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spuddevans:
Today I realised that I have been a bit skimpy on the pictures, so when I went out to the workshop I was determined to take more pics, cos :worthless: :lol:

A few days ago I had a few mins and so dug through my little pile of materials and found a bit of brass bar, round bar as I didnt have any square brass bar of the right size.

Then today I stuck the cut-off piece in the mill and started to turn ( he he he ) it into a square.

After a little while I ended up with this.

But as you see, the end mill left a rather rough finish, so I left a little extra "meat" on the brass block and then switched over to the mini-flycutter.

Once all edges were silky-smooth and sized to requirement I set the block on it's smoothest face and flycut the opposite face, then flipped it and repeated the process to size the block to thickness.

Once the block was sized I set out to mark up the edges for drilling all the various steam holes. Then I set up a vice-stop.

One thing I have discovered when using a vice stop ( that you guys probably already knew ) is that it seems to be better to set up the vice stop before putting the workpiece in the vice, otherwise it is very easy to not get the vice stop right up against the workpiece. Whereas when you put the stop in first you slide the workpiece up against it just like you would do it on subsequent operations, the results ( for me anyway ) turn out more consistant ( making sure to clean the vice area when re-positioning workpieces )

Anyway, back on topic, I set up the vice-stop and then put the block into the vice against the stop. Then using an edge finder I set up for drilling the centre holes and then centre drilled all 4 edges.

And then drilled

and then drilled the outer steam holes by positioning the drill over one outer site and then switched the block around to drill the other outer steam hole on that edge.

Then finally I drilled the 1.6mm holes for tapping M2 for attaching the flanges for intake and exhaust using the same method.

Then I started to tap the M2 holes.

And wouldn't you know it, on the last hole the tap broke off while backing it out :bang: :doh: :bang: :doh: :bang: :doh:

Now I have to source some alum and then dissolve it out.

Anyway, at that point I called it a day and came back inside.

Tim

Brass_Machine:
Wow Tim... those are some pictures! Very very clear and crisp.

Nice work too! :thumbup:

Eric

spuddevans:

--- Quote from: Brass_Machine on January 30, 2010, 09:04:07 PM ---Wow Tim... those are some pictures! Very very clear and crisp.

Nice work too! :thumbup:

Eric

--- End quote ---

Thanks Eric :thumbup:

I sometimes wonder why I take so many photos as they really do highlight all the machining marks and scratches on every surface, but then I think to myself "how cool would it be if I became some sort of bling-meister and was able to polish up all these pieces at the end of the build to contrast with these pics" and then I come back to reality :lol:

I do hope to really clean up all the parts when I get this running, I even have this crazy notion of getting some sort of electro-plating setup to plate some of the parts.

Tim

Rob.Wilson:
Hi Tim

Have you seen some of those home plating kits you can get ? ,,,,,,,,,cracking photos , sorry to here about the snapped tap .

Regards Rob

spuddevans:
Thanks Rob :thumbup:

--- Quote from: Rob.Wilson on January 31, 2010, 05:40:04 PM ---Have you seen some of those home plating kits you can get ?

--- End quote ---

Yea, I've seen a few but the Caswell system seems to be very popular and probably the route I will try. Because most of the parts on my build are brass it means that I can plate nearly all the different kinds of electro-plate directly onto the parts without having to 1st of all plate with a base coat of copper ( or at least that is my poorly-educated understanding of it )

Tim

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