My apprentice this summer(Moriya Fan build)

[pjpickard]

Back in May I asked the group for recommendations for project for my 13 yr old nephew and I to build. I got some good ideas, but wound up with something...ummm a bit more complicated, the Moriya hot air fan! I remember the day the magazine showed up at our house in 1974, I wanted to built it since then. After his mother assured me that "working in the shop is the whole reason he is coming!" I thought why not go for it, we had exactly one month to do it, and lots of other non shop things planned as well.

Here goes...he swore the shirt was a total coincidence!

 

[pjpickard]

I didn't mention...he lives in Sweden, so we had a few other challenges too, like language and that pesky metric system! Day one, despite jet lag we jumped right into it. I also didn't mention...I decided to build two of them, since I always wanted one as well! Here is the result of the first day, two engine bases. The stock was milled to shape on a manual mill and the rest was done on a Proto Trak.

 

[pjpickard]

Next up was the cold end...lots of clunking, clunking cutting those ribs. Note my poor man's DRO's 2 indicators set up for both axis. This kind of tried his patience...but we got both done. We set up a routine where I made my part and explained the whole process, then he did his.

 

[pjpickard]

Ribs cut, now to drill then bore to size.

 

[pjpickard]

Moving over to my bigger lathe we get to work on the displacer piston and the ends that will get pressed into the end.

 

[pjpickard]

The Power Cylinder was next up....it was at this point I began to get worried about time. In the pic he is using an on/off magnet to collect the cast iron chips which I tried to keep off the ways. Yes the machine was off when he did this! He was very safety conscious...but then again I told him a lot of horror stories! I elected to make the cylinder from cast iron and planned to make the piston from graphite.

 

[pjpickard]

Here is our output after the first few days...not bad, but note that I am down a power cylinder! I was worrying about the time and the one we made together got put in his "bin"! Actually it is pretty decent progress, and we were not at all pushing it, we were putting in maybe 4-5 hours a day in.

 

[pjpickard]

OK, now for the bearing supports...without the use of the Proto Trak, I don't think we could have finished in the time we had. Note I added 2 holes near the bottom of the support. These holes would later be used to bolt the part down to profile it.

 

[pjpickard]

Here is the profile being cut, and the young apprentice programming the Proto Trak! He really took that, and needed very little guidance after he was shown how it works. Honestly he was as least(and in many ways a lot better) than the students I teach at a local community college! By this point his English was improving by leaps and bounds and he was sort of even getting used to inches!

 

[bmac2]

Excellent build. Love the story and the fan. I think I was around his age the first time I used a metal lathe. Once it gets in your blood there is no going back.


Let’s see how badly google translate can butcher this.


[FONT=&quot]utmärkt Thm:. Älskar historien och fläkten . Jag tror jag var runt hans ålder första gången jag använde en metall svarv . När det blir i ditt blod finns det ingen återvändo.[/FONT]

 

[lathe nut]

That is great, there is hope for the future, he will never forget you for the good deeds, thanks for sharing.

 

[RichD]

My Father spent a lot of time with me too. He's gone now, but I always feel him guiding me along.

He's a lucky young lad to have a Grandfather like you.

 

[pjpickard]

Thanks for the comments guys...since this sub forum is FINISHED engines(I wasn't sure exactly where to post) I better get on with the description...
Here are the finished bearing supports...I followed Senft's plans mostly...with the bearing supports I elected to make them one piece(another member here did the same) I felt that would make for much better alignment of the bearings. The next pic is the progress of all parts we had made so far. It's starting to look like an engine! This got his enthusiasm up a bit.

 

[pjpickard]

Here is the con rod...he liked the process of taking a raw bar and turning it into a part...by this time he could see how to read the drawings and what needed to be done to make the part. What he DIDN'T like(and I did pretty much 100% was centering it up in the 4 jaw, Hahah, too boring perhaps?

 

[pjpickard]

Here we are with the power rod end...I made this from bronze, not alum as specified. The introduction of new tools like the collet block was always an eye opener, "what is this for???" Then the light would go off!

 

[pjpickard]

The rod end done, we screwed in the rod and loctited it in place. I tried to get him to think some of the steps thru, like "How do we get the holes to be the right distance apart"? About 20 years ago the senior machinist at a university physics shop where I worked introduced me to the sub plate. I could not live with out it now. Simple job...drill a hole for a dowel pin for the rod end, mill with a ball nose end mill for the rod, clamp it down, center drill, drill and ream, job done!

The first pis shows a cheat we did on the crank pin....rather than make it from solid, I took a 10-32 socket head screw and just modified it...took a lot less time and I like the look of the recessed hex.

 

[pjpickard]

It wasn't all shop work...since he came all the way from Sweden we had planned to do a few other activities! A local cruise night was one highlight...he pronounced a 1966 Corvette engine as "that is a REAL engine" ! Also the Strasburg railroad was a major hightlight(for me as much as anyone else!) We stayed in the Red Caboose motel, fun for kids...a bit cramped for my taste. Seems like every time I go there it is super hot and humid, and with the AC going full tilt all night...sleep was a bit compromised.

 

[pjpickard]

OK, here we go,,,here are all the parts...sorry not everything was documented, it was hard to do the "mentoring" thing and take pics at the same time!
We are now really running out of time, and its clear my engine wont make it to the finish line, so work on mine was cut off for now. The hot end gasket was a pice of "donated" material by a friend, a "machinable" ceramic, kind of nasty to machine, but worked well in the end.

 

[pjpickard]

Assembly was rather, I mean to say REALLY rushed! The excitement was over the top at this point. Obviously the stand was not made so an old lab stand and toolmakers clamp was pressed into service. At this point we were both very anxious to see if it would run.

 

[pjpickard]

My best friend back in 1974, when Live Steam came out with this series, built one of these. I followed along very closely of course. He got it to run...after a lot of teething problems, and I have followed Stirling engine models long enough to know that there can be problems getting them to run. I had warned my nephew that this might be the case with ours too..Well guess what? It took off moments after we lit the burner! I have to say...I was somewhat surprised! I mean I didn't really think there was going to be a problem, it turned over nice and free, had good compression in the power cyl, but still it just spun into action!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20941728@N05/20753988951/in/datetaken/