Onward, ever onward

[thayer]

Just as I feared. No magic bullet!

Thayer

 

[tel]

Nope, no magic bullet, just time and effort.

Now, logically, I should have drilled the steam passages next, but I felt like a change of pace, so instead made the top cover.

First a disk is roughed out and a 1/2 spigot is silver soldered in



Grabbed in the 3 jaw and the underside turned, hole for piston rod drilled and reamed. I don't know what this bit of 'brass' is, but it's tough and stringy, and hard to get a finish.



Now we hunt thru our collection of previously saved split chucks. Almost certainly you will find that you have nothing anywhere near what's needed, so you will have to make a new one. I had to make a new one


Mount the partly machined cover in it,




and turn, open the spigot out tapping size for a suitable depth, tap, and mark out the bolt holes



Remove from lathe, drill the bolt holes, and you should have something that looks a bit like this.

 

[tel]

Can't upload a pic on either Photobucket or Webshots

Not a lot of progress made in the last couple of days, I have drilled and tapped the cylinder for the top and bottom covers and drilled the steam passages.

Made a start on the steam chest today - my usual way of using two pieces of angle, silver soldered together. I've mentioned this elsewhere.

 

[tel]

Ah! Finally!

 

[4156df]

Tel,
That's a slick way of doing the steam box. Sure hope I can remember for it the next time I do one. ;D
Dennis

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Damn, Tel--You're my hero!!!

 

[tel]

;D Thanks blokes. I have a (jealously guarded) piece of brass angle, 2" x 2" x 1/4" that I use for steam chests and nothing else. As the piece is (now) about 800mm long, and as a chest uses about 30mm it should last for a while yet, but if and when it runs out I'll have to find another method.

 

[Artie]

You can cast cant you Tel? Or if you dont have the facilities do you know someone (say within 400kms) who would do a few for you? : Im only thinking about when you run short of angle....

 

[tel]

;D Thanks Artie, yes, I can cast, but I'd need to get aholt of a decent crucible - don't think my 'ome made steel ones would stand up to bronze or brass for long.

A bit further along with the steam chest - here it is with the various orifi drilled and the inlet and gland hopes opened out and tapped



And here it is affixed to the cylinder with a miscellany of screws, screws, I hasten to add, that will not feature on the finished engine!

 

[tel]

Things have slowly crept forward a bit over the last few days, mostly mundane stuff like drilling and tapping. The steam chest cover is made.

When it came to the hanger brackets for the bell crank shaft I was at a bit of a loss, the change to a slide valve meant that there was the 'ole for the steam inlet right where I wanted to bolt the bracket on the l/h side. Eventually overcame the problem by making the l/h bracket with a bulge at the bottom end and using the steam inlet fitting as an overgrown bolt.

The shape of these brackets has, of course, been changed to something a little more elegant, and they have been made higher, to give me some more clearance around the valve links etc.



... so things are getting a bit crowded in there now!

 

[Maryak]

tel,

Very elegant :bow: - gotta move my shop closer all this great work is giving me withdrawal symptoms.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[tel]

Thanks Bob, I know wot you mean tho' - some days down the 12 steps of the spiral stairs to mine seems too far away.

 

[tel]

A closer look at the bell crank supports - the hex bit will be drilled and tapped at 'X' to take the steam pipe.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

That's going to be a good looking engine Tel.

 

[cfellows]

This is coming along real nice, Tel. I like your use of soldering. It's a nice alternative to hogging out a piece from a much larger piece of metal. I don't mind the work, just hate wasting the larger pieces of metal!

Chuck

 

[JimN]

Very nice idea on the steam inlet pipe, rest of the engine is looking great.

JimN

 

[tel]

Thanks blokes. Yeah, I'm with you there Chuck, I hate to see good metal turned into chips when it can be avoided.

Yes Jim, the steam pipe worked out pretty well.


I did something very similar with the exhaust.



From this point I can pretty much do whatever I like with the pipes - plenty of room out this end.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Can't wait to see more. I did a quick search on "Mogen's Side Beam" but didn't see anything. I'm curious about the 'bell crank supports'. (I don't even know what a bell crank is.)

 

[tel]

Wikipedia give a pretty reasonable description here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellcrank

In essence, the valve drive has to be turned through 90° and the bell crank is employed to achieve that. Me supports are higher than those in the original plans, and curved to give a nicer appearance that the rather blocky originals.

A couple of variants of this engine have turned up here, and Mogens is a member. You can access his plans here.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Ah! Thanks for that tel.
Nice link!
I understand the bell crank now. There was something tickling my mind about it...I remember now...it was from my early early days of playing with control-line aircraft.