Elmer's horizontal mill engine.

[Will_D]

"Calibrated" may just equal "Gauge Plate" in a computer Span/Eng dictionary!

[DavidA]

Will,

Well done that man.

When I lived in Germany my landlady once asked me if i had a prolongation she could borrow.

It took a minute to realise she meant extension.

Dave

[modeldozer]

Hi fellows,

Will,  thanks for that one.

Mostly for my own curiosity I looked at a few UK steel merchants and what is commonly known here, as calibrated stock is Bright Mild Steel.

The connecting rod was set on the mill and the flats at the ends milled.



To mill the small side a spacer was used at the other end to get it level for the first side.



Locating from the ends, the holes was drilled and reamed.





The finished connecting rod.



And posed on the base assembly.



Next a chunk of brass was, as usual, machined square and to size.



The slot for the connecting rod was machined.





The hole for the piston rod was drilled and taped.



And the hole for the connecting rod pin was drilled and reamed.



The steps on the bottom side were milled.



The finished cross head.



I did not have any 3mm rod, so a 3.15mm-welding rod was sanded down to make the pin.





A M8 nut was drilled out to fit over the crank pin, and used as a guide to file the spanner flats.





And after a bit of fettling with a file and emery paper to get things operating smoothly.



Cheers 
Abraham

[vtsteam]

That's looking superb Abraham! 

[modeldozer]

Steve,
   Thank you for the kind words.

Abraham

[millwright]

Its coming together well and looking very good  Abraham 

John

[modeldozer]

Hi all,

John, thank you for the encouragement.

Two pieces of brass plate was machined square and flat.





Steam ports were drilled in one plate.



And mounting holes drilled in both to make the valve plate and cover.



The steam chest was set up, mounting holes drilled and the pocket carefully milled out.





The steam chest parts.



After machining a small piece of brass square and to size, a pocket was milled in the one face.



It was flipped over and slots for the valve rod and nut was milled.



And after a cleanup with some emery tape.



Thanks for looking.

Cheers.
Abraham

[modeldozer]

Hi everybody,

Done some of the smaller but time consuming bits.
For the valve nut a piece of flat stock was milled and lapped for a tight siding fit in the valve.



Then the ends were milled.



A broken 6mm end mill was used to locate the centre.



and the hole drilled and taped.



Test fitting the valve components.



The valve rod was set up to mill flats on the end and cut the slot for the eccentric strap.  I do not have a long enough end mill for this so I used a slitting saw.





Then end was located,



and the connecting pin hole drilled.



The connecting pin was set up as best I could and the split pin hole drilled.



The assembled valve.



Next I will need to make a centering arbor and some attachments for the rotary table so the flywheel and some other parts can be finished.

Cheers   
Abraham

[modeldozer]

To make the arbor a piece of material was faced and centre drilled.



A MT2 dead centre was placed between this and the tailstock to set the angle for the compound.



A taper was turned on a length of rod.  Here using the tailstock arbor to test the taper.





The end was turned down to 12mm and cut off.



A couple of collars were made for a tight fit on the end and a retaining washer made for the bottom end.
One collar is for locating a chuck and the other for the eccentric strap.



Mounted in the rotary table.



With the eccentric strap mounted.



And with the flywheel.



Cheers
Abraham

[modeldozer]

Did not get a lot done.

The flywheel was set up on the rotab and centered.



Holes were drilled at all the comers of the cutouts.



The outer slots were milled.



I did not realize how hard (abrasive) the cast iron was and destroyed and broken a few HSS end mills.  Had to finish the operation wit a carbide end mill actually meant for aluminium, this also did not survive.   



To do the straight sections, I first gang drilled them and broke out the waist material.



Then started to machine the sides.



Still have to do 8 of 12 sides.

Cheers.
Abraham

[modeldozer]

Finally finished the flywheel cut outs.  Milling this cast iron was very slow going.



Before removing the flywheel the rotab was centered.



The flywheel as it is at the moment.



The eccentric strap was set up and the outside milled.





The slot was cut with a slitting saw.



All done.



The eccentric was set up and the grub screw hole drilled and taped.



The flywheel was set up with the aid of a mandrel and the grub screw hole drilled and taped.



The cut outs was cleaned and deburred with a dremel and a die grinder.  It went back on the lathe for a bit of a polish.



And all the parts assembled.







That’s all for now.

Cheers.
Abraham

[Manxmodder]

All coming along nicely,Abraham  . I do like the flywheel design,it looks very nicely proportioned and looks like it would scale up or down really well.  Looking forward to seeing this baby running.....OZ

[krv3000]

yep that's shaping up nice

[vtsteam]

Looks Great!!!!

ps. I had a tough piece of cast iron I couldn't drill. I stuck it in the orange embers in my woodstove for a bit and cooled it slowly in a bucket of wood ashes to see if I could anneal it, and sure enough, it softened right up and was a pleasure to work on the lathe with HSS tools. Haven't tried it on anything else since, but it did work that time.

[modeldozer]

Manxmodder, krv and Steve,
        Tanks for the comments.

Steve,
    Thanks for the tip.

Cheers
Abraham

[Manxmodder]

Looks Great!!!!

ps. I had a tough piece of cast iron I couldn't drill. I stuck it in the orange embers in my woodstove for a bit and cooled it slowly in a bucket of wood ashes to see if I could anneal it, and sure enough, it softened right up and was a pleasure to work on the lathe with HSS tools. Haven't tried it on anything else since, but it did work that time.

I am currently building a Bengs Nick flame licker engine and when trying to drill the flywheel bosses I find they have been allowed to cool to quickly and as a consequence both have hard spots in the bosses.

I am going to heat them up to bright red and wrap them in glass wool insulation to anneal them to a machinable state.....OZ.

[vtsteam]

Oz, would the glass wool melt?

[Manxmodder]

I'm only using it wrap them in after the torch has been switched off,but I think I'll just try it with a sample of scrap steel first to be sure.......OZ.

[modeldozer]

For the arm of the eccentric strap a piece of 3mm flat was machined flat on the one side and then the other side was set up with a shim on the left edge to machine it aper.



The wide end was machined square, using some aluminium wire to hold the part centered.



A hole was drilled in the other end.



The pieces were set up and silver soldered.



The joint was cleaned with a file and sand paper and the narrow end was rounded with a file.



All done.



And installed on the engine.



For the cylinder a piece of cast iron was faced on both ends.



The cut line was marked all round with a slitting saw.



The cut was completed with a hack saw and face milled.  It was rotated 90deg. And the operation repeated.



The mounting holes and exhaust passage was drilled in one face.



The valve passages and mounting holes was drilled, milled and taped in the other face.



It was reset on end, making sure it was square in all directions, and the end machined to size.  The centre of the cylinder was located and centre drilled, and the two cylinder head holes that are in line were drilled.



The same was done on the other end.  Then it was set at an angle and the steam passage to the end of the cylinder was drilled.



And the other side.



To bore the cylinder I opted for doing it on the milling machine as it is more ridged than my lathe.  Started by step drilling to 20mm and the switched to the boring head.



Only needs one finishing cut and the on to the lathe to turn the ends.

Cheers
Abraham

[vtsteam]

Some really helpful fabrication demos there. I particularly like the slitting saw grooving out the rough piece to be hacksawed. I definitely will find a use for that in the future.

[modeldozer]

Hi Steve,

As I do not have a band saw to make the cuts acuratly the orriginal idea was to slice it with the slitting saw, unfortuanatly my saw blades are all to small to make the cut, so came up with this method witch worked out well.

Cheers
Abraham

[vtsteam]

Abraham, marking wood with a square and then saw scoring all around before cutting through with a hand saw is the traditional Japanese joiner saw way of cutting a timber square without a miter box.

This is the same thing, with the added convenience of the slitting saw being held square and at the same height by the mill spindle while scoring all around.

[modeldozer]

Hi all,

Had a few household chores to do so did not get a lot done this week.
Amongst chores, took all my shavings and off cuts to the scrappy and managed to get a bit of funds for tools.

Finished the cylinder bore, leaving it a tad (precision engineering term) undersize to allow for honing. The steam passages on both ends were milled to the correct depth.



Turned a plug to go in the tailstock end to support the cylinder.



Turned down the outboard end.



Then flipped around and turned the inboard end.



After checking that the bore is running dead on centre, a small recess was cut to allow the head to fit.



Back to the mill to cut out the middle sections, again a very slow process.





Cheers
Abraham

[modeldozer]

Hi all,

Between a broken down compressor  , visitors from South Africa and an extreme heat wave in Spain time in the shed was short and far between.

The middle sections were finally done.



The cylinder was set up at 45 degrees to mill the comer off.





It was moved to the rotab to round over the corner.



As I do not have any slot drills or centre cutting end mills, had to do lengthwise cuts in facets every one-degree.



While on the rotab the edge on the round ends was cleaned up.



The rotab was repositioned and the mounting holes were drilled in the heads.





The heads were then used as templates to drill and tap the cylinder ends.







All done.





Had to re bore the cylinder as for some reason it was oval.  Took the bare minimum out to get it round.
Then used a brake cylinder hone to finnish it.





The piston ended up with a bit more clearance than I would have liked, but decided to test it first before making a new one,.
Made the studs for the heads from threaded bar.



And the studs for the steam chest from bar.



The engine was assembled and I found a small error with the eccentric travel  , somehow I machined it for only half of what is needed.  Had no choice but to make a new one making double sure I had the travel correct.







And we have a runner, no gland packing or gaskets but it runs.
Not the best video but here she is.



Need to make some accessories and tiding up a bit.

More to follow.

Cheers
Abraham

[awemawson]

Very nice work Abraham 

I would imagine that the cylinder became oval as the material relieved internal stresses as you machined the various outer features.