Model Engine Maker
Engines => From Plans => Topic started by: gbritnell on February 08, 2019, 04:56:33 PM
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While deciding how to approach the build of the Galion road grader I needed something to keep myself busy so I went through all the stored drawings and settled on the engine that our good friend Chuck Fellows designed.
Always wanting to do something a little different I scaled the drawings by .70. This allowed for the smallest screws to be threaded M1.2 x .25, for which I have taps and a die.
I had some brass available but had to order more for the decorative standards. Other than the scale factor I'm building it per the plans.
Here's where I am so far.
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There's that huge penny again! Where do you find those??? :lolb:
:popcorn: :popcorn:
Pete
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Lots of progress on a lot of parts! Thats going to be a beauty!
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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The parts look absolutely stunning :praise2:
.... but I'm certainly glad I'm not the one tapping M1.2 :o .... yes I know you have done this before, but these small sizes would make me extremely nervous ....
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George any project you build is stunning to say the least and looking forward to more updates..... :ThumbsUp:
:cheers:
Don
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Looks great George...I'm sure Chuck approves!
Dave
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Very nice looking assortment of parts George.
Like all your projects, it is bound to be a showpiece.
Dave
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Hello George,
This is going to be a classic, a design by Chuck and built by George. It is a pure pleasure to be able to follow this thread. :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
Have a great day,
Thomas
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I am looking forward to it as well George, I just love your affinity for small scale engines :ThumbsUp:
Bill
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There's that huge penny again! Where do you find those??? :lolb:
:popcorn: :popcorn:
Pete
I'm with you Pete, George has a penny the size of a dinner plate and he's just fooling us all. :lolb:
Really George, your work continues to amaze me !
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George,
Looks like you already have a good start. I will be following along.
Art
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Ooh! those parts look really nice George - like Don 1066's 'brass masterpieces' that's going to be another smaller but gem like engine for us to take delight in :praise2:
Looking forwards to seeing this develop :ThumbsUp:
Regards - Tug
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outstanding as always !
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:ThumbsUp: :popcorn:
Looking forward to this being built George, really nice work! Chuck will be proud.
John
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For those of you that didn't follow Chuck's build this engine is an oscillator that has the cylinder pivoting on a central shaft. The valve mechanism is in an adjacent bore. When the cylinder rocks back and forth this would cause the valve mechanism to rotate in a circular path equal to the radius from the center of the pivot shaft. To compensate the valve shaft is tied to the base of the engine with a linkage which allows it move with the oscillations but stay in a fixed position, rotation wise. The valve body on the bottom of the cylinder has the porting which is naturally moving as the cylinder oscillates but being as the valve is stationary this allows the porting to allow steam/air to go from one end of the cylinder to the other (double acting).
Yesterday I machined both of the valve shafts, the pivoting shaft that the cylinder rotates on and the actual valve shaft.
The pivoting shaft wasn't a big deal, turning, threading and drilling some porting but the valve shaft has slotting to create the port paths. The full sized drawing calls out the porting channels as .062 wide x .075 deep which multiplied by .70 equals .043 x .053 deep. I turned the shaft leaving it on the end of the rod then mounted it in my dividing head. I center drilled (#0) then drilled each corner position with a #57 drill (.043) then mounted a .032 end mill into the spindle. My mill will only spin 2500 rpm so the feed rate was very slow and precise. I cut the initial path at .04 depth then went to .053 and made a second pass. That being finished I offset all the positions by .0055 and made another pass to get the .043 width.
No end mills were harmed in the production of this part!
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Excellent progress (as usual) !
:popcornsmall:
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This morning I got the upper head, piston, piston shaft and packing gland completed. Piston and shaft from 303 stainless. One end pressed into piston the rod end screwed in place with 6-40 threads.
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I finished up the valve links and made a couple of 0-80 hex bolts to mount them. Most of the bolts will be hexed or acorn style.
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beatifully done so far - if I hadn't been reading from the start, I would think those parts are much larger!
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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Excellent work George but I have to ask are you soft sokdering or silver soldering?
:cheers:
Don
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Hi Don,
Just 50/50 soft solder. There's really no high pressure involved so soft solder is fine, and it's much easier to clean up.
gbritnell
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Making rapid progress George, and as inspiring as always.
Bill
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Very nice George, following along. :popcorn:
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This morning's work was to make the air line and fittings that go from the bottom head/valve block to the upper cylinder. The bolt for this scaled to .051 diameter so I made them M1.2 x .25. The hex is 1/16th.(.062)
The tube was first soldered to the base fitting then it was installed on the cylinder. A minute piece of solder was layed on the joint between the upper fitting and tube and sweated in place.
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Hello George,
Your work is absolutely beautiful as usual.
Have a great day,
Thomas
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Yesterday I started on the crankshaft. It's made from 1144 steel. We know that 1144 doesn't come in flat stock so I milled a piece of 1.00 diameter bar to .875 x .350. I set the bar on end and center drilled the ends. I then mounted the piece in a 4 jaw chuck and rough turned on end of the main shaft leaving .015 stock for finishing. I then extended the piece out far enough to cut the throw journal. Using an indicator I offset the stock to get the proper stroke. Using a bifurcated tool that I use strictly for crankshafts I cut the throw. I then band sawed the extra material from the uncut end. I milled the blank to get it to .35. This makes cutting the diameter a little smoother going across the corners.
The crank was then mounted between centers using a home-made dog to drive the part. Both ends of the shaft were turned to size and polished. The drawing calls for a complete radius on the ends of the crank webs so I made a step-off chart and milled them with a ball mill.
The steps were filed and polished.
Sorry there's no work in progress pictures but the part is so small it's hard to get effective pictures while working.
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Nice looking crank, there! Great finish for a such a little part.
Pic of bifurcated tool please? I'm pretty sure what it is but....
There's that huge penny again!
Pete
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Wonderful finish. Did you do something to the side of the web to give it that greyer matte look?
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Fantastic work George! :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
It's always a joy to see your work! :popcorn:
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George,
That crank looks great. You're making great progress.
Art
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The master at work......beautiful George!
Dave
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Beautiful George!!!
Bill
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Beautiful (tiny) crankshaft George.
Very nice!
Dave
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Hi Pete,
Here's a picture of the bifurcated tool that I use for crankshafts. It started out as a 1/2 high speed lathe tool bit. (a lot of grinding) I have used cutoff blades but they don't seem to have the rigidity when cutting out that far. You have to make sure the end is square to the sides. I ground the bit the way I wanted it then using a Dremel and a cut-off type disc I notched the end. I then broke the corners. The inside corners don't need to have a perfect radius, just the outside ones. These get honed with a diamond honing stick. You want to make sure that you leave a little bit of flat on the end.
When setting up to use it it's best to run an indicator across the tip to make sure that it's parallel to the lathe axis. This will insure that the overlapping cut is smooth.
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Hi Chris,
The finish is just from fine emery cloth. I lay a piece on a large flat file and sand the sides and around the radiused ends.
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Hi Chris,
The finish is just from fine emery cloth. I lay a piece on a large flat file and sand the sides and around the radiused ends.
Looks great, have to try that on mine...
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I'm working on the decorative lattice work that goes between the 2 angled uprights.
I'm using a piece of 1/4 x 4.00" 360 brass. The piece is only .093 thick but trying to work with anything thinner to start with poses it's own problems.
I cleaned up the two rolled ends so the plate would sit square in the vise. I then took a clean-up cut on both sides. From my drawing I center drilled all the center locations and drilled out the corners of the mating arcs (.093 dia.)
The rotary table was set up and the center indicated. The plate was mounted with a piece of paper between it and the table surface. This gives a little more friction to insure that the part doesn't move when cutting.
My rotary table is 8.00" and years ago I had a job that was 7.00" diameter so I made some long T-nuts to clamp the job. I put a spacer between the clamp and the T-nut and tighten the bolt. It kind of acts like a clamp.
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I turned up a piece of round stock with a 60 degree tip on it. I put this in my tool holder and with the rotary table on center I move the plate and run the spindle down to locate the center drilled hole. The part is then clamped tight. For the ends of the lattice work there needs to be square cuts so the finished edge on the plate was indicated and the rotary table set to -0-.
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Here are some progress shots cutting the arcs.
I'm going down .083 on the outside shapes and .096 on the inside. When this side is finished the plate will be put in the vise and milled down until the part ends up .093 thick. The centers will break out but there will be a .010 connecting flange all around the outside. I will then cut the part free from the plate and file the thin flange left from the machining.
The last picture shows one side profiled. One more to go. It might be a tiny engine but the work is still the same or in some cases more complicated because of fixturing.
gbritnell
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Clever use of the long t nuts to extend the clamps - on my Sherline table the 4-jaw chuck extends so far to the edge that the hold-down clamps are off the rim, have to make up some like that to cure the problem!
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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Thank you for showing the bifurcated tool, George. It's close to what I had imagined but nicer. I can see how it would make it much easier to reach in and still get a good finish.
Pete
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I have a stick of raw T nuts for the Sherline I made but never diced.....and they never will be :lolb:
Always amazing George.....
Dave
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That's some really nice R/T work George - love that idea of the extended T nuts too :ThumbsUp:
'keep 'er coming', great to see :)
Tug
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I cut all the profile shapes then took the rotary table off and cleaned up the mill. Put the vise back on and indicated it square. I gave myself guide lines on the back of the brass plate with a fine sharpie marker then clamped it in the vase. I went down the required depth to make the part .093 thick.
I cut the center section first so the deeper center areas would fall out the went around the outside cutting to the marker lines. I then took the part to the bandsaw and cut the shapes free from the stock.
The first picture shows the parts cut free. The second shows the part trimmed with diagonal cutters, removing the .010 fin. The last picture shows the part with the radii filed on all the edges and polished with brass polish. Buffing would make it really smooth but working with small parts like that it's too easy to have the buffer cut into the metal giving an irregular edge to everything.
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In WR Smiths books, he uses cork blocks and emery to get a polished face, but crisp corners working all the way down to past 1000 grit, and then uses Rubin-brite metal polish and flannel.....
That frame looks just like one of his clock frames.
Coming along great George.... :ThumbsUp: :popcorn:
Dave
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Pretty!!! But where is the giant penny :D
Bill
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Pretty!!! But where is the giant penny :D
Bill
We need some this size:
(https://i.postimg.cc/sgPKjT7b/Penny.jpg)
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Hi Chris,
Nothing that big but here's a pair shot with my large penny.
gbritnell
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First fit-up of all the parts to make the stanchions, base, .062 pin, donut with slot, shaft, .062 pin, donut without slot then the cap. These parts all sandwich the trellis in between.
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That is beautiful!
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That is beautiful!
Isn't it though?
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And coming together fast too!! :o
Bill
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Ahhhh don’t you just love working with brass? Lovely work George and hey bud we need to put a shine on this baby now....... :lolb:
:popcorn:
Don
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Hello George,
OK,....wow, wow, wow, I will keep looking for some better words to express how beautiful your work is on this project. :praise2:
I just cannot imagine the satisfaction you must get some times when you step into your shop.
Have a great day,
Thomas
PS, speaking of your shop it most likely is getting too full of engines, and lucky for you I have plenty of extra space in mine. I'm thinking that your Six Cylinder would give you extra room and it would fit nicely in my shop :lolb:
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That really is beautiful George. Sorry I can't come up with a different word, but it just is...
Kim
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Learning some great technique for working with thin stock. Thanks George, your work is awe inspiring.
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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Yesterday was the big day, soldering all the bits and pieces together and hoping that everything would stay in line. The crankshaft fits the bearings very well so my thought was to mount the crank and this would keep everything in line. All the joints were fluxed and I cut up a large pile of solder bits to lay on the joints once the temperature was brought up. I found that if you put the pieces of solder in place before you start heating when the flux starts to bubble the solder either falls off or goes where you don't want it. I lightly clamped between the crank and base just to keep everything closed up, a lot of joints.
Everything went well but as I expected when it came time to do the feet on the pedestals the base started to draw the heat from the torch away. I was concerned that when it got to flowing temperature the flux would be burned up. Luckily that went well also.
This morning I spent several hours with scrapers, fine stainless steel wire brush and worn out emery cloth cleaning up the joints. For a scraper I have an assortment of exacto blades with different shaped tips ground onto them, different sized fillets, square corners etc.
I also made an addition to the build. Not trusting the strength of the pedestals, lateral at the top, I have made up a couple of decorative rods and fittings. These will get soldered to the upper donuts. These will prevent the pedestals from moving in and out.
The final piece, big piece, is the flywheel. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to proceed with it due to the thin spokes and large diameter.
I'm going to start with a piece of brass plate, cut and sanded somewhat round. This will be mounted in the four jaw chuck and the shaft hole and side profiling will be cut. It will then be flipped over and the center hole indicated then this side will be profiled. From there it will go to the rotary table to have the spokes cut out. My concern is finishing the O.D. I might have to make up a fixture plate to mount it to and then mill the O.D. using the rotary table.
We'll find out in the next couple of days.
gbritnell
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Thanks for putting the mic in the picture George. Glad the soldering went well. It sure looks nice/beautiful/gorgeous/amazing!!! Would love to see your collection of scrapers if possible too.
Bill
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^^^^^^^^^^Wot Bill said! :praise2: :praise2:
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Just down right gorgeous George ..... :praise2: waiting to see your flywheel and how you go about making it. I am always interested in new ways to build them...... :thinking:
:popcorn:
Don
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If you lived near, I'd stop by for some silver soldering lessons. Just remarkable George.
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I expect to see it running at NAMES. :ThumbsUp:
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The first reply is for Bill.
Here's a picture of some of my X-acto blade scrapers. I have them ground to different fillet radii. I grind them with a slight angle then hone them with a diamond stick so one edge does the cutting. The internal ones are ground the same way using small mounted stones. For the external radii I grind clearance at an angle so when I'm scraping the sharp edge doesn't dig in and leave a mark.
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I sure would have liked to use 360 brass for the flywheel but couldn't justify almost $80.00 U.S. with shipping for a piece of .50 x 6.00 x 6.00 especially when 75% of it is going to get cut away. I have a piece of yellow brass (don't know the grade but it's the somewhat gummy type) so I cut a piece from it and knocked off the corners so there wouldn't be quite as bad of an intermittent cut in the lathe. I put the piece in my mill and squared up the four sides so it would sit square in the 4 jaw chuck. I put a center mark in the plate so I could put my wiggler point into it and indicate it somewhat on center. I lightly clamped the plate allowing most of it to protrude from the chuck then indicated the face square. I cut the first side down leaving about .03 stock for any mishaps. I took a light cut on the face then cut the recess (.062 deep) and finished up the center boss. I bored the center hole large knowing that this brass is a pain to work with so I could later make a pressed in insert.
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The disc was the flipped over and the other side was cut.
Now it was back over to the mill. I set up the rotary table and indicated it true. The disc was set up on small parallel blocks, indicated to center and clamped tight. I started by center drilling the corners of the spokes followed by an undersized drill and finished up by running an end mill through the holes. The small corners have a .188 radius and the large inside corners are .25 radius.
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Using a .250 diameter end mill I cut the triangular pieces from between each spoke. I followed up with a .312 end mill then finished with a .375 which blended out the spoke with the corner radius.
With all the spokes cut I set up a home-made 45 degree chamfering mill and cut the corners of the spokes and the larger inner diameter. The original drawings call for a chamfer so this is what I went with.
Once all of those chamfers were complete I mounted my boring head again with a 45 degree cutter and did the large inside corners.
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Beautiful flywheel, very nice proportions. Will the other side get the chamfers too?
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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That's going to be a beautiful fly wheel, George!
Kim
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The flywheel was removed and the rotary table cleaned up. The flywheel was flipped over and rough located with my centering rod then lightly clamped.
The center hole was indicated and the flywheel bumped to perfect center. One side of a spoke was indicated true to the -Y- axis and the rotary table was set to the new -0-. The chamfering was completed on the back side like the front.
I lightly cleaned up the tool marks with fine emery cloth then made the center bushing to fit the crankshaft.
The last 2 pictures show the flywheel mounted on the crankshaft. Now I have to make all the screws and acorn nuts to properly assemble everything. Chuck had made a reversing valve so I'll take a look at it and see how it works out to my .70 scale.
gbritnell
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Beautiful George, and those chamfers really add a lot to the flywheel. Love the set up you used as well.Thanks for the pic of the blades also.
Bill
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Wow, that's a lot of work, but well worth the effort!
Kim
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Hello George,
Outrageous, simply outrageous the beauty and quality of your work :praise2: Thank you for sharing.
Have a great day,
Thomas
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George your still my hero! I was thinking you might make the flywheel from pieces but you chose one solid piece and yeah this stuff is expensive. Great job on the flywheel buddy and you know ........I.......Like....... :Love:
:popcorn:
Don
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:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcornsmall:
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Just fantastic work George! The flywheel is beautiful!
I'm sure the 45 angle was a bear to machine, but it adds so much to the detail of the model.
John
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Just fantastic work George! The flywheel is beautiful!
I'm sure the 45 angle was a bear to machine, but it adds so much to the detail of the model.
John
:ThumbsUp:
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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I would never had thought about using 45 degree instead of either 90 or round - but the 45 degree on the rim that "blends" the resulting octagonal spokes are just beautiful :praise2: and elegantly simple.
I do hope that Chuck sees it finished too.
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.........I do hope that Chuck sees it finished too.
We hope so too!
Dave
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Wow that's beautiful George!
Dave
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Thanks everyone for the gracious comments. My hope is to get it finished so Chuck can see it. Has anyone heard anything from Chuck?
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Finding the centers of the corners looks painful. Impressive flywheel.
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George, Chuck hasn't been on since Jan 30th. I know of at least one email sent to him but last I heard it had not been responded to. I sure hope Chuck will get to see it too, I know he will be pleased!!
Bill
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The last E-Mail I received from Chuck was at the end of January. He has been having some problems typing & he was experimenting with some voice dictation software.
I hope he does get to see Georges build, I know he would be very happy with it.
John
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Just caught up with your progress George. Truly - really lovely work :praise2:
I can only echo all the sentiments so far expressed. I've often thought about an all brass/steel engine - thanks to Chuck and now yourself that's becoming evermore a likelihood.
Inspiration indeed from both of you :ThumbsUp:
Tug
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I had mentioned in an earlier post about making a change to the engine. To be exact I didn't trust the strength of the support frames at the crankshaft so I made up a couple of ornamental bars and adapters that would be soldered to the uprights. This would prevent any flex in and out and help prevent the crankshaft from binding. I finished all the mounting bolts, making them as acorn headed bolts.
Tomorrow I will set up the flywheel to drill and tap for the set screw and start on the reversing valve and links.
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George, have you ever made a skeleton clock? You would be great at it!
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George, have you ever made a skeleton clock? You would be great at it!
Was thinking the same thing
https://wrsmithclocks.com/product/how-to-make-a-skeleton-wall-clock/
Dave
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Yeah but can it be done at quarter scale and worn on the wrist ;)
Bill
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Yeah but can it be done at quarter scale and worn on the wrist ;)
Bill
Naw....too big for the penny....George will make it half THAT size... 8)
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The engine is complete except it needs some kind of base. With the large flywheel it's a little top heavy to one side. It sits fine but I'm afraid running it might cause it to topple over.
I started on the reversing valve and links last night and finished them this morning. It works as advertised.
I'm going to post another video showing the operations of the valve.
gbritnell
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Fantastic work as always, George !
Have to apologize for missing the beginning of your build. :-[ Sleeping at the helm, here.
Brian
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Hi George, impressive. Especially at that size.
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Gentlemen,
I have another thread dealing with making helical gears for a governor for this engine. I posted pictures of the gears in the other thread but thought I would include them here as they will be part lf the ongoing build of this engine. The larger gear on the crankshaft is .544 P.D. and the smaller one is .305 P.D. The D.P. is 60
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Those gears look really nice, George!
I haven't seen the update on your gear thread yet, I'll have to go check that out!
Beautiful work, and beautiful pictures :)
Kim
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That will be a beautiful addition George!
Pretty slick work on those tiny gears!
John
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Damn George they look great you don’t mess around when making greats.... :ThumbsUp:
:popcorn:
Don
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Everything looks so nice beautiful work George!!
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The gears are just amazing George. All the moreso at such a small size too!!
Bill
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Here's 3 pictures of the finished governor. I put a short video clip in the showcase forum. In there it explains the functioning or lack thereof of the governor. But it looks neat.