Building Elmer's #29 Mine Engine

[ozzie46]

Very nice work indeed.

For anyone building more than one of Elmer's engines, it might pay you to make up a drilling jig.
Elmer tended to use standard sizes for a lot of his cylinders, and with one of these, you could drop it on and have all the holes drilled in minutes.




Bogs

Now that is really nice to know as I have a lot of his plans.

Thanks John.

Ron

 

[NickG]

MB, yep as everbody has said, fantastic work - keep it coming.

Thanks

Nick

 

[Metal Butcher]

#52 Today I have a few more pictures, and a few more parts to show.
To make the 'valve rod' I machined down a 1/8" brass rod to the first diameter of .086". The second diameter was 1/16" by 5/16" long. I used .005" cuts to keep the rod from flexing and climbing up on the cutter. This is the usual problem with machining small diameters on long rods.

#53 Both ends of the 'valve rod' were threaded 2-56. One end will bolt to the 'valve crossbar', and the other to the valve 'nut'.

#54 I made a quick and easy drilling jig to cross drill the three 1/16" pivot pins on the 'rocker shaft' and two 'rocker arms'. The fixture simplified drilling all three #70 holes in identical locations.

#55 I installed the pivot pins with Loctite rather than soldering them in place. The holes they went in to were reamed, and the 1/16" rod material was a light press fit (wringing fit) that could cause a poor solder joint, but is perfectly suited for an anaerobic retaining compound.

#56 The piston and rod were strait forward and need little or no explanation. Since the piston and 1/8" rod were threaded 5-40, I made the nuts by re-threading a pair of brass 4-40 nuts on hand. This is a nice alternative to using larger standard 5-40 nuts.

#57 Here's a picture of scrap material being machined down to size. I know (yawn) this picture is not all that interesting, but its the only 'live action' shot in this post, so enjoy!

#58 All of that exciting milling produced the three sizes of steel material that will be used along with two diameters of drill rod for building the 'connecting rod' assembly. (Rod's not shown in this picture).

#59 It took a bit of thought to figure out how to make the two small end pivot blocks with the required degree of accuracy. The best option was to make them on the ends of a 2" piece, and cut them off after the two 3/32" rods were attached. After I cross drilled both ends for the 3/32" pivot holes, I drilled and reamed the ends 1/16" for the rods.This detail is missing in the original drawing and gives the impression that ends (for the long rods) are drilled 3/32". This is impossible since the ends are also 3/32" thick! To make this assembly possible the 3/32" rods needed to be machined down to a 1/16" diameter by .080" long. This machining was done with the utmost care to assure a tight fit into the reamed holes in the pivot's ends.

#60 The picture below shows how I managed to make this assembly work. I Loctited in one end, and set it aside for curing.

#61 After one end cured I cut it off from the parent material and Loctited in the second rod. After the second rod set up it was also was cut off. With the pivot ends attached to the rods, finishing them up with a radius was simple milling. I used the standby method of using the existing holes to pivot the ends on a pin against a small four flute end mill.

#62 Machining the "triple tree" (motorcycle term) part of the 'connecting rod' assembly was very easy. I used scribed lines to mark the "stop points" on the pre-drilled material for the lathe bit. Last year I couldn't imagine machining this part. It was this years addition of a four jaw independent chuck, and another season of machining practice, that made making this part not only possible, but also very easy.

#63 The final picture below shows the completed 'Connecting Rod' assembly. Rather than applying a Parkerized finish, a Tool Black finish, a blued finish, or painted finish, I decided to leave it "in the white' and applied a 'poly type' automotive surface sealant to protect the raw steel.

Bling, Bling!
http://www.blingdetailking.com/content/view/7/30/

-MB

 

[Philjoe5]

I'm enjoying your build reports MB.

I know what you mean by looking back 1 year and seeing how far you've been able to progress. :bow:

Your shaft diameters and screw sizes are 2 - 4 standard sizes smaller than the ones in my current build. Impressive is all I can say. :bow: :bow:

Cheers,
Phil

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Excellent work MB and a great post.

Say...you wouldn't happen to have anymore more of those giant pennies would you?

 

[Metal Butcher]

Thanks for the "impressive" compliment Phil. The engines overall size is nice. But, the tiny linkage parts are really tough on me. That's one of the reasons I put this build off for as long as I could. Regarless of size, the style engine is a worthy project.
I'm looking forward to getting mine done, and also seeing yours all finished up.

Thanks Zee, You worked with small Elmer size parts, and I bet you had the same fun I'm having. ;D

Zee, Here's the penny you asked for. :big:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1909-S-VDB-Linc...mQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item2ea6e658eb

-MB

 

[Metal Butcher]

#64 Over the last few days I experimented with different color combination's to finish up my project. I tied all black, all red, green and black (shown), and finally settled on red and black as the final color.

The "gag" penny is three inches in diameter. I found it on E-Bay pursuant to a comment that Zee made as to the small size parts in my build. I couldn't resist the temptation and bought it as a photo prop. ;D

#65

#66 On the right side of the picture below you can see 2 long 2-56 cap screws sticking out that will be replaced with 2-56 x 1/16" set screws. George B was kind enough to give me the two I needed, but during the final assembly today I discovered I didn't have the extra small hex wrench needed to install them

#67

#68

After making the needed timing and valve travel adjustment. I fired it up with a few pounds of air and ran it in for a ten minute break-in period. After wards I lowered the pressure till it would barely turn over to make the final timing adjustment.

This was my tenth, and last engine build planed for the season. I hope every one enjoyed seeing my build posts. I'll be lurking about on the forum for as long as I can. But I won't be starting anymore engine builds. I started getting back into my motorcycle hobby this week, and that will dominate my thoughts and time.

-MB

 

[tel]

I hope every one enjoyed seeing my build posts.

Well I. for one, have enjoyed 'em immensely - hie ye back!

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Wonderful build MB.
Lots of great threads from you.
Nice penny gag. :big: Kind of scary if you don't know what it is.

I hope a video is forthcoming?

 

[Philjoe5]

Nice work MB. A great looking engine. I really like the final finish and color scheme. Thanks for taking the time to post your progress. I enjoyed following along and I appeciate the extra effort you took to give us all a ride. Karma to you - enjoy the motorcycling. :bow:

I hope my Mine runs as well.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Metal Butcher]

Well I. for one, have enjoyed 'em immensely - hie ye back!

Thanks tel. Glad you enjoyed my threads. For the time being I'll be checking in until I leave for Canada in the summer. My full time attention to shop projects will begin in Oct/Sept.

-MB

 

[gbritnell]

Hi Rick,
This one came out extremely nice, but then again I didn't have any doubt. I like the colors on this one, not any more than the others, I just think it's a nice change. I have a small wrench. When you're out running around on the bike one day, stop buy and you can get it. I sorted out the problems with the V-twin since you were over the other day.
George

 

[Metal Butcher]

Wonderful build MB.
Lots of great threads from you.
Nice penny gag. :big: Kind of scary if you don't know what it is.

I hope a video is forthcoming?

Thanks Zee! I mentioned the three inch size of the "gag" penny up front, rather that tricking members into thinking I built a super small version of the #29 Mine Engine. I can't imagine building any smaller than I did. It would be comparable to micro surgery, at least for me.

I'm not happy with the standard long shot pictures that were posted. I will update with close up 'macro shots' hopefully later today. My 'picture guy' may not have time for the updated pics, and the video today. I'll run the idea by, when I get a hold of him today.

 

[Metal Butcher]

Nice work MB. A great looking engine. I really like the final finish and color scheme. Thanks for taking the time to post your progress. I enjoyed following along and I appeciate the extra effort you took to give us all a ride. Karma to you - enjoy the motorcycling. :bow:

I hope my Mine runs as well.

Cheers,
Phil

Thanks for the compliments Phil! I'm glad you enjoyed my build threads. I've been watching your thread, and have no doubts that your engine will be a fine running example.

-MB

 

[Metal Butcher]

Hi Rick,
This one came out extremely nice, but then again I didn't have any doubt. I like the colors on this one, not any more than the others, I just think it's a nice change. I have a small wrench. When you're out running around on the bike one day, stop buy and you can get it. I sorted out the problems with the V-twin since you were over the other day.
George

Thanks George! Your confidence in my abilities is inspiring. I felt a color change was long over do, although the 'sage mist green' will allays be my favorite color. It was a little mind boggling when my .050" wrench wouldn't fit the two 2-56 set screws you gave me! 1/16" seems to be the standard for most sets that I have. When I added the .050" size I thought it was the smallest, and that I had all the sizes covered!

Your engine ran great when I was over! The minor fuel issue was no big deal, and easy enough to correct. Your engine sounded fantastic, but boy its loud for its size! I was also very impressed with the smooth and slow idle that's elusive on small IC engines!

I'll stop by some time when the weather is a little better. I'm usually passing by, and within a few minutes of your place. Maybe I can talk you into getting on one of your bikes and going for a ride! 8)

-MB

 

[Tin Falcon]

I like the engine and love the penny think I will has Mrs Tin order me one of those I build models and she collects wheat pennys for me so perfect.
Tin

 

[Jeff02]

One more beautiful engine to your collection, Great color choice! Thm: Thm: Thm:

 

[Metal Butcher]

I like the engine and love the penny think I will has Mrs Tin order me one of those I build models and she collects wheat pennys for me so perfect.
Tin

Thanks for the compliment Tin! The "gag" penny is really neat and well made. The price seems reasonable too.
I used to collect 'wheats' when they were circulating, but the pocket change source is all dried up now. I always looked for, and wished to find a genuine 1909 S V.D.B. ;D

-MB

 

[Metal Butcher]

One more beautiful engine to your collection, Great color choice! Thm: Thm: Thm:

Thanks for the compliment Jeff! Building engines is just like collecting them...Its allways a work in progress.

-MB

 

[arnoldb]

:bow: Very well done MB ;D - I love it! ;D

Regards, Arnold