Author Topic: A portable steam engine  (Read 86066 times)

Offline fumopuc

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #180 on: August 02, 2015, 06:38:59 PM »
Hi Rich, nice to see it running. Congratulations.
Kind Regards
Achim

Offline Stilldrillin

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #181 on: August 02, 2015, 08:58:31 PM »
That's a fine sight, and sound, Rich.  :)

Well done!  :praise2:

David D
David.
Still modifying bits of metal... Occasionally, making an improvement!
Still drilling holes... Sometimes, in the right place!

Offline Firebird

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #182 on: December 29, 2015, 09:11:18 PM »
Hi

well its been on the back burner for a while hasn't it. Thanks for all the nice comments  :ThumbsUp:

I had a few hours on it today. I'm not happy with the crank support so have started on a new one. Its built in a similar fashion to the first one. I want to have the eccentric inboard.

First turn a spacer 2.25" long drill and tap 6mm each end



The new uprights are thicker, 5/16 compared to 1/4 on the old ones. I have gone with bronze bushes instead of bearings as well. the spacer fitted to hold things square



Clamped to the new saddle



In the brazing hearth with flux and silver solder



After brazing



A trial fit



Compared to the first one



Theres still a lot of work to do but it looks better

Cheers

Rich






Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #183 on: December 29, 2015, 09:18:01 PM »
Goodie. Glad to see the progress.
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Offline Firebird

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #184 on: January 03, 2016, 03:54:23 PM »
Hi

Thanks Carl

The new mount in the mill mounted on a bit of scrap steel in the rotary table having 6 mounting holes drilled. This set up ensures the holes are drilled at 90° to the saddle



The new crank mount looks better with the inboard eccentric but needs filling out a bit, ie fillets. With the crank and eccentric fitted I traced round it. Note this is a new crankshaft, I'll show that later



Then shade in where the fillets will go



Cut some pieces of 3/16 thick ally as per the drawing. I screw small bits to some scrap wood for cutting



Laid out on the drawing





I use this stuff for bonding metal parts, sticks anything to anything



The 4 parts stuck in



When its fully hardened I will mix up a little more to fill in and smooth out.

Cheers

Rich


Offline Firebird

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #185 on: January 03, 2016, 04:56:35 PM »
Hi

The new crankshaft.

2 pieces of 1/2"  X  1/4" flat steel. Drill through the 2 parts together 5mm. Tap the longer part 6mm and drill the shorter part 6mm. Bolt the 2 pieces together with a short bolt.



In the mill vise square to the table, use a parrallel to make sure the part is level and accurately find the centre with a wiggler. Centre drill 2 holes 1/2" apart



Drill 7.8mm then ream 8mm. Slightly counter sink the outside of each piece to give a recess for the silver solder to flow into



A 3/8" wide spacer is turned and drilled 6mm. A piece of 3/8" flat bar is also used. 8mm round steel bar is used for the crankshaft and crank pin, the crank pin is 7/8" long. The steel bar I use is salvaged. It is the rear tailgate stays from hatchback cars. The steel is beautifully ground, bang on 8mm and slightly hard but not too hard to work. Assembled and in the brazing hearth flux is applied and one side silver soldered



Allow the part to cool naturally then clean up the other side with a wire brush and emery and solder that side. I have tried building cranks before by soldering but not got on very well. Too much silver solder getting through to the crank pin which is extremely difficult to remove. Before I only had my propane torch which heats the whole thing before the solder flows but I now have this bit of kit.



Much hotter and more precise I was able to heat just the one side very quickly. Then the other side was soldered. Careful to use just a small amount of solder barely anything came through to the crank pin

After cutting off the waste



By mounting in the lathe and rocking the chuck back and forth one side was machined to shape



The other side was filed to shape then polished with emery



The last bit of waste cut out



A trial fit of the crankshaft



A mock up on the engine



Cheers

Rich
« Last Edit: January 03, 2016, 11:01:06 PM by Firebird »

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #186 on: January 03, 2016, 04:59:32 PM »
Looking great.

Was there another operation after sawing the web out? Or did it end up flush?
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
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Offline Firebird

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #187 on: January 03, 2016, 05:03:35 PM »
Hi Carl

A little bit of filing was needed but not much.

Cheers

Rich

Online Kim

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #188 on: January 03, 2016, 05:04:59 PM »
That's looking really nice Rich!  You should be feeling pretty good about it :)
Kim

Offline fumopuc

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #189 on: January 03, 2016, 06:41:04 PM »
Hi Rich, I am still following along quietly.
Kind Regards
Achim

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #190 on: January 04, 2016, 01:01:03 AM »
Nice update Rich,

I was hoping to be able to watch you silver solder those little gussets in place. :lolb:

Dave

Offline Firebird

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #191 on: January 10, 2016, 04:23:08 PM »
Hi

Thanks Kim, Achim and Dave

Not much to report this week. I need to make the eccentric connecting rod adjustable without dis-connecting it to adjust. Disconnecting it only gives adjustment a half turn at a time, I need something a little finer. The answer is to make one end of the rod right hand thread and the other end left hand thread

Now I am going to mix imperial and metric here, it doesn't bother me I will work to whatever I have, but my opologies to the purists among us who only like to work in one size.

I use 5/32" stainless steel rod because I have a good stock of it.
I use BA nuts because I have a good stock of them and they look right
I have used 4mm because its the only left hand thread I have

As a quick comparrison converted to thou's

5/32  =  0.1562
3 BA  =  0.1614
4mm  =  0.1575

There is only 0.0039 between the 3, near enough for me  :ThumbsUp:

I have used a 4BA nut drilled out and tapped 4mm left hand thread.





Left hand thread and nut



I just need to make a new brass piece now with left hand thread and thread the other end 3BA to screw into the eccentric.

I hope you have enjoyed my multi size approach  :Lol:

Cheers

Rich

Offline Firebird

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #192 on: January 17, 2016, 04:41:32 PM »
Hi

I'm still not happy with the crank support, it just doesn't sit right  :ShakeHead: :disappointed:

Maybe I'm just getting too fussy in my old age  :old:

The saddle part that I rolled from some flat bar must have a very slight twist in it. The engine runs and the support looks ok but I'm just not happy with it.

So in the lathe with a bit of steel tube



Turn the outside



Then the inside



Until an offcut from the copper boiler tube fits inside



Note the first snow of this winter outside my window

Make a couple of new crank supports. Very similar to the previous ones except I have just bored through 1/2" this time. I am going to make some bronze bushes from square stock that should look nicer.



Cheers

Rich

Offline scc

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #193 on: February 01, 2016, 10:43:32 PM »
Hi Rich,  I have come in from my workshop and sat down with a brew and my laptop. A few hours later and I have been enthralled by your portable engine thread.  The set-ups, innovation and workmanship are great. I have learnt a lot. Very well done  :praise2: :praise2:
As an aside  where can I get a gas setup like yours?          Regards             Terry

Offline Firebird

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Re: A portable steam engine
« Reply #194 on: February 01, 2016, 11:08:41 PM »
Hi Terry

Glad you like it.

I got my kit from here

http://www.thewelderswarehouse.com/index.html

No problems dealing with them. They have a video on youtube of the kit in action.

Cheers

Rich

 

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