1895 Mery Explosive engine from Gary Martin

Home Model Engine Machinist Forum

Help Support Home Model Engine Machinist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

pamw

Well-Known Member
HMEM Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2024
Messages
64
Reaction score
69
Location
San diego
bought this kit 28 years ago being all cocky..... yea...bit off way more than I could chew at the time. Poked at it a few times over the years, but now time to buckle in and finish this uniquely bizarre engine. Few things are done: flywheel, timing gears, piston, stuffing box...... the first cylinder I did would probably work fine, I just wasn't happy with it so I got another and sleeve to go with it.. but the sleeve is somewhere unknown and have a new one coming from Gary with the lil water pump castings.... the way I want to do this it will hopefully turn out pretty cool.


Onward....
 

Attachments

  • 20240608_070532.jpg
    20240608_070532.jpg
    1.3 MB
I lament the day that all sorts of casting kits were available for sale.
I remember calling Coles, and chatting on the phone with them about what kits they had availble, plus all sorts of other parts and fasteners they offered.

That is quite a nice looking casting kit.
What does it look like finished ?

Good luck with it.

.
 
Pat, you could always treat yourself as the Merry castings are still available

That is tempting, but I generally make my own castings at a unique scale.

I browsed the Martin site, and their castings (judging from the photos) seem to be exceptionally detailed and high quality.
Good to see someone still in the casting kit game.

I was wondering about the Merry engine, and was initially thinking Corliss, but then there was no valvegear.
That is a cool engine for sure.

.
 
Productive day...... base is done, first major op on body done.... base mates to body now.
Turned the faces of the pulley ( both edge and hub) and drilled and reamed it. And then started in on the crank, I prefer building up the single stroke ones out of A2 tool steel....

Onward
 

Attachments

  • 20240609_104548.jpg
    20240609_104548.jpg
    1.8 MB
  • 20240609_113958.jpg
    20240609_113958.jpg
    1.7 MB
  • 20240609_122024.jpg
    20240609_122024.jpg
    1.5 MB
  • 20240609_144307.jpg
    20240609_144307.jpg
    1.7 MB
Productive day...... base is done, first major op on body done.... base mates to body now.
Turned the faces of the pulley ( both edge and hub) and drilled and reamed it. And then started in on the crank, I prefer building up the single stroke ones out of A2 tool steel....

Onward

A2 is really nice if you can justify the cost (in your own head, that is, LOL). So I guess you have a decent furnace? I am curious about the hardening and tempering temps and times and schedule that you use. Everybody seems to have their favorite for getting their finished part to come out on-size without any distortion.
Lloyd
 
A2 is really nice if you can justify the cost (in your own head, that is, LOL). So I guess you have a decent furnace? I am curious about the hardening and tempering temps and times and schedule that you use. Everybody seems to have their favorite for getting their finished part to come out on-size without any distortion.
Lloyd
No, no..... I use it annealed.... really don't want a hardened crank... only thing I've ever harden is cam shaft blanks before grinding. I like A2 because it is ridiculously stable. You'll see how I go about it.... simple, easy, and super accurate.
 
The beauty of A2 is that you can machine it to finished size (including dowel pin holes, etc), allowing for about .0006" per inch of growth during heat treatment. We made small specialty molds for transfer molding of glass filled thermoset resin for intricate low-volume electrical gizmos. The molds usually finished at less than 3" x 4" and consisted of several parts, all of A2. We'd wrap each part tightly in a foil bag for the heat treat, and that would keep the part clean and scale free in a standard furnace. No inert atmosphere needed. We'd let it cool in the furnace and when it dropped to about 150F, where you could touch it but not hold it, we'd temper it at about 375F, twice (double temper). Like you said, super stable, even thru the heat treat process. When done properly no finishing or fitting was required after the HT and tempering. The A for air-hardening was the real deal.
 
Crank shaft in process.... 620 bearing and sleeve retainer curing.... once thats set over night.... drill and carefully taper ream... then seat the taper pins firmly( whom da bejeezus out of them).... trim.... lap smooth...... cut excess out...... cut keyways. also need to remake crankgear......discovered bore is way oversize, probably cut that 20 years ago. Will turn blank before work in the morning.

Need to cut plate material to make the jig for doing the crank journals, cam barrel, cut the cylinder face, stuffing box counter bore, stud holes, and cross head bore.... will be able to mount it at 45 degrees, horizontal sideways, and vertical..... probably weigh 30 pounds when built up.

Onward
 

Attachments

  • 20240610_160748.jpg
    20240610_160748.jpg
    1.7 MB
  • 20240610_161035.jpg
    20240610_161035.jpg
    1.3 MB
  • 20240610_163827.jpg
    20240610_163827.jpg
    1.1 MB
  • 20240610_175442.jpg
    20240610_175442.jpg
    1.7 MB
I had noticed the food bowls in previous pics, but now I see your little shop doglet in post #10 Any problem with chips in the feet or fur? My cat ate a wad of schrawf from my lathe and the techs at the vets office had fun with the xrays watch the wad pass thru the body. The cat is fine, just weird.
 
I had noticed the food bowls in previous pics, but now I see your little shop doglet in post #10 Any problem with chips in the feet or fur? My cat ate a wad of schrawf from my lathe and the techs at the vets office had fun with the xrays watch the wad pass thru the body. The cat is fine, just weird.
He's not allowed on the shop floor....I have a cart for him to be in with his bed and blanket.
 
Productive early morning. Drilled the crankshaft to then ream for taper pins..... turned out new crank gear blank and mounted on arbor to cut the gear.
If there is anyone local to the San Diego area, I urge you to come visit the craftsmanship museum in carlsbad..... its the largest collection of miniature engines in the world. I work there on Saturdays fabricating engines. Keep three projects going so I'm never down waiting for materials or tooling.

Current builds:
The Mery obviously
Hodgeson 9 cylinder radial
Stuart marine compound(complete pain due to the castings being freakin tiny)

This Saturday I'll be cutting this gear and the cam jackshaft gear for the radial.... will also have the Redwing on display and running.
 

Attachments

  • 20240611_045016.jpg
    20240611_045016.jpg
    1.8 MB
  • 20240611_051346.jpg
    20240611_051346.jpg
    1.6 MB
  • 20240611_052224.jpg
    20240611_052224.jpg
    1.3 MB
  • 20240611_053306.jpg
    20240611_053306.jpg
    1.7 MB
I had noticed the food bowls in previous pics, but now I see your little shop doglet in post #10 Any problem with chips in the feet or fur? My cat ate a wad of schrawf from my lathe and the techs at the vets office had fun with the xrays watch the wad pass thru the body. The cat is fine, just weird.
He's not allowed on the shop floor....I have a cart for him to be in with his bed and blanket.
 
I had noticed the food bowls in previous pics, but now I see your little shop doglet in post #10 Any problem with chips in the feet or fur? My cat ate a wad of schrawf from my lathe and the techs at the vets office had fun with the xrays watch the wad pass thru the body. The cat is fine, just weird.
This is da munchkin..... 5.5 pounds of muscle, 200 pounds of attitude.
 

Attachments

  • 20231119_123944.jpg
    20231119_123944.jpg
    1.9 MB
Lots of progress today..... crank is done, bushings done, crank gear recut, also the cam shaft turned to length, cam bushings done, and started crank bearing caps... will finish those tomorrow and fab up the main body jig plate.
 

Attachments

  • 20240615_051104.jpg
    20240615_051104.jpg
    1.1 MB
  • 20240615_055834.jpg
    20240615_055834.jpg
    1.1 MB
  • 20240615_113208.jpg
    20240615_113208.jpg
    1.4 MB
  • 20240615_122829.jpg
    20240615_122829.jpg
    1.4 MB
This is quite an ambitious undertaking in my opinion.

I was not familiar with the Mery engine before this thread (I am new to the hobby).

Not really what I would consider a beginner's engine by any stretch.

I am still looking at the various photos, figuring out how all the parts function.

Looking good so far.
Looks like you will have the major work completed pretty soon, and then on to what I call the "dreaded" little work.

.
 
Finished the ops on the bearing caps and split them....

Also got the main jig over half done.... will show when it is done. Otherwise to many questions will flood in. It'll be in the vicinity of 40-50 pounds of plate steel. Supplier sent a double order and said keep it...cost to much to retrieve it.... and will never use it otherwise. I've been picking away at it for fixtures and jigs.

And of course the forman "barking orders".......
 

Attachments

  • 20240616_073423.jpg
    20240616_073423.jpg
    1.9 MB
  • 20240616_082127.jpg
    20240616_082127.jpg
    1.4 MB
  • 20240616_103529.jpg
    20240616_103529.jpg
    1.5 MB

Latest posts

Back
Top