Back to Steam

[Brian Rupnow]

Final "running in" with all moving parts installed. Please let me know if this link works.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cjuCpjus8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cjuCpjus8</a>

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Final "running in" with all moving parts installed. Please let me know if this link works.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cjuCpjus8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cjuCpjus8</a>

Hey Brian,

The video loaded OK for me and all the parts look real good in motion.

Thomas

[Zephyrin]

it seems to me heroic to mount the parts without leaving a possibility of dismantling!

I would prefer to keep the possibitity to dismantle and or adjust length a little bit, as some joint or sealant stuff are not always of constant dimensions when pressed between cover and cylinder for instance.

I usually put the piston rod in the piston half way in a bored hole( I do have boring tool for 4mm hole) and the other half being taped, hence the rod is centered and fixed, and can be unscrewed !
on larger engine, the piston rod is coned, and a little nut on the other side, just like tooling...

[Brian Rupnow]

Today was a day for making cylinders. I made the end-caps yesterday. My back is sore and I'm going to quit for the day now. I am about half finished with the two cylinders (They are both hiding in that piece of stock in the mill vice.) For something as small as they are, they certainly have a lot of work in them.

[Brian Rupnow]

Zephyrin--Just because I do it doesn't mean it's the right way. And it isn't really that bold. Anything I can assemble with my torch and silver solder can be just as quickly disassembled with the torch.

[Brian Rupnow]

Making cylinders isn't that difficult--but it's tedious. I had great plans of finishing both cylinders today, but "real work" interfered. So, after a day in my office across town, I don't have a lot of energy left. I did manage to cut the bar of 1 1/2" square brass into 3 pieces, face the cylinders to the correct length, and then I kinda run out of gas. It happens when you're 71!! And just for giggles--That piece of brass 3" long cost me $27.  $12 for the material, and $17 cutting charge. Looks like I'll be at my office again tomorrow, but Saturday should get the cylinders close to being finished.

[Art K]

Brian,
Still following along, Maybe some day I'll build a steam engine. Before the MEM Coreless one.
Art

[Robert Hornby]

Nice movement Brian, the project is rolling along well.  (I did receive your email re the crankshaft and responded to it. Maybe there is some issues with the email system at the moment)
Robert

[Brian Rupnow]

You know, I thought after I shut my computer off last night that I might have screwed up the math in that post. Ah well, bad on me. It was $12 for the brass and $15 for the cutting charge. I haven't been posting many set-ups, because they really aren't all that exciting. Just very simple 3 jaw and 4 jaw work in the lathe and the mill vice. if I get into any set-ups I consider "special" I will take a picture of it.---Brian

[Brian Rupnow]

People have asked for more set-up pictures, so here we go. First picture shows drilling of holes for tapping in the end of the cylinder which was not exposed until the square bar of brass was separated into three pieces.
Second picture shows the wonderful versatility of my "tilt-a-whirl" mill vice, set up to the correct angle for drilling the steam passage at 21 degrees, and the third pictures show the final set-up for a 1/4" endmill plunged .062" deep so the newly cut steam passage is uncovered to the inside of the cylinder when everything is assembled.

[Brian Rupnow]

These are the final steps before I set the cylinders up on an arbor and finish the outside surfaces. Picture #1 shows a set-up in the milling machine where the sloping sides of the cylinders which will show are machined to final size. Picture #2 shows the corners cut away on the bandsaw. next step will be setting the cylinders up on an arbor to finish the o.d. in my milling machine.

[Brian Rupnow]

A simple arbor made from 3/4" cold rolled (same as bore of cylinder) and a piece of scrap aluminum cross doweled to the end of it, gives me a fixture which I can mount a cylinder on, and use two of the tapped holes in one end to bolt it to my simple fixture. I then hold the end of the 3/4" cold rolled in my rotary table horizontally and use an end mill to cut the outer rounded profile of the cylinder.

[Brian Rupnow]

And that, my friend is how we end up with this truly beautiful shape. The milling cutter is set at a fixed height. The table-stops on the front of the mill bed are set so as to prevent me running the cutter into the chuck jaws, or too far (needlessly) in the other direction. The cutter is centered  over the rotary table chuck in the x axis and locked there. So--back and forth with the mill table in the z axis what seems like a million times, advancing the rotary table 2 degrees between each pass from right to left.

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Very nice work Brian.

Thomas

[Brian Rupnow]

Not finished yet but---You know how it is. You reach a stage where you have all these little pieces, and your just dying to see if they all fit together. Fortunately, they do. I had to speak rather harshly to the piston closest to the flywheel. Somehow, it was half a thou over 0.750 instead of half a thou under. I removed the Viton O-rings and tickled it a little with some 220 grit sanding strips, and then it decided it really would go into the cylinder anyhow. I have to "relieve" a bit of material off the two sides of the cylinders where they touch in the center, but that will be easy enough with my big stationary sanding belt. All in all, I'm very pleased so far.