Fancy by Elmer

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Naiveambition

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Started on a Elmer's Fancy today for a friend. He is a full time machinist, and on a previous occasion I had asked for info, and he was kind enough to stop by unasked to help me. He also had dropped some scrap pieces of metal rounds off to me, I was rather moved by his generosity, so I have decided to build Elmer's fancy for him as a thank you.
Hopefully, with my meager skills, it turns out nice enough that he will display it on his desk.

So here is today's start. Turned a brass rod to dimension given in the plans, but does seem that some dimensions are not given, like the angles for the crank-bell, and how much of the flat to take off. For the flat, Im assuming that you mill until you reach the bottom of the taper in the midsection.

On a side note has anyone with a Taig milling attachment have a easy way of tramming it? And how to hold this piece with the inherent design issues of not really being a vise and using set screws for tightening.

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That's a great looking start.

You can remove the jaws from the chuck, run the table up against it and tighten it down. Should be close enough for government work.
 
Thought I would throw in a pic of the tools I used to machine so far. Most of the ones featured on this motor kind of leave out the process, which it think is important to newbies. I can't stress enough that most of the knowledge I've gained has been thru write ups of others projects, which is where I believe the greatness of HMEM is.

So, with that said, as u can see from pic the tools I used to this point. The taper was not done in the correct way so I need info on how to set slide angles.

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Today started with setting up the milling attachment, which an unbelievable pain in the ass. As u can see from the pic, the screws to tighten the workpiece are IMO are not a good design idea.
Every time I have to use a C clamp to push the workpiece back toward the vertical slide, then tighten screws which bring the work away from the face of the slide. Square work is doable but rounds are a nightmare. This slide is the reason I am buying a mill, just too many things need done to make acceptable work.

So today was a 5 hour day with just the flat cut on work piece, mostly setup time, but made it thru

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The milling attachment is not ideally suited to hold round stock, maybe a shallow home made V block under the round piece may help.

Paul.
 
Was able to do some more work on the Fancy. As u can see from the pic I was able to get the column milled, drilled, and reamed. And made the odd bits used to layout steam holes. And also completed column bearing.

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Well I managed to recomplete the crank web, and the steel crank pins.

The first crank web I turned was fine till I tried to solder parts together. For some reason it zblew a hole bigger than I drilled it, so I'm guessing to much heat but at the same time the solder would not flow.

Do u use flux before heating, or do you use it after parts are heated?

Prob gonna loctite this one, since I don't feel like making another, and use other pieces for testing so I can get it down

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Managed to get a few more bits done on the fancy.

1st was drilling the port holes, and still need to drill side inlet for the air line.
Had to freehand drill these since I sold my drill press to save for a milling machine, it rose a little but not overly noticeable . Since it was the exhaust! I think I'll let it go.

Second was the flywheel. Thought I'd leave the back side flat instead of cutting like the front side. Maybe get a good reflection of the column.

Having trouble with cutters, long story short, 100$ spent on cutters, all are a hair too tall, ending up grinding my own from HSS worked a charm, tryed regrinding them to use again and messed up, so now are too short to use,:mad:
So back to having no cutting bits:wall:

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And turned rod down for the cylinder bolt. Made this one from a bolt laying around, as I didn't feel like turning a 1/2 rod down to a1/8. Just needs threaded and will try to make a nice brass nut for it

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Really nice work there. Oscillating steam engines have a appeal like no other.
 
Finally made it back to the Elmer. Solved my cutter issues for now so it fun to machine things again, I'm sure you all now where I'm coming from on that one.
:wall:

Just the one update today which is drilling and turning the piston block for the cylinder. The reamers I have are too long , and it's too late to fire up the grinder to cut them down, so that will wait for tomorrow. Trying to work in between Olympics so not a lot done.

Also lo titled shaft and crank with green loctite. Said 20 minute set time and really was about 15 seconds. Way too fast, bout messed up piston shaft,but lucked out

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Today, well today has been one of those days where if it can go wrong it did.:rant::rant: but somehow managed to actually get somewhere.

Started with the piston and for once I didn't have to remake it. The oil lines could be a little deeper but I think it's ok. Machining order is important here and being drill, tap, turn oil grooves, part size partway, turn to diameter, then part off completely, and finally face bottom. Got this in one try from a bunch of previous failures. Mistakes equal wisdom :rant: I wish there was an easier way th_rulze

Lapped into cylinder with toothpaste and thought for sure I jammed it in there for good and with last pull it came free, and now it so smooth that it will bounce back if I try to pull it out with my finger on the intake. woohoo1

Now sizing parts to their final dimension and make the nut for the cylinder, almost home free

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View of parts to date. Sorry about lighting, in process of outfitting garage with all new lighting, so hopefully they will be better soon

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Started this week by turning the nut that holds the cylinder on. Straight turning and cutoff so won't bore you with the details. Pretty happy with the turnout though I rather have knurled it, but don't have one yet, so made do and this was the result

All that's left is to drill holes for intake and oil hole and also set screw for the flywheel which I'm dreading. Then on to polishing and sanding

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This has turned out to be a really nice looking engine - it just needs fastening down and firing up! Its been impressive seeing you overcome all the little problems along the way.

Fancy was one of my first of Elmer's engines and I decided to make the column from a piece of stainless - I spent hours crafting the column only to break a 1/16" drill in the intake - I then spent what seemed like days trying to get it out with pliers, tweezers, etc - eventually I spoke to a local spark erosion company, in minutes they spark eroded a hole down the centre of my drill and cleanly broke it all out - they also refused any payment!

I hope you can post a video showing your engine running. Just a word of warning - Elmer's engines can be addictive!

Kind regards

Geoff at Inky Engines
 
Thanx for the intrest, it's nice to know people are enjoying the threads, especially since I'm a beginner and the work on HMEM is often awe-inspiring.
Video will come soon if I can figure out how to post one when the time comes, especially since videos here are like women, ya just gotta have'em;)

So on to today, I was not really liking the set screw for the flywheel in Elmers plans since it seemed like it would create an off balanced flywheel. So I decided to move it closer to the center. I drilled out the flywheel to accommodate a brass insert to match the enlarged hole and turned to match the column bearing size. Need to order 5/40 set screws to finish, so may be a few days till I can confirm it's running. Pretty happy with the looks, as I feel it gives a nice contrast to the flywheel.

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I'm doin my victory dance today. Finally finished all machining to the Fancy and I'm pretty happy with the results. Started out with the polishing and also made the base out of an old gunstock. Was turned on the lathe but, did not have wood turning tools , so it was a little bit of a chore. I think it really brings out the brass. Also it is a runner. Had to change original spring as it was too stiff.

All that's left to do is order my set screws for the flywheel and am going to try to run a copper air line into the base for added appeal, we'll see what happens, but. Here are the pics.

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