Crossley Otto Langen

[awake]

Wow, that flywheel went on a major diet! What's the weight before and after?

[Craig DeShong]

Andy, Brian, Chris; a rather belated thanks for your comments.  Also: Thanks for you who just stop by to see the doings.

There are two excellent reasons why this post is so long in coming.
Firstly: I’ve been sicker than a dog ,,, if a sick dog could only be so unlucky.   I’m finally getting over the flu, and believe me when I say this… you don’t want it.
Secondly: I’ve really had nothing to do.  I needed some involute gear cutters to proceed.  I ordered the cutters over two months ago. Some were delivered while others were not .  The vendor offered a refund for those missing… great but that doesn’t get me gear cutters. 
I guess some Bruce Lee fanatic felt them through the bag and thought they were some kind-of Chinese throwing knives or something.
Anyway, with my money refunded I ordered them from Travers at over twice the cost but they showed up in two days.

Feeling somewhat better and with the needed tooling at hand I should be able to make some progress on this model soon, if the weather cooperates.

Before the bottom dropped out I did manage to finish the other flywheel; and I’ve built a stand for the engine to sit upon.  With the flywheels mounted it needed a proper stand.

[Brian Rupnow]

Craig--Glad you are feeling better. There are worse things than a bad case of flu, but when you are that sick, it's hard to think of them. Engine is looking great.---Brian

[Craig DeShong]

Brian: thanks for the sympathy    Thanks also for those of you who silently stop by to see the latest…

The weather seems to have been particularly foul this last week which doesn't help progress on the model when your shop doesn't have permanent heat. Also, adding to the "zillion things to do before Christmas", it didn’t help that the battery in the truck suddenly gave up the ghost either…

I did manage to get in a little shop time and used that time to make the secondary shaft drive gear.  This is a gear that rides on the main shaft and drives the secondary shaft where the pawl and ratchet (which time the valve and ignition events) reside.  With the completion of this gear, all the work with the main drive shaft is complete.

First I formed the blank on the lathe and bored it for pressing on the shaft; here you see the setup used to cut the drive gear; diametral pitch of 18 with 24 teeth.



Next, I cut it off it’s arbor and then broached the key way.  Here is a shot of the gear installed on the main shaft and the main shaft reinstalled on the platform atop the cylinder.  The bevel gear which I made up thread, will drive the governor.

[tghs]

the next week looks better weather wise,, gears look great..

[Craig DeShong]

Thanks for the comments.  Also, thanks for those just stopping by to see the goings-on.

Today was a lovely warm day here in North Carolina and I made the best of the day by spending the majority of it in the shop.  I got a lot accomplished, though to look at the progress you might wonder.

I got a good start on the secondary shaft and accouterments.  So you might get an idea of where I’m headed, below is an exploded view of the secondary shaft and all its attachments. 


From right to left the parts are:
1- a shoulder bolt that operates the slide valve through a pushrod
2- the starter gear
3- the outside bearing (pink)
4- the secondary shaft driven gear. This gear meshes with the drive gear on the main shaft.
5- the ratchet (orange)
6- the mandrel and mandrel bearing (both blue)
7- the pawl group (all remaining orange parts)
8- the secondary shaft (brown)
9- the inside bearing (pink)
10 - the rack lift lever and pin (brown on far left)

These are a lots of fiddly little parts to make.
 


I got a good start today by finishing the secondary shaft, inside and outside bearings, the inside journal, and the mandrel and mandrel bearing.

Here I show the secondary shaft and the mandrel and mandrel bearing before pressing them together.




Finally two photos of these extant parts assembled to the platform atop the cylinder.

[Craig DeShong]

I spent the afternoon finishing the secondary shaft driven gear.  Doesn’t seem like a lot to show for the effort but it is gratifying when the gear slides in place and meshes as it’s supposed to without unnecessary play and without binding.

I show a photo of the gear mounted on its mandrel which rides the secondary shaft. 

I’m thinking that while I’m in a gear making mode I’d go ahead and make the starter gear as well as the starter lever so those parts will probably be next on the agenda.

[Don1966]

Very nice work Craig and love the gear work!.....



 
Don

[awake]

Great work!

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8504F using Tapatalk

[Craig DeShong]

Don and Andy; thanks for the comments.  Thanks also for those who open this thread the see the latest.

I got out in the shop this afternoon and finished the starter gear.  I also got a good start on the starter lever; a peculiar looking lever that, once I complete it, I can hopefully show how it’s used to start the engine.

Just one photo today of the top of the engine with the start gear in place.

[Brian Rupnow]

Looking great Craig. Those are nice looking gears. Are they mod (metric) gears or are they DP?

[Craig DeShong]

Brian

The rack and drive gear are diametral pitch 14, the governor bevel gears are diametral pitch 32; the other gears are diametral pitch 18. (For those not familiar with gear terminology, the diametral pitch defines the size of the gear tooth, the larger the number, the smaller the tooth size).

The model was designed in imperial measurements, because that’s what I’m familiar with and that is the measurement system for my mill, lathe, and all my tooling.  I suspect you could use metric gear cutters; you’d just have to get the imperial to metric conversion with respect to pitch diameter right.  As you know (because you design engines too) the math can get pretty atrocious at times when you’re deep in the design.  I’m not talking calculus (haven’t done that stuff in 50 years) but the simple math and trig (just the sheer amount of it) can get tedious and one simple math error can cascade and wreak havoc in a design.  That’s why I always go over and over again a design before I start cutting metal.

With gear cutters as expensive as they are, my tendency is to stick with imperial measurements and try to build up a compliment of the several diametral pitches I commonly use so each new project doesn’t require a major outlay of funds to acquire more gear cutters.

Regarding the current project; the cold day precluded shop time so I spent the day working on creating many of the remaining drawings from the individual component designs in Alibre so as the weather permits, I’ll have drawings from which to build the remainder of the model.  I’ve created close to 100 drawings for the construction of this model which uses 73 different parts.  Some of the more complicated parts have several sheets to aid in construction.

[Craig DeShong]

Thanks for those of you who stop by to see the latest installment.

This afternoon I finished the starting lever.  Of course the engine can be started by rotating the flywheels but the Crossley folks added this little extra tidbit, I suspect because to rotate the flywheels requires rotating the load.  With the Crossley’s design the engine can be started without rotation of the flywheels.  Hopefully I can get to show you this once the build is far enough along.

I do have a few construction photos of the fabrication of this lever.  The source material was a convenient piece from the scrap pile so that explains its peculiar shape.

Here I’ve formed the “gear” end of the lever.  I used my rotary milling head to do the work you see here. 



Next it was time to form the teeth on the gear arc.  This gear arc mates with the thirteen tooth starter gear so the diametral pitch is 18 to match that of the starting gear.  A different cutter was used though because this gear arc is a portion of a 60 tooth gear.


Next it was back on the mill;  the rotary milling head was used to form the profile of the lever.




Then standard milling was used to remove the remainder of the material.




After a bit more forming and some filing, the lever was complete.




Here you see the starting lever placed in its holder and just engaging the starting gear.



And here the lever has been moved through about half of its travel.  The lever has ten teeth and when engaged with the starting gear which has thirteen, it turns the secondary shaft nearly three quarters of the way around.  That is enough movement to cycle the slide valve, lift the piston (drawing fuel into the cylinder), and fire the engine.



Finally I give you a photo of the starting lever in its normal “rest” position.  This would be its normal location when it is not being used to start the engine.

[crueby]

Beautiful progress on a very complex engine, following along...   

[Steamer5]

Hi Craig,
 Just done a catch up ... & reread.......WOW!

Nice work, & great pics to go with it.  More 


Cheers Kerrin