Elmer's #45 by Trout

[Deanofid]

That's a nice one, Dennis! Well done!

Dean

 

[arnoldb]

Thm: - That is very nicely done Dennis !

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[SAM in LA]

Dennis,

Nice and clean looking flywheel.

In fact, I like the finish that is has right now.

SAM

 

[compressor man]

Wow, this is really great Trout. A question for you...On these arc shaped cuts you made, surely you did not make the cut in one pass? Did you instead take a shallow cut, lower your cutter and make another cut and so on? I am asking because I have not long had my mill (X2) and have very little experience with it and really have yet to learn its capabilities.

 

[Philjoe5]

That's one great looking flywheel Trout :bow: Thanks for posting the details. The handwork is impressive. I am reminded of the quote - "Lord, please give me patience, and hurry" :

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

Chris: You're right, I took shallow cuts because of the small size of the end mill. I used an end mill that was one size smaller than the holes I pre-drilled in the corners of the slots and that made it easier to lower the spindle each time I made a pass since I had some room to spare at the end of each pass.

There's a coworker of mine who has a cnc machine, he's young, fairly new to machining and that's all he's ever used. He could not believe I made this wheel by manually cranking the table. Ha....these young-uns..... Thm:

I agree with you Sam, I like the finish as it is. I think I'll just paint the base on this engine. I find myself now regretting having sold my Pasche airbrush compressor a couple years back. It's off to H.F. tomorrow to buy a new one I'm afraid.

"Patience is passion tamed." Lyman Abbott

-Trout

 

[kcmillin]

Good Job Dennis, put them young bucks in their place. CNC requires alot of knowledge but manual machining is an art.

Well Done Thm:

Kel

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Hi Guys,

Not much to report. Got the bearing blocks made. Painted the base. Next up, the cylinder! oh no-o-o!

The base is actually an award plaque I got at work - "Dennis, you've saved the company $13 million by yada yada yada....here's a nice plaque to hang on your wall". Gee...I'm honored, a plaque? Well, I've got a number of them cluttering up my cubicle and they are made out of all kinds of material so I finally found a good use for'em.

-Trout

 

[zeeprogrammer]

That flywheel turned out awesome. Nice job!

You could put what you already have on display.

 

[SAM in LA]

Carl,

Good idea on how to recycle recognition plaques.

Personally, I would rather get a gift card or raise in lieu of plaques.

Looking good.

SAM

 

[bearcar1]

Trout, you are so right about those cheesy awards. A very dear friend and old boss of mine. Jim McCabe once quoted what is now known as McCabes Law... "A pat on the back is but just six inches from a kick in the a$$"

Your flywheel and your other work to date is extremely well executed. That flywheel is a real eye attention getter.


BC1
Jim

 

[Deanofid]

Looks really nice all mounted up on the base, Dennis.

Dean

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

As with many things in life, presentation can be everything. I know this is a simple design but cast in the right light, there's always beauty to be found.

I mentioned some time ago that I regretted selling my Paasche air brush compressor. I thought I was through painting RC models, etc. but I was mistaken now that I'm involved with this engine hobby. So I went down to HF last weekend and picked up their version of an airbrush compressor for $69 (on sale). Now this being Harbor Freight an all, I thought it would be borderline junk but sometimes HF surprises you. What I got is, in my opinion, a better product than the twice-as-expensive Paasche. This has an on/off which the Paasche does not (or didn't), it has a water trap and regulator which the Paasche does not. Also, it does not run continuously which the Paasche does. OK, too much typing now. Back to the den, I've got a cylinder to plan out.

-Trout

 

[speakerme]

Great Work

I am encouraged by your work and thank you for it.


Chuck M

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Really, this isn't worth posting but hey, I've got nothing better to do. I spent a few hours in the work shed today working on the cylinder. The shape of the cylinder and the challenge for me to machine it is what attracted me to this build. This cylinder seems to be commonly used in Elmer's designs and a few others.

It's been fun using the RT and my new Grizzly DRO's. It took a good bit of time getting the brass rod to an accurate 1.375 x 1.375 x 1.125" square and then marking lines (double-check of the still-new DRO's) and drilling the ports and holes. Got that all done now, it's time to bore the .75" cylinder next.

So...I'm real proud of myself for figuring out a trick to drilling the angled ports. :idea: I'm sure you old pros have this one in your back pocket but I've never read it anywhere. Or more likely, you have a better way to do it. I know...if you tried it and it works, that's an acceptable practice, as long as you didn't hurt yourself. In the pic above you can see on the plans how the port holes are angled at 10 and 15 degrees where they run from the cylinder edge to the valve plate holes. I used a little math to figure out how deep to drill these holes so they intersect the vertical holes but along the way, I threw out the math and used some trickery.

I placed a wire into the vertical hole and drilled the angled hole until I felt the drill bit wiggle the wire. I knew that was the time to stop drilling. If I went too far I would have drilled into the next vertical hole, ruining the cylinder.

Sandpaper....a wonderful thing.

That's it for today. If I were Metal Butcher, I would have had this thing done weeks ago.

-Trout

 

[SAM in LA]

Dennis,

Clever idea. :idea:

I'm curious though, was your math solution correct? ;D

Thanks for sharing. Thm:

SAM

 

[arnoldb]

Dennis, good going Thm:

I nearly thought you were going wrong with the wire in the center hole - till I checked the plans. This cylinder block closely mimics Elmer's "normal" ones with the exception that the exhaust port is on one side rather than in the middle like he normally have them. This is because your build is the single cylinder compound - where under steam operation, the exhaust of the first high pressure cylinder side is ported to the intake of the low pressure cylinder side to use steam expansion.

Regards, Arnold

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Sam, my math solution was close. After I drilled to my specified depth, I had to think of a way to ascertain if the holes had indeed intersected. My first thought was to blow into the small hole. That felt silly and didn't work. Then I had the idea to stick a wire into both holes to see if I could feel them moving against each other. I couldn't, so I knew I was off a bit. That's when I decided to leave the one wire sticking in the hole while I drilled through a bit more. It just took another couple of thousandths of an inch. For the second hole, I didn't bother calculating the depth, I just drilled with the one wire sticking in the hole.

Arnold, I got this far on my first try at this cylinder and wound up throwing the part at the part wall. Those three slotted ports threw me off. When I drilled the 1/16th holes for them, I drilled all three to the same depth. One of them (on the end) should only have been drilled to a shallower depth to allow the angled port to pass underneath it. I haven't seen Elmer's single cylinder compound built here yet and thought it would be interesting to try. It might have a slightly different sound to it too because of the exhaust recirculation, I don't know but it will be interesting to find out.

-Trout

 

[Troutsqueezer]

I finally finished the cylinder body except for tapping the holes and milling the end of the angled ports. Now wouldn't that be a bummer if I broke a tap in one of the holes at this stage of the game! Naw....I've done a lot of tapping over the years and very seldom break one.

I decided to go with the lagging here. I've painted it the same color as the base which is dark blue but you can't tell it from looking at this pic. I want to create a small decal and fit it onto the lagging for a bit of panache. I made the lagging from a thin metal which coincidentally, also came from my recognition plaque, the same one I'm using for a base. What a gold mine.... :big:

Maybe the pace will pick up a bit now, especially since I will be on vacation the next 6 days.

-T

edit: lagging, lapping...p rhymes with g, right?

 

[Deanofid]

Cylinder looks very nice, Sam! (oops---Dennis!) What a clean job you've done.

Dean