Lane and Bodley 400hp Corliss

[sco]

The bearing base and cap were set up in the lathe to machine the end faces and rough machine the bore, then used the boring head in the mill to final size the bore.  The underside of the base has a groove detail that locates in the sub-base - just need to make some taper keys that are used to adjust the bearing height.

Simon.

[sco]

Tonight's job was to machine the crank web profile - typical job where the setup takes an hour or more and then the machining is only a few minutes.  Just the small end left to profile and then machine down to final thickness and tidy up.

Simon.

[Ramon Wilson]

Nice job on that bearing block Simon  - at this rate you'll have that finished before October 

That's a tiny RT you have there but if it does the job it's big enough   

Tug

[sco]

That's a tiny RT you have there but if it does the job it's big enough   

Tug

T'is only 4 inches but that's my 'big' rotary table!

Simon.

[Ramon Wilson]

And there I was thinking your crank had a 3" throw    If that's the case how small's the small one 

Good to see you getting some time on it - it'll be a while yet before I'm back on mine

Tug

[sco]

Table is actually the same diameter but the rest is a lot more dinky;

[sco]

Small end repositioned at the centre of the rotary table to profile that end and then for my sins hacksawed most of the scrap away.

Simon.

[sco]

Faced off the sawn face of the web in the lathe to final thickness and then cut a recess for the end cover.  To get the profile aligned with the mill bed I used a couple of vee-blocks and then used the boring head to final machine the shaft bore and then reamed the hole for the small end.

Quick clean up and then it just needs some screw holes for the cover plate.

Simon.

[zeeprogrammer]

It had been a while so I ran through the thread. Amazing.

Caught a picture of that steam valve too. Awesome!

[sco]

Thanks Zee.  Used the DRO circle function to put the tapped holes in the web and then the matching hole pattern in the cover.

Simon.

[jeff l]

Simon, I like the added detail on the crank.Jeff

[Dave Otto]

Nice work on the crank Simon, it looks great!
Did you ever determine what was under that cover on the original engine?


Dave

[sco]

Thanks Jeff and Dave.  No further details on what is under the cover - guessing some sort of tapered bush that locks the web to the shaft.

Simon.

[fumopuc]

Hi Simon, always good to see that these out of fashion toe or camber shims are doing another usefull job.
The crank looks brilliant, good to see all the progress.

[sco]

Next up is the connecting rod, I've been a bit lax with taking pictures so will be mostly words.  I was worried about potential alignment issues with such a long rod so decided to make 'uniball' style bearings to allow a tiny amount of misalignment - bought some commercial ball bearings which were drilled out and then the socket was formed with a ball nosed end mill.

The drawings show small diameter bolts locating the U blocks on the ends of the connecting rod but was concerned these would flog out the holes quickly and lead to a knock so made some dowel pin type bolts instead - the assembly was clamped up in some Vee blocks on the mill and matched drilled and reamed for the pins.

Rod was then transferred to the lathe to turn the barrel profile - offset the tailstock 3.4mm to give the required taper and by turning between centres (chuck is just driving the pin) was easy to swap end for end to do both ends.  Got a bit of chatter mid-span but that cleaned up quickly with some emery.

Simon.