Rudy Kouhoupt Pioneer Engine

[toolznthings]

Hi All,

Going to try and organize and post my build of the Pioneer Engine I built last year. Hopefully I will be able to remember the operations and post in a reasonable
sequence of what I machined. I made a choice of better materials throughout the build, especially for the running parts. I used 660 bronze for the main bearings, connecting
rod, valve bodies and valve push rod supports. The valves were made from 303 stainless steel. The drawings were very good with only a couple of minor errors.  I made a different approach to the machining the valve housings and the buildup of the crank shaft.

I need to thank my friends Yogi and Danny for their help in getting the engine to run on completion. It was not exactly a straight forward, simple or cheap! 

Stay tuned, more to come and I hope everyone enjoys!
Brian

[yogi]

Looking forward to the build Brian! 

[b.lindsey]

Great Brian, a new engine build (even if it is complete already). Can you post a picture if it so we know where you are/were headed?

Bill

[toolznthings]

Great Brian, a new engine build (even if it is complete already). Can you post a picture if it so we know where you are/were headed?

Bill

Hi Bill,

I have a post here under " Engines "  " Machining and woodworking " that has the finished project pictured.

Brian

[b.lindsey]

OK I found it. I will post the link to that thread here so others can find it easily.
http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,6761.0.htm

Bill

[toolznthings]

Thanks !

[toolznthings]

Machining the engine base plate from cast tooling plate that I had on hand. Machined the outer dimensions first
and did a sharpie layout as a visual reference for the drilled holes. Drilled and counter bored for socket head screws and drilled
and taped holes on the edge for the breaker point mount.

[toolznthings]

The 660 bronze supports/ bearings for the crank shaft are next.

Using a small knife edge hold down style wedge to hold the rough bronze stock to the vise back jaw. I begin the machining to
square up and finish to size the blank for the supports and caps.

Add the tapped holes to the lower part of the support to accept the bearing caps. Machined the caps to size and add the thru holes
and counter bores for the socket head screws.

After assembling the caps to the base the bores for the crank journals are rough drilled on location. Using the boring head to finish
the bores and using a boring bar ground with a chamfer angle to break the edge of the bores.

I added a couple of 1/16 dowel pin holes to locate the caps to there base. Probably not necessary, but did it anyway.   
Later on I engraved "A" and "B" on respective assemblies to identify.

[Dave Otto]

Looks great Brian

Nice to see another one of your projects in process.


Dave

[toolznthings]

Thanks ! Dave

 A quick view of the blocks that the valve push rods will slide in.

 Also made from 660 bronze.

 After machining the overall size the "u" shaped slot was milled first. The slot is for looks, no function.
 The slot for the push rods is milled and held to size for a good sliding fit for the push rod.

 Drilled and tapped holes were then added to complete the two blocks.

[toolznthings]

Machining the cylinder mount ....

Made from 6061-t6 aluminum 1/4" thick.

Starting with a oversized blank the 1.375 diameter bore is rough bored with
a end mill and finished to size with a boring head.

Moving to the cnc mill a plug to fit the bored diameter was made and used to clamp the blank to a sacrificial aluminum plate.
The plug provides a  surface to indicate the position of the bore. This is zero position for the program.

CNC milling two sides and the radius, plus drilling the thru holes for the cylinder.

At the manual mill the bottom surface was finished in reference to the drill holes using two gauge pins resting on the vise jaws.
Mounting holes were drilled and tapped in this setup, also.

Referencing off the drill holes again, drilled and tapped holes were added to the sides of the mount.

A trial assembly was made with the machined parts finished so far.

[toolznthings]

A couple of more pictures .....

[yogi]

Very interesting set ups Brian!    
Thanks for sharing. 

[Dave Otto]

Very nice Brian!


Dave

[toolznthings]

Making the crankshaft .....

Decided to make the crankshaft without using silver solder to join the parts.

Made a cad layout of the crank throws and plotted the drawing and used spray adhesive to adhere the layouts to a piece
of .250 flat ground mild steel stock.

Using the layouts and a wriggler to pickup a starting locations for the reamed holes to be machined.
Drilled and reamed holes, .500" for main shaft and .250" for the wrist pin.

Using the paper layouts as a guide the contours were rough sawed at the band saw leaving stock for finish machining.

At the cnc mill I used shoulder bolts to fasten the blanks to a aluminum plate for machining. The larger .500" shoulder bolt
head has been machined concentric to the body so I could indicate the 0,0 position.

Machined the outside contours of the throws with this setup.

Machined the wrist pin and a one piece .500" blank for the main shaft. The parts ready for assembly.
The parts were then Loctited in place with a spacer between the throws and clamped to hold location as the Loctite cures.

At the manual mill I decided to use taper pins to make a mechanical connection of the parts to their corresponding shafts.
Drilled and taper reamed for 3/0 taper pins of the throws to the main shaft and 5/0 for the wrist pin.

Picture showing pins in place before trimming flush.

At the lathe I center drilled the shaft end and took a few thousands skim cut of the center drilled hole with the compound
set at 30 degrees and a small boring bar. Insures a true center hole.

Machined the journals and threaded end where the flywheel mounts.

Back at the mill to remove the center section of the main shaft with a spacer in place to hold everything solid in the mill vise.

The finished crankshaft.

[toolznthings]

More pictures of the crank build .....

[toolznthings]

One more, the finished crankshaft .....

[tvoght]

...
At the lathe I center drilled the shaft end and took a few thousands skim cut of the center drilled hole with the compound
set at 30 degrees and a small boring bar. Insures a true center hole.
...

Hi Brian,
I'm enjoying this new build from you. It's the little tricks like the one I quoted that will keep me coming back.

--Tim

[Dave Otto]

Nicely done Brian!


Dave

[toolznthings]

Machining the connecting rod .....

Thanks, Dave and Tim 

Making the connecting rod from 660 bronze and changing the design/style from the print.

Machined a blank to make the rod and rod cap. Drilled and tapped the rod body and drilled clearance holes in the cap.
The two parts were assembled with the mill vise providing side to side alignment.

Drilled and reamed holes were made at the wrist pin end and at the split line of the cap and rod body.
I added some drilled holes for appearance and to be used to fixture for the cnc mill operation.

Mounted to a fixture plate using shoulder bolts for location and socket head screws in the body of the rod for additional clamping.
I indicated the shoulder bolt hole before mounting the blank to get my 0,0 location.

Machined the contoured shape of the rod assembly. Also, engrave match marks, letter "A".

The finished rod.

[toolznthings]

Machining the wrist pin and cylinder ....

I made the wrist pin from a .250 dowel pin. I cut the dowel pin at each end shorter than the overall length needed for the pin.
Both ends were then center drilled. I made two brass tips that would be held into each end of the dowel with Locktite.
The tips were then turned to match the dowel diameter and faced to the correct overall length.
The dowel gives a nice diameter for the connecting rod and the brass will prevent any marring of the cylinder wall.

Two pictures ....

The cylinder is made from cast iron.

First operation turned the o.d. to size.

The cooling fins were then cut using a parting tool. Each groove and fin are 3/32" wide.

With the fins complete I rough drilled the bore and set up a boring bar to machine the cylinder bore to 1.125" in diameter.
No honing or polishing operations were done after boring. Bored to size with a good turned finish.

The end register diameter was then completed and the cylinder was parted off from the remaining stock.

Held in soft jaws the overall length was faced and the register on this end was finished.

Setup at the mill the six 4-40 drilled and tapped holes were machine in the first flange next the register diameter.

A simple plate fixture was made and fastened to the tapped end. The fixture is made to align the first set of holes to the ones
being added to this end. Both sets of holes must be in line with each other.

The finished cylinder.

[toolznthings]

More operations and finished .......

[zeeprogrammer]

Following along Brian. 

[Dave Otto]

Brian I see that you pretty much mastered swarfless machining.
Looking great!


Dave

[toolznthings]

Thanks, Z !

Brian I see that you pretty much mastered swarfless machining.
Looking great!

Dave

There's a couple of chips here and there !

[toolznthings]

Cast iron piston .....

The piston is made from cast iron and the outside diameter is .0005" to .0008" smaller than the cylinder bore.
The piston uses no rings and only has some oil grooves machined in the diameter.

After finishing the diameter and length the piston is held in a three jaw chuck at the mill with brass shim stock
to protect the finish. The slot for the connecting rod is mill next.

The next set up in the vise is for the wrist pin hole. Indicating the milled slot to align the piston. Drilled and reamed
.250" for a slip fit to the wrist pin.

[toolznthings]

Machining the cylinder head .....

Face milling to thickness and squaring up the four sides from 6061-T6 aluminum.

The next step is to bore a shallow reference diameter in the center of the blank for indicating at the lathe.

The first bore is 1.125 diameter and .438 deep with a 1/8" radius in the corner. Boring bar ground with radius.

The second bore is .125 deep and 1.375 in diameter to match the end of the cylinder with a slip fit.

Several setups at the mill to add tapped holes and .312 diameter holes for the carburetor and exhaust ports.

Set up to cut the fins across the head. Nine places .125" wide and two .188 at each end by .125 deep.

Last operation is to drill and counter bore the 4-40 socket head screws to fasten to the cylinder.

Picture showing head, cylinder support and a spacer block that mounts to the underside of the head and base plate.

[toolznthings]

The last pictures of the cylinder head .....

[toolznthings]

Machining the valves and valve housings .....

I made the two valves from 303 stainless steel. Using one of my modified small diameter live centers
I turned the stem diameter to .125" diameter and finished the major head diameter to .438".
The 45 degree valve seat was also cut in this setup. The centered end was cut off and the overall length
was finished to 2.062"

The valve housings were made from 660 bronze and both the intake and exhaust are the same.

The overall size of the housings were machined first. I machined a trial piece from pvc plastic for a visual guide
for the rest of the operations. The bronze is pricey so trying to avoid errors.

The next five milling operations established the overall features of the part.

I then roughed out the area to be turned to .375" in diameter back .500"with a end mill leaving some stock.

I finished the .375" diameter at the mill with a boring head and the boring bar set so I could cut a diameter.
This will allow me to hold the part in a collet and do all the bores, thru hole and valve seat from the seating side
of the valve obtaining the best concentricity.

I did a back face to finish the face where the boring head operation stopped the .375" diameter.
A small boring bar finished the bores and valve seat. A .126" diameter reamer finished the thru hole for the valve stem.

All the mounting thru holes were then drill at the mill along with all the required tapped holes.

A few minutes of lapping the valves finished the housing.

[toolznthings]

Continued posting pictures of valve housings ......

[toolznthings]

Continued ..........

[yogi]

Great documentation with all the pictures Brian! 

Can you tell me your source for the small boring bar your are using turning the valve housing (First picture on last post).
I need to stock up on small boring bars... 

Thanks,
Yogi

[Flyboy Jim]

Boy........lots of operations to machine those valve housings! Well documented. I'm enjoying following along on this build, Brian. 

Jim

[toolznthings]

Thanks, Jim.      The valve housings were probably the hardest part of the build.

Thanks, Yogi      I get the solid carbide bars from McMaster Carr. Pretty good selection and high quality. I think they are priced
fairly.

[toolznthings]

Overview of the carburetor ......

The carburetor is made from brass and has two opposing cone shaped bores that form a venturi.

The thru bore is .180" in diameter and one cone terminates .875" back from the end. The taper is 3 degrees
per side. I set up the body at the lathe and used a small boring bar to machine each taper. The carb body was started as a block
.500" thick x .875" wide x 1.250" long. I reamed the .180" diameter thru first and used this hole to indicate the position of
the bores at the lathe.

At the intersection of the cones the brass orifice is soft soldered in place. The orifice has a .021" hole for the needle
to seat. The body of the jet is .250" diameter at the end for the fuel hose.

I made the needle assembly from 2-56 threaded stainless steel stud and knurled knob I purchased from McMaster-Carr.
After machining the point on the stud, the knob and needle were assembled with Loctite.

Milling the the body stock to form the mounting flanges and drilling the mounting screw holes finished the carburetor.

[90LX_Notch]

Brian-

This is a great build.  I'm really enjoying it.

-Bob

[toolznthings]

Brian-

This is a great build.  I'm really enjoying it.

-Bob

Thanks so much !

Brian

[cfellows]

I always had a hankering to build this little engine.  Yours turned out to be a fine example, lovely work, nice finishing touches.  Especially like the base you have it mounted on.  Nice woodwork, too!  Is that a vapor fuel tank you're using?

Chuck

[toolznthings]

Thanks Chuck for the comments !

That's a " tank " for the fuel to the carburetor and has a lift off lid.

Brian

[toolznthings]

Machining the intake and exhaust cams ......

Starting with a round blank large enough to leave stock I bored the 7/16" diameter to make a slip fit on the
crankshaft.

At the cnc mill using one of my three jaw chuck fixtures the profiles for each cam was machined. The first milled
step is .688" diameter and is the hub for the 4-40 set screw holes. The cam profile was milled slightly deeper
than the .500" overall length of each cam.

At the lathe the cams are parted off and then to the mill for the set screw holes.

I modified the crankshaft journals with a groove about ten thousands deep where the set screws will bite in
for each cam and the breaker point cam, also. This allows for adjustment of the cams without damaging the crank.

[toolznthings]

Machining the flywheel ....

Machined one side face, 4.250" o.d. and .375" bore in one setup. Sawed off from the stock and held in soft jaws
the opposite side was finished to overall thickness of .875"

Broached a .125 key way in the flywheel and added a matching key way to the crank. This modification was not
on the plans. Prevents the flywheel and mounting nut from self tightening.

No drilled hole pattern was added to the flywheel.

[toolznthings]

A look at the parts after some finishing work prior to assembly .....

The engine mounting rails in the pictures are my design as there are no specific plans for this part of the build.

Parts not mentioned earlier are in these pictures.

[gerritv]

Excellent surface finish, not a trivial amount of work.

Gerrit

[Nick_G]

.
That looks highly impressive. 

Nick

[zeeprogrammer]

Excellent family shots! Very nice looking parts too! 

[90LX_Notch]

Very nice finishes Brian.

-Bob

[toolznthings]

Thanks guys very much for the comments ! Appreciated !

Brian

[Flyboy Jim]

Nice finish on those parts Brian. Now........."some assembly required". 

Jim

[toolznthings]

The assembly of the engine parts ....

Will try to keep this is some reasonable order.   

Made the wood base from poplar and applied some spay shellac after milling a pocket for wiring and the condenser and
drilling mounting holes for the aluminum rails.

Used a shim punch and X-acto knife to make gaskets for the cylinder head and intake/exhaust manifolds.

Mounted the cylinder with head and cylinder support to the base plate. A support block goes under the head between the base and is fastened
thru the base into the head.

Push rod guides and push rods with their end roller were mounted to the base. I engraved my " logo " to the push rod guide covers
and fastened them in place. The guides are attached to the base and one fastener goes into the cylinder support.

Crankshaft bearings were mounted next.

The ignition ground wire was connected to the base plate bottom. 

[Flyboy Jim]

I like that poplar. Never worked with that.

You would have to go and post a picture of that micrometer engraving. Now you got me thinking how nice a CNC mill would be..................thanks a lot! $$$$$$    And Stan's got me thinking how nice a heat treating oven would be! It never ends.........I love it! 

Jim

[toolznthings]

I like that poplar. Never worked with that.

You would have to go and post a picture of that micrometer engraving. Now you got me thinking how nice a CNC mill would be..................thanks a lot! $$$$$$    And Stan's got me thinking how nice a heat treating oven would be! It never ends.........I love it! 

Jim

Hi Jim,

Poplar is inexpensive and is easy to work with. Doesn't stain well but accepts paint and clear finishes.

Love my Tormach PCNC II 1100 mill. Bought seven years ago and upgraded to series III. Good company, too.
That's diamond drag engraving on the brass.

Always more tools !! 

Brian

[toolznthings]

More assembly .....

Mounted the condenser in the pocket milled in the base and the wires to the two binding posts mounted
on the top side.

Picture showing key way modification to the crankshaft. This stopped the flywheel nut from self tightening. I found this
out when testing the engine. Almost could not loosen the nut and was afraid of damaging the crankshaft. This fixed the problem.

Crankshaft in place and a picture of the breaker points and the mounting bracket.

A couple of other views and the last couple showing the engraved tags attached to the base.

More to come another day ......... Thanks for the views and comments !

[zeeprogrammer]

Beautiful.

And the engraved tags are a plus! 

[Dave Otto]

Lots of nice detail there Brian!

Dave

[yogi]

 

[Admiral_dk]

Very beautiful engine and some wonderful details - like the bearing markers to ensure that it's always assembled correctly, like full size engines   

You can be very proud of this one 

Now we are looking forward to the video 

[Roger B]

Excellent detail work    Looks beautiful 

[toolznthings]

Thanks for the replies and comments !!

Some more pictures .....

The fuel reservoir is a simple soldered together assembly with a cover lid that has a vent hole drilled in it.
The assembly is mounted to a wood riser to the correct height in relation to the engine carburetor.
I used some opaque colored tubing to the carburetor so I could monitor the fuel flow. Engine runs best on " Coleman " fuel.

After much trial and error with coils to fire the spark plug along with some unwanted smoke from one  I switched to a
6 volt automotive coil and a 6 volt sealed battery. With help from my friends we also decided on a slightly larger spark plug. A hot spark was needed.

I made a project out of the battery/coil box. Needed to stay busy.   TIG welded from 1/8" 6061-T6 aluminum  and the welds dressed to finish.

[toolznthings]

If I did this right, here's the engine running video..


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdt3gvGkoc8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdt3gvGkoc8</a>

Thanks for all the comments and views !

Brian

[crueby]

Very nicely done!

[Dave Otto]

She runs very nice Brian!

Dave

[zeeprogrammer]

A video! It runs! It exists!

Very nice! 

[10KPete]

Runs great! Good misses between the hits... I love that sound. 

Pete