Its First-Steam-Engine time!!

[skyline1]

Hi Gus

There is a saying that "the man who never made a mistake never actually made anything" but an error either by you or in the drawing does make for some "colourful" language. especially if the component has taken a long time and you mess it up right at the end ( usually do its the "Law of Universal Cussedness").

I made one myself yesterday. I am building a small spot welder at the moment and I was drilling the front panel for the control box, minor lapse of concentration, and I enlarged the wrong hole.

After much strong language and two cups of "Char" to calm me down. It was start again time but it's only a bit of sheet steel and I've got plenty of material to make another one.

It's when you write off an expensive casting that might be difficult to replace it gets really annoying.

Hope your rework idea works out. altering stuff as we go along or doing something a different way is one of the pleasures of model engineering. As Anko's clever solutions to his engine problems are proving.

Regards Mark

 

[gus]

Hi Gus

There is a saying that "the man who never made a mistake never actually made anything" but an error either by you or in the drawing does make for some "colourful" language. especially if the component has taken a long time and you mess it up right at the end ( usually do its the "Law of Universal Cussedness").

I made one myself yesterday. I am building a small spot welder at the moment and I was drilling the front panel for the control box, minor lapse of concentration, and I enlarged the wrong hole.

After much strong language and two cups of "Char" to calm me down. It was start again time but it's only a bit of sheet steel and I've got plenty of material to make another one.

It's when you write off an expensive casting that might be difficult to replace it gets really annoying.

Hope your rework idea works out. altering stuff as we go along or doing something a different way is one of the pleasures of model engineering. As Anko's clever solutions to his engine problems are proving.

Regards Mark

Hi Mark,
Fotos on repair attached. Used a die threaded brass stub to plug in and tap drill and tap.Very happy with the repair.Tried hard not to buy casting kits.When you blow up a piece,it is very expensive to replace and as such I build engines from prints that use bar stock.Built the German Vertical Steam engine from bar stocks.
Now about to proceed finish up the last five details which will take the entire day.8am Singapore time now.Will be another 4 weeks to complete engine.No date line.No bosses breathing down my neck.Ha Ha. Sat'd and Sun'd catch was bad.Too much rain water.

 

[gus]

Hi Mark,

Please post Spot welder. My very first experience using spot welder was bad during my apprentice days.

Bought a multi electrode Spot Welder from Taiwan 20 years ago.It came with PLC and lots of controls never dreamed off.Never gave me any problem from day one.
Used same to make wire net beltguards using spun straightened steel wires. Beltguard cost reduction was 80%.
Waste was minimal.Bird cage wire cost a bomb and waste about 20%.

 

[Anko]

Thanks for the comments!

Gus you engine is looking good!, here is some progress on mine:

I just got a rotary table, and no tooling or work holding to use it, so it was very dificult to clamp the workpiece in order to use it, but at the end I was able to do it using my lathe dog and some bolts.

And made the connection arm and the shaft guide:

Only the connection shaft and the flywheel are left

Saludos

 

[sssfox]

That looks like the same rotary table that I have.
That is a neat way to hold the shaft on it. I don't think I would've ever thought of that. I've spent all of my time mounting a 4-jaw chuck to it.

 

[skyline1]

Hi Anko

It's really coming along now as you said only the crankshaft and the flywheel to dat's allo

Gus I will post some photos and details on my spot welder when it's done I'm testing and tweaking at the moment but it welds o.k. only thin stuff but that's all it was designed for

 

[gus]

Hi Anko.
Here is the latest at 6pm today but engine is still an empty shell.Glow plug installed.Silencer is bought out.

 

[Anko]

Thanks for the comments!

Gus you sure work fast! at that rate you will get your engine running in no time, great work!

sssfox: I found the 4 jaw chuck for the RT too expensive!, that why I only get the rotary table without nothing else, Im planning to do some mods and work holding hardware.

Today I made the crack shaft and assembly the engine, but because I put some very tight tolerances to piston/crosshead sections, turning the engine needs a lot of torque, so I lube the sliding parts and put the engine to run in the mini-mill for a while hopping that all the mechanical pieces settle down.

here is a little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nmGd6mLe0U&feature=youtu.be


And afther a little runing the feel and force requiered to turn the engine is improved, also now runs more smoothly, but still need more "settle" or tuning.

Now only the the flywheel left (and maybe some valve)

and ofcourse, an air compressor also are left. :wall:

Saludos

 

[sssfox]

Thanks for the comments!

sssfox: I found the 4 jaw chuck for the RT too expensive!, that why I only get the rotary table without nothing else, Im planning to do some mods and work holding hardware.

Saludos

Anko,

You are doing fine without the 4-jaw chuck.
If I would've thought of that, I probably would not have purchased the one I have.

The next time I need to mount a shaft, that's what I'm going to do.

Steve Fox

 

[gus]

Hi Anko,
The Gland Nut looks great.When can we see your engine spin???

My DIY Rotary Table.
Had to DIY the "tee Nuts" out of brass from scrap bin.


Glow Plug Engine,
Progress today slow.Worked on the minor details and small items.The carb body took half morning and the others too
2 hours.Nothing much to show.The piston n con rod will take up some time.Wll be next week. Now looking for 3/16 reamers.

 

[Anko]

Hi

I have been very bussy with the university, but now I have some spare time to start machining again, Im very close now to finish the engine! after almost one year and half...

I just made the flywheel, to make it, I pick some cast iron pipe or tube from the scrap yard, the plan is to put the pulley with a press fit inside the tube:

Then when the bore was close to 0.02 mm, I took the pulley, previously machined, to the refrigerator for cooling, for about 15 min. The OD went down about 0.04 mm allowing to enter nicely in the tube:

It's almost done!

Saludos

 

[Propforward]

Very nicely done! I loved the sequence of pictures showing how you made the flywheel - very well done!

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Beautiful work Anko. Glad to see you back at this project.

 

[gus]

Hi Anko
Please advise supplier of this beautiful flywheel casting??

 

[Anko]

Hi to all, its been a while since I post somethig

Gus: how are your doing? you finish your glow plug engine?
the casting that I use on the fluywheel was originally an old pulley salvajed from the scrapyard, I strongly believe that it was part of a very old sewing machine, but I cant be sure.

I got some progress in my engine today:

I decided to make some sort of needle valve for my engine, and got some kind of hard time designing it, but at last I come to this:

The needle is made from a 5mm diamerter silver steel sock, and it was very dificul to machine it, because of the thin diameter. I make some sort of support with a little piece of brass with a hole of the diameter of the piece and held it in the tailstock.

Then, like before, I use a "cmc man" metod to cut the raduis of the valve body (because I don't have (yet) a radius-cutter attachment), and with all the patience of the world finally came a good result:

Then, I put some polishing paste in the "needle" contact point, and run the lathe, the idea was to make the two pieces to seat together and make a good seal.

and at the end of the day I got:

Thanks for watching! I hope that will come more!

Saludos

 

[Rivergypsy]

Very nice work indeed - I like it

Keep up the posts and the good work!

 

[Anko]

Thanks dclark!

got more progress, still need to sand the piece, but thats the rougth shape, and the valve seems to work fine with mouth pressure

here:

more will come!

Saludos

 

[Anko]

Well, here I am with some more progress:


Now, come the time to make the valve handwheel, first I was planning to use my rtary table to index the valve shape, previously machined in the lathe, but since I dont have any tooling for te RT yet, I figure that it will not be posible in mortal means to do that.

Then, I came with another aproach, something that I havent seen before for valve handwheels making.... at least for me


Pictures will tell better:


First, I designed the valve to be with some style, and to follow the engine flywheel pattern too..

Then I put it on the lathe and bend it, I use the carriage and dials to archieve a simetrical angle on all three legs:

After that I make the support piece of the handwheel and put a 1mm hole through the valve shaft and the piece, for putting a pin.

Then I machine the handwheel outter radius on the lathe, like a tube, with rounded faces. Finally I pick up all the other pieces and I make the assembly, using a sacrificial bolt to maintaining everything in place,and then the magic, I solder all the pieces together.

Then a little sand paper work as usual.... (a lot really, like usual too jaja).... and:

Very nice indeed, and a little peek on the engine here:

Its almost done!, a few pieces left... they will come soon...


Saludos

 

[aarggh]

Wow! Fantastic job on the handwheel Anko (and everythings else), amazing result.

cheers, Ian

 

[Rivergypsy]

Now thats a really good idea - logged for future reference!