Philip Duclos "Victorian" IC engine project

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cedge:
Thanks John... thats what all the girls tell me.... :thumbup: It gets bigger each time I play with it too.... :headbang:

Tim
It is indeed Durabar and I'm enjoying working with it. If not for the fact that it gets all over everything I'd probably use it more often. Boring out the cylinder was great..... good smooth cuts great finish and no taper in the bore. The only challenge was in power feeding the boring bar into a 2.5 inch deep blind hole....LOL. I'd have finished the cylinder this evening if we hadn't had to keep the grandsons in their own home. Mom had a major scheduling breakdown so it was grandparents to the rescue.

I'll be breaking out the hones tomorrow and really slicking up the cylinder walls, then on to cutting the water jacket chamber and drilling the mounting holes. It should begin to start looking more like an engine after all that.

Steve

SPiN Racing:
Wow... Just wow... Stunning engine. :jaw:

Love the ideas with the crankshaft cutting...

cedge:
The Victorian project begins to take on the look of an engine as the cylinder is fitted to the base. The cylinder will be water cooled, so there will be a water jacket yet to be fitted to the outer flanges.

Turning the cylinder was pretty straight forward, although cutting the Durabar gray cast iron took a bit of experimenting to find out what the metal liked. I found a sharp HSS cutter and low RPM gave me the best results. Chatter was a bit of a bear in the confined area of the lower neck, but file finishing the cast iron was easy and rendered up a nice contour.

Even with a good set of boring bars, the bore of the cylinder will have tiny ridges that will create friction and wear on the piston rings. In order to prevent this, lapping the bore is a must. I used a softer metal for the lapping hone, in this case, copper being the metal of choice. The bore of the cylinder is .750 inches so the 5/8 copper plumbing pipe made a convenient sized lap and was long enough to give good control. It is an inexpensive section of repair pipe from the local Ace Hardware store and a handy source of copper for various other uses as well.

The abrasive I used is a metal polish containing microscopic grit called MAAS. I've used it for finish polishing metals ranging from aluminum and brass to cast iron and stainless with excellent results.

By running the lathe at about 400 RPM and keeping the lap moving at all times, the bore quickly smoothed out. The copper pipe felt as if the bore had huge ridges, even though none were visible. As these invisible ridges disappeared, the copper lap began to feel silky smooth, as I moved it back and forth within the bore. A thorough cleaning to remove any remaining grit followed and is a step not to be skipped.

Here is the final product of the lapping process. It took less than 10 minutes and will give the cast iron piston rings a nice even surface upon which to seat.

As I said before, its beginning to look a little more like an engine and less like a steam punk funeral urn...(grin)

Steve

Divided he ad:
Sweet!

I'd never thought about the lapping like that! I'll keep it in my head for a rainy day :thumbup:

It is looking a bit more like an engine, but a truely well styled one at that :dremel:

I think this is gonna look pretty special when you've finished Steve :beer:

Ralph.

CrewCab:
Lovely work Steve :beer:

CC

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