Not-So EZ Engine Build

[substandard]

I have been reading the forum for awhile and finally decided to try a build. The EZ engine plans looked about my speed so I thought I would give it a try. I had bought a 10" piece of 1/4" x 2" flat steel stock to use for the base and upright. I wanted to use aluminum but there is no local supply and I didn't want to wait. I cut the flat in half which gave me two 5" pieces, I then milled them to make two nice squared 2" x 4.5" parts. Laid out the various holes and drilled them with no trouble.

Broke out the 4-40 tap and on the 4th hole...SNAP. I had drilled a #43 (.089) hole when it should have been #42 (.093) hole. I couldn't get the tap out of the hole so the upright went to the scrap bin, and I started hunting for some more 1/4" metal to build another upright. The only thing I could find was some 1/4" x 1" aluminum bar, but the upright needed to be 2" tall. So after studying a bit on the plans, I saw that all the holes are in the upper half of the upright. :noidea: So I laid out, drilled and tapped the 1" aluminum and placed it on 1/4" diameter brass rods that are 1" tall. This gives me the clearance for the flywheel and makes the engine a bit more interesting. Here is a picture of the ugly little metal nugget. It is sitting on two 1/4" cutting bits to clear the bottom screw heads. I haven't got arount to counter sinking the heads so the base will sit flush. The camera is old and the images are less than stellar, but neither is the machining so I guess it equals out....

 

[user 1493]

I built the original EZ Build and I think that yours looks a lot more interesting. When we are doing this for a hobby, plans are just suggestions. WQe don't have to worry if the end result is identical to what the designer had in mind.

Jack

 

[bearcar1]

SS, that is a good start and a fine work around to solve your clearance problem. I'm liking so far what I think will turn out to be a neat little engine. Everyone on the forum has had a start of some sort or other and although a few have reached a higher point on the learning curve than others, they all started from ground zero and have gone through the same experiences. Keep going and be sure to share your build, they are ALL interesting to me anyway.

BC1
Jim

 

[Twmaster]

SS, that is a pretty neat workaround for your materials. Nice. Those brass stands will add a terrific personal touch to your engine.

Nice looking hunks of metal. I'll be following this.

 

[black85vette]

Adapt, improvise, and overcome! Looks really good. That is using your head to solve a problem with what you have on hand. Absolutely the way I like to work. Good job and you will have something unique to you. Thm:

 

[substandard]

Been busy with that ever pesky "real life" so not much metal has been cut. Did find time to do the dance of the ameuter machinist last night.... one step forward and two steps back.

I machined the valve body last night and when I went to mount it to the upright frame the holes didn't exactly line up.. : After searching briefly for the ultra-rare 4-40 offset bolts, I realized it was time to take the two-steps back and remake the upright.

When I made the upright, I coated the part with Dykem, scribed layout lines, and center punched the hole locations. After setting the part in the mill, I had a lot of difficulty getting the center drill located over the punch marks. So not being totally dumb (IMHO) I used a different method on the valve body. I placed the 3/4 sq stock in the mill vise, and used the edge finder to find 0,0 on one corner of the part. Zeroed out the DRO and then moved to the first hole location. Changed to a center drill, then to the correct drill bit.

I had to take the part out four times to drill all the required faces, which meant installing the edge finder, then change the collet and insert the center drill, then another collet with the drill bit. However the results were much more exact than my eyeball method, so I will remake the upright using the DROs.

 

[black85vette]

An alternate method when the locations are not critical.

1. Drill the upright with the drill needed for the tap
2. Clamp the valve body in position
3. Use the holes in the upright as guides and start the holes in the valve
4. Finish drilling the valve on the drill press or mill and then swap to larger drill bit for the screws to clear

But you used a good method. The DRO will put you right on target. Sure you have more setup to do but in the long run not having to rework parts you save time.

Trying to center on a punch is not always real accurate. I have an optical center punch that does a reasonable job. If it is not real critical I use a wiggler with the pointed tip. Use the layout dye with scribe marks and then just line up on the marks rather than a punch mark. Then I swap to a center drill so my drill won't wander.

 

[substandard]

woohoo1

Well the good news is I didn't make a mistake laying out the first upright. The bad news is I had to make another wrong upright to find out. Just got done making my new upright using the edge finder and DROs, went to fit it to the valve body and the holes are still off just a bit ??? So I took out the calipers and studied the prints and found the little gremlin causing my pain.

The valve body print calls for the mounting holes to be spaced 0.6875" apart, looking at the upright print the holes are showing 0.4375" apart. I didn't pay close attention the first time and made the 3.3125 dimension at 3.125 (which I believe is the correct dimension). Even if the correct dimension is 3.125 the math still doesn't work as 3.75 - 3.125 is 0.625 and doesn't match the 0.6875 called for in the valve body print. So tomorrow evening I will build another upright to match the valve body I have. All part of the fun... ;D

 

[black85vette]

I believe you have an older version of the plans. Go back to the down load and get the latest plans. This was found in another build and the plans revised. They are on page 11 and dated 11Nov09. Sorry, I did not catch this earlier in your post. :hDe:

 

[SAM in LA]

SS,

Don't feel bad about making a part more than once.

The drawings I built my first engine from were correct and I still had to make some parts more than once. I just looked at is as additional practice. I try to look at all the drawings to understand scratch.gif how everything fits together before I start making swarf. One of the guys has a tag line of "Making scrap, one piece at a time". My scrap, I mean recycle box, gets more and more pieces in it every day.

SAM

 

[substandard]

Once again apologies for the poor images, I am using a "Bigfoot" camera. Or to those across the pond a "Loch Ness" camera. Every picture it takes is vague and blurry but if you squint just right you can see a blob that just might be photographic edvidence of Big Foot.

Finished machining the valve body. If you look close you can see where I removed some extra stock on the back of the body. I thought it gave it a more sleek and aero-dynamic look plus it cut down on the overall weight. Both of which will come in handy if I ever decide to enter it in the Staionery Engine Races... :

The cylinder body is finished also, using some poor boy methods. Drilled the cylinder hole with a 15/32 drill, and then not having a 1/2" reamer I loaded a 1/2" center cutting end mill... :shrug: Turned the speed up on the mill and gave it a generous amount of cutting oil, after the smoke cleared (literally) the bore came out rather decent.

 

[substandard]

I have been making chips and scrap, but it is just simple machining so I didn't take any pictures. Reached the point where I need to measure and make the connecting rods and then put some air to it and hope something spins. Assuming it spins then it is off to buy a ham and try to intice tyhe Bling fairy to stop by and give it a bit of spit-n-polish.

You can see Capt. Crash in the photos, he came with an F4U Corsair model and he is considering using the engine to power his plane. We are still trying to figure out how many feet of airline we would need for take-off ??? the coin on the left is an American penny and on the right an English six pence for scale. Hopefully I can get the rods made tomorrow and post a video of the engine running, sort of a "proof of life".. ;D After the blinging I will borrow a decent camera and get some quality images....

 

[zeeprogrammer]

I have been making chips and scrap,

And an engine.
Good going!

 

[user 1493]

Looks good! Appreciate your humor. What's next?

Jack

 

[Swarf Rat]

Nice build, I like the looks of that flywheel.

 

[black85vette]

I agree, a very nice looking flywheel. Look forward to seeing it run. Thm:

 

[substandard]

Looks good! Appreciate your humor. What's next?

Jack

thanks to everyone for the kind words and support

Whats next? That's a good question. I have a few ideas but haven't settled on one just yet....

 

[substandard]

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!

Made some patchwork rods and spacers just to make sure the engine will run. Runs great on 8-10 lbs of clear steam (or compressed air). Now I need to make the proper rods and spacers to get everything lined up and looking better. Then it is off to paint & polish dept. The outdated camera takes bad pictures and even worse video, so sorry for the quality. Suprisingly the audio on the camera is great ??? which is the first thing you would want in a camera... :

 

[4156df]

It's a runner!! nice feeling, isn't it? It looks like it's running very smoothly. I'm looking forward to a clear video.
Dennis

 

[substandard]

One thing I forgot to mention was the fun in hooking up the air pressure regulator. I had about 2' of tubing hooked to one end of the regulator and I hooked the other end of the regulator into the main air line..... you should really check and make sure the regulator is in the CLOSED position before connecting live air to it : The regulator valve was wide open and the 2' of tubing started whipping around like a snake in a whirlwind. The tubing really didn';t cause any injury, but it was moving around below the uhmmm..equator and for a minute I was worried about some "equipment" damage..

When I ran the engine the screw holding the rod to the flywheel would tighten up with the movement of the wheel. After a few seconds the screw would tighten enough to bind the engine to a stop. A little blue Loc-Tite fixed it, but I wasn't happy with that solution. So I chucked up some 1/4" rod in the lathe and made a 4-40 shoulder bolt. The threaded part is 4-40, with a 1/8" diameter shoulder for the rod and spacer to pivot on. After cutting the thread with a die and then the shoulder, I parted off and placed an 1/8" collet in the lathe. This allowed me to profile the screw head.

Then with a sharp bit in the tool post and the bit set at center I used the bit to scribe a line across the center of the screw head. I made several light passes with the cross slide cutting the line slightly deeper each time. Then it was to the vise and a small piece of hacksaw blade to cut the screw slot. I was to lazy to set up the slitting saw and indexer on the mill... ;D