Bond's "Simplex" Petrol Engine

[pgp001]

Hi all

I posted a photo in another section showing my Bond's Simplex engine which is almost finished.

I thought I would share a few photo's taken during the actual machining operations.

This is an original period 1930's advert showing the water cooled version of this engine. It would have been used in a tethered hydroplane.



And a complete period air cooled engine.



Here are the castings as purchased in an assorted box of junk on ebay.





Someone had previously bored out the crankcases and mated them together, but that was it.

So I put a wanted ad on another forum which produced an original 1933 dated drawing for the engine, another ad found me a pair of the special skew timing gears........talk about lucky 

So I was armed with enough parts and information to make a start.

More to follow.

Phil

[ScroungerLee]

Nice finds on the drawings and gears, sometimes things just work out like that.

Looking forward to watching your progress.

Lee

[pgp001]

OK

Here is a selection of crankcase machining operations.

Set up on a rigid post mounted on my own design of low height indexing table, it allowed a few faces and holes to be done with minimal re-setting.













And using a boring and facing head to machine the register in the top face for the cylinder.



Phil

[ths]

A really great resurrection project, at least three sources contributing, and I look forward to following progress. That catalogue looks as if it should be mandatory reading for all members!

Hugh.

[NickG]

Phil,

Thanks for showing this - it looks a really nice, well proportioned engine and great find on the castings / gears! Bet you couldn't believe your luck!

Nick

[pgp001]

Here are a few of the crankshaft, it is machined from solid and then ground on the journals.































And yes you are correct in saying I should have a wheel guard in place, I did this job standing well off to one side with my fingers crossed, but have since made a proper guard for it.

Phil

[tvoght]

Something about engines of this size and vintage just captures my imagination. Thanks for showing this rare bird. The journal grinding shots are very educational. I probably won't be the last to ask for a little more information. Is the grinder shop-made?

--Tim

[ths]

What is that interesting looking grey machine in the background of the last photo?

Hugh.

[pgp001]

In answer to both the above questions.

Yes I made the grinder myself, it is really the head from my tool and cutter grinder but I thought I may as well make it dual purpose while I was designing it, so the taper plug fitting goes straight onto the Myford and is dead on centre height.

Here it is mounted on the "Union" cutter grinder.





The grey machine in the background is a Mikron 112 gear hobbing machine, it weighs around half a ton but is only 2' x 3' in size.
I can cut gears up to 5" diameter on it which makes it very useful for model engineering and repairing clocks and musical boxes etc.

This is what it looks like from the front. I have it mounted on some ball races as wheels so I can just pull it out of the gap when I need to use it.



And here it is cutting some gears for Mike Sayers to use in his model Bentley supercharger.



The finished gears.



Phil

[ScroungerLee]

Nice tools, is it OK to be jealous?

Lee

[black85vette]

Nice tools, is it OK to be jealous?

Lee

I was thinking the same thing!    Go ahead and be jealous and I will join you.

Cool find and awesome that you found what you needed.   Looks like it will be a fun build to follow.

Like the idea of the grinder.   I have a spare motor and may need to try and make one.

I had not seen so many uses for the zip tie in machining.   I only used them for making my cable runs neat.

[zeeprogrammer]

Some interesting learnings in this thread.
And those gears look awesome!
Nice looking well equipped shop too.

[NickG]

Fantastic work, and tools!  What finish did you use on the gears?

Nick

[pgp001]

Hi

The finish on the supercharger gears is glass bead blasting. I work as a design engineer for a company that manufactures the equipment.

Here is a puzzler for you, this item being made on the shaping machine is directly related to the build of my Simplex engine, but can you tell what it is going to be used for ??









 

[NickG]

Some sort of fixture to bolt the crank case or head to to machine a certain feature?!