Recent content by abowie

All of this has a happy ending, however. I have fixed the problem. I haven't fixed the model, although I will over drill the mounting holes and that ought to fix the misalignment. But I have fixed the problem with my lathe being too small. I have bought this: 50mm spindle bore, 380mm swing...

Oh dear. A cautionary tale. So right at the beginning of the build you may recall that I stood the frame up in my mill to drill the 4 mounting holes in the feet. Then, when I couldn't fit the frame in my lathe I made up a plate with some studs to bolt the frame to, then bolted that plate onto...

So you may recall that I made a mess of the conrod, with one end being about 35 thou off centre. With this error the cross slide keeps jamming when I assemble the model and it won't spin freely. I ordered a new casting from PMR and it arrived last week. I made short work of it this time. I...

Weather has now returned to sensible. I finished the build by making the oiler cups and completing the centre section for my replacement crank. The oilers are huge in comparison to the ones on the PM1 kit

Because South Australia is so dry (similar climate to Northern California) you can actually buy commercially made evaporative air cooling systems. They're essentially a big plastic box packed with water absorbing material and a big fan. Yesterday is not the first time I've considered fitting...

That's how they did it on the smaller PM1 kit I built, and I was a bit surprised to see the roll pin setup.

Today I drilled the central holes for the shafts. I decided against using the reamer, and set the crank up in my 3 jaw and bored the hole to 0.624". I turned one side and skimmed the edges so it's all square with the centre bore, then cut it off in the bandsaw. It is too hot in my shed to do...

I had ordered a couple of big pieces of HSS in order to finish the rod journal on my replacement three piece crankshaft. Because of the amount of stick out needed (about 3") I wanted something as rigid as possible. The larger of the two, 20x20x180mm arrived on Friday, and it is HUGE! I intended...

Rather than machine the base in the lathe, I did mine on the mill. There are a couple of pics of it above where I am boring the crank. I have a set of very old, very large files that I bought at a garage sale. These are really good for truing up rough castings. I blued up the underside of the...

Yes. It stands 19" high and is a full scale model of a unit you could buy in the 1890's. Presumably to power your butter churn or something.

I did a little bit of painting. Clear lacquer for the flywheel. I cut the keyway using the "cutoff tool in the lathe toolholder" technique. I may yet hand paint the spokes red. I have used brake caliper paint for the red. It is really good on the raw cast iron. I sandblasted the castings for...

I thought the crank caps would look better with nuts and studs. Several burned and sanded fingertips later..

So this is where I am at present. I've made most of the rest of the simple parts like the valve linkages, rods , piston and rod etc etc. I still haven't done the eccentric because my 4 jaw is occupied. But I'm probably 95% done. To those reading this thanks for your interest, and to Ved and...

Back to the crankshaft. I did what Ved did, and fused the parts together with TIG. One positive of this is that with the crank bolted down into the pillar blocks prior to welding it has turned out perfectly true. Sadly it looks ugly. So I have bought a big chunk of cast iron, and I plan to...

I mounted the base onto my mill bed using two vices. I referenced the side of the pillar with a gauge to get the bore perfectly vertical. I centred the cutter on the bore using an edge finder in the bore. Then using a newly purchased 5/8" reamer, I bravely cut the bores. The resulting...