Bruce's take on the Monitor Steam Engine

[bruedney]

Hi folks

Not quite as much progress tonight. Of course I had to play with my 3D mouse which took a little of my workshop time

Set up the inner frame pieces and drilled all the holes.

Decided to chain drill the larger inner pockets which took a little longer than simply letting the endmill cut it out. But I didn't have to possiblity of a flying centre piece this time. Again love having a CNC mill - chain drilling is so easy.

Tomorrow will see the outer profile of the frames completed and then I need to find the spacer block material.

Yummy dinner tonight too - walked in the door to the lovely smell of slow cooked chicken and cashew nut - very tasty.

Thanks for watching

[crueby]

Wow, flying right along! The cnc is making quick work of those frames.   

[bruedney]

Well a few hours in the workshop tonight has seen the 4 frame plates cut out and cleaned up enough for now.

I rummaged through my stock cupboard and found a unit that I got from a large commercial laser print that will become the cylinder mounting plate and the rear frame spacer.

I then cleaned and lubed the mill

All in all a successful few days 

Watch out Zee - I'm catchin' ya 

Thanks for watching

[zeeprogrammer]

Watch out Zee - I'm catchin' ya 

I'm thinking you already have. 
My frames are done but not finished. 

Maybe I'm spending too much time at supper.

[b.lindsey]

Those frame pieces turned out beautifully!!  Very nice finish on them too. Well done Bruce!

Bill

[bruedney]

Nice.

Another Monitor build to follow.

What material have you used for the frames?  I haven't decided yet what to use when I start mine.  The 4mm holes in the frames I will be doing them as 3mm instead.  4mm seems too large and when I checked on the imperial plans they were closer to 3mm.

Vince

Hi Vince

I checked with 3mm and 4mm cap screws and I think you are right. I will go with 3mm for at least the frames as they seem a bit more in proportion.

[bruedney]

Chugging along here

Got the Main bearings turned tonight.

I still have to part off the locking rings and drill the lube holes but they look the part

[b.lindsey]

Chugging? Hardly!  You have gotten a lot done in just these three days!!  The frame/shaft/bearings look great too Bruce.

Bill

[bruedney]

Well I have had a productive but almost disastrous day in the workshop.

Started of by cutting the Outrigger top plates milling to size and then drilling. This when all well until on the last 3 holes the upper most plate decided it wasn't being held by the vise and it moved about 0.5mm.      Remember to check that both items are held securely in the vise.

OK not a huge issue - reclamped and re drilled the holes - all good.

On to the Outrigger Bases

I had a long bar of T6511 Ali 32 x 32mm sq. This was cut to length and the I proceeded to make lots of swarf milling them down to 25 x 25mm.

Again all when well until the final cut of 0.5mm to finish up the face.

You know, on a manual mill, when you have a brain fart and turn the handle the wrong way. Well the same can happen on a CNC mill when you reuse a toolpath that you forgot about the first time you told it to start at -3.0mm. A 20mm end mill does not like plunging 3mm into a large portion of your work piece. The mill fuse does not like it when one of the cutting faces come into contact with the immovable corner of the hardened vise jaw either. 

A few words were said and the mill fixed and then I tried again with a new toolpath. I see some JB weld in this parts future and it will be facing downward and inward.

Anyway - things are looking good so far apart for the missing corner.

[Steamer5]

Hi Bruce's
 Coming on in leaps & bounds. Sounds like you nee Chris's biscuit recipe, when you think something may not be quite right, grab a bikkie, & have a quite munch & contemplate the worlds problems

Cheers Kerrin

[zeeprogrammer]

Progress is progress. Looking pretty good Bruce.

Don't look at my engine from below. You'll see horrible things. 

[bruedney]

Another couple of hours and another couple of items finished

Tonight was the finishing of the Outrigger bases

I cut the slots with a 3mm slot endmill using a 3.1mm wide tool path. Worked out well.

Now that I have started fitting it together the shaft has gone tight but I am sure the can be eased a bit somewhere.

Don't look at my engine from below. You'll see horrible things. 

I try not to look at things from below - you can get arrested for that 

Regards

[zeeprogrammer]

I cut the slots with a 3mm slot endmill using a 3.1mm wide tool path.

  Slots? What slots?

I'm sure you already know...but for some of us...that's the back of the engine.

[vcutajar]

Bruce, how did you manage to cut the slots with an endmill?  They are 13mm deep. Did you use a long series end mill?

Vince

[bruedney]

Slots? What slots?
I'm sure you already know...but for some of us...that's the back of the engine.

Zee - the slots in the 25 x 25 base frames for the inner frames to slot into. And I haven't quite figured out which way is which yet.

Bruce, how did you manage to cut the slots with an endmill?  They are 13mm deep. Did you use a long series end mill?
Vince

Vince - The end mill I used is a 3mm slot mill with a 3mm shank. The tool path was for a 3.1 mm slot so it took 2 slices of it at a 0.5mm DOC each time. After 26 iterations the slot was done.