A vertical single 4-stroke IC engine

[cfellows]

Although this engine shares some similarities with other vertical single engines, such as the Upshur and one built by Randall Cox, I'm calling this my own design since it has significant differences from the others. It will be air cooled and have a bore and stroke of 7/8" x 1.25". It will be throttled, not hit n miss.

I salvaged two vertical pieces I had from a previous project that never came to fruition (sound familiar?). There were two 10-24 tapped holes in the top of each one and I had to make horizontal piece that fit across the top to fasten the two vertical pieces together. Trying to drill holes in a top piece that align with threaded holes on the bottom part has never been a strong suit of mine.

I first found a socket head cap screw that was the right length and thread size and mounted the threaded end in the 3 jaw chuck on my mini lathe. Then I cleaned up the head of the screw so it was concentric with the threaded end. After inserting the screw into the hole I wanted to match, I mounted the piece vertically in my milling vice, using a stop to precisely locate the edge from the side of the vice jaw. I then used a DTI to exactly center the screw head under the mill / drill spindle...

Then, I removed the vertical piece and inserted the blank top in the vice with matching back edge against the vice jaw and the end against the stop on the side so it was the same distance from the side of the vice jaw. I repeated the process for each of the 4 screw holes and here is the result...

The result is as near perfect as I've ever achieved!

 

[cfellows]

Been under the weather for the past week, so work has been a little slow. I did, after 3 attempts get the crankshaft pretty much assembled. I had tried to make it all one piece, but for what ever reason, I wasn't having much luck. Probably just impatience. I finally settled on a one piece throw and webs but am loctiting and pinning the main part of the shaft.

The cylinder turned out pretty good. It's made from a single piece of cast iron, is 1.5" OD and about 2.375" tall. Bore is .875".

Before anybody jumps on me abut the screws holding the frame together, they are just temporary!

Chuck

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Chuck--As always, your work impresses me. It seems that after a bit of a drought, everyone is building engines now. Have fun, and good luck. I will be following.---Brian

 

[cfellows]

Chuck--As always, your work impresses me. It seems that after a bit of a drought, everyone is building engines now. Have fun, and good luck. I will be following.---Brian

Thanks, Brian, you're a gentleman and a scholar!

Chuck

PS: ... and there aren't many of us left!

 

[BronxFigs]

Mr. Fellows:

Looks like another very interesting build/tutorial. Good luck with the rest.


Frank

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Chuck--Do you have a plan for a good throttled carburetor that you could share? I have 3 or 4 plans for hit and miss carburetors. and they all work reasonably well and they are all basically the same. I would like to build a good throttled carburetor to post as an alternate on the engine I have currently underway. My one venture into throttled carburetors which was essentially a hit and miss style carb with a globe style valve built into the air horn didn't work.---Brian

 

[Cogsy]

Looking great, I'll be following along.

 

[cfellows]

Chuck--Do you have a plan for a good throttled carburetor that you could share? I have 3 or 4 plans for hit and miss carburetors. and they all work reasonably well and they are all basically the same. I would like to build a good throttled carburetor to post as an alternate on the engine I have currently underway. My one venture into throttled carburetors which was essentially a hit and miss style carb with a globe style valve built into the air horn didn't work.---Brian

No, sorry, Brian, I really don't. I have several drawings from other people, but I haven't tried to build one of them yet. One is a Jerry Howell design and the other is from the late Bob Shores. I plan to play around with some designs for this engine. Maybe I'll come up with something...

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

I got some more work done on the head today. Here's the lash-up I used to shape the head..

I also drilled and tapped the spark plug hole as well.

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

Got the valve cages made today. They are brass and will be pressed into the head at some later point.

Chuck

 

[Swifty]

Moving along nicely Chuck, will be watching this build as I want to design my own upright 4 stroke in the future.

Paul.

 

[cfellows]

Moving along nicely Chuck, will be watching this build as I want to design my own upright 4 stroke in the future.

Paul.

Thanks, Paul.

For the past few weeks I've been distracted by my new membership at the local TechShop. Currently, their 3D printer has me absolutely captivated, to the point where I'm starting to plan for building my own.

Despite all that, I did manage to get back out in the shop today. I made the timing gears...

I'm going to have to make another pass on the large gear. The teeth are a little too fat and I'm not sure why..

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

When drilling matching holes between two parts, experience has taught me that I will get the best results by drilling both parts at the same time. When I'm unable to do that, the next best thing is to make a drilling guide which can be located on each part pretty precisely and drill through the holes in the guide into the part. So, here is the drilling guide I made and the two parts in question.

These will be 3-48 SHCS. I would like to have used something a little bigger, but the flange width on the cylinder base won't accommodate a larger head. One of those cases of design as you go... :headscratch:

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

Got the camshaft pretty well finished today. I started with a piece of 1/2" cold rolled steel, 5/8" long. I turned the space between the lobes down to 1/4". The lobes are each 3/16" wide. In the lathe, I bored a 3/16" hole through the center, then loctited and pinned the spool to a piece of 3/16" drill rod.

Next, I mounted the piece vertically in my rotary table and used a boring head with the cutter facing inward to form the lobes. The cutter was set to turn on a circle about 1.25" diameter so it would remove an arc as it swept by the lobe. Each time after plunging the cutter through the thickness of the lobe, I turned the crank on the rotary table one turn, advancing the lobe 1/72 of a turn. I continued this all the way around until I had the lobe pointed like I wanted. Then I flipped the cam assembly over and did the other lobe with the point rotated 90 degrees from the first lobe.

And here's what it looks like in the engine.

Chuck

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Very nice Chuck. I'm still following.---Brian

 

[kadora]

Chuck i like your threads because they are perfectly illustrated
and detailed .
This is why i would like to ask you if you could start new thread
on building your own 3D printer.
Thank you

 

[cfellows]

Chuck i like your threads because they are perfectly illustrated
and detailed .
This is why i would like to ask you if you could start new thread
on building your own 3D printer.
Thank you

Thanks, Kadora. Not sure how the moderators would feel about a build thread for a 3D printer. Might have to start a blog somewhere about it.

Chuck

 

[ShedBoy]

Looks good Chuck.

Brock

 

[cfellows]

Got the connecting rod finished and the piston mostly finished today.

After I finished up the piston, I'll get started on the valves, rocker arms, etc.

Chuck

 

[canadianhorsepower]

great work Chuck

how do you manage to put text in between pictures on the same posting

thanks

Luc