Thanks for the info on the cutters. As you can most probably guess, with some at around 150 squid (over 200 bucks) each, I don't pay for them, kind donations from the scrap bin, 'nuff said.
BTW, the reason I used that cutter rather than a standard HSS one was because all the ones of that type that I possess have a very nice corner radius, the one I used was 0.5mm rad.
Today I decided a few things needed to be finished off before going any further.
Using my horizontal belt sander, the top and front previously machined faces of the water jacket and the other rough fettled faces were given a good going over. The only one left untouched was the base which I had machined up. I will also be giving it a dose of heavyweight grit blast, and if the surface comes out well enough, I just might not paint it.
The jacket also needed to have the stainless studs fitting. The build calls for hex head bolts, but I always think that covers such as this always look better with studs and nuts.
So it was just a matter of putting a nut and washer on the threaded rod, screwing it into the hole and tightening up the nut, followed by a quickie chop off with a reinforced cutting disc.
Soon done.
The first of many disassemblies. This time to Loctite the studs into their holes.
Once set, the whole lot was reassembled, with just one washer under the nut. Normally, I would fit two, chop off the exposed stud, remove one washer and they would all be nicely the same length protruding from the nut.
This time on final assembly there will be no washers fitted because they extend out over the edge of the cover, as the bolt holes are very close to the edge because of the graphite block needs some space in the middle to move about. The nuts fit perfectly to the edge.
The uneven lengths of studding were soon machined down to just above the nuts.
I wish someone would come up with a tool that does backwards countersinking. Place on top of the cut stud, give it a turn, and a nice chamfer is put on the end.
I must think about making one.
Finished off nicely.
In fact it will need another strip down to not only finish off the jacket, but also seal things up. But as it is, it should be fine for trial runs.
Another thing I have been pondering over is running this shaft in just drilled holes in the casting, a thing I personally don't like, so I took the decision to ball race it.
I had bought some nice 7mm diameter low profile ball races a while ago from China, and because there shouldn't be much heat in the area, I decided to leave the rubber seals in. This serves me two purposes, the action will be much smoother with less friction, and I won't have to make and fit the required oil cups.
They will be hidden from view on final assembly.
If you notice, the holes in the upstands aren't central, they were drilled to dimensions required on the plans.
Because I had previously machined up datum edges on the base casting, it was dead easy, using the DRO, to pick up the holes again.
First off, the hole was gone thru with a 5mm milling cutter, just so the original holes didn't interfere with the running of the shaft.
It was then followed down with a 7mm cutter to a depth of 2.5mm, diameter and thickness of the bearings. This was done to both upstands.
Ballraced shaft done, and I am now a lot more happy.
The next job concerned the camshaft follower arm, it required a 1/8" offset joggle putting into it.
By heating up just the part that was affected (the black bit), that area was annealed, to make it softer for bending. Just heat up to an orangey red, and either leave to air cool, or as I prefer, because it is quicker, quench in cold water. Both ways work just as well as each other.
A little bit difficult to see, this is how I set it up in the vice. A 1/8" parallel either side, at the position of the start and end of the joggle. The vice was then tightened up and left for a few minutes.
Once taken out, it only required a tiny amount of hand tweaking to get it perfectly in line, and by the time I had finished, it had work hardened almost back to normal. It will carry on age hardening over time.
You will also notice that I have cut a small recess in the crank disc, this will be filled with engine colour paint to give a nice contrast.
It is now starting to look like a finished engine.
Methinks a little more polishing and loads of fixings to be made.
Bogs
