Swifty's build of Howell V4

[ICEpeter]

Hello Swifty,
Going back a little to the point raised by Charles Lamont regarding the through hole that connects the oil pump inlet with the oil pump outlet, I am afraid but Charles was correct in saying the oil pump will just circulate the oil between the inlet and outlet and not develop pressure.

It appears you and some other people building the Howell V4 made a booboo there.

I just checked the Howell V4 oil pump drawing and noticed on the drawing that the inlet and outlet ports are only supposed to be drilled 0.26" deep from each side. With the oil pump housing being 0.67" wide and drilling the two ports 0.26" deep would leave a center section of 0.15" which serves as the barrier / seal between the inlet and outlet port.

I have not build the Howell V4 yet but plan to do so. At this point I only have the set of drawings to look at and digest.

Have been following your build thread and like what I see especially the high quality of your workmanship. Will follow your thread to get an education in how to build the V4.

Peter J.

 

[Swifty]

Peter, thank you, you are absolutely correct in what you say. Looks like I'm not the only one to fall for that, I will either fill it up with solder or 2 part aluminium epoxy.

Paul.

 

[Swifty]

Another day and a couple of more small parts done, if I keep pecking away at it, I will eventually get it all done. I machined up the fan shaft and pulley, I don't always do a step by step for each part, but decided to take a few pictures today.

First job was to turn the outside to size, then drill and ream a 5/16"hole in the middle.


Next step was to line up my pulley grooving tool that I had made for the oil pump pulley, and machine the grooves.


After that, I relieved the centre portion.


And then, parted off and trimmed to length.


Next, I held it in my 5C collet block and drilled the holes ready for tapping.




Paul.

 

[Swifty]

Next on the list was to machine the fan hub, all straight forward turning, drilling and boring as per drawing. The drawing allows for optional scallops between where the fan blades are attached, no dimensions were given for position, just said a .250 dia. cutter. I always try to think ahead when machining parts, and I thought that those scallops may be handy locations for when I machine the slots for the fan blades to fit in. So a quick draw up in CAD and I had the positions for the scallops, which I made 8mm dia. So off to the mill, and held the bar in a V block sitting in the vice, couldn't be bothered to set up a chuck, and machined the scallops as well as some mounting holes. Back into the lathe to part off, next problem, how to hold a 5 sided part in a 3 jaw chuck to face the part to size. Another quick fixture with a screw in the side solved that problem.






I also machined up the fan shaft post and fan post bracket which eventually holds all the parts.



Paul.

 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Paul
Nice work, it`s a piece of art! Silly me is just at the PC drawings all the time I expected to do real work....................:wall::wall::wall:
Regards
Gerhard

 

[petertha]

Your radius profile tool caught my eye. I cant quite tell if its an insert or integrally ground on a rectangular tool. Can you elaborate?

(After some so-so results profiling the trumpet shape of my SS valves with home ground HSS, I ended up getting a circular insert type holder).

 

[Swifty]

Petertha, it is an insert tool, they are called "Top Notch" inserts. I kept it when I retired from work and closed my toolroom, I had one packet of radius inserts as shown in the picture, as well as quite a few straight ones that can be ground to any shape you want. I also have some 60 deg profile ones for threading. They are double ended inserts, I'll take a photo next time I'm in the workshop.

Paul.

 

[Swifty]

Petertha, here are some pictures of the tool and inserts. The insert in the tool has a 45 deg chamfer.



Radius insert, they are double ended, have to flip them.



And some other inserts, radius, thread cutting, full width and one ground down.



I also have a few internal ones, the top groove is the opposite hand, but no holder.

Paul.

 

[Swifty]

Well that all went well, I made a fixture for the fan hub to enable me to cut the slots for the blades. A block of scrap aluminium, a couple of dowel holes and a tapped hole.



I just tilted the fixture at the required angle, lined up the saw, and cut the slots.




Paul.

 

[Swifty]

I drew up the fan blades in CAD and printed them out actual size, next step was to use some spray adhesive and stick the drawing onto a piece of brass sheet. Now all I need to do is buy a jewelers saw to cut them out, not so easy it seems, local hardware stores no longer stock them, there is a lapidary shop 30 minutes away, I will be passing them tomorrow, so will call in to see if they can help, otherwise it's another wait for Ebay delivery.



Also managed to get the oil dipstick sub assembly done, quite pleased with the results.




Paul.

 

[V22]

Swifty, just a quick note to say I'm really enjoying the work-holding photos your posting in this thread. I can see your experience in a tool room shining. It's one thing seeing a beautiful part, but the lasting value is in the knowledge you're sharing of the process to get that part.

I can see with your fan fins, your jig is design to keep the correct index for each cut. Then the jig for facing the irregular shaped part on the lathe. Swifty magic!

 

[Swifty]

V22, I'm glad that your enjoying the build, it's nice to share things. I also pick up tips from other builds as well. I probably should take more pictures of the machining operations, I tend to think that it's pretty straight forward, but there are those who don't have the experience who could hopefully benefit.

Paul.

 

[petertha]

I drew up the fan blades in CAD and printed them out actual size, next step was to use some spray adhesive and stick the drawing onto a piece of brass sheet.

Really enjoying your work. Re the brass cut-outs, how thick is the metal itself? Are you using a hand jewelers saw or powered scroll saw? What kind of blade?

Reason I ask is I had so-so results on my Dewalt scroll saw despite playing with blade TPIs & rpm. What improved matters was tack glueing the brass onto scrap 1/8" mdf backing board. But this brass was quite thin, maybe 0.020" & not actually sure the alloy. Maybe a shim stock cut-off. I've seen people do intricate brass scroll cutouts like clock gear wheels even 1/4" thick. I'm kind of intrigued with that because my aluminum experiments were very slow going.

 

[Swifty]

Petertha, I deviated from the drawing slightly with the blade thickness. The drawing calls for .032" thick, but I had some .040" sheet so I am using that, it worked out well as I had a 1mm (.040") saw to suit. I will be using a hand held jewellers saw and file on the blades, I had a scroll saw years ago, but sold it as I was no longer using it. Not sure of the grade of brass that I have, but it is fairly stiff, so should suit it well. I may well use your method of sticking the sheet to a thin wood base, it should support things better.

I often wish that I was making engines when I had a toolroom, the wire cutter would have made short work of the blades, but I was so busy making a living and keeping the work flow going that I had no spare time.

Paul.

 

[gus]

Paul is correct.At knock time we are about exhausted and heading home .

 

[Swifty]

I'm probably a bit impatient, but I didn't want to wait 3 weeks for a jewelers saw to come from China, so I barged ahead with machining the fan blades. Fist step was to drill some clamping holes at each end of the blades, then cut out the rough blanks on my bandsaw. With a M3 screw and nut in each end, the blanks made a solid bundle. I used a scriber on a surface gauge to pick up the printed line, and machined away carefully until the line was reached. I then clamped the stack down and machined the ends as best I could. The small toolmakers clamps on the end are only to stop the excess from pushing away.




I cut the clamped ends off with a hacksaw and filed the ends to shape, I had a few spare blades clamped as well. After deburring with a needle file, the parts were ready for bending. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked the size of the blades to drawing dimensions, they were within .005" of true size, not bad for working to a printed line.



For the bending jig, I set up a scrap piece of aluminium in the mill, then set the boring head to the required radius and machined enough to cover the blade length. The other part of the bending jig was easy, just turned up a diameter to suit and tapped a hole to suit a rod that I had. With the bottom part of the die clamped in the vice and centered, and the top located on a shank in the mill, it was an easy job to bend the blades.



The drawing calls for the blades to be loctited in and then pinned, but I decided to solder the blades in. I dipped the end of each blade in paste flux and inserted them into the hub, once set up, gently warming the hub with my MAP torch until the flux melted and it was hot enough to melt the silver solder. Everything flowed well, gently heating is the best approach. I polished off some of the heat marks, but I intend to buy a sand blaster shortly, so that will give a nice matt finish to the fan.



Paul.

 

[oneKone]

These Howell engines seem to be popular! Great work on the build so far

 

[Swifty]

Thanks Chris001, I'm just dawdling along making parts when I have a chance. The Howell engines are certainly not for the novice or feint hearted. There are a few parts that I'm not looking forward to making, like the water pump for one example.

Paul.

 

[oneKone]

I totally agree with you, I would love to make one but unfortunately I'm too inexperienced to make one. I'm happy people on this forum make them so I can see how much work goes into one.

 

[gus]

Thanks Chris001, I'm just dawdling along making parts when I have a chance. The Howell engines are certainly not for the novice or feint hearted. There are a few parts that I'm not looking forward to making, like the water pump for one example.

Paul.

Chris001.

Paul is correct. I spent more two week with the Gear Type Oil Pump and not getting anywhere. Scrapped two pump covers and two pump body.
However I am getting somewhere with good practice. Every time you scrap a piece, you learnt from the mistakes and its usually related to impatience with these very small parts.:rant::wall: