Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs
a nine cylinder radial engine, plans by "ageless engines"
madjackghengis:
Hi brother tool makers, I wanted to say how hard it is not to fill this log with personal comments since so many people comment and they are all interesting, unique, instructive, all in all, very hard not to simply go on and on with the dialog, but this is supposed to be a build log so I do try to keep the commentary brief although it might not seem like it. Among the things that had to be done, is to drill and ream out the four gears which comprise the two pumps, as they come with an eighth inch bore and need to be three sixteenths, to fit. The plans called for two different "jigs", each a piece of aluminum round stock with a hole bored and slot cut to clamp the two different size gears in the three jaw, and do the job in the lathe. I ran into my 5C collet rack, and realised I could do two gears in the 7/16th collet, and two in the 1/2 in collet, so I put the first collet in a square block, with the gear held tight with a knurled nut holding the collet in, clamped the block in my mill vise vertically, using a good square and put an eighth inch pin in the first gear bore and centered the spindle over the pin.
from there, I drilled a .180 through the gear and followed with the .1875 reamer.
Yesterday, while waiting for someone coming over, I turned a piece of aluminum rod down to an eighth inch for about a half inch, the cut off a piece about a quarter of an inch long, pushed it through the feed hole until it was centered in the space where there wasn't supposed to be a space, and managed to tig weld it in place with only a bit of melting of nearby sharp edges. With a nice sharp quarter inch end mill, I put the pump body in the vice on parallels, nicely hammered down on them snug, brought the tip of the mill, not running, to the bottom of the other pump cavity and zeroed my z axis. I then put the cutter in the cavity with the large (comparatively) lump of aluminum in the middle, kind of like a dump truck backed up to the cavity and dumped a load, and proceeded to take the lump down to half a thousandth off zero, and then twiddle the X and Y feed handles until the bottom of the cavity looked pretty much clear of all the weld that had been sticking up.
one view of the cleaned up cavity
and one more of the cavity
I ordered a lump of 4140 heat treated an inch long and three and a quarter inches in diameter after finding out an inch cost exactly the same as half an inch, so when it showed up today with the man in the brown truck, I put Joe, my hacksaw man on to cutting the lump in half, since that's all I need for the cam.
He's pretty reliable, gets a bit off track now and then, but just put a bit of cutting oil in the cut ever once in a while, and he'll get the job done.
He's about done, and I'll have a spare piece of steel as well as the piece for the cam. Well, that's about all I got done in the last day or so, Rob, I'll be milling the back bone of the frame for the neck, so I'll post pictures of how I do it, that's to get the neck nice a plumb with the frame. Those are not Suzuki wheels, they're off Buell's, and are going to end up on something or another, I just haven't figured out what yet. I've got one, a seventeen, going on the back of a custom bike I'm building, but haven't a clue on the ones you see at least not yet.
Ieezitin, I haven't got to look at your photos yet, but I will, and send you an e-mail, the arial view is absolutely gorgeous, I like that shade of green, and like being surrounded by it. I tried to post something this morning, but I must have rushed it, getting out for my monthly infusion at the doctor, and it didn't post. I'd call it brothers of a different mother, myself. Life goes a lot better if you're pro-active and flexible. I expect we'll be conversing more as time goes on. ttfn, mad jack the Irishman, out in the noonday sun :ddb: :lol:
Mad_Grasshopper:
Greetings all,
I have known Jack for about 13 years. There is not a time I have left his workshop without having learned something new. There are ALWAYS interesting projects to see. Even the lounge chair in his shop is an interesting story.
I remember a few years ago when jack showed me the magazine ad for plans of this engine. I had been discussing my self-study of WWII radial engine vibration with him. I considered the model an incredibly interesting but daunting project. He told me he was going to make one one day.
Boy, was I blown away when I first laid eyes on that crank case! Amazing work. :bugeye:
Regards,
Jamie
dsquire:
--- Quote from: Mad_Grasshopper on August 14, 2010, 03:45:10 PM ---Greetings all,
I have known Jack for about 13 years. There is not a time I have left his workshop without having learned something new. There are ALWAYS interesting projects to see. Even the lounge chair in his shop is an interesting story.
I remember a few years ago when jack showed me the magazine ad for plans of this engine. I had been discussing my self-study of WWII radial engine vibration with him. I considered the model an incredibly interesting but daunting project. He told me he was going to make one one day.
Boy, was I blown away when I first laid eyes on that crank case! Amazing work. :bugeye:
Regards,
Jamie
--- End quote ---
Jamie
Welcome to MadModder. I haven't known Jack near as long as you but I look forward to reading every post that he makes as there is always something to learn in each one.
I would like to invite you to start a new post in the "Introductions" thread and tell us a bit about yourself. Looking forward to hearing more from you. :D :D
Cheers :beer:
Don
madjackghengis:
Well, for those who have been so graciously following this log, and are probably impatient with me now, with my flame sucker engine running, I will be getting back to the main job at hand, this here radial. I am waiting on getting the cylinders back, I gave them to an automotive machine shop to be "pin honed" for better accuracy, they're charging me two bucks a hole, so I can't touch that in time, and with their machine the rings break in straight away, and the cylinders are straight with the bores being round and straight within about a tenth of a thousandth. I've got 2021 aluminum stock for the pistons, arrived last week, and some bearing bronze stock to turn for lifter bearings, and I've got the cam blank machined out round, and set up on the rotary table, and just got in the woodruff key cutter to be used to cut the cam lumps, or rather leave the lumps high, and cut the valleys, so next step is either shafts for the oil pumps, and oil pump testing, or milling the cam so it has lobes. I should get the cylinders back next week or so, and start on pistons, as each cylinder will be unique I expect, as far as finished bore. I don't even want to think about what comes after that, too much thinking. Jamie has been a willing accolyte for lots of years and has added much to my shop, as he's a sheet metal worker, on C-130's, and has brought sheet metal into my shop, and taught me more than a little bit about that separate subject. His "study" of radial engine vibrations" was about a fifty page review of Pratt and Whitney's work in bringing a four bank radial engine into a reliable working engine for the bombers and eventually the freight and passenger aircraft. I learned most of what I know about crank harmonics and the art of crank balancing from his printed copy of Pratt and Whitney's review, and our mutual discussions of the meaning of the details in that analysis. I suspect you will see Jamie's work on this forum before too long. He's left the Corps to go to school, and get his credentials as an engineer with lots of background experience. A close friend and top notch mechanic and metal worker I look forward to seeing what he ends up producing when he's ready to show his paces. He's got a few tales of his own to tell worth listening to. I'm happy to have such good friends as he.
This thread will be alive again and the progress moving forward, haven't gone a day without looking at it and waiting on tooling, material, and of course, getting an old failure running, as I should have long ago. :nrocks: and the folks on it are always ready to :poke: you when you need one. Top notch gang to hang out with. mad jack
Artie:
Gday mate..updates? Following this one with much interest....... im off now to make chips on my marine twin...... cheers Rob T :poke: :poke: :poke:
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