Author Topic: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss  (Read 13308 times)

Offline awake

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #30 on: April 17, 2020, 08:58:22 PM »
Dontcha love it when you have a simple part to make ... just as soon as you make 10 other parts on which it depends!

You may have said this, and I missed it - what's the material for the rod?
Andy

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #31 on: April 18, 2020, 10:16:24 PM »
Andy, thanks for the interest in responding.  The connecting rod is made of A36 hot roll.  I might have preferred cold rolled steel, but this bar was in my inventory so I used it.

Thanks also to those of you stopping by to visit and see the latest.

Today started the crankshaft.  I’m making this in one piece; I already purchased a piece of hot rolled steel from which to make it.  I’m using hot rolled steel because I’ve found it makes a respectable crankshaft and is stress relieved so it won’t warp as I work it.

It seems to me, every time I make one of these, I use a slightly different procedure.  I decided to mill most of the crankshaft throw away because doing it on the lathe would have been too tedious.

To mill away the throw material I’ll mount it on the mill table between my dividing head which has a 3-jaw chuck and its matching tailstock; therefore the first order of business is to turn an arbor on the end of the material so I can hold it in the 3-jaw chuck on the dividing head.  I’m not going for a specific diameter here; I’m just trying to get something round.  The arbor will be cut in an extra length of the stock and will be cut away later.
 


Below is the setup on the mill just prior to beginning the removal of the throw material.  I know, the setup looks catie-whumpus; It must be the camera angle; I assure you it was parallel to the mill table.



Below I’ve gone about as far as I dare on the mill.  I’ve left an oversized diameter of around .080 inches on the connecting rod journal that I’ll clean-up on the lathe. 




Here the piece is mounted on the lathe and I’ve just completed the connecting rod journal.  It sure is nice to have previously made the connecting rod and its bearing.  A trial fit and a little polishing while on the lathe assured a good fit.




Now I’ve cut away the arbor I was using to turn the connecting rod throw and I’m re-establishing a cylindrical end on one end of the crankshaft.  I’m a little suspicious of the centering of the piece up by the lathe chuck; therefore I’ve centered it as best I can; adjusting until the tailstock center fits into the centering hole on the work piece without noticeable wobble.  Notice that I've hot-glued a spacer in the connecting rod throw area to keep from collapsing it during the remaining turning operations.

Here I’ve just finished turning a cylinder to the tailstock end.  Again, I’m not going for a specific diameter, just trying to get a round cylinder that will fit the 3-jaw chuck on my lathe.




Now it’s time to remove a whole bunch of material.  Chris calls this “chain drilling”; I wasn’t aware it had a name.  Up till now I’ve been calling it “un-inclined to have a proper band saw”.  I used my old mill drill for this work.



Now, with the 3-jaw chuck on the lathe, the piece turned around so that the cylinder I just turned in in the lathe chuck and a centering hole is in the live center tailstock; I can begin working down the two side shafts.  The day is waning however, so I’ll get to that tomorrow.

« Last Edit: April 18, 2020, 11:12:17 PM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #32 on: April 18, 2020, 10:52:49 PM »
Nice work, Craig. Like you, every time I make a crankshaft I seem to go about it a bit differently. I`m following your thread, and as always I`m impressed.---Brian

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #33 on: April 19, 2020, 09:13:18 PM »
Thanks for the reply Brian; if we made our crankshafts the same every time, wouldn’t it be tedious? :Lol:

Thanks also for those of you who stop by to see the erratic steady progress.

So after MANY passes, I had turned down one of the shafts to “near” the correct size.  I might have said this before, but I usually get both shafts “close” to correct diameter, then finish them both together.  I’m thinking this might minimize any warping out of true (shouldn’t be any with the steel I’m using) to a minimum. 




Now I’ve turned the piece around in the lathe and am about to repeat the above process on the other side.



Then I made those finishing passes I talked about higher in this post.




And after some filing to cut away the burrs and tool marks; VOILA! We have a crankshaft.



Actually, I still need to cut in the keyways but I’m going to hold off on that till I have made the journal bearings, and maybe even have the flywheels fitted.  Both shafts are turned to exactly 5/8th inch, but I’ve had things be too tight with some of my fittings in the past.  It will be easier to remove a little diameter on these shafts if the keyways aren’t cut in.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2020, 09:17:26 PM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #34 on: April 21, 2020, 10:07:57 PM »
Thanks for stopping by.

The last few days were occupied with making the main journal caps, main bearings; and then fitting everything to the frame.  After making the main bearings I staked them to the frame with a pin; with the frame being aluminum, I don’t want the bearings catching on the steel crankshaft and then rotating in the aluminum frame.

Andy- I guess I owe you an apology.  A while back you stated that with your projects, occasionally blood was involved.  I stated that rarely happened with me but… after cutting the keyways on the crankshaft and before I had filed the edges over, I managed to zip my thumb down the slot and YOW! I sliced my thumb open like a banana.
   
Any hoo, after the application of a Band-Aid or two I re-assembled all the work I did over the past few days.  Below is the result:

Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Online crueby

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #35 on: April 21, 2020, 10:12:10 PM »
Looking great!   And blood is not supposed to be a substitute for red Loctite!

 :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #36 on: April 21, 2020, 11:45:59 PM »
Looking great!   And blood is not supposed to be a substitute for red Loctite!

 :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

DAMN!  No wonder that joint wouldn’t set  :rant:
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #37 on: April 23, 2020, 06:58:50 PM »
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.  Thanks also for those of you that check in occasionally without comment.

After the blood-letting (see above) it was time to address installing the side-shaft.  This involved making the rear side-shaft bearing block and a few brass bearings.  I was toying with making the bearing block out of aluminum but, once again, I choose steel.  I don’t want the brass bearing to catch on the side-shaft and start rotating in an aluminum bearing block, so I choose steel.  This made the fabrication of the bearing block a bit more tedious but such is life as they say.
I also needed to cut a relief in the frame so that the side-shaft helical gear would fit.  I decided to use a woodruff key cutter I happened to have.  This worked great in the aluminum frame.  I’m not sure things would have been as pleasant if the frame were steel or cast iron. 

I had already made the helical gears and they just required installation (see beginning of this build).

Fitting the side shaft and verifying that everything lines up and everything turns smoothly was one of the pivotal moments of this build.  You expect everything to work out.. but I’ve been surprised before.

I give you the below video, showing the side-shaft installation.  Everything spins around just like it ought to.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n5oKBWEcfk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n5oKBWEcfk</a>
« Last Edit: April 23, 2020, 08:20:03 PM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline awake

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #38 on: April 23, 2020, 09:14:47 PM »
Nice and smooth! Great work.

I am sorry that I missed a couple of days - days that were apparently filled with blood, sweat, and tears, or at least some portion of those three! My understanding is that the machining gods like the taste of a blood sacrifice, so it may actually necessary to add some to every project in order for it to work ...
Andy

Offline kvom

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #39 on: April 23, 2020, 11:55:35 PM »
I've used a Woodruff cutter on steel;  lots of passes and small depth worked for me.  The Witte is coming along nicely.

Offline Johnmcc69

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #40 on: April 24, 2020, 03:22:33 AM »
 :ThumbsUp: :popcorn:
 
 John

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #41 on: April 27, 2020, 09:59:03 PM »
Andy: I’m going to try to deny the “machining gods” any more of my blood for a while. ::)
Kirk: thanks for the insight with woodruff key cutters on steel.
Thanks to y’all for the comments.  Thanks for those that just stop by to see the latest.

I’ve been busy over the last few days, but have resisted the urge to incessantly post.  Now that I have the crankshaft and side shaft in, it was time to get back to finishing the work around the head of this engine.

I started with the exhaust cam and lever you see below.  I’ve even placed a little roller on the lever to ride against the exhaust cam.  Probably superfluous at this size but the full size has it and this is a scale model. :ThumbsUp:



Next is the rocker arm that rides the governor and actuates the fuel admit/shut-off valve.  This is a funky little thing with a disk and spring on the one end of the rocker.  It’s supposed to ride up on the governor spool as it’s driven forward by the governor weights.


You can teach an “old dog” new tricks. :agree:  This is the exhaust valve and I’ve left an arbor on the top to facilitate lapping the valve to the seat.  Once the valve has been seated, the arbor is cut off.  George Britnell advocates this procedure and if it’s good enough for George I’m certainly going to give it a try.



Finally the “family shot” of everything all mock assembled so you can see where I’m going.

« Last Edit: April 28, 2020, 03:00:34 AM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #42 on: May 02, 2020, 09:14:25 PM »
Thanks for stopping by to see the latest.

I’ve been working steadily on the model.  The task has been making governor parts and the parts are pretty small and intricate.  When you need to turn down the heads of 2-56 socket head cap screws to get the clearance you need, for me at least, things are small. 

Below is a photo of the governor parts so far.  Center bottom is a disk that supports the governor weights.  The pins on which the weights rotate are on either side of the disk.  To left and right are the governor weights and below each weight is a angle bracket and pin.  The 2-56 SHCS are near.



Here I give you a partial assembly of the governor disk, weights, and pins.



Missing a few springs yet, but here is most everything assembled on the side shaft.  This is the governor in the “at rest” position.  The weights are pulled back and a “spool” that rides the sideshaft has been driven forward.  This has caused the disk on the fuel emitting lever to ride up on the spool and the lever action on the far side (I  don’t show) opens the fuel valve.   



In this photo I’ve pulled the governor weights apart.  This has resulted in drawing the spool back and the disk on the fuel emitting lever has ridden off the large end of the spool, causing the lever action to close the fuel valve.



This might not make a lot of sense now but hopefully in the future, when I get the engine running, I can explain this better.  I still have a few governor parts to make yet and I'll be addressing them next.
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Johnmcc69

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #43 on: May 02, 2020, 10:53:04 PM »
 :ThumbsUp:
 I'll bet that took some head scratching to figure out.
 Nice work on those fussy little bits!
 :popcorn:
 John

Offline Art K

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #44 on: May 03, 2020, 04:02:27 AM »
Craig,
I caught the beginning then life got busy now I've caught up. Very impressive work! I had to look at my photos from Rough & Tumble but no I didn't have a photo of that.
Art
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