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| Bogstandard:
I am taking a bit of time out and building something that has been calling to me for a fair while now. This will run parallel to the Minimag build (when it turns up). I gave up making things from castings a fair while ago, purely because the quality had got so bad (and still is amongst some of the well known suppliers). In the middle of last year, I took a chance on a company I had never used before for castings, and bought two casting kits, this one and one for a full sized engine called the R & B, from Bruce engineering. This one will be used to get me back into the swing of things, because no matter what people say, castings are not an easy way of making things, in fact, if you don't make them right, they can turn out to be an absolute eyesore, or it can cost lots of pennies buying new castings if you bugger up the initial ones. A lot of the second hand part built ones are sold by people who have become disillusioned when they thought they would be getting an easy build. So now onto the way I get things done, others will have different methods, and as I don't like the way the instructions say how to build it, I will be doing it my way for some of the major parts. So this is what comes in the kit. Everything you need to make the running engine, ball races, springs, even the fasteners, all except for the burner parts. That is because you have a choice of two methods, spirit and wick or butane/propane mix from a refillable gas tank. I will be going down the gas route, purely because in my steam days, I used to make refillable gas tanks, and I have a fully tested one waiting in the wings. The quality of the castings, IMHO, are very reasonable, no surface blow holes or sags, intimating that something is amiss inside, and one thing I like the most, they haven't been over fettled by some gorilla using an angle grinder. I can take metal off easily enough, but putting it back on is a PITA. The plans and instructions are well detailed, and I am sure if you follow them, you would end up with a working engine, which when finished, will be about 10" long by something like 6" wide, so not a small engine at all. When I first bought the castings I had done a little bit of the cleaning up on the flywheel, just a couple of the segments. Now I have new files to fit the die filer, why waste energy. In about ten minutes, I had the whole lot rough fettled, and not one single aching muscle or sore finger, it did a great job. This part will now be put away, and when the time comes to start turning and boring, a smaller and finer file will be fitted and it will be brought down to finished proportions. This is the first piece that will get my major attention, the base casting. BTW, this engine is an Imperial build with BA fasteners, and because that are what are supplied, I will be using them. So away with the metric measuring instruments, and in with the Imperial. Also, because the base is over 6" long, I will be using an 8" dial vernier rather than the 6" digivern. The first thing that I did was to roughly check things for square and straightness, they were OK, then check for thicknesses and flatness. By the time I had given it a good going over, I decided that the four top faces of the base bolt hole bosses were going to be my first datum points. This is the first part that will need cleaning up, the bottom of the base. Once that is done, everything else should fall into place. I don't like holding directly on the castings because of all the release tapers on them, so the first bit to be made will be a jig plate for it to be bolted to. That will allow me to mount and swing it about to known datums, and so everything will end up nice and square and straight. So get your spurs and chaps on, and enjoy the ride. Bogs |
| madjackghengis:
Hi Bogs, glad you chose to move on with this one, it looks to be interesting, and I'm looking forward to the part with the burners, as I want to be using gas instead of spirits myself. I very much like bronze for large parts like flywheels and such, so this should be a fine looking engine. :thumbup: mad jack |
| saw:
Hi Bogs, I will be follow this with a great intresst. :nrocks: |
| Stilldrillin:
All saddled up John! :thumbup: Head 'em up. Move 'em out...... :D David D |
| Bogstandard:
If anyone is interested in a little more detail, here is a set of build articles that came from the public domain. I downloaded them and turned it into a PDF to keep it all together. File name: Scott vacuum engine.pdf File size: 4.52 MB As you will see. it is not a very difficult an engine to build, all it needs is to keep tolerances under control, as with all flame lickers, and a few specialist bits, like honing the bore and making a gas tank (if you go with gas). The gas tank isn't shown in these articles, but the details are shown fully on the plans, or you can buy a commercial one, plus the feed tube and jet. Bogs |
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