Shed Matters 3

[Stanley]

I was in the shed in good time and spent half an hour finishing the shaft for the steam pump.



Then another half an hour fitting the flywheel in the pump block. It's tight but an accurate fit. I've scratched that itch and put the casting set away. We have a 10H to make!





I went straight into the base and the bed and immediately ran into the problem of chilled castings. What can I say. I did the best I could using my one and only carbide cutter and the grinding wheel for the worst bits. I faced the target and ended up with Most of the fettling of the two castings done.



Here I am at knocking off time after a very generous two hours. There is more to do to them but the main faces are OK. Tomorrow I shall sharpen my cutters and then look to see what wants doing to the castings.

[Stanley]

First job yesterday was to sharpen the cutters blunted by the cold shops in the castings.



Then the bed casting went in the vise for some fettling.





Next I fitted the bronze bearing casting to the horns on the bed.



Next I set up the bed casting on an angle plate so I could bore it accurately on the VM.



End of the morning's work on the bed casting.



The first job tomorrow will be to tram the vise in on the VM ready for the next moves.

[Stanley]

As promised my first job was to tram the vise in using the old ball bearing trick. Not dead accurate but closer than my ability to measure! Then, not documented with an image but I went onto the T&C grinder again to rescue the smaller cutter I sharpened yesterday but made a horlicks of when I gulleted it. In the end I gave up on it, I might have another crack at it later but I am not wasting any more time on it now.



I spent a while doing more fettling on the bed and the base and then put the bed on the table to drill the holding down bolt holes 7BA clear which is 2.6mm.



I used the bed to mark the base and drilled and tapped the end holes at the cylinder end. Then I fitted the bed, bolted it down and lined it up correctly. Then I used the bed as the template to drill the two holes at the flywheel end.



Here we are at knocking off time after two hours. I have to strip the bed off the base, tap the holes and drill the lugs for the holding down screws. Not a bad morning......

[Stanley]

As promised yesterday I started the day by tapping the two remaining holes in the bed, cutting and fitting studs and drilling the holding down lugs on the base.



Here we are ready to address the fitting of the pedestal bearings.



The first thing to do was cut the castings to the correct size and square them up.



Next I drilled them 7BA clear for the holding down bolts and also made the oil hole in the centre.



Here we are at knocking off time, ready to bore the bearings to suit the shaft and fix them to the bed.
A good two hours, I enjoyed it!

[BobH]

Here is an interesting page that came up on Facebook
http://www.stuartturnersteam.com/Marine ... Va5XI4ci1o

Not sure if you will be able to see it but it was so good I thought it was worth a try.

[Stanley]

It played fine Bob. Never seen that one before and what a lovely job of refurbishing. I wish I could do work at that level.... I've never seen a model engine run nicer.

[Stanley]

I started by doing some careful measuring.





Then I bored the pedestal bearings and fitted the crankshaft. Before I finish the bearings and bolt them down I need to make sure of their exact position and I can't do that until I have fitted the connecting rod and crosshead.





At this point I allowed myself to get diverted. I have this rough steel wedge that could be very useful but needed milling so I dealt with it. That's a useful small job done.



The first thing I needed to do when addressing the con road and crosshead was to cut the slot in the clevis on the horizontal mill. It needed a bit of setting up to make sure it was safe to cut.



Here we are at closing time after I had finished the slot in the clevis by filing. I'm glad that bit is done, it's a high risk bit of milling, I have had a disaster there many a time but this morning was OK. A good two hours.

[Stanley]

I need to dit the con rod before I fix the pedestal bearings and in order to do that I need a crosshead so this morning we start on the crosshead.



Here we are with a crosshead that fits the trunk slide. It has been drilled and tapped to take the piston rod and has also been drilled for the crosshead pin.



The next move is to drill the clevis of the con rod, 5BA clearance on one leg and tapping size for 5BA on the other leg, a number 38 drill. In order to do this without bending the legs of the clevis I made a 14" blank with a hole drilled through it to support the thin bronze castings.





Some careful drilling and tapping then some adjustment of both the clevis and the crosshead to ensure the clevis is free on the pin.



The next step was to mill the big end of the con rod down until it was a fit in the throat of the crankshaft.



Knocking off time, the big end fits the crank pin. I am ready now for boring the big end to fit the crank pin and fitting the two bolts that hold the two halves together.
A morning of fiddly things but all accomplished without any mistakes. (So far!) We're moving in the right direction.

[Stanley]

I said I was ready to finish the con rod but I lied. Or rather I changed my mind. I decided that I wanted to get the 5BA taps and die back in the box and put away so I started by making the piston rod. As you can see from the pics, that was soon done.



A slug of Cast Iron in the lathe and away we go on the piston.





A while later we have a piston and it's bored and threaded 5BA. One change from the design, the drawings ask for three oil grooves in the 1/4" wide piston, presumably to make a labyrinth seal. The engine will not be driving 300 looms so bugger the oil grooves.



Here we are at knocking off time. A lot of tackle put away and the lathe and bench tidied up. I have the piston and its rod fitted to the crosshead. Now I can finish the shank of the con rod, fit the clevis to the crosshead, bore and finish the big end and then see exactly where the crankshaft wants to run. Once I have that sorted I can bolt the bearings down. That's for tomorrow.... Another nice morning.

[Stanley]

My first job was to make the pin that the con rod pivots on in the crosshead. Watchmaking I'm afraid.



It all turned out OK.



Now we need a fag packet drawing before working on the rest of the con rod.



Then followed some careful finishing and turning, we need to have the con rod ready for slitting and boring.



This was closing time. The con rod is ready to have its bolts fitted before splitting and boring. Another good morning, no mistakes and good progress.

[Stanley]

Today's task is fitting the con rod to the crank pin and the first stage of that is to drill the big end 7BA clear to accept the bolts that will hold it together when it has been split and bored.



So far so good, the holes are in the right place, the bolts fitted and the big end given witness marks so that we keep perfect alignment.



Next we have to split the bearing with a slitting saw. Far more accurate than doing it by hand with eyes that distort reality!



Knocking off time. The con rod fits the crank pin nicely and is in line with the trunk slide. I am ready for fitting the crosshead and that will enable me to get the exact position of the pedestal bearings which was what I was chasing!

[Stanley]

The first move is to attach the crosshead to the con rod and then mark the horns on the bed for the studs that hold the pedestal bearings in place.



Tapping the holes after they had been drilled.



The bearings fitted. They are tight but will soon ease up. It's a fault of mine, making bearings and bores of cylinders too close.



I did some thinking and measuring. The back lid can be the exact size of the cylinder but the front lid needs to be lager so as to fit the target face of the trunk slide more sensibly. There is also the small point that the number of stud holes in each face of the cylinder is different from what is used today. I found two pieces of scrap that will do. I love making waste material into something useful.



The stock mounted in the chuck. I shall start to make it into a cylinder lid tomorrow. It will be nice to do some proper turning! A good morning. PS just realised tomorrow is Friday and set off day with Susan so I shan't go into the shed but save my knees for lunch in Colne so it'll be Saturday before I go in the shed again.

[Stanley]

Only two images this morning. The first is a bunch of essential new tools ( ) bought in Colne yesterday. They needed cleaning, degreasing and putting away. This took longer than I thought it would.



This pic sums my morning up. (The other side is a bit nicer looking than this.) I'm making the front lid for the cylinder, the one that fits between the cylinder and the target face on the bed. Basically I tried to hog metal off with indexed tools when what I should have been doing was doing old fashioned patient turning with high speed steel cutters. Then I broke my parting tool causing a jam and finished the cut with the hacksaw.
Having cut this off I decided to do something positive by cleaning Mrs Harrison and the floor. Not the happiest morning ever. Be assured I shall be using HSS cutters tomorrow and being more patient.

[Stanley]

After a second sleep and a think I have thrown this morning's abortion into the bin. I shall start again from scratch tomorrow and do it properly!

[MickBrett]

That bit of steel will come in handy for something, I'm sure

[Stanley]

It's in the bin Mick. Fresh start this morning....

[Stanley]

Fresh start this morning on the cylinder lids. The first thing I did was put the stock back in the lathe and turn it with an HSS cutter into a proper shape. I finished up with a piece of stock in the chuck properly faced and the right diameter for the front lid.
A word about what I'm doing, it's unusual because if this was a complete new build the stud holes in the cylinder wouldn't be already done but would be marked and drilled using the lids at templates. It's the opposite way round as all the stud holes are already done. So I am going to make spigots long enough on the lid to act as guides so that I can mark the lids by using the studs as transfer punches on a blued surface on the lid.
In order to do this my first job was to re-tap all the 7BA stud holes on the cylinder and find studs the right size.



Here's the cylinder with all the stud holes cleaned and fitted with studs. I am going to put the face with 4 stud holes next to the target face on the bed so I only have two studs awkwardly placed at the bottom of the face.



While I was working on the cylinder I re-tapped the stud holes for the steam chest and the steam inlet in the wall of the chest. I am leaving the exhaust port in the cylinder as it is and not tapping it. It can discharge under the cylinder. This isn't going to be running on steam!



Next I decided on the orientation of the cylinder. I marked the bearing caps 'FW' for the flywheel and 'EC' for the eccentric. This way I might get everything right!



Then some boring careful turning and at knocking off time I had the cylinder a good fit on the spigot so I can mark for the stud holes. Once I have done that and used the spigot for work holding I can turn it down until it become a 1/16" register in the bore.



One other thing, I sorted out the parting tool that I broke yesterday. I went to order some spare inserts and got 5 from JB tools for same price as one on the more prominent web sites. You have to be very careful these days on Amazon!

[Stanley]

This morning's first job was surprisingly difficult, to transfer the stud positions on the cylinder to the lid. I tried first using blue marker but it didn't work.



I got the marks when I used old fashioned white marking fluid normally used for castings. You'll note that I had to have two stabs at one of them. My eyes had tricked me. But then I changed the chuck for a newer 3 jaw because it had better jaws and would grip better. That turned out to be a joke.... When I came to part it off I had the first accident where I lost grip.....



This looks quite normal but it isn't. I had had a grab and flirted the lid out of the chuck. Trouble was I couldn't find the bugger. I pulled all the steel out of the back of the lathe but couldn't find it, eventually I found it in a corner at the back of the headstock that was dead easy to reach! You're right, my language was quite bad.



Here's what the shed looks like. Now I have this lot out I am going to clean up behind the lathe, a job I have been promising I'd do for a while. What was the biggest cause of my problems? Incompetence due to the effects of old age. No getting away from it and all I can do is be patient and do my best. No point getting upset about it.

[Stanley]

This brush is a deck scrubber so not as wide as it looks. I bought it this morning to reach behind the lathe and get everything out! I can't do anything else until this mess is sorted out!

[Stanley]

This is where I will be operating later this morning. High time we had a clear out!

[Stanley]

My first job was to get rid of the bulk of the dirt, take out the damaged wood swarf guard and measure up for new wood. I had a look at the motor but I couldn't get to the greaser and in the end I gave up, sorry.



It wasn't easy but a while later I had my new swarf guard fitted.



The underneath and back of the lathe looks a bit better even though I say it as shouldn't. I cleaned up the steel stock that was behind the lathe and rationalised it so it was easier to find. Then I put it all back in the proper places.



When I'd cleaned the floor properly I put the chuck back on (I'd taken it off to make more room to get at the motor and the swarf guard.) Then I sharpened the HSS cutter and made absolutely sure it was on centre. That was the end of two hours quite hard work but I enjoyed it and am recovering already. Well worth doing, Tomorrow I can think about lids again!

[Stanley]

And the Post Office have delivered my gloves which were less than half the price to Amazon supplier was charging. I have taken one out and tried it and they are just as good quality if not better. You never know with a fresh brand.
In case you're interested the firm is 'Just Gloves'.

[Stanley]

I actually got down to some turning this morning! Remember what I was saying about possibly starting again? I got close to it but in the end managed to finish this lid by being very careful and making sure my cutter was razor sharp. I'm convinced that the root of my problems has been that this was a lousy piece of steel, it crunched when you were cutting it. That's the problem with being poor and using scrap, you never know what you are facing. As I say I went very carefully and was successful. I finished up with a good lid. The only flaw in it is that double hole but that will be hidden!



Once I had a good lid, I checked I had the lid in the right orientation and then used it as a template to drill the target face of the bed.



Here we are at knocking off time, I thought an hour and a half was enough seeing as I can feel yesterday in my legs.... We have a cylinder and front lid that fits the engine and could be bolted up now. I shall have a bit of a think and it could be the back lid....

[Stanley]

Can anyone explain to me why I find myself awash with every size of BA nut and bolt except the one I want, 7BA. I had to go online yesterday to order 7BA studding and nuts! You wouldn't believe the time I spent going through my drawers and checking. The result was a no-show.



You wouldn't believe how many drawers there are in this Stock Master revolving cabinet!

[Stanley]

Today was making the back lid for the cylinder. This metal is far better so no dramas turning it or adjusting it. I've done a good 2 hours this morning because tomorrow I shall have my usual Friday off. Most of my time was finding ways of transferring the hole pattern on the cylinder (which is slightly eccentric!) and I tried several ways until I did it the old fashioned way by cutting a paper template by hammering.



Here is one stage, I have the template and I've stuck it on the lid. At this point I also did a search and found nine 7BA nuts for the studs.



Eventually I trimmed the template and got under the pillar drill to mark the holes with a small centre drill before drilling them 2.6mm which is clearance for 7BA.



Here's where I was when I decided to knock off. I've started fitting the studs. Some of the holes will need a bit of adjustment but not much and nothing I can't handle.
A good morning, I am not walking out leaving a problem on the bench!