Upshur Farm Engine Air Cooled; JR's 1st Build

[JR]

Finished with the cooling sleeve. Got it cut down to size. I messed up the fins by accident so I had to turn down the diameter of fins a bit to make them look good again. I'll just have to compensate a bit when I make the head. I'm going to wait on drilling the holes for the retaining studs until I make the head blank.



JR

[JR]

Ok got a little done the last few days. Just haven't had time to post. I started work on the connecting rod. This is when I found out my mill was out of tram pretty good. Spent about an hour with that and one .021" shim later all was good. So I cut some aluminum stock for the rod, faced and cut to size.





I then drilled the cap with a #35 clearance drill. Clamped the rod and cap together and drilled and tapped the rod for the #4-40 cap retaining screws.



After this I marked up the rod/cap blank and center punched the two holes getting it ready for milling.



The blank was put in the milling vise making sure to angle the piece to match the layout lines.



Finally this is what we end up with.



Next up will be to mill the rod to thickness, drill and ream the holes and round up the small end of the rod. I'm pausing here for a few days as I had to order some reamers and a few replacement drill bits. Will be back soon.

JR

[Don1966]

Looking good JR, the fins came out great as did the con rod. Still following you bud and I do like..........


Don

[philjoe5]

Two more holes and you'll have your con rod.  Good progress

Cheers,
Phil

[JR]

Thanks for the comments guys. It's been a fun build so far. I especially enjoy the challenge of figuring out the different operations.

[JR]

Been a little slow on the build due to a nasty flu that won't quit. I did make a little progress finishing the connecting rod. I decided to drill and bore the holes in the rod on the faceplate. The budgets been a little tight so I put off on ordering the reamers for a few weeks. Anyway I ground up a small boring bar:



Then I turned a plug gage to check the size of the hole in the small end as I don't have anything to measure that small (3/16").



Then I clamped the rod to the faceplate and drilled and bored the holes to size.



I then milled the rod to thickness, rounded off the small end made the round relief on the large end. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of all operations as my camera's battery was dead. After some file work and some sanding this is the final result:



It's not perfect but it'll work. The good thing is I'm learning as I go and am getting better at the basics. Will continue here shortly.

JR

[philjoe5]

It looks good to me.  In fact, it looks very nearly perfect.  Nice work

Cheers,
Phil

[JR]

Hi Phil, cosmetically it's ok. Dimensionally it's acceptable.  I'm still working on my accuracy. It's so easy to overshoot the dimensions while machining.  But I'm getting better.
Thanks,
JR

[rudydubya]

Looks like it's coming along great JR.  Following along with interest.

Regards,
Rudy

[b.lindsey]

I am just getting caught up on this build JR but you are making surprising progress in the last month. I think everything in this hobby is a learning process. Pretty soon you will be surprised at just how much you have learned through practice and trial and error. The build is looking very good and I will try to stay caught up from now on.

Bill

[JR]

Thanks for following along Rudy. Bill I am learning something every day. Getting more comfortable as I learn the capability of my equipment. Little by little I'll get there.

Thanks
JR