Conversion of 4 Cycle Utility Engine to Steam

Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs

<< < (20/22) > >>

vtsteam:
Thanks Eric!! :mmr:

You guys' interest keeps me going and not discouraged. :beer: :beer: :beer:

Last night I reconfigured my cylinder head pattern, below. I made a pretty big flat boss -- probably don't need it that big, but it will give room for trying different things.

I'm hoping to be able to work on a prototype rotary valve idea I have today, too. Maybe even just mock it up in materials at hand. I suppose I could test something like that even off of the engine and head. The main thing is to see if it seals well and how much friction it has.

vtsteam:
Well, I got tired of waiting for bare ground and went ahead and cast a few parts right in the middle off a couple feet of snow. Not something I'd want to do regularly, but the castings came out okay. Below is the new head casting, just broken out of the sand and still attached to the sprue.

Feels good to be able to start work on this project again.

dsquire:
VT

Be carefull you don't scratch that table or SWMBO may have you living in that snowbank hugging the furnace to keep warm. :lol: :lol:

Looks like a lovely job of casting though. Glad it was a sucess. It should be Maple Syrup time pretty soon. Maybe you can boil a pot of that on the furnace while casting, don't want all that heat to go to waste. :D :)

Cheers :beer:

Don

vtsteam:
Thanks Don,

Amazingly enough SWMBO allowed me to ram up the mold on the dining room table! As well as break out the casting! :bow: :bow:

I asked, but figured I'd get a negatory. But she said okay. Guess she knew I'd been waiting weeks for the snow to clear, and took pity after last week's blizzard.

Maples have been tapped for a couple of weeks already, and the local Grange annual Sugar on Snow Supper was in February. I volunteered as a waiter. Funny, I've never boiled sap, myself -- maybe just because there is so many doing it. We get it free for helping a farmer collect sap. But maybe next year with my daughter we should boil up a quart or two of syrup, just to have done it.

Can't do it with foundry heat though -- too short a burn. The local sugar houses run overnight. Takes 40 gallons of sap to make one of syrup -- so it takes a long time to boil away.

Rough milled the new head casting flat today and a couple other pieces -- blocks that were very roughly cast -- no pattern, just carved out some sand for them -- like ingots.

black85vette:
Good looking head. Glad you were able to work around the snow.

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version