OneGuyFromBarlick

I started the day by cutting the spot faces for the bolts that hold the crank brass together, the brass isn't dead flat on this size. Then I made the screwed plug for the lubricating hole and fitted the bearing. Still tight but that can soon be adjusted when I have fitted the con rod. Then I measured up ready for making the rod, tidied up and knocked off. I know exactly what I am starting on tomorrow..... A good morning!

Once more, one pic will do. I started making the con rod but wasn't satisfied with my HSS cutter to I found a new piece of tool steel and made a new one. Not the easiest task when you can't see properly but quietly away I got it done and you can see how far I got by closing time. Slow but steady and above all accurate!

A good hour and a half in the shed. Two pics tell the story of how I got from a slug of steel to a con rod. It needs finishing of course and then fitting but this is another small step forwards and free from error....

Three pics Illustrate what I have been up to this morning, fitting the con-rod to the bearing brass. Quiet careful work and I am ready now to finish cutting on the small end that fits into the crosshead.

I started the day by putting the two flats on the small end of the con-rod to get it to 5/16". Then I measured and marked the cross head, drilled the hole for the cross head pin and set up to mill out the slot for the rod. The second pic shows where I am at knocking off time. I am ready to make the cross head pin and finish the cross head.

These two pics show what I did in the shed after I had given Mrs Harrison a good oiling, it has been crying out for some oil for a while but I kept crashing on. As you can see I made the crosshead pin and fitted it. Only a small thing but essential progress.....

I started the morning by mounting the base and bed castings on the plinth. Then I moved into fitting the con rod motion and finishing the cross-head. As you can see I was still engaged in that at closing time. I'm going to have to do more milling on the cross head and there is no way I am doing that in a rush. Slow careful work and lots of issues to adjust and deal with but all is going well so it's been a good morning!

The first problem this morning was that the crosshead needed internal modifications as the con rod was fouling the inside of the casting. That's why it's under the mill. Once that was cured I packed the piston and the two stuffing boxes on the glands for the piston and valve rods. Then I put the gasket Between the front lid and the cylinder and fitted the cylinder in place. I turned the engine over and the piston rod needs shortening. That's the first job tomorrow! I deserve breakfast.....

It's been a good morning after a bit of a set-back when I had to resort to Voltarol Emugel to calm down the pain in my shoulder. I always have pain but for some reason this morning it was much worse. Eventually I got in there and the pics tell the story, very careful measuring and recheck several times because My piston rod was about 3/4" too long! Don't ask me how that happened. I put the big three jaw on Mrs Harrison so I could chuck the rod without removing the piston and adjusted the length to what I believed was correct. It was, and the pic shows where I finished at closing time. I'm ready now to work on the valve motion and then install all the studs and build the engine. A dodgy start but then all went well.....

The playground this morning was the components of the valve motion, two scabby castings and a piece of strip that had to be converted to the measurements needed. That process alone took me half an hour and illustrates one of my problems. I spent most of the time puzzling over why my measurements were so far wrong and then realised that I had mistaken 5/16" for 5/32". That's why I have to check and re-check. Then I found I had a queue of 3 cutters needing sharpening so I did them and at last got down to working on the eccentric. That's where I finished. Oh and one more thing, I was wrong about my shoulder being no problem. It was and I had to take an ibuprofen to calm it down. Bugger old age!

Only an hour to play out in this morning as it was early doors shopping at 07:00 so all the time was spent on improving the rough casting of the eccentric strap. First by some old fashioned filing and then by using the milling machine. My final blow was to cut the recess where the flat bar link is attached to the strap. No rush and no mistakes. Quietly forward so it was a good morning.....

The first job this morning was to reduce the stock to the size needed for the flat element of the valve motion. Then finish it, drill the holes at either end and countersink for the fastening of the bar to the strap. The last pic shows the eccentric connected to the valve rod and ready for the strap to be finished and fitted to the eccentric. Once again, small work carefully done and no mistakes. So it's another nice morning!

More work on the eccentric strap.... It needed an oil hole and clamping bolts fitted so first some careful measuring and marking, then set up for cutting with a small slitting saw in the mill (No way I can see clearly enough to cut accurately.



Here's where I finished. Ready for boring tomorrow. I could have set up this morning but there is no rush.

The task this morning was to set up and bore the eccentric strap and fit it to the engine. The set up took much longer than the boring but as you can see from the image, we finished up with an eccentric strap that fits the eccentric. What the image can't show is the fact that it is an excellent fit. A nice morning....

Not a lot of explanation needed this morning. The job was to convert the scabbiest casting in the box into a valve rod support, not made any better by the fact that it all has to be judged by eye, not my strongest department. However, as you can see I have managed to get somewhere near without actually destroying the casting. Tomorrow I shall finish it and fit it.

Only one pic today after a fiddly morning. I have the valve rod support fitted and bolted to the bed. Now I am fine tuning the throw of the valve rod and I am having a difficult time. This isn't a problem, it's par for the course, making these small engines was never easy and difficulties like this morning's are par for the course. It's why we engineers are so patient.....

An hour of fiddly things! First I sorted the valve rod, it is set for central stroke now and will not need altering again. As I had the lid off the steam chest I am tightening the studs in the cylinder castings by using two nuts on them. At the same time I have been sorting out my studs and nuts for installing the cylinder on the target on the bed. I have two out of the four fitted and tightened. I had to do that in order to get an accurate adjustment on the valve rod.
Careful work and good progress. Only an hour but a very productive one.

Another morning of small things. The aim was to finish installing the studs that attach the cylinder to the target, the steam chest lid on the steam chest and the back lid on the cylinder. In many cases this meant re-tapping the existing holes. The last pic shows where we are at closing time. All the fitting is done. What remains is to cut the crankshaft to size and finish and install the flywheel. A painful morning, my right arm is playing up but we have got there with no mistakes. I finished by putting a lot of tools away.....

I am in the finishing stages of building this engine and have decided not to cut any corners. Instead of just sawing the ends off the crankshaft I am going to mark it, take it out of the engine and do the job properly in the lathe. So my first job was to clean the lathe and then set the flywheel up with a carbide cutter to cut it. I wanted to skim all the faces to get rid of excess paint and then polish it ready for final fitting. Once I had done that I cleaned the lathe again and finished early, just over an hour in the shed. I stopped in good time to give my shoulder a rest. There is no rush and tomorrow's task is clear and simple. Dismantle the crank bearing and valve motion, mark the shaft for length take the crankshaft out of the lathe and cut to length before reinstalling it in the lathe. Barring last minute tidying up jobs that's this engine finished.....

This morning went as planned. First I dismantled the front end of the engine and took the crankshaft out after marking it for the length I wanted at each end. Then some very careful turning, it would be so easy to have a grab in and bend the shaft because it is stuck out so far. Once that was done I rebuilt the front end and fitted the flywheel on a bed of Loctite shaft fit. I haven't finished the eccentric side yet, I shall be patient on allow the Loctite 24 hours to cure..... A good morning, I got where I wanted to be with no mistakes.

I couldn't resist going back to the engine and tidying up some stud lengths. All that is needed now is a piece of rubber cutting to go under the base so it doesn't scratch anything it sits on.
I shall reveal what comes next tomorrow....

All change this morning. I put the rubber on the base of the No. 9 last night and this morning I touched the black paint up and then took the engine into the kitchen to sit on the table. It's good for my soul to be able to look at things I have made.....
Then it was all change. A while ago, a friend of Bob's, Keith Sharp, gave me this set of Reeve's castings and a full set of drawings. Not all the castings are for the Shand Mason Pump but until I have a good study of the drawings I shan't be able to make any decisions. The castings have been partially finished by someone and you may remember me making a two throw crankshaft for it when I first got the castings. Tomorrow I'll have a look at the drawings and try to come up with a game plan.



Here's a pic of a finished pump.

A busy and quite difficult morning. You may remember that I chopped a complicated two throw crankshaft out of a solid piece of stock rather than accept the horrible little built-up shaft that was already partially in place. It was too tight a fit so this morning the first job was to find out why. I stripped it out and found that the shaft was fine, it was the fit of the two standards and possibly the centre bearing that it is mounted in that is at fault. I spent a long time fitting and refitting the outside standards until I was sure they were a good fit.
That being the case my next suspect was the centre, main bearing. In order to prove this I set to to take the centre bearing support out, refit the crankshaft on its standards and see what it was like then. I suspected that I had to lower the main bearing housing slightly to ease the fit. If you look at the images you'll see that what I found was that one of the brass studs that holds the centre standard down was broken. It took me half an hour to get it out but the last pic shows I was successful and where I was at closing time.
Good stuff but not easy and I haven't even looked at the drawings. I shall finish chasing this rabbit tomorrow and then have a look at the drawings.... A stressful morning and my shoulder hurts but so far successful and good progress.

Our first business this morning is slightly different....



Yesterday I recounted the difficulties I was having finding specific information for the build of the Shand Mason pump.
25 Years ago I spent £300 with my bookseller George Kelsall at Littleborough on about forty year's worth of Model Engineers that had been professionally bound and were in as new condition. I went and had a look and Bingo!, I had the volume that I need. I haven't chased the references up yet and don't imagine for one moment that I shall have a complete answer to all my questions but it was a nice moment when I realised I had the information. I shall be reading today......
There is a moral here. When you see things like this, don't just walk past, grab them and wonderful things can happen.