Thanks Bill, now onto the cylinder itself. I started by squaring up a blank. It was inserted into the four jaw and taken to length.
Then the blank was offset in the chuck and the bore drilled and reamed.
Next the end was turned round.
The part was removed from the four jaw and placed on a mandril. Then it was held in the collet chuck and the other end turned round.
The blank was moved to the mill where the mounting holes and the exhaust port were drilled.
The part was rotated 90 degrees and I drilled the exhaust holes and milled the valve slots. I screwed up one of the slots and ended up filling it in with JB weld and remaking the slot.
Then the steam chest mounting holes were drilled.
The part was turned on end and notch cut into both ends of the cylinder.
Then the passage between the valve slots and cylinder end was drilled.
While drilling the other side disaster struck. the drill bit broke about 3/4 of the way through the part. Worse yet the drill was carbide so the alum trick wouldn’t have worked. I was tempted to trash the part and start again but I decided to try to save it. A trench was milled from the valve slot towards the end of the cylinder on centerline until the top of the drill was met. Then using my smallest punch the remains of the drill were drifted out. Now I have a hole in the wrong place and a big trench in my cylinder. The holes were filled with JB weld and I will try again after it sets. Thankfully Elmer uses a brass valve plate between the cylinder and the valve. If I can get the JB weld flat enough to seal I should be OK.
Till next time
Tony
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