Author Topic: Designing the 1905 Regal  (Read 6694 times)

Offline Craig DeShong

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Designing the 1905 Regal
« on: December 06, 2018, 08:19:22 PM »
A bit of rambling here, so if you bail, I won’t blame you.  :embarassed:

Every year I try to attend Ken Eder’s show, held every 1st weekend of November in Carthage, North Carolina.  The show is called “one hundred years of progress”.  Ken has a HUGE collection of antique tractors, traction engines, engines, and other assorted things mechanical.  The show encompasses building after building of stuff; if you are in the area in November I’d highly recommend that you attend.  There are many youtube videos of the show if you are curious; search “Ken Eder show” or “Ederville” or “100 years of progress"

It’s getting toward winter with the accompanying winter weather, so I suspect I’ll be spending some time away from the unheated shop and looking for something to occupy my time indoors.

While at Ken’s show I took a fancy to a little open frame bottle shaped vertical gearless hit-and-miss engine labeled “Regal”, built in 1905.  Being armed with the camera on my phone and a measuring tape the folks there were kind enough to allow me to take many pictures and measurements.  My thoughts were that this winter I might want to make drawings of the engine with the intent of building it some time.  So now I finally get around to the title of this thread.

A video of this engine appears on youtube so you can get an idea of the subject matter.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o68FFLqoAxI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o68FFLqoAxI</a>

The engine is a gearless, igniter fired hit-and-miss engine.  It is water cooled, but uses simple convection to circulate the water.  The governor is built as a suspended weight, the motion of which above a certain speed angles a lock-out lever over to hold the exhaust valve open.  It also has an interesting mechanism to only trip the igniter when required.  If you study the youtube video closely you can probably figure all this out. 

Here’s another opportunity for me to use the 3-D CAD software I purchased a little over a year ago; software of which I and am slowly becoming proficient (but no expert I assure you).  The software is “Cubify Design”, just in case you’re wondering.  It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the professional packages, but doesn’t cost an arm and a leg either.  My intention would be to machine all these components; I’m not going to look into patterns and castings. Here’s what I have so far, after around a day of work.

I’ll show you the individual components first and then an assembly.  I suspect each of these may/will change some as the design progresses.  That’s one of the pleasures of designing on the computer; you can change a part without a re-draw and usually, all the other components will adjust accordingly.

This is the engine base, looking from the top.  The recess will give clearance for the connecting rod and crankshaft throw.  This part  has around a one degree taper.  If I had a taper attachment on the lathe, fabricating this would be a snap; without it I’ll have to get inventive.


This view is the same part, looking from the bottom.  The recess here is for a fuel tank.  There is a final disk that attaches to this “base” that the engine rests upon.  This disk will be around ¼ in. thick on the model.  I could have designed this part with that disk attached, but that would have required a much larger diameter of aluminum which would raise the cost of materials.  It’s easier in cost and fabrication on the mo0del to just make it separate and then attach it with a few screws, all that remaining to be designed.


Next is the ring that sits on top of the base.  On the full size this is a separate piece also.  The component also has journal blocks for the lower crankshaft split bearings.  This is the top view.


And the bottom side



Following are the journal caps top and bottom.



Next up is probably the most difficult piece of this prospective build, the cylinder and forks.  The legs have a one degree taper, to continue the taper defined by the base.  The cylinder has a recess where, once a cast iron liner is pressed in place, should form a cavity for the water.  This will be an interesting piece to fabricate, but I have a few ideas.


A view from the bottom in an attempt to show the water cavity.

This part still needs a lot detail added, but it’s a start.

Here’s the assembly, so far…




If you're overly observant, you've already noticed one of the compromises I've incorporated in this design.  The full size has four bosses cast into the base where the ring containing the journal bosses attaches.  These would be the devil to machine so my design omits them and moves the mounting screws further into the ring where there is material in the base where which they can attach.  With the model complete and sitting beside the original, a sharp observer would notice this. 
« Last Edit: February 09, 2019, 12:50:38 AM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2018, 09:18:38 PM »
Hello Craig,

Very nice work on the drawings. The engine in the video is most impressive, good looks and a great running sound.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Thomas

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2018, 11:23:42 PM »
What a great winter project Craig. Sounds like you may even get in more drawing time this weekend after listening to the weather reports. White stuff on the way!!

Bill

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2018, 07:23:12 AM »
Looks like an interesting subject with it's little star wheel to get the timing.

I wonder if making the base from steel would allow the bosses to be soldered or welded on, with aluminium unless you can weld it sticking the bosses on would be the only option and I would not want to trust adhesives for that, though pinning at the bottom below the threaded hole and some JBWeld may work. If you could get some thick wall tube then rather than mill the two rectangular pockets a horizontal divider could be added half way up to save milling it all out.

What is the bore going to be? as that would give an idea of the sizes involved.

Offline Zephyrin

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2018, 10:59:56 AM »

very nice engine to model, the shape is still close to a vertical steam engine, and interesting gearless mechanism to draw, good project for the winter evenings !

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2018, 08:42:13 PM »
Thomas, Bill, Jason, Zephyrin; thanks for stopping by and your comments.
 
Jason- This is a fair approximation of the flange.  It would have a curved face to match the profile of the base and an outer tapering profile.


There would be four of them on 90 degree centers; the picture only shows one.


I “could” fabricate the flanges and just pin and glue them to the base for cosmetic appeal as you state, not expecting them to hold anything.  Fabricating them could be problematic with the two curves.  Each would be only about 5/8th inch in length.  Probably mill the inside curve and file the outside till cosmetically appealing.

At one third size, the model would stand just under 11 inches tall with flywheels 7 in. diameter.  The bore would be 1.333 in. 
« Last Edit: February 09, 2019, 12:53:54 AM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
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Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2018, 12:04:42 AM »
The snow we got last night kept me indoors and working with this design. 

Moving forward, I’ve added the crankshaft, connecting rod, piston and wristpin.  I also had to make a few frame changes to accommodate the new parts.

I’m still thinking about the “flanges” up thread.  I haven’t committed yet.



« Last Edit: February 09, 2019, 12:56:38 AM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2018, 07:35:30 AM »
I can't see that you will be wanting to remove the lower bearing plate from the base very often so the fixings could be moved out of sight by placing them through the sides of the lower bearing blocks and you could also possibly put a CSK screw under the foot of the standard. Then the side bosses can just be added as dummies and stuck with JB Weld

Offline Roger B

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2018, 05:29:32 PM »
That's an interesting design, I will be following along  :ThumbsUp:  :ThumbsUp:  :wine1:
Best regards

Roger

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2018, 02:52:52 AM »
Comments and suggestions are always welcome; in fact Jason had such a great suggestion that I’ve already incorporated it in the design.  (Jason- I’ll be sure you get a portion of the royalties from the massive interest that this design generates.  :lolb: )


Thanks for stopping in Roger, and the others stopping by without comment.

I stared in on the design of the exhaust/governor/ignitor lockout mechanism today.  Lots of calculations and adjusting but things are coming together.  As usual, I’m discovering the photos I “should” have taken to make things clearer, but I haven’t come across something I can’t figure out so far with the information I collected.

The mechanism is fairly interesting in that a pushrod rides in a guide, and has a roller that fits into an eccentric slot in a disk on the crankshaft.  In this CAD rendering, the cam eccentric is blue and the pushrod is pink.  As the crankshaft rotates, this roller follows the eccentric slot in the cam and drives the pushrod up and down.


Up on the side of the forks, this motion is captured by a shaft that slides inside a cylinder attached to the engine frame.  I haven’t drawn this shaft yet, but the fixture that drives it is shown below.


The shaft (indirectly) operates the exhaust valve and the governor.  Hopefully this will become clear as the design progresses.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2019, 01:02:07 AM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
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Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2018, 01:48:00 PM »
Coming along nicely Craig. Hope you survived the snow without any problems. You guys got about twice what we did I think.


Bill

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #11 on: December 13, 2018, 04:59:37 PM »
I can see from the replies/views that there is interest in what I’m doing.  Thanks for all of you who take the time to visit.

The snow and cold weather has provided ample opportunity to further the design of this model.  Not that much snow or cold, but enough to keep me in doors and working at the computer. I’m starting to get comfortable using this CAD design tool; I’m spending less and less effort in trying to get the software to depict what I want to accomplish and this, in turn, allows me to think more clearly on the primary task of designing this engine.  :ThumbsUp:

With the basic frame shape established I’ve moved on to the design of the valve and governor mechanisms.  The video below is one of the ones I took while I was in Carthage, inspecting the full size.  In this video I’m turning the engine over by hand.  The video is a close up of the star wheel, ratchet and pawl that allow this engine to run 4-cycle without gears.  The push rod to the left is driven by an eccentric on the crankshaft I mention up post.  The ratchet and pawl turns the star wheel.  This wheel actuates the exhaust valve at every other revolution of the crankshaft.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIafZMBt4JQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIafZMBt4JQ</a>
 
Below I give you the CAD renderings I’ve drawn.  It’s missing a few parts, screws, and stops; all of which I’ll add later once the design is finalized.   

In this drawing, the crankshaft has revolved to where the eccentric has move the push rod to the top of its travel.  The star wheel and ratchet have been carried above the pawl and with the star wheel in this position, the exhaust valve would have been opened. 


In the next CAD rendering, the crankshaft has been rotated near 180 degrees and the push rod, driven by the eccentric on the crankshaft, has moved to the bottom of its travel.  Unfortunately, my CAD system won’t allow me to revolve the star wheel part (either a shortcoming of the software or my ignorance of some functionality) so we’ll have to imagine that the pawl would have engaged the ratchet to revolve the star wheel 60 degrees and position the cut-out in the star wheel in the top position . 


Below I give you a in close view of the ratchet, pawl, star wheel design.  The star wheel will be around 5/8th inch in diameter, the ratchet a little under 1/2 inch in diameter.



Furthering the design, I've temporarily abandoned the valve mechanism and moved on to designing the head.  The head is interesting in that the intake valve, exhaust valve, and igniter share a common chamber situated on the side of the cylinder head.

The intake valve seat and guide fits the top to this chamber, the exhaust valve seat and guide fit to the bottom, and the igniter fits into the front.  It took a bit of thinking to decide how I wanted to accomplish this from a milling standpoint, and I doubt my solution matches the full size casting, but it should work; both from an external aesthetic standpoint and from a functional one also.

In the first photo you see my rendering of the inside of the head.  All internal passageways are shown.  The second photo is a front on view, the flat area is where the yet to be to be designed igniter attaches.


Finally, I provide a view of the head as it attaches to the engine frame.  There is “method to my madness” in designing the head now.  I need to set the dimensions properly so that the valve chambers align directly over the star wheel.  This will position the end of the exhaust valve stem over the star wheel where star wheel motion can activate the exhaust valve.

« Last Edit: February 09, 2019, 01:12:56 AM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2018, 05:12:14 PM »
It's coming together well, as you say one of the things about designing your own engine is that you have to think how it will be made and design to suit what tooling you have available.

I'll enquire with one of the Alibre team to see about meshing gears and let you know. I can now get my version of Alibre to produce spur gears so may as well see if they work when playing designing on the screen.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #13 on: December 13, 2018, 05:26:13 PM »
Jason.  Hmmmmmm.  Drawing gears.  I've done it, but I've done it by drawing a sketch of an individual gear tooth, them using the "circular pattern" function to replicate that sketch around a center.  Then extruding the sketch to a depth to define a "sort of" gear.  What results is something that looks like a gear, but "Cubify Design" certainly doesn't recognize it as such.

I've scowered the package but don't see any reference to it's ability to draw gears.  Sure would be nice.

I'll add that It' also confusing that the crankshaft turns in the drawing and moves the piston, connecting rod, etc with it, the push rod also moves up and down (though I can't seem to figure a constraint that allows the software to realize the roller on the pushrod should follow the eccentric grove cut-out in the cam wheel.   

The star wheel and ratchet seem frozen in place.  I believe I've set the constraints properly so that it should be able to rotate, don't know why it won't ?

Remember though, I'm not using the Alibre professional version; I'm using the watered down version.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2018, 05:37:38 PM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Online Dave Otto

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Re: Designing the 1905 Regal
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2018, 05:41:15 PM »
Hi Craig

Nice wok on the CAD project, this engine is very similar to the gear less Olds. The Olds uses an eccentric to drive the star wheel and ratchet.
On the frozen star wheel, you should be able to right click on the wheel in the design tree and tell it to (make flexible) at least that is what you can do in Alibre.

Dave

 

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