1/4 Scale Rider-Ericsson Pumping Engine from castings.

[b.lindsey]

Once i was happy with the OD fit in the liner the end of the piston was drilled and bored to .500" (photo 1). The excess casting material was faced off the bottom end (photo 2). This did reveal a few small voids in the casting which shouldn't affect performance but I will fill them in with some JB weld all the same. Finally the bore was enlarged for the retaining nut which will hold the piston rod in place (photo 3). After that,  I will add the oil grooves, part the piston off and begin work on some of the inside contours.

[b.lindsey]

Turning to the flywheel now,  I first chucked on the largest hub of the casting and got the flywheel running as true as possible. Then drilled an undersized through hole (photo 1). Boring it for a light press fit on a .500 dowel pin came next (photo 2), followed by support from the live center in order to face one side of the outer rim to width. Once the outer rim was faced the hub was also faced to a slightly wider width (photo 3). Although not shown, the outer diameter of the rim was machined next. The dowel pin was pressed into the machined side so that it can be chucked on to machine the opposite side of the flywheel tomorrow.

[b.lindsey]

Couldn't help but see how the flywheel looked in the whole scheme of things Photo 1) even though the spokes will be reversed in the end. The last picture is of the outlet connection into the water jacket with an elbow attachedjust to make sure it wil clear the flywheell and stack.

[b.lindsey]

As to the clearance...its more like 1/8" but in this case a miss is as good as a mile (photo 1). This morning I finished up the flywheel with the exception of polishing the machined surfaces. Oddly enough the plans specify a 3" dowel pin for the crankshaft, but after going through the bracket and leaving enough for the crankdisk, there is only enough to press into the flywheel about 1.150" of the 1.4" hub thickness. Its enough to hold the flywheel solid but as you can see in the second picture, it leaves about a 1/4" recessed hole on the exposed end. I am thinking I will make a brass cap for this which will look better than that recess and might even be a nice detail to go with the brass connecting yokes and brass pump, etc.

[steamer]

Looking Good Bill!
 
Dave

[b.lindsey]

Thanks Dave, I try to get the rest of the log transferred over during today. 

Bill

[b.lindsey]

I worked some on finishing up the displacer yoke castng and got the shoulder bolt made to attach it to the flywheel support bracket. Today I hope to work moreoin the ID of the power piston though there is slight list of household duties of the non-machining variety to be accomplished as well. Hopefully there will still be so time in the shop too!!!

[b.lindsey]

The machine shop has been busy so not a lot of machine time for me. I did however finish the install of the cylinder liner into the cylinder casting today Photo 1 actually shows the lower end of the liner inverted so as to apply a generous amount of JB Weld. This area will mate with the lower machined ID of the casting. Once this was inserted and lined up, the upper ring was similarly coated with epoxy and then the whole liner was tapped into place with a soft face hammer and a block of plastic to insure even force all around. Photo 3 shows the liner in place after cleaning off the excess epoxy from the upper joint. I'll let it cure overnight and check for water tightness tomorrow though I don't expect any leaks. Neither is the liner coming out anytime soon 

[b.lindsey]

It has been a slower week as far as progress as other things took precedence, but looking forward to a productive weekend. Most of the work on all the castings is done now, so its down to the bar stock items, links, etc. I did get a little done on the power piston last evening...facing to length, grooves in the face as per the print, and the notch at the top for packing (photo 1). Concurrently, I have been working on a version of SandyC's burner for his 3" vertical boiler, though I made the main body out of a chunk of brass as one piece rather than copper pipe with a bottom plate (photo 2). The deflectors, gas jet carrier, and mixer tube will be made this weekend and silver soldered together. Ordered the orifice yesterday from McMaster and it should be in by Monday. Still looking for a suitable ceramic material on this side of the pond, so if anyone has any ideas on that it would be appreciated. Finally the various pieces of brass stock have been cut for the linkakges needed and will be working on getting them machined today and over the weekend as well (photo 3).

[b.lindsey]

Before leaving work yesterday I milled all the link pieces to length and located and drilled the holes (photo 1). More on these tomorrow though. Today I finished the parts for the burner body and got them silver soldered and cleaned up on the outside. This is shown in the next three photos.

[b.lindsey]

Before setting up to work on the linkage parts, there was some rotary table work required to finish up the power piston casting so I worked on this most of the afternoon. This is actually one of the more intricate parts of all of the castings, Today's efforts are shown in the photos below

[b.lindsey]

I made the nut that will attach the piston rod to the piston and which acts as a guide for the displacer piston. Its not thresded yet to the 1/2-20 required...I'll do that  at work. Next,  I will begin machining the linkage parts.

[b.lindsey]

Yesterday did see some progress on 3 of the 5 linkage parts. The other two I will work on today at work as time permits. The two power piston links had to be flycut down to a thickness of .18" from the .250" thick brass stock but once that was done, the side reliefs could be gang cut as shown in photo 1. Photo 2 shows both of these after that operation. Though not the most efficient method, the face reliefs were cut with a ball end mill on each side of these two links. As noted, not the quickest way to do this but more secure on the little Sherline where this was done (photo 3). Finally the slightly longer and full .250" thick displacer yoke link was done similarly. All three of the links are shown in photo 4 after these two operations. Radiusing the ends of all of the links will be done together once the other two 3/4" thick links are completed to this same stage. Hopefully the orifice for the burner will arrivei today so it can be installed.

[b.lindsey]

These pictures show the roughing out of the wider links...milling the center slot, the rounded side reliefs and the squared off end reliefs. I will put the radii on each end of them tomorrow.

[vcutajar]

Hi Bill

Followed your build elsewhere.  Maybe I am jumping the gun, but did you get it to run?

Vince