Author Topic: Quarry Bank Mill Engine  (Read 15942 times)

Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #30 on: January 14, 2019, 01:36:13 AM »
More progress to report.  I have decided that bronze or cast iron are wrong for this project. The color just doesn't work out, no mater what paint color I choose so brass has been ordered and will be here this week. 



I have been dreading having to make the side thrust plates. Stew makes it sound easy but the little voice in the back of my head says otherwise.  I understand the idea of pinning or bolting the plates together and doing the milling as a single job.  The thought of milling a 3/4" wide slot in steel is what shakes me.  I have a good 3/4" drill bit for the first operation but I don't have a 3/4" slot drill or two flute end mill.  I do have a goof 1/2" 2 flute end mill but I doubt that it would live through the job.


For one thing, my mill is just barely adequate for the job in terms of rigidity.  It would leave me with a big filing job and a dulled endmill. The 1/2" wide slot might be adequate but could wind up looking aa little bit skimpy.  The slot only has to be wide enough to pass the crank arms and they will be 1/2" on my version.  I have played around with the dimensions in Alibre' and I think I would like the slots to be 5/8" wide in a 7/8" plate.   Again, no 5/8" slot mill.  A thought came to me in the night and I am anxious to try it. 


Off to the store for flat steel plate.  No problem finding 1/8" thick steel plate.  Flat is another question.  It seems that 1/8" steel in narrow widths is made by shearing or stamping from a larger plate which leave s the steel in a deformed condition.  The edges are thicker than middle and the plate is cupped on one side and curved on the other.  And the edges have been nicely rounded so customers don't hurt themselves.  But it is cheap and available.  I bought a 36" long piece labeled as 1/8" x 1 1/4" for about $4 so today was spent getting it flat and square.


My go to tool for this kind of job is a flycutter equipped with a 1/4" lathe bit with a carbide chip.  The bits are cheap. The edge lasts a long time.  And I can sharpen it with a diamond disc by eye.  Single edge tools are my friend.




flat steel 03 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


The first job was to hack of 4 pieces about 6" long.  Them stack them on edge in the mill vise and take of about 1/8 " of plate width.  I could comfortably take .010" at a time.  I did try .020" one time but the impact was  making my teeth hurt so I went with cuts of .010".  A lot of passes.


Then I flipped the bunch over and did the same thing to the other edges.  I did need to do some deburring of each piece befor putting the stack back together in the vice.  That got the edges nice and square so now I had to deal with the cupped and rounded faces.


One at a time, I put each piece in the vise, with the cupped face down and took a single pass at .005" from the rounded face.  The cut covered the full face, all the way to the edges.  Then, one at a time, I put the new flat face down in the vise and took a single .005" pass over the cupped face.  Again, this single pass cut across the full face, from edge to edge.




flat steel 02 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


All I need to do now is deburr the edges and clean up the shop.  Tomorrow I will test my idea for milling the slots.  If you don't hear from me, I will be working on a new idea.


Jerry
« Last Edit: January 14, 2019, 01:39:55 AM by Captain Jerry »
NOTARY SOJAK

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Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #31 on: January 14, 2019, 10:15:38 PM »
Ok, I got side plates.  All bolted together, I took one more skim to be sure the edges were flat and parallel.


Side Plate l0002 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


Then I set them in the vise face up, located the centerline and spot drilled for the two ends of the slot, the con rod pivot and the connecting bars'


Side Plate l0004 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


The I drilled two 5/8" holes that form the ends of the slot.  My little HF mill could not handle the 5/8" bit so I had to progress through 3/8, 1/2 and then the 5/8".  Now comes the big idea that would make the job easy.


Side Plate l0005 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr 


Side Plate l0008 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


 That doesn't show it very well, but that is a boring bit in a boring head.  The single cutting edge avoids the problem of the cutter being pushed to the side at the end of the slot and is adjustable.  The results look good so far but that is after about a dozen passes.  I could only get about .010" D.O.C. before the mill complained.   I needed another idea.  I have a bunch of 3/8" end mills that I could sacrifice for the job that have dulled edges on the end but the sides of the flutes are in good shape so I replaced the boring head with a 3/8" endmill, and cutting full depth, plowed through the center of the slot.  The cut was not difficult.  It took a little feel with the feed rate to keep the bit cutting but not to fast or tthe mill would stall and I would have to back up.  For some reason, I didnt get a foto of this operation.


In any case, I went back to the boring head for the final passes. With the center of the slot opened up, I had no problem finishing up the slot in four more passes and the a few more passes with the diameter increased a few thousandths.  I am reasonably pleased with the results.


Side Plate l0010 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr




Just one note on the bit.  The stock bits are really not ground right for a hole this small.  There is not enough face angle? to get a good cut.  The bit can be rotated in the head by just a few degrees to increase the angle but then there is not enough relief behind the cutting edge so you get a lot of bumping as the heel drags in the cut.  So over to my little Unimat SL equipped with a diamond grit wheel and grind away behind the cutting edge for relief.  A little relief on the bottom edge helps too.


Tomorrow,  I will mill the tail ends of the side plates that slide in the guides and think about how to shape the outer contours.


Jerry
« Last Edit: January 15, 2019, 01:09:58 AM by Captain Jerry »
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Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #32 on: January 15, 2019, 11:24:09 PM »
I wasn't really complaining, more like bitching, but if you see me struggling like I was with the mill for the last few days, remember, I haven't touched a machine tool for over two years.  You can throw in a little bit of basic help or remind me of things we know but forgot, like "make sure everything is tight."  This morning I spent giving the mill a little TLC; adjusted the gibs, tightened up the backlash, aligned the DROs (cheap Igaging stuff), squared the vise.  I even repacked the spindle bearings on the Unimat SL.   The mill was a pleasure to use today.  No pics, but just saying. help is always appreciated. So are reminders.


Jerry
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Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #33 on: January 30, 2019, 11:33:40 PM »
I am making progress at a blinding pace.  You may hear it said that you are never to old to do something but I recommend that you take that with a rain of salt.  I had to slow down a bit and get a little better organized.  I seems that some things are not where I left them and somethings are not there at all.  On top of that, two of my local suppliers have closed up shop so Most everything has to be ordered in.  At the moment things are on hold as I wait for delivery of a set of adjustable taps from Fantasy Tools in Faraway, Minnesota but the Post Office is taking a Bad Weather day so it may be a while so as I wait, I am getting to know more about Kentucky Rye Whiskey as done by Woodford Reserve.
NOTARY SOJAK

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Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #34 on: February 01, 2019, 03:23:30 AM »



Conrod l0005 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


I really have been working on this project but have not been very good at showing the results.  I did complete the side thrust plates without  incident by following Stew's work plan as much as possible.  I also made the crank arms but will not complete the crankshaft until I make the eccentrics and the bearing stands.

The next major undertaking has been the connecting rods and they have presented some unusual challenges.  I looked at Stew's version and at the version built by Lesmo and detailed in his very thorough build as well as looking at the plans published by Julius but I have decided to take a more simple approach that is a little more like the original in its use of split bearing blocks for both ends.  I am not sure what this type of bearing is called but it is just two brass plates are held between the plain end of the rod and a retainer plate on the outer end. 

In the original there is a "big end" and a "small end" but on my version both ends are the same.  My method of creating the rod section is one that has been kicking around in my head for years but never built.  It actually starts out as a "connecting rod" but is normally used to connect two large timbers.  It is actually a 60d spike.  The shank is .375" diameter and is 10" long with a head formed on one end and a diamond point on the other.  When the head and point are removed there is a nice bright mild steel rod that machines like butter.  The the two ends which form Ts are made from the same spike and fitted and pinned to a tenon turned on the main shank.  I tried several methods of fitting the ends to the shank which failed badly before working out he pinned tenon design.  I tried a threaded tenon and also a screw through the end plate into the shank but neither were satisfactory in terms of fit or strength.

After the ends are fitted, the assembly is milled flat on both sides, resulting in a 1/4" thick finished connecting rod.  The bearing plates will be fastened with proper studs and nuts.

I am going to post this now and provide more detail tomorrow if you are interested.  Its getting late and my battery is running low.

Jerry
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Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #35 on: February 01, 2019, 01:00:41 PM »
Continued from above.

Conrod l0001 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr

These are the end plates, ready for milling.

Conrod l0002 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr

Here they are milled flat to .200" thick.  They have been drilled and tapped for the studs.

Conrod l0003 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr

And here being pinned to the shank.

Conrod l0004 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr

And here the shank with end plates milled to .25" thick.

Jerry
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Offline crueby

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #36 on: February 01, 2019, 01:01:53 PM »
Great work - watching along!

Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #37 on: February 05, 2019, 01:54:23 AM »


Hi, Chris,  glad to see you are watching.  I'm not sure how much interest there is because my posting has been very erratic.


I begin work on the bearing stands.  For this part I will follow the design of the original which uses stands that are seperate from the stand that holds the slide bearings blocks for the side plates.  One reason is because it better sits the material that I have on hand.  Stew Hart's design combines these two items and that may be an excellent design but I am trying to avoid buying material where possible.


I will also follow the original design to the extent that the bearing retainer split is at an angle (I estimate 30 deg) from horizontal.  I have seen this style on other engines, both steam and IC, and there may be a name for it.  I have my opinion as to why it was done that way but other opinions would be welcome.  I am thinking that it has something to do with making it easier to service the bearings or to remove/replace the shaft.

Here is my start.  Marked out and with two 1/4" holes to ease the transition between base and riser.  The small pip above them is the location of the shaft center.

BearingStand l0001 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr

My markup fluid is just MagicMarker which I seem to remember seeing a question on another thread about its permanence and finger stains. I avoid these problems by giving the part a quick 2 or 3 second pass with a small butane torch to flash off the solvent. No more red fingers.

Here are three bearing stands, marked and drilled, ready for the next step.

BearingStand l0002 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr

The notches on the top edge are because this material came from the scrap box and they will not interfere with the finished profile.  I will finish the profile tomorrow and hopefully show finished parts tomorrow evening

Jerry

NOTARY SOJAK

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Offline crueby

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #38 on: February 05, 2019, 01:59:03 AM »
I figured the angle was so that the primary pressure back on the bearings was not directly on the split in them, but that is just a guess.
 :popcorn:

Offline MJM460

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #39 on: February 05, 2019, 06:37:17 AM »
Hi Captain,

I am watching too.  A very interesting engine layout and always interesting to see how others set things up.



MJM460

The more I learn, the more I find that I still have to learn!

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #40 on: February 05, 2019, 07:51:23 AM »
I'm following you

To add to the debate about the bearing stand

"I will also follow the original design to the extent that the bearing retainer split is at an angle (I estimate 30 deg) from horizontal.  I have seen this style on other engines, both steam and IC, and there may be a name for it.  I have my opinion as to why it was done that way but other opinions would be welcome.  I am thinking that it has something to do with making it easier to service the bearings or to remove/replace the shaft."

I drew it up level just to simplify things:- they mounted them at an angle so the the split line would not take the the thrust from the crank shaft as this would accelerate the wear rate, hope this makes sense.

Stew
 
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #41 on: February 07, 2019, 02:14:27 AM »
I think that you are right, Chris and Stew, about not working directly against the bearing split by slanting the mounting stand.  I had a thought that if it were every necessary to remove the crankshaft while the engine is mounted on the wall, with the slanted arrangement it would be possible to remove all of the bearing caps without having the crankshaft fall out.  Make it easier to put it back too.


Your horizontal design does simplify the fabrication and taking it a step further and combining the bearing stand with the support bracket is also  good idea. That seems like something the original design could have benefitted from.


Putting a slant on things made it useful to make a wedge triangle for support.  I should have done it a long time ago.  I should also make a 45 deg one as well.


finished stand l0004 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


It makes setting up for milling the 30 and 60 degree faces on the stands.


finished stand l0006 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


finished stand l0007 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


finished stand l0008 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


My plan had been to profile the bearing cap along with the stand and then saw them apart before drilling for the bearing.  All I can say is that if you ever find yourself milling to a line, be sure that you know which line is your target.  I didn't so I had to take the top off of all of the stands and super glue a top in place.  That may have been a better plan anyway.  This shot is sawing a 3/8" square of another piece of scrap to make the tops.


finished stand l0009 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


You might take a look at my one tooth slitting saw blade that I made from a 48 tooth one,  The fine tooth version was not very effective at clearing the chips it made and was forever binding in the cut.  I ground away most of the teeth and increased the depth of the gullets.  I had intended to make an eight tooth version but since I was working freehand, it seems that only one or maybe two teeth actually cut.  No problem. the other teeth help clear the chips.  It is a very fine kerf and on aluminum it does very occasionally bind in the cut but the finish is very smooth.


Tops fitted, superglued and screwed down before locating and drilling for the bearing.


finished stand l0010 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


All three stands, rather roughly shaped and with caps fitted and screwed on.


finished stand l0011 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


Its getting late but I couldn't help setting up a few family shots to see if it was going in the right direction,


finished stand l0012 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr




finished stand l0012 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


finished stand l0014 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


finished stand l0015 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


I am beginning to think that this excersize might actually produce a real engine.


Jerry





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Offline crueby

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #42 on: February 07, 2019, 02:30:47 AM »
Thats all looking great, going to be a grand engine.


 :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Offline Captain Jerry

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #43 on: February 08, 2019, 01:15:48 AM »
Todays efforts resulted in a better locking bearing stand. This is how I had designed it in Alibre' but you don't have to worry about how to hold the part for final profiling and fillet blending.  I only got one done but the other two will be easier.


fettled standl0003 by captain.jerry Ginn, on Flickr


Jerry


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Online steamer

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Re: Quarry Bank Mill Engine
« Reply #44 on: February 08, 2019, 01:49:29 AM »
That looks the part Jerry!....That looks tricky, but I can think of a couple of cunning schemes to hold it....

Did you ream the hole?

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

 

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