My first engine!

[Chitownmachine]

Well I know its been a long while since my last post, and actually my first but schools been busy and work wont let up. SO enough from the complaint department and on to what were all here for!! So I recently purchased a Taig micro lathe II and have been using that for all my turning operations. Funny how much easier it is to make tiny things on this tiny lathe, than the beast at college. Other than that, I have just been having fun and learning lots. Looking forward to feedback! Thanks!

A block!

Squarin her up!

Feelin pretty square here.

Layin out some lines

A lil action shot with my "Jiffy DIRO"

Gotta stop leavin change around

Lining up the tail stock with my cross hairs

The starting cuts for the bearing boss

Even more cuts...

Looks round to me!

 

[Chitownmachine]

Drills drills drills

Achieving Centerment!

Makin the first shaft hole

A lil bigger...

Seeing Double...decided I should make two of everything!

Putting a 30 degree on the block

Second verse same as the first!

We've got some angles

Milling a .500" hole in the back of the block for the crank and rod clearance

Using a 3/16" ball mill with block again at 30 degrees, making passes down each side to increase the visual of the block

Sorry, I forgot to take pics of the cylinder wholes, mounting, and tapping! I was just super in the zone and don't wanna break the 0-80 taps! I'll post better block shots tomorrow!
I'm spent for this eve, more pictures over the next few days!

 

[lazylathe]

Looking good so far!!

What kind of engine are you building?
From plans or your own design?

Will be following this build with interest!

Andrew

 

[metalmad]

nice start mate
u are really starting to get some equipment now
as a matter of interest how large is that little engineers vise?
Pete

 

[Chitownmachine]

Thanks!! Well the vice is a 1" toolmakers vice. Ground base, makes it easy for sitting on angle blocks and parallels. The engine design is the Kerzel Vtwin that runs on compressed air. Its made to scale off the print. The blocks dimensions is .831" X .850" X .600". The stroke and bore is .025". Thanks for looking

 

[Chitownmachine]

Cylinder Time!

We have top half of cylinder up to flange

More drills with a twist! oh and a .2480 reamer to boot!

And as always lots of oil = good!!

Drillin steel!

After using a bunch of drills progressively bigger, its time to ream!

Top half with cylinder reamed to .2480" for room to lap the pistons to the cylinders.

Double UP!

Lower half turned down to .375" with extra length for use in a collet

Time to head to class more photos later! Enjoy!

 

[student123]

Hi there Chitownmachine,

Looks like you've got a stride on with this build.
As a fellow Taig owner I'm enjoying looking at the pics. Thanks for sharing.
Whats the 'jiffy DIRO' ?

Mike

 

[Chitownmachine]

Hello! Mike, the Jiffy DIRO is my super positionable arm with magnet base and the Dial Indicator Read Out..hahah...kinda goofin with the naming, but its a super cheap and quick way to get an "accurate" X measurement. You can get something within a thou- if you take the time to square up the Indicators plunger to the channel on the right side of the cross-feed. Simple and cheap, the route im taking so far...haha!

Well heres a few more photos of the piston rods taking shape:

The blanks!

Just a dab a layout dye and a quick scribe

Locked and loaded into an 1/8" collet

Volla!

Time two

Next up turning some Aluminum Weeeeeee! Crank wheel, head blanks. Then grooving with some grooves on the top half of the steel cylinders! Time to make chips!

 

[lazylathe]

I cannot see you're pictures for the last post.

Andrew

 

[Chitownmachine]

OK.....FINALLY think I got the file size thing down pat!!! So heres some more photos.

Decided to get my groove on and start cutting the cooling grooves on the cylinders. Since I have never cut a small .020" groove before, I did some research and found that using a slitting blade set at 90 degrees to the work. So I first tried on the tool side with the piece locked into the chuck and then realized I would not be able to make the final cut with thickness of the arbor against the chuck.....crap!! Especially after squaring up the block!!!

So I did a few test runs and was getting crappy results as you might have seen from the original photo. After some thought and some more tests I decided to mount the tool on the opposite of the piece. I also mounted the blade with teeth in the opposite direction to compensate for opposite rotation seen by the tool on that side.

Cutting the grooves at .040" intervals. The piece is mounted in a collet with a nub that was turned down to fit in. The grooves were cut very sloooooow and with lots of oil. It seems for what ever reason I got better results with cleanness of the groove and less blade wabble with pulling the blade into the work instead of pushing it.

The first cylinder grooved!

And twice the groovage..

Had some time to kill, so thought I would get bored!....at .100" min bore.

Lining up the tool to the centerline. Boring a hole .278" x .060" deep for the valve to sit...

Cuttin...

Bored!

Well thats it for now! Decided to take the spring break time to head to GA with the ladyfriend Will post more when I get back to makin some chips! Thanks for looking!

 

[Chitownmachine]

Accidently deleted the first two images of the first series, and im out of town so ill fix em later...Enjoy

 

[Estaban]

Nice work so far...looking forward to seeing it come together