Baker Ball hopper Engine

[Niceonetidy]

My Baker Ball Hopper castings arrived late Friday afternoon. They had been stuck in UK customs since Jan 01. I decided to make a start on the engine, and this weekend made a good start. I enjoy work and projects that others post, so I thought I would contribute a build article for this engine. I have machined the crankcase, cylinder head, Ball Hopper and cover, inlet and exhaust stubs. And the fuel Tank. Here is s couple of photos of the machining! The Boring was done on A Kearns boring machine, Milling on a KRV3000, and the turning on a Boxford 280 lathe.

Cheers

Colin

 

[Jasonb]

You have made a good start on that one, I have fancied doing this for some time.

Not having the machines that you do do you think the crancase could be mounted on the faceplate of a 11" swing lathe, I know the website says you need 12" but 11" is all I have, probably depends on teh distance across the feet.

J

 

[Niceonetidy]

You have made a good start on that one, I have fancied doing this for some time.

Not having the machines that you do do you think the crancase could be mounted on the faceplate of a 11" swing lathe, I know the website says you need 12" but 11" is all I have, probably depends on teh distance across the feet.

J

Jason,

I will measure the diameter over the feet tomorrow and let you know. I do wonder about borng the crankcase in a lathe. It is quite long, and the bore has to bee cut five inches deep. I faced the bottom of the feet using my Harrison M350. Before mounting to bore. The setup in the learns supports the top of the cylinder and stabilises it during machining. I could machine the crankcase if you needed some help!

 

[LSEW]

Colin, that is a very nice start on the Monitor. You are doing a great job so far. I'm looking forward to more "how you did it" and and pictures. It's always interesting to see how someone machines an irregular shape part such as a casting, because it is very dependent on the machine/tooling available and the particular skills the machinist has developed. Tell us about the mixer, I found that part particularly interesting.

For example, Jason asked about making the crank case on an 11" lathe. I don't see why not. The base is less than 8" across corners. In my shop I found it best to plug the ends of the crank case and face the bottom between centers on a lathe. I have a large lathe, so I just mounted it to a faceplate and bored and faced the cylinder end. My lathe is VERY rigid, so I didn't worry. In Jasons case, It may be best to make a donut disc and mount it to the top of the cylinder. Then a steady rest could add the needed rigidity for completing the boring.

Good luck on the Monitor.

maury

 

[Niceonetidy]

Colin, that is a very nice start on the Monitor. You are doing a great job so far. I'm looking forward to more "how you did it" and and pictures. It's always interesting to see how someone machines an irregular shape part such as a casting, because it is very dependent on the machine/tooling available and the particular skills the machinist has developed. Tell us about the mixer, I found that part particularly interesting.

For example, Jason asked about making the crank case on an 11" lathe. I don't see why not. The base is less than 8" across corners. In my shop I found it best to plug the ends of the crank case and face the bottom between centers on a lathe. I have a large lathe, so I just mounted it to a faceplate and bored and faced the cylinder end. My lathe is VERY rigid, so I didn't worry. In Jasons case, It may be best to make a donut disc and mount it to the top of the cylinder. Then a steady rest could add the needed rigidity for completing the boring.

Good luck on the Monitor.

maury

Here is how I machined the bottom of the Crankcase. I mounted the top of the cylinder in the four jaw chuck. Added a rotating centre to the bottom hole and faced the feet. I then drilled the hole and threaded it 1/2" BSP

 

[Niceonetidy]

This Weekend I rough machined the crankshaft to 0.030 on the shaft. The journal was finished to size before cutting off the supports. Here is a series of photos showing the crank machining, and line boring the Crankcase bearings.

 

[Niceonetidy]

I don't know how to add text between the photos to add description to each photo, sorry, Here is the boring of the crankcase.

 

[Dr Jo]

Colin, I didn't see that crank casting on the lone star casting photo's. Is it a new one they have added to the set? It looks long and spindly, did it have any hard spots?

It looks like an iron casting do you intend on bushing it?

Jo

 

[Jasonb]

Jo if you go to the ordering page on their site the crank is listed there as an extra, I assume its SG Iron.

http://www.lonestarengineworks.com/OrderingInfo.html

J

PS Thanks for comfirming the base size Maury.

 

[Niceonetidy]

Colin, I didn't see that crank casting on the lone star casting photo's. Is it a new one they have added to the set? It looks long and spindly, did it have any hard spots?

It looks like an iron casting do you intend on bushing it?

Jo

Yes, the crank casting is from Lone Star Engine Works, and machined beautifully as have all the castings. I don't know what grade the cast iron used in the engine is, it certainly machines nice. Maybe the castins are annealed.

The crank will run in phosphor bearings as shown on the drawing,

Cheers

Colin

 

[Dr Jo]

Thanks Colin, I had not got as far are reading the price list as I find after that it becomes expensive .

Looks like an impressive casting, I wish that some more of our suppliers this side of the pond could turn out such nice Iron castings.

Jo

 

[idahoan]

Hi Colin

Thanks for taking the time to post your build of this great engine, I have been following along with your progress (you work fast) and look forward to seeing the updates.

Dave

 

[Niceonetidy]

At present, I only work in my workshop on the weekends. It's too cold, dark, and wintry to go out in the evenings after work This weekend I had family commitments, so only got to the workshop on Saturday. At least I have got some work done. I finished machined the crankshaft, and machined both flywheels and the PTO pulley.

The flywheels are a menace to machine due to the number of spokes, they will not allow you to grip on the inside using a three or four jaw chuck. So I gripped then on the outside edge, machined the face, half of the rim, and then bored the center to size. I also machined the inner flange area to make it concentric, and took a light cut on the inner web. I think the more you have running true, the better the finished result is. The flywheel was then gripped using the small inner ledge to hold it from the inside edge and take a skim cut over the complete outer face. I do file blend any obvious machining on the inner edges to make it look authentic.

The PTO pulley is mounted on three lugs, and it's not possible to measure the diameters of each part too easily, so I just used the DRO to make the sizes work, with a small amount of trial cutting to finish.

Cheers,

Colin

Here are a couple of photos . . . hope they explain what I was doing.

 

[Niceonetidy]

Thanks Colin, I had not got as far are reading the price list as I find after that it becomes expensive .

Looks like an impressive casting, I wish that some more of our suppliers this side of the pond could turn out such nice Iron castings.

Jo

I think Cast cranks are a really goo help. And allow you to get a crank quite quickly. I have just bough 1.2 Meters of En24t to cut cranks for four of my other engines. You may have noticed a pair of R & V engines in the first photos.

Good fun cutting from solid too. The biggest crank I have ever cut from Solid was for my 6" Scale Mc Laren Road Loco called Hogwart. The En40b Nitriding steel billet was 9" Diameter by 37 inches long. Quite a lot of swarf, the stock billet weighed 618 lbs, the complete crank weighed 60 lbs. You can read this on my website http://www.bailey-steam.com/mac6story.htm

 

[vcutajar]

Thanks Colin for showing your setup for the flywheel.

Vince

 

[Niceonetidy]

Here are some photos showing the fabrication of the Hit Miss Trip, it is fabricated and silver soldered together. The Angle part has machined locations to hold the items in position for soldering. Simple Home made clamps hold the assembly together during soldering. It is worth making some simple clamps for this type of work, in Stainless they will last a lifetime. So usefull!

 

[Niceonetidy]

Here is a group of photos showing the process of making the split crankshaft bearings. An over (finished) diameter bar is sawn apart at the correct length to make two pieces of bearing. The bottom half is machined to the center of the bar. The top, removed piece is machined flat. Both parts are tinned with soft solder. And then soldered together. The bar is turned in the lathe to the correct outside diameter for the bearing flange. The bearing is drilled and bored to size. Then the bearing cap relive is cut to allow the bearing to sit in the bearing seat. Part off, and then all done. Do this one bearing at a time and in this order. Careful cuts are required for all operations. The bearings are then de-soldered and cleaned up for use.

 

[Niceonetidy]

Here is a photo of the timing gears, valve rocker and hit, miss lock. Also the Governor arm mounted for facing and drilling and reaming. Trick part to hold, but OK when you have fathomed it out,

Enjoy,

Cheers,

Colin

 

[Niceonetidy]

Oh, by the way, I have the large timing gear on the wrong way around, hA, ha,

 

[Niceonetidy]

Well I have completed the Monitor Engine, it runs really good, and I'm very pleased with it, here are some photos and a link to it running on YouTube. I had my first attempt at making a dovetail jointed box. The Ignition on the Engine is a RCEXEL Model Aero Engine unit that uses a Hall sensor, and is powered by four AA Batteries. I run it with an old clean sock over the Muffler because it makes the white paint go dirty easy!

Here is the Video of the Engine Running [ame]http://youtu.be/FifeB98NmzY[/ame]