Stephens knuckle head build

[driller1432]

Nitrophyl saved the day went to auto repair shop found floats for fuel level sender brought back to shop and easily shaped into float. Changed the hinge pivot point and made prongs that insert into float tested with bowel on with gasoline works great kinda crude for now but I know it will work
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Now that I have basic design I'll refine and make another.
Thanks to all for your ideas!👊

 

[Draw-Tech]

Steve
Looks like a Beautiful Big Diamond to me.another great redesign by driller1432, shall be documented.
Jack

 

[Hopper]

Great to see you sorted that out. Onward toward the test run video!

 

[Bowtie41]

Nitrophyl saved the day went to auto repair shop found floats for fuel level sender brought back to shop and easily shaped into float. Changed the hinge pivot point and made prongs that insert into float tested with bowel on with gasoline works great kinda crude for now but I know it will work
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Now that I have basic design I'll refine and make another.
Thanks to all for your ideas!��

PLEASE edit post from"float tested with bowel on",to "float tested with BOWL on",lol:hDe:

 

[Bowtie41]

Lookin' Great,and easier than all the brasswork(sorry).Does that stuff have a "skin" to keep it from saturating that you will have to reseal,or can it be used "as is"?

 

[driller1432]

Morning guys glad to get carb out of the way - well almost a few more little bits to make. The nitrophyl at first looks like it has a skin but I think it's smooth from molding process I floated some in gas after machining for a few hours with no problem. Thanks to you Jack still having lots of fun with this build. Should be cranking this jewel up pretty soon, can't wait to try electric starter. I pressurized cylinders and valves leak a little so need more lapping on them I bought some fine compound to finish them off.
Steve

 

[driller1432]

Hi guys been a while got side tracked building this with my son.

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Back to knuckle head build pretty soon

 

[crankshafter]

Driller.
Waitin for the video of first startup on the Vtwin.
Nice car btw. I like the" tophat";-)
Cs

 

[Draw-Tech]

Hi Steve

Nice Rod, Lucky Son! great to hear from you, been busy myself, working on my conception of an Otto T-Head motor, and an all aluminum 3D print bed, for fast heat up and constant temperature on the whole plate, and an all aluminum Extruder.

Great to have you back

Jack
draw-tech

 

[driller1432]

Hello guys......got to work a while on the knuckle head after about 5 months break .....so I made wood base and ignition box with cherry wood ....got fuel tank and stand made with a price of chrome steering column and brass..... Exhaust pipes made from stainless steel (spent 2 days making a mandrel tube bender) worked awesome....throttle controls done ! So the bottom end is all sealed up ready for oil, then I need to lap valves in and check for seal then I can do final assembly on heads then I can finish oil lines and put the ignition parts from S&S in distributer. Might be trying to start the engine soon.

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And hello Jack .....this engine is awesome you should be very proud of your design and engineering what a great set of very detailed plans you have shared with us, I can't even imagine how much time you spent on the plans. Hats off to you sir!

Stephen

 

[crankshafter]

Stephen
And the hat of for you
Verry nice work

CS

 

[Rozlo]

That is awesome. Simply amazing great job. Cant wait to see a video of it running.
Bill

 

[Hopper]

...Exhaust pipes made from stainless steel (spent 2 days making a mandrel tube bender) worked awesome..
[QUOTE/]

A model-sized mandrel bender! Now that sounds interesting. Do you have any plans or pics, or links? Sounds like a fun little project I would like to try.

The Knucklehead just looks better and better every time I look at it. Yes, hats off to both designer and builder indeed.

 

[Draw-Tech]

Hi Steve
It has been my turn to have to work on stuff just to make a buck, but we have to pay for our play. Thanks all for the complements on the design,If you ever go to apply for a machinists job, bring that model, you won't have to say a word. I have been machining for now over 60 years, and I consider you to be a 1st class all around machinist. Again all we have to do is look at it with awe!

Jack
Draw-Tech

 

[Bowtie41]

Guess my compliments go double than Draw-Techs,as I only had 30yrs in before becoming disabled,lol.Every new pic you continue to impress!! :bow:

 

[Bowtie41]

The last co. I worked for before becoming disabled,we made stainless fittings for food and pharm co.'s among other things.When we bent elbows,etc.,we filled tubes with water and froze for sizes too small for our mandrel bender,then put in a foam cooler of liquid Nitrogen for a few before bending.No kinks from the ice,and the liquid Nitrogen makes SS bend like soft butter,(besides,dropping fruit,eggs,etc,soaked in N is awesome,lol).I think Airgas and others sell liquid N in small quantities.Hope this helps!

 

[driller1432]

Hey guys been a while so a few months ago I tried starting the knucklehead first with the electric motor from RC car

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and confirmed what I thought all along not enough torque didn't even move at all, maybe it will work as a generator. So proceeded to use rope starter and it fired a few times before head gaskets started leaking, they are made from thin copper sheet
.020 thick I had put copper coat on them but didn't last long. The copper sheet won't compress enough to close up the smallest of gaps.

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So now I make gaskets from teflon sheet which should compress enough to seal all gaps. Then I try again. I,m sure I'll have to monkey around with carb it was flooding with gas but I have a new idea for float.

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Hopefully I get more time in the shop as I,m getting caught up on other projects.

Stephen

 

[dethrow55]

wow nice job. hope to see it run.

 

[Draw-Tech]

Hi Steve
Glad to see you back. When you tried the copper gaskets, did you anneal the copper? To anneal copper to butter soft. go to a dark place and heat till you see a very dull red, and let it air cool. Also I would try .032 to maybe decrease the compression. The motor that I picked out, was a magna torque motor, I think I specked it out in the parts list.
Jack
P.S.Steve Drop me a line.

 

[Bowtie41]

I agree on the annealed copper.A friend had Ransome mower with an unknown make 3cyl diesel.He was having trouble starting it,so his SMARTER,lol brother told him to use starting fluid(BAD IDEA).which blew the head gasket.Since we never found a maker id(Not Continental or several others).I made new gaskets(1 + a spare) from copper sheet and annealed them,and it worked great.
For a starter,try a cordless drill,if it works,get a HF cheapie and gut it.That's what I did to my 1/5 scale RC monster truck