Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs
a nine cylinder radial engine, plans by "ageless engines"
madjackghengis:
Stew, when I was a small boy, we lived in Barcelona, Spain for about a year, and then in Naples Italy, for a couple more, and reconstruction from after the war was still going on, but with pre-war equipment in a large part. Road rollers will always be "steam rollers" to me, bucket shovels will always be "steam shovels", and the smooth, steady strokes of a shaper will always be the epitome of machining a straight line, or the cutting out of a channel, and it always goes with the smell of smoking suferated lard oil, which has been with me since I was two or three. The smoke signal is that of a man, relaxed in his own shop, enjoying properly working machinery, making chips that won't be cursed, and says "all is well with the world", at least inside the metal sides of my shop, and to hell with the world outside it. If I could get my wife to enjoy that smell and replace the tobacco smell she loves with it, we could live in my shop, and only leave for groceries and the like. Alas, she enjoys her smokes, she appreciates the finished products of the shop, and she enjoys that broken things can be fixed, but she won't replace the smokes with the appreciation of the smell of sulfer and lard burning slowly. There are things about Europe I will always miss, much as I love the different ways of America, and I get to enjoy some of them on this project site, interacting with people from places I haven't visited in almost fifty years in some cases. The smoke signals are a "thanks" for the appreciation, and a "welcome to my shop", for all who wish to look in. I put the smoke pictures in on purpose, a shaper doesn't look right without smoke coming off the tool. Mad Jack :thumbup:
madjackghengis:
With some machine problems interfering with work, I had to change directions, so I'm working on other parts of the engine, since they all have to be made, for it to be complete.
While I did use a long center drill to get past the clamping bolt, I neglected to get a photo of it, so pretend there is one in between this comment and the next.
Using a long center drill to get past the clamping bolt, and center drill the mounting holes for the bearing.
drilling out the mount holes to size for their screws
drilling some of the other twenty odd holes which will hold the oil pump and allow the oil to move where it needs to go. The rear main bearing is complete except for some work which must be done with the oil pump for bearing alignment reasons, and for feeds and returns to be properly aligned.
madjackghengis:
Having made the rear main bearing so the whole crankshaft could be fitted and tested, I found it to be no where close to straight, and took it out, put it in some V blocks, and put an indicator on it. With more than fifteen thousandths of wobble on the end of the shafts with the bearings in the V blocks, I did some careful measuring and found the sides of my "crank cheeks" were by no means parallel, but because of cutting them out of hard steel, I had hills and valleys keeping any of the shaft shoulders from seating properly. I've sat on this for a couple weeks, looked at all the parts laid out, considered all the choices, and decided to make a new crank from scratch, as every part of the old crank has been pushed and prodded, and is no longer trustworthy.
cutting the steel blank to the thickness for the crank pin to press into, while keeping the full half inch of thickness for counter weight
Another shot of the shaper, thinning the stock. Finished piece is flat within half a thousandth over the three inches of width.
I've already thinned the one side of the plate for the crank pin clearance, and this is reaming out the crankpin hole, using the DRO so the two plates are identical after I cut the plate in half.
The old crank cheeks above, with the new ones, pinned together for finishing the outer contour.
Another perspective of the new crank cheeks, now, on to the new shafts.
Darren:
Nice to see a shaper being used :clap: Something about them isn't there ...
I would desperately like one of those toolholders for my shaper if anyone has one spare ....
madjackghengis:
--- Quote from: Darren on April 26, 2010, 03:10:00 PM ---Nice to see a shaper being used :clap: Something about them isn't there ...
I would desperately like one of those toolholders for my shaper if anyone has one spare ....
--- End quote ---
Hi Darren, I've personally found tooling for shapers is getting extremely hard to find, and end up resorting to making it. A tool holder like the one I'm using can be fabricated out of a bar and a piece of round stock, suitably bored for essentially a shoulder bolt, with a hole drilled and filed square, and the bar stock left with a hole bored to fit the larger diameter holding the tool, and a smaller hole left for the bolt to stick through. The holder I have has divisions allowing I think eight positions, but a home made one would essentially be infinite in the angles. I know I flip this holder around front to back depending on whether I'm using the vise perpendicular to the cut of the shaper, or if it's rotated so the jaw is linear to the line of the cut, to move the tool bit an inch and a quarter or so, to make up for where the vise is on the table. I hope that gives another line of thinking for that tool. mad jack
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