Vertical hit and miss engine

[Brian Rupnow]

Today my smaller gear set arrived, along with my piston rings. The smaller gears seem to be just about perfect size-wise. The large gear set was 20 and 40 teeth---the smaller set are 15 and 30 tooth. The piston rings appear to be fine, but they will need a bit of clean up on the top and bottom, because they appear to be "as heat treated" with no farther work done on them.

[Brian Rupnow]

And a short and sweet video of the new gears mashing---
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWWJkpy-dN0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWWJkpy-dN0</a>

[Brian Rupnow]

I modelled the new gears and adjusted everything in the governor train to match them, and I like the new proportions much better. The new gears have a bore of 6 mm, which is slightly less than 1/4". Since I don't have any metric shafting, I will either use 1/4" and turn the ends of the crankshaft and cam shaft down to 6 mm or else run a 1/4" reamer thru the gears. I have gotten lucky and don't have to machine away any of the fins on the cylinder, as the governor balls will clear them with my new set-up. The crankshaft will be 3/8" diameter and the camshaft will be 1/4". I will have to sleeve the bore on the face cam, as it is currently bored for a 3/8" shaft.

[Brian Rupnow]

Today seen the first bit of jewelry finished and installed. This is the topmost governor bracket. There will be many more small pieces like this one, but I've made a start.

[Brian Rupnow]

Today I made the lower camshaft bracket along with it's oilite bronze bushing. The gears mesh very nicely. For all of you who have made engines or machinery with gears which must mesh correctly, you will know that what sounds very simple has much more to it!!! The shaft which was used for alignment may very well become the cam shaft. My original plan for the top bracket was to have two pieces of brass silver soldered together. One to support the cam shaft and the other to be a pivot for the rocker arm. I'm thinking I may change that to two pieces bolted together. If I can do that, I can make the pivot part from aluminum.

[Johnmcc69]

 
Shaping up to be great little engine Brian!

 John

[Brian Rupnow]

Today I made the very TINY rocker arm pivot. (The part with the drill stuck thru it.). It is my hope that I can bolt the rocker arm pivot to the brass bracket it is setting on top of. But, there is a catch---when the rocker arm is installed, one end of it has to be perfectly centered over the exhaust valve, and the other end must hold the contact roller perfectly in line with the center of the track on the face cam. Being old and filled with wisdom, I know damned well that if I just arbitrarily bolt the rocker pivot to the top cam shaft bracket, that's never going to happen. So, I won't do any bolting until I have built the rocker arm and installed it and the pivot shaft in place and then, with everything lined up "dead nuts", I will proceed to clamp things together and drill/tap the holes for the bolts which hold the rocker pivot in place. Tomorrow I'm off to the hospital for a cataract operation, so I'm not sure when I will post again.---Brian

[Johnmcc69]

We'll be waiting Brian, good luck with the cataract surgery.

 John

[MJM460]

Hi Brian, still following along.

Best wishes for the surgery, hope it all goes well.

MJM460

[Craig DeShong]

Cataracts are easy- peezy Had one done a few years ago and had no problems.  Not as all like it used to be.  Best of luck and we'll see you back again in the shop real soon no doubt.

[Brian Rupnow]

The surgery went well this morning. I had a bigger pain in my arse from setting around waiting for three hours at the hospital than I had from the operation that took about 15 minutes. Everything is blurry in that eye right now, and I feel like I had something the size of a pea in my eye, but they tell me that is normal for the first 48 hours after surgery. After that I should be able to see like Steve Austin. I have an amazing list of things I can't do for the next two weeks, and then I get the other eye done, so it looks like I will be out of commission until mid August.

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Hello Brian,

So glad to hear you are doing A-OK. Just cool it and let things heal and in no time you will be back in the shop. Take care,

Thomas

[crueby]

Glad it went well Brian!  Going by what family members went through, your experience is typical. It takes a few weeks after the second eye is done for things to settle down so they can fit you for glasses, if they are needed. Just take it easy, put in all the bazillion different eyedrops they tell you to, and try not to get bored! Its a whole lot easier getting it done now than what it used to be like years ago.
 

[Ian S C]

The op is a grat help, when dad got his done, he wa able to go without glasses for everything except reading, first time without glasses since he was a teenager(17 I think). He thought the cataracts were the result of his war time work on Radar, who knows1
Ian S C

[Brian Rupnow]

I have worn single lens glasses from 40 to 50 years old. Then I had to go with bifocals from 50 to 60 years old. Then at 65 I had to go to trifocals with my "walking around" glasses, and get a second set of bifocals for computer and close up work. Today I feel a little bit like Mr. Magoo. However, if this surgery does all it is supposed to I plan on being called "Hawk-eye"!!!