Author Topic: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine  (Read 17078 times)

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #15 on: November 10, 2018, 10:30:31 PM »
Well, I'm back to working on the engine!  I've not been idle, but have been working on a few other projects, the biggest of which was installing a DRO on my lathe.  I'd had a Trav-A-Dial on the Z axis which was very handy but I really wanted to have the DRO function on the X axis.   The system is direct from Ditron and has magnetic type scales which are very slim.  The X scale is 1um and the z scale is 5um resolution.  Price was $501 complete with shipping to central Kansas. 


Here's one pix of the display after I finished the installation.  If there's more interest I can post more details in the Tooling and Machines folder on the forum.


So far, I've really liked this setup and, at least for me, markedly speeds up operations on the lathe.

Let me know if anyone wants to see all the details of the installation and I'll post as Indicated above. 

FYI.

Mike
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #16 on: November 10, 2018, 10:41:13 PM »
Hello Mike,

That sure is a nice looking setup and it should make lathe work a lot easier.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Thomas

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #17 on: November 10, 2018, 10:54:12 PM »
On to making some actual engine parts now!  I didn't have a lot of time in the shop today plus its extremely cold as it got down to 16F last night and my shop heater isn't adequate for that temp.  I can dress warmly enough but my hands start hurting after a bit. 

First up was making the 3 round spacers for the cross-slide guide bars.  I put a piece of .25" brass round bar into a collet and polished the OD of the material, faced the material off and drilling a #43 clearance hole for the #2-56 screws. 


The 3 spacers shown on top of the print.  I really liked using the DRO for this sort of operation.  Just take a very light cut on the end of the stock, and move over the required distance plus the width of the parting tool and part away!  I found i could get within .001" at least across short distances. 


Next up are the crankshaft main bearings.  I had a piece of SAE 660 bearing bronze for these.  Shown is after turning the OD to .500" and getting ready to drill 19/64" (1/64" under 5/16") in prep for reaming.  I'd just spotting the barstock with a center drill prior to this pix.


Next I reamed to 5/16" which is exactly on size and of course the 5/16 crankshaft material is too tight in the bearings at this point.  My plan is to mount the bearing stands/bearings on the base plate and get them aligned as well as I can and then run a .001" over size reamer thru them both by hand to bring them to size and hopefully get the bores aligned for the crankshaft.   If there's a better approach, please let me know!


Parting the bearing off.  I again must comment that this sort of operation is much easier/faster with the DRo!


The finished bearings on the print.


The bearings were a hand press into the bearing stand.  I used some Loctite 603 retaining compound to secure them.  This pix shows the bearing stands/bearings installed on the baseplate.


Tomorrow I hope to continue on.  After the Loctite cures overnight I plan to drill and tap for 2-56 thru the top of the bearing stand and thru the bearing for the purpose for installing some oil cups from PM Research.  I also hope to get the cross slide guides and support pillars done and try to fit them on the base and check the alignment of everything so far.

All for today!

Enjoy!

Mike.
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #18 on: November 10, 2018, 11:11:08 PM »
I wanted to post this separately as it's more of a tip than something to do with my build log. 

I had ordered a number of scale model fasteners from American Model Engineering Supply.  Delivery was extremely prompt and the fasteners are wonderful.  I really like how they fit small models vs attempting to use standard Imperial fasteners. 

But there's minor problem.  The scale model 4-40  bolts use an 11/64"  hex size (distance across the flats).  This turns out not to be standard wrench size and is simply not obtainable in the US from standard suppliers as far as I can tell.  AMES does sell a series of custom socket type wrenches that fit all their fasteners, but i don't particularly care for that style, although in truth many people would find them completely fine.  What i ended up doing was the following:

It turns out that 4.5mm nut drivers work and are available from tool speciality suppliers.  I purchased a 4.5mm nut driver from Wiha US.  Shown in the pix is the tool and how perfectly fits the 4-40 scale model bolt.


Driving a 4-40 bolt into place.


i didn't show a pix of this but for a sutiable spanner, I ordered a Moody tools 4mm spanner and simply filed it out to fit the 11/64" hex heads on the fasteners.   

I THINK it may also be possible to use a 7BA wrench or socket on these particular bolts, but I didn't want to place an order that involved international shipping.

The rest of the AMES scale model fasteners have hex heads that work with commonly available Imperial sized spanners and nut drivers.   

Hopefully this is useful info and if needed I can also post this is in the Tools section.

FYI.

Mike.
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #19 on: November 12, 2018, 12:45:52 AM »
I had some time in the shop today but waited until the afternoon when things warmed up a bit.   This all took a bit longer than I thought but I tend to be pretty cautious when drilling small holes and tapping them.

First up was completing the bearing stands/bearings to drill thru both, tap and add oil cups.  Frist pix shows drilling a #50 thru hole all the way thru the stand and the bearing.  I had the mill running about 1200 rpm and that speed worked fine. 


This pix shows tapping 2-56 about .20" deep, just enough to allow the oil cups to be screwed in fully.  Since this was tapping into AL, I just kicked the mill out of gear and spun the chuck by hand, backing it up ever turn or so.  I'd also set a stop so I could do both pieces without edge finding twice.


Pix of the completed bearing stands with the oil cups installed and fastened to the base.  I think the scale of everything looks pretty good!


Then on to the crosshead guide slide bars.  I purchased a stick of square 1/4" W-1 stock from McMaster Carr.  I got this as I figured it would be very close to dimension and would be nice and smooth for the intended application.  Measuring the stock, it turned out to be about 1/2 a thousands over size and perfectly square so I was happy!.  I cut 4 pieces with my bandsaw and then, as this pix shows, put them in the mill and took a base to clean up one end, but I did them all at once just to save some time.   I had an odd sized carbide end mill that I got at a local auction and it worked very well.  RPM on the mill was about 1600 and the cuts were light. 


After I got them all to length, I extended the piece beyond the end of the vise and used the edge finder to set the Y axis zero.  Then I loosened the vise and set the piece flush with the edge of the vise jaws use a 123 block to make sure it was flush.  Then I used the edge finder to set X to zero.   This pix shows how I went about making sure each piece was consistent in the X axis.  After I set Y to the required position, I locked the table and left it locked for all subsequent parts. 


Then it was a matter of using the DRO to move to the required position and drill the thru holes .125" in from each end on each part and on 2 parts, drill thru with a #49 and tap 2-56.  This time I used a spring loaded tap follower and a very small tap wrench to be as cautious as possible when tapping.  This worked find and I managed to not break off a tap in the W-1!!    I didn't show the drilling ops, but do have a pix of the tapping setup.   I did use a very small amount of TapMagic EP-Extra (the dark stuff) and that seemed to work. 


And the final pix of the day's work.   This pix shows the crosshead slide bars, the spacers, the fasteners that I'll use to assemble and the oil cups.  Note that the top slide bars are drilled and tapped for the oil cups and the bottom bars are not.


Tomorrow I hope to start working on the slide bar pillars and depending how that goes move on to some other parts as well.

All for today!

Enjoy!

Mike.
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

Offline Gas_mantle

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #20 on: November 12, 2018, 12:51:45 AM »
Looking good Mike, I'm following with interest  :ThumbsUp:

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #21 on: November 12, 2018, 02:56:05 PM »
Just getting caught back up with your progress Mike. Things are coming along well and look great!!

Bill

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #22 on: November 14, 2018, 12:39:19 AM »
Today and yesterday were extremely cold here in central KS.  It got down to around 11F at our house and the heater in my shop just can't keep it warm enough to work in there at those temps.  So I have had to wait until the afternoon when it warms up a bit and the heater can catch up.  I do see an upgraded split system ac/heater at some point in my future!  But in any case on to the work done over the past 2 days.

I decided to make the cross slide guide bar support pillars.  First pix is just turning a piece of 5/8" OD brass stock down to .563".


Starting to turn the 'top' portion of the pillar to .25" OD.  Nothing tricky at all here!


After facing to the required length as close as possible and center drilling and drilling about .300" deep with a #50, I then tapped 2-56 using a Fisher spring loaded tap follower and the very small tap wrench you see in the pix.  Brass taps wonderfully easy!


Checking the fit with a 2-56 bolt from AMES.  Good fit!


To put a nice radius on the part, I ground a form tool out of a piece of 5/16" HSS.  I made the radius 3/16", or at least as close as I could get it.  Wheel is one of those Norton Blue wheels and it cuts HSS remarkably well.  You can also see my home-made grinding rest, set with about a 10 degree tilt for relief on the tool.  My theory is that even if I don't get the radius exactly correct, each part will be the same so no one should really notice any flaws, hopefully at least!


Pix of the in-progress radius op using the form tool.  The brass cuts extremely easily even with a large contact area as you plunge in.


Turned the piece around and gripped the just completed end with a .25" 5C collet.  I carefully measured the length and got the overall length to 1/2 a thou to the spec.  My goal is to get all these pieces as close as possible to the required dim so as to minimize any binding on the cross-slide assembly.


Spot drilling for the 4-40 hole on this end.


After drilling to about .375" depth, tapping 4-40, again with the spring loaded tap follower and the very small tap wrench.  This op went well.


One of the finished parts on the drawing.  I think it came out pretty good since this was the first time I'd made a form tool, albeit a very simple one!


And the final pix, showing the first pillar installed on the base plate.


I made one more of these parts this evening so just 2 more today tomorrow, then onto the next bits! 

All for today.

Enjoy!

Mike
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

Offline crueby

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #23 on: November 14, 2018, 12:47:08 AM »
Great work plus great photo sequences.


 :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #24 on: November 15, 2018, 12:20:23 AM »
Just one quick update for today.  I finished the crosshead slide guide pillars.  Shown in the pix is all four of them loosely attached to the base.  Just in case anyone is interested, the way I finished these was to use a bit of 220 grit emery cloth, particularly on the radius created by the form tool, pressing very lightly and constantly moving it.  I then used some maroon Scotch Brite followed by some grey Scotch Brite.  I didn't further polish the parts and am not sure I will since i sort of like this level of finish.  I managed to get all the parts with in a 1/2 thou in length so hopefully that won't be a contributor to any binding on the cross slide when it comes time to fit that.


All for today.

Enjoy!

Mike
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #25 on: November 18, 2018, 11:57:57 PM »
I've managed to do a bit more work on this engine over the past couple of days and thought I'd post a brief update on the progress.

I decided to make a start on the cylinder.  I had a piece of 1 1/4" cast iron round bar stock and chucked it up in the 4 jaw, trued it up and turned the OD to 1.25" as called for in the drawing.  I believe Mr. Hart's original plans called for AL for the cylinder but I wanted to give the CI a try as I have limited experience with it so far and figured this part would give me a good feel of how it machines. 


After the OD was to dimension, I center drilled the end and drilled a 3/16" starter hole to just over 1.75" deep. 


Then drilled to the same depth as the pilot with a 9/16" reduced shank bit I had.  Reduced the rpm to about 260.  I do love the way that cast iron machines! 


Just to make sure that the bore is true and on center I took a light cut with a small boring bar.  I took the ID to just over .60" in one pass.  I was again impressed on how well the CI machines!  RPM was 430.


Then I reamed to the final ID of .625" with a 5/8" reamer that I had on hand.  Reduced the rpm down to .260 for this op.


I parted off the cylinder just over 1.75" and then turned it around, rechucked it, trued it and brought it to the exact length.  I also used some emory and Scotch Brite on the end to improve the finish a bit.  I didn't remember to take any pix of those ops, but here's the cylinder on top of the print, with the length, OD and ID completed.


Then on to the mill to make the flat for the mounting block.  This was pretty straightforward as I just put the cylinder as you see in the vise on a couple of parallels and took a couple of passes with an old CenterDex end mill to bring it to the required dimension. 


Then I did a bit of edge finding to find the center of the cylinder and establish the edge in order to get the tapped holes done.  This pix shows tapping 4-40 with a spring loaded tap follower and the small tap wrench I commonly use.  I started with a plug tap and the finished each hole with a bottoming tap as the holes have to be quite shallow to avoid breaking into the cylinder.


Testing the fit with a 4-40 shcs.  Both holes were good!


Then I made the cylinder mounting/riser block.  I started with a piece of 3/4" square Al I had on hand and first brought it to dimension.  Then did edge finding on the piece and drilled the required thru holes for the 4-40 shcs that I will use to mount it.  This was all pretty straightforward.


Finally a couple of pix of the parts that I've made to date assembled on the base plate.  The cylinder isn't actually fastened down as I didn't have long enough 4-40 shcs on hand.  Hopefully I can pick some tomorrow.  I'm also missing the little square valve rod guide block but I do have the rest of the crosshead guide items done.  This is the first pix.


And the 2nd pix. 


The astute observer will notice that there are a fair number of operations to be completed on the cylinder.  The cylinder cover mounting holes, the piston valve block mounting holes, the air passages, etc all reman to do.  In other words, the tricky bits!

However, at least now it's starting to look like the beginnings of an engine! 

Over the next couple of days, i'd like to finish the cylinder, the cylinder covers and maybe make a start on the piston valve block.  It's supposed to be warmer this coming week so hopefully I'll be able to spend a bit more time in the shop each day.

All for now.

Enjoy!

Mike.
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #26 on: November 19, 2018, 01:01:50 AM »
Nice work!

I don't have a lot of experience with cast iron...although very messy, I enjoyed it.
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Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #27 on: November 19, 2018, 01:07:19 AM »
Coming along great Mike! Great pictures and nice looking parts as well.

Bill

Offline PJPickard

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2018, 01:13:24 AM »
Mike,
I was thinking about building this engine next. Nice work. Where do you get those little tap handles?

Offline mikehinz

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Re: Pottyengineering Horizontal Mill Engine - Imperial - Mike's 3rd Engine
« Reply #29 on: November 19, 2018, 12:53:11 PM »

I don't have a lot of experience with cast iron...although very messy, I enjoyed it.

I don't find cast iron objectionable at all to work with!  What drives me crazy is metal with rust.  That truly makes a mess!  I have a bunch of very nice heavy wall DOM tubing that my brother gave me but it had been outside for a looonnnggg time and is rusted on the OD and ID.  It's great material but everytime I use use a bit of a I curse madly and then spend a bunch of time with mineral spirits and rags!

Mike
MIke
Wichita, KS, USA

 

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