Down on the Farm, Boy

[sshire]

Down on the Farm, Boy
Episode 1

The hardest thing for me, when building a new engine, is making the first cut. This was especially true with this build of Jerry Howell’s Farm Boy Hit & Miss. It’s my first I.C. engine and I found all manner of things to do to avoid that first cut. So…

I cleaned the lathe



Filled and organized the oil cans



Cleaned the bench



Made a place for reference materials



Repaired the broken downfeed trip ball on the Bridgeport. This only effected the power downfeed, which I don’t use that often.



Trammed the mill



and indicated the vise




Having mostly exhausted the excuse list, this morning I squared a chunk of 6061.








Over to the bandsaw to cut off a chunk. I’d rather have a piece that I can use for some other part than have a pile of chips.




And milled to the required 2 inches.



Jerry Howell had designed this engine to be built from bar stock but to look like castings. One face is milled at an 8 degree angle. The part was put in the tilting vise and roughed out.

After indicating the part and locking down the vise, I started with a roughing end mill. Then a ball end mill to leave a curve at the bottom.









Then back to the Kurt vise to mill the flat up to the curve.



Followed by filing and Scotchbrite to blend all.



Then a trip to Oliver for some rounding over.





Finally, I marked out the recess and removed most of the material by drilling and milling. The remainder of the milling will be done tomorrow.



Thanks for tuning in.

[b.lindsey]

Nice start Stan...should be a fun one to watch too...not that any of yours aren't

Bill

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Oh boy, a winter mini series. Been up 17 hours and have on lightly tinted beer goggles, I'll give this one a good read in the morrow

Rev. Cletus

[Dave Otto]

Pulling up a chair for this one Stan!

The Farm Boy is a nice running little engine; looking forward to seeing it take shape.


Dave

[philjoe5]

It’s my first I.C. engine

Stan,
I have no doubt you're up to this new challenge.  Despite all that is said about IC engines, all it takes skill and persistence, both of which you've demonstrated.  I'll be on board for the show 

Cheers,
Phil

[fumopuc]

Hi Stan, I am following along, too. Don't worry, I am sure it will be easier to build an IC engine than the RE.

[Jasonb]

I'll be watching this one, always liked the look of the farmboy, certainly the best looking design for a barstock hit & miss.

J

[sshire]

Down on the Farm, Boy
Episode 2

Speaking of farms, I can’t believe the farmers enjoy this Daylight Savings Time anymore than the rest of us. Leave the clocks alone. I awoke this morning to find that it was 6 am and dark outside. The farmers apparently awake earlier than fishermen so it’s dark outside no matter what. Who thought that was a good idea?  Rant over.

Since it was early and I only have a half-day to work in the shop (the rest occupied by REAL football),
I continued on the rear part of the frame.

Yesterday I had hogged out a good deal of the metal and did the milling to size first off this morning.



The inner wall at the end is to match the 8 degree angle of the outer wall. Reset the part in the vise at close-enough and milled the wall to the drawing thickness.





The sides are reduced in thickness by .250” leaving some elements at the full .5”. I laid out the areas to be removed and had at it. First, a 1” end mill to remove most of the metal and then a ball end mill for finishing.







Some holes to drill and tap on this side but done for now.



Probably no shop time tomorrow as I’m picking up Fred for a field trip to Fazzio’s Aluminum and Steel Supply. I need a 3”x3”x2” block of 6061 for the front frame half, plus whatever else looks useful. Not sure what Fred needs but he had asked me to let him know when I was next going to Fazzio’s. I’ll get some pix there.

[Don1966]

Dam Stan, your just eating up that metal bud. Nice progress on a great engine. I'll be sitting in on this one also.  Got the  and  ready.

 
Don

[mklotz]

Speaking of farms, I can’t believe the farmers enjoy this Daylight Savings Time anymore than the rest of us. Leave the clocks alone. I awoke this morning to find that it was 6 am and dark outside. The farmers apparently awake earlier than fishermen so it’s dark outside no matter what. Who thought that was a good idea?  Rant over.

Well, you could move to Arizona or, better yet, Hawaii.  Neither state observes Daylight Saving (Saving, not Savings) Time.

I dislike driving in the dark to go to dinner.  The clueless, texting idiots in their yuppie trucks are dangerous enough but, in the dark they're downright terrifying.

And while we're ranting, how about doing away with this silly AM/PM crap?  The military can't figure out how many milliradians there are in a circle but at least they got the 24 hour clock right.

[b.lindsey]

You are making some nice progress there Stan!  Personally, Saturday is my football day as I much prefer college ball to the pros and unfortunately our local pro team is in the dumps this season Hope you have a productive roadtrip with Fred and come back with lots of goodies for the Farmboy and otherwise

Bill

[AussieJimG]

You little beauty! Another well-documented, instructive and enjoyable build log.

Thank  you Stan, I will be watching and learning.

Jim

[Steamer5]

Hi Stan,
 Off to another flying start! Just shot out to get the &  and another installment is up! Looking good, & as usual lots of helpful hints & tips!

Marv, there was an article in our local rag reporting some  who was adamant that daylight saving was the cause of global warming!  an to do with the extra hour of sunlight.

Cheers Kerrin

[mklotz]

Marv, there was an article in our local rag reporting some  who was adamant that daylight saving was the cause of global warming!  an to do with the extra hour of sunlight.

People like that are proof that evolution is, at best, a haphazard process and produces far more errors than improvements in the form.

Tell him that everyone knows that global warming is due to joggers.  The friction of their jogging shoes produces excessive heat.  Tell him he must get out on the street corners with a cardboard sign exhorting an end to jogging to stop global warming.

Hey, he'll still be a glimmering idiot but at least there's a chance he'll step off the curb at an inopportune moment and be removed from the gene pool by a speeding bus.

[Stuart]

Not to derail this thread
But marv when I was an apprentice our Forman used to get us to reset the solar dial time clocks when they altered the clock ,we could not convince him that the sun time was not altered

Nice work there Stan