Lane and Bodley 400hp Corliss

[sco]

Dennis,

Thanks for your kind comments, I've found the castings to be excellent quality with no hard spots and minimal porosity so no compliants from me on that score.  Some of the smaller ones would probably benefit with some additional stock but there again maybe they should just be better off made from barstock.  Today I started the valve dashpots - fully intented to use the castings but although they would have been easy to hold there had been some core shift which would have made cleaning up the smaller diameter difficult so again I went with making from barstock - all part of the challenge ;-)

Simon.

[sco]

Been working on the valve dashpots for the last few days, the drawings call for a cylinder made from a supplied casting and a piston made from steel.  Decided that the cylinder would be easier as a bar-stock fabrication and so made the piston from a chunk of cast iron instead.  Put a bit of extra detail into the top of the piston to match the full size engine.

Simon.

[sco]

Few more pictures;

[Ramon Wilson]

Nice addition Simon  - keep it coming.

Nothing to report on mine and a 'side track' coming on too but it will be swarf producing 

Regards - Tug

[Dave Otto]

Very nice work Simon.

Dave

[Dennis]

Hi Simon,
I like the way you made the dashpots from bar stock.  They look really nice.  In all of the kits we developed I tried to use as many castings as possible but those dashpot castings were a pain in the neck for both me and the foundryman.  I whish I had used your design from the beginning.  Thanks for your postings, I have been out of the business for two years now but still learning.
Dennis

[sco]

Thanks Dennis.

I put a hex on the end of the damper clevis using the dividing head and then back in the lathe to add a bit more shape and tap M3.  The dampers were then assembled - they have a light spring and are probably over damped at the moment particularly with a drop of oil - I can always add an air bleed later to reduce the damping if necessary.

There are quite a few linkage rods in the engine with a lefthand thread at one end and righthand thread at the other, I've never cut a lefthand thread so this was a new experience.  As usual it takes longer to setup for this operation than to actually complete it what with setting up the gear train for the pitch, getting the tool square and the brain ready to flick the saddle traverse lever in the opposite direction to normal.  I ordered an M3 LH die to clean up the thread but the supplier sent a righthand version instead but once I got the depth of thread right they came out ok without needing the die.

Next op will be to cut a righthand M3 thread on the other end of the link rod which should be straight forward and only need the brain part re-setting up :-)

Simon.

[sco]

Cut a righthand thread on the other end of the link rods and also added a hex section in the middle.  Need to make four more similar rods with opposite hand threads at either end for the valve gear so will bash them out whilst the lathe is setup.

Simon.

[Dennis]

Nice looking parts Simon.  and yes there are a lot of little rods with left and right hand threads.  Glad to hear you are getting through it ok. 

When  you get your engine running, be cautious of oil in the dampers.  Originally, our prototype model did not have the damper springs.  When we ran the engine, we found the oil in the damper added too much drag and prevented the valve release from working properly.  The engine ran better without oil on the dampers but the dampers were not heavy enough to make the valve release work consistently. I added the springs to the bottom of the dampers to make sure they operate consistently.  A very light spring will be sufficient and the air blead you mentioned would be an excellent idea.  The original engine has an adjustable air bleed valve on each damper.

Looking forward to seeing your engine finished.
Dennis

[fumopuc]

Hi Simon, I am following along quitely.

[sco]

Time to get back to the Lane and Bodley, the flywheel is much too big for me to turn on my lathe so a plan was hatched to use the rotary table and the mill.

I needed something to pack out the space between the central boss and the spokes so I could clamp it down to the table so I obtained a tooling block offcut from work and cut it down to fit inside the flywheel.  After much twirling of the rotary table handle one side is roughed out - plenty more twirling still required!

Simon.

[vcutajar]

Good to see some progress on the Corliss Simon.  What's the diameter of the flywheel?

Vince

[sco]

Hi Vince,

The flywheel casting is pretty close to a foot in diameter.

Simon.

[sco]

More work on the flywheel, the outer diameter is finished and I used a Tee slot cutter to under-cut the rim.  Switched to the horizontal head to clean up the side of the rim and then tilted the table 1.5degrees to taper the spokes towards the rim.  The spokes are still going to need plenty of filing to bring them to shape but I'm trying to machine as much of the shape in as possible.  So one side almost done, then need to flip it over and make the other side match!

Simon.

[Jasonb]

Simon, was that undercut of the flywheel a feature of the original as it is not something I have seen before on an engine?

On a similar note were the spokes badly cast that they needed machining all over or are you also reprofileing them to get a specific look?