Casting Engine Components For a Twin

[Artie]

The finished item.

I degreased the entire set with brake cleaning fluid and then waxed the assy shaft so the silicone wont adhere. Then I placed the halves together and cinched them up lightly. Once happy I squeezed silicone into teh gaps until they were full. I wet my finger and smoothed it all out and am waiting for it to set.

Crank webs make great holding jigs.

Of course once all is done and machines cleaned up.......

Thats all for tonight....

Cheers all

Rob t

 

[kustomkb]

Very nice work you are doing Rob.

That coupler is going to turn out great. Good idea!

 

[Artie]

Hi Kevin, thanks, I got the idea from the back wheel of my Ducati when I was fitting a new tyre.... cush drive....mmmmm..... Its worked out well and Im pretty happy with it. Here it is with teh excess silicon rubbed away....

Tonight I had a play with the crankshaft... remember this will have one of these couplings in the centre as well so this is assembled way too wide and Ill cut it down to suit when Im ready to do so....

Progress.....

This is lightly pressed together, not enough to ensure it wont move though, so ...... do I drill tap and fit grub screws (leaning that way, makes it dismantleable for whatever reason)? Or do I silver solder? If I solder Im going to have to relieve the fit so the solder can penetrate....

After your thoughts gentlemen..... and any ladys who are about as well.... :big:

 

[Lakc]

That coupler looks great!

You left out a couple other options for the crank. You can knurl, loctite and press home, or drill, ream, taper pin them together. I would love to try the taper pin method someday, but the reamers are dog gone expensive.

 

[Artie]

A brief pic...to prove that the wax worked as a release agent.... as I had hoped.... relieved..... these seem strong and quite flexible.. Ive pulled bent twisted them.... Ive have started to think that they may well work... never in doubt.....

 

[Artie]

Gday all, turning attention to the eccentric straps, as Ive made the sheaves dismantlable I am able to make the straps in one piece rather than as per Edgars plans... his idea...

And how I did/am doing mine....

I used some of the flat plate that I was given a few months ago.... its 11mm, with a rough cut side and 45mm (I got 2 x 2metre lengths....still on the first length 8)).

I first bolted all 4 togather and drilled the pilot holes and them and then seperated them to bore the sheave bearing surface at 25mm.

Then I marked out the boss which will mount to the reversing linkage and milled around it..

and trimmed the rest down to the required 4mm (or just over).

I then fitted the bull nose cutter to radius the back of the linkage boss..

One done.. three to go.....

And by the magic of photography.... three more done....

Ive left the straps attached to the parent metal for now and thats where I am up to. As you can see two still have a chunk of metal left, decided to leave that until I part them off from the rest after I have profiled the outside


The eccentric sheaves have just on 0.1mm end clearance (4 thou) and 0.2mm side play (8 thou), the result is a really nice fit with no apparent free play and almost no drag, this will wear a little so it is what I was aiming for. I didnt put the oil hole as per the plans but am intending to drill an oil hole with a countersunk entrance that I can stick the oil can into and 'pump' oil though the joint.

Well thats it, am of for one of my work tours of duty for 10 days, am in contact just dont have access to my shop... mmm.... X2 in the car boot and a small lathe..... set up in the motel room.... might not go down well.....


Cheers R

 

[Artie]

forgot to show you what it should end up like..

 

[Artie]

Howdy folks, this has been a pretty slow time. Had much happening and as a result not much time in the shop....but.... a bit for tonight....

This is what Ive got... as you can see from the above C o C I came close to the concept......

And this is how it came about......

Am I ever gonna find a jig I can use more than once??? Made a mandrel (another one!!!) to support the big end and rounded off, trimmed the sides and well, its pretty much self explanatory... no rocket science, just tedious repetitious work... fun at the same time.... hand finished with the files and emery paper..... dont forget your files! They are your friends.....

I had a cock up in the machining sequence and ended up NOT drilling the end holes nearest the big ends on three of the links.... dont ask... brain fade or just tired.. I tried to do some work the other night and felt fine... but after 10 mins of serious concentration I gave up... just weary.... damn close to 50 these days....

And a thought on the DRO's next.....

 

[Artie]

DRO's......

Ive only recently installed them on my mill.......

Wow..... how the hell did I ever survive without them?

Firstly, I thought long and hard about the units available, my personal thanks to Rick (85Blackvette) for his insight and the links he supplied.

I concluded 2 things.....

Firstly I did not want a single unit for this purpose, Im no electronic whizzz (or any whizz for that matter) and if one part of the unit failed, then all were junk....

Secondly individual units were approx half the price of a 3 axis DRO, so I wasnt about to pay that money and (see point above).

So I have them installed and I absolutely love the precision they allow (with such little effort!).

I installed the quill DRO first and imediatley fell in love with it (seriously!), I had the x and y ordered from Hafco and they took absolutely ages to arrive, but when they did, they almost bolted straight up, very little manufacturing required.

The down side is that the readouts are no where as large as the unitised DRO's, ok, I can live with that....

But Im in no way displeased with them.... obsolute rippers!

 

[Artie]

A little more... its been sooo long since Ive had shop time.... and today was all hand fitting.... files and sandpaper.... last week I managed to machine the clevis grooves.... that was nice and easy with the DRO's

Dro's, Ive bought another set for the lathe... seperate thread coming up...

Anyway a couple of pics for tonight....

Having cut the clevis grooves I went about hand finishing the parts, not finished as the clevis end hasnt been radiused to size or length yet, just roughly ground on the belt linisher...

I get a real buzz from hand cranking the mill and lathe and then using files and sandpaper to finish the item.... a little old school I guess.... no apologys offered for that though *beer*

Having said that.... I would LOVE to play with a CNC as well... Ideal world? BOTH hand and CNC.....

I Look like having a couple of weeks where I can get into this a bit so, hopefully, some action on this front....

Cheers

Rob

P.s.... NOW I have something that moves with that lovely eccentric motion...niiiiice...... thats why its assembled the way it is...hold the rofd and turn the shaft....'stuff' happens.....

 

[Lakc]

Looking good there.

 

[Artie]

Thanks Jeff, its nice to finally have some parts that actually assemble and 'move' together. I spend a lot of time holding that unit and twisting the shaft to watch the oscillations.

Please remember, this is my first engine..... Im a proud dad..... :big:

Hows the Boxer coming along mate?

 

[Lakc]

Its amazing how hypnotic certain motion can be after it comes off your own mill and lathe. ;D Boxer thread is updated.

 

[Artie]

Its Jeffs comment on the hypnotic effect that inspired me to make my first video.... you poor buggers.....

Tonight I placed a suitable sized pin in the 4 jaw on the RT and profiled the end of the clevises. No pics as I need both hands to make this a safe procedure. The result is I have finished the linkages and the con rods. I also polished them in an effort to remove all tool and sanding marks.

I wont polish them again but will let tarnish dull them, the grooves on the side of the rods will get a paint insert in British Railway Green, as will parts of the boiler, but thats for another day...

Sorry about the fuzziness of the pics, its my phone cam..... click on the following pic to watch....



Cheers

R

 

[arnoldb]

That's really looking good Rob !

you poor buggers.....

Darn right; I can never view the videos behind those tantalizing pictures from photobucket - not enough bandwidth to my sunny corner of the globe....

Regards, Arnold

 

[Artie]

Arnold... you poor thing... nay mind it was just some 'motion porn'... sort of....

Tonight! I have one half of a crankshaft...... but first some sunny bling.... for no other reason than it looks pretty in the sunshine.....

Now for more serious stuff... the crank. It has been machined up for some time, just now the linkages are finished the time seemed right.... it was an exercise in jigging or more accurately just clamping, and silver soldering.....

Looking rather 'busy' now.. FINALLY!

The shafts were left very long to allow easy alignment and then cut and filed afterwards. Originally I was going to press fit the thing together, after I changed my mind and decided to braise it I had to relieve the clearances a little to allow solder penetration.

Thats it for now, I have more shop time this weekend and hope to produce the plug for casting the entire engine room floor.. this will have raised bosses to mount everything to... its a simple thing so I might even get it cast up... we will see....

Cheers all..

Rob

 

[Lakc]

Thats progress, looking good.

 

[tel]

It is looking good Artie, and I even got to watch your vid after a bit of shuffling between IE and Firefox

 

[Artie]

Thanks mate, means a lot from you. For you lot.. Tel has held these conrods in his hot lil hands.. during a visit this year.... ;D The visit was on the wat back from picking up my shaper.. incidentally the old owner rang me last week... "would I want a full size anvil with all the tooling for $100?"

Ahm...let me think... SURE!

The toolong is the stand that fits into the square hole and it various anvil faces... so Im told..will show pics when I pick it up....

 

[Artie]

I had high hopes for tonight.... but the best laid plans. etc etc etc....

I also have a site manager who is on my case quite regularly... Gentlemen...

Meet Vespa....

Im surface grinding plate right now... she doesnt like the noise......

So I had to stop..she told me so......

I was doing this...

And seriously... I think the pitch wasnt comfortbale cause she was really quite pissed off... until I turned it off...

It a flywheel grinder which I use to surface grind steel and cast iron...

Tonight was supposed to be finish the second crank half....but I left the crank cheeks at home.....

So I started making the reversing links... but I needed 5mm plate and only had 6mm in stock...soooo out came the grinder and the magnetic chuck....... damn useful thing...

Cheap too... she only cost just under $10,000 au, of course during the week she actually DOES grind flywheels for a living.... under sufferance of course, til the weekend arrives and I use her for useful stuff.....

So Im making the plates which the Stevenson linkage rods attach. More pics of the design later it all fits here...

And thats it... the shop is about 3kms from home so I cant just drop out and do stuff... it has to be planned to some degree.... it also ajoins to a mates business workshop, we have an arrangement... tonight his wife grabbed me and told me I was joining them for dinner... so not much actually happened as a result...

Vespa enjoyed the pork chop bones though..... anyway, shes tired and has clocked off, so I have to go......

Much more to come over the next few days....

Cheers all

Rob