My Dad's Shop
- Thread starter GreenTwin
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Dave-
Thanks much for the kind words.
We are going to remain optimistic.
They have some pretty good treatment options these days, and we are grateful for that.
Best of luck to you too !
Pat J
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Thanks much for the kind words.
We are going to remain optimistic.
They have some pretty good treatment options these days, and we are grateful for that.
Best of luck to you too !
Pat J
.
Your dad was really talented, and blessed with a great work ethic. That houseboat itself would be a lifetime achievement for many, unthinkable for most.
Just the raw stock in those racks and bins is worth a small fortune these days! Great tribute to him keeping your shop nearly the same as he had it! Glad you are keeping his dreams alive. So many of us grow up knowing our Dads were good at something, but most do not continue in their footsteps, and later realize just how good they were.
My dad had a small shop with lathe and mill, but I had no room to get it when he passed. I now have plenty of space, so had to build up my shop from scratch. I did inherit a Stuart Twin Launch kit he barely started before he passed. Took a few years, but I finally got around to finishing it for him. A thread here:
https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/another-stuart-twin-launch-build-started.31962/
Just the raw stock in those racks and bins is worth a small fortune these days! Great tribute to him keeping your shop nearly the same as he had it! Glad you are keeping his dreams alive. So many of us grow up knowing our Dads were good at something, but most do not continue in their footsteps, and later realize just how good they were.
My dad had a small shop with lathe and mill, but I had no room to get it when he passed. I now have plenty of space, so had to build up my shop from scratch. I did inherit a Stuart Twin Launch kit he barely started before he passed. Took a few years, but I finally got around to finishing it for him. A thread here:
https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/another-stuart-twin-launch-build-started.31962/
ajoeiam
Well-Known Member
My wife has developed her needlework hobbies.
So when she is along and I get to yakking - - - - well she is enjoying herself.
(Her yarn stash is almost growing on a nova level - - - - wow!)
a41capt
Well-Known Member
That large can of Kasenit is something to hang on to!
Thanks GreenTwin really enjoyed looking at the photos and reading your comments.
Sadly in this electronic google world much of the hands on, making your own tools, thinking it out for yourself, skill is being lost.
At just 8 years old I started building balsa wood planes and stuff. I have done it on and off (in between raising 4 girls and making a living) for over 66 years.
I am now 74 and only in recent years have indulged in lathes, mills, building steam engines and model boats.
I am still learning new things and will continue to do so, as your Dad obviously did.
My message to anyone who will listen out there is; never stop learning, and use your hands as our creator intended!
All the best
Mike. Tasmania, Australia
Sadly in this electronic google world much of the hands on, making your own tools, thinking it out for yourself, skill is being lost.
At just 8 years old I started building balsa wood planes and stuff. I have done it on and off (in between raising 4 girls and making a living) for over 66 years.
I am now 74 and only in recent years have indulged in lathes, mills, building steam engines and model boats.
I am still learning new things and will continue to do so, as your Dad obviously did.
My message to anyone who will listen out there is; never stop learning, and use your hands as our creator intended!
All the best
Mike. Tasmania, Australia
a41capt
Well-Known Member
I have a small can left. I use it for surface hardening flintlock frizzens. When it’s gone I’ll have to find an alternative.
John W
I am in same boat I can that use .
I hope to find a formula that I can find from local suppliers.
Dave
I hope to find a formula that I can find from local suppliers.
Dave
Richard Hed
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Van Diemens Land?
David-
Thanks for the thoughtful words.
I looked at your great Stuart Twin Launch build thread.
Lots of good information there.
I have not used the tapered hubs yet, but I have a feeling I may end up using those before it is all said and done.
Great shop and shop equipment ! Most impressive.
Edit:
And great Solidworks models.
I learned Solidworks in 2012, and basically used the green twin osciallator design as a way to learn 3D modeling.
Dad could build things like an Energizer Bunny.
From the teaching and documentation side, he preferred to focus on the builds, and keep everything else minimal.
I did not want to lose the design work that he did, and the build work when he used existing drawings by others, but was unsure exactly where to ever start reverse engineering it all.
Dad's hand-drawings on vellum contained just enough information to work out the basic dimensions and functional geometry of an engine.
My first attempt to fully document one of dad's engines (I think it was in 2008) (photo of engine below) was a comical affair.
I took the engine apart, and measured every piece and hole using digital vernier calipers.
I was well versed with 2D drawings using AutoCad, and so I drew up a set.
After moving the sketches for the mating pieces over each other, I realized that none of the hole patterns matched up.
The drawing set was completely usable, and the measurements with the calipers were both inaccurate, and random, ie: a hole may have been measured at 0.249867" instead of a nomimal 0.25" (yes, I was totally clueless about engine design and measurements for engines).
This was an extremely frustrating attempt/total failure creating engine drawings.
I was then faced with the task of reassembling the engine, and had to learn how engines were correctly assembled and aligned.
I did get the engine assembled correctly, by carefully installing one item at a time, starting with the crankshaft, making sure every part moved easily, but without excess clearance.
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I have never used it, and like many things on dad's shelf, I don't know how to use it.
I guess get a part hot, and then dunk it into the Kasenit, and don't breath the fumes.
I still have much to learn, but have been focusing on the foundry side of things, and making castings in gray iron, so not really using bar stock and steel.
Is steel the only thing that can be used with the Kasenit?
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I must agree, young people are not building things like they use to.
We made crystal radios, all sorts of electro-mechanical gizmos, model airplanes (which had a half life of about 1 day after they were finished), model rockets, mini-bikes, scooters made from a 2x4 with roller skate wheels, you name it.
The balsa that was in those early airplane kits was really featherweight.
You can't even buy that quality balsa anymore.
I am scheming to make a Trawler, and debating on the size, but perhaps something between 36" and 72" long.
I have not made a model boat yet, but would really like to make a model Frisco Standard gas engine to put in it.
I have the Frisco Standar about designed.
I am a poster child for learning how to machine and design engines, and make castings, late in life.
I learned it all starting in earnest in about 2009.
Some Frisco Standard screen captures below.
Patterns will be 3D printed, and the parts cast in gray iron.
JasonB (the prolific builder from the UK) figured out the helical gear design for me; I was stumpted on that to say the least.
I did not realize you could have two helical gears the same diameter, with teeth angles that give a 2:1 ratio.
Somehow I thought the gear diameters had to be 2:1, but they can actually be the same diameter (I still don't quite understand it exactly).
These gears will be cast in gray iron, and with resin-bound sand, I think I can cast them accurately enough so that they can be used without machining them, other than the hole for the shaft.
I intend to let the resin-sand harden fully, then heat the mold enough to get the 3D gear print hot enough to become flexible enough to carefully removed from the mold. I am not going let the plastic get molten, else it will imbed in the sand.
With ceramic mold wash, the finish should be bright and shiny, with no sand grain imprint in the castings.
The resin-bound sand is quite accurate, and this method will produce an exact copy of the gears, since it is much like the lost wax method, but far easier and simpler than lost wax.
The ceramic mold coat mimics what would be used in the lost wax process, and produces an excellent grain-free surface finish.
And the entire helical gear machining process is sidestepped by casting the gears.
No special cutters needed since there is no machining, and the gears can be 3D printed in any size, to any scale, without having to adhere to standard gear cutter sizes.
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Here are some photos of dad's multitude of engines/car/steam bikes that he built.
He started I think with the extremely simple wobbler that had the wood frame, and built ever-increasingly complex engines as he learned.
He started I think with the extremely simple wobbler that had the wood frame, and built ever-increasingly complex engines as he learned.
Some larger photos, starting with the initial simple builds.
I have roughly catagorized dad's engines into six categories; not scientific, but just to illustrate the progression of his models/engines.
This is Level 01.
I have roughly catagorized dad's engines into six categories; not scientific, but just to illustrate the progression of his models/engines.
This is Level 01.
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This was what I consider dad's Level 02 engine builds.
The drawings for the Frisby were published by someone else in Live Steam.
The drawings for the Frisby were published by someone else in Live Steam.
Level 3 started getting more complex..
Level 4 became sort of a game of pick a more challenging engine design and find out if it can be built.
All of the engines that dad built run very well.
Some were given away as gifts.
Some were retained by other family members.
I still have perhaps 16 of them.
All of the engines that dad built run very well.
Some were given away as gifts.
Some were retained by other family members.
I still have perhaps 16 of them.
Level 5 was a game between my dad and Tom Lindsay who ran Lindsay books.
Tom would send dad a book with engravings of an engine in it, and say "I bet you can't build this one".
Sort of the proverbial "throw-down challenge".
Dad would build two engines, and mail one of them to Tom Lindsay, with some sort of response like "Is this all you got?".
Tom would send dad a book with engravings of an engine in it, and say "I bet you can't build this one".
Sort of the proverbial "throw-down challenge".
Dad would build two engines, and mail one of them to Tom Lindsay, with some sort of response like "Is this all you got?".
Level 6 was a venture into full sized engines/auto/steam bicycles.
The steam auto was featured in one of Lindsay's books, as was the Roper steam bicycle.
Dad built a Roper replica, and a buddy of his had to have it, so he built a second Roper Replica (I think the first one looked better in my opinion).
Everything was scratch built, including the gears in the auto differential.
The steam auto was featured in one of Lindsay's books, as was the Roper steam bicycle.
Dad built a Roper replica, and a buddy of his had to have it, so he built a second Roper Replica (I think the first one looked better in my opinion).
Everything was scratch built, including the gears in the auto differential.
