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It has been a month since my last post. The work schedule gets really crazy once the tractors are in the fields so I worked a little when I had time on the engine. A few pictures were taken of each step and are filed away in my desktop that died. All that is left before it can be run is to...

Drilling the main bearing blocks took some study on how I would do this with the equipment on hand. The drill press with the base mounted on an angle plate was considered, but there was too great a chance for the bit to drift before making it thru both journals. I decided to used my auxiliary...

finally put in some fun time, but most of the time I forgot to take pictures. I drilled the steam box cover, out board and inboard cylinder heads, and the rails. The taps came from PM Research and I am impressed with the quality, makes me want to throw out a couple of sets and start over. The...

Philipintexas, I can only hope mine turns out as nice as yours. Paying jobs have really cut into my steam engine time, but it's a good problem to have these days. I did make some progress this weekend and will post it tonight. When I really get to working I forget to take photos.

I did not take any photos of the process, but machining the horizontal and vertical surfaces was pretty strait forward. The tops of the slides were finishing rough, so i left .010 and draw filed it smooth. The only area left to machine is crank bearings which will take some creativity to set...

When considering how to machine the base, the end to mate with the inboard end of the cylinder, I reviewed other builders methods, but did not find a solution that would fit in the work envelope of my Burke #4. My solution was to center drill the end and mount the crank end to an angle which...

I been busy with work and a cold for few days, but finally got to spend some time in the shop. The ends of the cylinder were not perfectly square to the bore so I turned a mandrel with about .001 of taper over about three inches to mount the cylinder on. With it lightly pressed on, the ends were...

I started to make the exact same mistake, but realized it just as the blade started to cut. On the bright side, it was a good clean cut! Seriously though, I contemplated making mine from scratch and it may have been easier than using the casting. Show us the built up one when you finish.

I decided to work on the cylinder this weekend, hoping to get it as close to completion as possible before building the jig plate to bolt the base casting to and finish. A mandrel was turned to fit the cast bore, then chucked on the tailstock to hold it concentric in the 4 jaw while I tightened...

Finished the crank tonight. A couple lessons learned. The rod journal requires a tool with a long stick out ( chatter is the operative word) so I used the cutoff tool, yes I know that it's not a recommended practice. When it was done, I discovered that it was tapered .002:mad:. Careful lathe...

This evening I finished my crankshaft jig and roughed in the crankpin before calling it a night. I looked at the suggested jig in the plans as well as some others on this site and done what I always do, simplify. The jig is a slug of hot rolled 2" round stock that barely worked for what I tried...

The flywheel is approximately 6.5 inches. I have limited experience with the 7in lathes, but this flywheel should swing in your lathe. It may take some creativity to get it done. The greater challenge may be slowing it down enough at the rim to prevent chatter. Perhaps the builders here that...

Since my scrap bin failed to yield a suitable jig plate for the base, it was on to the crank shaft. It was center drilled, set between centers and turned slightly oversize on both ends, to be finished after the crankpin is turned. It seemed that the crank shaft is a pretty hard casting, it...

To be honest, I hesitated on starting this build thread. Having my limited skill and old equipment on display before such accomplished craftsmen gave me pause, but it will also pressure me to do it right. Instructive criticism is welcomed. My understanding wife let me pick my own Christmas...

I picked up one of these recently for almost nothing, so I figured that my son and I would try to get it going. The lathe came to me pretty rusty, tailstock frozen, and generations of dirt dobber mud imbedded into every orafice. No tooling except a jacobs chuck mounted on the headstock...

I share this tale of stupid in the hopes that others will be more careful. A craftsman 109 followed me home last week. They have their shortcomings, but I figured that with a little work my son could use it. Watching him crash the Southbend nearly gave me a heart attack. While we where...

I’m very much a novice, having barely stuck my toe into the pool of foundry work. With that in mind, this idea may hardly be new. While waiting for my local feed manufacturer to get me some bentonite, I have been casting ingots in my muffin pans that have held tons of lead for bullets in the...

Some time back I bought the Dave Gingery books in one volumn and began to study them. While I have a SB lathe and a Burke mill, I am in awe of the machines he built and may build them for the learning experience. A couple weeks ago I built a gas powered furnace from a Helium tank for filling...

Thanks for the tip cfellows. Hope you don't mind if I save that in my ever growing file of "stuff that I need to upgrade". That is a relatively easy way to keep it centered. My old Chicom bench top from HF was improved by American made bearings and if i ever have to rebuild the spindle on the...

I tried to post this already, but I'm pretty technologically challenged so pardon me if this shows up twice. I picked up a 13" craftsman floor model drill press in very good shape this week. In the course of cleanup and setting the table square, etc., I was annoyed by the noise and vibration...