Model maverick engine by a green amatuer

[thissentenceisfalse]

Well I suppose ill say hello a bit.

Here is my engine/shop. A 1950's bridgeport and 60's 12" colchester lathe. A little more about me, I just turned 20 and am working/finishing school in a heavy equipment job with Ohio Cat. I enjoy tinkering on the mill and lathe and have learned a lot from this website and teaching myself.

Started this project back in august and with a little help from my uncle and his 4 jaw chuck to make the valve bodies, I seem to have a running engine. I need to get a non-self centering chuck for my lathe! Anyways, it was a fun build, and I plan on doing another one, only with some castings involved. I need to lower and screw down the fuel tank and get the governor working right so it misses more and runs slower. It really is running too fast now, I will set after that next.

Also, please don't pay attention to my messy shop.

Should be able to see pictures and video here.
http://rides.webshots.com/album/582488002UKiuCP

Anthony

 

[CMS]

Neat little engine, like the rain cap on the exhaust pipe!!! Nice OLD Bridgeport you've got there, mine is just like it. But mine comes in at # J664, a wee bit older and probably a wee bit more worn. Shanks for sharing.

Craig

 

[bearcar1]

What a splendid little powerplant that is Anthony. Well done and yes, that rain cap is a nice little touch. Where did you obtain the drawings (Phil Duclos)? I'd like to add a set to my library. Can you tell us of any 'difficulties' in machining/fitting you encountered along the way? A very nice specimen, one you should be proud of, and as for the 'messy shop' ???? Toss some swarf on the floor and it might qualify as such :big: :big:

BC1
Jim

 

[thissentenceisfalse]

Do you know the date on your head, CMS? My knee has 15099 which puts it at a 1952. Mine is plenty worn, but still seems to make nice cuts and trams in well. I dont mind the old heavy machine, nice and robust! Some day I will look for a slightly newer one with a DRO/oiler/power feed that works/ etc.

Yes the plans were from Phil Duclos in the book Two Shop Masters. Frank McLean is also in there, both of them offering tips and plans for various projects.

The only difficulties I had were the fitment of the piston and the little arm that holds the exhaust valve open. The piston specifies .0002 clearance, and he wants you to just polish it until it fits. I tried this a few times, making the piston a smidge larger than the cylinder (.0005 or so) and then polished with a parallel and 3m polishing cloth until it slid in with oil. The compression was good enough that it would pop my finger off the spark plug hole easily and the engine would fire, but I never got it to run. I am wondering now if I only had the fuel setting wrong, and the compression would have previously been enough. I originally tried a half of a turn on the carb, but it runs on a quarter turn now and will die quickly on a half of a turn.
As far as the governor arm, it is very thin and you have to take very light cuts in a certain order to be able to get everything removed without wrapping the part around itself. I am a novice, so clamping odd shaped parts like this took a couple tries.

Everything else seemed really straight forward, the valves were cut both at 45* and I lapped them with toothpaste after some coarse lapping compound. The rain cap was a little fiddling around that I came up with a pen torch in spare time. I just bent/ground pieces of brass with a small needle nose and a Dremel until I had a bracket and flapper.

Anthony

 

[AussieJimG]

That is a nice looking and nice sounding engine Anthony, congratulations.

You obviously have lots of talent and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Jim