Vince's version of the MEM Corliss

[vcutajar]

Thanks guys

Another possibility that came to mind to hide the very shallow machining marks is to use car body filler.

Jason I think you are using the diameter in your formula but the answer is correct, 96 divisions.  I did not think of doing them on the inside of the rim but on the outside like Jo's photo.  More possibilities to ponder on.

Vince

[Jasonb]

Thats what I meant by the last bit, 90 will be almost right for the inside but I could not remember off hand what teh internal dia was so worked it out based on teh outside.

[vcutajar]

Today was definately not a good day but I learnt two lessons.

Today we had our general elections for a new government.  We (family) decided to vote early in the morning to maybe avoid the queues at our local primary school.  Arrived at the school and I thought, good, no queues outside.  Went in.  Not many people around.  Located our polling booth and there was a  queue.  Looked at the other polling booths and they were deserted.  I should have taken this as an omen of things to come.  Waited about 30 minutes, voted and off we went back home.

Ran a few errands and finally went to the garage to work on the sub-plate.  First order of the day was to make a flat surface on one of the faces.  Used the same procedure I did with the flywheel material.  Using the flycutter I started milling off the face and getting the usual finish.  I do not know why but decided to spray some WD40 on the face and things started improving dramatically.  I was getting a near mirror finish (first lesson).  I was really feeling smug as I never managed to get this type of finish (if I wiped it with a cotton rag I would actually scratch it).



Nearly finished with the flycutter but I was late for lunch and I must have been distracted because the flycutter hit one of the clamps which produced some deep gashes in the face (second lesson - never rush especially at the end of an operation).  I am sure there is a saying in English about people who rush but just can't remember it.

In the afternoon I went back to see exactly what I had done.  I could have lived with the gashes, after all this face was going to be clamped to the faceplate,  but as penance for my sin I decided to start anew and remove the gashes.

Finally finished. A whole day to face one side.  How I wish I had a larger lathe.

Vince

[Ramon Wilson]

Hi Vince

The phrase you're looking for is probably 'More haste - less speed'  I remember one of my old tutors had another - "You need to slow down to speed up". I often catch myself thinking on this latter one if things start to go wrong - and they do quite frequently- and the penny drops I'm trying to do too much too soon Least it's not a 'binner' 

Re the WD 40 - As you have found this is a good lubricant to use with Ali and will improve the finish. However a word of caution - we used this all the time at my last place of works - it came as a fluid and was decanted into squeezy bottles for use. I soon found, particularly using it on the lathe that I quickly became sensitised to it and it gave me some pretty bad repiratory problems - I still react if I get a whiff of it but that may of course now be psychological. A much better alternative however is ordinary paraffin.

Hope you have better luck tomorrow

Regards - Ramon

[vcutajar]

'More haste - less speed'

Yes Ramon it could be that one. Although English here is considered as a second language, the finer details still elude me.  Maybe I should print it in large font and stick it to the wall.  It's not the first time I have been caught in this trap.

A much better alternative however is ordinary paraffin.

Paraffin has become here scarce as hens teeth.  It's not used here anymore.  I still have a small jerrycan of paraffin which I jealously guard.

Tomorrow hopefully will be better.

Now off to read Arnold's update to see what's he has been up to.

Vince

[ozzie46]

Over here it's "haste makes waste". 

  Ron

[Maryak]

Paraffin has become here scarce as hens teeth.  It's not used here anymore.  I still have a small jerrycan of paraffin which I jealously guard.

Vince

Kerosene, Jet fuel (Jet A1).

Shouldn't be tooooooard tofind. Unless they've stopped flying. 

Best Regards
Bob

[steamer]

Diesel fuel will work fine...

Dave

[Stuart]

Today was definately not a good day but I learnt two lessons.

Today we had our general elections for a new government.  We (family) decided to vote early in the morning to maybe avoid the queues at our local primary school.  Arrived at the school and I thought, good, no queues outside.  Went in.  Not many people around.  Located our polling booth and there was a  queue.  Looked at the other polling booths and they were deserted.  I should have taken this as an omen of things to come.  Waited about 30 minutes, voted and off we went back home.

Ran a few errands and finally went to the garage to work on the sub-plate.  First order of the day was to make a flat surface on one of the faces.  Used the same procedure I did with the flywheel material.  Using the flycutter I started milling off the face and getting the usual finish.  I do not know why but decided to spray some WD40 on the face and things started improving dramatically.  I was getting a near mirror finish (first lesson) (photo 1).  I was really feeling smug as I never managed to get this type of finish (if I wiped it with a cotton rag I would actually scratch it).

Nearly finished with the flycutter but I was late for lunch and I must have been distracted because the flycutter hit one of the clamps which produced some deep gashes in the face (second lesson - never rush especially at the end of an operation).  I am sure there is a saying in English about people who rush but just can't remember it.

In the afternoon I went back to see exactly what I had done.  I could have lived with the gashes, after all this face was going to be clamped to the faceplate,  but as penance for my sin I decided to start anew and remove the gashes.

Finally finished. A whole day to face one side.  How I wish I had a larger lathe.

There is another saying not so cute but true


" There are only two things done in a hurry
1 Black finger nails
2 Babies 
"
Stuart

[vcutajar]

That's a good one Stuart.

Bob, Jet-A1 is available here but only to airline operators as it is sold duty free so not available on the open market.  Every morning a fuel sample test for water contamination is done on each tank.  This involves draining some fuel from each tank.  The fuel is then disposed off.  I could ask for some of that but I would not like to get any of the guys or gals into trouble with the authorities.

Vince

[arnoldb]

All part of the trials and tribulations Vince 

I use methylated spirits (rubbing alcohol) with about 30% water added in for machining aluminium if I don't want to make a dry cut or get a fine finish.  Also for parting and threading/tapping.
The water makes it less volatile so there's less of a "hospital" smell, and also does not take the oil from the machines.  I especially like it for tapping blind holes in aluminium; once it's evaporated, the dry chips just fall out of the holes rather than clinging in there.
Just another option...

Kind regards, Arnold

[vcutajar]

In an earlier post I said that there could be a plan B for the flywheel.  Yesterday it arrived.  It is a cast iron (close grain) flywheel casting that I got from the UK.  It has a diameter of just under 8" and is 1.75" wide so it should be suitable for this model.  It cost nearly half of the lump of steel I am currently working on.  I oiled it up and packed it and will be keeping it in reserve.



In the meantime, I removed the flywheel from the faceplate, flipped it over and counterbored the four 8mm holes.



Refitted it back on the faceplate and cleaned up the face.



Next operation on the flywheel will need the subplate to be used so I will be working on preparing the subplate for the faceplate.

Vince

[tvoght]

Vince,
Nice to have a Plan B. In the meantime, it looks to me like Plan A is well in hand.

--Tim

[Jo]

Nice to know that it was actually cheaper to buy a casting rather than buy the lump of steel. Does the price comparison include cutting costs for the steel and the postage on the casting.

Good luck with plan A. If you fall back to plan B did you intend on using the casting as is or trying to make it look more like the original? On my Large S&P I took the rim off a commercial flywheel and put in new spokes and capped the holes in the rim with CI inserts (Which will not be visible as the wheel is painted ) .

Jo

[vcutajar]

Hi Tim

As the scouts say, : "Be prepared."

Jo,  my locally acquired lump with cutting cost me 75 Euro, whilst the casting including delivery (TNT) cost 42 Euro.  So as you can see it would have been cheaper and less work if I got the casting first.  Having said this, I do not know what the same lump of steel would cost in the UK, so I would suggest shopping around.  I will still continue making the original flywheel I have already started so as to learn the 'art' of making spoked flywheels.

Originally the casting I got was meant for a Stuart No.1.  It is very similar in shape to the Corliss flywheel the major difference being that the Corliss has 8 spokes whilst the casting has 6.  If I had to use it I would leave it as is and call it artistic liberty.

Vince