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That is a nice looking wheel, but beam engine flywheels normally had straight spokes. The size of their flywheel meant that they were typically built up: each spoke was a separate casting and the rim was made in sections. The whole was then pegged and/or bolted together. Small engines (not beam...

Keith - This is incredibly impressive work. I really enjoy watching your progress with this engine. A question about the cast iron Where did you buy the cast iron for your liners? It looks like you have extruded cast tubes, which should be great for this job and a lot less wasteful than...

Rob, this is really impressive stuff - I am learning a lot from your setups. Could you elaborate a bit on the offset cutter to get the sides of the spline approximately right? I could guess how you did that but would be interested in the calculations you did to get the correct offsets.

A great project - I look forward to the next installments. I too am interested in your ML7 slotter. Can you give us any more information on it, such as overall sizes, maximum practical cuts etc? I would like to make one similar to yours.

Nick - In cast iron blocks and cylinder heads we used to use chaplets to stabilise cores and to prevent them floating out of position (maybe still done this way?). The chaplets became part of the casting itself, the size being chosen so that they retained just enough strength to hold the core...

Nick - That is a great project. The range of skills and the level of sheer tenacity that will be needed to complete it is very large. Please keep us all up to date as you go along. I am particularly interested in your methods for photogrammetry and for pattern making, but I'm sure that the...

Thanks Ramon, I understand it now, and can see how it would be useful. I will be making some of these.

Ramon - Can I ask for a bit more information about your D bit style lap? I'm not getting a clear picture of how it works. As I understand it, you start by cutting a D bit shape, so about half of the diameter of the main lap shaft is cut away. So far so good, but then I think you say that you...

Small and probably useless factoid re push rods. Vincents had stainless steel push rods; the theory was that the ends which were highly loaded would work harden. The theory seemed to work out OK. You would need to choose a type of stainless that work hardens readily if you wanted to replicate...

A single cylinder engine cannot be balanced perfectly (at least not without additional balancer shafts). The best that can be done is a compromise. Classic single cylinder motorcycle engines used a balance factor between about 45% - 66% of the reciprocating weight. The choice depends on the the...

You probably know this already, but it can be helpful to run a rubber band around the lathe dog and the catch plate spigot so that they don't bang around when you start the cut. Once the cut is established there is no problem of course.

Sounds good. My lathe has tee slots in the cross slide, but for large or awkward shaped parts a tooling plate can be better. I had no choice with the job in the photo - it was far too large for the Myford cross slide tee slots.

You can make a decent between centres boring bar with not much more than scrap material. The steel for the bar doesn't matter much, they all have about the same Youngs modulus. Th cutter can be made from a broken tap or something similar. Mounting your part accurately on the cross slide is...

Metalmad - You were worried about making a between centres boring bar. It really isn't that difficult, just make it as beefy as you can - but the interesting bit is how to get a fine adjustment. There are several ways of doing this, from a 'micrometer screw' adjustment to push the tool out a...

A stepped cylinder with greatly differing large and small diameters has been used for High Energy Rate Forming (HERF). The gas in this case being Nitrogen, coming straight from the bottle with NO regulator/pressure reducing valve. This means many thousands of psi. Relatively large bore and very...

Myford series 7 tailstocks get their side to side location from the two inside edges of the bed. Unfortunately the wear on these faces can vary down the length of the bed so that the tailstock can be aligned straight at one point but not in other places. I assume that you have adjusted the base...

I would avoid the arbors with the spring-loaded centres. You can make a much more rigid arbor with very little effort. The spring-loaded centre arbor that I bought was essentially useless - not a good fit on the cutter bore and the clamping faces were a long way off perpendicular to the axis...

Yes it is Bill, sorry should have included that. I read your earlier post and look forward to hearing how things look when you are fully in action. I have to say that the finish looks to be a lot better on your mill than I saw last time I looked at them. The Chester paint colour looks good on...

My first post here so apologies for not introducing myself first. I am on the lookout for a new mill so I am very interested in what you think of your mill especially when you have used it for a while. I want something that is rigid enough for largish model engine work, which I guess is...