Generic Oilfield Engine

[b.lindsey]

Looking good Chuck and quite a long con rod as you say. Looking forward to seeing it after the CNC work. The head and valves look wonderful as well!!!

Bill

[Roger B]

Looks to be an interesting upgrade of the original engine   

I bought a German tractor magazine to read on the flight to China this week. It had a cutaway drawing of a Deutz hopper cooled horizontal engine with a vertical camshaft driven by helical gears so the valves were one above each other in the head. I'll have to look more into gear cutting as this looked quite a neat arrangement.

[cfellows]

Thanks for the comments, folks.  Today was my 24th wedding anniversary, so I didn't get a lot of time in the shop...  .  But a good movie and nice dinner with the spouse made up for it.

I put together a fixture to hold the rod.  I made it out of wood so I could mill past the bottom edge of the rod.  I got it fastened to the milling table and managed to get about 60% done. 

I'm being pretty conservative, making full width, .040" deep cuts on each pass, so it's taken me 8 passes to get this far, about an hour of milling time.  I have 5 more passes to go, so I should finish it up tomorrow.

Photobucket is down for maintenance so I'm attaching today's (not very good) photos. 

Chuck

[cfellows]

I finished up the connecting rod today.  Cosmetically, it turned out very nice.  However, I think it's a bit beefy and I'll probably reduce it in cross sectional thickness and perhaps height.





I've noticed a disturbing inaccuracy in my CNC converted mill drill lately.  I tested it today, finding that an MDI command to move the X-Axis 10" only moved it about 9.875, measuring with a ruler.  I had originally thought the ball screws were 5 turns per inch or a lead of 0.2".   Turns out, the lead is really 5mm, which is only 0.19685".  I changed the configuration in Mach3 from 30,000 steps per inch to 30,480 steps per inch and now it is dead on.

Chuck

[b.lindsey]

That turned out very well Chuck. From the picture of the engine it looks proportional in size and not too beefy at all, though you are the one that ultimately has to be happy with it. Good that you found the ball screw error...that could have wrecked some things down the road for sure. As always I like and admire your creativity on all your projects and this one hasn't disappointed!! 

Bill

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Chuck, your work has always been top notch and I've loved all your builds, however, now that you've stepped up the CNC work, well, I'll be damned if they aren't even better. I've said it before, the way you can take 2+2 and make it equal 5 just gets me. Keep on doing it and have fun.

Whiskey

[Don1966]

Chuck I believe that rod is just right myself. And what whiskey said first rate. I like..........


 

Don

[cfellows]

I had a fun day in the shop today.  I did my first ever thread milling.  I wrote the G-Code for it which was really easy.  I also used my right angle milling attachment and my 4th Axis...



The milling cutter is a 60 degree included angle cutter.  I'm making the studs that hold the head on from 3/16" drill rod, threaded 10-24.



Here's a finished stud, best threads I've ever cut!



Here's some pictures of the engine with the head attached.  The nuts were cut from threaded rod coupling nuts...



I've also got the side shaft temporarily sitting in place with the helical gears. 





The side shaft in the picture is 3/16" diameter, but I think I'll increase it to 1/4" since it is so long...

Here's a video of the thread milling process...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HO0DICwnSk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HO0DICwnSk</a>

I'm really pleased with how easy the thread milling was and how nice the results are.  I've always been somewhat challenged in trying to do single point thread cutting on the lathe, so I think this method will be a nice alternative.

Chuck

[b.lindsey]

Wow Chuck...those threads look perfect and thanks for the video as well!!  The family shots look great too of course. This is going to be a sizeable engine from the looks of it.

Bill

[Tennessee Whiskey]

That's mechanical poetry in motion, great job Chuck.

Whiskey

[SHOPGUY]

Chuck
That's impressive.   
Your right angle milling adapter works beautifully.
Thanks for posting.
Ernie J

[Kim]

That's really cool Chuck!  And lets see, you made the 4th axis yourself, and you wrote the G-Code by hand.  That's got to be a pretty great feeling when it all came out right! 

Kim

[Jo]

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for that very interesting  . How small a thread do you think you could mill? If I have my numbers right that is about an 8mm (5/16") thread which is about on the limit of what you can cut with a single pass with a standard die.

I have moved over to using Coventry die heads  for thread cutting and my biggest is 1/2" head. Yes it will cut a 1/2" thread on one pass but it really shows up how firm the die head's mount is. For instance I had it mounted in a 2mt  depending on the type of steel, the fit in the taper struggles to take the turning force of any threads above 5/16".

I must one day try thread cutting on the lathe: its like using the rotary table.. 

Jo

[Andy]

This is all really very clever Chuck    Making your own tools to do this almost makes it look like  i could attempt it, but then again 
Thanks for sharing your processes though 

[maury]

Chuck, nice work! This technique would be very useful for those special thread sizes and the larger diameters too. Have you thought of cutting tapered pipe threads? it can be difficult to hold the stock without slipping when using a die, another useful application.

Also, this setup looks like it would be just what you need for making worms and worm wheels.

maury