Silver Bullet in progress

[Mosey]

;D ??? I am posting some pictures of my Silver Bullet that I have been working on for many years, off and on. I am now motivated to finish this little guy, and see it run. This is more a voyage of discovery and learning. Oh, did I mention that there have been mistakes along the way for this beginner. Take a look and please let me have your comments, critical or otherwise.

 

[Mosey]

;D ??? I am posting some pictures of my Silver Bullet that I have been working on for many years, off and on. I am now motivated to finish this little guy, and see it run. This is more a voyage of discovery and learning. Oh, did I mention that there have been mistakes along the way for this beginner. Take a look and please let me have your comments, critical or otherwise.

 

[chuck foster]

looking good !!!!

can't wait to see it run

chuck

 

[stevehuckss396]

Finally got you to post it up. Looks very cool!

Steve

 

[Mosey]

?Steve, I want to discuss the next steps in making this engine with you. Should I email you, or put it on this post?

 

[bearcar1]

Post up here, we all want to tag along on this ride, at least I do. ;D

BC1
Jim

 

[stevehuckss396]

?Steve, I want to discuss the next steps in making this engine with you. Should I email you, or put it on this post?

Both would be fine. I will help all I can but don't limit your self to just me. There are some extremely talented people here that will be glad to help you also.

 

[Mosey]

Here goes.
The method Bob suggested for the water pump was to make it out of a large rod (1-1/2") turning and boring in the 4-jaw. I suspect he may not have used or liked a mill.
Here's my proposed method.
Do all the boring and layout on the mill table, rod vertical in the vise, using the DRO's for layout, after centering it of course. Start with a near finish diameter rod, 7/8" diameter. Make the backing plate from just that, 1/8" thick plate, separately. You still have to make the backing plate and the rear of the housing really flat and mate together. A little water-pump gasket cement, or other sealant might be needed. You could easily make the backing plate, mate it to the housing, bolt it to the back of the housing and bore the shaft holes. Take off the plate, then bore the 2 gear holes. Make sense??
Then you can turn that eccentric nose for the output shaft on the lathe in the 4 jaw of course.
By the way, I make my gears from scratch because I am too dumb to buy stock. Already made the timing gears, so what's a few more. They are fun. I make hobs, heat treat them, and cut away. After about 3 or 4 times around the dial in the rotary table you have them at full depth of the tooth cut.
By the way, I already see that this really helps me learn, because I have to think out what I am going to do before posting it. Eureka!!

 

[Speedy]

keep us updated

also, both pistons go up and down together? but one just fires on each revolution?

 

[Mosey]

keep us updated

also, both pistons go up and down together? but one just fires on each revolution?

According to the plans, the crankshaft is designed with both mains in line on a common axis. Now I don't know how we are going to get them to fire correctly??

 

[stevehuckss396]

They fire as follows.

0 degrees 1 fires, 2 starts intake stroke
180 degrees 1 starts exhaust stroke, 2 starts compression stroke
360 degrees 1 starts intake stroke, 2 fires
540 degrees 1 starts compression stroke, 2 starts exhaust stroke.
720 degrees 1 fires, 2 starts intake stroke

You get a power stroke every 360 degrees.

 

[Mosey]

Does that mean I have to distribute the sparks to the plugs separately, cause the ignition is by breaker off the camshaft, once per revolution. Or do you waste a spark and let the opening and closing of the valves control combustion? I am very unsure here.

 

[kf2qd]

Classic wasted spark setup. Fewer parts, fewer failures.

 

[Mosey]

I am working on building the water pump, and have been sidetracked by some confusion in the plans.
The body of the pump is .780"
The 2 gears are supposed to be .250" OD, running in .251" bores.
Face .220
10 tooth
Bore .125" shaft
PD .315"
and
the gear centers are supposed to be .315" so that the gears mesh with each other their full tooth depth. This obviously doesn't work.

So, I need to enlarge the gears so that they actually overlap their tooth depth. When I figure out what size gears to use I will further post this info.

I have been test boring the gear bores to learn how to handle these HSS boring bars, and find cuts of about 5-10 thousands at a time at the slowest spindle speed works well (brass).

Also, what do you think about mounting the gears on the shafts with tiny Woodruff keys instead of the Loctite? I know that the Loctite will work, but are we not building these tiny engines to have fun? and wouldn't making little keys be fun? and show off to our friends? Actually, MSC has them 1/16" x 1/4". Hmm.

By the way, why does that guy on the MIT videos raise the knee to bore and drill, when the quill is much better IMHO. My knee doesn't have stops. My quill does and it can be set to bore to a fixed depth, and it's easier to control and move up and down? Please enlighten this newbie about drilling and boring on the mill.

 

[kuhncw]

I pulled my Silver Bullet drawing for the water pump and see different numbers. The drawing says REV 2 and the date is 15 April 2000.

The body dia checks at 0.780. The gear pockets say bore 0.343 dia by 0.220 deep. Gear centers are shown as 0.281.

The gears are shown as Berg part number PW32B-9, OD 0.343, and PD0.2812

I have not checked the numbers to see if things mesh, I'm just letting you know what is on my print.

Regards,

Chuck Kuhn

 

[Mosey]

I pulled my Silver Bullet drawing for the water pump and see different numbers. The drawing says REV 2 and the date is 15 April 2000.

The body dia checks at 0.780. The gear pockets say bore 0.343 dia by 0.220 deep. Gear centers are shown as 0.281.

The gears are shown as Berg part number PW32B-9, OD 0.343, and PD0.2812

I have not checked the numbers to see if things mesh, I'm just letting you know what is on my print.

Regards,

Chuck Kuhn

My plans are dated 4/15/00, (not 15 April 2000) but I dug up a later sheet dated 12/12/00, no revision date.
Anyway, the later one shows the same dimensions that yours does. No harm done, cause i treated the first one as a test piece.
Thank you very much for that updated information.

 

[kuhncw]

It sounds like you have the correct information on your plans. My drawing shows 4/15/2000. I'd just written the date in a different way in my post. That must be the date of the original drawing and my drawing shows no date for the revision. What revision number is on your two water pump drawings?

Regards,

Chuck

 

[Mosey]

The drawings both have REV 0 on them. One of the them is the sheet #SB-18, 4/15/00, and the other is WP-1 12/12/00. I keep one set in the shop and one in the office. Obviously Bob gave me the later WP-1 and I forgot I had it years ago. He also gave me several other explanatory sheets, such as ones for the radiator.
If you have the plans for the Silver Bullet, did you build it? and would you share your model with us?

 

[kuhncw]

The Silver Bullet is next on my build list. Currently I am finishing up a single cylinder hit & miss and I'll post some photos of it in a few weeks. I have taken a few squaring up cuts on the Silver Bullet block. Unfortunately I like to modify engine designs and that complilcates things. I want to build the Silver Bullet with the pistons traveling 180 degrees out of phase which will change the cam and the igniton. I plan to make the cylinder block about 0.25 taller than print. Why cut off all that good aluminum? That means longer rods. So anyway, I've got some design work to do and then I have to remember what I've changed. Once I get going, I'll post some progress notes. It will be a couple months though.

Good luck with your build, and please keep us posted.

Regards,

Chuck

 

[Mosey]

I have the water pump almost done and will put up some pics shortly. Does anyone remember how to find the nice article on making hobs and cutting gears that I think was in Model Engine Builder magazine about 5 years ago? Nope, it is Strictly IC magazine, Vo. 7, No. 40, August/September 1994.
I will make the 2 water pump gears when I find it. I know there are gear wires available from Berg, but I enjoy making those little guys.
Then onward and upward for the fan assembly.
I apologize for the sloth, but work and life intrudes you know. Anyhow, this is really learning how every step of the way for me. Do you think that making a multi-cylinder engine from billet is such a great idea for a beginner? My second engine, after an Upshur single. He was a great gentleman I had the privilege to know.