Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs
Twin Cylinder Steam Engine
Darren:
Thanks Stew and David, it's coming slowly.....soon it will look like something.
Slightly hampered by all the machine setting up, but that's a good thing :thumbup:
Certainly will help on future projects.... :ddb:
Divided he ad:
--- Quote ---You wanna see me go "Chuff" :scratch:
--- End quote ---
Well it's got to be better than going "Puff"! hasn't it ??
No one likes things going up in smoke!...... Why, what else did you think I meant? :lol:
Ralph.
Darren:
--- Quote from: Divided he ad on April 16, 2009, 03:53:44 PM ---
No one likes things going up in smoke!...... Why, what else did you think I meant? :lol:
Ralph.
--- End quote ---
I've no idea :lol:
bogstandard:
Darren,
I have noticed how well you are settling down to 'precision' engineering.
There is one major problem with it.
When I want to do a bit of rough stuff, my mind wants to stay in precision mode, and it is actually a real effort just to hack a bit off here and there, I start looking round for marking blue, a vernier and a square.
Eventually as you get more into it, you will want more and more accuracy, so you start to upgrade your machines with DRO's etc. But you should still carry on marking up as normal. That is your failsafe double check when using the DRO. If they both match up, the job should be spot on.
If your marking out is done well, and you machine to 'split the line', you should be within the generally acceptable tolerance of 0.002" (0.05mm).
John
Darren:
One of the tasks in hand filled me with trepidation,
2.5mm tapping...how on earth was I going to achieve this without breaking taps, even worse ruining parts that had taken several hours to make..
The answer as usual came from one of our regular members.... :ddb:
Whilst visiting John (Bogs) I spotted a tapping stand, the seed was sewn.....!
I don't have a tapping stand, but I do have this, had it for years and never even switched it on, let alone used it. Piece of rubbish I thought.
Today I dug it out and had a real good look at it, thinking I could strip it down and make a tapping stand from it. It was rusty, very rusty but non-the-less I had to admit to myself that it wasn't rubbish at all. In fact it looked to be very well made with some really nice quality castings.
Ho hum, another machine to clean up and test...... :dremel:
I'm sorry now that I didn't take some before pictures, I didn't really think this was going to go anywhere..... :doh:
Here is the base and main pillar after a bit of a clean up
The table
The downfeed handle.
Notice the rusty belt tensioner behind, it was all like this but cleaned up quite easily. (note, the shaft, bearings and all important parts where well greased and in excellent condition, not rusty)
I decided that for tapping I didn't want the return/lift spring in opperation, so I tried to slacken it. then it broke... :doh:
I tried bending the remaining end into a new loop but it just snapped. Now I was stuck, what to do?
I heated the very end of the spring to bright cherry red with a blowlamp, it only took a couple of seconds. After this it bent easily into the shape I wanted without snapping :ddb:
It fits here held by a single grub screw, this is important later...
All back together I decided to try it as a drilling machine. Fitted a 1mm drill bit switched on and...........
It didn't wobble.....I was expecting it to.... :scratch: In fact it looked superbly true....
So I tried drilling a chunk of brass and it drilled perfectly with no fuss.....
Oh hum, it's a good un I thought. Perfect for small drill bits and small parts. Speeds turned ot to be 2525, 1485 and 830 rpm, again good for small drill bits.
But I wanted a tapping stand..... :hammer: :hammer: :hammer:
So, belt off, tension spring off (remember just one allen grub screw) and have a go at tapping....
Finger tip power only as Bogs suggested, easy, no probs there as this is only a 2.5mm tap.
It tapped beautifully, smooth as anything.....
What's more I managed eight holes without breaking a single tap
I'm stunned, I was expecting to break a tap...... :ddb: :ddb: :ddb:
Now I realise why people use tapping stands. The feel you get is incredible, it's hard to describe, but I'd imagine you'd have a job to break a tap with a set-up like this.
I used to use the miller to keep taps square, but you just don't get the feel.......SNAP !!!
Well, now I have a nice fine small drilling machine and a tapping stand. Bonus is it only takes seconds to convert between the two. Take me longer to find the right sized allen key !!
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