Slowly casting up parts for a steam twin marine engine

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Artie:
And its copper.... :ddb:

Rob.Wilson:
Hi Rob :wave:

Good to see you back ,,,,,real pain in the butt when work gets in the way :lol: :lol: ,,,,,,,,, So the engine is of your design :med: :thumbup: ,,,,,,, Lookin Great :clap:

Regards Rob

Artie:
Hi Rob, its all good, I count my blessings when have 'too much' work, some of our mates on here dont have work.

A little update, not too much, decided to try out Bogs (thanks John) d bit reamer design. Its my first ever attempt at such a tool so it was a learning curve and fun. The fact that it was a success is also a bonus.

I took the shot with the refection on purpose... that was a test piece and the finish was extraordinary. Worked a charm. reamed the brass conrods out and then did the crank cheeks. I used a product over here called bright steel, simply a slightly better quality mild steel rod. Sized it up and used a hardening compound called Hardite. This is a tin we got from the fellow who owned the workshop before I and my partner bought it. It was ancient then and that was back in 1985.

Anyway, the resultant case hardening was ok for the brass but not quite good enough fopr the steel. It did the job but I had to resharpen the tool after each hole. I call this a success and the holes are damned accurate....

Also decided to add a little more detail to the conrods and milled the centres out by 2 mm leaving a centre thickness of 2mm (overall was 6mm)

Now just got to do a little sanding and filing to remove the tool marks. I used the ball nosed cutter for the entire process but I realy should have profiled the sides then changed to an end mill to remove the centre material. It left a lot of small marks which now need removing (see pics).
I like the 'real engine' effect and its certainly only bling detail... but i enjoyed myself.....

Until next installment...

Rob

Dean W:
Hi Rob;
Things are getting along well for your build. Looks like the D bit did the trick. I like those things. They'll sure get you out of
a pinch for odd sized tooling.
That case hardening product you used must work pretty well if it let you cut steel with a mild steel cutter!

Thanks for he update. Glad you've got some work!

Dean

Artie:
Hi Dean, yes Im a fan of these, I have a set of adjustable reamers so this was an experiment in 'can I do this', happily I can and now have a whole new skill set.

The product is called Hardite as I said, its very old and requires the steel to be heated cherry red and dipped into the powder which melts and boils around the bar. According to the side of the can the hardness you require is in proportion to how often you repeat the above process. I assume this is within reason.... this bar can only get so hard I am assuming.

This is a description for this steel from a supplier here in Aus, Atlas Metals... its a lot better than your average mild cold rolled.

"Bright steel bars are carbon steel which has had the surface condition improved over the hot rolled finish supplied by the steel mill. Advantages achieved include improved machinability, enhancement of physical and mechanical properties and improved dimensional tolerances and straightness."

Im on the lookout for drill rod over here but none of the suppliers I contacted knew of it. We have a Carbon steel, Silver steel and an Alloy steel available, I wonder if its any of these... anyone know?

Rob

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