Shed Matters 3

[Stanley]

This morning I drilled and tapped the exhaust port in the cylinder and cut the exhaust port in the valve face to depth. It is now ready for fitting the exhaust pipe when I get round to it.... Now I can enjoy my breakfast.

[Stanley]

A good morning. I set up and bored the cylinder. When I did a few check measurements after boring to 1.5" it looks very good indeed. I shall verify that tomorrow. At the moment that was a good hour's work and I deserve my breakfast!

[Stanley]

My first job this morning was a careful examination and measurement of the cylinder dimensions. It is very accurate in terms of bore size, parallelism and concentricity. It is possibly one o the best cylinders I have ever machined. That done I cleaned up the chips on the mill, took the boring head off and put it away, gulleted the everyday cutter and touched the cutting edges up. Then I put the steam chest in the vise and started to machine it. That was when I hit an hour in the shed and decided that it was enough. I want my breakfast!

[Tripps]

The name Harrison jumped out at me. . . . Hiow on earth did you get yours into the shed?


Mrs Harrison

[Stanley]

David.... A good question. Sheer luck. I took the door frame out and there was about a quarter of an inch to spare if I remember rightly. Bit of a miracle!



This morning was simple. I spent 45 minutes on the steam chest. More to do yet but we are getting there.... Now for breakfast.

[Stanley]

Not a good night for sleep. I could quite easily decline the shed this morning, have breakfast and go back to bed.

[Stanley]

The aim this morning was to finish preparing the steam chest. I finished the outside faces and instead of going on to opening the inside surfaces by hand with a file I decided to work on the lid in the mill. I must have had an instinct because I soon found out that it was pot hard and immediately blunted my cutter so I had to finish the edges on the grinding wheel and then get set up to rescue my milling cutter. All this got me to an hour in the shed so I stopped there and am now looking for my breakfast.....

[Stanley]

This morning has been a pain. The steam chest lid is chilled and pot hard, none of my cutters will touch it, I have destroyed three.... So I have had to do the best I can on the grinding wheel. It's acceptable but only just. They won't see it off the Ribble!

[Stanley]

A small but accurate step. Clearance holes for the long studs that will retain the steam chest on the cylinder. I now look forward to breakfast and second sleep.

[Stanley]

The task this morning was to mark, drill and tap the holes in the valve face of the cylinder that take the long studs that hold the steam chest assembly on the cylinder casting. There are six but the one that is missing is because for some unexplained reason the threads are slightly oversize so the stud will be held in place with Loctite shaft fit. That done I went looking for my breakfast.

[Stanley]

This morning I did my measuring and started refining the lid castings to fit the cylinder. Slow and careful. Steady progress with no errors! Now for breakfast and second sleep....