Shed Matters 3

[Stanley]

Lids this morning. A trip into the front room to Johnny's 1927 lathe, I divided one lid and marked three sites fpor holes. took that in the shed and drilled it and then used that lid to mark the other lid. All drilled 5BA clearance and then fitted. That brought me to shopping time.

[Stanley]

Nice hour in the shed. I have stripped the cylinder down and rebuilt it nearer to specification and made sure the piston moves freely. Once that was done I measured the lagging and drilled it for the tiny 7BA round headed screws that will attach it to the cylinder. Tomorrow I shall adjust the lagging, mark and drill the holes and fit it.

[Stanley]

I've decided I prefer the engine without the blued steel lagging and so I ditched that and went on to making the flywheel and crankshaft assembly. As usual I am making it out of scrap..... I have a perfect fit in the standard, tomorrow I'll go forward with the crankpin end....

[Stanley]

I finished the crankshaft and put a PCD in on the end for the crank pin. Than into the mill, drilled it and installed the tiny crank Pin I have made. I installed it bedded in Loctite 638 and hopefully by tomorrow it will be solid. If so I can go on to making the flywheel.

[Stanley]

I made the flywheel and fitted it and started to make the base on which the engine will sit.

[Stanley]

I finished making the base and this incorporated a first for me. I bought a pack of very powerful small magnets and used three of them as packing to decrease the depth of the jaws, this let me reduce the thickness. The base is ready for drilling and tapping tomorrow.....

[Stanley]

Finishing the wobbler. I drilled and tapped the base for the 5BA set screws that will fasten it down, installed the bolts and cut off the excess from the bottom of the base. Then stuck a piece of fabric on the bottom to protect the surface it stands on. I shall leave the glue until tomorrow to set and then cut the excess off.
Looking at the engine objectively it's OK but the standard is falling, I think my age is taking a toll but that's only to be expected!

[Stanley]

I have started on the crankshaft for the No. 9 castings that are on their way and might be delivered today. Mrs McMaster came out to play, I swapped the chuck for the big 3 jaw and got set up and started. I did a quick swarf pickup before I went to the Co-op. It's a start....

[Stanley]

A good solid hour. I have a pile of castings waiting for attention but this morning was spent muck-shifting to find the crankshaft inside the piece of stock. I have got the finished outside diameter and am now chasing one leg of the shaft. At the same time I have been keeping up with swarf removal..... If you don't it overwhelms you.

[Stanley]

Just one pic covers it. This morning I finished this leg of the shaft and marked the stock for the next stage which is to mill out the excess material from inside the webs of the shaft. Before that can be done I shall finish the other end to 2" and mark the PCD for the crank pin. But that's for tomorrow.....

[Stanley]

Going forward with the shaft. I reversed it in the chuck, cut the other end down to 2" diameter faced the end and centred it, then put in the PCD for the centre for the crank pin. I did a bit of muck shifting then cleaned the swarf up, put it in the bin and, as it's November 7th, put the bin out for collection. A good hour.....

[Stanley]

Straight back into muck shifting. I have this end of the shaft within 50 thou of finished size so I stopped, changed the cutter to one with a square corner and started to cut the cheeks of the stock back square and finished. I have also cleaned up the swarf from this morning and tomorrow I'll finish taking this side down to size when it's cold.... Then we have to start looking at cutting down to the crank pin....

[Stanley]

I finished the muck shifting on the crankshaft and squared the inside cheeks and finished the shaft end to size. Then I marked the crank pin centre with a centre drill, this won't be used in the lathe, it's only to mark the centre for setting up and machining. Then I went on a hunt for my 7/16" milling cutter and couldn't find it so I had to find another and reclaim it. I am ready now for cutting the main of the excess metal out of the centre of the shaft to find the crank pin.

[Stanley]

I started cutting the meat out of the crankshaft but the cutter wasn't performing correctly, I very carefully re-sharpened it, altered the speed of the mill and set into the boring job of muck-shitting. All has gone well and I am half way there. Patience is the name of the game!

[Stanley]

Only one image this morning, I continued milling surplus metal out of the crankshaft to make the amount of interrupted cutting less. I finished over half way through the stock and had a chip chase. I know where I am starting tomorrow.

[Stanley]

I've spent 2 hours in the shed this morning and you're going to laugh at the reason why. I finished cutting the excess out of the web and then put the 4 jaw independent chuck on the lathe. So far so good but then I realised I had made a terrible mistake. I couldn't find any way of holding it in the 4 jaw, not even the big one. My mistake was turning the second leg of the shaft down to 3/8". No way round it without going in for silly things so this shaft is scrap and I shall start again. Proof that as I get older I lose control. But age also gives me patience so I shall dust myself off and start again!

[plaques]

Make a bush and loctite it on. Warm it up to remove. Standard practice for the over 80s.

[Stanley]

That's not a bad idea and I have one of my own.... I shall ponder! Thanks for caring Ken.

[Stanley]

I was upset and angry yesterday and not thinking straight. Thanks to Ken for getting me back on track and yes Ken, you'll be glad to see I took your advice and your solution (Because it's better than the one I had....)
The pics tell the story, I have used the piece I cut off to make my stock for the shaft and the first job was to clean that up. Then I got another piece of scrap steel and crept up on the drill size but surprise surprise the correct drill for the 3/8" shaft is a 3/8" drill.... It's sat in a bed of Loctite 638 to cure and I have changed the 3 jaw for the 4 jaw independent so I'm ready to set up tomorrow.... A nice hour and a quarter. I am a lot more positive and happy this morning.

[Stanley]

I'm getting too old for this game..... It's taken me an hour and a half to get the workpiece set up in the 4 jaw chuck. After numerous failed attempts I got it to within 2 thou and said bugger it, that's good enough. The acid test is to cut the remaining metal out tomorrow..... I think it'll be all right.

[Stanley]

Well we have an answer! Here's the story, I started to cut the crank pin and all went well until the tip in my parting tool shifted, jammed up and you can see the result. Not sure who to blame, but the result can't be argued against. This is now officially scrap!
I cut another piece of stock in Mrs McMaster and put the 3 jaw SC back on the lathe. I shall start from scratch tomorrow....

[plaques]

Well the loctite bush held up even after the smash up. Long thin parting off tools give a lot of problems. What next? The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result. Back to the drawing board as they say.

[Stanley]

I shall cut a shaft out of the piece of stock I have cut. I think this time I shall use an HSS parting tool.... Bit more rigid that the indexed tool. (I've put a fresh tip in it.....)

[MickBrett]

Eeeeeekkkkk !

Hope your nerves are all right after that b**ger grabbed.

[Stanley]

No problems Mick. Thanks for asking, I am always on the defensive when doing tricky machining operations....