Ok enough lurking from me. I thought I better post something.
This is my first ever model engine, so things could well go horrible wrong :
I didn't originally plan to start building this engine until I'd made some of the projects in Harold Hall's Lathework a Complete Course, however when I started turning down and facing off what I thought was a 40mm dia bar of mild steel I'd got from a local "recycler" I ended up with lots of short chips and gray dust rather than the shiny swarf I was expecting. After a bit of googling and a quick test with the angle grinder I reckon I've got a 2 1/2ft bar of cast iron sitting here , not bad for £5. ;D
Cast iron isn't much use for what I was planning, so a change of plan... what to make? Luckily I'd picked up my yearly copy of Model Engineer some time back with a free copy of Jan Ridders internal valved flame eater which was on my todo list once I'd got the required materials.
So far I've completed all the turning operations. The cooling fins required a bit of a recalculation as I don't possess a thin enough parting tool to the produce 2mm grooves specified. My replaceable tip tool is more like 1/8", yes I could have ground a new tool, if I had the skill and the tool steel : After a bit on fiddling with numbers I ended up with 6 fins 1.6mm thick rather than 8 x 2mm. Cutting the grooves was fun......
Boring the 18mm bore meant me having to buy a new boring bar, the one I got from Axminster with my lathe was only 40mm long, the cylinder is 50mm long, so £20 for a Glanze boring bar from Chronos (this could be an expensive hobby) I then had to modify my tool holder by milling 3mm off the top to allow me to get the boring bar up to anything resembling centre height.. I feel the need for a qctp in the future.
After parting off and facing to length I've ended up with this..
another photo
So that's the turning done on the cylinder, the next job is scaring me a bit. I need to drill a 4mm hole, 50mm deep though those fins..... Any advise so I don,t end up with wandering drill bits?
This is my first ever model engine, so things could well go horrible wrong :
I didn't originally plan to start building this engine until I'd made some of the projects in Harold Hall's Lathework a Complete Course, however when I started turning down and facing off what I thought was a 40mm dia bar of mild steel I'd got from a local "recycler" I ended up with lots of short chips and gray dust rather than the shiny swarf I was expecting. After a bit of googling and a quick test with the angle grinder I reckon I've got a 2 1/2ft bar of cast iron sitting here , not bad for £5. ;D
Cast iron isn't much use for what I was planning, so a change of plan... what to make? Luckily I'd picked up my yearly copy of Model Engineer some time back with a free copy of Jan Ridders internal valved flame eater which was on my todo list once I'd got the required materials.
So far I've completed all the turning operations. The cooling fins required a bit of a recalculation as I don't possess a thin enough parting tool to the produce 2mm grooves specified. My replaceable tip tool is more like 1/8", yes I could have ground a new tool, if I had the skill and the tool steel :
After a bit on fiddling with numbers I ended up with 6 fins 1.6mm thick rather than 8 x 2mm. Cutting the grooves was fun......Boring the 18mm bore meant me having to buy a new boring bar, the one I got from Axminster with my lathe was only 40mm long, the cylinder is 50mm long, so £20 for a Glanze boring bar from Chronos (this could be an expensive hobby) I then had to modify my tool holder by milling 3mm off the top to allow me to get the boring bar up to anything resembling centre height.. I feel the need for a qctp in the future.
After parting off and facing to length I've ended up with this..
another photo
So that's the turning done on the cylinder, the next job is scaring me a bit. I need to drill a 4mm hole, 50mm deep though those fins..... Any advise so I don,t end up with wandering drill bits?
