Jan Ridder's Glass-Cylinder Flame Eater Mk2

[b.lindsey]

Bent, just a comment....15/32" leaves .03125" to be reamed. That is a lot for a .250" finish size. A letter "C" drill would get you much closer or if you don't have letter drills a 31/64" would help also. Don't want to dull that nice new reamer prematurely.

Bill

[Bluechip]

Bent, just a comment....15/32" leaves .03125" to be reamed. That is a lot for a .250" finish size. A letter "C" drill would get you much closer or if you don't have letter drills a 31/64" would help also. Don't want to dull that nice new reamer prematurely.

Bill

If he's reaming 1/4" through a 15/32" hole he won't have much swarf to get rid of.   

He says 15/64", which gives some 16 and a bit thou I think.

I usually use 6.1mm. Long ago gave up with "inchy" drills. A good set of 1 - 12mm by 0.1mm increments and the rest are redundant IMO ..

Dave

[b.lindsey]

Dave, 15/32" leaves .0156" per side to cut. That is more than normal practice would dictate (as I was taught anyway). The letter "C" drill at .242" or your 6.1mm at .240" would both be more appropriate leaving .004-.005" per side to ream.

Bill

[bent]

15/64, or .235" roughly.  But with the runout on the mini lathe, I think the bore ended up closer to .238 or .240, thus I was reluctant to go to any further.  But I get what you are saying, keep it as close as possible to the final size to reduce wear on the reamer.  I did spend a couple extra $ for a cobalt one, figuring I'll be using it on stainless at some point. 

I really need to take the advice y'all were giving to another newbie, and put down some money on a set of stub drills; going from the short spotting drill to the longer jobber's length drills means the drill doesn't center in the same place, because I have to shift the tailstock to fit the longer bit.   Any tips for making sure the reamer runs on center?  I was thinking of setting the part in the mill, and using a center finder, rather than trust the mini lathe tail stock again.  Also thinking it may be a good idea to invest in adjustable reamers?  I.e. start undersize and work up?  Finally, also realizing that I need a good set of pins, or swipe the ones from work, to use when boring for bearing races and similar close tolerances.  And patience, need to stock up on that when boring to size also    Oh well, it's a learning experience, I keep telling myself that.

[bent]

The new reamer showed up, and between building parts for equipment at work, I found time to finish off a couple of parts.

Set up the crank in the mill vise, and located the center using a combination of center finder and "eyeball", then reamed to .250 for the shaft <photo #1>.   Then shifted the part .56" and drilled the piston rod bearing pin hole. <photo 2>

Before changing out the drill chuck, I also set up and reamed the bearing hole for the piston rod, also at .250 to fit its ball bearing outer race. <photo 3>

Then changed out to a 1/2" roughing mill, and started thinking about how best to hold the crank while profiling the edges.  Decided to whittle out a block of aluminum with a hole in it large enough to pocket around the bearing boss, and the two faces milled parallel to one another.  This is shown clamping the crank in the vise prior to milling <photo 4>.  The nearly finished part (need to weld in the piston rod bearing pin) is shown on some coarse sandpaper in <photo 5>.

Also spent some time on the lathe at home, turning down a piece of the 7/8" graphite rod to make some 1/4" o.d. x 1/8" i.d. bushings for the valve pusher rod <photo 6>.  A piece of paper towel laid on the ways helped to capture most of the graphite dust, as seen in <photo 7>.  I poured the dust into a little snap-lid container, figuring it will come in handy for lubricating something down the road.

Now just need to weld the crank to the crankshaft, the piston bearing pin to the crank, and the valve clip to the end of the valve push rod (Jan Ridders used solder joints for these, but I made the parts from carbon steel so's I could have an excuse to fire up the TIG welder).  Also need to cut a slot in the little-end piston rod pin that I turned on the lathe.  Then some fitup work, pressing/setting bearings, and determine the final locations for the mounting plate bolt holes and finish that part.  And make an alcohol burner, and find some wicking material for it (may rifle the china cabinet and see if we have any alky burners for the wife's chafing dish lying around...she wouldn't mind if I borrowed them for science, would she?)

[Ian S C]

It's worth setting up a vacuum cleaner with it's nozzle just behind the tool so that the graphite dust goes direct to the cleaner, and no where else(including up your nose).
Ian S C

[bent]

Achoo!  I did ok (just dusted the lathe, not the whole garage), but did have to keep the speed down to "dead slow".  Wish I had a shop vac still, Ian, but SWMBO threw it out and replaced it with a handheld vac (no hose) for cleaning out vehicles.  We'd uhm, "redefine our marriage" if I used her good vac to suck up graphite dust!   

[bent]

So, after looking around for something to make an alcohol burner of the right height, I finally found a lump of brass that would work, though it would require some machining.  Managed to get the piece I wanted parted off in the mini-lathe without severing any limbs, and so bored it out, starting with a letter J drill and using a dial indicator to hold the depth to point to get a .06-.07 back wall <photo 1>.  Then bored to same depth with a 1/4" end mill, so I could have a flat bottom for the boring bar <photo 2>.  Bored out to a 1/16" wall (roughly 1.24 i.d.), and so have a cup/container, but no lid (yet) <photo 3>.

Tried parting off a short length, but because the piece was odd size, and had to hang the bit I wanted far out from the chuck, I couldn't get the parting tool to cut without dislodging it from the chuck.  Resorted instead to using the hacksaw, turning the part slowly in the lathe.  When finished, I was intrigued by the pattern that the saw cutting on the turning part made, <photo 4> and so kept it with only a light sanding to knock down the burrs.  Drilled holes for a 1/4" tube to hold the wick, and a 1/16" hole opposite for a vent, and viola, mostly done <photo 5>. Have to find a piece of 1/4" thin wall tube now, I'm fresh out of it after making putt-putt steam boats for the kids years ago, and have only some heavy-wall copper left.  Also have to figure out the wick - Jan suggests cotton, but I think the more typical wick is glass fiber?

[Ian S C]

Got my vacuum cleaner dumpster diving, I'v actually got 2 in the workshop. A garage sale cleaner would be ok.
Ian S C

[bent]

Getting there.  Welded up the crank pin to the crank, and tried to press the bearing on...to find that the pin was oversize, and the bearing was cogging rather than smoothly rotating.  So, removed the bearing (destroying it in the process) and re-worked it by hand to the right o.d. by micrometer readings.  The new bearing was still a tight fit, and more hand work got it to be a snug press fit. 

The crank bearings were fairly loose fits in their aluminum supports, so tried to snug them up with Loctite 603.  Two tries, and no success at getting the stuff to cure, so went full scientist on them: found that the cure requires a low oxygen diffusion rate, i.e. a tight fit or a low oxygen environment, and that the cure is enhanced on some alloys (stainless and chrome steels) with primers.  So - used some primer carefully applied to the outer races, then put both bearing/housing assemblies carefully into a canning jar, dropped in a flaming piece of scrap paper and popped the sealing lid on tightly.  Waited over a weekend, and the parts were nicely cured when removed.

And...found that the flywheel had a wobble, which wouldn't straighten up with basic shimming.  Tried tapping some offsetting set screws to hold it in alignment, just to break another tap.  Grr.  So, now am building a new one, this time leaving it in the lathe at work after turning the chunk to size, will bore and ream tomorrow.  Hopefully this will be straighter than attempting to turn the od at work, and get it to align properly in the home lathe.

In the meantime, put the finishing touches on the brass piston pin and valve pin (photo of piston pin is #1 below).

Then, some assembly and fitting, tweaking the valve pushrod and piston/valve pin lengths to get the valve piston to just uncover, and then just cover, the flame port on the side.  (photo #2).

So, another day or so, and should have this ready to fire up.  Fingers crossed.  In other (good) news, my efforts to gin up a nice in-line hop infusing filter for my homebrew worked a treat.  A 12" long by 2" diameter spool piece with sanitary fittings on each end, clamps and gaskets, and two end caps - bored them to size and fitted/welded on some hose barbs.  Delicious IPA now in the mini fridge beneath the lathe.

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Hi Bent,

I have found that 603 cures a bit different than 648 and 680. I will use it when I need a little more time to set up.

Your project is looking real good.

Thomas

[bent]

Thanks Thomas, I will look into those alternatives.  603 is what we had laying around the shop...

[Plani]

Looking good, bent 
I'm looking forward to see it run.

Plani

[bent]

Ok, it's running  .  I had to take some time off to go car shopping (new Mazda MX-5, yahoo! ), and teaching the youngest to drive  ...and, well, I had trouble with the engine on my first try.  The burner wick was not able to be placed close enough to the cylinder port.  After reworking the burner, it runs...but now I have to build a base to keep the engine from sliding away from the burner...but enough, here's the video.

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

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Congratulations Bent on a job well done.

Thomas