SHED MATTERS 2

[Stanley]

First job was some careful tapping. We don't want any broken taps stuck in holes!



I soon had the machine screws fitted. So far so Good.



This gives you some idea of my problems setting stuff up which normally I would just eyeball, after all it's not a critical cut. But, and it's a big but, I dread making a silly mistake so do it the long way round with a parallel to sight off and the usual magnifying glass and a torch!



All did not go well. The saw is not running true so I decided to have a look at it.



The problem is that the saw is running eccentrically. The arbor is all made on the same axis so it isn't starting there. The mounting register for the saw is only very slightly under size for the 1" hole in the saw. I decided that the problem was the key, it's too tight and is throwing the saw off. So, first thing tomorrow, refit the key and see if I've got it any better. One thing ought to be certain, the hole in the saw should be central. Might even check that, it could have been mounted wrong if it has been sharpened...

[Stanley]

First thing to do was make the key fit accurately in the arbor and no, you're not seeing double. it's always handy to gave a small vice with accurate jaws that fits on to of the big Parkinson. I soon got that done, selected a better saw and got it mounted.



This saw is a bit thicker but I knew it was sharp and concentric because I sharpened it myself. A quick spin and all is OK it's running concentrically.



The saw cut cleanly and if you ignore the noise (it sounds like a basket of pots being broken) it cut well. I started out using ordinary cutting oil but remembered I had an aerosol of Rocol cutting fluid which is good stuff. When I got it out it had lost its gas so I cut the top open and then poured it my oil pt. It really worked well and the only problem I had was not getting enough depth with this set up before the boss on the arbor hits the vice.



Close of play, both blocks cut almost half way through. I'll tackle that tomorrow. Enough for one day....

[Stanley]

I needed a new set-up so I could get right through the blocks. This vice doesn't get a lot of use because it isn't as robust as the others but it can be very handy. The block connected to the screw has a variety of shapes and can be rotated so you can grab almost anything accurately.



This is close of play. Both blocks split, the threads cleaned up and the cap head screws fitted. Ready for some shaping now....
Now the really smarty-pants amongst you may have realised that I have found a way of making the oblique cuts accessible by the saw. The cut is above centre height and intersects the lower angles of the inverted 'V' shape. I have to report that this is a complete accident. Due to the fact I couldn't see properly I cut the first block too high and only then realised that I had solved my cutting problem. There is a providence that looks after drunken men, idiots and blind fitters!

[Stanley]

I started the day with what could be seen as displacement activity. I decided to use the Clarkson chuck simply because leaving the ETM chuck in the quill for a long time encourages it to get very tight in the sleeve. I have some brand new cutters as well that fit these sleeves and thought that might be a good idea as well. At the same time I wanted to see if I had any Walker's Centigard left as I could do with some very thin oil. I didn't find any but as I searched the corners of the treasure box I came across the transformer which you may remember I promised to Ian but could never find it. It's a big heavy one and might be useful for his radio equipment. I decided I wanted the most solid vice I have because I won't have a very big hold on the parts I am machining this morning, got that lined up and then had about twenty minutes of swearing and magnifying glasses before I was reasonably satisfied I had everything right. The bed that this part fits on is a right angle so cutting this way meant that whatever else happened, I would have an accurate right angle in the vee. The other thing I had to estimate was the right orientation of the perpendicular I have to mill next on the other half of the stop. I got it all as close as I could and then started cutting. Now I know you laugh at me and my high stress cutting but there are so many ways I can get it wrong. Too late to worry now, get stuck in. Oh I had to speed the mill up by altering the belts but that didn't take long.



The actual cutting took about ten minutes of small cuts. No worries about the axis of the cut as it is governed by the miller. I guessed at the size of the vee reinforced by a quick measure of the bed. That isn't too critical.



When I thought I was deep enough I stopped and chucked them at the bed. Not too bad at all and the vertical orientation looks OK. That was enough for this morning so off out with Jack for a walk!



When I married the two halves up they look OK. I think the orientation of the screw, which should be vertical, is about right. On the whole, a good morning!

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley , looks like good progress and no mishaps so still a pair. I bet your eyes are starting to be frustrating but you are getting the job done in the end , hoefully things will get better with them.
I hope Jack anjoyed his walk .
Cheers Mick

[Stanley]

Morning Mick! How's Tommy?
Shed is a bit of a challenge but I'm enjoying it.



Couldn't resist going back in at tea time and getting set up for tomorrow. I set the stops up with a hundred thou strip in them to allow for the saw cut and measured as well as I could. Then I measured them again! Apart from setting them up as a gang in the vice so I can do both at once I'm ready for today even down to resetting the belts for 140rpm.
One temptation has been to pop them into the lathe and reface them to make them pretty. I might still do this to mine but I shall leave you to do the finishing on yours! You have had quite enough attention.
Have you been reading B&P?

[Stanley]

A good start to the day. I ganged the blocks up together, got them set up and did the first cut. I had to reverse the blocks for the second cut and shift the vice so I could get to it OK. Cutting went well at first but got progressively more hard and noisy. I put this down to the fact that this is hard steel and the blade was getting dull. I had no intention of going right through, I was going to leave the last parts of each cut to be done by hand as I wanted the block to remain firmly in one piece for the second cut. I got there and here's the result.



Everything looks OK but as it was 10:30 I decided to stop, clean up and do the final fitting after a rest. While cleaning up I wiped the cutting fluid off the saw and it dropped off the arbor! No wonder it had been protesting! It was the cut that was keeping it in place on the key and for the whole of the last cut the retaining nut was nowhere near grabbing the saw. I must have made a good job of fitting that key! As I have said before, there's a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots. She served me well this morning.... Anyway, I deserve a bit of luck. Looking forward to the next stage where we'll find out exactly where we are at. I shall fit them to the ways at the front before the traversing rack starts. Once I'm satisfied with them there I'll cut the toe of the clamp to allow for the rack. A splendid morning!

[Stanley]

First thing was to get on with finishing the cuts done with the wobbly saw. No risks... hacksaw!



Soon done largely because at my age I don't tolerate worn hacksaw blades! By the way, the frame lies, it was 24TPI.



Then I chucked them on the bed to see how close we were getting. Very pleased but some tidying up needed.



This is where I was at. I'd deliberately not cut right up to my marks so as to leave some meat for adjustments.



I ganged the blocks up in the vice and got them straight using John's ball bearing edge finder. Worked a treat!



First set of cuts got me to a true right angle in the blocks but still not quite satisfied by the way they had cleaned up in the corner so I did a bit more very careful cutting until I was satisfied.



Here's where I was about half an hour later. All the edges broken, the threads cleaned up and the stops tried on the bed, perfect fit so I did a bit of a polish on the outside and called them done.



The most satisfying pic of the lot! Here's my stop, nicely polished up and a perfect fit sat where it will live on the extreme end of the bed.
Mick, I've roughly polished yours and it fits just as well, you can make it as pretty as you like!

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley , late reply tonight as I have been to the carving club , delayed on the way home by road works then had to do some bits and bobs on the computer so just seen the finished job now. What can I say , except Thank You Very much and you have done a splendid job, I will not be selling the Harrison so should be able to give the bed stop a good home for the rest of my days

What I am wondering now is ...............what will you be up to next ????????


Thanks again Stanley

Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

It's been a sort of pleasure... Now, for a reward, come and puck up your goodies and bring Sarah with you for a visit! (Have I got it right? It is Sarah isn't it? I am terrible at remembering names)
By the way, it was John what did it!
As for what comes next, a good clean and tidy up of course while I think. Lots of drills and cutters to sharpen and I have things in mind. I am leaning towards making more tools....

[Stanley]

Nothing earth-shaking this morning. A good clean up and everything put in its right place. I took it into my head to check how much cutting oil there was in the reservoir over the lathe, I haven't looked in there for years and there is always a bit of wastage. It was OK, down at half way but in my digging early in the week I had found a 10 gallon drum with perhaps just over two gallons of extremely expensive Carburol oil additive that I used to use in the wagons. It was that good that if all the oil dropped out of an axle the residue of the additives would get you home so it must have some pretty good anti-scuffing and pressure relieving properties. So as it's no good for anything else it can go in the cutting oil!
That left me with an empty drum so I took it to the tip at dinnertime on our walk.
But, I sharpened three cutters on the T&C grinder, Mick will be doing some of this soon!
That's about it.... an easy day.

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, A visit will be soon , it is Sarah so your memory not as bad as you think. I will be having a look at Clarkson grinder set ups on my visit too Stanley , I will need to get it all fettled and some tool holders made before using it anyway really, do you have a manual for yours ? , I have a pdf I can E mail you. I am sure you will be able to think of a few more tools to make too, I think you could spend a life time just making tools come to think of it.
Tommy is coming along slow but I don't want any mistakes so staedy pace does the job .
Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

I have a very cursory set of instructions, the PDF would be helpful Mick, I am still a lousy tool grinder!
I remembered yesterday that one thing I had promised myself I would do is to go through the big compound engine I made based on Newtons patterns for his version of the Stuart 5A.



I made four 5As at once because I had the castings, I already had one and wanted to make one each for my daughters so I finished up with two engines for myself. I'd always argued that the cylinder wasn't big enough and Newton got two bigger cylinders cast with covers and steam chest and gave a set to me. He got a new bed cast big enough for the two but I only had two of the original box beds to I joined them together with a spacer block. A big impressive lump!
Not surprisingly I did the compound last and was getting a bit jaded and I never fitted it together exactly right, it has a tight spot in it. But it ran and I was ready to stop making engines for a while. I've always intended to go back to it, find the fault and rectify it.... Now then, the question is can I lift it?



The answer was yes! But I will admit it was a close run thing! This is a big lump!
It looks a lot cleaner here than it is so in the process of improving it I shall tidy it up a bit. I love diagnostic investigations of machinery and I have no clear idea where the tight spot is. I shall have to start at the beginning and work my way through the possibilities. I have one or two ideas in mind, the most likely being a tight spot on one of the pistons.... Interesting!



The first requisite if you are going to be a miniature steam engineer is plenty of good small spanners! The 1/4" socket set is good as well as it has some very small sizes and one problem can be holding the small screws and nuts. On a historical note, notice the small Bahco parrot bill spanner. It was the first spanner I ever bought and cost me 3/6. I can remember how angry I was with my dad when he told me it was a 'nut buggerer'. Of course he was right.... The spanners have been living in a small circular container on the shelf which wasn't very practical as you had to empty them all out to find the one you wanted so in Barlick this morning I invested in another major leap forward in shed technology...



But back to our onions.... First thing was a good clean round...



I think the most likely place for the tight spot is in the pistons so the plan is to take each piston off its rod in turn and see if that gets rid of the nip. So first job was to take the lid off the low pressure. Due to the way I built it, taking the piston off is easy, just undo the nut on the end of the rod.... To be continued....

[Stanley]

I might not get into the shed today, the paper is asking for articles and it's shopping day as well. However, I went in this morning for a bit of a gloat! If you're interested the bore of the LP is 3.25" and it's interesting seeing it again after all this time. The piston is a good fit, the bore surface is perfect, not a bad job, I did well! The normal bore as recommended by Stuart is two inches but this looks a lot better, more in proportion. It's a good size and experience tells me that it would easily power a 20ft long boat. I have an idea that the curator of a museum bought the one that Newton made which was better than mine because of it's overall finish, the custom made bed and the fact it has Stevenson's Link Motion reversing gear on it. Now there's a future project......



This is the first Stuart 5A I built and there is a story behind it. I don't think it survived the site crash.
Back in the early 1970s my mate Newton was in a bad way. He had lost his second wife Olive (a lovely woman) to cancer (his first died of it as well) and he was going downhill. His daughter Joyce and I had a word and we agreed that it might be a good thing if someone gave him the hard word because he was doing a bottle of whisky a day. I got the job!
I went down and played hell with him, told him that the way he was going he was going to lose all his friends and eventually kill himself. I had already cast my bullets, in this case literally cast them as I had gone to another mate of Newton's, Geoff Smith, who had a foundry at Keighley, and got six sets of castings made to the patterns Newton had made based on the Stuart 5A. The difference was that he had made the standards higher so a longer con rod could be fitted as he thought the Stuart ones were too short. This went back to his long experience with mill engines where the conventional proportion was two and a half times the stroke.
After I had got my piece off my chest I gave him a set of castings and told him I had a job for him. I wanted him to teach me to be a better turner and how to build engines so I wanted him to build one and I would follow him. You can see the result judged by Newton as being not too bad as a first effort.
It did the trick! He went back into the shed and didn't stop going in until the day he died almost thirty years later. He eventually married Beryl and his life fell into shape again. He never forgot and neither did Joyce. Every now and again we are lucky enough to be in a position where we can do something good.
Back to the engine, have a good look at it, the cylinder is like a pea on a drum and it was me that suggested to Newton that we should make a bigger one. He got two sets of castings made and that's why, years after he died, I could build the compound with the bigger cylinder. It's also the reason why I have a spare set of castings for a 2" cylinder still sat there in the treasure chest grinning at me.....

[micktoon]

You did well getting Newton back on track Stanley but thats what friends are for , just glad you pulled it off . I am sure them castings will not just be grinning at you too long now , they will be getting machined

Hope you find the tight spot tomorrow too.
Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

I'll find it all right but it might not be today as I have another article to write. Later in the week I shall start dragging plunder out into the middle of the floor so if anything happens to interfere with our date on the 23rd, let me know in good time!
Newton never looked back once kicked into the shed again. I remember in particular he made two long case clocks, one with full Westminster chimes. He sweated blood over those chimes and I remember him telling me that he had found out why his dad never put chiming movements into his long case clocks....
11:00. I was delayed this morning by writing another article for the paper and domestic matters like cooking and attending to the washing so I didn't get in the shed until after 10:00. First job was to get the piston off the rod. I shocked it off its taper with a copper drift. It was firm and a good fit but gave up eventually.



Once again it was nice to see the piston and its rings after all these years. Notice they are cast iron rings and have some spring to them. They were machined out of a lump of Meehanite I had about me. Meehanite is virtually extinct today I think, it's very close grained, high quality cast iron that was centrifugally cast. Lovely stuff to work with. But enough of this self-congratulation, does the engine turn over any differently with the piston out? Yippee! It runs perfectly freely so we know the fault is in the piston. Only one thing it can be, it is fitted so closely with very little compression that it is fouling the cylinder bottom by a gnat's whisker. Just goes to show you can cut your tolerances too fine! The cure is to take a light cut across the bottom end.



Just for a change I gave one of Johnny’s old chucks an outing. This big Belco was originally with the 1956 lathe but as I had three three jaw SC chucks that fitted that I re-fitted it with a new back which fits the Harrison. I haven't looked but I think I have the inside jaws as well. It is old and worn and no doubt not quite as accurate as it was in its youth but perfectly all right for a facing cut. Notice that I left the rings in the piston, springing them in and out is when you break them so no risks taken. All ready for a skim and a lace up tomorrow. Unless I am very much mistaken it's problem cured. lucky? Or just long experience. Make your own minds up.

[Stanley]

One of the nice things about pottering about in the shed is the way it keeps your brain going. I have been trying to work out how I could have built that LP end with such an obvious fault in it. I think I know how it happened. I fitted the piston and tried it and it would be OK until I made the final adjustments on the crank bearings. That was enough to alter the stroke of the piston and make it foul the bottom lid by a tiny amount. The basic fault was being too greedy and making the piston to close a fit on the length of the stroke. Taking a sixteenth off it will cure it I think and give it a reasonable clearance. The interference can't be more than a few thou...., if it was it would lock solid.
Later at 12:45. I had a good start to the day, washed the bedding and wrote an article and then into the shed.



First thing to do was check how true the old chuck was. It was within two thou on the face which is good enough for me.



I skimmed 30 thou off both ends of the piston, made a few other adjustments and popped it back in. Far better but not perfect. Truth to tell the piston rod is a few thou short and there is no way I can alter that easily. It's a lot better and would improve with running so I might just leave it as it is.... I'll see how I feel in the morning.

[plaques]

I'm not familiar with the design of your model engine but I thought steam engines pushed from both directions. Doing a straight skim from the top of the piston would give more 'top' clearance but the bottom would have to be stepped if it fitted up against a piston rod stop. "If you see what I mean!" Just tell me to shut up if I'm wrong.

[Stanley]

You're right P in that it's double acting. I've skimmed the top as well because a mod I didn't mention was to fit a tiny spacer under the piston to lift it clear of the bottom of the cylinder. That's worked and I have managed that but still have a small nip in the motion. This is pointing to the spacer fouling the hole that the piston rod slides in through in the bottom of the cylinder. Again, too tightly fitted in the first place! I'm going to have a look at that this morning..... I'm not satisfied yet!
Later at 06:40. I'd finished my site and correspondence so I logged off and because it's still dark, went into the shed. I pulled the piston off again and rotated the engine. I was wrong about tight fitting where the piston rod comes through the gland, the engine rotates easily as it should and the entry hole is big enough to clear the small washer so it isn't that! There's a lot of oil in the bore and I think the next step is to clean it out and have a close look at the very bottom of the stroke. One small clue, I think some of the liquid packing has squeezed out of the bottom joint during initial assembly and it could have set hard. So, when we have had our walk I'll clean out, get any excess packing off the bore and refit the piston and try again. If it's still binding I shall have to have a rethink! As far as I know the bore is good and parallel but you never know. It may be that the piston, which is a very close fit (as it should be) needs relieving at the bottom end. It's a perfect fit in the rest of the bore so everything is pointing to a restriction in the bore at the bottom end of the stroke but it's not clear why. I like puzzles!

08:50.



The camera has much better eyesight than I have so I did this pic of the bore so I could blow it up on the screen and have a really good look. (click to enlarge). There is no doubt that there is some sealer on the wall of the bore so I'll take that off. Some of it is high enough to interfere with the piston even though it's been raised. Note that the small washer I put on the rod is not fouling on the hole in the cylinder bottom, there is plenty of clearance for it. In case anyone is wondering about the two rows of bolt heads in the base, the bottom lid of this cylinder is of course bigger than the register for the normal 2" cylinder and so it had to be attached by these bolts and have its own register for the larger cylinder. They are recessed into the lid and not the cause of the problem.
So, first IA is to clean the sealant out and do a check on bore diameter at the base. Come to think I can do that now, just hang on a tick.... Right, it's two thou bigger at the top than the bottom (assuming I got my readings right) that's nowhere near any interference with the piston which is 3.243" (The reading at the bottom of the bore is 3.2475"So there is a minimum clearance of 4.5thou which is plenty) So I have some idea now, let's get in there and do some cleaning up!

[plaques]

Another quick thought. How good is the piston rod slide? This may be sticking as the crank rotates, Once the piston is halfway down the rod bearing will straighten things out. Shut up 'P' . How about posting some plans?

[Stanley]

P, the trunk slide and rod are fine and I've better things to do than draw pictures.



I had just the right tools for scraping out the bottom of the bore, I once found a full set of brand new Eclipse scrapers for a fiver. I soon had the sealant out and made an interesting discovery, something I should have checked before. Two of the bolts holding the bottom lid down are slightly proud. I relieved the periphery of the piston bottom, popped the piston back in, tightened it down and that has got rid of the last of the nip. Just goes to show, I made an assumption and it was wrong. Part of the problem was definitely the piston travel but these bolt heads also played their part.



This pic tells it all, the lid back on and laced up. If you put 120 pounds of steam on this now it would frighten you to death!
One word about why i gave the piston so little clearance in the first place. The less space you have at the point of admission, the faster the steam gets to put pressure on the piston. Remember that the steam passages to the valve are part of the space that has to be compressed. It makes a lot of difference, particularly in small engines. Right, all I have to do now is carry it back into the front room....

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley , looks like you have had a busy day but worth it as the problem has been solved.........Well done you cracked it ........So what you got lined up next then ?

Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

I'm thinking about that.



I am still smarting from this. Got my keyless chuck and found that either because of bad eyesight or a senior moment I had ordered a 4MT arbor instead of a 3MT. Old age isn't for cissies......

11:20. We've had our walk and done all we set out to do. Nice to take the weight off my feet! I started the day early this morning by carrying the compound back into the front room. No big problem, I used my head but my god it's heavy!



I did some tidying up, vacuumed round, dressed my grinding wheel and resharpened a big drill that has been grinning at me for years, 23/32" just the sort of size you are looking for at times. Then I turned my attention to my two drill stands. I have two lots of frills really, the boxed sets bought new when I was in funds that live in the cabinet under the bench with the large drills. These are only used for things like drilling and tapping or similar work where I'm trying to be as precise as I can. The ones in the stands are the everyday drills that I have been using for years. I'm not saying that they are all over 40 years old but some will be. hey have been used for maintenance and all sorts of general work, often in portable drills with inadequate chucks and some of the shanks are showing wear. I'll bet you've all got drills like these. So I went through them, turning the really bad shanks down to a surface, filing them all and finishing with emery to get a good parallel surface. I didn't try to turn all the dings out, what I was after was getting the high spots off so the chucks stand a chance of gripping.
So, nothing earth-shaking but another small improvement in the shed. I'm sure something is going to strike me soon......

[Stanley]

Remember me saying that I was not the best milling cutter sharpener in the world? The last one I did is not right. It will be rectified this morning!
Making sure I have the plunder gathered together ready for Mick's visit on Sunday..... It might take his mind off wood-carving which is taking up all his time at the moment!

Later at 11:20.


First thing was to dress the cup wheel on the T&G grinder with a diamond. I've had this diamond dresser for almost 50 years and it was an old one when I got it. It's a constant wonder to me that it cuts even the hardest grinding wheel.



I sharpened the offending cutter and popped it back in the mill. I cut the as cast skin on this casting to try it and I think you can see it's OK now. Worth mentioning that this is part of a cast iron cistern I saw in a scrap yard many years ago, I bought it at scrap price and cut it up. I have been using pieces of it ever since, lovely metal....



Another little corner of the shop that has been untouched for years. Time for a sort out. These are old flange bolts, many of them wrought iron but they are useful lumps because of curse that have large heads. Very useful for making things like holding down bolts for the miller tables etc.
After I had sorted them I addressed the matter of the holding down bots I am using at the moment. They needed easing in the slots in the bed and the heads cutting down as they foul the slide on one of my favourite milling vices.
That was the morning. Pottering about I'll grant you but all useful tasks. I have a casting in mind.....

16:15. Just popped back in to inform the congregation that my arbor arrived from RDG today. Stanley is a happy bunny!

[Stanley]

Mick is on his way up down to Harrogate. I shall get even more plunder together for his visit on Sunday. Looking forward to getting into the shed today.



I said yesterday that I wasn't going to get sucked into sharpening cutters but on reflection, after the careful and successful setting up I did yesterday, it would be a good use of time to touch up all the similar cutters at the same setting. Feels like displacement activity at the moment but it will save a lot of time in future.

11:50. A good morning. It didn't take long to touch the cutters off because they were all the same type and size of shank. Remember I said I had a casting in mind, I went upstairs and had a good root in one of the treasure chests. First thing I did was shift the ground steel stock downstairs into the shed. I have a lot of odds and sods of castings that I inherited from, Newton. Every time I caught him 'clearing the hut out' (he had a wooden shed in the garden at Vicarage Road as well as the garage) I would sort through his 'rubbish' and find all sorts of goodies. But what I had in mind was the set of castings for the two inch cylinder for the Stuart 5A that became redundant when Newton gave me the castings for the 3 1/4" cylinder. Here they are on the bench. If I leave them as they are they will be wasted, if I machine them ready for fitting and erection I'm sure somebody will want them.



As I was sorting these out I came across the fag end of a piece of cast brass that I had used for something and this was left over. It was out of the top of the mould and had a big shrinkage depression on it. In other words, useless as it was but if cleaned up, a useful lump of material so I banged it in the mill, put a fly cutter on and squared it up.





One thing that has bugged me for a long time is the big 1" shank cutter I have which is too big to go in any of my milling chucks so I decided to see if I could turn the shank down to 3/4".



I found a carbide tipped cutter, touched it up and had a go. Assuming I can cut it I shall have to sacrifice part of the shank because that's the only way I can old it. One inch in the chuck will be plenty so I got stuck into it. It is of course hardened steel, not pot hard like the cutter but definitely the hardest stuff I have ever tuned! You wouldn't believe how it squealed! But I ignored it and finally managed to get it down to 3/4".



It needs chopping down with a thin abrasive wheel but I have plenty of them. I'll do that tomorrow, sharpen it and it will be a good addition to the cutter shelf....