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| -steves-:
OK, brief intro, I had only made a couple of posts previous to this one, and they were to say hello. If you don't know, I have never had a lathe or a mill before, and the other week I decided it would be a great idea to build a steam engine from castings, a "simple" Stuart 10V kit was selected. I bought the book on how to build it, a couple of books on lathes and mills, and tool sharpening, and LOADS more, of which I am still on the first couple as I do find it hard to find the time to read with so much going on all the while. So this is all from someone with virtually no experience (other than metal work class for 1 year at school around 28 years ago). I will add some pics up later, but this post will contain my ongoing project of mainly my Stuart 10V build, but also bit and bobs that I do in the meantime. Last night I decided to attack the kit, though some would say it was rather hasty after reading the book and not understanding what half of it meant. :hammer: So far i have milled down the top and bottom of the base, managed to drill and tap the base to 7BA and bolts actually went into them to my suprise. You need to remember I have not done this before so its all a bit exciting to me when something actually fits. i have also drilled the main bearing base, and to my shock, these holes actually lines up with the base and I could put all four bolts through to hold it on, now there was one happy puppy. I still need to take a tiny bit off the base to get it to size, but all feeling very pleasing so far, no cracked castings as yet, no missing fingers, life is great :) I also managed to attack the flywheel a bit as well, after a bit of filing, I stuck it in the 4 jaw chuck and managed to centralise it pretty well in the end, though this did take quite a while it appears the time spent doing that is worthwhile, as I managed to machine down half of the outer flyweel, one side of the flywheel, one end of the flywheel and one side of the hub top of the flywheel, as well as centre drill it and drill it, and yet again, to my complete amazment, the side I have worked on seems to run quite true, like a dog with two, erm, tails.... :) I will try and post up a couple of pictures later, I know its not all that interesting and I know its not much to most of you guys, but it's my first ever work, and even if if it was turning down a bit of ally by 1mm, I would have still been chuffed to bits :D |
| andyf:
Hi Steve, It sounds like you're off to a good start :thumbup: The books are a good idea, if (like me) you have no background in machining and no-one leaning over your shoulder telling you how to do things. And there's loads on the interweb about building the Stuart 10V on sites like this http://homews.co.uk/page42.html ; I'm sure you will already have Googled around the subject. Pictures are always interesting, so do post some as you go along. Enjoy yourself! Andy |
| -steves-:
--- Quote from: andyf on October 20, 2011, 03:49:05 AM ---Hi Steve, It sounds like you're off to a good start :thumbup: The books are a good idea, if (like me) you have no background in machining and no-one leaning over your shoulder telling you how to do things. And there's loads on the interweb about building the Stuart 10V on sites like this http://homews.co.uk/page42.html ; I'm sure you will already have Googled around the subject. Pictures are always interesting, so do post some as you go along. Enjoy yourself! Andy --- End quote --- Thanks Andy. I think the enjoying myself is defiinately happening, the only downside is as like yourself, i have no one about to tell me if I am right or wrong, and no experience to of any of it, and everything is a first, I pretty much kack myself with everything i do at the same time as enjoying it, makes my heart go with each cut or movement, wondering if something is going to break, snap, fly off etc, working so close to the chuck frightens the ..... out of me , lol. Can casting have different areas of material, as one part of the base just made horrid "hammer drill" type noises as I went over it, and it just didnt seem to "cut it", though changing the position of the work in the vice, changing the mill bit and changing the direction of cutting certainly seemed to help eventually, but I have no idea what caused it to happen? |
| AdeV:
Steves, That was me, about 18 months ago - brand new to machining, new (to me) mill & lathe... and all the same fears. In fact, probably the most risky time is as the fear starts to go away - cockiness can follow and you'll have a couple of broken tools or tool crashes on the lathe: At least, that's how it went for me. In fact, I went through a period of really not getting along with the lathe at all, everything was a damn struggle, nothing seemed to work; but, as my skill slowly improves, I now find it much better. BTW, the 4-jaw does get easier to adjust, but it's always a pain. On the other hand, so long as the jaws are holding straight, you'll always be more accurate with a 4-jaw independent than a 3-jaw scroll chuck. So if it's got to be bob-on to the nearest thou (0.001"), then the 4-jaw is the only real choice (unless your lathe does collets). It's taken those 18 months, but I can be pretty confident now that I'm not going to break anything worse than a carbide insert, or take too much metal off whatever I'm cutting (which is bad enough). As for your "hammering" issue; it does sound like you hit a hard spot in the casting. There are basically 4 things you can do in such a situation: a) Faster spindle speed, faster feed; b) Faster spindle speed, slower feed; c) Slower spindle, faster feed; d) Slower spindle & feed. Picking the right one is simply a matter of trying them (probably the slower options first) and seeing what happens. Beware blunt tools in steel! If your cutter and/or workpiece is getting murder hot (enough to discolour, or if there's visible redness in the tool), then your cutter is blunt and ruined; don't bother trying to carry on with it, put it in the "to be rescued" pile & carry on with a new cutter. Carbide insert tools on the lathe are brilliant - although it takes a bit of finessing at first, you'll break a lot of inserts in your early days - but once you're past that stage, you'll find they cut anything, even relatively hard steel (e.g. driveshafts). In fact, pretty much the only HSS I still use on the lathe are taps & dies, even my threading tools are carbide. The main thing is - enjoy it! As you say, there's nothing more satisfying than trimming a lump of metal to exact dimensions, and seeing it fit another piece you also cut. After 18 months, I still love standing in front of the mill or lathe carving stuff out. Anyway: :worthless: Looking forward to seeing those progress pics, it sounds like you're off to a great start! |
| raynerd:
Hi, good luck with your build - I made the same engine 12 months ago. Look forward to seeing to pics. Here is my buildlog and there were lots of helpful tips from people on here: http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=3633.0 http://www.raynerd.co.uk/?cat=44 |
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