Re: My second engine - the ez2 (running)

[black85vette]

The connecting rod is a nice refinement to the design. Looks really nice.

Also; nice way to hold smaller parts. Thm:

 

[Deanofid]

It's shaping up very nicely, Nick. Looks great!

What is the size of the small chuck? That's a good idea for turning tiny things, (and the
chuck is cute). Either it's very small, or the one your lathe is really big!

At present just making anything on the machines is exciting to me.

That's as good a reason as any to turn your own shafting. Usually, when prints show
shafts and axles that are in standard sizes, it's for the convenience of the builder, (to be
able to use ready made shafts). You'll get practiced up quickly enough, and pretty soon
be building more complex designs. Then the ready made shafting will look good, as you'll
have lots of other parts that need to be 'custom' made.

It's all fun!

Dean

 

[njl]

Thanks BV glad you like the mod. I wanted to get some more machining into the build so made the connecting rod by eye from a piece of quarter inch square steel. It looked quite clunky until I waisted the middle. The slot in the end I made on the mill using my smallest cutter. It was a tad too wide really but was a case of "Hobsons choice".

Dean, yep the chuck is small it is only about 40mm. My lathe is a Colchester Student 1800 it has a 13inch swing. My 4 big jaw will hold things from about 1/2 an inch upwards so I needed something to hold the smaller stuff. I know it is dinky but so far it has done well for me. I also have a 60 tooth change wheel which I'm thinking of addeding to the rod so I can make a simple indexer device.

Nick

 

[njl]

I not been able to orgainse myself to get much shop time this last couple of weeks and when I did snatch a few moments I didn't have the camera to hand. I also felt that the link cutting was not really of much interest to look at, well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, sorry or the jump in proceedings.

Anyway I have been working away on the linkage to connect the valve gear to the flywheel. My plan was to use the same bar stock as I did for the conrod; to make it fit and work in the square and then and then once I was happy with the operation do the turning operations. We'll come back to that at the end of the thread.

Here are a couple of pics of the rods in place.

I made a small brass bush to hold the pivot and the bell crank is cut out of same brass angle as I used to make my EZ engine rods.

On the small rod I had a real problem getting any of my lathe tooling anywhere near to it without fouling on the chuck so I used my parting tool. On the long rod I had my usual problems trying to machine the unsupported end with so much hanging out of the chuck. I did it in sections and used LH & Rh tools but the finish is still not as I would like. I'm going to experiment with some HSS to see if I can make a finishing tool to get a better finish than with my insert tools.

Due the amount of up and down movement on the long rod as it rotated around the crank pin I had to put a knuckle joint into the fixed end. As the only small milling cutter I have is a bit big to make the links this time I used a slitting saw and made three adjacent cuts for each slot. I'd not tried using one of these before but it seemed to do the job OK.

Well we are now at a point where everything moves freely when the flywheel is rotated so it is time to give it some air and see what gives. This video is the longest it has been run. I'm using a vice to hold the air duster attachment and this gives me a nice regulator too. Thm:

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Hope you enjoyed that. I'm really please I can get a nice slow run, I have increased the stroke a little and added some more weight in this flywheel compared to my EZ engine.

By cutting the slots in the rod prior to doing the turning operation it did ensure I had rods that would fit OK but I gave myself a pain trying to machine the rounds. When I do the job again (next engine) I will do the turning first. At one point doing the small rod it jumped out of the chuck, hence the scratch mark on it

So just the clean up / bling stage to do and she is done.

Nick

 

[arnoldb]

Congratulations Nick - that's a sweet runner

Looking forward to your bling!

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[Diy89]

Nice! Good work!

 

[black85vette]

Looks good, runs great. Linkage has a very nice finished look to it.

Super job! Thm:

 

[kustomkb]

Congratulations!

A very nice build indeed.

-And the cutest little 4-jaw I ever saw.

 

[Deanofid]

Runs great, Nick!
I like the way you did the rods. The original on the McCabe site was kind of a tinkers job.
They way you've done it up gives it some class!

Good going, and congrats on another runner.

Dean

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Congratulations Nick.
Sounds great.
At slow speed it reminded me of Flubber (the original movie). That was neat.

 

[larry1]

Nick, I really liked your air controler. looking great. larry

 

[Blogwitch]

Nick,

A very nice runner indeed.

You are taking the route of natural progression, starting out with basics and then improving on it.
I honestly think that is the correct way to go, you learn as you progress, rather than jumping in at the deep end and getting up to your neck in crap, then struggle forever trying to get out of it.

Keep it up, I can't wait to see your next project on the machining table.

Bogs

 

[Maryak]

Nick,

A very nice runner indeed.

You are taking the route of natural progression, starting out with basics and then improving on it.
I honestly think that is the correct way to go, you learn as you progress, rather than jumping in at the deep end and getting up to your neck in crap, then struggle forever trying to get out of it.

Keep it up, I can't wait to see your next project on the machining table.

Bogs

Me too :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob

 

[njl]

Thanks for all the kind comments chaps, glad you liked it and the sound it makes.

I agree you Dean viz the original McCabe linkages, they were definitely clunky and needed some better engineering. I still think there is plenty of room or improvement over mine though! Smaller with smaller screws would be good.

Glad you like the tiny 4 jaw KustomKB, it is very sweet. I bought it mail order and when it arrived I was worried that it would be too toy like to be useful but in practise it works very well for tiny parts.

Larry, the regulator was a fortunate accident. When I shot the original EZ engine video I had to hold the air duster in one hand and work the camera with the other, so this time around I though how could I hold the duster so I had both hands free. I needed something heavy to counter the rewind of the coil on the air line hose and the machinists vice came to hand. Then as I turned on the air, Bingo, I noticed how much control I had over the air flow as I squeeze in the trigger with the vice jaws, it also saved me bending down to the regulator on the compressor which I couldn't do whilst filming the video.

Thanks Bogs & Maryak, your posts just arrived as I was typing mine, yep I have learnt a lot doing this build and building up on my experiences which was a prime objective. I've also learnt a huge amount from watching the stuff the both of you have shared on the net so I'd like to say many thanks for sharing your knowledge with me.

Nick