Vulcan Beam Engine - AJ Reeves Castings

[Emelbe]

Hi All

After around 16 months lurking in the shadows I have finally decided to step out of the shadows and attempt my first build log.  Firstly let me introduce myself, my name is Martin, I am happily retired and I live in Jersey, Channel Islands.  Although this is my first build log it isn't my first engine, I have completed the Cotswold Heritage Stothert and Pitt Beam Engine, the Stuart 10V, and the Stuart James Coombes Table Engine.

I was attracted to the Vulcan because I think it is a 'pretty' little engine, and I also wanted to build another Beam Engine now I understand a little bit more about them. I have already done quite a bit of work on this kit and unfortunately don't have that many images of the earlier stages, so the first part of this log will have to be a bit of a catch up.
 
Hopefully I have attached an image of where I'm at now, so I'll post this and see the result before I start.

[crueby]

picture came through fine - nice looking start on the engine!

[Emelbe]

Hi All

Back again, you'll have to bear with me until I get the hang of this, Just going to make another post to see what happens, then we should be able to make a start!

[b.lindsey]

Hi and welcome Martin, even though you have been here a while. Looking forward to following along on your latest project.

Bill

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Welcome Martin and will be following along on your build.

Thomas

[Jo]

Looks like you are doing well on your beam engine Martin 

Jo

[Emelbe]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies already.

Let us begin!!!  Firstly I have to say AJ Reeves are a pleasure to deal with.  I ordered the kit by phone and it was with me within three days, Jersey is a bit like the back of beyond when it comes to getting things! There were three castings missing but this was duly noted on the invoice with to follow FOC.  I wondered how many companies would have waited until they had the castings before they sent everything to save the extra postage?  There were a couple of problems with two of the castings, the beam and one of the standards, and also they charged me VAT (Value Added Tax) which we don't pay here.  A quick phone call and this was refunded and they said to return the casings and they would be replaced. Within the week they had arrived and a day or so after the missing castings arrived.

The castings are Gunmetal which was a welcome change from the Stuart Cast Iron (no black dust everywhere). The quality of the castings aren't the best, they are quite rough and the guy who fettles them at the foundry makes the Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like a brain surgeon!! Also some of the castings are fairly close to the bone dimension wise and don't leave a lot to play with.

Ah well, if it were easy anyone could do it, time to settle down with the Dremel and lets get them fettled and primed before I start some machining.  After a week or so and all of Season 3 of Narcos on Netflix I was about ready to make a start on machining the castings and I can start posting some pictures of the results.

[Emelbe]

Hi

Back again with a couple more images of work in progress.  The general idea was to get the main castings set up and aligned, the theory being if I get this right I shouldn't have too many problems later (tempting fate).  For the base I decided to use Aluminium Plate rather than the casting AJ Reeves offer as an add on, quite frankly I couldn't justify the £70 price tag.  Most of the work on the castings was done with a Dremel, Disc Sander, files and wet and dry.  The entablature frames, side stays and vertical stay were quite tricky to align properly, plenty of test fitting before drilling in position.  I'll talk about the flywheel and beam in a later post therein lies a tale!

cheers for now

[Emelbe]

As much as I would like to describe the best way to machine the flywheel, I can't.  It was a case of more good luck than good management.  I tried setting the wheel up on the lathe by gripping on the central boss but it was nowhere near true.  It was getting to the last resort stage where I would have to give in to the faceplate (I once had a nasty experience with one) when I realised the wheel was warped.  I set it up again and marked where it was running out with a marker pen and gave it a little 'gentle persuasion' with a soft hammer.  It was like a miracle had occurred, it was running true.  I didn't waste any time facing and drilling the wheel so I could set it up on a mandrel, in fact I machined both hubs with no problems. The next issue was machining the circumference without any chatter.
There is quite a bit of material to come off to get rid of any casting imperfections, but to be honest it wasn't as difficult as I thought. The bit of chatter I encountered was easily dealt with with some wet and dry.

The next issue was the keyway, make one or take the easy option of a grub-screw. I think the euphoria drove me to make the decision of broaching the keyway.  I have done this before and knew what to expect, it's not a two minute job on the lathe.  It's just a matter of grinding a suitable tool which is then pushed through the workpiece with the lathe saddle in small depth increments.  The boss is quite long and I expected the tool would deflect a little, which it did, so it was a case of finishing off with a needle file.

The key itself was a cut and file job from 3mm mild steel.  So is was it worth the effort?  I think so. 

[b.lindsey]

Martin, those minimal profile flywheels look great, especially on a beam engine, but because there isn't much material there they really are prone to chattering especially on the rim. Sure looks like you overcame the obstacles though, very nice result.

Bill

[Emelbe]

Hi All

Thanks Bill for your post, as I said it was more by luck, but at least the end result was OK, should look nice when painted as polished.

Moving on I should say a few words about the Beam, and that should bring me up to date with where I'm at now.  As with all the castings, getting the Beam looking reasonable is quite labour intensive, a belt sander or disc sander is a great help.  The main issue is when you come to drilling the holes.  The position of the centre hole for the trunnion is obviously straightforward, you drill it in the centre.  It's when you come to set out the location for the two end holes theres a discrepancy from the drawings, if you measure to the drawing dimensions the holes come nowhere near the centre of the cast bosses, in fact they are only a couple of millimetres from the ends.  I don't think the distance is too critical so it's a matter of messing around with the dividers to find a compromise where the holes are located in the centre of their bosses and equidistant from the centre.  Thankfully the hole for the inner Suspension Link works out OK to the dimensions given (I say thankfully because they need to be the same measurement as the bridle linkages and I had already made them!).

The other issue was the Trunnion, I didn't particularly like the drawing design because there's a chance that the beam would pivot on its centre hole rather than the assembly pivoting in the bearings.  A quick session in AutoCad and I came up with a two part design as shown in the attached image.  All the shoulder distances were taken from the model itself to minimise float etc.

Turning the Trunnions is reasonably straightforward, all I can say is thank goodness I recently invested in a quick change tool-post. how ever did I manage without one before?

[steam guy willy]

Hi, Nice looking to start to this engine,  Re the broaching....you were worried about it being a little bit tapered due to the tool deflexion ? however this would be ok as you could make a slightly tapered key to make the flywheel sit really firmly in place ?

[Emelbe]

Hi,

With regard to being tapered, it probably is!!!!!!

[steam guy willy]

So that is cool then ,just make sure you get the flywheel the correct way round when you insert the tapered key !!    Your comment about the 4 way tool post......You actually used your own skill !!!  Good to see the progress with this ..........Beamengines'R'us.........

[Emelbe]

I think I've just about caught up with the build, so I'm more or less adding posts in 'real time' now.  So, on to the Connecting Rod.  The main problem with the Connecting Rod is 'how do you hold it for machining?'  Having scratched my head over this for a couple of days I finally came to the conclusion I was trying to 'over engineer' the problem.  Back to basics, do it by hand.  To he honest it wasn't a problem, with the aid of my trusty Dremel for the top end, and my Disc Sander for the bottom it was soon ready to be finished off with files.  The only 'hairy' part was when it came to drilling for the top pivot hole, danger of the drill wandering taking the hole off centre, and the chances that the drill can grab without warning on Gunmetal, and yes I did put a small flat on the cutting edges of the drill bit to try to prevent this.  I drilled a pilot hole on either side of the 'fork' before drilling to the finished size of 6mm, which worked OK.

Next job was to machine the strap for the split bush.  I didn't have any bar stock of suitable size so I ended up Milling it from some 16mm square, which as it happens made it easier to get the 11 mm slot centralised.  The radius on the end I did by hand using my Bench Disc Sander.  For the Split Bush I made two bushes and milled half off each.

The Taper Pin and the thing it sits on at the bottom - (I know theres a name for it but can't remember for the life of me) were let in the slot I had drilled in the Strap first, and then I cut the slot in the Connecting Rod to suit.  So there we are for this bit, not sure which part to tackle next possibly be the Suspension Links.