Author Topic: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine  (Read 44313 times)

Offline crueby

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Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« on: December 31, 2019, 05:40:21 PM »
Hi all!

Another year starting, great time to start a new build. This one will be of the piston-valved version of the Stanley Steamer engine model 735 from 1918. The plans came from the Stanley museum up in Maine, I got a copy of the 3D CAD model from a friend up there who was involved in updating the plans. I do not own the rights to these plans, so will not be publishing them here. The engines as mass produced used a slide valve setup, with the steam chest between the cylinders and accessible by a removeable round plate in the side. This proved to be too difficult to make at smaller scale, but I was also able to get a plan for their prototype of a piston-valve version, which will be a lot easier to build. So, that is the version I will make - Stanley made MANY versions of their engines, constantly were tinkering and improving the design.

Here is what the engine looks like:


The model will be 1/4 scale of the original, which makes it just small enough to be able to turn the cylinders on the Sherline lathe/mill that I have. The steam/exhaust passages on the original were cast into the block, with a inserted sleeve on the valves to provide accurate machined ports. For the model, I worked out a way to keep the original look but provide for a cover plate on one side to allow me to machine the internal passages:

The cylinder block will be cut from a length of 1144 stressproof steel bar stock, I was able to get a length of 2-3/4" diameter bar at Online Metals' Black Friday sale, enough for this build and the next couple (assuming I don't mess up too badly). You can see this bar in the background in this shot where the shope elves and I were studying the plans:

You can also see on the left side the 3D printed version of the block, at model size, that I had printed to use as a reference. With so many shapes, I wanted it to help keep me from putting something on the wrong side of the part during all the machining steps to come.


To hold the block for machining/boring, I designed up a holding fixture that will bolt onto the heavy steel faceplate that I got this winter (they are made for bowl turning on wood lathes, but are available in the same spindle thread as the Sherline uses, and are much sturdier than the stock Sherline aluminum faceplates). The fixture will have four threaded alignment posts that will fit into the mounting lugs on the base of the cylinder block, and will allow boring/shaping one side of the block at a time.



The recess in the center will give room for the boring bar to come through the cylinder without bottoming out.
It is symetrical to the block, so turning the part around on the fixture will align it for the second cylinder.


With the riser blocks in place on the lathe, the part will just clear the lathe bed. It can also be moved over to the rotary table on the mill for other shaping/drilling operations. Should be a good way to do most of the work on it.

So, first steps? I need to make the tooling plate, get the 1144 bar cut to length and roughed out to a rectangular block on the bandsaw, and also make a change to the thread cutting attachment on the lathe. I bought the thread cutting accessory for my Sherline many years ago, but rarely use it since it requires removing the motor, which is a pain in the swarf to do every time. More recently I found a user tip on the Sherline website that shows how to reverse the gear plates so they stick out the front of the machine, and make an extension for the handwheel to clear the motor. I am taking that one step further and making a slightly smaller handwheel. Using it with the riser blocks on the lathe requires using the gear to make a metric thread, but that is no problem (the cylinder endcaps thread in place, not bolt down).


So, on to making chips fly!

Offline fumopuc

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2019, 05:50:35 PM »
Hi Chris, good to see you and the elves attacking a new challenge.
Kind Regards
Achim

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2019, 05:50:39 PM »
 :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :Love:

Pete
Craftsman, Tinkerer, Curious Person.
Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline cnr6400

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2019, 06:10:23 PM »
Looking forward to this one!  :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Bucket Bob seems to be looking for a firing pin on the double barrel "elf launcher" drawing!  :Lol:

One idea re the fixture plate - a couple of holes for attaching various counterweights opposite the cylinder for balance might be a good feature. I say various as the c-weight may need to be reduced as machining ops take weight off the cylinder. I have used a stack of several plates drilled together for this type of counterweight , with plates removed from the stack as work progresses. (prevents minor earthquakes in the shop from imbalance)  :o
"I've cut that stock three times, and it's still too short!"

Offline Johnmcc69

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2019, 06:18:30 PM »
 :ThumbsUp:
Very cool Chris!

 Signing up for the ride!
 :popcorn:

 John

Online Kim

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2019, 06:23:41 PM »
I'm in for the ride!  Let's go, Chris!  :popcorn: :popcorn:
Kim

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2019, 06:58:51 PM »
Looking forward to this one!  :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Bucket Bob seems to be looking for a firing pin on the double barrel "elf launcher" drawing!  :Lol:

One idea re the fixture plate - a couple of holes for attaching various counterweights opposite the cylinder for balance might be a good feature. I say various as the c-weight may need to be reduced as machining ops take weight off the cylinder. I have used a stack of several plates drilled together for this type of counterweight , with plates removed from the stack as work progresses. (prevents minor earthquakes in the shop from imbalance)  :o
Good idea!


I could drill/tap a few holes, and bolt on scrap bits of brass as needed. The plate itself could have been shorter, but I ran it all the way across to balance itself at least. I'll add those holes when I drill the plate. :cheers:
Edit:  Holes here should do the job...


 
« Last Edit: December 31, 2019, 07:19:02 PM by crueby »

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2019, 06:59:59 PM »
Hi Chris, good to see you and the elves attacking a new challenge.
Yeah, this shape block will be interesting, especially the angled lugs on the ends, which they used for angled stays up to the frame.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2019, 07:01:17 PM »
I'm in for the ride!  Let's go, Chris!  :popcorn: :popcorn:
Kim

:ThumbsUp:
Very cool Chris!

 Signing up for the ride!
 :popcorn:

 John
Got your tickets? Okay, arms and legs outside the car at all times!    Chugga  chugga ....
 :Lol:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2019, 07:09:05 PM »
First chips made on the build! Sawed a chunk of the 1144 to length (plus a little), then squared it up on the bandsaw:

A bandsaw is hardly a precision cutter, so I left extra stock for trueing it up. Turned out to have only about a .030 variation end to end on the worst side, not bad for stacking tolerances as each side was cut. Still, enough that I will pick the two sides most parallel to each other to hold in the vise first as the trueing cuts begin, for the best holding power.

Here are the bits so far, the fixture plate rough cut to length, and the cylinder block 'casting' rough cut, with the 3D printed reference part on top. This is a REALLY rough casting, bet Jo's supplier is better than mine! Sirus would send this one back!  :Lol:

And of course it had to undergo an Elfspection...


Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #10 on: December 31, 2019, 08:47:26 PM »
 :pinkelephant:

It begins.

And despite the recent parties...I have  :popcorn:
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #11 on: December 31, 2019, 09:22:25 PM »
:pinkelephant:

It begins.

And despite the recent parties...I have  :popcorn:
Well pass the popcorn, I want to watch the elves work too!   ....  um, wait, err, THEY want to watch ME work, yeah, thats it!   :Lol:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #12 on: December 31, 2019, 09:30:09 PM »
As mentioned above, I needed to make a smaller handwheel for the threading attachment, so I can leave the motor in place on the lathe. Having to remove/install the motor on every thread would be a royal pain, when this way all I need to do is swing the gears out of the way and remove the handwheel. I used a small handwheel casting that I had picked up years ago as a flywheel blank (used one on my Monitor build). Bored the center to fit the spindle, drilled/tapped some holes, and added a handle.

Did some experimenting with different thread pitches. Since only the metric set of gears are tall enough to reach the spindle with the riser block in place (which it will be for the cylinders), I started with a 0.8mm pitch set:

A little too fine a thread, so I tried a 0.9mm pitch


That looks a little more like it, think I'll go with that. The smaller handwheel works out fine, its only slightly smaller than the factory one, just needed to be 1/2" smaller to clear the motor and leave finger room. So, that gives me the ability to cut threads in the ends of the cylinder openings for the end caps, which will be just over 1" diameter. Cutting the steel will be tougher than the brass test piece, but that just means shallower passes.

Next time will start in on squaring up the cylinder blank on the mill....

Offline Don1966

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #13 on: December 31, 2019, 09:39:50 PM »
I say one thing about you Dog an’t no grass growing under you feet. Damn son you don’t even take a breather! Interested to see this one evolve Chris but hey your the man for the job and lets not forget the elves.....



  :drinking-41:
Don

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Chris's Build of a Stanley 735 Engine
« Reply #14 on: January 01, 2020, 03:33:29 AM »
Hot diggity  :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

 

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