Manual or DRO

kvom said:

Flame lickers can be hard to get running as they produce very little power, and you need to have very little friction as a result. On mine I needed to hone the cylinder bore and then lubricate it with graphite powder. The engine can be finicky about the position of the flame too.

Click to expand...

Agree. I would have started with a small steam engine where tolerances are more forgiving.

Dennis

Davewild said:

Hi all

snip... a bit of background I work offshore, 3 month trips never in the same location, any way after doing some research of Unimat, Taig and Sherline I have decided to buy a Sherline lathe and mill, I will carry it offshore with me and learn to use it while I am away, we have a lot of down time and sometimes I have nothing to do for weeks, so this will keep me busy, I would like to ask should I go for the manual or digital readout? Advantages etc? I wanted to start a new post to ask these question but could not find the new post link!!!!

Thanks

Dave

Click to expand...

Dave

I used to work in the offshore oil industry. When I thought I was going to be based on one rig for quite a long time, I took a Unimat lathe + a basic selection of tooling with me. Needless to say, bits and pieces accumulated over a short time, so imagine my horror when I was told at home that I would not be going back! Quite fortuitously, I went back to that rig about a year later an there were all my bits and pieces exactly as I had left them. I flew home from Muscat with everything distributed between my hold and carry on baggage - in the days when the airlines were not as strict with baggage allowances as they are now.

If you plan to take a machine with you: 1. make sure it is well packed, 2. be very careful with your total weight (clothes and tools, etc.), 3. be aware that what you take home will more than likely be heavier than what you start out with, 4. make sure you do not upset the security ghouls by carrying anything in your hand baggage that could be construed as 'Dangerous'.

Unless you are on a much better weight allowance than I was on, I think you will be struggling to take a lathe and milling machine with you. A DRO will only add to the bulk, but if you insist, take a pair of electronic digi verniers that can be adapted as readouts on your machines.

Good luck in your efforts and let us know how you get on, both with the machines and their transport!

Dave
The Emerald Isle

This has probably been beat to death, but I hear of all the gee-whiz stuff a DRO will do and keep thinking it would be nice to have.

I keep looking at how much money to equip the mill with 3 axis worth of slides and the device to hook it together and do readout and think manual is still looking pretty good.

I'm not in production. Time is not money (for me) it is time; so it takes me a little longer. So if someone were upgrading and gave me an old unit that was still functional I would install it. But I don't think I'll be buying a new setup anytime soon. Maybe after last kid is out of college...

Paul

Davewild, you chosed as first project one of the most difficult types of engines. The look and workmanship looks eccellent, so do not get discouraged, fiddle with the flame licker and see if you can reduce all frictions. The piston must seal but be super polished.

Regardless of your success with this firs project, move forward on a more conventional path of learning
In order of increasing difficulty
Oscillating steam/compreed air
Single Action Steam
Dual action Steam
Two Strokes IC glow
Two Strokes IC autoignition
Four Strokes IC spark
Stirling
Radial IC

Somebody may argue with the order but this is the one I am following and each step sets a new level of preision requirements.

tornitore45 said:

Davewild, you chosed as first project one of the most difficult types of engines. The look and workmanship looks eccellent, so do not get discouraged, fiddle with the flame licker and see if you can reduce all frictions. The piston must seal but be super polished.

Regardless of your success with this firs project, move forward on a more conventional path of learning
In order of increasing difficulty
Oscillating steam/compreed air
Single Action Steam
Dual action Steam
Two Strokes IC glow
Two Strokes IC autoignition
Four Strokes IC spark
Stirling
Radial IC

Somebody may argue with the order but this is the one I am following and each step sets a new level of preision requirements.

Click to expand...

Thanks everyone, I am now realizing that I probably choose the wrong engine for a starter project, I want to remake the cylinder but don't have the materials here, I will get this thing to run!!!

Dave

Your engine visually looks pretty good. Have you contacted Jan about timing? If it is precise and turns over VERY easy you may have a timing issue. You want the piston absolutely free in the cylinder. It can actually more gap in the piston/cylinder fit than it can friction. I've heard of flame lickers running with .004in smaller piston. What kind of sandpaper do you have? Google and try to rig up some form of lapping out there on the rig.

Hi all
So I decided to make a small wobbler engine, I done it from my head and not drawings, do any of you work like this, it seems much more difficult. Any way I have a question I don't seem to have any trouble getting external dimensions bang on, it's the internal hole I'm really struggling with, a lot of the time a shaft as example will not fit in a bored hole, I take another minute cut and its to loose, how do you guys measure internal dimensions of bored holes?

It may be easier to make the hole first then make the mating piece to fit. You can ream a hole with a reamer and get a reasonably accurate hole.

It's also a question of how good a fit you need. If you need a "really good" fit, you'll probably need to lap the parts to size. At least, that's what I do. Note that lapping is NOT simply running the parts together with abrasive and hoping for the best. It's a precision machining operation. For an internal hole you'll want an expanding barrel lap, and a ring lap for an external surface. Also some lapping compound, maybe #240, #320, and #600. You want to leave AT MOST about 0.001" to remove by lapping. Don't overdo the quantity of lapping compound. When lapping internally, excess compound can contribute to a bell-shaped hole. It's a slow operation, so be patient.

Hi Dave


I just dropped in on this thread, a very interesting read to say the least with the focus on portability.

Before I got to the entry where you indicated that you have purchased your Sherline I was going to suggest going the DIY route. That is make a small lathe directly suitable for your travels. The idea being to power it with something commonly on a drilling rig, a drill motor maybe. Since the motor represents a considerable fraction of the total weight of the machine this might save you some travel difficulties.

Well it is too late for that suggestion! It looks like you are off to a good start though. Don't let the flame licker beat you.

While the discussion about DROs seems to be over I might suggest that there is a half way solution that might appeal to you. That is to use linear scales on each axis of interest. The scales I'm talking about here are the ones that look very similar to digital calipers made for the purpose. I've also seen guys cut up cheap import digital calipers for this use. The nice thing here is that the scales are useful without a display / control module. Here is a sample page: http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-Digital-Scale/H8133, there are many importers besides Grizzly. This group may be of interest too: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShumaTech/, there was also a web site: http://www.shumatech.com/ that doesn't work at the moment. (Hoping that is not a bad sign).

Now all of that stuff above about Chinese scales, I wouldn't bother unless you where to go all in with a display unit. DROs really become useful when the display unit can do things for you. As others have indicated often DROs are of limited use on a lathe. Well maybe that is the correct way to state it, DROs are more versatile on a mill.

lohring said:

I agree with dials on the lathe. I installed scales on my South Bend lathe. The carriage travel scale has been very useful but the cross slide scale has not. If the length of a cut is critical, a dial indicator on the carriage will often be fine. I too learned with dials on a mill. I would never go back.

Lohring Miller

Click to expand...

Nice installation! Regarding the question, DRO or manual, I would suggest they put DRO on the mill and leave the lathe manual if they are short on money.