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Twin Cylinder Steam Engine
bogstandard:
Darren,
Because of being tight, I make the most out of what I buy. So if I need 2mm screws, and 2mm studs, I will buy long screws, and cut them down to make both items. It can't always be done, but a lot of times, you will find that short screws are the most expensive. Without actually looking at the plans, I think most screw lengths are about 6mm. It does pay to buy in the bulk sizes, say 50 or 100 instead of 10's. They are a thing I have in stock all the time, so really, I can't give you a blow by blow for this engine.
What I tell people who are building this engine is to make the holding bolt holes a little larger, so instead of 2.5mm, make it 2.6mm. Doing it that way gives a bit of 'fiddle' factor to get it running a lot smoother. In fact, when you do the crosshead bars, you will definitely need to fiddle with those to get the crossheads to run up and down smoothly.
John
Darren:
Hi John, sorry I wasn't asking about this engine specifically as I can get most of the info I need from your pages.
I was thinking in more general terms for typical model engineering as a whole, inc engines.
I should have been a bit clearer.
I'm thinking m2.5, m3, m4 would cover most things in a couple of lengths. Would that be correct, it seems from your reply it is.
(5,6,8 I tend to have a good stock of anyway as it suits my music side. Along with a few bsfs and ba's.)
The reason I ask is because not the sort to go ordering 5's and 10's. I tend to order by the standard box be it 100/200 or so and be done with it for a while, if not for ever :lol:
It was just a general question :thumbup:
bogstandard:
Darren,
Thanks for the explanation.
For SS screws, I would stick with 2mm, 2.5mm & 3mm. Like I said, check the prices between the longest and shortest. It takes no time to cut a long one down, but if you only have a short one, it is difficult to make a long one. Don't forget to get washers and nuts, you don't use a lot, but I would get 100 of each size, just for stock.
For 4mm and up, I would just go for standard off the shelf stuff.
Just a little pointer on how I make my engines. During making, everything is held together with any old screw that will fit. Only on final build do I use the SS cap screws. Because they are so soft, it is easy to strip out the heads with continually tightening and untightening, especially on the smaller sizes, and they are too expensive to be thrown away.
John
Darren:
Thanks John that clarifies things, I'll start making an order up :thumbup:
Re soft, I'd never considered SS bolts to be soft before. I recently bought some 3mm countersunk for the insert toolholders I made recently and noticed that the heads don't seem to last more than a couple of tightens. I assumed these were cheap bolts and not very well made, but reading your reply above is interesting.
I think the reason I asked in the first place was because I was surprised to see metric threads on models. I always thought the God's insisted that BA or ME etc was compulsory or you'd be poked with a hot stick and banished from society.....or at least ridiculed by your peers.
Thankfully that's not the case :clap:
BTW, Googling to see if ME actually existed and wasn't a figment of my imagination I found this page....could be handy for some of us. You might want to turn your sound off first though :ddb:
http://www.aonx97.dsl.pipex.com/WS-page/table-page/tables.htm#ME
sbwhart:
Hi Darren
This is where I get my ME taps and Die's from http://www.tracytools.com/tapsanddiesmodeleng.htm ther's still quite few places you can get them, for my loco build ME and BA is used excusivly but I've found that some of the smaller sizes they call up such as 8BA allan grub screws are as rare as rocking horse droppings, so in places I,ve had to revert to metric.
Ther's nowt wrong in changing thread type after all your building the model for your pleasure no one elses, you just have to be carfull that your not compromising something else with the change ie thread getting too close to the edge etc etc.
Just have fun and use what you have at hand
Stew
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