puddleduck engine build

[ParCan]

Attempted to use the Mill today.

I managed to make the valve pivots but things are not good.

The Low Cost vice is prety much unusable
The machine is not square (by a long way)

I have ordered a better Vice
I have ordered a Traming gague doofah thing, I know i'll use it again and again so worth the money.
 
Spent the rest of today making Reprap parts and chips.

[HS93]

have you taken the vice of the swivel base , stiffens them up a lot , but you may have done that already.

Peter

[ParCan]

Hi Peter

The vice is a Tilt swivel Vice. It turns on the on the Milling platform and also in the vertical plane.
The issue is the vertical plane is far from square.

New Vice from RDG turned up today.
it was suitably stripped, cleaned and lubricated before I did anything more.

Made a basic tramming device out of the 8mm rod turned and Threaded M5 that I used for the puddleduck Flywheel and A bit of 15mm ally bar.

Drilled a hole in 1 end to suite the Dial gague then put in a locking screw.
Drilled a hole at 55 mm (to suite the width of the table) then at 120 mm (cos that's about the length of the ally) to do the table length.

Head in within .0005" in all directions with the bed. I bet i'll never ever get it that good again ;)

Made the Valve block out of some 1" X 3/8 flat Brass bar (ok it's a tiny bit small)
Decided to make it 24 mm X 24mm (drawings say 25 X 25mm). i'll make the tubes longer to suite.

It measures 24.04 X 23.98mm and it's square as well. Unbelievable.
I'd have never got even close to that accurate on the lathe.

* ParCan is a happy bunny

Alex.

[ParCan]

Remade the Eccentric straps toaday.
So So So much easier with a mill.

Tomorrow I learn (well for the 1st time in 25 + years) to Silver Silder.

I can then get the Standoff Flanges made and complete the Valve Block.

I'll note that I only have 1/8 Copper Tube but do have some 4mm Brass tube.
I'll prolly use the brass tube.

You never know, it may even see some Air this weekend

[PekkaNF]

Good progress there!

Which vice you got from RDG? Have you clockked part lift when the vice is tightened?

Pekka

[ParCan]

Hi All

Spent most of another weekend in the workshop...

The RDG Vice I bought does lift ~0.2mm. It's on my list of things to fix.
I plan to make 2 new clamp strips, machined so that they hold the jaws as the designer intended.
I /could/ machine the Vice itself but that seems like an awfull lot of work compared to making 2 new Gib Strips.

I have to say that it's far betterer than the 1st vice I got for amadeal.

Back to the engine....

Mk1 Control valve was to wayward so I have made another.
It's darn near perfic (unless you see it close up that is)
Made the leaver out of a failed con rod, then knocked the ball off I put on the end. Oh Well.

Eccentric straps are solderd and installed. I still need to clean some of the soldering residue off.
Spool valve packing glands are in and working reasonably freely.

I thought I had a bit of 1/2" steel bar to make the Steam Pipe Standoff flange doofahs from, no such luck
I have some on order. Should be here this week.


Almost there, but so far away ....


Alex

[ParCan]

Hi All

The RDG Tools 80 mm Milling Vice I bought,  "80MM Swivel Base Milling Vice" RDG Ref: 1209.

Whilst the castings and Jaws are well made, the failings are in the rest of the product.
I stripped it down and cleaned it, followed by a generous lube gave me a vice.

However - The jaw lift was just crazy. 0.2+ mm.
This made it almost impossible to clamp anything and keep it clamped square.

The issue was that the Gib Strips are far from what the designer intended. They were 10mm wide X 8mm thick.
This left most of the fixed jaw slide unsupported.

2 Strips of 5mm X 20 mm X 70 mm Mild Steel bar were cut.
Dropped em in the vice, milled both ends square then the edges to 16 mm wide.

6 mm from the edges I drilled 6.5 mm holes on 50mm centers to suite the casting holes M6 Bolts. (6.5 mm to give me a bit of adjustment)

I now have a vice with almost zero lift on the jaw. < 0.02mm)

I'll do some images when I take it all apart again.

Alex.

[PekkaNF]

THANK YOU! Just sort of information I was after. I have a relatively big russian made vice that has been ground all over and it is really nice. Got it almost 15 years ago on very nice price and got lucy with it's quality. However sometimes two identical smaller (lower) vices would be really nice to have and because of this "two" and "sometimes" I'm reluctant to buy quality/premium vice and at the same time need reasonable quality. I was hoping someone finds reasonable semifabricated product and has experice to produce method of fixing them to a usable form.

under 0,02 mm real word lift on cheap vice ir a really good accievement. Not allways sheer neccessity, but saves time and complications many times over.

Pekka

[ParCan]

The fix for the vice was Very easy.
I just put it back the way the designer intended in my opinion.
Alex.

[ParCan]

Mixed Bag today.

I made the stand off's and cut the tubes.
They all went reasonably well.

I decided not to thin them down as per the drawings.
I can understand that the pipes need to be as thin as possible but I want to get this one complete.

Soldering the pipes to the flanges was easy enough.

My Blow lamp is however not man enough to do the valve block

I'll nip over to a friend who has a BIG torch and do that tomorrow.
The same friend also has a compressor !

I'll take a video camera with me.

[ParCan]

Spent thismorning making the Oiler. Last bit done.

M8 with the blow lamp has no Gas (
I went to buy Gas and bought a Large blow lamp as well.
All soldering is complete, just need some Pickle which will make things easier to clean.

Tomorrow i'll see if it actually works !

[raynerd]

Good luck tomorrow. I`ve not said much on this thread but I have been watching. I hope it turns out OK for you!!

Chris

[ParCan]

Well, all i can say to myself is RTFM.
The reason that the stand offs are thinned down is not to keep the tube thin.
It's so the screw heads fit !

No cookies today, I will probably need to remake the entire valve assembly.

Alex.

[ParCan]

Workshop time is somewhat limited at the moment.

I have made a Cast Iron cylinder block now.
Learned one lesson. Std HSS milling cutters and Cast Iron don't mix.
Chipped all 4 teeth off a brand new 16mm end mill.
Only took a 0.5mm cut as well - You live and learn...

The Block has been made in the 4 Jaw on my lathe with an Insert type cutting tool.
Drilled it on the mill and is darn close to square.

Also checked my 3 Jaw chucks out.
The Standatd myford one is around .0010 Out on a 12 mm bit of silver steel. As it's a screw in type there is not a lot I can do with it.
The other 3 jaw was also out but is on a back plate.
Managed to get that to within .0001" on the same bit of Bar.

With luck I can now turn things on center again...

Alex.

[ParCan]

Hi Guys. I'm Back 

And I am rebuilding the Puddleduck I started and completed 2 years ago. (it never ran and never was going to run)

No Pictures yet, but progress has been good.

Base is remade out of a lump of 16mm thick ally. (just don't look to close)
Crankshaft Main's remade and this the holes all line up this time.
New cylinder block made. Just need to drill and tap the cylinder caps.
New pistons, rods and glands that are all concentric made.

I'll do some photo's shortly.

Alex.
Once the puddleduck is complete and running, I'll get around to painting and tidying up the Dads n Lads engine. 

[Scuba1]

Soooooo where are the pictures