Wright Brothers 1903 Engine

[b.lindsey]

Steve...thanks. I wimped out on making it from one piece, just felt i could be more accurate with a built up one and so far am pleased with the result.

Steve (swilliams)...the original was i assume made from one solid piece, which is probably the preferred method for overall strength.

Zee...thanks ...this is one of the bigger pieces....lol

Hugh....i will try to explain separately.

Bill

[b.lindsey]

Hugh....the radius on the end of each crank web is measured from the hole farthest away from that edge.  In the picture showing the webs gang mounted on the lathe one edge has already had the radius cut. In that photo i was cutting the radius on the opposite end, so in effect the toolbit was well away from the spindle (chuck) centerline.  Does that help any?

Bill

[Don1966]

Wow! Bill that is amazing to get it straight from multi pieces. Looking good Bud.

Don

[b.lindsey]

Hi Don, it was close to start with, probably within .005" from corner to corner. But after pinning it together and to sand the taper pins totally flush, it brought it into a really flat state. I was very pleasantly surprised in fact. It would have worked even being out slightly, but its now one less thing to fret over.

Bill

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Well I guess if ya couldn't turn it as one piece, this'll probably do.
Bill that is something. First glance it looked like a crank from a straight 8 Buick. What do the kids say: sweeeeet!!!!

Eric

[Dave Otto]

Nice job on the crankshaft Bill.

Dave

[ths]

Thanks for that Bill, one of those things that's perfectly obvious when pointed out so nicely.

Hugh.

[petertha]

I began drilling and reaming for the 16 total (14 so far) #6/0 taper pins through each connection as shown in photo 1.  Once each of the joints was pinned, I used the belt sander to grind them down near flush...

That is so neat. Can you elaborate on this pinning procedure. It seems so useful but I have never seen/used tapered pins or reamers.
 
- when you say drill, it is a conventional drill just undersized & only the reamer is tapered? Or is the drill special too?

- where do you obtain pins & reamers like this?

- and to permanently set the pins in place, do you use locktite or?

[b.lindsey]

Peter, if memory serves, i drilled through with a #51 drill, then halfway through with a #50 drill so the reamer wouldn't have as much to remove on the larger end. Just conventional drills. The reamer is only about 2 1/2 inches long and that was done by hand to "feel" it better.  Once the holes appeared to be tapered throughout the depth of the hole, the pins were inserted and seated with a few taps of a small ball pein hammer. No more running than this engine will see,  i doubt the pins will ever come out on their own. Both the pins and reamer i got from MSC as i recall back when i was working on the Briggs engine. Its crankshaft was made the same way but for a single cylinder only.

Bill

[Don1966]

Hi Bill, how you making out bud any progress?

Don

[b.lindsey]

Not much to report at the moment Don. Some travel and work have things slowed down lately. Hope to get some shop time this weekend.

Bill

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Bill, amazing how that stuff gets in the way of us having fun. Hope you get back at it. This may be one of my favorites. Thanks for the ear, by the way. Got the popcorn and a  so, when you have time I'll be here.

Yo Redneck,
Eric

[b.lindsey]

Talk about an old thread, this one is now nearly three years since I last posted. Not that it  will arise again quite yet, but the few parts already completed have been quietly laying on the shelf in plain sight and nagging me to get this project back on the front burner. Not to worry, both the Vickie and Parsell & Weed will be finished first since I obviously don't multitask very well, but you guys keep raising the bar so high with your "Monitor" builds and the many other masterpieces I see going on here, that I need to get back into the game so to speak.

One of the things I have been pondering during the hiatus is the Magneto. Now the Wright Bros, did not actually make the magneto but rather bought it from the Dayton Electric Company (which later became a wholly owned subsidiary of W.W. Grainger which still uses the Dayton brand extensively. However, the name plate on the magneto (I assume from historical examination) has the following information:

The Miller Kno-Block
Electric Mfg. Co.
South Bend, Ind.

The particulars on the nameplate say speed: 2500 rpm, 4 Amps, and 10 Volts. It is also important to note that the ignition system of the 1903 engine  used a system of breaking points within the combustion head rather than spark plugs. These were similar I suppose to an igniter on a hit and miss engine. I am also attaching a .pdf document which better described this system...you guys all know I don't do sparky parts!!  so the questions at hand is (and directed to you electrically proficient guys) how much voltage, amperage would be needed and is there any chance that this could be done at 1/4 scale of the original.  Fortunately the plans I have do include a sheet where the magneto was dissected and drawn. Basically it is three horseshoe magnets placed back to back, and armature running between them and then two coils, one of which surrounds each set of permanent magnet legs and sit just above the armature and its supports. The whole thing was driven by a driving disc running against the flywheel. If there is a chance this could work then I will have more questions and can try and scan the various sections of the drawing I have of it. If the collective feeling is that it wouldn't work then I can still make a dummy to scale and provide power in some other way, but it would sure be nice to make it historically accurate even in this regard.

All ideas and help greatly appreciated!!

Oops, the file noted above isn't a .pdf, but rather can be accessed through the following link:

http://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/elecsys.html

Bill

[crueby]

Really hope you get back on this one full time again, I remember following it 3 years ago (really that long? Wow)

[vcutajar]

Sorry, can't help with the magneto but looking forward to the continuation of this build.

Vince