Guys
Your sharing in the fun has made this project a treat. I've been watching for old Jules to come calling to reclaim his property, but so far the coast is clear. The engine really has taken on a Verne-esque quality, as the small finishing details are added. I might never build another IC engine, but the one I've gotten from this project is just crazy enough to fit me and the collection to a "T". If that measure constitutes success, then it has been just that... a success.
The project has reached the point where all the work is small stuff, some tedious and delicate, some of it almost downright boring. Progress is ongoing but at a much less dramatic and slower pace.... thus the gaps in time between posts. Most of the work has been permanently mounting and fitting things, fine tuning assemblies and the delicate tweaking of parts that involves.
Since I've been pretty open in this thread, I'm almost obligated to share the very near disaster that sneaked up on my a couple of nights back. After mounting the engine to the base and making some adjustments to the 3 bearings to loosen things back up, I began the process of fine tuning the long train of components that run from the governor to the very top of the engine.
3:30 AM is not the best time to be doing things that require ones fullest attention, but then it's also a time when your judgment concerning such things is not at its highest. The engine was chucked in the lathe so I could observe the governor under power and make the needed adjustments to various parts and pieces. Part of this process required that I position the cylinder section atop the base between "running" the engine the lathe.
Everything was going fine and I'd been religiously removing the cylinder section between each test run. Then a serious case of cranial flatulence descended on me. For some reason, without thinking, I reached for the lathe's start switch and flipped it on before removing the cylinder.
Remember the cam gear? ......yeah.... the one with all the spokes and teeth and time. When the dust settled, there sat an engine with everything nice and square, with the exception of the the cam gear, which now sat at an odd angle of about 25° off plumb. The cylinder was hanging from the rear of the engine in an even more distressing angle. I'm not sure how long it took me to react, but all the the chaos was long completed, before I could even begin to move to stop it.
Now... long experience has taught me a number of things, among which is the fact that adrenalin and shock do not contribute positively to making sound decisions. As I began to untangle the damage I slowly took stock of things. I then moved the engine to my work table where I sat and stared at it until the obscene expletives ran down in my mind. Only then did I begin to run a rapid mental train of options for fixing the problems.
Luck didn't totally desert me, as it became obvious that everything was still "intact". No broken spokes were evident, but the center hub was listing badly and there was some indication that the cam ring or gear might have suffered, but only some testing would tell the tale. I began by grabbing a 5/16 transfer punch (among any shop's most versatile tools) to use as a Tommy bar. After carefully placing the gear in the mill vice, this let me gently manipulate the center hub and carefully nudge things back in position by eyeball.
I then paused and took stock of my options, once again, deciding the lathe definitely offered more potential tricks than anything else at hand. I mounted the gear on the small arbor I used during the gear cutting adventure and turned on the lathe. Things were looking up as I noted the eyeballing had been quite surprisingly effective. It wasn't perfect, but well things were well within the range of repairable, assuming I could come up with a means to push it all back into position.
Once again that mental options train left the station, as I smoked things over. If you let ideas stew long enough they tend to distill themselves and something will usually bob to the top. One of the tools I use quite a bit is a small rollerl on a bar that can be clamped in the QTCP. This tool lets me remove the wobble from work pieces that were removed and then placed back in the lathe for further work. It has the added benefit of being able to apply pressure to a work piece either from the side, or from the end, in order to bring the piece into square with the center line of the lathe. It might not be an industry acceptable text book tool, but then I've never read the book anyway.
Long story made at least a little shorter, it worked. The tool was applied to the end of the work piece and cranked it in using the compound. This quickly got the end face running square to the lathe centerline. I then moved it to side of the cam ring and, with gentle movements of the cross slide, began to remove the unwanted distortion and restore concentricity to both the gear and the cam ring. I reinstalled the gear to the engine and it ran smoothly..... not even any chattering.
There is a fair level of violence taking place when the cam actuates the exhaust linkage. As a result, I will eventually make this gear afresh so that I can shake the lack of "trust" I'm feeling. I'd rather invest the additional time and effort than chance more damage in the future, due to a failed spoke.
Okay...quite a long winded tale, but if you're still awake, I'll share something a bit less morbid. The tank mounts are now completed and bolted down in their final form. The square bar stock just wasn't giving me the warm fuzzies, so I'd been avoiding the final step of drilling and taping the holes to secure them. Another of those "long time experience"s thing is that when I procrastinate over something like this, for some reason, everything is not quite congealed into a final satisfying from. I've learned to let the process run its course until an idea finally surfaces that meets all the requirements. Such was the case here.
The curves were "right" but the hard lines of the bar stock were bothering me on some level. The idea finally surfaced and the solution was dead simple. I put a piece of 3/16 round stock in the mill and made up a few inches of 1/2 round brass. This formed easily and gave me a bit more grip on the tank surface while giving it all the missing curves this engine has been demanding. Once the bending, polishing and drilling was completed, the end results were what you see below.
I've still got to fabricate the filler cap and the drain that goes to the carb, but that should be only a few minutes work. The pump is in one of those "idea stews", at the moment, but is nearing its turn for my hands on attention. There is a bit of plumbing yet to be done and the electronics still have to be to fitted, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel and no trains are in sight... for now....LOL The tank definitely now adds a nice look to an already "interesting" machine.
Steve
