Camgine!

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vederstein

vederstein

Must do dumb things....
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
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Some of you have been watching the development of an air motor/steam engine that I designed with as far as I know, has no allegory in reality. It's certainly not an improvement on any existing design and it kind of stupid, as far as engines go.

For those that haven't seen the animations, here's the HMEM link:
https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/spherical-bearing-engine.31097/
https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/spherical-bearing-engine.31097/

Well, with the design more or less worked out, it's time to build Camgine!

I started with the most difficult part: the cam plate. If I cannot make the cam, then there's not reason to continue and it's back to the drawing board.

To make the cam plate, I first needed to make a fixture so I can hold the blank and transfer it from the lathe to the mill.

So I turned a piece of barstock, drilled/reamed/tapped some holes to mount a sacrificial aluminum plate. Note that I used a Sharpie to mark the clocking of the barstock to the chuck so I can put it back in the same position (hopefully) keeping runout issues to a minimum.

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The waste plate is a pieces of aluminum stock I has laying around. Again it was drilling / reaming / tapping some holes to mount the waste plate to the roundstock and the part blank to the waste plate.

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Bolting the two parts together, I could drill/countersink the holes in the part blank and mount it to the waste plate and off to the lathe...

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...Continued on next post...
 
Then it was a slow process of 0.030 interrupted cuts to get most of the cam surface...

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Off the the milling machine.

After indexing the part square, I used a 1" endmill to create the cam lead in and lead outs.

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After the lead in/out, I milled out the center pocket.

DSC02494.JPG

Next was a bunch of filing to finish the lead in / lead out. I'm not saying this went perfectly. There's certainly some issues and I'll probably need to make the part again. But I did manage it and it's the most difficult part. This engine build is a go!

DSC02496.JPG


...Ved.
 
As I'm waiting for material to arrive, I worked on some of the components where I had the material laying around. No build pictures here. Nothing was particularly difficult, but 9 parts in an afternoon isn't a bad throughput.

...Ved.

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I know that is really didn't document this build, but then nothing (other than the cam) was really earth-shattering.

Now I'm getting to the finishing and I'm going to learn (or learn to never try again) aluminum anodizing. This section of the build I plan on documenting more thoroughly.

I've been learning what I can from Internet searches and Youtube videos. I'm basing much of my process on a document I was able to find from Caswell. I'm not sure that I can legally distribute it, so I'll let anyone that desires to look further to do your own searches.

Thus far, I've acquired the following materials:
  • (10) 2-gallon plastic buckets
  • (1) 5 gallon bucket (to cool the anodize tank on the larger parts)
  • 5 gallons of distilled water
  • 30V / 10A adjustable power supply
  • 2 Channel K-type Thermocouple reader & Thermocouples
  • Bottle of CLR (degreaser)
  • Hot Plate
  • (6) 16-oz bottles of battery acid (33% sulfuric acid / 66% water)
  • Buna Gloves
I still need to get or have on order:
  • Rit Dye (Purple & Yellow)
  • Aluminum Wire
  • Pot to heat water in (that my wife will let me use)
  • Scotch Brite pads
  • Fish tank air diffsuer
When I get to the actual process in a week or two, I'll post more information and my results. But that's it for now.

If anyone out there wishes to give me some insights for a successful project, please post your suggestions / experiences. I do know that I'm going to have issues with the base plate. Due to its surface area, I've calculated it will need 24.9 amps to anodize properly. My power supply can only put out 10 amps. It's cheapo Chinese one, so I doubt I'll push it past 7 or 8 amps. Perhaps I can use my welder for the higher amps? Can I lower the amps and increase the anodizing time?

...Ved.


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Well the first day's try at anodizing was certainly a mixed bag.

First I set up my buckets for the following operations: Cleaning, Tap water rinse, Distilled Water Rinse

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Then I set up the anodizing bucket wit a lining of aluminum foil. I also obtained a aeration stone from the pet fish section of the store. I used this to agitate the solution(s).

DSC02525.JPG DSC02526.JPG

When it came to part cleaning I used the water shear test: spray distilled water on the part. If the water shears, then it's clean. The first pic below is the part unclean and the second pic the part is clean. After the part is clean, it cannot be touched with bare hands until the process is completed.

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Then it was in the anodizing tank for about 30 minutes. 12vdc. The positive was attached the part and the negative attachded to the aluminum foil.

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After the part was anodized, it was rinsed with distilled water and into the dye tank for 15-30 minutes. The longer the dip, the darker the part. The part is then "sealed" by boiling it in distilled water for 15-30 minutes.
DSC02542.JPG DSC02540.JPG

My initial results weren't bad, but then as I continued on with other parts, some didn't anodize, some had bad coverage. I guess the ones that didn't anodize were touching the aluminum foil? The bad coverage wasn't a perfectly clean part?

(continued on next post)...

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...Continued from the previous post

Then I screwed up. I forgot to remove the bronze bushings from the flywheel. So when it went into the anodizing tank, the process ate away the bearing and coated everything with copper.

Now I don't know what I'm doing, so what the hell, I just continued on. Then things got really weird. Of the smaller parts, I would anodize several parts at the same time, so the environment was exactly the same. Some parts in the same dip anodized and dyed just fine. (At this point I changed from purple to yellow) and others didn't anodize at all or turned brown.

DSC02549.JPG

Now the anodized coating isn't conductive, so a cheap meter to measure electrical continuity is all that's needed to determine if the anodizing actually "took" or not. Those parts that didn't take any color at all didn't anodize. I'll re-process on those parts on an upcoming weekend. The parts that took a slight coloring are anodized, but I don't know why they didn't absorb the dye.

So as usual with my projects, this was a very mixed bag. I did learn not to put copper based metals in the anodizing tank.

So I'm quitting for the day. Too hot, too frustrated, too discouraged. But I will persevere!

...Ved.

DSC02544.JPG
 
Hi there, have you read Ramon's post on anodizing? it on model-engineer forum.
couple of pointers
1/ only aluminium, lead and titanium can go in the anodizing tank
2/ use lead sheet for the cathode and use aluminium for the mounting brackets
3/ I mount the parts on the mounting brackets then wash with universal thinners, allow to air dry and do not touch them after this point.
4/ parts are then mounted ontoo the anodizing racks and placed in a chemical cleaner for 20 mins
5/ rinse with tap water then place in the anodizing bath and cook for an hour or so (depending on the total surface area)
6/ rinse under a running tap then into the dyes till the required colour depth is achieved.
7/ rinse again the into the sealer tank.
I can post photos of my set up and anodized parts if you like.
I would also recommend the use of the proper dyes and chemicals as it makes for a far more reliable finish and easier to do, plus they are actually cheap enough really.
good luck
Dean
 
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