Peanuts, Popcorn,,Cracker Jacks

[b.lindsey]

Looking good there Cletus. 

Bill

[zeeprogrammer]

They look great Cletus.

I'm curious to know why they're made out of 416 stainless rather than some other stainless.
(I don't know much about metals. I pretty much limit myself to 6061 Aluminum, 360 Brass, 303 stainless.)

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Thanks for stopping by guys. Chris, American Model Engineering shows for a heavy hex model bolt that it should be 11/64ths across the flats and I used 3/16th. Shoot, I did the .008” washer land though . Zee, I bought a butt load of this stainless from MSC ( might have even back in the Enco days, whilst it was on sale) They say it has great corrosion resistance and easy machinibilty. Really haven’t  tested the corrosion, but, it sure does machine nicely. The old Monarch 10EE did a fabulous job on these small diameters ( threaded part was .112” ) The Hardinge speed collet chuck really sped things up and luckily I had a 3/16” hex collet and the .125” round collet gripped the threaded portion to finish facing to the .084” head thickness. I polished them with a bit of Scotchbrite, but upon final assembly, I may give them a trip to my polishing spindle  . Really appreciate everyone that looks in: kinda funny though, a fella can be this happy over just some little bolts  .

Cletus

[Gary Brooke]

Without those little bolts everything falls apart lol.

Rgds Gary

[Jo]

Really appreciate everyone that looks in: kinda funny though, a fella can be this happy over just some little bolts  .

You wait until you get on to the Studs and their nuts 

Jo

[Ramon Wilson]

Nice addition Whiskey - it all adds up, no matter how small 

I'm not a lover of working in stainless but will when pushed - the new yacht has some nice vintage chromed fittings but could do with a couple replacing, in stainless that is 

My old workmate Bob, who visits me every Xmas, brought me some from his works. Have no idea of the grade but it machines beautifully.

Keep it up buddy - Ol Tug

[gary.a.ayres]

The bolts are very nice indeed...

[Tennessee Whiskey]

First of all, thanks for stopping by guys. Well, old Cletus has been sicker than a dog. And, I’m blaming it all on Tug. I had a bad bout of sinus/lung crud but it appeared to have left me. Then Tug comes down with it and apparently sent me one of those “virus infected emails , and I got it all over again, but this time much worse. I suffered through all the 4th of July BBQ cooking with record high temps and plenty of hickory smoke, and Thursday I headed to sick bay. Lots of steroids, decongestants, and antibiotics and I feel human again. Now to the build. I mentioned that Bozo showed up. Well, when I roughed out the cylinder head previously shown, the outside top had a slight radius to it and I thought it looked good and decided to keep it. Then when I made the bolts and saw that I would have to spot face a .250”  area, it just was out of scale. So, I mounted it on a super glue arbor and went to flattening the radius. Got to my final pass and decided to feed out under power for a really nice finish. Feed handle was in the wrong direction and well, here’s what happened:



In that picture you can see what I started with and with what I ended up with, even without the cockup. I decided that a barstock replacement would be only sensible. I had no brass or bronze on hand large enough, and thanks to Crueby’s tip on Yarde Metals’ drop bin, I bought 4’ of 1.562” brass for less than half price/ foot. Never hurts to have a little extra  .



Feeling renewed this morning and headed to the ol’ shid, and whacked a few inches off the bar and went to turning



And upon retiring to the pool and grilling some bovine (Jo, I like mine pink, but just as the blood is almost gone ) I left the shid with these



Thank y’all for having a look and I’ll try to catch up with what’s been going on with the rest of y’all.

Cletus

[steamer]

Looking good Cletus!   I had planned on some shop time today but the Honey do list dropped hard.....   Ah well perhaps tomorrow.



Dave

[b.lindsey]

Glad to hear you are feeling better Rev.  The replacement part looks good!!

Bill

[Ramon Wilson]

Virus infected email  yeah ya wanna beleev it. Just some poor 'scuse for not gittin in the ol shid enuff

Glad you're back up and running Whiskey  Everything back to normal this side too.

Shame about the part - 'it' happens. Been there and done that - with the carriage in the wrong direction I mean - isn't it funny how everything goes into instant slow motion in trying to stop the bloody thing

Still, 'bar stock rules, okay'  Castings can be a good way of parting with good money for something that you end up making out of barstock any way. Bit like buying a model aircraft kit - usually a good way of buying an expensive plan (drawing) and then replacing all the unsuitable balsa with much more suitable balsa . Definitely been there a time or two

Keep you on a troshin

Tug

[Dave Otto]

Looking good Eric, the parts I mean.
Glad to hear that you are feeling better.

Dave

[zeeprogrammer]

Well, old Cletus has been sicker than a dog.

I feel pretty bad for that dog...but I'm hoping you're all well now. 

Bummer on the part (casting) but the replacements look great.

[Roger B]

Just catching up on this thread        Glad you are starting to feel better  A parallel build by you and Zee has the risk of sinking into banter but should be fun     

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Thanks guys for stopping by. Well I am feeling much better and I hope I sent Bozo packing with the crud I had. I got in a bit of shid time yesterday and today and added a few more parts to the build. Both ends of the cylinder have been drilled and tapped 4-40 and covers fitted with the bolts I made. The slide valve is done and the steam chest is almost complete. The steam chest cover is also finished to size. I still have to put the guide for the valve rod into the steam chest and drill and tap the 5-40 holes for attachment of the chest and cover. Unless I have miscalculated, these 5-40 bolts need to be almost .875” long and that sure seems long for that small of a diameter  . I’ll leave y’all with a few piccys and yes Zee, here’s a family shot. Y’all come see us.

Cletus