SHED MATTERS. MARINE ENGINES.

[Whyperion]

Run some ducting from above the stove into the workshop ?

[Stanley]

Certainly not! I am quite happy waiting for the temperature and the urge to cut metal rise. It will happen......

[Stanley]

Reading of Deighton completed. Knee is improving. Temperature in shed is rising. I shall be in there this morning even if it's only to clean up and get in gear.

[Stanley]

Got in and did a clean-up but low temperature and my knee persuaded me that I still need to wait a while till it's warmer..... I want comfort not punishment!

[Stanley]

I think the Shed Genes must be stirring. I found myself thinking about eccentrics yesterday. Due to the design of the bed the crankshaft will have to be lifted to get the LP eccentric on the shaft. If I fit the con-rods they will stop me doing this so before I do anything with the motion I need to make the eccentrics and fit them on the shaft. Hopeful sign, my mojo is coming back!

[Stanley]

There is movement on the station!


Have just had a root in the treasure chest for a piece of 1 1/4" brass bar. Just the thing for the eccentrics. A bit of careful measuring, clean up the lathe so I can collect the swarf and there is every prospect we can get going again.

[Stanley]

Big clean up and we're ready for progress but unfortunately I have an article nagging me about the closure of my bank! Don't worry, I shall return!

[Whyperion]

From another forum and topic I got a link to these guys , just in case anyones interested.

http://www.camdenmin.co.uk/index.php

[Stanley]

Bumped

[Stanley]

Medical news from the Shed. I became almost crippled by inflamed knees but eventually realised that it was the Ibuprofen pain killers that were causing the trouble. Stopped taking them and improved wonderfully. Back to normal walks and whilst I am not 100% yet the improvement continues and there is hope for us yet! Sorry for the delay Lads, I am working on it. (My knees stink of old fashioned white liniment!)

[Stanley]

I'm happy to report we are back in the shed. A good clean up, a review of measurements and straight into making the eccentric sheaves. Friday is a busy day so I only got an hour in but got to the stage where I am ready to cut the eccentric sheaves before parting the individual eccentrics off for finishing. (Note the lathe is spotless so I can harvest the brass swarf....)
Not pushing myself, plenty of time. Limiting factor at the moment is the effect of standing for long periods on me knees, I haven't done as much standing since last December. However, lots of liniment and quietly away. Like my walking, the standing will slowly improve as I get used to it. Nice to be moving again.....

[Stanley]

Too hot to be in shed yesterday! Sorry lads....

[Stanley]

Got in before it got hot yesterday. Decided that a clean tablecloth would improve things.

Opened the saw cut marks up. Checked measurements for eccentric strap and decided that 1/4" x 1/166" deep was OK. So I cut the grooves for the straps.

I'd only been in there for just over an hour and it got to 26C. Too hot for crumblies so a quick retreat to the comparative coolness of the kitchen at 23C!

[Stanley]

Repeating a tip. Best way to ensure that the machine vise is lined up square to the saw blade is to put the biggest accurate square you have in the vice and check against the blade. Some of you may recognise the square. Made by Newton's relation J A Wilkinson while he was in America. Dead accurate and how did he engrave his name on it so well?

Careful lining up and auto feed. Beats a hacksaw hands down! (Especially on a hot day!)

Close of play. They are eccentrics now after marking out the bore 3'16" off centre. The holes are sightly undersized and will need easing to fit on the shaft. Quite enough for one morning, temperature was up at 25C in the shed. I'm getting back into the swing, amazing how rusty you get after a few months out of the shed. I'm checking everything I do, twice!

[Stanley]

Apologies lads, nothing to report because I'm taking it easy ready for the funeral today. Stressful affairs!

[Stanley]

Back in the shed....

The eccentrics are an easy fit on the shaft and have 1/4" Whit socket screws fitted ready for nipping the shaft. Today I shall try them on the shaft and check that they clear the apertures in the bed. Then any necessary adjustments, finish the faces off and break the edges and fit them. I may have to reduce the diameter round the bore to get a fit.
Slow but sure.......

[Stanley]

I went in the shed yesterday but don't get too excited, I have a few matters that have to be sorted before I am back on the engines.



We are into make do and mend, nothing more satisfying. What happened was that one of the wheels dropped off my vacuum cleaner. The problem was that the groove that retained the circlip securing the wheel had worn, the circlip had dropped off and no doubt been vacuumed up. So the groove was worn and I hadn't got a circlip small enough anyway. Solution was to drill and tap the end 3BA so I could fix a washer on the end to stop the wheel dropping off. Simples! Complete cure and a nice feeling of having beaten the system. I'm afraid that make do and mend is a dying art and it's a shame. Apart from saving money it's such a feeling of achievement when you make something whole again.

[Stanley]

The good news is we are back in the shed. I had a distraction in that I had to replace a fluorescent tube and starter but then got down to it. I stripped the bearings off the crankshaft so I could slip the eccentrics on and see the size of the rabbit. As expected I shall have to reduce the size of the boss on the HP eccentric, the LP will fit and clear the bed as it is as you can see if you look carefully. However I decided they would look better if I reduced them all at the boss end. Best tool for this is Johnny's 1927 lathe in the front room because it has smaller chucks, it would be daft to try to turn the boss eccentric in the big four jaw on the Harrison. So, get the 1927 lathe set up and sharpen the tools. By this time it was time for the noon walk and Doc walked in for a cup of tea and a natter. Nice thing about not having a boss pushing me is that this was no problem, all day today to carry on with the job. I shall enjoy using the 1927 lathe, a lovely tool and good to tell it was designed and built by a turner, everything falls to hand. Just as an aside, what a boon the rie and fall adjustment is on the cross slide, dead easy to get exact centre height with no fiddling with packing strips. Well done Birch and Johnny!

[Bodger]

Stanley, does raising the cross slide affect the toool stability on " heavy" cuts ?, ie create chatter

[Stanley]

Not a bit Bodge, rock solid but when you look at the weight of the castings compared with the light cuts no surprise, the size and fit of the post in the saddle castings helps as well.. The other factor of course is the fact that it's belt drive, no gearing to generate chatter in the first place and that's where most of it starts. The leather belt drive isn't positive, always a bit of slippage and this makes for good finishes.
The plan was to use the 4 jaw independent chuck on the 1927 lathe to cut the eccentric down concentric with the bore so it would clear the bed. However, I got a bit of a shock when I realised that there was no four jaw! I could have sworn there was and made a mental note to get one for it. Mind you, the grab on the eccentric would have been a bit dodgy because the jaws would have been spanning the sheave groove and the lack of the 4 jaw sent me down a different track. Back into the shed and knock up a mandrel ......

Here it is on the 1927 lathe.

The washer acts as a cutting guide for the depth of cut. Ideally, to clear the bed it should be smaller than this but I wanted a good depth of brass to give the socket head pinch screw a good hold. This will mean that the HP end of the bed will need easing a touch to clear the grub screw but no problem there.

Close of play, one eccentric cut, three to go. Notice that the cut isn't completely concentric but if I had gone down to a full circle the grub screw wouldn't have had enough hold. The other three are just a matter of a bit of repetition and then pop them back directly into the 3 jaw for a final cut on the face at the boss end.
Good to tell I haven't been in there for a while, I was knackered by dinnertime! Good thing was that the knees held out, I was just tired out by trotting from the front room into the shed! It must be doing me good! Nice to feel motivated again, I shall be in there again this morning!

[Stanley]

Close of play. 4 Eccentrics finished and I have got the castings out for the straps.
You won't be surprised to see that the 1927 lathe is cleaned up and all the brass chips vacuumed up from the carpet!

[Bodger]

Stanley, just curious, was the 1927 lathe a one off?

[Stanley]

Yes, Johnny wanted Birch Lathe but he'd just got married and couldn't afford one so he built his own!
On another matter, Mick contacted me the other day wanting details of the ball-turning attachment I made for the Harrison lathe. I sent him this URL:
LINK
which is the description on the old shed topic. He's going to have a crack and post his progress on here.

[Stanley]

These pics probably demonstrate why I shall never be a 'proper' engineer. The task was getting the castings for the eccentric straps into some sort of shape. Stanley's attitude to this is bang them in the vice and start cutting, bugger the measurements, just take off enough to get machined surfaces all over that are square to each other. (And yes, I should have sharpened the cutter first!)



Close of play, all the same size and some square faces, now we can start thinking about measurements and what to do next.

[Stanley]

I got side tracked yesterday and did nothing. First thing this morning is to get that bloody cutter right!