Shed Matters 3

[Stanley]

Once again, two pictures tell the story. I measured up and decided on the size of the stock. Then I went into the scrap box and picked two rusty candidates. Then I centred and cleaned both of them and cut one to size. The first pic shows the use of the steady rest to face the ends and get an accurate centre. The second is closing time, two pieces of clean stock, the front, shorter one is for the crankshaft, the larger one goes into stock cleaner than it came out! I cleaned up Mrs Harrison and cleaned the floor. I'm ready to oil the lathe and set up for crankshaft turning. A nice productive morning.

[BobH]

Yesterday I got the blanks for the generator lifting eyes roughed out.

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So this morning I had a lot of hand filing to do to get a nice rounded finish in all directions.

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A bit fiddly, the screw threads are 3mm.
These screwed into the top of the casing. I just needed to trim the excess from the main shaft and it was finished. The shaft has a little extra length to take an alternative pulley.

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[Tripps]

That's very skilfull to get them identcal - and by hand Well done I'm impressed.

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more David, I'm glad I was roughing out stock and not doing that!

[Stanley]

I started the morning by finishing the cleaning up of both pieces of steel, both ends faced and centred on both. Then I marked the position of the offset centre for the crank pin on both ends of the crankshaft billet.



I've decided to follow the Newton method of milling out most of the excess meat because doing it with the mill is a lot easier than a lot of slow careful offset turning so I had to turn my mind to a 7/16" cutter.





You'll not be surprised when you see the cutter in the T&C grinder. I want it as sharp as possible. Then I got set up and started cutting but stopped, I had done almost two hours and was ready for my breakfast!

[BobH]

It was a bit of a challenge to get them looking the same. I finished them off working under the bench magnifier. If they look about right magnified nobody will see the difference.

[Stanley]

Stop dodging praise Bob! They are fine and a credit to you!

[Stanley]

The first hour this morning was spent milling the meat out of the billet. I have cut about 60% out and this will make the eccentric turning fer less of a pain.



When I finished milling I sharpened my usual cutter and put it back in the mill.



Then the next half an hour was spent setting the billet up in the 4 jaw independent chuck, try it, it's more complicated than you might think! I got to the stage where I could take the first light cut down each side and across the location of the crank pin. Everything is good so I knocked off, I am set up for eccentric turning tomorrow.

[Stanley]

I went into the shed early and found my crank pin. Note the amount of stick out I ended up with on the parting tool. Not comfortable turning!



Then change the chuck for the big original Pratt 3 jaw, fit a 7/16" button in the gap to take the pressure of the centre without the stock distorting and then start the muck shifting operation to find the 3/8" shaft on each side of the crank pin. Then a knock off and shopping!

[Stanley]

I did some overtime this morning because I have to stay up and wait to see if the roofer turns up. I've turned one side down to 1/2", because that's a better size for the bearings. I can turn the rest of the shafts down to the sizes needed for the flywheel and the eccentric when the time comes. I've cleaned the chips up and I'm ready to start on the other end.... A nice morning....

[Stanley]

Only one image this morning. I've done almost two hours in the shed and finished this stage of making the crankshaft for the next Number 9 engine. (I ordered the castings yesterday.) If the shafts look a bit heavy there's a good reason, I have made them 1/2" rather than the 3/8" Stuarts ask for. I shall make the bearings that carry the shaft 1/2" to match the shaft and turn the rest of the shaft to the actual size of the flywheel and eccentric when I have made them. A nice morning.....

[Stanley]

My castings for the engine won't arrive until later this week but there are things I can do. I made the eccentric this morning and turned the shaft down to suit it. It's a good fit. The only mistake I made was to fit the Unbrako 1/8" set screw on the wrong side of the bore instead of taking advantage of the thicker metal on the opposite side which is why I make the eccentrics like this. So, it has two tapped holes. If necessary it can have two set screws fitted.

[Stanley]

I was early in the shed and early out this morning. I just did two things, turned the other end of my crankshaft down to 3/8" and gave Mrs Harrison a really good clean.

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The shaft is ready to install and I am expecting the castings to arrive today or tomorrow at the latest.

[Stanley]

I was right, later this morning this arrived.... I have a project again and therefore cannot die....

[Stanley]

The job this morning was to unpack the castings from the shrink wrap and get my ducks in a row. Two things took up a lot of time. The first was finding these two drain valves which I had carefully stowed away. That took almost half an hour but we now have them nailed down. Another matter was that it struck me it was far too long since I had replaced the battery in my multi meter so I did that.



Here is the main matter. I have all the castings sorted and am now ready to get on with engine buildings.

[BobH]

Some used to say to get your ducks all in a row before starting. I prefer the saying of one of my work mates who always said to set out your stall before opening. A good build always benefits from a bit of thought first.
Today I was deflected though still in the garage and workshop. I am going to do a trip much further than the local tip with my trailer and it has thrown off one of the wheel bearing covers again. So I have removed the hub and added two tapped holes for grub screws to keep the cover in place. The other one is original and a good tight fit. The replacement slides in too easily and therefore drops out on the first bump. I found some 1/4” whit grub screws in my box so have used those. It seemed appropriate to use imperial sizes as the hubs come from the rear of the original BMC Mini. Metric just wouldn’t do.

So do you all think that they should have a drop of locking compound on them? 2 grub screws placed at 90degrees round the hub.

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[Stanley]

Put a drop on Bob, nowt like making sure!

[Stanley]

It's clean the castings day and this is what we are looking at, a good half hour at the vice with files and for some flash, at the grindstone.



Once the castings had their first cleaning I put the flywheel in the chuck and did some serious turning. I was lucky, there was only one hard shop. Then I bored it for the shaft.



This was knocking off time, the flywheel is fitted to the shaft. It needs finishing, painting and polishing, but this is a good start. A good two hours.....

[Stanley]

Only an hour because of early doors shopping so I concentrated on the box bed. I did a bit of careful high risk milling to give it a smooth flat bottom! (Not a lot of hold on the sloping sides but I got away with it....)



Then on to the bed of the horizontal mill. HMs are out of fashion these days but there are still operations where they can not be equalled, this is one of them. One pass with the slabbing cutter and it's done....



Still some work to do but we are a lot further forward. A good hour's work!

[Stanley]

Two hours working on the castings and just as yesterday, i started with files and did an hour of manual labour. (It must be good for me!)



Then I got into high risk milling again, I have just finished milling the target face of the bed. I checked and it's dead square, that's a relief!



Here we are at knocking off time, the box bed is ready for fitting. The engine bed needs work on the beds for the pedestal bearings but that needs a different set up in the mill. A good 2 hours and no mistakes. Just one general point. I could spend a lot more time on the castings but I like my castings to look like castings. The old engine makers only did what I am doing, working on the essentials.

[MickBrett]

A nice bit of fettling, Stanley

[Stanley]

Thanks Mick. Amazing how much difference you can make with a bit of filing and milling but as I say, I don't want to go any further than I have to, I like castings to look like castings.....

[Stanley]

First job was to mill the beds for the bottom brasses to the right size.



Then some woodwork, plugging the bore so I could locate a centre. Not a pretty sight!



Once I had a centre I could locate the face of the valve. I've done that and also set the width of the valve face. I've left it on the mill vise because I need to mill an exhaust port and it will never be better set up than it is now.
A nice morning.....

[Stanley]

I was already set up in the mill so today's first job was to cut the exhaust port in the valve face, drill the passage into it from the exit point and face the pad ready for the flanged end of the pipe.



Next I set the cylinder up as accurately as I could and faced the ends off square and the correct length to accept the steam chest, 2 1/8".



Knocking off time. I've been lucky and all faces are square and the right size. I'm ready to set the cylinder up again and bore it. Different timing but good work and I enjoyed it. (Yes, I have chased my chips and the3 mill is clean.... )

[Stanley]

Today was all about getting the cylinder set up and boring it to 1.5" diameter. As usual, the centering of the bore was a compromise because castings are never 100% accurate.



This was knocking off time. Quite a clean bore but note there are a couple of blow holes at one end. They will not do any harm and will soon fill with oil. A quiet careful two hours and I think we are OK.