Opposed 4 Compressed Air

[cfellows]

Another day and a little more progress. Here is the crispy critter with the end plates silver soldered in place. Always kinda fascinates me when I'm successful with silver soldering. Seems more like black magic than science.

Chuck

 

[Maryak]

Chuck,

Coming along. Don't know about black magic but it sure is a good feeling when it's done and all is OK.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[NickG]

Yeah, I know what you mean, it's the combination of cleanliness, flux and the right amount of heat! Sometimes the last one has a pretty fine line! Then of course there's securing it!

Good job!

Nick

 

[tel]

It's coming along nicely. I always enjoy silver soldering, it's a process you have a great deal of control over once you get you head around it.

 

[cfellows]

One last picture of the Crankcase to show how it cleaned up and with the end holes bored.

Chuck

 

[stevehuckss396]

Nice job so far!

Wow

Steve

 

[cfellows]

After some lengthy negotiations (with myself) I finally settled on a new cylinder design. I was originally going to make the cylinder barrels from 3/4" square brass but decided that looked too "dainty". So I went with 3/4" x 1" brass for a little beefier look. I also like the look of the rectangular shaped cylinders. I need to make the cylinder base flange square and I may increase the radius on the edges some

The bore is 1/2" and the stroke will be 5/8" and the cylinder holes are blind since I decided to just incorporate the head into the cylinder. Fewer parts to make and fewer holes to drill and tap. ;D

3 more to make...

Chuck

 

[Maryak]

Chuck,

Fascinating build coming along really well. :bow:

Many from North America seem to favour rectangular and/or square cylinders. Is there a reason for this ??? I can see savings in machining time, especially for multi-cylinder engines made from stock. Just curious.....Again :

Best Regards
Bob

 

[cfellows]

I wanted to use a square cylinder to add more substance to the engine. Round cylinders just seemed to puny. Then I thought, rectangular would be even better. However, now that I look at it, I may go back to square since the rectangular cylinders seem to be a bit much...

Anybody have any thoughts?

Chuck

 

[gilessim]

Chuck, I think that the rectangular cylinders look great and very original, I'd stick with them!

Giles

 

[Kermit]

I wanted to use a square cylinder to add more substance to the engine. Round cylinders just seemed to puny. Then I thought, rectangular would be even better. However, now that I look at it, I may go back to square since the rectangular cylinders seem to be a bit much...
Chuck

how about using hex rod?

 

[cfellows]

how about using hex rod?

Kermit,

Trying to stick with materials I have on hand, which, unfortunately, doesn't include any hex stock.

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

I haven't been in the shop much the past couple of weeks. I've been fighting a vicious bout of bronchitis.

I finally got around to finishing the other three barrels for the engine. I pondered for a long time on the overall shape and finally settled on the 1" high x 3/4" wide brass. The propeller is kind of nice touch. It's a chrome plated gun metal prop that's a replica of a Hamilton Standard steel prop like the ones used on the Spirit of St Louis. I picked up several of these on ebay sold as letter openers! Don't know yet if I'll use the prop or if I'll go with a flywheel.

Chuck

 

[chuck foster]

nice work chuck but i have a question for you..............do you ever sleep ??? :shrug:

chuck

 

[cfellows]

While I'm waiting on parts for my Plumbing Parts engine, I've decided to resurrect this project after nearly a year. I've got some new ideas for valving that I want to try out, and while I haven't finalized the inlet valve design, it will use a version of my slave exhaust valve setup. I'm sticking with that design because I want it to be a 4 stroke and I like for my engines to make some noise when they run! :big:

 

[cfellows]

Kind of figured out where I was on this thing and got busy on the connecting rods today. Here's a few photos of my progress.

Random bits of aluminum destined to become the rods. I like using up the smalles pieces of scrap I have that will accommodate the piece I'm making. Unfortunately, it usually means extra cutting and milling to get the scraps to a decent shape. Managed to run my thumb into the bandsaw on one of the smaller pieces when it slipped off the blade. Kind of deep, but nothing serious!

Here I'm center drilling the rod blank for the big end. I'm using my little home made depth gauge to position the blanks in the vise.

Here you can see me milling the edges of the connecting rod. To do the other side, I just flip it over and repeat the operation. Again, I'm using my home made depth gauge to position the blank in the vice. I'm then reading the x-screw dial to repeat the start and end of the cut. Aahh, if I just had a DRO...

And, here's a pretty good start on the four rods. Just need to round off and pretty up the two ends.

Just to bring everyone up to date, here's where I am at the moment.

Next I finish up the rods, then get started on the pistons.

Chuck

 

[ksouers]

Chuck,
Glad to see you back to work on this engine.
It's been so long I'd forgotten about it, maybe thinking you'd finished.

Anyway, lots of good work. I'll be dropping in on it, for sure.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Oh nice Chuck.
This was before my joining the forum so I read the thread.
I'm looking forward to seeing this build.

 

[cobra428]

cfellows,
Nice engine. Not to distract from that but where did you get or did you build the prop?

Tony

 

[cfellows]

cfellows,
Nice engine. Not to distract from that but where did you get or did you build the prop?

Tony

It's a metal replica of a Hamilton Standard prop that was used, for one, on the Spirit of St Louis. I picked up 3 of them on Ebay several years ago. They were (and are) sold as letter openers. There's several for sale on Ebay right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hamilton-Standard-Classic-Propeller-Letter-Opener_W0QQitemZ320470082585QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a9d816419