Philip Duclos "Victorian" IC engine project

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sbwhart:
Still watching Steve

I've been reading an article in Model Engineer about making cast iron piston rings and you got the method spot on :thumbup:, its all coming together well.

Stew

Brass_Machine:

--- Quote from: cedge on May 29, 2009, 01:50:37 AM ---You guys are still here?....LOL Okay we'll keep going. It's a little hard to stop when you know you're being watched.

...

--- End quote ---

Yup here watching and waiting. Very nice job on the connecting rod BTW.

The piston and ring info is great. I would have never thought of that. Thanks!

Eric

kvom:
Me too!

DeereGuy:
Same here Steve, learning something new everyday

cedge:
No major parts made this weekend, as I began fitting things together so they work properly together and catching some of the small items, like spacers, that I've needed to make, up to this point.

The crank case was relieved enough to miss the crank bolts and the crank now clears the walls for a nice smooth rotation. I can highly recommend having a rotary file bit in your tool box. It saved me hours of hand filing work in awkward places and positions.

Once those thing were all taken care of, it was time to assemble the parts and pieces in a semi permanent state. The photo below shows the connecting rod installed along with the temporary piston. Installing it became almost second nature while the crank case was being expanded. It was a little tricky since the end cap had to be held onto the crankshaft with a piece of copper wire while the nuts were being inserted from the top of the engine base. The copper wire was then removed to allow things to rotate.

The gears still needed to be bedded in, so once the cylinder was fitted back on the base and the small gear was secured tot he shaft, it was time to see just how well things were really fitting. The little engine was placed on the lathe bed and the crank shaft was secured in the three jaw chuck to give it a spin. Since the lowest speed on my lathe is 100 rpm, that is where things began. The final run speed was at 500 RPM and if you look closely, the camera shows no hint of vibration in base. Smooth as silk.

The whole process took a while, with several grades of polishing materials being used. I began with a gray stick compound which is typically used for quick scratch removal and as things began to settle in, progressed to my preferred finishing polish, called MAAS. It's similar to Flitz or Semi-chrome and leaves a super fine finish without leaving unwanted grit behind during clean up. A bit of cutting oil was added to the mix just to make sure there was enough lubrication to prevent any chance of binding as the metal worked against itself. The gray slurry in the photo is oil and MAAS after about 30 minutes of run time at about 500 rpm. The gears are now feel close enough to finished to attempt to run the engine when the time comes.

Even with the temporary piston and no rings, the engine is already proving to have very good compression. After a squirt of light oil into the bore I placed my thumb over the hole and was delighted to see strong spray of oil mist escape as the compression easily lifted my digit and them sucked it back hard enough to leave an imprint of the bore on the thumb pad.

The bearing cover was drilled and bolted in position using 4-40 hex head cap screw. Like others on the board, I dislike using socket head screws on an engine like this one. It just deserves better.

Tomorrow, I'm off in search of band saw blades. The last one in the place gave up the ghost while cutting the material for the cylinder head. That certainly slowed progress a bit.....(grin). Hopefully, I'll be back in the shop later tonight to at least begin gathering materials for the governor build.

Steve

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