Another Boll Aero 1.8

[Tim Wescott]

Remember that the most important thing is that the cylinder bore ends up being at right angles to the crankshaft -- things can be offset up or down or right or left or fore or aft and you can compensate. The only thing you can't fix is the crankpin trying to pull the piston somewhere it can't go, and that'll happen if they're not square to one another.

 

[Steamchick]

Yes, you should be able to find it from various vendors. Here are a couple of the first links that came up:

https://www.travers.com/steel-surfa...NSLnkgWeyImxYKVW35Ax4cE9HTlZQuzhoCPfsQAvD_BwE
https://www.travers.com/1lbcan-1-surface-hardning-compnd-kasenit/p/81-003-001/
Apparently I was incorrect in putting the "e" on the end - when I did the search I realized it is Kasenit.

Hi, I have used Karen it and it is very good. I was taught as a teenager, in a proper machining and engine refurbishing workshop, with the regional licence for servicing and rebuilding industrial Broome -Wade compressors! The job was case hardening turned shafts for grinding to finished size - using leather wrapped around the shafts, secured with wire and cooked in a wood fire (furnace with lots of draught). That was one of my "Saturday" jobs. Cutting old shoes and boots into strips of leather and wrapping the steel 2 layers thick, bound with wire, then firing to red-heat and quenching. The parts actually ended up in the red hot charcoal before removal from the fire, so probably the charcoal had as much case-hardening effect as the leather? But a fun job for "the boy". I guess you could use the charcoal barbecue nowadays..... burned sausage and burger fat may add an extra something? After a few beers, humans make a suitable cooling fluid for the red-hot parts.. For a bit of nitriding?
Also, for a scriber, or small hand tool, we used sugar. It burned when we dipped red-hot steel into a tin of sugar, but it worked OK. Then this new thing called Kasenit became available.... but the boss bought a tin and decided it was only as useful as coke dust, or sugar. We didn't quantitively analyse the performance of relative hardening methods, but where can you get coke dust nowadays?
In medieval times, blacksmiths used donkey pee for quenching blades and tools to get a better edge. The donkey would be fed only on turnips to get "strong liquor, for a good blade". The nitrogen in ammonia is still used for nitriding, but today we use gaseous ammonia in a furnace. For the small home workshop you can nitride steel by using case-hardening technique with Nitrogen-rich fertilizer, from your Garden store. But the fumes are toxic, so do it in the open air and avoid the smoke.
Incidentally, you can make a few dummy workpieces, practice your technique, and judge by using your automatic punch as a consistent tool and measuring the size of indentations. Compare un-hardened with hardened material, and the diameter of the pop-mark will give you a rough guide to the effectiveness of your process.
Enjoy.
K

 

[Steamchick]

Again, spell checker has changed Kasenit to Karen it! Aaargh!

 

[L98fiero]

Again, spell checker has changed Kasenit to Karen it! Aaargh!

I was wondering about that!

 

[gunner312]

Hi guys!!

this is my first engine build, i been learning some lathe skills, and last weekend i got a used mill... so i don´t know to much about using it...
Anyway, my metal shop is small and have not a lot of tools, but think have enough for my first building.

i started cutting my Square Alu bar with band saw and facing it in my mill!!! (first cut made by me ever! ) not very clean, even with slow passes, but, ok for blue dye and make some marks....

Having not a Boring head, i got a 4 jaw chuck that i got last week and fix the body to it... after carefully find a right place to fix my magnetic dial (my lathe is small) i dial my body and find a nice center... so i start with my starting dril, 1/4, 1/2, and a boring tool i made...

Think is ok as the hole was made in one step, and was well aligned with the body....

Here the pics...

Hi guys!!

this is my first engine build, i been learning some lathe skills, and last weekend i got a used mill... so i don´t know to much about using it...
Anyway, my metal shop is small and have not a lot of tools, but think have enough for my first building.

i started cutting my Square Alu bar with band saw and facing it in my mill!!! (first cut made by me ever! ) not very clean, even with slow passes, but, ok for blue dye and make some marks....

Having not a Boring head, i got a 4 jaw chuck that i got last week and fix the body to it... after carefully find a right place to fix my magnetic dial (my lathe is small) i dial my body and find a nice center... so i start with my starting dril, 1/4, 1/2, and a boring tool i made...

Think is ok as the hole was made in one step, and was well aligned with the body....

Here the pics...

Looks like a nice little mill. BUT (always a but isn't there?) you need to A: A set of collets for holding the endmills, Drill chucks are for drilling, not milling. B, Get a proper milling vise for holding stock for milling and drilling. The multiple axis vise you have is good for drilling and milling special angles, it isn't the most rigid for work-holding. With any cutting operation, rigidity is the key to clean, accurate cuts. Congratulations on your advancement in the hobby.

 

[awake]

In medieval times, blacksmiths used donkey pee for quenching blades and tools to get a better edge. The donkey would be fed only on turnips to get "strong liquor, for a good blade".

That's a bit of lore that I had not heard before! Hmm ... now I'm wondering what I need to eat for a week or so before nitriding my next part ... should work, right? I don't have a donkey, but some people say I'm a bit of an a--.

 

[Richard Hed]

That's a bit of lore that I had not heard before! Hmm ... now I'm wondering what I need to eat for a week or so before nitriding my next part ... should work, right? I don't have a donkey, but some people say I'm a bit of an a--.

I've heard that people use urine for nitriding before and I can easily believe it too.

 

[Rodrigo Castellanos]

Hi guys!

Some work done today...
never used a reamer before... What a nice tool!

 

[Rodrigo Castellanos]

 

[Rodrigo Castellanos]

 

[Steamchick]

I have applied some "compost activator" to my garden waste - which may be a source of nitrogen? As a lad, I was taught by a gardener on the local allotment to pee on his compost heap for the nitrogen... Peeing in hedgerows, on trees, or walls, to him was a waste of good fertiliser! But nowadays he would be arrested for telling young boys where to point their privates! - But all we saw were his big cabbages.
Also, pre-20th century, Lye was made by collecting pee and storing for 3 months - then using it as a solution to clean your clothes. A chemical version of Lye is still available - and is probably in your kitchen cupboard now. Any cleaner "with ammonia" is based on Lye, I think? But these are probably liquids, and contain other chemical nasties that you don't want up your nose when quenching red-hot steel!
K

 

[awake]

I'm no chemist, so I may be getting this wrong ...

Ammonia: NH3
Lye: NaOH

So the only element in common is some hydrogen. While urine will decompose to ammonia, I don't *think* it will convert to lye, at least not without some additional chemistry to introduce the sodium and get rid of the nitrogen.

As I understand it, lye was traditionally made, not from urine, but from wood ash - "steep" the wood ash in water and drain it.

 

[Tim Wescott]

Not sure what you're thinking vis. lye -- lye is sodium or potassium hydroxide, and is traditionally extracted from wood ashes.

Ammonia develops in well-aged pee, and apparently one of its uses was to clean stuff.

And pee is good in compost, if your compost pile has a lot of fibrous or woody stuff in it.

 

[Steamchick]

Thanks for that. I didn't know lye was sodium hydroxide. Must have got crossed wires when I learned about pee when I was a lad. (More than 1/2 century ago...).

 

[Rodrigo Castellanos]

Hi Guys!
some slow progress done...
i turn my head, was a very slow process, as carriege seems to really need a stop.... as when i´m parting or grooveing a large pieces, it seems to move, but after holding the wheel with the other hand, i was able to groove and part the head

 

[Steamchick]

Hi, to use as as carriage lock, I disengage the lead-screw at the change wheels, then engage the stationary lead-screw to lock the carriage. Any use? It helps me when parting, etc.
Also, on the cross-slide, I often use a rubber band to hold the setting, in case vibration, gravity on the handle, etc. causes the cut to back-off. Suprising how little extra friction is needed to hold the cut... saves my hand, and any twitches I have, affecting the cut.
(I was driving once with only one hand on the steering wheel, close to a barrier in a narrow gap, when a sudden sneeze caused me to twitch the wheel and scratch some paintwork on the car. Not just #!!*&# all over my face! Embarrassment as well!).
K
K

 

[Tim Wescott]

I'd look hard to see if there's a carriage lock on that thing -- they're easy enough to implement. If it doesn't have a lock, but does have adjustable gibs, you could always tighten them down for operations like that (ew, ick).

 

[Richard Hed]

Hi, to use as as carriage lock, I disengage the lead-screw at the change wheels, then engage the stationary lead-screw to lock the carriage. Any use? It helps me when parting, etc.
Also, on the cross-slide, I often use a rubber band to hold the setting, in case vibration, gravity on the handle, etc. causes the cut to back-off. Suprising how little extra friction is needed to hold the cut... saves my hand, and any twitches I have, affecting the cut.
(I was driving once with only one hand on the steering wheel, close to a barrier in a narrow gap, when a sudden sneeze caused me to twitch the wheel and scratch some paintwork on the car. Not just #!!*&# all over my face! Embarrassment as well!).
K
K

Mr. Steam, just what kind of lathe have you got? Disengage the lead screw at the change gears? That seems to me to be an AWFUL lot of trouble. wouldn't it be worth yor time to make a couple carraige stops for the ways? I found on my enco that the friction stop was on the right side of the carraige. For years, I thot it was on the left side and it never seemed to work. One day, out of curiosity, I tried the hex bolt on the right side and VOILA! it workt. I would have sworn it was on the left side. Must have been for some lathe I workt on when employed. You should be able to make a regular stop for your machine too. I've seen either a vid or something wherein the person is redoing their stops. It may have been one of the lesser known Brits who makes a lot of his own tools. I thimk he is the one I got the idea to make a hand wheel to turn my own lathe. Couldn't have made internal threads with out it.

 

[Steamchick]

Thanks Richard, but, after cutting a small hole for an allen key that is the lock for securing the change wheel support bar, I simply slacken, then rotate the change wheel support bar, to disengage the drive to the lead screw, then lock again. It's a cheap Chinese lathe, and cheap means things seen on more expensive lathes simply don't exist on mine. The lathe is a lot quieter with lead screw disengaged when not needed, such as when parting-off.
Thanks for advice,
K

 

[Steamchick]

Ola Rodrigo,
Interesting pictures!
Keep up the good work.
K