it is the fastest significant part to complete, and I am a sucker for instant gratification.

With my particular selection of lathe chucks and jaws, the best approach for me was to use a 3-jaw to hold onto one side of the hub while I made the cleanup passes on the other side. I would have preferred to hold onto the rim, but my 6&#8221; chuck didn&#8217;t have enough reach to get out that far with outside jaws, and I couldn&#8217;t get the inside jaws to clear the spokes.

The 3-jaw didn&#8217;t have much material to hold onto, and the casting surface has some draft to it so the flywheel does not register very true if you just tighten down the jaws. I used a dial indicator to measure the run out at each spoke and just kept moving the wheel within the jaws to get it as even as possible. I was able to get to +/- 0.010&#8221; at the outer tips of the spokes. I used the spokes because there was a lot of variance in the rim width.


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## rhitee93 (Mar 25, 2012)

I turned down the first side of the hub to fit into an 11/16&#8221; collet. This way I could get a better grip on the flywheel when I bored the hole for the shaft. Here you can see the flywheel chucked up in a 5c-collet. The hub has been completely cleaned up now, and a center drill is being used to locate the initial drill.


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## rhitee93 (Mar 25, 2012)

After drilling an initial hole, I bored it out to size. Boring is my absolute favorite lathe operation, and this cast iron machined quite well. This is also where I deviated from the plans a bit. (Hey, I made it all the way to 3 operations before I broke the rules. That has to be a record for me!) I decided to broach a key way through the hub. I did this for two reasons. First it would let me use a surrogate shaft to turn the outer rim, and second the big 6.5" flywheel won't rely on just a 5-40 grub screw to hold it in place while the engine is running.


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## hitandmissman (Mar 25, 2012)

I don't have this one yet, but hope to some day so will be watching how you make out. Looks like you are off to a good start here.


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## Don1966 (Mar 25, 2012)

I will follow alone also. I would like to see how PM,s casting kits turn out. I bought the Dynamo kit I really liked it. You have a good start so far.

Regards Don


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## techonehundred (Mar 26, 2012)

Thanks for doing this. I am taking notes. I have a PM #1 and am getting ready to start it.


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## rudydubya (Mar 26, 2012)

I'll be tagging along also. Looks like an interesting and fun build.  Thm:

Regards,
Rudy


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## b.lindsey (Mar 26, 2012)

I have a #1 waiting in the wings too so will be following along with interest. I like the idea of adding the keyway to the flywheel bore. Keep up the nice work and pictures!!

Bill


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## rhitee93 (Mar 26, 2012)

Thanks for the interest guys! Here are the last flywheel pics. You can see the flywheel mounted to a temporary shaft and back in the lathe. I don't have a dead center, so I held one end of the shaft in a collet and the other on the live center. I had to use light passes to keep the chatter down, so I didn't have much of a problem with the shaft getting pushed back into the collet. (Which can be an issues with this setup)






The rim polished up pretty well, but I will probably go after it a bit more. I have some meager nickel plating abilities, and have been considering plating the wheel before painting so that the rim would have the nickel look. I'd probably have to invest in a copper plating kit first so I can build up the pores in the casting surface with successive plating/polishing operations.

I already have most of the engine base machined. I'll start on those pics next...


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## b.lindsey (Mar 26, 2012)

That turned out well Brian...I was worried as to the chattering on that flywheel given its small mass vs. diameter. Looks great!!

Bill


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## smfr (Mar 26, 2012)

When I was doing a Stuart Beam flywheel, I tried doing it on a shaft like you are here, but I wasn't able to avoid chatter marks on the sides. I ended up bolting it to a faceplate, which was much more rigid and avoided the chatter.

Good work here on the PM kit though. The Al version of this kit was my first "from castings" attempt, and I made a real pig's ear out of it ;D

Simon


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## rhitee93 (Mar 26, 2012)

Yeah, the flywheel was singing a bit with this setup. I had the lathe running in back gear. I don't know the speed, but probably around 150 rpm. I had some chatter marks on the sides but was able to clean them off with a HSS parting tool by just using the corner of the tool.

The hard part was getting to the point that I had an uninterrupted cut. there was probably 0.050" run out on the sides because the flywheel wasn't flat. It was a booger to get past.

I'll try to post more tonight...


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## vcutajar (Mar 26, 2012)

Brian

I will be following your build also

Vince


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## rhitee93 (Mar 26, 2012)

I decided to follow an approach I saw on another build log, and machine the frame of the engine while it was attached to a reference plate. I squared off the edges of a 9"x3" piece of 3/8" steel bar stock and drilled the nominal hole pattern for the mounting holes in the engine frame. I knew that the holes probably wouldn't line up perfectly with the pads on the frame, but it looked like they would be close.

I used 1/8" dowel pins in two opposing corners and reamed these holes in the frame to match. this was probably overkill, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Here is a pic of the plate after drilling. The DRO on the mill makes this easy.


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## rhitee93 (Mar 26, 2012)

I struggled to find an elegant way to flatten the bottom of the frame. In the end I just used a long strip of 80 grit sand paper on a level concrete floor. After about 5 minutes, I had the bottom leveled. I finished up with a piece of 220 emery cloth on a piece of polished granite someone gave me from a counter top project.






Then I clamped the frame to the mill table over a piece of flat plastic stock and "Indexed" it in so to speak so that a bolt pattern that would match the reference plate was as well centered over the mounting pads as possible. As you can see, the screws aren't perfectly centered on the pads. It doesn't really bother me, but if I had it to do over again, I would modify the pattern in the reference plate from the prints slightly so that there would be a better match.











Tomorrow I will show some of the maching steps for the frame...


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## Don1966 (Mar 26, 2012)

Very interesting approach, looks like you are on your way. Keep us posted with your photos. One of the interesting part of this forum is guys telling us about there mistakes so the rest of us newbies can learn what not to do, and some of the guys tell us how to do it better.

Don


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## archer3d (Mar 27, 2012)

Looking REAL good so far. Please keep the pictures and descriptions coming, I will be following along.


tom


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## b.lindsey (Mar 27, 2012)

Looking good Brian, still following along with interest here.

Bill


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## smfr (Mar 29, 2012)

I like the idea of using a reference plate. That really helps get around one of the most difficult issues with castings.


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## rhitee93 (Mar 29, 2012)

smfr  said:
			
		

> I like the idea of using a reference plate. That really helps get around one of the most difficult issues with castings.



I wish I had thought of it on my own, but I saw it on another build site somewhere. I'll try to post some more pics tonight. the last couple of evenings have been busy with kid activities


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## rhitee93 (Mar 29, 2012)

Here is a shot of the first cuts on the base. I decided to start with the rails for the cross head. After that it is easy to measure the height of the rails relative to the reference plate, and therefore to machine all the other surfaces by indexing in off the plate.







While I was setup with the centerline of the engine defined, I also machined the opening between the crank shaft bearing blocks to size. the prints leave a lot to interpretation here. They give you the finished opening width, but don't really say how far forward and back to extend the machined surface. I may have to revisit this if things don't fit.

Overall, it looks like I have the frame about 0.020" off to one side of what would have been the true centerline of the casting. There should be plenty of material to work with, but if you look close you can tell.






After I had the rails machined, I clamped the reference plate to an angle plate on the CNC mill at work. I used it to spot face the surface for the inboard head, the bolt pattern for the cylinder, and the stuffing box holes. I know it is more conventional to use the mating parts to locate these holes in the frame, but with the DRO on the conventional mill and the CNC, I think (at least I hope) I can make all the parts match up.


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## rhitee93 (Mar 29, 2012)

Here is a shot of the front of the frame with the complete bolt pattern for the cylinder, and stuffing box. You can see how the margins on the spot face come up just a bit higher on one side. More evidence that I didn't have the casting on it's true center when I started cutting.






Machining the tops of the bearing caps was an interesting challenge. The print gives you the X-Y location of the centerline of the crank shaft relative to the top of the cross head rails and the forward surface where the inboard head will rest. 

This is easy enough to locate when you have the frame on its side. however, the bearing caps get machined at a 45-deg angle with the frame upright, and the only reference on the print is that the caps get machined to the centerline of the crankshaft. You could do this with the frame on it's side, but you are supposed to create a recess for the bearing caps, and that wouldn't be possible unless you machine it top up.

I scratched my head for a while, and after an hour of goofing around with some trig, I figured out how far to move the centerline of the cutter along the X and Z axis to get to the centerline of the crankshaft when the reference plate was in the vise at 45 degrees.

As a sanity check, I mounted the frame in the mill as if I was going to drill the crankshaft hole, and touched the surface of one bearing stand with a center drill. If the math was right, I would cut right through the center of the drill spot. I'll be darned if it wasn't right on the spot! :big: You can see the 1/2 of the dimple on the right stand. I scanned my page of calculations for those who like to read bad handwriting.

The finish on the bearing stands is much better than it looks in the photo. The flash makes it look rough.






View attachment trig.pdf


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## smfr (Mar 29, 2012)

This all looks great! I'm learning lots of things I can use on the second set of PM Research castings that I've got


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## rhitee93 (Mar 30, 2012)

Here is an overall shot of the frame. I forgot to post it last night The only major operation left is to drill/ream the crankshaft hole. I'll get to that once I machine the bearing caps. I'll do a better job of cleaning up the mold lines when I get closer to assembly. Still a long way to go before I need to worry about that


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## b.lindsey (Mar 30, 2012)

Still looking very nice Brian. That base is just about done and I suspect thats one of the more difficult parts to machine. Nice pictures of what your doing along the way as well!!

Bill


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## Don1966 (Mar 31, 2012)

Good work Brian I am still following with isn't rest. I was wonder how you were going to do your centerline for he crank and cylinder good job.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Apr 2, 2012)

I put the base aside for a while so I could start on the cylinder. (I like to get the hard parts done first)

The first pic is getting ready for the bore. I decided to hold the raw cylinder casting in a 4-jaw chuck, and machine the bore first followed by the inboard head surface in the same setup. This should maintain the important alignment between the path of the piston and the bore of the cylinder.

I haven&#8217;t done a lot of 4-jaw work but I was able to get the cylinder &#8220;Centered&#8221; around the rough cast bore pretty well. The hole is a bit egg-shaped as cast, so it takes some interpretation.  This made sure the inboard opening was running on center, but how should I make sure the entire axis of the bore is on center?

I checked the alignment to the axis of the bore by running the test indicator in and out of the bore as far as I could reach. The reading was dead on, but I must have goofed up because the end result isn&#8217;t quite right. The bore isn&#8217;t as well centered on the outbound end. Oh well, my engine will just be looking a bit to the left&#8230;






I used the stoutest boring bar I had that would fit, and had no trouble at all with chatter. However I ended up with about 0.002&#8221; of taper. The odd thing is that it is the end closest to the lathe headstock is the larger end. Not what you usually get due to tool flex, so I suspect it is a measure of the wear in my lathe bed. I have managed to get most of the taper out, but it will be a few posts before I catch up to that step.

When I was done I cleaned up the rust on my chuck. I had it sitting under an oily rag, but haven't used it in a couple of years. Dooh! :






Somehow I managed to not get a pic of facing off the inboard end. Not too exciting to see, but I wanted to point out that his is where the prints may lead you astray.

The print indicates that this should just be a cleanup pass. Since I didn&#8217;t think to compare the length of the casting the specified finished length before I chucked it up, I was afraid to take off too much material. Unfortunately just cleaning up the surface results is a cylinder that will be way too long. You really have to take close to 0.100&#8221; off each end to get the bore to the correct length. 

I can&#8217;t take enough off the other end without cutting into the steam chest. So I am stuck with a bore that is almost 0.100&#8221; too long. I may increase the length of the piston and piston rod to compensate so I don&#8217;t have so much dead space at the ends of stroke.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 2, 2012)

Here I have put the cylinder in the mill vise against the newly machine inboard end. This allowed me to machine the face of the steam chest flat. I also did the cleanup pass for the valve surface of the steam chest. I did most of this with a larger cutter, but came back in with an 1/8&#8221; endmill to clean up the corners a bit.











Once the opening of the steam chest was flat and reasonably perpendicular to the inboard face, I flipped the part around and faced off the outboard end of the cylinder and removed the unused packing gland boss. I believe you can assemble this kit with the steam chest on either side or vary the exhaust/supply line locations by selecting which boss you use.






You can see here how much more material was removed from the outboard face than the inboard. The cylinder is still over 0.100" too long, so the inboard end should look more like the outboard.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 2, 2012)

The next step was to machine the valve ports and bolt holes in the steam chest. I should have done this when I had it setup before, but I was focused on getting the cylinder ends right, and didn&#8217;t think about it. Here you see the supply port and exhaust ports being machined. Then I center-drilled and drilled the bolt holes for the cover. Once again, these are supposed to be located by the cover, but I am confident that I can make the cover match the holes. (We&#8217;ll see&#8230

Milling the exhaust port:





Milling the supply ports:





Center drilling and drilling the steam chest bolt holes:










Sorry about some of the photos. I don't want to take my good SLR into the shop, and this little point and shoot is struggling to focus on the right points. I can't see they are out of focus until I load them on the computer.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 3, 2012)

I was a bit bugged by the taper in the bore. I have a 1&#8221; ball bearing that I used as a gage ball, and it was too tight to pass all the way through the cylinder.

I made a lap from a piece of 1&#8221; aluminum tubing by mounting it in a collet, and using a lathe like a shaper to cut groves along it&#8217;s length. Using some 600 grit aluminum oxide paste, I was able to get the bore to even up a bit. I rested the part against the tool post to stop it from rotating. I could then use the carriage to move the part back and forth. This way I didn&#8217;t have to hold the part in my hand.






Now, if I use the heal of my hand to plug up one end of the cylinder, the gage ball will sit on the cushion of air trapped in the cylinder until I take my hand away.

Looking through the bore, I can see where the lap has worked, and where the bore still has the machined finish. Since I can machine the piston to size, I may go back to the lap and try to even out the surface. I got a great finish with the boring bar, but the lapped surface is much smoother.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 3, 2012)

I forgot to take a pic of the setup for drilling the steam passages from the ports in the chest to the ends of the cylinder. It looks scary on the drawing, but it is easy. I set the 20-deg angle by using one of those magnetic gravity protractor deals. Then spot faced the location with an 1/8 end mill followed by the 1/8 drill.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 3, 2012)

Here is another spot that I goofed up on:

The packing gland for the valve rod is located 0.250&#8221; above the &#8220;Floor&#8221; of the steam chest. This floor is located 0.438&#8221; from the top surface of the chest. However, when I did the cleanup pass for the top surface, I didn&#8217;t take off enough material. The end result is that the floor is a little further away from the centerline of the cylinder than the designer had intended. This causes the gland location to not be centered well within the boss cast into the steam chest.






Had I been thinking clearly, I would have gone back and taken another 0.080&#8221; off the top surface and then the floor of the chest. I didn&#8217;t do this because I didn&#8217;t want to have to try to relocate and then deepen the steam ports. However, I had already drilled the steam passages and they connected with the ports just fine so they wouldn&#8217;t have needed to be enlarged. Oh well&#8230; &#8230;lesson learned.

I did come up with some camouflage. I used a carbide bur in a dremel to take down the overhanging edges. Then borrowing the dithering concept from Ramon&#8217;s Table Engine build, I used an electric engraver to hide the ground surfaces. I need to touch it up a bit more, but it won&#8217;t show too bad once painted.  











One lasting result of this error is that the steam inlet hole, when drilled in the center of the boss, does not clear the steam chest floor. I may have to see if I can fill this gouge somehow&#8230;


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## rhitee93 (Apr 3, 2012)

Now it was time to drill & tap the cylinder bolt circle. First I indexed in on the bore of the cylinder. After doing this, I can see why people pay more for test indicators with dials that always face forward.






Taking a lesson from the &#8220;Drilling Holes&#8221; thread here, I bought a spot drill to locate the holes. 






Then drilled them, and finally tapped them 5-40 using a tap handle that can be located in the mill arbor.











I opted to trust the readout on the mill, and my ability to index rather than locate these holes from the heads. In the next post I&#8217;ll see if the holes line up with those in the frame.  If I&#8217;m not back in a day or two, you&#8217;ll know the answer


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## Don1966 (Apr 3, 2012)

You are really getting after it Brain. Looking good so far keep the photos coming.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Apr 4, 2012)

Next up is the inboard head. To get started, I chucked the blank up in the 3-jaw and cleaned up the outside diameter. 






Then I turned down the boss for the cylinder size to match my cylinder. I don&#8217;t have a DRO on the lathe so I use a dial indicator for steps like this. You can just see the stem of the indicator in the lower right corner of the pic.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 4, 2012)

Once the cylinder side boss was done, I could flip the part around and hold onto the boss with a 1&#8221; collet to machine the other side. 






There is a fair amount of material to remove, and I ended up just parting off the excess for the packing gland boss.






Then I just centerdrilled and drilled the through hole.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 4, 2012)

To locate the bolt circle, I made a simple fixture on the mill.

Using a scrap piece of aluminum, I milled a pocket that was a nice fit for the cylinder side boss. I added an 8-32 tapped hole in the center.






This let me hold down the head so that the center was at a defined zero point so that drilling the pattern was simple.











Yeah! It Fits


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## b.lindsey (Apr 4, 2012)

Nice to see how much progress you are making Brian, and its coming together very nicely too. When i first saw this engine years ago it wasnt one of my favorites, but the more i looked at it the more elegant looking it became. One of these days I hope to get mine made so thanks for doing this build log!!

Regards,
Nill


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## rhitee93 (Apr 4, 2012)

Thanks Bill, I have to agree with you on the looks of the engine. When I built my #3 years ago. I thought this one was rather awkward looking. However, this time around I envisioned it on a nice base with a flywheel pit, and it seemed much more graceful.

I really like these horizontal engines. I'd like to build a Victoria some day, but have been scared off a bit by reports of poor castings.

Then again Ramon's Table Engine build has really inspired me as to what is possible without castings!


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## rhitee93 (Apr 5, 2012)

OK, I am deviating from the plans again. I decided that I would be happier if I built up a crank rather than use the cast one from the kit. I got wrapped up in the work tonight, and forgot to take pics, but here is the connecting rod journal attached to the side plates. (I don't know what the correct name for the parts are ??? )







I wanted the crank to have counterweights because I think it makes the motion more interesting. The journal is pressed into a "D" shaped hole, and then I drilled and pressed in 1/8" pins radially after making some adjustments to get the sides as parallel as possible.

Tomorrow I'll put a 6" piece of drill rod through the center hole, and pin it in place. I plan to spin it on the lathe to see how true it is, and make any cleanup passes that I feel are necessary. Then I'll cut out the center section of the drill rod to finish the crank.


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## smfr (Apr 5, 2012)

That's going to be a great-looking crankshaft. It's fun to see two PM Research builds going on at the moment!


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## rhitee93 (Apr 6, 2012)

Thanks! Here are a couple of shots of what it will look like in the end...


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## rudydubya (Apr 6, 2012)

Brian, following with interest. How did you make those "D" shaped holes in the webs? Looks like the journal fits well in them.

Regards,
Rudy


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## rhitee93 (Apr 6, 2012)

Rudy, to be honest, I cheated! I have access to an abrasive water jet cutter. The holes were a ligt press for the D-shaped pins.

This evening I put a piece of drill rod through the center hole of the crank, and pinned it in place. Once it was all together, I milled out the piece of shaft in the middle. The idea was that the ends would stay on their original center lines so that everything would run true. It wasn't entirely successful, however. I put one end in a collet in my lathe (Which I know to run true to a couple of tenths) and I get about 6 thou of run out at the opposite end. I suspect it is going to run a bit tight once I bore out the crank bearings, but we will see.

I didn't take as many pics today as I should have. I did remember to snap one when I was setup to cut out the excess shaft in the middle.


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## Don1966 (Apr 6, 2012)

Nice work Brian , things are getting closer to completion. Still hanging in watching your progress. 

Don


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## rhitee93 (Apr 7, 2012)

This was a good day! I got the bearing caps made and fitted to the frame, and then put in the hole for the crank bearing.

I left the two caps attached to each other for most of the machining steps.

Here I am set up to finish the mating surface.






Locating the center:






Finishing up the bottoms:






And finally forming the tennon:


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## rhitee93 (Apr 8, 2012)

Next I flipped the part over and clamped on the tennon I just machined so that I could drill the screw holes.

First spot-facing for the bearing cap nuts:






Then spot-drilling:






I know what you are thinking, "He is going to drill into the vise!" Actually, I had set the zero point on the z-axis readout to a place about 0.010" above the vise. That way I could drill most of the hole with the accurate setup in the mill, and finish it up on the drill press.






Here are the mostly drilled holes ready to be finished up at the drill press:


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## rhitee93 (Apr 8, 2012)

With all the tools at my disposal, I don't have a vertical metal cutting bandsaw : so here I am separating the two bearing caps with a hacksaw.






Of course, I had to do a quick test fit, but I hadn't tapped the holes in the base yet. I should have done this in the same setup I used to drill the holes, but I didn't have a tap handle that I could hold with the mill spindle yet, and there wasn't enough feel to tap these 3-48 holes when I held the tap in the full sized drill chuck.

To get the holes tapped straight, I drilled a hole in a piece of plastic that was a slip fit for the tap. the plastic was large enough to span both bearing blocks so that I could keep it flat and the tap perpendicular to the holes. (This is an age old tapping trick)






...and the test fit:


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## rhitee93 (Apr 8, 2012)

I want to point out another goof. I should have machined these bearing locations first and let them dictate the other surfaces on the base. It has taken some odd setups to make the bearing caps match, but it all worked out in the end.

Here I have the entire base setup in the mill to drill out the bearing holes. I don't have a boring bar that is small enough for a .375" hole yet long enough to reach both bearings so drilling and reaming is my best option.

I also hedged my bet a bit. I have a tendency to make holes too large, so I put a piece of scotch tape between the bearing caps and the stands to act as a shim. This way I can back up a bit if necessary.

I don't care for using successively larger drills, but in this case I spotted the location and started with a smaller drill that was just large enough to allow me to pass a long centerdrill through to spot the second bearing location.
















Then I drilled through with a "U" drill and reamed with successive reamers until a test shaft fit the way I wanted. The test shaft was cut from the same piece of drill rod I used to make my crank.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 8, 2012)

Here is a test fit of the parts I have to date. It is starting to take shape.

I was worried that my crank may be to misaligned to turn freely, but it seems fine.

I want to get to work on the connecting rod and cross head next...


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## Don1966 (Apr 8, 2012)

That is really looking great Brian. You have made look easy, keep the photos coming. 

Don


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## smfr (Apr 8, 2012)

Looking good! The reference plate on the base sure makes it easy to get the holes straight. I'm struggling now with a setup on my Stuart No. 4 base, and a reference plate would make it much easier.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 8, 2012)

Thanks Simon. I have been watching your #4 build. I would think that your machine base would be suitable as a reference plane to locate your bearings. 

The reference plate makes it easy to clamp up the part, but if that is what you need, can you still add the plate?


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## rhitee93 (Apr 13, 2012)

OK, I have been a bit tied up the last few days, but I finally got back to working on the engine after work today.

Since I have the crank ready to go, I have been chomping at the bit to get the con rod started. It is a pretty awkward part, however, and I spent some time twiddling the casting around in my hand thinking of ways to fixture it.

The trick is to find a way to saw cut the bearing cap from the rest of the con rod, but put it all back in the mill so that the saw cut surfaces can be machined back to a common straight line. However, first things first. I had to drill the screw holes for the cap.

Drilling the holes for the bearing cap screws isn't the easiest thing either since the part is so long. As you can see below, I though I could clamp it up in the vise and go slow. *I would not recommend this approach!* I got away with it, but only barely. I should have taken the time to setup the angle plate!






Here I am gingerly spotfacing the hole locations:






And after spot drilling, I drilled the holes:






Then I sanded/files off the gate to get ready for the sawing step. I just made the saw cut, but that post will have to wait for a bit.






Please enjoy the new larger photos


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## rhitee93 (Apr 14, 2012)

I don't have a vertical metal cutting bandsaw, so I cut the bearing cap from the connecting rod using a jeweler's saw. This took some time to do!






Next I set the connecting rod up in this fixture for a few operations. The fixture has an 1/8" pin that slips through a temporary hole drilled/reamed at the wrist pin location. This allows me to locate the main bearing location. In this pic, I am milling off the saw cut face.






Here is the cheesy way that I faced of the bearing cap. I'm not proud, but it worked OK. The shim stock was used to position the cap "Level" so the milled surface would be properly aligned to the mating surface on the connecting rod.






Here the cap is screwed to the rod awaiting the drilling operation. The cellophane tape shim worked well for me on the main bearing caps, so I did it again here. Perhaps some day I'll learn to make my holes 0.002" smaller


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## Don1966 (Apr 14, 2012)

Great photos Brian, I love your reference plate looks like it work well for you. You have make great progress so far and still following along with you.

Don


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## rudydubya (Apr 14, 2012)

Like Don said, great pictures Brian. I enjoy seeing how others approach a problem and then ask myself how I would do it. I learn a lot like that. Of course, I forget most of it overnight... Still following with interest.

Rudy


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## rhitee93 (Apr 14, 2012)

Thanks Don & Rudy, I am having a ball with this so far, and it is amazing how much you can learn hanging around this place.

In the next shot, I am getting ready to drill the initial hole for the big end bearing. Those of you following along will notice that I have reverted back to using a center drill. Whoever finds my new _Spot Drill_ in the worm-hole under their bench, please throw it back in my direction... 






Then I used a "U" drill to create the initial hole.






Followed up with the appropriate reamer.






Then it was just a matter of facing off the big end to fit my crank...






And then going back to drill and ream the wrist pin hole to the correct size. I goofed here. You would think that after 20 years of puttering around in a shop I would stop thinking I can hold a part when I drill a hole through it. I got lucky in this case. The part grabbed, and got flung across the shop but I only bloodied my thumb up a bit. Maybe I'll learn this time :-[

This shot is the second take after I retrieved the rod from under the bench across the shop.






Finally, another test fitting:


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## smfr (Apr 14, 2012)

Excellent progress!

I would probably have kept the conrod in the fixture for drilling both ends; it's fairly critical that the two holes are parallel. That would have required changing the setup a bit, but I think it would have been worth it.

Simon


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## rhitee93 (Apr 17, 2012)

Well, work has been creeping into my private life for the last couple of days, but I took a break tonight and made couple of little parts for the engine. I decided to build up a crank rather than use the cast one that came with the kit. I used 3/8" steel to cut out the webs of the crank because it was a convenient size. However, this meant that I couldn't make the crank wide enough at the journals. I was OK with this since it would allow me to cut a pair of custom spacers to perfectly match the crank to the opening in my frame.

In the first pic I am turning down some brass to size.







And drilling it out with a 3/8" drill






OK, those 2 pics are a waste of bandwidth, but this one might be interesting to some of the less experienced folks. Next I parted off the spacers. I don't have a DRO on the lathe, so I use a dial indicator. I just make a skim pass with the parting tool, and set the dial to 0. Then I move in the width of the tool, and set to 0 again. Then I move over the thickness of the part I want and cut away. Not rocket science, but I find I can make parts within a thou or two this way all night long. (Yeah, I could do it in one move if I trusted myself to add in my head, but I don't)






I intended to cut the parts off about a thou over so I could wet sand them to a perfect fit. It turned out I actually made them much larger than necessary and had to spend some time sanding away. After removing my fingerprints, I tried using a piece of leather to hold the spacer down against the sand paper. This worked like a charm, and I wish I had tried it years ago :






The piece of granite is a cutout from a counter top that someone gave me. It is handy as all get out.

Here is a shot of the spacers in place


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## rhitee93 (Apr 17, 2012)

Is this a safe place to admit I spent about 20 minutes turning my crank and rod assembly round and round making steam engine noises in my head :-[

You can see a video of my engine "Running" below 

http://s1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii601/BriansEngines/PM%20Research%20No1%20Build/?action=view&current=100_1881.mp4


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## vcutajar (Apr 18, 2012)

You are definetly not the only one doing those things. When I do that my wife always gives me that strange look.

Vince


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## b.lindsey (Apr 18, 2012)

Looking great Brian...and thanks for the tip about the leather while sanding....I've lost my fingerprints a few times too and it ain't no fun!! Nice little video too...I think most all of us can relate to that whether we admit it or not...lol.

Bill


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## rhitee93 (Apr 19, 2012)

I got a couple of hours tonight to work on the engine so I decided to get the piston done. First I faced off the slug of CRS that came with the kit, and drilled the .125" through hole. Then came the important part - turning the OD to size.

My cylinder honed out to 1.0035 so I set the target diameter to 1.0025. I know my lathe pretty well, and can usually turn to a target diameter in this size range without a lot of fiddling, but she surprised me tonight. I made my second to last pass expecting to be at 1.0040, and ended up with 1.0015. Oh well, I'll run with it and see what happens. 






next I bored out he counterbore for the piston rod nut. This little boring bar is one of my favorite tools. I have another one that is about 1/3 this size that I absolutely love as well.






Next it was time for the ring groves. This is a tool that I ground for some other purpose a long time ago. It is ugly as all get out which, unfortunately, is a pretty good description of my tool grinding ability. For whatever reason it cut through this CRS like butter. The tool happens to be 0.043" wide and the groves are supposed to be 0.050" wide so I cut to depth, backed out, stepped over 7 though and plunged again. I didn't want to try to cut sideways with this tool.






Here is a shot of the second grove being cut, and the dial indicator setup I use for operations like this.






This lathe and I usually get along pretty well when it comes to parting, but this was a pretty deep cut so I wasn't too sure how this would end up. I had to stop every 30 thou or so and put a drop of oil on the cutter, but in the end it came out just dandy. Somewhere along the line my parting tool has become magnetized which is a bit annoying. I'll have to fix that one of these days...






Parting didn't leave me with a very nice surface, so I took a very light skim pass.






And finally a test fit with the cylinder. Being a couple thou undersized the fit is quite free, but I thing the rings will make it OK. I made the piton a little longer than the plans say to make up for the fact my cylinder is a bit too long.

I hope to get the crosshead made this weekend!


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## Blogwitch (Apr 19, 2012)

Brian,

I am really glad you have changed over to the embedded pictures, I can now follow along with your build. :bow: :bow: :bow:

It looks like up to now you have solved all your problems, except one. :'(

I am not being critical of your work at all, but of the kit supplier. It seems that PM do this with all their kits, and it really spoils the overall effect of what you are building.

This is a common problem when people first start to build from castings.

If you really want to lift your build to a much higher level, get rid of the crappy screws that the kit manufacturer has supplied, and either make hex headed bolts out of the screws supplied or just buy some to replace the ones you have already fitted or about to fit.

When you buy a casting kit in the UK, rather than spoil a good build with crappy fixings, they are usually supplied with no fixings at all, (or if they do supply, they will usually be the correct ones), leaving the choice to the builder. 
It looks like PM are trying to help, but they are doing it on the cheap and making their casting kits look cheap and nasty when finished off, purely because of the general purpose screws they have supplied. :redface2:

Another point, if you have a bolt tightening down to a face, that face should be machined, not left as cast. 
Have a look at your crank bearing caps, if you had just run a cutter across the faces where those screws are, or even spot face where they fit, it would lift the quality of your build no end, and it only takes a couple of minutes to do.

As I said, I am not being critical at all, I'm just trying to help you to achieve a much better looking engine.

John


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## rhitee93 (Apr 20, 2012)

I'm with you on the hardware John. I intend to use something that looks nicer for the final assembly. Since I have opted to use the imperial threads called out in the prints, i think my best option is probably making studs and nuts. That is why I have been so willing to beat up the kit hardware when doing the machining steps and the test fits. True it is cheap hardware that was supplied, but for $112 (71 GBP) I wouldn't expect much more.

Your point about spotfacing the bolt locations if true, but in fairness the plans call this out. You would have to go back through the thumbnails photos to see where I show this, but all of the locations that bear the fastener load are machined.

Thanks for your input. Your attention to detail on your builds that I have gone back an looked at has inspired me to put extra effort into some of the small details on this engine when it comes time to do all the finishing steps.


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## bearcar1 (Apr 20, 2012)

That looks good so far Brian, and believe me when I say, you won't be disappointed by making up studs instead of cap screws or other fasteners for those bearing caps. The very same holds true on the cylinder head as well. Here are a couple of images to give you a visual of the finished 'look'. The studs are just a bit 'fiddly' to make up and get right but the overall effect just makes a model jump in terms of realism. Well worth the effort and time required. Thanks for sharing your adventures BTW, I'm enjoying it tremendously.

BC1
Jim


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## rhitee93 (Apr 20, 2012)

Thanks Jim. It looks like you made proper scale studs. I have to admit I was just thinking about getting some threaded rod and cutting to length. I'll probably have to make the nuts because the modern nuts with the taper at the edges just wouldn't look right.

I see you are using some fairing compound to smooth out your castings. That is a question I have been struggling with.


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## bearcar1 (Apr 20, 2012)

Hi Brian, 

Yes, I went with 'proper' studs as I just get these niggling feelings when I don't, that it just isn't 'right' somehow or that I am cheating by using thread-all in such applications. As for smoothing out the castings, I first went over them with a bit of emery cloth to get the surface knocked down to an overall, even, bumpy surface. I then applied two coats of white metal primer, allowing both to thoroughly dry between coats. Then i applied a somewhat wet coat of grey metal primer and after letting that stand in the sun for a coupe of days, I rubbed the castings down with wet/dry paper to even out the surface. the two colors of primer allows one to actually bear witness to what is happening in terms of material being removed and where. Once all the machine work is completed I will mask off the necessary surfaces, spray on another coat of white and perform the final sanding operations followed up with the color coats and more wet sanding. 
 You are right about not using standard nuts for our models, the profiles are just wrong and the thicknesses are incorrect as well. Who ever would think that making a model could prove to be so challenging? 
 I am looking forward to seeing your continued forward progress and am certainly anxious, as I know you are, to see this one run. Keep up the good work.

BC1
Jim


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## Don1966 (Apr 20, 2012)

Great work Brian, I have to admit I am learning things from your built as well. I am still here following your built keep up the good work.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Apr 23, 2012)

Saturday was one of those days I should have just stayed out of the shop. I had looked forward to getting started on the crosshead for several days, but things kept popping up all day that kept me busy. It was 7:00PM by the time I had time to start working. Then I made one silly little mistake after another. By the time I was done I was pretty convinced that I had messed up the part completely and would have to make another.

However, I made a piston rod, and with some minor adjustment, the whole crank to piston assembly is turning pretty well. I think the crosshead can be saved after all.

I also want to point out that I dont think I would try this machining sequence again. I had to use too many setups. This part has to be pretty precise to keep things well aligned, and the integration error caused by all the setups adds up quickly. I dont have a better suggestion, but I wouldnt recommend the way I did it.

First I started machining the horizontal bearing surfaces. I took just under half of the required material off one side while the other side was resting on parallels.






Then I flipped the part over so that the freshly machined face was resting on the top of the vise jaws. I set the z-axis zero to the top of the vise jaws, and then cut to the finished thickness. (I left a thou on each face for cleanup)






Next I flipped the part around, cleaned up the sides of the wrist pin location and drilled/reamed the hole.






Then I moved the part back over and cut the slot for the small end of the connecting rod.






Then I faced off the end for the piston rod. I could have avoided this setup if I had been thinking clearly when I positioned the part for the last operation.






Then I moved the part one last time to drill & tap the piston rod hole. Notice the drill shank being used to keep from distorting the connecting rod slot.

Ill try to get another quick video of the engine moving. When my timing is right, I can keep it turning by simply pushing on the outboard side of the piston.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 23, 2012)

Here is a silly video of me playing the part of the boiler. 
(Sorry for the gross waste of bandwidth, but I have the imagination of a 5-year old)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XANvn27sjrs[/ame]


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## lazylathe (Apr 23, 2012)

That is sweet Brian!!!

A few more parts and you will be done!
Love the video!!!

Andrew


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## rhitee93 (Apr 24, 2012)

I was dog tired when I got home from work tonight, and had written off any shop time. However after a quick nap I though I would get a start on the eccentric hub. The next thing I knew it was 10:00, but I had the part done. (Well almost done)

I started by putting the piece of 1.125" CRS from the kit in a collet and making a cut to define the outboard side of the eccentric. I would come back and part the piece off at this location later, but for now if serves as a well defined zero location. I set my dial indicator to zero and stepped over the thickness of the parting tool and the thickness of the "Rim" the keeps the eccentric in place.






Then I cut out the section that the eccentric will ride on. I plunged most of it out with the parting tool and cleaned up the surface with some very light passes side to side. You are not supposed to do that, but I think everybody does...






Next I stepped over the right amount to define the other "Rim" of the hub. I'm not sure why I did it this way, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.






Then I put the part in my 4-jaw and centered it up. Then I offset it the 0.188" called for in the prints. After doing that I realized that all I had to do originally was get the part to where it had a TIR of 0.376", and that I could have skipped the centering step. Oh well, live and learn. This is only the 2nd time I have ever turned anything off center this way. Oh, yeah, I still need to clean the rust off my 4-jaw :-[






I don't like interrupted cuts like this, and was only taking 10 thou of at a time. However, lots of handle turning later and I was making progress.






Once I finished the hub for the eccentric hub (The hub-hub  ) I centerdrilled and drilled to 11/32".






Then bored to a nice fit on my crankshaft material. I could have just reamed it, but I enjoy boring on a lathe so I tend to favor it. This was a blind hole, so the dial indicator told me when to stop.






I had left the hub-hub a little too long so I faced it off and added a bit of a chamfer. Then it was time to part it off so back to the collet it went.






After a little time with some wet/dry paper to smooth out the flat side, here is the part. I still need to drill and tap the grub screw hole, but that can wait for tomorrow.


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## ProdEng (Apr 25, 2012)

I enjoyed the video, anytime I have two parts that go together they get assembled and played with.  Your explaining how to make an eccentric is handy as I need to make one soon. Boring is one of my favourites too, I only ream up to 6mm, after that I bore.

Jan


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## kye (Apr 25, 2012)

hi Brian, did you have any problem when you were taking the final parting cut due to the off center hole???? 

the first time i made one(ive only really made one... haha) when i was doing the same final parting, when i reached the hole the tool grabbed and all manor of unpleasant things happened. was there anything you did during this step differently to a standard plunge cut/parting off without an off-center hole??

cheers Mackye


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## rhitee93 (Apr 25, 2012)

Mackye,

I was worried about the effect of the off-center hole when I parted the piece off, but I think it actually helped clear the chips. This is the same piece of stock I made the piston from, and I had to go a lot slower when parting it off than I did here.

This lathe always does well when parting. It weighs in at 1100 pounds so there is some mass there to hold everything in place. I don't know much about tool grinding, but the way I grind my parting tool may have some effect as well. I always put a little hollow grind on the top side just behind the cutting edge. I think the proper term is that I have a lot of rake angle? I can take a pic if it would be helpful...


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## Dinkum (Apr 25, 2012)

H Rhitee,

Your doing a great job there. Thm:  Wish I could do similar.




			
				rhitee93  said:
			
		

> I can take a pic if it would be helpful...



Please do.


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## b.lindsey (Apr 25, 2012)

Great progress and great pictures Brian. Loved the short video too...a new take on the finger engine perhaps ??? Seriously though, it really is coming together nicely and should make a beautiful model!!! 

Bill


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## Don1966 (Apr 25, 2012)

I agree wilth Bill Brian you are doing a great job and love your photos. Keep up the progress all will pay off when complete.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Apr 25, 2012)

Dinkum  said:
			
		

> H Rhitee,
> 
> Your doing a great job there. Thm: Wish I could do similar.
> 
> ...



Dinkum, Don't sell yourself short. My work doesn't come close to some of the artist that hang around here, but I truly believe the secret to being able to do anything is simply forgetting that you don't know how.

Here is a the close up of my parting tool. I don't know if this is correct in any way, it is just what I have used for years. This one is due to have the hollow re-ground. When it is fresh, the rake is more pronounced. The edge moves back as I touch up the tool, and I'll have to grind it again.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 25, 2012)

I decided to work on the spacers for the crosshead slide caps tonight. The attention to detail that the people around here put into their engines has inspired me, and I decided that plain cylindrical spacers wouldn't do. I have never tried to grind a contoured tool before, and my tools to do this are quite limited so I came up with a simple shape that I hope fits well with the engine.

First off I had to drill a through hole for the slide cap screws. This is an 1/8" drill and a piece of 1/4" brass stock.






Next I came in with the custom tool I ground. Here it is just starting the cut:






...and again with the cut complete. It actually worked quite well. I'll have to try more of this in the future.






Then I just parted them off.






Here are all 4 lined up, and a preview of what the will look like on the engine. I have lots of cleanup work to do on the castings yet. I will smooth the surfaces up before the final assembly.


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## techonehundred (Apr 25, 2012)

Those standoffs look great   You really doing a great job on this build. I am not going to miss a single post here. I am taking notes on every step. building the courage to start my pm #1


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## Dinkum (Apr 26, 2012)

Hi Rhitee,

Thanks for the pic. And yes, I will aspire higher...   Also, how did you grind that spherical stand-off tool so perfectly round. Did you use a jig? They look kinda cool!


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## rhitee93 (Apr 26, 2012)

Dinkum,

That was far from a jig  I was scrounging through my Dremel bits trying to finds something I could use and found a worn out old chainsaw sharpening stone. There was just enough of it left to make that dimple in the tool.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 27, 2012)

Hi all, thanks for all the supporting comments so far. I am having a good time building this engine, and sharing the process has really added to the fun.

I had a vacation day that I needed to burn this month, so today is it. I have some work to do in the yard, but also hope to spend some time in the shop. However before I do that I was hoping to get some advise from the group.

The valve rod link in the plans for this engine is just a couple of square blocks with a pivot. It isn't a bad looking design and is probably more appropriate for the later industrial period, but JasonB's Benson and Ramon's Table Engine have me lusting for long slender/graceful linkages.

I was doodling in cad and came up with the following. I'm not quite happy with it yet, but I though I would throw it out here to see if anyone had some ideas. The plans allow for adjustment by threading the linkages on/off the rods. I can make them much slimmer if I didn't retain that function, and it just now dawned on me that I can still adjust the position of the cross nut, so maybe I can eliminate the flats and threads and just solder these on the rods.

What say you?


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## b.lindsey (Apr 27, 2012)

Hi Brian,
 I say with those fancy standoffs...which look great btw...a fancier valve rod link would be very appropriate. This has been a fun build to follow and am looking forward to seeing it run. Enjoy the vacation day 

Bill


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## vcutajar (Apr 27, 2012)

I say go for it. If you don't like it you can always do another one. Happens to me often.

Vince


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## mklotz (Apr 27, 2012)

The pictured link might look more streamlined if the (yellow) bolt were replaced by a recessed head screw that threaded into the opposite side of the link. Just a thought.


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## Lesmo (Apr 28, 2012)

Hi Brian

Just got up to date with your build, and so pleased that you changed to embedded pictures, as it makes following the thread so much easier. I was also wondering how you made the D shaped holes in the crank, did you also cut the web profiles with the same tool, they really look perfect. This has been an interesting build to follow and you are doing a great job. I look forward to seeing it running.

Cheers Les


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## rhitee93 (Apr 28, 2012)

Hey there Les, I'm glad you are enjoying the build  Yes, I cut the web profiles on the waterjet as well. It is a handy machine within it limitations.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 28, 2012)

OK, I really liked Marv's idea about turning the through bolt into a hidden screw, so I built up a joint. I still need to make the pin, but here is what I have done so far:

First I ground a 1/4" diameter ball cutting tool, and plunged into some .25" CRS.






The finish and roundness left something to be desired, but I am happy with the results after some time with a file and emery.






Then I narrowed down the section behind the ball to 3/16". (More abuse of a parting tool)






Then I cut the piece off leaving some of the 1/4" rod in place.






I left the 1/4" material there so I could flip the part around in the collet to drill the 1/8" hole for the valve rod.






Then I flipped the part back around and parted it off. I repeated this whole process to get a couple of (mostly) matching parts.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 28, 2012)

Next I temporarily glued the two link ends to a piece of 1/8" stock to act as a handle. I didn't need this for the machining steps, but I wanted to buff the parts some and figured this was better done wile they were still ball shaped.

Step one was to put the part in a collet holder and index in on the center of the ball. Then I used a spot drill to mark the center of the female link end.






Followed by a through drill for a 2-56 tap, and a slightly larger drill about 1/2 way through.






Then I tapped the hole 2-56...






...and milled a .260" long x 0.94" wide slot down the center.






I repeated the drilling process for the male link end, only I went all the way through with the larger drill. Then I milled the mating part for the slot.






A little time with some wet/dry, and I am at this point. Next I will make a threaded pin that will look like a headless shoulder bolt, and polish it all together.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 30, 2012)

Well, yesterday I made the threaded pin for my link. Then I cut it to size and buffed the whole joint tonight. I am a little disappointed with the screwdriver slot, but you can't see it in the fuzzy picture below, so let's just pretend it is the nice 0.020" wide x 0.030" deep slot is was supposed to be  I had drilled and taped a 2-56 hole with a .095" counterbore in a scrap plate to act as a fixture to hole the pin while I ran across the top with a 0.020" endmill. I should have used some thread locker because the screw turned a bit on me after the 3rd pass 

This pin isn't very small compared to some of the parts I have seen around here, but it is a new small for me to make. It was originally a piece of 3/16" drill rod...






Then the finished link. The rods are still the surrogate handles. I'll install the link on the right rods whenever they get made.


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## rhitee93 (Apr 30, 2012)

One more pic for tonight showing my backwards method of holding a die. One of these days I need to make/by a proper set of tale stock die-holders, however this works pretty well. My wrist was getting a work out turning the spindle by hand, and then I remembered I hadn't loosened the belt tension on lathe yet. :-[ 

This part is the valve rod.


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## Dinkum (Apr 30, 2012)

rhitee93  said:
			
		

> One more pic for tonight showing my backwards method of holding a die.



That's brilliant! I'll have to try that next time. Thanks for sharing the pic.   I've been green with envy seeing all these tailstock die holders but that needn't be the case anymore...


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## rhitee93 (Apr 30, 2012)

Hey Dinkum, this method works OK, but it is prone to leaving chuck marks on your part. It is better than trying to start a die by hand.


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## rhitee93 (May 2, 2012)

I haven't made much progress in the last couple of days. The real world has been invading my fantasy life again. However, I did manage to make the valve and valve rod. Here are a couple of shots.











I'd like to get to finish up the valve gear this weekend, but it probably won't happen. Maybe next week I'll be able to get it done.

After that I will make the cylinder head and chest cover. I am going to make these parts from scratch because I don't like the quality of those particular casings. The surface is pretty bad on those two kit parts, and I have a nice piece of brass plate I can cut them from. Once I get them made, I should be able to get the engine to move under it's own power.


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## Don1966 (May 2, 2012)

Hi Brian your project is coming alone nicely. I have been following alone as you progress with interest. Love the photos. I will be with you till you have it running. 

Regards Don


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## b.lindsey (May 3, 2012)

Still following along Brian and that linkage looks really good!! Am soooo looking forward to seeing this one run.

Bill


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## rhitee93 (May 4, 2012)

Well, it was finally time to make the eccentric. The kit comes with the typical casting that has to be drilled, tapped, and then saw cut to create the two halves of the eccentric. First I spot faced, and drilled the stepped hole so that the cap would have a clearance for a 5-40 screw, but the eccentric would have the right tap-drill size.







Then I separated the cap from the eccentric. I decided to use a wide slitting saw here since the plans call for up to 1/8" of material removal. This way I don't have to worry about facing off the two halves which means I won't mess up the alignment of the screw holes. I took 0.010" (0.25mm) passes here with a pretty slow feed rate.






Then I screwed the two parts together and put the assembly in the 4-jaw to bore the bearing surface. No tape in the joint this time. I decided it was time to put on the big-boy pants and just bore to the right size. 






Then to keep the side perpendicular to the bore, I faced off 1/2 of the material needed to get the eccentric to the right thickness.






I don't have an expanding mandrel, and was too eager to get this part done to stop and make one, so I put the eccentric on an expanding lap I got to finish the cylinder, and indexed it in so that the face I just turned was square. Then turned the other face down until I was at the finished width.






Then all that was left was drilling and tapping the holes for the oiler and valve rod before I could test fit everything. The eccentric has a beautiful silky smooth fit to the hub :big:


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## Don1966 (May 4, 2012)

Beautifully done Brian, you have made it look so easy. You really do not have much left to complete. Awaiting your finally.

Don


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## Harold Lee (May 4, 2012)

Brian - loved the die in the headstock... never thought of it but it is a GREAT idea!!! Thanks for posting and thanks for teaching us old dogs some new tricks!!!

Harold


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## rhitee93 (May 4, 2012)

Aww shucks Harold, I just thought I was abusing my tools :-[


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## Maryak (May 5, 2012)

rhitee93  said:
			
		

> Aww shucks Harold, I just thought I was abusing my tools :-[



Maybe.................but in the nicest possible way. Thanks for the tip, I can now join in the abuse. :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## steamer (May 5, 2012)

Looking awesome Brian!

Nicely done!

Dave


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## ShedBoy (May 5, 2012)

My set of castings arrived for this engine today so I will be looking back at this informative thread. Great looking engine.

Brock


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## rhitee93 (May 5, 2012)

Hopefully you will find some of my experiences on this build useful Brock. I don't know how soon you plan to start on your engine, but I had planed to post a list of things I would have done differently once I get to the point that the engine runs. However, I can compile that list earlier if you want.

There is probably nothing a more experinced builder wouldn't have seen earlier, but there are some machining steps that I should have done in a different order.


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## ShedBoy (May 5, 2012)

No as far as looking at them that is it for me for a while, stick to your plan. I am a bit scared of digging into some castings.
Brock


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## rhitee93 (May 8, 2012)

I have been working on a scratch built cylinder head for the last few days. The kit came with a cast iron blank for both the head and steam chest. However the surface finish on these parts is pretty rough, and I decided nice brass covers would be more blingy. Here is a shot of the finished head next to the supplied casting. Tell me I made a good choice please. 






I started out with a piece of scrap 1/4" brass plate. I machined the cylinder side boss on one side and drilled the bolt circle in the same setup to keep them concentric. Then I clamped a piece of scrap aluminum in the vise and machined out a matching pocket for the boss and a matching bolt circle. I tapped a couple of holes and screwed my blank down to the jig.






Then I milled the outer perimeter of the head. I left a little bit of extra meat here that I came back and milled off later. Fortunately the flat spot was mostly cleaned up in the final pass. I should have centered the initial cut better :-[






Then I came back and milled a circle around each bolt hole to create little raised areas for the head nuts. After this step I milled a circular recess in the center for decoration.






I wasn't going to stand for those square bottomed cuts around the raised portions or the center depression, so when I milled those circles I made them 0.062" too large in diameter. Then I came back with a 1/16" ball nose cutter to do a final pass that created a nice fillet at the bottom.






Here is a close up of the final part. I need to do some polishing to eliminate the swirl marks, but then again I have hours of polishing ahead of me on this engine!


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## rhitee93 (May 8, 2012)

Here is one more pic with the head on the engine. When I was screwing this part on, one of my daughters came in and asked how much more I had to do. I told her that there was a lot of detail work yet to do, but that if I had a plate to cover the steam chest I could make it run.






When I realized what I had said, I ran to the garage, clamped a block of wood over the steam chest opening, held a blow gun nozzle to the steam inlet, and the rascal started to run! :big:

I'll try to get a video tomorrow!


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## Don1966 (May 8, 2012)

Brian that is a excellent make over and a beautiful addition to your engine and I am sure the steam chest cover will finalize it. Waiting to see it run.

Don


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## idahoan (May 8, 2012)

Really nice job on the head Brian,

I have been enjoying the progress on your engine.

Thanks for sharing,
Dave


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## rhitee93 (May 8, 2012)

Thanks Dave & Don. I am driving my family nuts making them watch my engine move. I couldn't wait for tomorrow, here is a video of it running with the block of wood acting as a steam chest cover. There are no packings or gaskets yet, and I am just jambing the nozzle of the air gun into the inlet port. I have no idea what pressure the engine is seeing, but in the video I am just barely cracking the valve open.

I can see now that I am always going to wish I had found a way to hold onto the inside of the rim when I made the first cut on the flywheel. It runs pretty true on the outside, but the most visible part has a lot of runout. Oh well, live and learn 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdqDmqVofa8&feature=youtu.be


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## rhitee93 (May 21, 2012)

Hi all! I have been swamped with work and honey-dos for a couple of weeks, but I did manage to steel some time away over the last week to make my steam chest cover. Much like the cylinder head, I decided to make this from scratch rather than use the cast blank. I used the same method as the head so I'll just get to the pics:

First I drilled out the blank. This would then be screwed down to a piece of aluminum scrap that had a matching bolt pattern drilled in it.






Then time to cut the perimeter:






Next to cut the bosses for the nuts:






While I had the 1/2" cutter in place, I hogged out the center section:






However, I had planned on a tighter radius in the corners so I came back in with an 1/8" cutter to clean them up:






Then, as with the cylinder head, I used a 1/16" ball nose cutter to create a nice fillet on all the inside corners to make the part look more like a casting:






Here is the test fit. I need to shape the outside a bit to get a better fit with the steam chest perimeter. Since the chest has a slightly irregular shape, I left the edges of the cover a bit strong so I can scribe the cover and cut back to a flush fit.






The piston rod packing gland is the last major part to machine. Then there is a double butt-load of studs and nuts to make. Oh, and a few oilers to boot. Then it will be on to the finishing stage.


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## Don1966 (May 21, 2012)

Nice work Brian, can I make a suggestion? If you have a bead blaster, put sand in it an sand blast the brass parts you made to give them the cast look. Will we be seeing a completed video soon?

Regards Don


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## rhitee93 (May 21, 2012)

Hi Don, I have been contemplating doing exactly that. However, I am also thinking about trying to polish the other bronze parts. Ill have a lot of decisions to make soon.

I'll do another video before it comes apart for finishing.


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## Dinkum (May 23, 2012)

Excellent job there, mate.   I am really impressed at the attention you are paying to the end result. I would probably stick it on the shelf it it ran. (once)


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## b.lindsey (May 23, 2012)

Brian, it just gets better with each new post. The brass head and steam chest cover look great and given the roughness of the castings I think that was a good choice. Take your time on the finish steps, but I know we are all looking forward to a finished video when the time comes. Excellent build and nicely documented as well...it will make a fine reference for those of us "sitting" on these casting sets 

Bill


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## rhitee93 (May 23, 2012)

Thanks for the praise guys. It means a lot comming fr you all.

Bill, I'm struggling with finish options. I think I want to smooth castings a bit before painting, but I don't know if I have that sort of skill. Then there is the qestion about whether or not to try to polish the bronze bits or leave them as cast...

...I'm finding this to be the most daunting part so far.


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## RonGinger (May 23, 2012)

You are at a question that bothers me as well. If you try to smooth the castings you wind up with lots of flats with valleys between them. That does not look like a cast surface. 

If you dont do anything some castings, and the PMR are among them, have a much to rough texture to be a scale 'as cast' look

I think the best finish is to smooth the castings very smooth, then add a texture by bead blasting. That is a LOT of work.

A very tough question.


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## rhitee93 (Jun 4, 2012)

Well, I got to the piston rod packing gland over the weekend. This is the last major part to machine, but I have lots of studs and nuts to make.

I started on the packing gland by spot drilling and then drilling the holes. I reamed the shaft hole to 0.001" Over the shaft diameter, but didn't upload the picture.







Drilling:






Then I milled the face flat. I should have done this first, but I got all caught up in locating the holes and forgot to do this step.






Then I turned a fixture on the lathe so that I could turn the outside of the gland and face the nut locations. The gland is held to the fixture with a 10-32 screw.






Finally, I drilled and tapped a couple of 2-56 holes to hold the gland on so that I could remove the 10-32 screw and machine the last face.






Here is a shot of the finished part. The flat you can see is not in the plans, but I found it was necessary to clear part of the base casting.


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## b.lindsey (Jun 4, 2012)

Very nice work on the gland Brian...getting close now!!


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## rhitee93 (Jun 8, 2012)

Here is one last video of the (more or less) complete engine before I tear it down for finishing. It is a little tight yet, and it has no packings or gaskets so it leaks like a sieve. However, it does run 

This is where my progress is going to come to a screeching halt. I have a hard time slowing myself down when it comes to finishing things which usually results in a less than spectacular final product. This time I have myself roped in. I am committed to making all the hardware (studs, nuts, etc) for this engine which will take lots of time, and not be something I care to do for several hours straight. This will make it seem more pleasant to spend the necessary time smoothing out the castings and polishing the bronze bits. (Yeah, right...)

Anyway, here is the video:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh8TVahqUfM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh8TVahqUfM[/ame]


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## arnoldb (Jun 8, 2012)

Nice one Brian Thm: - congratulations!

 ;D Those fiddly bits - they do take a lot of time...

Kind regards, Arnold


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## Don1966 (Jun 8, 2012)

Nice runner Brian, Thm: I consider my engines unfinished until all the sanding and polishing is done. stickpoke Just trying to get you motivated bud. Good work and write up.

Don


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## b.lindsey (Jun 8, 2012)

Oooooooh.....I love it Brian...makes me want to get started on mine. Thanks for doing this thread as I am sure I will refer back to it when I do begin. Very nicely done!!!

Bill


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## rhitee93 (Jun 8, 2012)

Don1966  said:
			
		

> Nice runner Brian, Thm: I consider my engines unfinished until all the sanding and polishing is done. stickpoke Just trying to get you motivated bud. Good work and write up.
> 
> Don



You'll notice I said "Complete" and not "Finished" ;D


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## Harold Lee (Jun 11, 2012)

Great job Brian.... Thanks for taking us along on your journey. I totally understand the difference between complete and finished as I have a few projects in the complete or 90% complete or even running that are not finished.

Harold


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## rhitee93 (Jun 11, 2012)

Thanks Harold,

I tore her apart his weekend, and started grinding away on the castings to smooth out the finish. 

My plan is to use sanding drums and flappy wheels in a dremel to knock down most of the rough surface. Then to use a high-build primer to fill in the rest. I may resort to some body fairing compound on particularly rough spots. So far I have sanded the base, but not applied any of the primer. I'll post some pics of the progress in a few days...


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## Don1966 (Jun 11, 2012)

Brian another way to clear up some of your sanding marks on the casting and maintain the cast look is to sandblast the casting after rough cleaning.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jun 12, 2012)

Hi Don,

I am thinking about doing that with the brass/bronze parts. I'd love to have the parts polished brights, but I don't think I would ever be able to get them "Flat" enough so that I could polish them to a bright finish without having a wavy surface. I think I may polish them down and then hit them with fine glass beads.

The iron parts are another story. Most of them are too rough for me to ever get to a smooth enough surface to even see the sanding marks. I am going to take them down as smooth as I can without messing up the details in the castings, and then try to smooth out the rest with the high build primer.

At least that is the plan for now. I may change my mind once I hit the first part with primer... :


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## rhitee93 (Jun 22, 2012)

I'm back again with a little progress. I spent my evenings this week getting the frame ready for paint. The first step was to smooth out the really rough spots with a dremel and a flappy sanding wheel. This is the result:






Then I shot it with a coat of high-build primer and sanded most of it off. Here is the result:






A second coat of primer and sanding got me to this point:






After sanding the 3rd coat of primer, I decided to switch to some automotive spot glazing compound to fill in the last few pits. This time I wet sanded everything to get to this point:






Then one final coat of primer:






Here is a shot of the frame from back in March to compare the finish to. It isn't baby-bottom smooth, but it is about the limit of my ability and patience.






I am still trying to figure out what color to paint the engine. I am leaning hard toward a burgundy color. I think that would look good with the brass and bronze parts. If not burgundy, then it will probably be a more basic red. Of course I have thought about basic black and hunter green too. Picking out a color for this engine is about as hard as picking out a color to paint a car :


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## Don1966 (Jun 22, 2012)

Hi, Brian looking good bud and I would go with the hunter green for the color. I think that would look cool. Waiting to set it completed.

Don


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## bearcar1 (Jun 22, 2012)

Cream color with Brown accent markings would be nice. The choices are endless for certain.

BC1
Jim


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## Xlmyford (Jun 23, 2012)

Hello,Brian.
Congrats to your very nice engine.
I always thought that one of the advantages of a model engine made from castings is the more authentic look.
Bar stock is more or less smooth by nature and some model engineers I know are spending a good amount of time to bring it to a
cast iron look.
Know that you have this look innately,you are trying to smooth it out.
Just wondering.
Cheers,Ralph


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## steamer (Jun 23, 2012)

I like the finish....I'm partial to green...but that's just me!

If your looking for a scale appearance....don't go glossy on the paint.

Dave


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## Blogwitch (Jun 23, 2012)

Very nice engine indeed. :bow: :bow:

Classic colours to go on or with a brass marine engine are (in order of preference), satin black, gloss maroon or gloss bottle green, and sometimes, gloss midnight blue. These colours show the brass highlights to their best effect.


John


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## steamer (Jun 23, 2012)

Agree John.  Gloss doesn't scale well.  Depends on the effect desired

If bling look is what you want, glossier the better! ;D

If a "scale" appearance is desired, like for use in a mill building diorama for instance, a slightly less glossy appearance "scales" better.  A not uncommon method on scale models  I'm sure if you spend some time with google, a thread will show up discussing what I mean.

Look at Stew's Shipton or table top engine builds and you'll see what I mean

The Choices of colors you listed John are very correct and traditional. 

Dave


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## rhitee93 (Jun 23, 2012)

Hi Ralph, you have touched on something that took me a long time to come to grips with 

I once though that the beauty of cast iron parts was their naturally rough surface finish. When I did my PM #3, I worked really hard not to disturb that finish with any accidental machining marks because I though it would look great once painted. However, when I was done with the painting, I was incredibly disappointed with the results. It looked like a cheap toy, not a model of a real engine. It took some time, but I finally realized that what I didn't like was that the surface was too rough for the scale of the engine.

If you look at a full scale engine from 20 feet away, the surface does not look very rough, so I don't think a 1/20th scale model should look rough from 1 foot away.

I don't think the cast iron look comes from the rough surface. The recent Waller and Benson builds from bar stock that were shown on this site prove that. 
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=16453.0
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=18153.0

What makes something look cast is the complexity of the shape, the draft, and the natural fillets that occur. If you doubt this, take a look at these two pictures. One is the cylinder which I have not touched yet, and the other is the frame.

How would the cylinder look with a coat of paint? Is there any doubt in your mind that the fame was cast?


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## tvoght (Jun 23, 2012)

Brian,
The two photographs you show absolutely make your point with regards to cast appearance.

--Tim


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## Don1966 (Jun 23, 2012)

Brian I also agree with you the casting on these model engine need a sandblast finish not rough casting like the bigger engines with the fillets, drafts and curves this makes for a good looking engine.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jun 23, 2012)

I got a little work done on the cylinder today. Since it was rougher than the frame, I started with the spot glazing, and then went to the high-build primer.

Spot glazing after wet sanding:






One coat of primer after wet sanding:






The second coat of primer after wet sanding. Then I touched up a couple of rough spots with the glazing and sanded again.






I may have to do a little more touch-up on this part before the final coat of white primer. It has been a pain to re-mask this piece after wet sanding every time. Once this is done, the bearing caps and flywheel are the last cast parts to prep for paint.


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## ProdEng (Jun 23, 2012)

I also agree with the scale surface texture argument, the larger the engine the smoother it would look. Your castings look great in primer, look forward to seeing the whole assembly painted.

Jan


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## Xlmyford (Jun 24, 2012)

Hello,Brian.
Now I've got that point and I totally agree.
Thank you for your reply.
Keep on with your extraordinary work.
Cheers,Ralph


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## Blogwitch (Jun 24, 2012)

It is for this scale effect that you can 'get away' with building major parts from barstock. If you can put the fillets in with a bit of filler, and give the finished part a light grit blast, you shouldn't be able to tell a cast part from a built up one in the scales we use.

In the future, I will be making a 1 to 1 scale engine from castings, and they will be basically untouched except for a little fettling, as that is how they came out of the mould. But as already said, smaller scales really do need those heavy cast surfaces to be highlighted down to almost nothing.

Look at how bad this casting looks, straight out of the foundry. If I had used it like this, as some people do, the engine would look like a bag of rags.






And after refinishing, almost ready for paint.






Your engine can end up looking like a pair of old boots, or a very good example of the type, and it only takes a little extra work.

John


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## Don1966 (Jun 24, 2012)

Bogstandard  said:
			
		

> Look at how bad this casting looks, straight out of the foundry. If I had used it like this, as some people do, the engine would look like a bag of rags.
> 
> Your engine can end up looking like a pair of old boots, or a very good example of the type, and it only takes a little extra work.
> 
> John



Exactly, and well said John


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## rhitee93 (Jun 28, 2012)

Well, I got tired of priming and sanding parts so I decided to work on some studs for a while. I had a few false starts before I came up with a process that would let me create studs with some precision to the overall length and the length of the threaded portion. I thought I would share it here. It looks like a lot of steps, but it really doesn't take too long. I can do make a stud in about 5 minutes.

In this first shot I have about 8 or 9 inches of 1/8" CRS held in a collet. I have filed a bit of a lead chamfer on the end, and have locked the tail stock down to the bed. Those of you who have been following my story with this engine will notice that I finally made myself a die holder 






My method for starting the threads may be a bit strange. What I prefer to do is use the quill screw on the lathe to help press the die onto the end of the rod. This requires turning the headstock and the quill screw in tandem (by hand, not under power), but it is easy to get the feel for doing it right. Once I have a little less than the required amount of threads on the rod, I release the tail stock and turn the headstock backwards to wind the die all the way off the rod. Then I use a parting tool to take off the chamfered lead portion of the threads.






Then I bring the tail stock back up, but this time I leave it loose on the bed and lock the quill. I press the die up to the newly squared off threads and place a dial indicator behind the tail stock. Next I turn the headstock to cut the threads to the desired length. Here I am using my super secret dial indicator with hidden numbers!






Then I cut the partially formed stud off with a hacksaw and repeat the process until I run out of rod. I chuckled when I looked at this photo. The saw is one I inherited from my dad. He was a sonar operator on a sub in the late 60's. I never noticed "Sonar" scribed into this saw until today, but now I guess I know where he got it. :






Here are the partially formed studs. Can you tell which one was the last part of the rod I started with? ;D






I'll show how I finished the studs in the next post.


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## rhitee93 (Jun 28, 2012)

To finish the studs I decided to use the method that Kelper posted in a "Best way to make studs" thread a few days ago. I drilled and tapped an emergency collet, and threaded the partial stud up to the end of the threads. then tightened the collet.

Then is was basically a repeat of the first side. I cut a few threads to start with using the quill to add some feed pressure.






Then I parted off the stud to the correct overall length. I had the saddle locked in the correct position all this time so that I wouldn't have to measure each stud.






Then I wound the die back up onto the stud using the dial indicator to tell me when I had threaded to the correct length. (0.200" for this end)






Here are the 6 studs I finished for the inboard side of the cylinder. One ended up a bit short, but you guys are the only ones who will ever see it. Our little secret, OK?  

The family and I are heading up to Sheboygan for a few days, so this will be the last bit of work I get to do for a while, but I'll be back soon...


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## rhitee93 (Jun 29, 2012)

OK, I couldn't resist putting a little color on the frame and cylinder and seeing how everything lined up with the new studs. Fortunately, the kids have been helping pack, so I got a little time to play today. I still need to make the proper sized nuts, but i used a couple commercial 5-40 nuts to trial fit the pieces. I have some 3/16" hex rod that should look more to scale.

The color is a burgundy/maroon, but it comes off a bit pink in the photos...


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## Don1966 (Jun 29, 2012)

Brian I like it, that color is just perfect and can't wait to see it all together.

Don


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## Blogwitch (Jun 30, 2012)

That really is a lovely piece of work you have done there Brian, the finish is just right.

Keep it up and you are going to have a stunning little engine for your collection. :bow: :bow:


John


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## ProdEng (Jun 30, 2012)

A good paint job makes an engine look far more realistic, well done :bow:

Jan


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## rhitee93 (Jul 10, 2012)

Well, I am back from a week in Sheboygan and all loaded down with beer and sausage. After catching up around the house and job, I have been able to get some time to make nuts. I didn't take many photos as this is has just been drill, tap, part and repeat.

I made the nuts 0.150" long. At first I was afraid that was too long, but I am starting to like them. At that length, and using a 0.020" parting tool, I can only tap deep enough to get 3 nuts before I have to drill and tap again. I find this a bit boring, but I got most of the 5-40 ones done tonight.

One thing I did that I would recommend, was polish the hex stock before I made the parts. Here is a pic of the polished stock next to an off-the-shelf piece of bar stock. The reflection of the standard piece in the polished piece tells the story. This only took about 10 minutes to achieve. I wet sanded from 220 to 440 to 600 and finally 1500 with 10 strokes on each flat. (Using a flat surface to sand against) Then I loaded a piece of heavy paper with Maas metal polish and did about 20 strokes on each flat.






Here is a shot of the cylinder with it's covers and the new nuts. What do you think about the scale?


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## ShedBoy (Jul 10, 2012)

Scale looks good, nuts are perfect. If you want the cast look to carry over onto the covers sand blast them on the outside, just won't be able to polish them to a high shine. I think the colour looks great against the brass.

Brock


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## Don1966 (Jul 10, 2012)

All looks go tome Brian, you have a go. Love the way the paint looks with the brass.

Don


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## tvoght (Jul 10, 2012)

Brian,
I like the look of the thicker nuts here. The contrast of the brass and that paint looks great.

--Tim


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## smfr (Jul 11, 2012)

Brian, this looks awesome; I'm inspired by your treatment of the castings, and hope to try it on my Stuart. Up until now, I've been thinking of PM castings as "toy" castings not worthy of a lot of finishing, but your build has changed my mind.

The nuts look great! I wonder if just rounding off the tops a little would make them even better!

Simon


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## rhitee93 (Jul 11, 2012)

Thanks for the nice comments everybody. Doing this project out in the open like this has really pushed me to pay more attention to the details.



			
				smfr  said:
			
		

> The nuts look great! I wonder if just rounding off the tops a little would make them even better!



It is funny you mention that because I am struggling with this idea. I want to round over the top edge a bit, however I know that in the real world, the round edge was supposed to be on the bottom and the flat side was up. I think that if I rounded the top I would always be justifying to myself why I put the nuts on backwards. 

I have considered tumbling them lightly to create a very small but even radius on all edges...


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## arnoldb (Jul 11, 2012)

That looks just dandy Brian Thm:

Oh yes - Happy Birthday !

Kind regards, Arnold


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## smfr (Jul 11, 2012)

rhitee93  said:
			
		

> It is funny you mention that because I am struggling with this idea. I want to round over the top edge a bit, however I know that in the real world, the round edge was supposed to be on the bottom and the flat side was up.



Wait, what? Have I been putting nuts on the wrong way around all this time? The only online discussion I could find was http://powerlineman.com/lforum/archive/index.php/t-7628.html, which has all kinds of opinions 

Simon


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## kvom (Jul 11, 2012)

I've been using the scale nuts from AME. Not as thick as yours though, but they do have the rounded edges.


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## mklotz (Jul 11, 2012)

For model nuts, I use...

D = major bolt diameter

1.5*D = across flats nut size
0.9*D = nut thickness

I've always mounted nuts with the chamfer/rounded side up. I'll be interested to hear an argument for inverting that choice.


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## rhitee93 (Jul 11, 2012)

Perhaps I am wrong about the nuts.

In my circles, conventional wisdom with hardware on antique machinery is that nuts that have a chamfer on only one side are installed chamfer side down so that the corners on the flat side don't scar the mating surface for the nut.

I can't say that I have ever heard an authority on the subject.


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## mklotz (Jul 11, 2012)

Your argument makes sense. Modern commercial nuts are often chamfered on both sides. If the chamfer is there for your purpose, as opposed to just making them burr-free, then it would be logical to chamfer both sides so the operator can't get it wrong.


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## Maryak (Jul 11, 2012)

Nuts.........where to place the chamfer.

My understanding is that a nut with the chamfer on one side, is that the non chamfered side goes against the mating face as an aid to locking when using only a flat washer under the nut. Without a washer it will bite into the parent part but IMHO this still the more correct way to fit such a nut. IIRC the chamfer was originally fitted to facilitate easy engagement of a ring spanner/socket as well as removing unnecessary sharp corners in way exposed edges.

Best Regards
Bob


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## Don1966 (Jul 11, 2012)

Maryak  said:
			
		

> IIRC the chamfer was originally fitted to facilitate easy engagement of a ring spanner/socket as well as removing unnecessary sharp corners in way exposed edges.
> 
> Best Regards
> Bob



Agree 

Don


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## idahoan (Jul 11, 2012)

I agree with Bob,

This was debated heavily a few years ago on one of the antique engine mailing lists. The majority of the folks agreed the chamfer should face up. This was for square nuts.

But; antique High Crown Hex Nuts and Bolts are a different animal. They have a releaf turned on the bottom to keep the hex points from digging in and the tops of the nuts are chamfered.

The bolts are made two different ways; it seems the on some engines they have a radius on top and on some engines they had the high crown but a flat top with a chamfer.

One of my old engines from the teens has the flat top bolts; Im really not sure why the difference. I have also seen the nuts with a radius instead of the chamfer on some engines. 

You can see on my Pacific how I did the main bearing cap nuts; I feel that this is the proper way, releaf on the bottom and chamfer on top.

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=18682.45

Also I have up loaded a drawing I found on Harrys antique engine (I don think that it is copyrighted) that shows the dimensions for some full sized hardware.

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item405

The Pacific will have the High Crown Bolts with the radius on top because they look proper and are cool.

Dave


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## rhitee93 (Jul 12, 2012)

Dave,

I like your approach with the chamfer on top and the rebated section on the bottom. I think I'll do that with the nuts on this engine.


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## rhitee93 (Jul 12, 2012)

OK, let the great nut debate end  (For this build anyway) I used Dave's approach and rebated the mating side and chamfered the top side. The difference is subtle, and doesn't show up in the photos well. However it does appear more finished now, and I think it was an hour well spent.


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## idahoan (Jul 12, 2012)

The nuts look good; much better that the sharp points of the hex.


Dave


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## smfr (Jul 12, 2012)

Love them!

Simon


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## vcutajar (Jul 13, 2012)

Me too.

Vince


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## Don1966 (Jul 13, 2012)

Looking good Brian, are we going to see a video? th_wwp

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 13, 2012)

Patience Don, I have a few more parts to either paint or polish and some 3-48 hardware to make yet


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## ProdEng (Jul 13, 2012)

The details are important, every edge or face added reflects light in a slightly different way and adds to the richness of the appearance. Seems to me when there is enough detail it starts looking real and a combination of a good paint job and that detail make your engine look just that.

Jan


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## Don1966 (Jul 14, 2012)

Hi Brian not trying to rush you, finishing an engine to me is the fun part. It has to be just right, because this is what sets it off from just a raw engine. I am anxious to set it finished. You have done a great job so far.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 14, 2012)

I'm just teasing you Don. Your attention to polishing the parts on your engines is one of the things that has gotten me to slow down and pay attention to the details. I usually struggle to maintain my patience during the finishing stages of a project.

I didn't get much done today, but I did manage to get the flywheel ready for its final coats of paint. The hub and the outside of the rim are taped off, but I left the edges of the rim unmasked. I'll take a cleanup pass on the sides after the color is on. Wet sanding between coats means I have to re-mask each coat, and taping off the edge of the rim was a pain.






I also got the 3-48 studs made for the main bearing caps. I didn't take any photos since it was basically the same process I used before. Thankfully, the list of hardware I still need to make is starting to get short


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## Blogwitch (Jul 15, 2012)

Very nicely done Brian.

But don't go overboard with the flatting down, you have to remember, it is made from castings, and a little bit of that must show, otherwise you may as well have made it from barstock.

It is a very fine line between getting an engine to a highly polished example of a real one, more like a showman's engine, rather than an example of a scaled down version of a full sized working example.

I am just showing my Scott flame licker build, and I can polish and paint that to whatever depths I want to go to, because it isn't a scale model, just a 'looker', but other engines I will be building from castings, you should just be able to detect their casting based origins.

But of course, that is just my personal view. It's your engine, you do whatever you want.


John


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## Don1966 (Jul 15, 2012)

Brian have you ever seen Ruby kouhoupt,s video on pin stripping, if you haven't you really need to see it. You would be amazed how he makes an engine look with pin strips. Just a suggestion instead of over polishing you cast engine. 

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 15, 2012)

I have not seen the video, but its funny you ask because I would like to add some pinstriping to the flywheel spokes. However, I have never tried to pin stripe anything.

I'll look up the video. Thanks


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## rhitee93 (Jul 15, 2012)

One last photo for the weekend. Here is the flywheel back on the lathe after the final coat of paint so I could clean up the rim of the flywheel.

This worked out perfectly. Just a very light skim coat to take off all the paint, and I have a better edge that I could have ever masked with tape.







I did manage to get the crankshaft webs and the bearing caps in primer today. Once I get the color on them, I am done with the paint. (Yay!) It won't be long now! I was eyeballing a piece of sassafras lumber I have had for a long time. It might make a good stand for this engine, but I haven't figured out the design for the stand yet.


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## rhitee93 (Jul 19, 2012)

Well, this was one of those evenings I should have stayed out of the shop.  I intended to make the studs and nuts for the slide caps.  I ended up scrapping one stud as it was almost finished, and of course I was so confident in my stud making ability that I didn't make any extra.

Then I thought, oh well, I'll go see how the side I have done looks on the engine before I remake the one I scrapped.  While carrying the studs, standoffs and slide into the house where I have the rest of the engine, I got distracted and set the parts down "Somewhere".

After 45 minutes of looking, I found the slide cap in one place, the studs in a second, and the standoffs in a 3rd.  Talk about scatterbrained.  I have decided to give up on the shop tonight before I get hurt and see how posting pics works with the new forum software.

Here is a largely pointless pic of my studs peeking up over the slide cap.


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## idahoan (Jul 19, 2012)

Brian

There has been more than just a few times that I have miss placed a small part; and routinely spent more time looking for it than it would have to just make another one. The other night I lost a small aluminum alignment pin for a quick and dirty fixture I made and never found it! Finally after about 5 or 10 minutes of looking I just went over to the lathe and made another one.

I feel your pain.

Dave


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## Don1966 (Jul 19, 2012)

Brian,  I do this daily when I am working in my shop. Glad I m not the only one. Some times I think that Gremlins  are  taking my parts and moving them about my shop. I find thing in places I know that I didn't put them there. Well At least I don't think so. Yea I feel your pain also.

Don


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## vcutajar (Jul 20, 2012)

Brian

You are not alone.  I misplace things quiet often.

Vince


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## rhitee93 (Jul 20, 2012)

Gee, I knew you guys would understand 

My daughters are having a few friends spend the night tonight.  A house full of teenagers 

I'll hide in the shop all night so I should be able to get some work done!


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## rhitee93 (Jul 20, 2012)

Well, nothing like having 6 13-year old girls in the house to get some uninterrupted shop time!  I started reassembling the engine, tweaking the fit of each part as I went.  I intended to stop when I got to where I had to use the kit hardware to continue assembly, but I was so close to being able to make it run that I threw the rest of it together with some ugly nuts and screws just to see it move again.  Here is a short video of it running at about 4psi.  It was moving right at 75rpm just before I took the video.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScxxWTIyNw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScxxWTIyNw[/ame]

While staring at it I got the bright idea to make acorn nuts for the cross-head slides.  I'll have to get more brass stock to do that, but I think they'll look cool.  What do you all think about that?

I'll also replace the nuts on the main bearings with ones that are more to scale.  I am starting to run out of steam on this build, but the end is near. I have some grand ideas for a wood base, but it will be a stretch to keep my momentum up to get it done. There are so many projects that I want to start, that it has been hard to stay on this one


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## ProdEng (Jul 21, 2012)

Brian, that looks and sounds fantastic, good job  Acorn nuts look tidy but I have never seen one on a full size engine so it's a matter of personal choice.

Jan


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## vcutajar (Jul 21, 2012)

Brian

That is looking grand.



> I am starting to run out of steam on this build, but the end is near.


 
I know how that feels especially during the summer.  And that is the reason I only have one running project at a time.

Vince


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## rhitee93 (Jul 21, 2012)

vcutajar said:


> Brian
> ... that is the reason I only have one running project at a time.



Yep, I have been keeping myself from starting another engine because I know I'll skimp on the finishing details on this one if I do.

After thinking about it this morning, I think I'll just do typical nuts for the slides.  There are some interesting details I would like to do with the base so I'll divert the extra energy to that 

I have a question about the base.  I see a lot of people have the same style inlet in that they can hook an air supply to. They look nice because they are just a hole in the base.  However, I have never seen an air fitting like that.  Can anyone tell me what these are?

Jason used them in his Benson build here:
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f32/april-project-month-17307/


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## Don1966 (Jul 21, 2012)

Brian that is a great looking and running engine. You have done it justice and I am sure the base will fit the engine. 

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 23, 2012)

I spent some time this weekend on the base for this engine.  I grew up in a wood shop, but I haven't done any serious woodworking for a few years.  I was surprised how rusty I had become.  There are lots of little mistakes, but let's call them "Charm".

First I ripped up some 1" wide strips of maple and cherry and glued them up to make alternating stripes:






Then I cut more 1" strips at 90 degrees to the originals.  If you flip every other strip 180 degrees you get a checkerboard pattern.  Here it is in the clamps for the night:






It isn't an efficient use of material, but I really wanted the checkerboard pattern to run at an angle, so I cut the appropriate piece out at 45 degrees.  Then I wrapped it with an 1/8" strip of maple that had been dyed with red aniline dye. (To go with the engine)  The I wrapped another 1/8" strip of plain maple around that.  Finally I built a frame from cherry to hold the checkerboard.

Here are some of the pieces before assembly:






A quick pass with a round-over bit on the router table and I was about done.  I still need to cut and line the flywheel pit so I can't set the engine in place yet, but this will give you an idea.  One interesting trait of cherry is that it will turn much darker with time and give a nice contrast with the maple.


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## idahoan (Jul 23, 2012)

Looking good Brian,

For being rusty your wood working skills look pretty darn nice!

Dave


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## vcutajar (Jul 23, 2012)

Wow, that base is excellent.  If that is the result of you being rusty, then what would it look like if you were not rusty.  Infact I suggest you make another one and send that one my way.  I'm sure my Kiwi would appreciate it.

Vince


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## Don1966 (Jul 23, 2012)

Brian that is awesome, I knew you would do it justice. It will look even better with a coat of polyurethane. Waiting to see it finished.  

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 23, 2012)

Aw shucks guys. (We need a blushing smiley) The pictures hide a lot of sins...

Back in the day when I did a lot of antique clock restoration, I made replacement finials and turned the transitions and major diameters to +/- 0.005"

I'd still like to know what people are using for air inlets on their models.


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## Don1966 (Jul 23, 2012)

Brian I want to ask you, what did you use for the brown outside trim?

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 23, 2012)

Hi  Don,

I am not sure which trim piece you are asking about.  However, the box contains only maple and cherry.  The one thin strip that looks dark brown in the pic is actually a dark red color.  It is a maple strip that I stained with aniline dye before attaching it.  The very outermost trim that forms the outside face of the box is cherry.

-Brian


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## Don1966 (Jul 23, 2012)

Thanks Brian that is the strip I was talking about.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 25, 2012)

I cut the opening for the flywheel pit today after work.  I was a little worried about messing up the base at this point, but things went well.  Here is a shot of the engine sitting on the base.







The plan is to build a maple insert that will make up the actual flywheel pit.  I'll stain the insert to the same color as the stripe that runs around the edge.  Here is an image of what the insert will look like and a concept image of the pit in place in the base.











I am getting close with this thing now.  Just a  few more bits of hardware to make, some finish work to do to the base, and then the piping.


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## Don1966 (Jul 25, 2012)

Looking good Brian, my I make a suggestion and make you mounting nuts the same as the nuts on the engine. Small detail, but will all blend together. 

Don


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## rhitee93 (Jul 29, 2012)

I got a little more work done this weekend.  I started by building the flywheel pit insert for the base.  It is made of 3 pieces of maple.  One 0.600" thick center section that is cut to a radius that gives 0.050" of clearance around the flywheel, and two 0.125" thick pieces that create the sides.






I glued the pieces together, and stained them with the same red dye I used for the accent stripe that goes around the perimeter of the base.  I also finished it with danish oil as I have the rest of the base.  (Before this is all over, I'll probably french-polish on some shellac for a bit of tone)






I like the results with the flywheel pit.  It gives a much more finished look that a slot cut in the base.






I got most of the piping taken care of as well.  Ultimately I'll run the supply and exhaust lines through some sort of air inlet in the side of the base, but I am still trying to figure out what sort of connection would look best.

I still need to make the nuts for the bearing caps, and the studs and nuts to hold the engine to the base.  It may take me a while to get to these as I stripped the threads in my 5C collet closer for the Heavy 10 this weekend   They come up on fleabay all the time so I'll probably just pick up another one.

Here is a pic of as it stands this morning:


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## b.lindsey (Jul 29, 2012)

Brian, All the work and attention to details really paid off...thta is one beautiful model and the base sets it off perfectly too!!!  Well done.

BIll


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## SilverSanJuan (Jul 29, 2012)

Brain, you are a master craftsman of both wood and steel.  Really beautiful work you've presented here.

Todd


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## Don1966 (Jul 29, 2012)

Awesome Brian, that is really coming together great. Love it.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Aug 3, 2012)

Well, I got the lathe going again, and made the nuts and studs to hold the engine down to the base.  Not a lot to see really, but Here they are ready to go in.  I am using a commercially available 5-40 nut for the end that is under the base.  You guys are the only ones that will ever see them, and besides, they provide a much broader bearing surface against the wood.

That little bit of hex stock at the top is all I have left of what I started with.  I'm glad I didn't need 1 more nut 






Here is a close up of one corner with the hold downs in place.






I still need to make the 3-48 nuts for the bearing caps, and a little plumbing.  It's getting close.  I think I can... I think I can...


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## ProdEng (Aug 4, 2012)

The comparison between the commercial nut and the scale version is quite stunning.  Lovely work.


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## rhitee93 (Aug 4, 2012)

Thanks Jan.  Using the standard nuts (where they can be seen) just wasn't a good option


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## vcutajar (Aug 4, 2012)

I have to agree with Jan. Quite a difference between them. Are u going to use a washer under the nut on final assembly?

Vince


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## rhitee93 (Aug 4, 2012)

vcutajar said:


> I have to agree with Jan.  Quite a difference  between them.  Are going to use a washer under the nut on final assembly?
> 
> Vince



I don't think so.  I am going to loctite the scale nut in place and tighten the nuts on the bottom so I don't tear up the paint.

A full sized washer looks pretty goofy and out of scale, and I don't see enough aesthetic value to make scale ones.


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## Don1966 (Aug 4, 2012)

Great work as usual and I am glad you made the nuts for the base.  Looks good and fits the finish look.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Aug 4, 2012)

Well, here is today's effort.  Firstly, I shot a few coats of lacquer onto the base, an rubbed it out.  It has a bit of a sheen to it now.  Then I made some escutcheons (Yeah, I had to look up the spelling  ) to go around the holes in the base for the steam lines. I also made some supply inlets patterned after Jasonb's idea.  These are just bulkhead pass through fittings I made from a scrap piece of 1/2" brass that are grooved on the inside to grip rubber supply lines.  They seem to hold well up to 10psi and I am only running the engine at 4 so I am happy.  They are simply glued into the base.

Here are the parts:






...and here they are assembled:






Almost there.  All i need to do is get the dumb nuts finished for the bearing caps and a little bit of polishing to remove the fingerprints and grime from fiddling with it.  I should be done in another week or so.  Then I'll setup to do some nice pics and a video.


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## Don1966 (Aug 4, 2012)

Brian you are a true craftman in all respects. That is awesome.

Don


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## rhitee93 (Aug 4, 2012)

Aw gee Don, thanks.  That goes for all of you guys who have complimented me along the way.  My work is a far cry from what a lot of guys on here do.  To be honest this project is turning out a bit above my normal level.  I haven't built any engines before other than the little aluminum PMR#3 12 years ago, but I make lots of stuff.

I have NEVER made myself settle down and pay as much attention to detail as I have with this build.  The only reason it has happened for me this time is the pressure of all of you guys watching.  I have always a wanted to slow down and take my time on something like this, but have always failed.  I'd get too excited and cut corners to see if finished.  This whole project has been very transformational for me.  Posting this build log has taken a ton of time, but I'll do it again in a heartbeat because my work comes out so much better.

Thanks to all of you who have been following along for keeping me honest


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## rhitee93 (Aug 11, 2012)

Well, this will be the last update for this build log.  I made the nuts for the bearings caps today, and consider the engine "Built".  I have a little touch up to do to the paint to fix some boo-boos that happened during the last assembly stages and a little cleaning to do.  Once that is done I'll take some nice photos and a video and post them in the completed engines section.

This has been an amazing experience.  Building the engine itself was fun, and logging my progress here has been more rewarding than I ever expected.  If you have never done a build log, I highly recommend it.  This log has taken more time than I expected, and it isn't nearly as complete in terms of documentation as I had hoped for.  However, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

A while back, I promised to share anything that I would do differently now that the engine is done.  There are really only three major things I would change, and they relate to the order of operations on some of the castings.

First:  I would make the first operation on the frame (after I had it mounted to the reference plate) to machine the main bearings.  It would be much easier to locate all of the other components by indexing off a piece of 3/8" rod stuck through the bearings than it was to figure out how to locate the bearings after I had machined everything else.  I suspect this is true for most engines of this configuration, but I had to learn that lesson somewhere...

Second:  I would reference all of the steam chest operations from the center of the valve rod packing gland.  It takes a pretty heavy cut to get the steam chest walls down to where the valve rod will enter near the center of the gland, and I missed by quite a bit.

Third:  I would pay more attention to the length of the cylinder casting before taking the first cuts.  I chucked the cylinder up in the lathe without measuring the length of the casting.  Since the drawings call for a cleanup pass, that is all I did on the first end.  However I really needed to take off more like 0.100".  As a result, I could not machine enough off the outboard end to make the cylinder the correct length.

Some may question why I left the original kit cap-screws in place on the con-rod and the eccentric.  I had intended to do the stud/nut thing there, but when I tried it I didn't like the look of the brass nut against the bronze.  It looked OK against the cross head slides, but not with the rod.  Maybe some day I'll make some steel bolts to put in those locations.  Then again, maybe I won't 

Thanks again to all of you who encouraged me along the way.  It really does help a lot when people post little comments along the way.  I am more than a little sad that so many of the folks who were following along decided to leave the forum over the last few weeks.  It is selfish of me to want them to see this engine completed, but I do hope some of them are still watching in silence.

Here is a shot of the bearing caps with the new nuts.  You can see several of the chips in the paint that I need to touch up:





Here is a teaser shot of the whole engine:


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## idahoan (Aug 11, 2012)

Beautiful work Brian!

What's next?

Dave


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## ProdEng (Aug 11, 2012)

Well done Brian, if I can get mine to look anything like as good I will be happy


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## rhitee93 (Aug 11, 2012)

Thanks guys 

Dave, I am going to start an Upshur farm engine next.  It will be my first IC engine.


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## Don1966 (Aug 11, 2012)

Well done Brian, and I have enjoyed following alone with you on your journey. Thanks for taking the time to share you built will us, I also have learned from your post. Thanks a bunch.

Don


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## SilverSanJuan (Aug 11, 2012)

Stunning work Brian.  Simply Stunning.  Thanks for posting all of your progress.  I've learned a lot here.

Todd


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## vcutajar (Aug 12, 2012)

Brian

Congratulations on your completed engine.  Looking forward to see it run. Thank you for taking the time of documenting the engine build.  I for one learned things on your journey.  I also liked your last "second thoughts" post.  I am sure it will help somebody else doing the engine.

Vince


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## rhitee93 (Aug 13, 2012)

Don, Todd, and Vince, 

Thanks for the kind words.  It's been fun   I got the video put together and up on youtube yesterday.  Hopefully I'll be able to do the pics tomorrow night...


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## tvoght (Aug 14, 2012)

Brian,
  Bee - Yu - Tee - Full!
--Tim


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## rhitee93 (Aug 14, 2012)

Hi there Tim, and thank you!  Good to hear from ya again.  How's the Upshur coming along?

This post is still accumulating a number of hits, so I though i would add a link to the finished engine post here.  You can see nicer photos and a final video in this post:

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f43/horizontal-mill-engine-pm-research-no-1-a-18653/


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## ChooChooMike (Aug 31, 2012)

EXCELLENT BUILD THREAD BRIAN !! Well deserving of the POM !!  Kudos !!th_wavwoohoo1woohoo1


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## lkrestorer (Nov 14, 2017)

I realize that this is a post that hasn't been added to since 2012 but it seems to be a very good look at a build of the PM Research #1 engine with a lot of classy upgrades. I am ordering one of those casting kits and am anxious to get started on the build.
One very interesting modification that was made in this posting was the brass cylinder head and the brass chest cover plate instead of the cast iron parts. But, this is where my amateur status throws up a red flag.
The pictures show a piece of brass plate fastened to an aluminum plate in a vise on (what appears to be) a manual Bridgeport. The author talks about machining the outside of the piece and machining a raised boss around each bolt hole like it is a very simple task. My question is: How is this done on a manual machine? It's an operation that could be done quite well with a CNC machine but I see no mention of that in the article. My mill is entirely manual and I could do this by using a rotary table and repositioning to center on each bolt hole - but that's a lot of setup work and I would love to find an easier way.
Also, good luck looking at the pictures. I can only see some of them occasionally (it changes each time I try to look at them) when I use Firefox and almost never with Internet Explorer.
Thank you for any help that you can give.


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## Cogsy (Nov 15, 2017)

lkrestorer said:


> Also, good luck looking at the pictures. I can only see some of them occasionally (it changes each time I try to look at them) when I use Firefox and almost never with Internet Explorer.
> Thank you for any help that you can give.


 
It's the dreaded Photobucket money grab again - they want over $400 a year for people to be able to post pictures on forums like this. There are work-arounds (extensions) for Chrome and, I think, Firefox, but not IE.


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## Ghosty (Nov 15, 2017)

I have an external drive with 6TB storage that I keep all me pics and files in, don't need photobucket, used to use it years ago but not for a long time.

Cheers


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## lkrestorer (Nov 15, 2017)

Thank you guys for the Photobucket info.
But ... what about machining round stuff like those raised (round) bosses and the circumference of the brass head? Is there a nice neat way of doing that on a manual mill that I'm not aware of?
I have done bolt circles just fine (usually I "cheat" and use the DRO) and I've rounded things by mounting them on the rotary table so I can fix a center point but, like I said, I'd have to reposition and center each of the bolt holes to cut a circle around them. The pictures in this posting made it look like it was a piece of cake.
Maybe I'm being naïve thinking that there might be an easier way that I don't know of but that's why I'm reaching out to all of you "more seasoned" machinists.


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## 10K Pete (Nov 15, 2017)

If you put a pin in the center of the RT that fits the holes in the part then you position the part on the pin for each "rounding". Once the pin is dialed in you only need to watch the divisions on the table or the layout lines on the part.

Pete


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## lkrestorer (Nov 16, 2017)

Thanks Pete for the answer. That would be a simpler way than what I was picturing with my tunnel vision and I will probably do it that way. What got me going was the setup that was shown in the pictures. I did not see a rotary table being used and all of the pictures just showed a brass plate fastened to a larger sacrificial aluminum plate that was clamped in a normal vise.
It will be pretty easy to machine the O.D. of the cylinder head and the center decorative depression by "randomly" mounting it on the R.T. The bolt circle can also be drilled before changing the setup. Then the "pin" method can be used to finish the small bosses around each hole.
Those brass pieces do really add some nice shiny bits to the build. I plan on making my own studs and cute little brass nuts, too. The casting kit is in the mail and I'm looking forward to it showing up on my doorstep.
I'd still be interested in hearing how the original machining was done.

Len


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## tractorjunkie (Jan 28, 2018)

Does anyone have the pics from this project on a disc or memory stick that I could copy? I looked at this site about a year ago and am now about to start on my engine. Now that photobucket nonsense has blocked them so I can't view them. This is a great build thread but it would really help to have the pics. Thanks


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## Cogsy (Jan 29, 2018)

tractorjunkie said:


> Now that photobucket nonsense has blocked them so I can't view them. This is a great build thread but it would really help to have the pics. Thanks


 
There is a fix for (I believe) Chrome and Firefox browsers that somehow gets around the issue. Install one of those browsers and google 'photobucket fix' or similar and you should be OK.


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## lkrestorer (Jan 29, 2018)

Tractorjunkie,

I'm in the middle of building the PM #1 and it is going great.  It's a very nice kit of castings.  I was also disappointed with the Photobucket problem because this thread has some very good pictures on it.
I've been a died-in-the-wool Internet Explorer user until this problem came up. I have since loaded Mozilla Firefox: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/  and added this add-on fix of theirs:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-fix/?src=api
When you first go to a forum, or any place that has Photobucket pictures, it will first show you the dreaded "you can't look at this" screen but then after a second or two it will populate with all of the pictures. It really does work great. The only problem I've had is trying to learn the new browser's foibles but in reality Firefox works very nice, too. I believe you can accomplish the same thing with Google Chrome but I refuse to use that because of the way that Google tries to slip that into your computer when you aren't looking. I want to install programs on my computer that I want not because somebody forces it on me.
Give it a try and enjoy. It works great. And enjoy the build. It's a lot of fun. (You call yourself Tractorjunkie, well, I've got a 1939 John Deere "B" that I'm reassembling after a major restoration. That's a lot of fun, too.)

Len


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## tractorjunkie (Jan 30, 2018)

Thank you for the help! I will try this immediately! I had Firefox at one time on my other laptop. Looks like I need to add it to this one. Yes I'm working on the reference plate and mounting the frame to it. This build is very helpful to a novice like myself and the pics were really informative. As to the moniker, yes I love old tractors. I have a '44 Farmall H, a 1959 AC D17, my old standby JD 4010.  use to have a 1944(?) Model B that I've kicked myself for selling many times. I'm on the lookout for a Famall F20 and/or a JD model R. Yep the name fits.


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## tractorjunkie (Jan 31, 2018)

Well I tried firefox no luck. still no images. Thanks anyway


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## Cogsy (Feb 1, 2018)

tractorjunkie said:


> Well I tried firefox no luck. still no images. Thanks anyway


 
Did you install the 'fix' though? The browser on it's own won't help.


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## lkrestorer (Feb 1, 2018)

_Well I tried firefox no luck. still no images. Thanks anyway_

I was surprised by your answer so I tried it on another computer that I own that didn't have Firefox on it. I loaded the newest version of Firefox and got that up and running first. Then I went to the second link that was in my first message and followed the directions to load the add-on.
At this point I had to close and reload Firefox to get the add-on to work. There was nothing else that I had to do. When I first went to HMEM it still showed the Photobucket "no picture" screens but after a couple of seconds all of the pictures showed up.
I don't know what went wrong (that's probably the most common comment made about anything computer!) but try it again. I was very disappointed when I at first couldn't see the pictures and the "fixes" on this forum were not very clear so I kept looking. It's working fine on my computer now. (You're not running an Apple, are you? If you are then all bets are off.)
Good luck, The pictures add a lot to these posts. They have been helping me a lot because it is my first "from castings" build.


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## tractorjunkie (Feb 1, 2018)

I did add the "extra" fix with Firefox but it didn't work. Even after trying 2-3 times. I went with Chrome and the extra fix it had and that thankfully solved the problem. Thanks everyone for the help.  I've since stored the pics so I can use them without any further problems while working on my build. As this is my first build from castings I agree that the Pics really add to the posts.


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