Building Hit or Miss Claire Engine

[Jack B]

My next and second engine that I plan to try is a " Hit' N Miss" engine designed by Philip Duclos. This engine will be very different then the Horizontal Steam Engine that was my first build. The plans are printed in The Home Shop Machinist September/October of 1995 and the next three issues. I had a subscription to The Home Machinist for a number of years. I am lucky I kept most all my issues. A sad note Mr Duclos died in the Winter of 1993 the same year I retired. Before that date he had designed several engines and sent them to the publication. This one was called "The Maverick Engine" by Mr Duclos. I am going to call mine Miss Claire in honor to my wife who chases me out to the workshop every day for several hours to work on my projects. On a positive note Phil's work lives on in these little engines we so enjoy.
Here is a shot of my work bench. There is a picture of the engine on the cover of the magazine. Jack B

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Excellent. Thanks for the invite.
I've gotten more and more interested in these engines...saw several at Cabin Fever.
I'll be watching.

 

[slick95]

JackB,

Looking forward to your building progress. Mr. Duclos has some nice designs and it will be fun watching Miss Claire come together. I'm just finishing up the Duclos Odds N' Ends and its a nice runner.

Jeff

 

[kcmillin]

Ive never built an IC engine, and I am verry interested in watching your project come along. It sounds like a prety cool little engine. Cant wait to see ya get started.

kel

 

[slick95]

Yea I just looked in my Two Shop Masters book and that is a real interesting engine...no gears for the exhaust valve action. Very cool

Jeff

 

[Jack B]

This will be a scratch build. I use whatever stock I have on hand. Some of my material came from a machine shop going out of business auction or it is scrap stock I have collected through the years. The first piece of stock I must cut up is a 1/2 inch thick piece of CRS. It is about the size of a baseball home plate. A friend gave it to me a while ago and said you can use it for something. So I will use it for the base and the side walls. Oh Oh ! first problem it's bigger then the capacity of my only foreign machine in the shop. It is a Rong Fu metal cutting band saw. Cutting Cap. is 4 1/2 inch round and 6 inches wide. It came from a yard sale cheap and cuts great. I will just have to stretch it.

 

[Jack B]

Pieces of scrap are hung on saw to pull it through the cut.

 

[Jack B]

With a little finagling with the vise I can almost cut 1/2 the way through.

I am almost at my limit but put two larger shims in the vise and got a little more depth by increaseing the angle. I then turned the stock over and made a cut almost meeting the other one. I then placed the stock in the bench vise and twisted it till it broke apart as shown in the next picture. This is the Base Plate I also cut the two Upright Body Plates while in the saw.

 

[Jack B]

Squaring in the miller. I milled the Base Plate and the Body Plates one after the other because the widths were all the same size.

 

[kcmillin]

Interesting technique with the vice on the saw. I have the same saw, and this will indeed come in handy.

kel

 

[Jack B]

Hi Zee Welcome

Hi Jeff I like your comments,

Hi Kel This IC is a first for me.

That little saw saves me a lot of work. My old method was a hacksaw OUCH.
Jack

 

[Stan]

The secret to cutting long strips (up to 4.5" wide) is to mount a vise on the outside of the blade, such as several which have been shown on this board. You still have to control the weight of the blade but you can cut very long pieces.

 

[Jack B]

Good tip Stan. There is always more then one way to do something. I knew I had a big piece of metal but didn't give it a thought till I got it in the saw. Those big pieces of steel are very difficult for me to handle now so I just take the easiest way for me to do the job. I got what I wanted out of it and the little saw did all the work. Thank you for commenting. I appreciate them. Jack

 

[Jack B]

I squared all three pieces one after another to length.

Checking with gage blocks for accuracy.

Layout just for guidelines.

 

[Jack B]

Edge finder on end my zero point will be top right corner of stock. I have my vise stop set in the picture.

Edge finder on side.

Center drill for 8-32 cap screw hole.

 

[Jack B]

These are the Up Right Body Plates number one and number two drilled and counter bored mounting holes.

Base mounting holes.

Top of Base. This view shows all the holes that go into the base. You can see by my math on the drawing that I was very careful to get the holes in the right places. They are all drilled and counter bored on the back side where necessary. I used an end mill for c-boring.
Jack

 

[Jack B]

Mounting hole in Upright Body Plate to match Base. Vise locating stop at right.

 

[Jack B]

Using tapping block to thread 8-32 holes. Soft jaws in circa 1867 Parker vise.

First sub-assembly of Base and Up Right Body Plates. They are shown positioned up side down.

Gage blocks show perfect width between Up Right Body Plates.

 

[Jack B]

These are the two larger Brown & Sharpe tool holders for my Index miller. They hold a .500 tool shank and a .625 tool shank. They are needed for the large end mills I will be using to make two slots in one Up Right Body Plate. I will plunge them in succession to make the .875 diameter at the end of the slot.

 

[Jack B]

A 6-32 threaded hole goes here in this slot. I will drill it first and tap later. Layout lines are for reference only. All dimensions are from upper right corner of piece.

A !/2 inch end mill will make the first plunge cut in center of .875 diameter.

First plunge cut taken to leave a floor thickness of .188.