Chris's Mann Wagon Build

[crueby]

That's a hefty job for the Sherline, but it's getting through it! For the ringing, try wrapping the pipe with a few layers of masking tape to damp the vibes. You could also try solder wrapped around it but you may not have room between ring and lathe bed for a piece of cigarette paper- let alone solder......

Ring turning should not be like a Peter Appleyard vibraphone concert at dial setting 11.

I'll give that a try - thanks! There is about 1/4" of room around the wheel rim. I've also got some thin closed cell foam for the boats, may try a layer of that. It sounds like those water-glass instruments now!

[crueby]

CNR, tried some masking tape, that helped some, then wrapped on a couple of layers of vinyl tape which is thicker and softer, that helped a lot. I still use ear muffs, but I always do (too many years without have damaged hearing enough). This job makes the big leather apron and face shield a must too, throwing hot chips several feet. So far so good on the first rim...

[cnr6400]

 

[crueby]

And two rear wheel rims taken down to size....

Next will start in on the hub/spoke sections.

[Craig DeShong]

Chris

I’m learning a lot following this thread; and I’ll put it to use shortly.  On my current project I need to turn a 13 inch flywheel and I have a 12 inch lathe.  Ain’t gonna happen unless I take the gap insert out, but even we’re I to do that, at 70 RPM As it’s slowest speed, I’m not sure even carbide tooling would cut cast iron on a 13 inch diameter at that speed.

I was thinking this would be a turntable project, and you certainly have given me some ideas on how to address that.

[crueby]

Chris

I’m learning a lot following this thread; and I’ll put it to use shortly.  On my current project I need to turn a 13 inch flywheel and I have a 12 inch lathe.  Ain’t gonna happen unless I take the gap insert out, but even we’re I to do that, at 70 RPM As it’s slowest speed, I’m not sure even carbide tooling would cut cast iron on a 13 inch diameter at that speed.

I was thinking this would be a turntable project, and you certainly have given me some ideas on how to address that.

This rim is A36 steel, not cast iron, not sure how that would be different. I found that cranking up the speed a bit helped me, since at low speeds the Sherline just does not have enough oomph and would bog down - faster it cut better. Also needed to swap to a new cutter tip on the inserts. Lots and lots of light cuts still. The surface of the pipe had some hard crusty spots, fortunately not much. These wheels are 1-1/4" wide, so it would have taken a long end mill to do the work on the rotary table on the mill. This way worked out for me, there was a little chatter but not bad, and it sands out. When I was turning the flywheel for the MEM Corliss I built, the flywheel was too big to turn over the ways, and I had to rotate the headstock 90 degrees and let the flywheel hang off the back of the lathe.

[crueby]

Moving on to the spoke center plates (which will get formed outer plates on each side, overhanging the spokes, just like the front wheels) started out by boring a center hole, mounting the blanks on an arbor, and turning them till they were a slide fit into the rims:

Then turned the outer 1/4" down to the final width of .200", taking an even amount off both sides, and set up the compound rest to turn the tapered section. Here is a start at the turning...

and the first side of the first plate done - the second plate is sitting in the foreground, to give a better look at the narrowed section at the rim:

There is a section at the center that is still full thickness - that will stay, part will be bored out farther for the hub, part will be the flat for the outer plates to bolted to. Here is an edge view of the taper on the first side:

[cnr6400]

 

Did the discs ring much during turning Chris, like the rims were? Just curious.   

[crueby]

Did the discs ring much during turning Chris, like the rims were? Just curious.   

Very little, but the discs are aluminum rather than steel. No ringing, just having to stop and add oil to the cutter to keep the aluminum from galling to the tip and building up while narrowing the rims. The hss cutter in the compound slide for tapering is not doing that like the insert did. Still having to stop every pass to clear the long curls. All reasons I love turning brass so much! Nice clean small chips.


 

[crueby]

Got both sides of both spoke plates tapered to size:

And, as a bonus, I now have for sale one Steampunk Wig Kit, Silver, Anodizing Extra!   

[crueby]

For the outer diskcs on the spokes, I modified the same wood forms used for the front wheels, making a larger diameter center punch and enlarging the depression in the lower form. After punching the blank down in the form to make the domed shape, I put the form back on the mill to cut the center hub hole:

One of four disks (the dome shape does not show up great in these photos, but it is there)

Given the larger diameters, and the thinness of the plates, I am thinking for the rear wheels that I may bolt the plates to the inner spoke discs to mill the spoke openings, then remove the plates to take the inner spoke openings out to their full size.

[cnr6400]

If you cap that garbage pail, add some inlet / outlet pipes, you have the makins' of a slick sounding "glass pack" style muffler for the car! You are right though, heck of a wig too. 

[crueby]

A bunch more done on the rear wheel spoke plates yesterday and today. Started out at the center to drill all the holes to hold the three plates together, using an arbor through the center hole with a pair of smaller screws through the arbor to keep the plates from slipping since the angles are so important.

I am following the bolt pattern in the pictures in the copy of the Mann catalog that I have - there are eight bolts around the hub, then six more, one at the base of each spoke. Out at the rim, there are 30 bolts. To support the bottom plate when drilling the holes at the rim, I clamped an arc of plywood on, otherwise the drill bit would want to push the bottom plate away from the aluminum core plate.

Spent some time running in nuts/bolts through all the holes to keep everything in position. These will all have to come out again after the spokes are cut, so that the spokes can be thinned down more in the center plate to form the reveal under the outer plates. I sketched on the spokes on both sets, to reduce the chance of a major boo-boo when drilling/milling the spokes. These lines are just to keep the positions obvious, they are not measured or at all accurate - all the drilling/milling will be done with angle offsets from the zero position on the rotary table. Both sets have the top/zero position marked so they can go on/off the arbor consistantly.

First step on the mill was to chain drill inside the rim all the way around, in the end it makes the whole process a lot faster than just drilling the corners and using the mill to do all the work on the arcs. So, worked out the pattern and spot drilled all the locations,

and came back and drilled them all. The corner positions are 3/8" diameter, the ones in between the next size down - I like doing it that way so if one of the in-between holes skates slightly, it wont matter. Here again, I clamped a wood block underneath to keep the thin plates from being pushed out by the drill.

Then came back with a small end mill, and took the OD of the outer plates down to match the center plates, and also milled the arcs inside the rim.

Here is where I am now, just starting to drill the holes at the base of the spokes. Again, a 3/8" drill in each of six positions, with a block underneath.

After drilling these holes, I will chain drill along the sides of each spoke then mill them smooth.

[cnr6400]

 

[Kim]

That's a lot of millin' and drillin' there Chris!   
Kim