Werowance attempts Upshur Vertical Single

[werowance]

so on my homemade shcs the threaded portion had warped when I threaded them so last night I was working on straightening them a bit and as I was looking through my box for a piece of scrap brass I could use to assist with that straightening I found that I had a full bag of ss - shcs in 2-56 never opened. covered in dust so I don't know how long ive had them. so I pitched my homemade ones and drilled the heads of these. much better results.

next off to the push rods. tried (for just a few mins) to turn a piece of .140 drill rod down to a size that would fit the hole and failed so that's where I stopped last night and decided I would see if I could just order some drill rod already the appropriate size and just round over the ends. not sure if that's going to be possible. I don't see in the plans where it gives the major dia of the rod, but it says to drill the shcs to a #40 drill so I'm assuming that means the major dia of the rod should be .098? havnt looked yet but I bet I don't find .098 drill rod.

 

[werowance]

Looks like .098 music wire is available and .094 round rod is available. what do you all think? what would you use if you were building? and is .098 the right choice of size?

 

[olympic]

Bicycle spokes make good push rods; ask anyone who's built a Holt 75 engine.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

.094" diameter round rod works just fine. It can be mild steel. This engine will never log enough hours to begin to wear mild steel push-rods.

 

[werowance]

thanks on both replies. I think I have some old bycycles in the barn at my moms home. ill have to take a look this weekend and see If they are still there or not. if not .094 it will be.

 

[Ken I]

Go to any "bike nut" shop that services bikes - they will give you handfuls of old spokes.

When they re-spoke a wheel for one broken spoke, they replace them all.

Also Slotcar racers use 3/32" drill-blank rear axles - if you have a Slotcar club in your vicinity you can probably scrounge up "bent" axles - I've got lots - you can barely discern the bend (because at 20000rpm, 0.001" TIR is way too much).

Or just buy from a Slotcar parts supplier - they're pretty cheap.

Regards, Ken

 

[werowance]

found one of my old bikes in the bottom of the barn rusting away. every spoke I cut off warped once the tension was removed. easy enough to straighten though. drilled through a small piece of brass and egg shaped it and lock tighted it on the end of each spoke because the tappets are drilled .125 this keeps them centered. I thought I took a photo of the engine assembled with the push rods but evidently I didn't. also glued the head on with locktight and then transfer punched for the head bolts. a little bit of heat and the head came right off and locktight just flaked away with my finger nail. all went well with what little I got to do this weekend.

 

[werowance]

some pictures partially assembled. no bolts in the head right now so its a little crooked but shows the push rods pretty decent. started on the valve guides last night.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

That looks really good!!!---Brian

 

[olympic]

Good lookin' push rods, I say!

 

[CFLBob]

Looks really good.

I'll have to remember that idea of bike spokes. I'm sure I've got a couple around here left over from building a wheel at some time.

 

[werowance]

i know i have already discussed and asked about this some but some time has passed and i have read and watched alot of others do this so now i think i didnt have it correct. so on setting the degrees between the cam lobes, here is my plan. probably sounds like i said it earlier but earlier i wasnt going to do it the way i am thinking now.

anyway, locktight one cam lobe let it cure and set it so that it is pushing the tappet as high as it can. ill call that top dead center for that tappet. with a degree wheel attached to the end of my cam shaft (not crank as i had envisioned) and with a bent wire attached somewhere on the body of the engine as a pointer on the degree wheel - pointing at 0 then rotate the degree wheel to 101 degrees as per the stationary bent wire pointer on the rotated degree wheel i then set the second cam at top dead center of the tappet and lock tight it in place - maybe using some tape or something to hold the degree wheel which will be attached by screw to the end of the cam in place so it doesnt rotate while rotating the cam lobe . hopefully i can do this quick enough before the locktite starts curing.

 

[werowance]

valve guides done and pressed in place.

 

[Art K]

Werowance,
I must admit with work and other stuff going on I am only now getting caught up with your build. I have to say I am glad I did my cam as a one piece unit and not assemble it. In post 392 you have the print showing where the cam is to be located. My suggestion would be if you loctite the first lobe then make sure the other is 101-102 degrees apart. Then you should have no trouble running it.
Art

 

[werowance]

Thanks Art

 

[werowance]

got started on the valves

 

[werowance]

valve seat cutter tool and valve seats done.

 

[werowance]

a little further

 

[werowance]

now for a question. pans say i can use a Eclip or cross pin the valves. i have some experience on crosspinning a valve so thats the route i plan to take.
the question - i have a lot of 1/16 .0625 drill rod that i use for pinning other things. the valve stems are about .095 so do you think .0625 is a bit to large to use? any recomendation on a drill size hole if that is to big? what i can do is drill with whatever is recomended and then cut the drill shaft to use as the pin material. which i have done before as well.

 

[CFLBob]

It does seem big to me at just about 2/3 of the diameter.

FWIW on my Webster with its .094 pins, I used .040 pins. That's 18 gauge wire, which is convenient. I had some lying on the bench from something I had fixed so I have little copper pins. If you don't have any, you could probably get a few inches or a foot at Home Depot or some place like that. I bet 20 ga., which is .032, would work.