Author Topic: Newbie building a PMR 6CI  (Read 16870 times)

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #60 on: July 25, 2018, 06:36:33 AM »
Great work on the PMR #6.

I prematurely bought the kit for one of these earlier this year. Premature because I have not yet built an engine, and need to start off with some simple oscillators to get the feel for it. The kit will keep until I'm ready for it, though, and when I am your build log here will serve as an inspiring resource.

Liking your photos, too - great shots of that Burke (No.4?) in action!

Cheers,

gary

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #61 on: July 25, 2018, 05:25:05 PM »
How cool you've chosen this engine too.  I appreciate the recognition, and you have a good eye.  That is a Burke Army #4.

When I started looking for a smaller milling machine, I found that I could buy newer junk or find something like this.  I grabbed an image from google, posted it on craigslist asking if anybody knew of one for sale.  Within a day or two a guy reached out and said he was just about to consider putting it up for sale.

He didn't even realize it had the vertical attachment until after he already gave me a price, and still honored the price.  That single slot on the table can be pretty challenging, but otherwise, I'm loving the machine.

I'll have some more pics up soon.  Stay tuned everybody!   :popcorn:
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Offline Reggleston

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #62 on: July 25, 2018, 10:07:39 PM »
If any of you are interested in Corliss castings there is a guy in PA here in the US that sells castings and BP's  for that type of engine as well as a very interesting Gothic beam engine in two sizes, a really neat bottle style vertical engine and a couple of other designs. He advertises in the Live Steam magazine and his name is Jeffrey Lehn and can be contacted at jeffreylehn@comcast.net most of his engines require larger equipment as the Corliss has a 14" flywheel. Believe the Gothic half size flywheel is in the 6.5" size range.

I am curious if any others have purchased castings & BP's from him and what are your impressions of his product offerings.
Regards.
Bob

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #63 on: July 25, 2018, 11:33:54 PM »
How cool you've chosen this engine too.  I appreciate the recognition, and you have a good eye.  That is a Burke Army #4.

When I started looking for a smaller milling machine, I found that I could buy newer junk or find something like this.

Yeah - I had mine sent direct from PMR and even with the shipping it still cost me £100 less than it would have if I had bought from their British agent and had it shipped to the far-flung corner of the British Isles where I live. I chose it for its chunky size and because it's a real engine.

You reckon your mill is small? I own a Burke No. 0, which is tiny. I restored it a few years ago. They're pretty rare I believe. Here is the very one, in pictures that  I sent to Tony at lathes.co.uk :

http://www.lathes.co.uk/burke/

Don't know how or why it found its way to Britland - may have been something to do with WW2.

The #4 is much more available in the USA and to me looks great. I'd love to own one but they're rare over here.

Old British /American / European iron does not come without its own share of problems, but I agree with you - the quality and sheer beauty win hands down.

Cheers,

gary

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #64 on: July 27, 2018, 03:26:12 AM »
You reckon your mill is small? I own a Burke No. 0, which is tiny. I restored it a few years ago. They're pretty rare I believe. Here is the very one, in pictures that  I sent to Tony at lathes.co.uk :

http://www.lathes.co.uk/burke/

Don't know how or why it found its way to Britland - may have been something to do with WW2.

The #4 is much more available in the USA and to me looks great. I'd love to own one but they're rare over here.

Old British /American / European iron does not come without its own share of problems, but I agree with you - the quality and sheer beauty win hands down.

I love that #0.  I remember seeing it while learning about the Burke mills.  I can definitely see how it's even more limited though.  I hope it is serving you well.

I've been looking around at what would be involved to get into a bigger South Bend.  While I could get a newer quality machine for a similar cost, I just love the beauty of the South Bends. 

I also find myself very interested in how and why things are where they are.  The history of our world is just so fascinating!   :old:

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Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #65 on: July 27, 2018, 03:32:35 AM »
The week of 2/18/18 saw a little bit of action.  I decided it was time to get some work going on the connecting rod.  Yes, there was a rather significant pause in work there.  After Christmas and my birthday, I had some money to blow!

Here is another lovely shot of the Burke #4 in action, and you may even notice I have a much improved slitting arbor and saw.  What a huge difference.  I'll remind myself to stop trying to "save money" in these ways.  It just causes frustrations.



This is how the surfaces of the big end of the rod turned out after being sawed.  Not too shabby.  I'll use the mill to clean it up even better and I just love how this bronze looks and machines.



It's hard to tell here, but I've got dykem and preparing to scribe a center line.  Using a hand to take the picture, I wasn't able to show the second square being used on the side to ensure the line was running true up the middle.



“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #66 on: July 27, 2018, 04:31:14 AM »
The week of 3/4/18 was filled by some very satisfying clean-up work on the rod.

I decided to shave just enough material from the sides of the cap and bolted it back together for the next steps.



Finding the center of each end will be important for the method I've chosen to clean up the rod.  My height gauge is such a joy after doing this the hard way on most of my previous parts.

*Bonus points to the first person to recognize the symbol on my glow in the dark Nalgene in the background.   :stickpoke:



After center drilling each end, I mounted the rod in a lathe dog to turn between centers.



This is the result after most of the turning on the majority of the rod.  Along the way, I found out the hard way that I hadn't drilled deep enough centers when the bit dug in and popped the rod loose of centers.



The effect of the rod popping out of place was a broken tip on my live center.  Here I am fixing that mistake.



We're not done yet, but here is where I chose to stop for the time being.



“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #67 on: July 27, 2018, 12:41:49 PM »
Chronologically, I apparently decided it was time for some glamour shots.  I took the parts out for hair, make up and styling.  Please keep your comments helpful.  Remember, these parts have feelings too!   :disagree:

Here's a dressing room scene before all the final work came together for the final shots.



Alright.  Time for the main event.  I'm noticing how my make up people failed to remove the dykem.  Rest assured, they will not only be fired, but also black balled in the industry!   :Mad:



One last shot to keep our blood pumping.  Sexy, right?!   :embarassed:



“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #68 on: July 27, 2018, 12:53:38 PM »
The week of 6/24/18 saw the return of the crank pin.  Yes, another several month gap.  So far this year, my son and I performed an engine swap on my Subaru, replaced all belt driven components on my wife's van, went on a 5 day canoe trip, countless other activities and began crossing items off the list with my wife to allow me to bring home my '69 Ghia for restoration.  It's always challenging to make time for the project, but I've been given a deadline!   
:cheers:

Once you've got the part ready for metal removal and you have tooling ready to go, it's time to flip the switch and there's a different kind of enjoyment from all the rest of the steps in the process.



We produce essentially a dumbbell shape here.  As you can see, the outside journal isn't yet up to the scribe line.  It's also not to final diameter.  I decided to play with metal removal using my 60 degree tool, which sadly I have yet to use for thread cutting.   :shrug:



After getting the shape defined, I came in with a left hand tool for making those crisp flat edges on the right side of each protrusion.



“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #69 on: July 27, 2018, 01:24:46 PM »
The week of 7/1/18 was power packed.  I've been making the time, and I've been really  motivated.  I feel like I'm getting close and my obsession is really rolling full force.

I've seen/heard of people using a parting tool to turn journals, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I did test on a different piece of metal first, so I did have an idea what to expect before I began here.



In this action shot, I'm nipping off the leading edge to nearly dimension after taking all 3 journals to dimension.



I've cut the sharp corners here and the part is nearly complete.



Time for a little interlude.  For anybody not familiar, this is a jumping spider.  We have plenty of them here, but it's the first time one decided to join me in the shop.  I just love them.  They have so much personality.  Unlike other spiders, they don't spin a web to catch their prey.  They wait for the right moment and jump at them.  My son got a slow-mo of one in action.  It's fantastic.  If/when they bite, it really doesn't hurt either, so we don't worry about letting them get on us.

At one point, I was trying to get a nice close picture of this guy and he jumped out at my phone, then landed perfectly back on the work bench.  Later I saw him trudging through my huge mound of chips and over to the spinning of the headstock on the outside of the machine.  I warned him not to get too close, but some spiders don't listen to their hosts.  Needless to say, he was quickly flung back into his previous position.  One more attempt convinced him to move on.  I really enjoyed our visit.



After entertaining my green eyed (some have orange) friend, I parted off my crank pin.  Ready for inspection, and nearly complete.



Here is the pin in place, and I'm sad to say that despite all of my efforts, I still wound up having sizing issues.  It seems that even though I used a reamer on the holes in each crank disk, they are very slightly different sizes.  I've decided I'll use bearing retainer to assemble the crank.  Worst case scenario, I can always take it apart and build new parts.  I just need to be able to move on right now.



Another lovely raw piece of stock getting ready to become a beautiful new part.  It's a bit like a butterfly.  Any guesses on what it will become?



I've taken just enough of a cut to get a nice finish for the dykem.



While I didn't show it, I put dykem just around the edge line, then took the material down to final outside diameter.



I won't spoil the surprise.  Some of you may already have figured it out, especially if you have the same kit.  Isn't it lovely with all of that definition ready to be worked?



Now you might really be able to tell what is going on.  It's the piston.  This kit calls for teflon rings and packing, so these are the lands for teflon.



Now it's time for parting off.



Earlier, you may remember that I made a huge mistake on my base.  Once I get cast iron rod to fill the holes and start over, I'll need a better way to lay out the holes.  I decided this was it.  It requires joining two 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper, but to begin, we'll just get a layout of the two lands where the pillow blocks will mount.

After tracing out the actual outside of the pillow block lands with the base turned over, I took some measurements and transferred them to this sheet using a ruler and some basic drafting practice.  Laying out this much took an entire hour.



It's a little dark, but here is the complete sheet.  The second part took another entire hour.  However, I'm confident that when these holes are transferred to the base, it will be dead on.



Back to the piston.  Here it is all parted off and looking pretty.



It may not be easy to tell, but the parting off process produced a less than flat surface here.  That's ok, I need to dig out a pocket on this side just like the one on the other side.



No, I haven't put the same image in twice.  Same block of steel, but here comes the next part.  This one will become the eccentric for the valve operation.



This was a much simpler initial part to turn.  The tricky part on this one is getting the hole bored in the side at the perfect location.



We also have the final product of the piston here.  There's just something about this part for me.  It is so beautiful.  I can't get over it!   :Love:



“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

Offline samc88

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #70 on: July 29, 2018, 08:32:14 PM »
This is a great thread, thats an interesting vertical milling attachment, not seen one of those before

Offline Tennessee Whiskey

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #71 on: July 29, 2018, 11:41:31 PM »
I’m following along also. This is really taking me back and jogging my memory on how I did things when I built my #6.  Splendid work.

Cletus

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #72 on: August 02, 2018, 02:32:28 AM »
I’m following along also. This is really taking me back and jogging my memory on how I did things when I built my #6.  Splendid work.

Cletus

Wow, what a nice compliment.  I'm not certain I'm deserving, but I'll take it anyway.  My motivation is super high right now.  More pics to come...

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

Offline vdubjunkie

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #73 on: August 02, 2018, 03:18:51 AM »
The week of 7/8/18 saw the relative completion of the eccentric, some much needed chip clean-up and the creation of a valve.

Once I felt my eccentric journal was to dimension, I surrounded it by my yoke with some oil.  There was just a little bit of "uncomfortable" resistance through the first few hand rotations, but that quickly gave way to a relatively smooth operation.  I applied a bit more oil through the untapped hole where the oiler will eventually go.  I'm very happy with the fit.  There is essentially no slop.



Next, I touched off a center drill on the part and removed it from the chuck.  I gave quite a few options a dry run to see what I thought would work best.  Ultimately, I set a pair of dividers to length, put a touch of dykem on the part and scratched a small radius into the ink.  After getting the part back into the chuck, I used that radius scratch to find my new center, and ran with it.



After the slightly undersized drill, I finished off the hole in back gear with this pretty little reamer.  The hole should be perfect.



Here is a nice image of the part "finished" in it's shackles.  I do still need to drill out the grub screw hole, but it is largely complete.



I'm not even sure I could tell you why, but I've been a little anxious about the valve.  Starting it was very exciting.  I got a good way into the part before realizing that I had botched the diameter and had to start over.  Oh well.  I had secured a few pieces of 5/8" and 3/4" bar stock a while back after one of my first mistakes!   >:D



Plain turning is so satisfying.  I'm also much more confident in it.  Of course, it helps when you set out to turn the correct diameter.  Aside from that, this was coming along quite well.  I've got the initial hole drilled through at a considerably smaller diameter beyond the desired length of the part and followed behind it with the larger size hole most of the length.  Naturally, the length of this hole was much more important to be accurate.  I used the end of my digital calipers to verify the length of this larger size hole.



Truly exciting stuff here.  I honestly cannot say how long it had been since I cleaned up the chips from beneath this poor old machine.



There are two holes drilled perpendicularly to the length of the valve.  The outermost hole is 1/8" and will be used to install a roll pin securing the valve to the brass rod indirectly connecting the valve to the eccentric.  The inside hole will be much larger, but I could drill the first hole with the 1/8" making for fewer collet changes.



Here comes that much larger hole for permitting steam to be exhausted out the front(top) of the head.



Before finishing the turning, I got this part as close to perfect as possible.  I generally won't accept  any more than .0005 runout.  It's not super vital here since I'm just removing between lands, but still..



I was just having some fun playing with some of my different tools here, figuring out how best I like to remove material between.  It looks a bit goofy, but I wasn't stressing.  It was actually quite cathartic. 



We're getting a bit closer here.  You can see that I haven't yet "taken it to the line".  I'm creeping up on it.



Here is another view.  At this point, I'm testing out my method for obtaining a baby's butt smooth finish.  I'm happy to report that it worked quite well.



I've taken the middle down to dimension, but we aren't quite there for the last bit over the holes.  Naturally, I'll also need to take down those sharp edges once it's all done, but it's looking rather pretty already.



I'm posting this as a "complete" part picture, but in reality, you'll probably notice that I haven't finished off the top edge yet.  Everything else on the part is complete, but this is after being parted off.



Again, I just wanted to show the fit of the part.  Obviously you can't see how well it fits, but trust me, it does.  I was over the moon on this.  I can't wait to see how tight the operation is when it's all together.



« Last Edit: August 02, 2018, 02:54:08 PM by vdubjunkie »
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

Offline propforward

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Re: Newbie building a PMR 6CI
« Reply #74 on: August 05, 2018, 12:58:10 PM »
Looking really good - you've about caught us up to real time. Looking forward to seeing the engine continue to take shape.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

 

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