PMR 4CI & 6CI

[1hand]

Happy New Year everyone!!!!! Hope 2013 brings you all great things!!!

I received an unexpected Christmas bonus from work this year as my first year as foreman and running my own spread. Though it wasn't much it was very nice gesture. I added it to some other gifted money and ordered the PM Research 4CI and 6CI casting kits tonight. Basically looks to be the same engine, one vertical and one horizontal. The steps should be about the same, so building them together should be fine.

This will be my first attempt at machining castings.
Matt 




Bore 1 1/2", Stroke 2 1/2", Double Acting
 
This is a replica of a rare old steam engine used for various small portable power applications a century ago. This engine was sold as a casting kit in 1895 by the Chas A. Strelinger Co. of Detroit, MI. The castings were made by their foundry, the Leland & Faulconer Mfg. Co., Detroit, MI. It was rated then as 1/4 H.P.

[b.lindsey]

Matt, I haven't built either of these two engines but several others from PM Research. They generally do a very nice job with their kits.  What will you be using to machine these?  Something rather large I hope

Bill

[1hand]

I have a SX3 and a 9x19, hope its enough to do the job. A 9x42 knee and a 13x40 are in my future but just about 10 grand short yet........lol

[zeeprogrammer]

I'm looking forward to watching these builds.
And congrats on the magazine cover.

[steamer]

Have at it buddy!

Dave

[Jo]

Nice looking engines. I will be watching the builds

Jo

[tvoght]

Hi Matt,
  I built the PMR 6CI myself, after building 2 smaller (and cheaper) engines from PMR castings.

I found the hardest part was attaching that fancy brass lagging, which required drilling and tapping a bunch of 2-56 holes and lining up the same holes in the brass. Eventually, I gave up and put a different kind of lagging on it. Good luck, and I'll be looking in on your build regularly to see how you're doing. You are going to post the build here, right? Right?!?!

--Tim

[smfr]

Looking forward to this! I have a smaller PMR kit on the shelf, waiting to be machined.

Simon

[Don1966]

I will be following along also Matt. Should be an interesting built since I never built one.

Don

[1hand]

I was going out the door for the weekend when the mail man showed up. I managed to get one of the boxes opened before I got the orders that we where leaving. The size of these castings rock!

[b.lindsey]

Great Matt...so we should be expecting chips soon then . Seriously, with castings, take your time and plan things out..whole different ballgame than bar stock. congrats on getting the new toys though.

Bill

[Jo]

Wow, those are big! That is going to be an impressive engine once it is built.

Jo

[NickG]

Yes, these things are huge, I like the 6ci but don't like those coke bottle style engines, they are obviously correct but I dont like the aspect ratio! just a personal thing, mau change my mind when see it built abd it will certainly be interesting watching. hear lots of good reviews about PMR and the 1BI seems somewhat of a bargain considering its size too. I think Cotswold heritage do a similar coke bottle type one for reasonable money too

[1hand]

My 2013 wish book came today, and I have them both picked out!

Both are 2hp 220v

Mill has a 9 1/2" x 31 1/2" table with power feed x axis and z axis

Lathe is a 12 x 36 with a gap bed with a 17" swing over the gap.

Outfitted with dro's and shipping about 9k

Hopefully I have good a busy summer this year so they can be sitting in my garage come next fall!

[1hand]

Anyone that knows me very well, knows I change my mind a lot and rarely play with in the rules.  While I was looking at them 2 boxes of castings and was thinking how similar the two engines are, and I thought self....you should make a twin!

So after a long thought process "about 10 mins" I got out the cut off wheel and started on the PMR 46ci twin.

[1hand]

Today marks the start of my 46ci twin build.

I started with the cross head that I cut off the mounting legs. I'm going to mill off the casting where the legs where attached. Getting both cross heads to look the same, I'm going to take off part of the ring on the bottom on both sides. I didn't really want to get rid of part of the ring, but blending it in just wouldn't of looked right the way the legs where cast into the cross head around the ring. So this will have to be repeated 4 times on the 2 cross heads, to make them look the same.

[1hand]

While the cross head is on the mill, I started on the cylinders. I marked some lines for how much of the top and bottom of the cylinder I wanted to remove. I removed some of the casting marks on the inside of the bore for my expanding mandrel.

[1hand]

I added a piece of cold rolled to the cylinder to counter balance the piece in the lathe.





Spun the cylinder at 300rpm with very little vibration..




Then faced one end of the cylinder. Had to remove about .340". This cast cuts really nice on the lathe. :-) :-)



Matt

[Jo]

]

Spun the cylinder at 300rpm with very little vibration..

That looks scary.

What you need is a keat angle plate.

Jo

[1hand]

Jo,

It wasn't as bad as it looks, but some angle plates are on the top of my to get list

[1hand]

Next I took the cylinder out of the lathe and laid the faced side down on my face plate. I set it up on some flat washers to give me some clearance for the boring bar when I punch out the bore. I added some bed clamps as counter balance also.





Then back in the lathe with the centering indicator.





That's it for today, after 5 hours the shop is a disaster again! Time to find the bottom of the bench again and start boring the #1 cylinder tomorrow and work on the other side of the first cross head.



Matt

[1hand]

No machining today, started to clean up the shop. I had it looking real good and was going to start back on the engine and then came the idea to add some more benches. So I did.....18 more feet! It looked a little dark, so I wired up a few more lights also. So now the rest of the shop is a mess again with wood working and electrical stuff now. Its in worst shape now than before.....

[TerryWerm]

This looks like a neat project and I will be looking forward to following it as it progresses.  Thanks, 1hand!

[steamer]

Check those washers are the same thickness before you bore.   It's important to get the bore dead square to the lower cylinder head flange...so take your time here and really check them.

Dave

[Don1966]

Looks like you are off to a good start Matt, I like the addition of work benches you can ever have to many.i I find when I work, that gremlins keep moving my tools as I can't seem to find them after I have layed them down even with more work space. Great start on your project Matt.

Don

[1hand]

Check those washers are the same thickness before you bore.   It's important to get the bore dead square to the lower cylinder head flange...so take your time here and really check them.

Dave

I was going to use parallel bars laid flat to get the cylinder off the face plate but I
couldn't keep them out of the bore and out of the way of the clamps. The cylinder flange is thinner than the raise on the clamps, so I need the clamps a bit below the cylinder to get them to work. I need to loosen it up to get centered on the lathe anyway, so I'll try the parallel again sticking out between the clamps. At least I know their ground flat.

Thanks,
Matt