Model Engine Maker
Engines => Your Own Design => Topic started by: gbritnell on August 09, 2013, 02:46:45 AM
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With the drawings far enough along to get started I ordered aluminum for the block, 1144 steel for the crankshaft and rectangular Durabar iron for the head.
It been a long time since I did a multi-cylinder crankshaft that isn't in a flat plane so figuring this is going to be the hardest part this is where I'll start.
I chucked the 1.25 bar up and turned and center drilled both ends. On one end I cut a true diameter so that I could indicate it true in the 4 jaw chuck.
The O.D. was then turned to 1.23 diameter.
gbritnell
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The next step was to mount the blank in the mill vise. The bar was set on a parallel high enough to achieve the depth of cut needed to rough out the center journals. A stop was also positioned to allow rotating the piece while keeping the registration. The slots were first cut with a .187, 2 flute endmill followed by a .25, 4 flute with a small radius on the corners. The depth was taken to .010 shy of the finished diameter.
gbritnell
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The next step was to remount the bar in the 4 jaw chuck and indicate it true to cut the journals to .3125 diameter.
gbritnell
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I have found in the past that it's easier to mill stock away on a crank blank then to tentatively dive in with a cutoff tool. Needing a fixture to rough out the throw journals and later on for finishing the counterweights I made one up from aluminum. Each journal has it's own clamping bearing which should be more than enough to hold everything in place while milling.
I made the end journals .438 diameter for 2 reasons, one, to give more gripping surface for the offset blocks when turning the throws and two, to allow enough stock to cut 3 flats at 120 degrees so that the part can be indexed accurately.
The fixture was moved to the mill and the blank was indicated true and clamped tight. As with the main journals I first went in with a .187 endmill to rough them out followed by the .25 endmill to finish up the sides of the cheeks. This way the only material that will need to be removed will be from the journals and not the sides.
gbritnell
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George I just love your photos great details. I plane to pull my chair up and watch this take shape. Awesome George. :ThumbsUp:
Don
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You can see in the last photo that there are 2 different steps, on the first and last throws and all of the center throws. I have calculated the required depth relative to each reference flat while rotating the blank to the various positions. With this I will end up with a .332 square from which the .312 journal will be turned.
gbritnell
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Hi George,
This is fascinating!
Thanks for taking the time to post your construction pictures and explanatory text. I'm going to learn a lot from watching your build!
Kim
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Hi George, this is very instructive, thanks.
Hugh.
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Nice one George!....I really like that approach!....I'm going to do that with the Wallaby!
Dave
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Great starts George and as always your pictures and descriptions are like a textbook on how to do things right!!
Bill
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Oh Boy! Another great thread from George. Got my learning ears on. Thanks George.
Off to a great start.
Ron
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Nice fixture George; and the crank is also taking shape and looking good.
It will be fun to watch this engine progress.
Dave
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George, as always, Excellent Work! I just tuned in, and already have a question. I have made crank shafts this ( or similar too) way, and have always found it very precarious to cut the journals with a cut off tool. It may be my inexperience or my equipment or my tool...
The question is what speed/feed/depth of cut do you use to prevent catching? Also, is your tool on center or below?
Thanks,
maury
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Hi Maury,
I use the thinnest cutoff blade I have, .062. I make sure the front edge is square to the sides so that when I set the tool I know that the journal will be cut parallel. I put a small notch in the face so the tool loading is reduced. (bifurcated) I definitely put the tool on center. Putting it below is asking for trouble. As far as catching I just go very slowly and work back and forth as I'm infeeding. The nice thing about milling the webs first is that you don't have to cut them on the lathe.
gbritnell
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It's really great to see this project!
You mention cutting flats on the end journals for indexing the throw journals. Just to make sure I'm following correctly, are the flats on the journal to the right in the photos? A little hard to see.
What are the flats referenced to? Are you setting up the indexing for one in the photo with the indicator?
--Tim
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Hi Tim,
In the photo where I'm indicating the end of the shaft you can see the flats. There's 3 of them, 120 degrees from each other. Once I get the material roughed out I will make up a pair of fixture blocks, one with a set screw that will go in the 4 jaw chuck and the other will have a center hole for the live center in the tailstock. These will be used to offset the crank by the stroke dimension. I will post more pictures and text as I go along.
gbritnell
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Interesting build, George. I've thought about building a compressed air inline six from time to time. I still remember the sound of six cylinder engines from the 1950's with a split manifold and dual glass-packs.
Chuck
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Wot Chuck said. In the 70's we pulled cattle trailers with a 300 six. The V-8's were faster, but, by the time they had to stop for fuel we all arrived at the stockyard at the same time. The first pickup I can remember my daddy having had a 261(GM) with a 235 head, 3x2s, Corvette cam, and split manifolds running into straight stacks. Ahhhh the good old days. Still had a 6 volt system and he had to try to back in on a rise when he parked so he could roll it off to start. I might have to hock something and get you to sell me this one George. I'm pre-bagging popcorn, cause I don't want to miss any of this one.
Whiskey
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Hey George, I looked through this thread and the one in the plans section and can't find any indication of how big this engine is going to be. With 5/16" main journals, I'm guessing the bore will be somewhere around 3/4"?
Chuck
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Hi Chuck,
With it being based on my 4 cylinder OHV engine it will have a bore and stroke of .75 x .875. As with my differential build I had to resolve the gear making issue first. If I couldn't have made the helical gears I wasn't going to go any farther with the build. I could have used the same location for the distributor as the 4 but didn't feel it would have the proper character.
gbritnell
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Gentlemen,
Here's today's installment of the crankshaft machining. At this point I am continuing to mill the material from the webs and roughing the crankpin journals. The flats on the end were indicated true and the clamps tightened. Using an assortment of .187 and .250 diameter end mills all the material was removed in preparation to turning.
gbritnell
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Here is my procedure for turning the throws.
1. A .093 cutoff blade was ground square on the end. Using a Dremel with a thin cutoff disc I notched the end of the blade. The blade was then stood on end on my layout plate and an indicator was moved across the edges to make sure that both cutting surfaces were square to the edge of the blade.
2 The blade was installed in a toolholder and the QC holder was turned to square up the blade to one of the chuck jaws.
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3. The crankshaft blank was then mounted in the offset fixture blocks. A set screw with a brass follower plug was tightened against the end with the flats milled on it. The other fixture block was slid onto the other end and left loose until the whole setup was aligned flat on the layout plate then the other set screw was tightened. This would insure that the crank axis was true to the lathe centers.
4. The setup was mounted loosely in the 4 jaw chuck and brought into close positioning by using the concentric rings on the chuck.
5. Using a lathe tool I touched the side of the fixture block and set a reading on my crossfeed dial. The chuck was turned 180 degrees and the tool was moved in to take a reading on the opposite side of the block. Working back and forth between the chuck jaws the fixture block was centered within .001 on the dial.
gbritnell
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6. The tailstock was run up until the live center just lightly entered the center drilled hole. I check it by trying to turn it with my fingers. If the center just won't quite turn that is where I lock the tailstock in place.
7. A 1.00 travel dial indicator was set in my magnetic base and mounted on the lathe carriage. By eye I aligned it parallel with the horizon and square to the job. This would help insure that I got an accurate reading over the course of the travel. The crank was rotated to the farthest away point and the indicator set to -0-. The indicator shaft was pulled out by hand and the chuck was rotated 180 degrees then another reading was taken. Working between the opposite 2 jaws I got a reading of .875 (the crank stroke).
gbritnell
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I didn't know if this crank was rigid enough to prevent springing while cutting so to help with the situation I mounted hose clamps along the crank at the other throws. I really didn't want to have to cut buttons and Loctite them in place at every main journal. That would have been 3 per journal times 5.
As it turned out the hose clamps did the job. The journals on this crank are .312 diameter. Any small than that and it would have required spacer buttons.
8. The lathe was set in the higher belt speed but with the headstock in back gear. I don't know exactly what the rpm was but I suspect it was somewhere around 180 rpm.
The cutoff blade was advanced slowly into the material at .004 per pass. After all this work there's no sense getting greedy to find out how heavy of a cut it would take. Working slowly back and forth up to the cheeks the journal was turned to size. The only measuring tool I could get in to check the size was my dial calipers. There seemed to be .001 taper in the .25 width so I left the journal a touch heavy (.0005) and with a small fine file I cleaned it up this was followed by 2 strips of emery, one medium and one fine.
gbritnell
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This procedure was repeated another 2 times to do the other sets of throws. The crank was removed from the 4 jaw chuck, the fixture blocks were rotated to the next flat and tightened, the crank was reinstalled in the chuck and indicated and then the cuts were made.
Attached is a short video of the crank rotating offset in the lathe. It's can be quite intimidating as I've had them turn into pretzels in the past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W155v9WbEI
After 3 hours of work I had all the journals cut.
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The hose clamp tip is awesome George! thanks!
Dave
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Not only is the hose clamp trick "Tip of The Month" but, everything is just awesome. Great work, George!
Whiskey
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Hi George,
Did the lump on the hose clamp cause any out of balance upset, or did you arrange them to cancel each other out? Nice work to watch.
Cheers, Hugh.
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Fantastic George! :pinkelephant: :pinkelephant:
I've only done a 4 cyl with the mains on each end and the pucker factor was big. I can't imagine what that was like.
I really like those hose clamp stiffeners.
Ron
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Hi Hugh,
The clamps didn't pose a problem as the rpm was so slow it didn't affect the balance. Years ago I was making a crank and I turned up a piece of tubing with about a 1/16 wall. I cut short sections from it then split it. These were then clamped onto the crank to stiffen it. That crank was a little smaller than this one. I was going to do the same for this crank and I thought, "how about just using the clamps?" I find every day is still a learning experience!
gbritnell
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Wonderful stuff George. Once the counterweights are machined into it the crankshaft alone will be a work of art!!
Bill
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Bill is right George it is a work of art. I am having trouble keeping up with what and how you are doing this. Keep those gorgeous photos coming. I await your next class lesson.
Don
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George, to digress just a bit, I'm making spark plugs to your plan and I have a question about the electrode. In full size plugs the electrode sticks up above the insulator a small amount. But it appears that your plugs have the electrode even with insulator. Is that correct?
I'm using Corian as I was given quite q few samples. Is there a danger of the Corian melting, and what is the plug gap?
Thank you for all you do on the forums to help us build our projects.
Ron
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George, to digress just a bit, I'm making spark plugs to your plan and I have a question about the electrode. In full size plugs the electrode sticks up above the insulator a small amount. But it appears that your plugs have the electrode even with insulator. Is that correct?
I'm using Corian as I was given quite q few samples. Is there a danger of the Corian melting, and what is the plug gap?
Thank you for all you do on the forums to help us build our projects.
Ron
Hello Ron! I have had Corian plugs in one of my engines for 3-1/2 years and they are still in good working order so you will be fine.
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Thanks Steve. George answered my question on another site and mentioned that you use Corian.
Good to know it holds up.
Enough of this hijack, back to the straight six. ;D ;D
Ron
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Gentlemen,
Today was cutting the extra stock from the throws. I tried to replicate the full sized crank as well as copying from a drawing can do. There had been some discussion about the odd shape of the counterweights but then you have to consider that the throws are 120 degrees apart so that makes any entirely different animal than what we have been used to making. I have no idea what it's going to do so we'll have to wait awhile to find out.
I put the crank in the mill vise to rough off the heavy stock and then transferred it to my fixture plate to do the final cuts. I really don't have any photos of the cutting as it was basically just removing stock from the throws. Upon finishing the corners were all radiused and the tool and file marks were polished out.
It's going to sit for quite some time before it gets installed so here's 3 pictures of the finished crank.
gbritnell
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Just as i had said earlier George...a work of mechanical art...wow!!! Not to mention the excellent write up of how you did it.
Bill
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Gorgeous,just gorgeous George. Its all been said before I can't add anymore than that.
Ron
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Wonderful George. Hugh.
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There had been some discussion about the odd shape of the counterweights but then you have to consider that the throws are 120 degrees apart so that makes any entirely different animal than what we have been used to making. I have no idea what it's going to do so we'll have to wait awhile to find out.
Beautiful work as usual George.
I don't know which engine your model is based on or is it pure freelance? From memory most inline 6's used a harmonic balancer on the crankshaft and just maybe this accounts to some degree for the odd shape of the counterweights.
Best Regards
Bob
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Man that is a beautiful piece of work. George you are the man, and I have said it before you are a true craftsman. You my friend have all my respect. Awesome work and I like........... :praise2: :praise2: :praise2: :praise2: :AllHailTheKing:
Don
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Hi Bob,
It's going to be closely based on the Ford 300 inline six. I started with my 4 cylinder OHV engine and made the necessary changes. The cam will be moved to the other side of the block. The cam will have a helical gear mid-point to drive the distributor. The intake and exhaust will both mount on the same side of the head. I am going to drill the head for a couple of water passages, something that the 4 cylinder engine doesn't have.
gbritnell
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Mr. Britnell:
Referring to the crankshaft in post # 36, your last line: ..."It's going to sit for quite sometime....." Is the sitting before installing, because you want the crank to 'age' a little to see if it will warp, or, because you still have to make the rest of the engine parts, etc/ Or, both?
Frank
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George, that is superb! :o :ThumbsUp: I have a bit of a thing for the inline 6 as I have one in my car!
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Hi Frank,
It's going to sit because there's a ton of other parts to make. The steel is 1144 stressproof and in my work with it in the past it doesn't deform at all. That's one of the great attributes to this steel. After machining I mounted it between centers and the center journal was .0005 out. I would recommend this to anyone making a crank. It only comes in round but even if a person had to make a flat plane crank cutting the extra material away would be more than worth the results.
gbritnell
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George, how hard is the 1144 to turn with HSS bits?
Chuck
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Chuck, 1144 is about like 1018 with a few improvements. It's heat treated to relieve internal stress, and it machines MUCH nicer. It's not gummy like 1018. HSS tools would be the preferred tool to use, the chips come off in little curls instead of strings. I always prefer using 1144 when making gears just because of it's machinability.
maury
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I finished the drawing for the head the other day so I started making some chips. The head will be made from cast iron. It goes by several names, Durabar, continuous cast or Schedule 40. It's great material to work with. It cuts very cleanly and leaves nice sharp edges. I use this for some of my heads as I can machine the valve guides directly in the head without having to use separate inserts.
The block was cut to size and most of the holes from the combustion side were drilled. These included the head bolts, pushrod and water openings. I spotted the centers of the combustion chambers with a center drill so I could plunge out the shapes.
gbritnell
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The combustion chambers are somewhat of a pentroof shape. The valves ports will be machined on the center flat. I plunged down with a .375 endmill staying .010 away from the bottom depth. This was followed with a .625 endmill and finally with a .750 endmill with a .062 radius on the corners.
I calculated the radial step offs and made a chart for that and the angular roof on the combustion chamber. With a .125 ball mill I stepped each of the chambers out. A little massaging with a small mounted stone and they will be finished. The head will stay in this position for awhile to finish up the valve ports and guides. My ports are an odd size so I'll rough them with a drill and then make up a drill rod tool to finish the diameter and the ball shape at the bottom.
gbritnell
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Wow! You have been busy George. That is just awesome man. I really enjoy following you.
Don
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This is the process for smoothing out the combustion chambers. I use an ink marker to cover all the tool marks. This way when you start to reduce them you can see exactly where you're grinding or filing.
The second photo show the initial grinding with a small mounted stone, just hitting the high spots until they reduce in size to where you have a smooth surface.
The next 3 shots show the finished combustion chambers.
gbritnell
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The combustion chambers were finished before the ports were put in so that the edges of the ports wouldn't get dinged or rounded over.
The head was put back in the mill and the edges were once again picked up providing me with my center points. I started by center drilling the port locations. Rather than use the center drill in a drill chuck I have made small holders for them. This way it makes them more rigid and less likely to wander when starting.
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With the center drilling compete the valve guide holes were drilled under size and then reamed. (.078 diamter) A rough drill was put into each hole going to the proper depth. This was followed by an endmill to center up the holes for the final drill size. Before drilling the small holes (.214 dia.) I spotted the combustion chamber face with a .25 endmill that had been ground with a flat bottom. The reason for this was because the small hole was close to the fillet in the combustion chamber and I didn't want the finish drill to hit it and move off position.
gbritnell
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With the ports finished I connected the 2 small water openings with an .062 ball mill. This will channel the water from the block to the drilled passages in the head.
The head was reset in the vise and the matching ports were drilled from the port face.
gbritnell
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George, you are an inspiration! I really admire your work.
Chuck
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I'm really digging this one George....magnificent work!
Dave
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I had no idea how you might go about any of this, thanks George.
Cheers, Hugh.
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I can't make my mind up whether looking at your work is inspiring or intimidating ;D
Quality work though, thanks for the step by step build log,
Simon.
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Really great work George, and thanks for that little nugget about about about the center drill holders.
Sometimes I come up short when trying to center drill something because the drill chuck is hitting the part
. A set of these holders would go a long way to resolve the problem. Thanks.
Ron
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George just awesome bud, you just keep inspiring me. I want to grow up to be like you. I know I have a long way to go to get there. Is this engine going to go with the transmission and axle you made?
Don
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Nice work George,
This is going to be a fun project to watch take shape.
Dave
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Hi Don,
No, this engine is going to be all by itself. The trans and differential go with the 302 v-8 engine.
George
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I had to set up an angle plate to drill the water passages. The head is 6.155 long so I drilled it from both ends. There are 3 holes of different sizes the smallest being .112 diameter. I center drilled the holes and then drilled them as deep as I could go with a new drill of the appropriate size. When drilling deep holes you want to use a new drill or at least one that you know is sharpened equally otherwise the hole will wander off center as it gets deeper. An unevenly sharpened drill will drill oversize and then there is no support for the drill so it tends to wander. I followed the regular drills with some 4.5 inch long drills. The part was turned end for end and drilled from the other side. Each hole matched up pretty good except the small one. By looking down the hole it seemed to be off by about .015 in the middle. Luckily it's just a water passage.
gbritnell
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The angle plate and vise were removed from the table and my angle table was set up and indicated. I then put my vise on the table and indicated it square. The table was then tilted 39 degrees for the spark plug ports. I had calculated all the necessary dimensions from the edge of the head, depth and location. I first center drilled deep enough to get a good spotface with a .25 end mill. This was followed by the center drill again. When drilling on an angular surface I don't trust the center drill even if it's short and in one of my small holders. Once the holes were drilled I followed up by counterboring with a .312 diameter end mill that had the bottom squared up.
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The engine that I'm trying to replicate, somewhat, has a lot of casting detail on the spark plug side of the head so I machined away a lot of the stock to mimic the shape. The corners will eventually be radiused.
gbritnell
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The next step was to start detailing the valve cavity. The valve guides, rocker post bosses and rocker cover bosses are all machined into the iron head. With so many bosses sticking up in there I laid out a simplified cutting chart so I could start removing metal without hitting anything. I went through with a .125 endmill. I used a machine button set in the holes to bump up to to get as close as I could. I made up 2 drill rod cutters, one for the conical bosses and one for the valve guides. These are annular with narrow flutes so I took my time when cutting. Better to go slow than to have to make the cutter twice. If anyone likes I can post pictures of the cutters.
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The mill table was once again cleared off so that I could set up the rotary table. This head has a very irregularly shaped rocker cover, flat on one side and multiple curves on the other so the rotary table was required. To locate each of the centers I made up a small fixture piece that has 2 holes in it which line up with the valve guides. Into these holes I Loctited a couple of pins. A center hole was drilled so that I could use my line up tool for each center. The fixture was set in place, the part located, clamped and the radii were cut.
gbritnell
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Great tutorial George!
Thank you!
Dave
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Unbelievable work as usual George. I was going to ask for something for an idea of scale but realised how small it is on rotary table which makes it more impressive! Thought it must be when you mentioned 1/4" for spark plug recesses and 1/8" end mills! So you went up to the buttons as close by hand then made some cutters - yes would like to see those please!
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Gentlemen,
I know it's been awhile but you know how it is, other things get in the way. I have finished machining and benching on the head. All that remains is to tap all the holes. I have been working on the drawings for the block and they are taking a long time to finish. I'm almost there so later in the week I can start machining the block.
Here's some pictures of the finished head.
gbritnell
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There is a lot of wonderful work in just that piece George. Very inspiring as usual too. Always so many things to learn in your posts.
Bill
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George all I can say is awesome, you are a true artist my friend. Very inspiring work and done on a manual machine, I love it.
Don
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Yep, it's not often we see models of i.c. engines that look like their real life counter parts because of all the intricate shapes in the castings but yours do! :ThumbsUp:
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Good Lord George....that is exquisite!
:ThumbsUp:
Dave
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What's a fellar to say. George, just awesome. I have trouble drilling and tapping a simple hole and then see this. Sure does make me won't to never give up 8) my hats off to you my friend.
Whiskey
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If it wasn't for the bearing ring, you wouldn't know it wasn't a real one.
Hugh.
PS: I think I've come up with a triple negative there.
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Who's your supplier of "Magical Shrinking Fluid/Powder/Ointment" or what ever. :pinkelephant: :pinkelephant:
Makes me want to go to corner and suck my thumb.
ROn
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Beautiful Work George!
Dave
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Who's your supplier of "Magical Shrinking Fluid/Powder/Ointment" or what ever. :pinkelephant: :pinkelephant:
Makes me want to go to corner and suck my thumb.
ROn
:lolb:........Now I have coffee all over the keyboard.....
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The long journey is just beginning. I purchased a piece of 6061 aluminum, 2.5 x 3.5 x 7. I milled it square and to size. The next thing I did was to put the .312 dia. reamed hole through from both ends. The block is 6.607 long. With successive drills, an end mill and finally the reamer I had the holes finished, or so I thought. Before going any farther I put a piece of .312 drill rod into the holes and set it on my layout plate to check for position and straightness. First end, .0005 out. Second hole .001 out in one direction and .018 out in the other. :censored: :embarassed: :shrug: :Mad:
Well that $40.00 piece of aluminum can't be saved but it will be used for the oil pan so it's not a total loss except for the time that was put into it. When I order that piece of aluminum I also ordered a piece of steel for the crank and iron for the head. The shipping didn't seem bad, $22.00. Now for another piece of aluminum the shipping is $18.00. Drat. I turned to my old friend Ebay. I found a piece of 4 inch diameter, 6.875 long for $10.00 less than a piece of smaller bar stock plus the shipping was only $9.00. It came yesterday so I set about removing the extra stock. I first milled a flat on one side so that it would sit flat on my band saw and cut off the heavy stock on 2 sides. Now it was back in the mill for the overall cleanup. Once that was finished it was time to put the .312 holes back in. This time they came out perfect in location and one was .0015 out axially in 4 inches. I can certainly live with that. I just wish I knew what the heck happened the first time. It's one thing to screw up, it's another to not know why.
Anyway here's my setup for putting the holes in. I have a very accurate 3x4 angle plate. I have a piece of steel mounted to one side that I can use for setting stock perpendicular. In this case I needed to center the stock to get the C clamps on place so I adjusted the stop screws to dead perpendicular and then bumped the stock against it and clamped it in place. The edges were picked up and 0's set.
gbritnell
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With the holes safely out of the way it was time to start machining the flywheel end flange. The mounting holes were center drilled and drilled for 1-72 screws. Using the layout as a guide I roughed out the stock down to depth. This was followed with the boring head. The first operation was to mount the boring bar backwards and turn the crankshaft boss to size by rotating the spindle backwards. This was followed by normal boring to do the inside of the flange. Finally I roughed off some of the stock above the flange where it meets the back of the block.
gbritnell
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George, bummer about your piece of aluminum, but is good that you can use it elsewhere. Nice start up on the second. Now I don't feel to bad, that an artist as yourself makes mistakes so I might just keep trying model making. Just trying to inject a little humor here. :ROFL:
Don
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Please do not worry Mr. George we still don't believe your human. Have a great day, waiting for your next post and pictures like everybody else! Brian
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Glad to see I'm not the only one unashamed to borrow from the wood working department (G clamps) ;D
Simon.
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The block was turned over and the gear cavity was machined. I gave myself a rough layout and first drilled the holes for the cover bolts. I then roughed out the cavity to depth with an end mill. The excess stock around the flange was also taken down to depth. This was followed with the boring head to true up the diameter and also to do the opening for the water pump.
gbritnell
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Hi Simon,
You can't have enough clamps, even if they are wood clamps. I use them all the time.
gbritnell
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The machining from my setup points was finished so the table was cleaned up and the block and angle plate were rotated to remove a little more stock from the sides of the gear cavity flange. I inserted a dowel into the cam bore and used that for my offset dimension.
gbritnell
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This is where the traditional engine machining takes a twist. While thinking about how I was going to bore, line bore or ream the main bearings for the crankshaft I had an idea, I'm not saying it's never been used before but it's a first for me. Knowing the difficulty of trying to machine a long, small hole through a long length of material I thought "why not machine a slot for the main bearings and make square bronze inserts for them?" It's not traditional but it sure would simplify this process and it guarantees that everything will be in line. The inserts would be made up from 2 pieces of bronze, soldered together for reaming and then the outside (square) dimensions could be worked from the bore.
The block was put in the vise and the top surface indicated until it was dead true. Working from the center and the front face I machined the slot for the bearings inserts and caps.
After a quick layout I center drilled and drilled a hole in the center of each bore so that I had somewhere to plunge the end mill for roughing out the crankcase pockets.
gbritnell
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The next step was to go into the now open cam tunnel with a .312 end mill with a .09 radius on the corners and relieve the area of the cam bore between the journals. This is to make it easier to insert the cam into the block and this are isn't needed for support anyway.
gbritnell
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The side of the block opposite the cam has an angular wall. This shape allows clearance for the crankshaft while removing excess material, and the full sized engines are made this way. I made a step-off chart to create the angular wall and with a .250 ball mill stepped down into the cavity.
gbritnell
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The last operation for the day was to create the windows above the bearing pockets. A hole will be drilled from the bearing up into this pocket so that the oil that is slung about will drip down into the bearing. I used a .625 diameter woodruff key cutter and went in from both sides until they met.
gbritnell
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Beautiful George!
Dave
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George that sure is a lot of work, But man you are creating some beautiful work. Awesome George.
Don
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Beautiful work, as always, George. Love seeing your work!
Chuck
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Gobsmacked again!
What a neat idea similar to marine recip main bearings except that the bottom half is a semi circle to allow bearing removal without removing the crankshaft.
Best Regards
Bob
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I Really appreciate these posts. For me, they're worth going through twice, as I did today's.
--Tim
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George, I had looked at these latest pictured yesterday on my small netbook computer, but wanted to see them on the larger PC monitor this morning. It was definitely worth the wait...I am amazed as always!!
Bill
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Thanks for taking the time to document and explain everything, George.
It's a real pleasure to follow along.
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When I finished machining the pockets in the crankcase I test fitted the crankshaft and found that it was too snug. Apparently the stack up of dimensions from the crank to the block didn't allow enough clearance for a reasonable fit. I took a couple more thousands from each wall until the crank fit nicely with about .010 end play which will be adjusted with the main bearings.
gbritnell
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The next operation was to drill all the holes on this face for the main bearings and oil pan mounting.
gbritnell
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The lifter holes had been previously center drilled and drilled undersize so it was time to finish them up. The small pockets where the lifters go have a radius in the corners from the end mill so the first operation was to go in on center with a flattened end mill to spot face for a true hole. The holes were drilled close to the finish size and then reamed with a new spiral reamer.
gbritnell
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The bore holes that had been previously drilled were opened up with the boring bar just to relieve stock while it was in this setup.
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When I reamed the cam hole I failed to go through the center journal with the reamer, in fact it only had the initial pilot hole through it so I had to open it up somehow. I thought about setting it back up with the angle plate but going through with the reamer could have disastrous results now that the crankcase pockets were opened up and there was no support for the tools. I have some hard brass so I turned up a guide sleeve that fit snuggly through the existing journal holes. The I.D. was drilled for the pilot hole drill that would leave stock for the .312 diameter finish. There is no support at this center journal because this is where the helical distributor gears will meet. With the guide sleeve in place I used an electric drill to open up the hole, so far so good. When the lifter pockets were milled I made them .316 wide for clearance when inserting the camshaft so I made up a cutter that was .314 diameter and a shaft to drive it. The cutter head was made separately so it could be hardened. I machined a notch across the back of the cutter and milled a cross key onto the drive shaft the same diameter as the pilot hole through the cutter. The cutter also has a pilot that fit into the guide hole.
I dropped the cutter into the lifter pocket and then inserted the shaft (.312 dia.) I put a drop of lubricating oil at each journal so the shaft wouldn't scuff the finished surface. With the key engaged into the cutter I turned it by hand slowly removing stock from the hole. The difference between the cutter flutes and the body was only .02 so after a few revolutions I would pull it out to remove the chips and go again. Eventually the cutter went through and made a nice clean hole.
gbritnell
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Here are some picture of the cutter head, shaft and the tool in operation.
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With all the work finished from the pan side the block was flipped over to start work on the head face. A quick check with the indicator showed the face was within .0005 so work began. The bores were center drilled and drilled through into the holes that were done from the bottom. Along with these holes all the head bolt and lifter holes were drilled. Once the drilling was complete the boring head was again mounted and the bores were finished, .865 at the bottom and .875 at the top so that the sleeves won't have to be pushed tightly all the way through. A shallow counterbore was then cut at the top for the liner. You'll notice the boring bar looks like an end mill and you're correct. I have several old end mill ground up as boring bores because for material like aluminum the very sharp edge and positive rake on the end mill makes a beautiful cut.
gbritnell
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The next operation was very laborious. On my 4 cylinder engine I machined out the water jacket area and made a head plate to cover it. Because of the extra length of this engine I wasn't sure how flat everything would stay so I opted to cut the jacket area into the block. I had to use a .625 Woodruff key cutter for this operation. Key cutters don't have a long shank as they only need to stick out so far for their intended purpose so I had to hole it in a collet to get a good grip on the remaining shank. I reduced the shank first by grinding about .02 from it and then cutting the rest in the lathe with a carbide tool.
I used a key cutter that was only .093 wide as I thought using a wider one might give too much chatter for this operation. Each level consisted of 6 positional moves and required 7 depth steps. Take this times 6 bores and you can understand why it was so tedious. When I got to the last cut there wasn't much room between the collet nut and the job. Boy I sure could have used a CNC machine for this operation. Everything went fine and all the jacket areas were cut.
gbritnell
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All the work from the head face was finished so the block was removed, cleaned up and re-clamped in the vise to start work on the side of the block. This side of the full sized engine has core plugs in it so to add a little detail I decided to do the same on this miniature. The heavy stock was removed, working my way down to the finished depth. At the front of the block are 4 motor mount bosses so these were drilled. All of the core plug positions were then spotted with a flat bottomed .312 end mill. I then put an end mill in with a small radius on the corners and roughed out around each of the core plug positions.
gbritnell
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The next operation was to form a flange around each core plug position to make it look somewhat like the full sized casting. With only a .03 step I didn't want to have to step the radius around each position and I didn't want to have to set up the rotary table and try to locate each one so the next job was to make a cutter to form the outer diameter. I used a piece of .625 diameter drill rod and first turned it down to .500 for the shank. It was then cut off and the the cutter end was machined, first by cleaning up the O.D. and then boring the inside and forming a small radius on the inside corner. The cutter was then put in the dividing head to mill the flutes on it. I then filed clearance on the flutes with a file leaving just a trace of material at the cutting edge to be honed once it was hardened. The cutter was hardened but not tempered as it wouldn't have any load on it for this step. The cutter was touched to the finishes surface and -0- was set for the depth. The job was then moved to each center point and the cutter was lowered until it just touched the bottom surface.
gbritnell
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You'll notice from the core plug machining pictures that the remaining material had been stepped off from the block. I used a .25 ball mill and with a stop off chart worked my way down to follow the inside shape of the crankcase. The 4 cylinder engine doesn't have a flywheel flange and here again I thought it would add interest to machine one on this engine.
gbritnell
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I have the other side of the block to machine but with all the detail on it, oil filter boss, distributor boss, dipstick boss, fuel pump boss and motor mounts it's going to take awhile.
I'll leave you with a couple more pictures of the block with the head sitting in place. It's starting to look like an engine.
gbritnell
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Just WOW !!! Again you do great work !!
Humbled Dave
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Beautiful work George,
You are making amazing progress; thanks for the update.
Dave
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Hi George.
First class work (as allways :praise2:) I will remember the solution you had for the camshaftbore :ThumbsUp:
best Regards
CS
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Amazing stuff, George. And you're doing all this without CNC? Do you have any tips for how to repeat your cutting paths for each cut? Do you just keep an eye on a DRO? Would love to see a few "tips and tricks" for what you're doing here!
Simon
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great write up and photos too. Like the cutter for the upstands. It just looks awesome.
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Hi Simon,
For cutting blended curves and shapes I make up a step-off chart to follow. I'm attaching 2 PDF files that show some of what I use. These aren't really the best examples but will give you an idea.
Once I have numbers to work to I pick up my starting points, edges or holes, set my 0's and then step to the numbers. I use a CAD program to generate my points. For example: when doing a round shape I offset a line from the drawing line by the radius of the cutter I'm going to use. I then calculate what size cusp (height from step to step) I want. This gives me the angle of steps needed. I then dimension these points and this is what I use for cutting. Marv has a program that will do much the same thing.
gbritnell
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Mind blowing George
:praise2: :praise2: :praise2: :praise2: :praise2: :praise2:
Pete
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Gentlemen,
Here's the latest update on the engine. With the one side of the block machined it was time to start on the cam side. As I mentioned this side has lots of detail so it is taking more worksheets and concentration to whittle away the material. I gave myself some rough layout lines and cut witness depths for all the details. Once the levels were established I went back in and qualified the widths and heights leaving an extra .015 for finish. This first picture shows some of the piles of swarf created when chopping the unwanted stock away.
gbritnell
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These next 3 photos show various stages in the development of the shapes. The end flanges for the cam housing and bellhousing flange have .125 fillets while most of the shapes have .093 fillets so there was a lot of cutter changing and height setting to cut around everything.
gbritnell
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One of the hardest things to do with this type of work is to blend the Z surfaces together. I try to go in with a cutter that is wide enough to clean out most of the stock in a few passes. Following this with a ball cutter to do the fillets is touchy, just .0005 too deep and you have a lot of cleanup to do later on. With changing cutters so many times it sometimes gets nerve wracking.
All the necessary holes were drilled for the eventual tapped holes and all the features were created. This concludes the machining of the cam side of the block. It will require rotary table and sine table work to finish up the machining.
gbritnell
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Now that's what I call a rats nest, but you have been busy carving metal. George, I need to take a vacation and go sit and watch you work. Your putting us all to shame here with this quality of work.
I just hope I live long enough to be able to tackle a project like that. Just awesome man! :praise2: :praise2:
Don
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Wow George....I hope you know how much you motivate me to do better!
Damn!
:o
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I had to do a tiny bit of machining on both ends of the block. It wasn't a job that could be stepped off the way I normally do it so I had to put the rotary table up to complete the work. This is going to provide a bit more information on the steps I go through when doing a job on the rotary table.
First, naturally is to set up the table.
To get close I put a brass center into the chuck or tool holder and locate it in the center of the table by eye. Photo 1
Next I mount my indicator and center the table first at 0 and 180 degree position and then at 90 and 270, rechecking my first 2 positions. Photos 2 & 3.
With this job being so tall I had to go back to one of the setups I had used earlier in the machining sequence. I first got all my clamps and heels setup on the angle plate but not tightened down. I then clamped the block to the angle plate using a large C clamp, with a piece of 1/8 steel against the head face. Photos 4-5 and 6.
I then took the chuck out and put the brass centering plug into the tool holder and inserted it into the cam hole while the table was on center. Once in place I tightened the clamps on the angle plate. Photo 7.
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In machining the cam housing I would need to have a stopping point where the radius meets the angular wall so I had to set a reference on the rotary table. I remounted the dial indicator and checked across the pan face, rotating the table until I got 0's at both side. Photo 1.
The minute dial was then set to -0- and I put an ink marker line at, in this case 170 degrees. This is a very nice rotary table and it has a moveable brass reference pointer but it's away from the dial so you have to look at 2 things at once. Why they just didn't put it above the handwheel I have no idea. And as far as stamping a line onto that machined surface :???: Photos 2 & 3.
The next photo shows the top of the cam housing being cut. Photo 4.
gbritnell
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Machining the flywheel end was similar but different in that the angle plate had to move forward so that I could pick up the center of the crankshaft. Many years ago I had to do a job for a fellow that was 9 inches in diameter. With my table being 8 inches I had to improvise. I made a set of extension T-nuts that would allow me to clamp right to the T-nut. It's been years since I used them but they do come in handy. Photo 1
I put my brass centering plug in and kind of lined it up into the center of the main bearing journal. The dial indicator was then mounted and the inside of the bellhousing flange was indicated true. I just lightly tightened the clamps so I could table the angle plate into position. Photos 2 & 3.
The pan face was then indicated parallel with the Y axis and the rotary table zeroed out. Photo 4.
It seems like a lot of work to go through for this small cut but there wasn't any other practical way to cut it. Photo 5.
gbritnell
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That completes the major machining of the block. The sine table will have to be set up to do the distributor and dipstick holes tomorrow. I had enough machining for today so I got out all my burrs, stones, files and emery paper and started radiusing corners, removing tool marks, and polishing everything. Here's some photos of basically the finished block, save a couple of holes.
gbritnell
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Beautiful.
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These are the final machining steps on the block. The distributor and dipstick holes need to be put in at 30 degrees. The mill was cleaned and the sine table was set up.
There is no accurate way of setting the table against stops to make it parallel with the machine axis. A flat could be machined on the lower part of the casting but this would require a horizontal mill so I did the next best thing. I tilted the table to the extreme angle and indicated across the face until it was parallel. I then set the table back up flat (-0- degrees) and recut the front face and sides of the T-slots. Now I know that if I indicate the slots that when the table is rotated it will be at a true axis. The reminder printed on the face of the table is for whoever inherits this tool when I'm gone.
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I then set the block up and lightly clamped it in place. My .312 dia. test bar was slid into the block and indicated until the job was parallel with the X axis. The clamps were then tightened. I then used my edge finder on both sides of the bar and set the middle. I have tested my edge finder and it's pretty accurate but this way I know I'm at dead center.
gbritnell
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The first milling operation was to qualify the tops of the 2 bosses. I touched the cutter to the test bar to establish my Z centerline and made the cuts. Knowing the Y centerline I moved off the diameter of the bosses and added the radius of the cutter I was using. This gave me the accurate sidewalls.
gbritnell
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The next step was to drill the pilot holes for both bosses. This was followed by drilling undersize and then reaming the dipstick hole and boring the distributor hole. In the one picture you can see the drill down next to the mill table. With the drill at the proper Y dimension I brought the drill down until it had about .06 clearance from the table. This was to prevent drilling into the table.
gbritnell
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The final machining was to step off the radius on the distributor boss. This is about the only way to accomplish this as my sine table is too big to clamp onto my rotary table. Even with small engines like this you sometimes run out of space and machinery. I applaud those fellows making small engines on Sherline and other small equipment. I have been there and know what you go through to get a project completed.
gbritnell
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Here is a short video of the engine with a test fit of the gears. All the calculations were made prior to machining but I would hate to get farther into the project and find out that they didn't mesh properly.
As it is they fit perfectly with almost -0- backlash.
gbritnell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6AFWrWV7vU
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Still following along George, and speechlessly I might add. Thanks for the video too as it gives a great idea of the scale of this latest project. As amazing as always!!!
Bill
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Stunning work!
Thanks for sharing.
Simon.
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Great work George!
Thanks for the video!
Dave
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"The machining came out quite well for this"
An understatement, and a most succulent one! Lovely, George.
Cheers, Hugh.
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Incredible stuff again!
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Congratulations on the fit of those gears, George. And the block looks magnificent. Nice work.
Chuck
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Every descriptive word I know has already been used. I am in total awe of your skills.
Cheers,
Tom
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Wonderful build George.
Eric, you're confused...the V8's with 4 Barrel and dual glaspacks were what we used to go back and forth on main street in front of the movies and the girls, and under the overpass to hear the bad-ass mufflers! Who cares about gas?
Mosey in the UK
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George magnificent man, keep it coming. I ilke........... :ThumbsUp:
Don
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The next major part is the oil pan which also includes the lower front cover housing. I started by squaring up the block of aluminum that was originally going to be the crankcase but an errant cam hole sidelined that start. With some rough layout lines I hollowed out the cavity leaving ample stock for finishing with the .25 ball mill.
gbritnell
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The inside walls of the cavity will be 7 degrees and not having one of these end mills I had to order one. In the mean time I center drilled and drilled the pan holes. This was followed by milling out the pockets for the front and rear main bearings.
gbritnell
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It only took a day to get the 7 degree cutter from the local supplier so prior to cutting I had to step the corners down. The 7 degree end mill has a .25 diameter at the bottom and about .625 at the top so this was the reason for clearing out the corners.
gbritnell
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I stood the piece up in my mill vise, 1.50 jaws and piece length of 6.00 so I was careful with my cuts. I stepped off the rear main boss and roughed the front but the angle plate would need to be set up to finish the front as a circular pocket would need to be bored for the crank gear and I didn't want to take the chance of the boring bar grabbing the piece and ruining it.
gbritnell
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The next step was to rotate the part to finish the angular wall, inside and out. While it was set up I also drilled the holes for the front cover attachment bolts.
gbritnell
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The piece was put back in the vise and the side walls were roughed down. Eventually they would be cut at 3 degrees. The reason for the 2 different angles is that the full sized pan has 3 indented ribs running vertically in the center of the pan. I'm assuming these are to strengthen the sheet metal. I wanted to replicate these so if I machined both the inside and out at the same angle the thin wall wouldn't allow this so with the two different angles I get more stock as the wall moves down.
gbritnell
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The part is long enough so that the ends are out beyond the clamping area of the vise. With the now thin walls I didn't want to put any undue pressure on the side wall for subsequent machining operations so a made a small bridge and super glued it in place. When I'm done with everything it will get removed.
gbritnell
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The next step in the pan machining was to cut the angular shapes on the bottom. The angle plate was removed and the sine table was set up. I put the pan on a sheet of notebook paper to add a little friction between the 2 smooth surfaces because I didn't want to over-clamp it. I then indicated along one edge of the pan and clamped a piece of stock for a straight edge so that I wouldn't have to indicate it twice. The table was set to the proper angle and the flat surface was cut with an end mill. I then put in an end mill with a .125 radius on the corners and cut up to the layout line. The sine plate was then moved to the next angle and with the radiused corner cutter I bumped up to the line while matching the existing radius.
The part was turned around and the other end was done.
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The full sized pan has 3 indentations on it and I wanted to replicate them somewhat. The angle plate was mounted to the sine table and the pan was clamped in place. The edges were picked up and with a .187 ball mill I went down .024 to give me the proper width.
gbritnell
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The next couple of hours were spent adding all the .125 radii on the corners. I calculated the tangent point of the radius to the wall which was around .070. I then put bluing on the edges and laid out a line so that I could rough burr a 45 degree angle on the corners. It sure saves a lot of filing. Then with files and radius gauges I finished the corners. Everything was sanded with progressively smoother papers until finished.
gbritnell
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Another piece finished. Only a hundred more to go.
gbritnell
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Wow, George! That looks so neat and tidy! Very cool...
Someday when I grow up, this is what I'm going to do!
Kim
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Man I am all choked up here George, I don't know what to say. It just beautiful bud, your just a metal craving artist. I need to spend a year with you just watching and learning. I know that you have put a lot of time into this project George and you craftsmanship is first rate. :cheers:
Don
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We can only really state the bleeding obvious with your work George. Very nice indeed.
Cheers, Hugh.
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Man I am all choked up here George, I don't know what to say. It just beautiful bud, your just a metal craving artist. I need to spend a year with you just watching and learning. I know that you have put a lot of time into this project George and you craftsmanship is first rate. :cheers:
Don
Geez George!.....Wot Don Said!
:NotWorthy: :NotWorthy: :NotWorthy:
Dave
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Wow....a couple of progress posts with eye candy pictures to catch up on George. I must have blinked or something...As beautiful and as impressive as always!!
Bill
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Another masterpiece well on the way George.
Love it !
Pete
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The next couple of hours were spent adding all the .125 radii on the corners. I calculated the tangent point of the radius to the wall which was around .070. I then put bluing on the edges and laid out a line so that I could rough burr a 45 degree angle on the corners. It sure saves a lot of filing.
Great results you have there, George.
Any reason you don't use corner-rounding endmills, to at least take off the bulk of the material before filing?
Simon
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Hi Simon,
I do have a few corner rounding cutters but the problem with the bigger ones is that the diameter of the cutter is so large that you can only get up so close to an adjacent surface. With the bottom of the pan having 2 angular surfaces you can't even get up to the vertical (angular) surface. Believe me if I thought I could get in there I would. I really don't like all that burring and filing.
gbritnell
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Excuse the dumb...could ou make corner-cutters?
Mosey in the dark :headscratch:
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Hi Mosey,
Yes you could make your own corner rounding cutters, and I have. I have made some from drill rod and others from old high speed end mills. To make the end mills cut properly I grind away one flute and put the radius on the other.
gbritnell
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and then I guess that you could shape it so you could sneak right up to the adjacent surfaces.
Mosey
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The next big piece is the rocker cover. Although it seems like a fairly easy job this particular cover has multiple curves on it. Here again I'm trying to somewhat replicate the full sized one.
I started by cutting a block of aluminum to the overall dimensions. As I sometimes do I blued it up and put some layout lines on it just to help me along.
As with any part it's laying out a game plan so you always have something to clamp to.
On the one side are 3 grooves which represent indentations for the hold down bolts. I took some liberties with the way I'm going to mount mine so these grooves are just cosmetic. The radius was not a standard size so searching through my resharpened end mills I found one that was within a couple of thousands. I then proceeded to grind a ball on the end.
Once sharpened I cut the 3 grooves.
gbritnell
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The next step was to start hollowing out the inside. I do this with most everything I make because once you profile the outside there's generally nowhere to clamp to. I went in with an end mill and roughed out the cavity, staying away from my dimensions to allow for the eventual fillets. Once the roughing was complete I put in a .25 ball mill and cut to the finished dimensions.
gbritnell
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The next step in the cavity machining was to cut the radii which are unique to this cover. Not having sufficient stock to bore a hole and measure it here is the way I set up the boring bar.
Naturally I set up the boring head and put in a boring bar. I now set an adjustable parallel to the proper radius and clamped it into my toolmaker's vise. I set this vise on top of my machine vise and put an indicator against the end of it. I lowered the boring bar between the jaws of the vise and while rotating the spindle backwards I adjusted the boring head out until the indicator just started to move in both directions as the bar bumped against it. Taking the amount of indicator reading I readjusted the boring bar appropriately. Having done this procedure many times in the past I can usually hit within .002-.003 and this would be more than good enough for cutting this contour.
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I have an assortment of end mills that I have put differing radii on. I happened to have a large one that would fit in the cavity and had the required .125 radius. With this large cutter I only needed to bump 3 times in each pocket to get close to what I needed. The rest would be cleaned up when I got ready to hand finish the part.
gbritnell
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The next step was to start cutting the outside of the cover. First came the 2 long sides. This was just a matter of milling down, leaving a step for the flange.
gbritnell
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While needing to do rotary table work on both the rocker cover and tappet cover I started roughing out the tappet cover rather than have to set up the rotary table twice. The tappet cover was milled to size and then I used my Cad drawing to calculate what size endmill I could go in with to rough out between the ribs. Once this was done the vise was removed and the rotary table was set up. I needed a fixture plate to locate both the rocker cover and tappet cover so using an old fixture plate I cut a shallow slot to hold the rocker cover. Although the stress of cutting the outside radii wouldn't be that much the fixture would keep the cover from possibly rotating with only one small clamp on it. The radii on the rocker cover were cut and the part was removed with only the finishing left.
Now came the tappet cover. I made a step chart for all the corners. These were cut first using a .094 end mill. The rotary table was then turned to the needed angle and all the ribs were cut, bumping to the existing corner cuts. What a job!!!!
gbritnell
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While making these 2 covers I also made the timing gear cover. I don't have any pictures but it was mainly rotary table work cutting the outside radii and the radiating ribs.
Following are some shots of the assembled pieces.
gbritnell
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All of that pretty stuff is hidden from view? What a shame.
You have set a standard for us, George, thank you.
Mosey :praise2:
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All of that pretty stuff is hidden from view? What a shame.
You have set a standard for us, George, thank you.
Mosey :praise2:
Now that's an understatement!
:praise2:
Dave
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Hi George
Your use of a boring Head is eye opening.
I don't think I will ever look at mine in the same way after seeing this!
Pete
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My Hero, you just keep putting us to shame George. Man that is some magnificent! Your the man George keep the photos coming I am so enjoying this. :praise2: :praise2: :praise2:
Don
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Wow. Hugh.
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Wow lots of progress there George, incredible work again. I wish manufacturers made parts of this quality these days!
I didn't even know you could get milling cutters with angles on them apart from the obvious dovetail cutters etc.
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What's not hidden from view is still spectacular George. The whole engine is stacking up nicely!!
Bill
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Hadn't checked in for a few days and was really surprised to see how far along you are, George. That is really looking sweet! I can only imagine how you must feel when you stand back and have a look at what you've accomplished.
I've always had a particular fondness for the inline six cylinder engines, probably from my old Chevy days. I think this one is going to be one of my favorites.
Chuck
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Hadn't checked in for a few days and was really surprised to see how far along you are, George. That is really looking sweet! I can only imagine how you must feel when you stand back and have a look at what you've accomplished.
I've always had a particular fondness for the inline six cylinder engines, probably from my old Chevy days. I think this one is going to be one of my favorites.
Chuck
I remember putting a set of lifters in my Chevy Nova one Saturday in the middle of a rain storm while standing in the engine bay of the car and not even getting wet!
Good engine!
I'm enjoying watching this build!
Dave
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Gentlemen,
It's time for the next installment.
This piece is the intake manifold. I started with a piece of 6061 aluminum and squared it up to size. As with the other long pieces I didn't feel comfortable letting so much stick out of the vise so I set up my angle plate. The first operation was to put the hole through the part. Because of the length this had to be done from both ends, well I guess it could have been done from one with a long drill but I'm afraid it might not have come out the other end where I wanted it to. I drilled .010 under and then followed up with the finish drill. It would be nice to have reamers for all these sized but I'm afraid that's being a little extravagant.
The part was then put back in the vise to drill all the port holes. This was followed by drilling all the mounting flange holes. The part was then rotated 90 degrees and the carb port and runner corners were drilled.
gbritnell
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The next step was to rough out all the stock between the intake runners being mindful to leave stock for the flanges.
gbritnell
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With no way to mill a square corner between the flange and the runner, well not by normal milling, I had to make up an undercutting tool. I took a small Woodruff key cutter (. 250 x .125) and ground enough of the shank away to clear the flange when was all the way to depth. This operation went surprisingly well. Once I was at my dimension I just progressively stepped down to create the side wall of each runner.
gbritnell
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I have to say at this point that when I was roughing out the pockets I stayed up about .005 because I would have cut into the flange on one side. I didn't give it any thought until I started benching the manifold and I wondered why the bottom wall was higher than the corners that I had drilled out. It wasn't until I started posting this that the light came on but at this point there was no way to hold the part and cut the remaining stock. It should have been done with the Woodruff cutter. The extra stock had to be filed off in the benching process.
gbritnell
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The part was not put back against the angle plate to remove the extra stock from the ends. This time I put paper between the part and the plate so I wouldn't get any accidental walking.
gbritnell
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The part was put back in the vise and the stock was removed from the outside leaving the carb base pad. It was then turned 90 and 180 degrees to cut the thickness of the runners while still leaving material for the carb pad. The last cut was with a radiused corner mill to put the fillet between the main runner and the carb base.
gbritnell
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I carefully planned each machining step so that I would always have somewhere to clamp.
Here are a several pics with the part fresh from the mill. Here you can see the extra stock at the bottom of each runner. I saw it too but overlooked it.
gbritnell
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When I was making the oil pan someone asked if I couldn't use a radius cutter for all the corners. On this one I could so I made up the smallest one I could and cut the corners. It sure did help when the finishing started.
gbritnell
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From this point there was just a great deal of filing and sanding. With the pre-cut radii as a witness it was easier to file the remaining stock and blend it in. I did have to be extra careful up against the flanges so that the file didn't leave scratches. The only thing I'll have to do is cut 2 plugs for the ends and press and Lotite them in. They recommend using a primer when Loctiting aluminum and I don't have any so I'll have to pick some up before I plug them. The ends will then be radiused to give a nice casting look to the part.
gbritnell
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That looks great George!......Thanks for teaching that to us!...Much appreciated! Keep it coming! :ThumbsUp:
Dave
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Exquisite!
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George what else can I say :praise2:
Don
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George, may I ask why you machined away so much of the mounting flanges that half of the bolt holes are gone? Is this to match the original?
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Hi JW,
Attached is the PDF drawing of the 2 manifolds, intake and exhaust. Because of the close proximity of the ports the flanges have to share a bolt in the corners. This is how the fill sized engine is, maybe not the same pattern but similar.
gbritnell
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Gentlemen,
It's time for the next installment, the exhaust manifold. With the configuration of the manifold porting it would either have to be made from a casting or fabricated. Casting is out as I don't need another hobby so fabrication was in order. If made from aluminum there would be no way to join the parts, I can't Tig weld that tiny, so that left steel or brass. I was very tempted to use brass and when finished have it nickle plated or such because of the workability of the metal but finally decided on steel. While it would take a little more handwork making it from steel there would be no need for plating. So steel it is, 1144 to be exact. With it needing to be silver soldered I figured that 1018 would look like a banana when soldered, although I have never made a brazed fabrication from 1144.
Here again I tried to replicate the full sized manifold within reason. The ports would have to leave the head, make a 90 degree bend down then a 90 degree bend into the runner, then another 90 degree bend into the collector box, then a 48 degree bend through the outlet.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of the preliminary machining. It involved squaring up the block, drilling the ports, cutting the flanges and the shape on the outside. The part I do want to document is how I go the ports into the horizontal runner.
After drilling the ports from the side and bottom I milled out the bottom the width of the ports and the length spanning from one end to the other. Into this cavity I would make a filler piece that would eventually be silver soldered in place.
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Using a piece .293 wide I cut the filler piece the width of the ports, .213 diameter, down to the center dimension of the runner passage. Kind of a T shape. I then used a .187 ball mill and cut the groove which would form the lower half of the runner passage making sure to leave a radius in the ends so that when everything was soldered together I would be able to radius the outside of the manifold and not create a hole. Once this was done I turned the piece over in the vise and shimmed it up .032 from the chuck jaws. I then cut away the remaining stock leaving small tabs that would keep the filler piece from falling in the cavity. The ends were radiused to match the milling in the manifold.
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On the full sized manifold there is a collector box affair, actually it's where the heat valve resides to provide heat to the carburetor upon cold start up. You have to remember this was in the old days long before electronics and oxygen sensors and the like. This box is actually part of the casting, well the whole thing is a casting, and from this box is the outlet flange which exits at a compound angle but basically 48 degrees with a slight outward twist. This would need to be another 2 parts and they would have to be soldered to the main manifold.
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George, I guess you know that you are creating an addiction for all of us. Now we really have to try harder to match this. Just awesome work as usual. :praise2: :NotWorthy:
Don
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On the front of the manifold are some ribs, 3 on one side and 1 on the other. These would help locate the box for assembly. You will notice another cutout to the left of the box area, this is for the heat riser tube. This would be another separate part soldered onto the runner. Once all the parts were made and fitted the whole affair was fluxed up, assembled and clamped with small homemade tool maker type clamps.
The collector box and outlet flange had been previously brazed with 45% silver solder. I didn't want to have to solder too much at one heating.
I then fired up the oxycetelyne torch and started to heat everything up. Once the flux got clear and watery I dabbed a little solder to the parts. This solder would be 54% silver. Less heat. Everything went well and I let the part cool by itself not wanting to quench it and have it warp.
Here's what it looked like after soldering/brazing.
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I boiled the flux off and then gave it a good cleaning with my media blaster.
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Stunning Manifold George,
I don't comment much in your threads...............mainly because my supply of superlatives is exhausted but do learn heaps.
Best Regards
Bob
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I started filing on the bottom, taking off the small tabs the held the filler piece in place. I had a piece of paper on the table and this is just part of the filings that came from the bottom. I then mounted up a small conical burr and started roughing all of the square edges off being careful to not take too much and definitely not bump into the surrounding shapes. It looks ugly at this point but it will get better. In the one picture you can see where I radiused the end and the solder joint, without breaking into the runner. This was the reason for the fillet in the corners of the filler piece.
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Thanks Bob and Don.
On long threads like this it's hard to continually comment but I hope the information is helpful.
George
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Ok, after hours and hours of filing with any number of different shaped files I finally have a finished piece. I'm debating about shooting it with the blaster again. It sure gives it a nice patina.
gbritnell
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Wow! Nicely done George!....that IS sculpture!
Dave
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Magnificent George
Steve
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Indeed a magnificent piece of work! :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
Would it possible to put something (drinks can, 6" ruler, etc) in some of the pictures to give an idea of the size?
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Hi Roger,
Here's a picture with a quarter for comparison.
gbritnell
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Beautiful as isial George. The picture with the quarter helps show how small and intricate it is too! I would vote for bead blasting but that's just me, I like how the finish resembles a casting more.
Bill
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Holy crap George....I have no words!..
Wow!
Inadequate in Massachusetts.... :embarassed:
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I agree with all of the above....just WOW !! Very nice George. I also agree the bead blast look would be very cool as well.
Dave
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I don't think that quarter is up to your usual standard.
Cheers, Hugh.
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Gentlemen,
I started on the bellhousing this past Thursday. I started with a cutoff from a piece of 4 inch aluminum. The bellhousing is basically round so this seemed like the best way to go. I machined the block to the overall dimensions and then started chopping away stock. I drilled and bored the center hole first as this would be my register for all the following steps. The rotary table was set up and the inside was spun out. The pockets for the starter nose and clutch arm were also cut in this setup.
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I got a little more work done on it Friday between getting all my engines and equipment ready for the model engine show at Zanesville, Ohio. After the part was hollowed out I removed the rotary table and put the vise back up. I had to cut some angles to establish the surface for the 2 ribs that run from the transmission face up to the bolt flange. I really didn't want to put my sine plate up so I mounted the piece to my trusty angle plate and then clamped the whole affair into the vise. I initially used a protractor to get close and then with an indicator I bumped the angle plate to the exact angle. The finish cuts would all be made with a .187 ball nosed mill so I wanted to remove as much stock as possible. Once the angles were cut I laid out the 2 ribs, scoring the part deeply with the height gauge. I would have to bump to these lines so I didn't want them disappearing halfway through the job.
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Amazing. You're like a human CNC machine!
Simon
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The vise was removed and the rotary table was once again set up. There was no good way to clamp the part because it would need machining all around the outside so I made a fixture plate with a register boss to locate the housing. To keep it from possibly turning I machined a stop rail along the bottom for the housing to butt up against. In the center I put a 1/4-20 hole for a screw. This was tightened just enough to hole the part in place.
With my step-off chart in hand I put a .25 ball mill in and roughed off as much stock as I could. This was followed with the .187 ball mill. I got a little done Friday evening and that would be all till today.
-
I had most of the day to myself so I continued with the rotary work. This was very time consuming, bumping up to the rib layouts, trying to imagine tangent points between radii, rotating the table back and forth to establish and cut straight walls and then repeating some of the steps again once I could see where I had to remove stock. I finished up about 7:00 p.m. with all the machining. This is more than enough for today. All the bench work will have to wait for tomorrow.
gbritnell
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That is an amazing piece of work! :praise2:
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Aaah, George, you are a human CNC machine making all the calculations and movements manually as you go along. Don't know which I admire most, your skill or your patience. You certainly have a lot of both!
I suppose next I'm going to find out you are good looking, on top of everything else! :'(
Chuck
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http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Britnell.htm
Looks better than I do!
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Gents,
Let's not go there!!! :lolb:
Anywayyyy, here's the finished bellhousing.
gbritnell
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Wow !!! George that's just plain AWESOME !!
Dave
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A little bead blasting and it will look just like it was cast. Awesome George, keep cranking them out?
Don
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George,
Please accept this question as a sincere one, and not to diminish the masterful work you are doing, but
why not cast these pieces? Or have them cast?
Mosey :shrug:
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Or have them cast?
Mosey :shrug:
I believe Mosey, like George it's called " Craftsmanship".
Don
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Don, Buddy,
I don't believe that taking a casting to completion is necessarily not craftsmanship, though it is certainly less demanding than carving out of a billet. I think it is a different set of skills.
I could probably cite a list of more difficult than customary ways to do things. I wouldn't look down on someone who utilized a casting for a complex, 3d part.
Mosey
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Mosey, i guess I missed to boat. It was not intended to no included finishing casting as not being Craftsmanship. I simply meant that I would want to do the complete engine myself as I thing George would. Having them casted would take that away. I should of explained myself my bad buddy.
Don
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Hi Mosey,
I was a patternmaker during my working career. I could very well make the patterns and have them cast but I liken it to doing work with a CNC machine, what's the sense of going to all the trouble just to make one part. And by the way, I never take anyone's comments any way but sincere so there's no problem with your idea.
I recently did some work, machining castings for a company, some iron some aluminum. The quality of the aluminum castings wasn't the best of quality. Unless a person could find someone in this hobby that also does good castings I think I will stay with chopping them out of a block.
As far as crafsmanship goes, I got where I am today by learning how to make patterns and coreboxes so I consider that part of it craftsmanship also.
There is a fellow by the name of Jim Moyer , I believe it's him, who made a miniature 327 Chevy V-8. He made all the patterns, coreboxes, dies etc. for his engine but to the best of my knowledge wasn't interested in producing multiples of the parts. I guess his satisfaction was taking the job from concept, to casting, through machining and then functionality. I guess mine is starting from a block and watching the piece emerge.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and comments. I appreciate every one of them.
gbritnell
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Yet again, you amaze me George! That looks incredible. Is that a quarter sitting there? Can't tell the denomination. Regardless, simply amazing!
Thanks for sharing,
Kim
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What Michelangelo said..."all I do (to make my David) is remove all of the extra marble". Something like that, George?
Mind, I love what you do.
Mosey :ThumbsUp:
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George, I see what Mosey was saying, however, now you are making the pattern in " working form" Kinda cuts the middle man out as I would say.
Whiskey
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Gentlmen,
It's certainly time for an update. I posted the reason for my absence in the Chatterbox forum.
Up next is the camshaft. I make my cams from W-1 drill rod. It seems to machine a little better than O-1. I have posted my methods before but I'll recap a little here. I draw up my lobe profile and lobe separation angles in CAD. I then make a step-off chart to mill the lobe profile. The chart starts with the first lobe on the shaft at Z-0- and the rotary table at -0-. I then rotate the table to the required angle, in this case 11.5 degrees. I then move my quill down the specified amount and take a cut. This progresses down to the flank of the cam where the Z dimension is held and the table rotated 2 turns for every cut. My rotary table is 90:1 so that give me 8 degrees between cuts.
This cam will be made in 2 pieces so the distributor gear can be inserted between them. I started with a piece of .312 drill rod which mikes a little over .3125 so I had to polish it down to .311. I chucked it in my big lathe so I could rough the lobes and journals with a parting tool. I left about .005 on each side so that I could finish them in the small lathe. With that being done the rotary table with my home-made tailstock was set up and indicated true. The first piece was mounted and the stepping off started. It went quite quickly but I've done this before. When the lobes were finished I cut a flat on the inside end halfway through the stock. This would be my locating tang to match up with the other half of the camshaft.
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A short section of shaft was left round next to the flat so the gear would register true when pressed on. In this picture you can see the flat inside the gear.
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Both halves were cut and the flats were filed for a nice snug fit inside the gear. The halves were then cleaned and coated with Loctite and pressed into the gear. I had already set up my V-blocks so that I could clamp it true while the Loctite set up.
Now using a fine pillar file I smoothed all the tiny flats into a nice smooth surface. The lobes were then polished with fine emery and crocus paper until nice and shiny.
Another piece done.
gbritnell
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George,
Did you do that gear the Cfellows way?.....I like that way you took advantage of that gear to join the two parts with a lap joint....with Loctite...that's not going anyway!
Dave
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After finishing the cam my old computer quit so I couldn't print out any more drawings so I've taken a short break while the new computer gets set up. In the mean time I tapped all the holes in every piece and did a trial assembly just to see how things would look and fit. I thought you might like to see all of the external parts bolted together.
gbritnell
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Hi Dave,
Yes, that's how I made the gear, using Chuck's design for cutting the helicals.
gbritnell
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I think that's one of your best efforts yet George....Wow!
Dave
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I think that's one of your best efforts yet George....Wow!
Dave
I'll second that. It just takes my breath away looking at it. Such beautiful work carved out of metal. You have got to be the Michael Angelo of metal art George. :AllHailTheKing:
Don
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Awesome as per usual George
Any chance of a link to Chuck's helical method?
I am sorta stuck on the dizzy gears on my build at the moment. The castings were done to suit helical gears with a center to center of about half an inch from memory :noidea:
Pete
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It is amazing, probably a difficult question but I am wondering what you think of it George?!
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Hi Nick,
I thought about your question for a long time. I think I know what kind of answer you want so I'll try to answer it.
My enjoyment is seeing the parts take shape, whether it's my radial, the transmission or this engine. I really like problem solving, from design to fabrication. Every time I create something I get wrapped up in that particular build. Do I have a favorite of all my projects, I guess I would have to say my 302 engine. I think one of the things that impresses me the most with that engine is it was built early in my modeling career and every time I run or look at it I can't believe that I ever got it finished.
When I worked as a metal patternmaker I got satisfaction with every job I completed so it must just be part of who I am. I'm tying not to be narcissistic about this but for everyone that enjoys doing what they do, modeling, gardening, woodwork etc., if you don't enjoy doing what you do then why do it?
There are many others out there that build at my level and certainly above my level, the thing is they aren't members of these forums, or at least they don't contribute to the forums. I really enjoy sharing my work and my procedures.
I hope in some way I answered your question.
George
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:praise2:
I get it George!....and thank you very much for sharing it.
Dave
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Hi Pete,
I believe Chuck posted the drawings and build article for cutting helical gears on the other forum. Their search engine leaves a little to be desired. I did a quick look but couldn't find the thread. Maybe you could make a request to Chuck on this forum and see if he will post the drawings again. It's not really a complicated fixture to build. Marv also published the calculation program for finding all the numbers.
gbritnell
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I posted the drawings and links to some videos in the plans section.
Chuck
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I thought you might like to see all of the external parts bolted together.
Are you kidding?! It looks awesome, George. Don't forget to keep a quarter in the photos to remind us how small it is!
Simon
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Thanks for the shots of the trial assembly; I'd say it was a successful trial! Your engine is just stunning! As is the work on the cams. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Sorry about the computer problems. Glad you've gotten past them (for this time :))
Kim
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Stunning work as always George...don't know what else to say!!!
Bill
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Thanks for that George, I definitely get what you mean. The fact that it is what you really love, the skill and experience all come shining through along with the care and attention to detail you put into everything.
I was wondering what goes through your mind when you complete a component or a full engine. When I make something and it works, It surprises me and I'm excited. More often I think why did I do this that and the other and why isn't this working or I've tried hard and it still looks unacceptable!
When you make something you must be expecting it to be spot on ... do you still look at it and think that is amazing (like we do) or just well that's how it should be and I didn't expect / wouldn't settle for anything else?
Agree that there are some fantastic models that never get show on these forums. Sometimes at exhibitions I'm guilty of not even giving some of them a second look as they look text book and it's easy to underestimate or more take for granted the work that has gone into them. Possibly because we haven't seen this gradual build up.
Anyway, enough waffle, will keep watching and hopefully learning.
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Thanks for answering Nick's question the way you did, I certainly understand where you're coming from.
Constantly saying "wow" or "great work" does seem a bit droolingly gormless at times, but at the very least, thanks for showing us.
Cheers, Hugh.
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Well the new computer is up and running, old programs are installed, drawings printed out and back to work making parts. This time it's the connecting rods. Everyone has their favorite material and way of making rods, here's mine and the reasoning behind it. I guess when I first started building hit an miss engines from castings they came with cast bronze rods so when I started building some of my multi-cylinder engines I just followed suit. The one main difference being that my rods are made from a hard bearing bronze rather than the softer composition of the cast rods. I so dislike making spit bearings, especially in very small sizes so by making the rods from bronze I eliminate that part of the build. I also have to note that I have had very good performance with these rods both in my splash oil engines and pressure fed. My small 4 cylinder engine spins quite fast and over it's lifetime I have only had to refit the rods a couple of time. This just involves removing the caps and taking usually no more than .002 from the rods and putting it back together. I know what you're saying, "the rest of the bore is egg shaped." Well not really! I have found that most of the wear is in the thrust direction, up and down, so although there is wear left and right I have found it to be minimal.
I start with a piece of stock cut to the overall dimensions of the rod. I drill and tap from the bottom end for the required screw and then cut the cap off with a slitting saw. Prior to cutting I put a small dimple on the matching side so that the cap can be reinstalled in the correct orientation. The rod blanks being rectangular make it easy for all the preliminary machining steps. I then set up a stop in the vise for repetitive parts and drill, ream and bore the rods. Once this is done I make up a fixture plate with the necessary bushing to locate the rods and then cut the ribs and profiles.
gbritnell
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George, I use pretty much the same process for my rods, but yours look a lot better than mine!
Chuck
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George, just found this post , and all the adjectives I know have already been used.......but WOW. I've just started design of my first multicylinder engine and a speed read through your thread has been helpful. I'm curious about the main bearing slot, but am patient so I'll wait to see how that works out. The speed and quality of your work combined with the detail is fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
John
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The bell housing is yummy nice!
Mosey :happyreader:
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George, if you don't mind sharing, which Bronze alloy do you use for your rods, is it available as flat stock, and where can it be sourced?
Thanks
John
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Here's one of the companies I deal with.
http://www.speedymetals.com/pc-1949-8381-38-x-1-ca-954-aluminum-bronze.aspx
gbritnell
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Here's one of the companies I deal with.
http://www.speedymetals.com/pc-1949-8381-38-x-1-ca-954-aluminum-bronze.aspx
gbritnell
So here's what I learned about Speedy Metals. Create an account with your email address, then put several things in your cart, but don't check out right away. After a day or so you'll get an email from Speedy Metals telling you that you left something in your cart. Wait another day or two and they'll send you an email offering you 5% off your order if you complete it. Not a lot, but it's something!
Chuck
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Chuck, I learned that trick too about leaving stuff in your shopping cart.
I also really like to shop in the 'Fire Sale' section for various cutoff pieces at about half price, which helps tp mitigate shipping costs. I'm accumulating a little stockpile that 'will come in handy'.
--Tim
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Gentlemen,
It's been awhile but I have been busy. I made all the main bearings, my square bearings to be exact. The machining went fine but I spent a lot of time fitting them. When I first installed them the crank would rotate albeit snuggly so I oiled the bearings and let the crank spin in the lathe for awhile. Everything freed up quite a bit but it still had some binding to it. To get the bearings out every one had to be removed to get the crank out and have a look-see. There were some spots that were rubbing so with several fine files I polished the spots down then the whole thing was fitted up again. Another 10 minutes in the lathe and things got better. After a couple of times of dis-assembly and polishing the crank now spins nice and free. The bearings were made from the same bronze that I made the rods from. As I mentioned early in the build I was going to try this new method, at least new to me, for building the bearings. The ideas behind this method was to eliminate the need for line boring such a small diameter over such a length. Would I do it again, yes for this size but no if I was making a crank with .437 or larger journals. In the 2 photos you can see the front and rear main bearings are one piece. They just slip onto the crank and then it's dropped in place.
gbritnell
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The next step in the build was to make the timing gears. So much has been posted on making gears that I thought it a bit redundant to post more on the process. These gears are 48 D.P. with the cam having 60 teeth and the crank 30. They were cut with one of my home-made hobs and when installed fit very well.
gbritnell
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I didn't have enough cast iron for the cylinder sleeves so when the stock came I set out making them. The stock was rough turned and drilled and then let cool before finishing as I wanted to hold my dimensions right to the numbers. The finish bore will be .750 diameter so I bored them .7485 leaving a little bit for honing. The outside diameters were finished for a .001 press fit into the block, augmented with Loctite. The upper diameter is .875 and the lower is .865, that way the sleeve doesn't need to be pressed all the way down, just .200 length is pressed. The top has a .045 flange that has .002 clearance. One thing I discovered after I had pressed the sleeves in was that the bearing walls were .005 smaller than the bore so I wouldn't be able to get the hone through so after I took a skim cut from the top of the head deck to level out all the liners I turned the block over and bored the walls to .758 diameter. This will allow the hone to go all the way through.
gbritnell
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The last part of this update is the rocker arms. Boy for something so small I sure have a lot of time wrapped up in them. I'm guessing about 16 hours. At first I was going to use round stock and drill and ream the .187 hole then the slugs could be mounted in my dividing head for all the other cuts but after some contemplation it would have been very wasteful to do it that way so I stared with rectangular stock. I cleaned up the stock leaving .02 per side then chucked them in my 4 jaw on the lathe to put the .187 dia. pivot hole in. I made 4 blanks so that I could get 3 rockers per blank. That way they wouldn't stick out of the dividing head too far.
In the dividing head I cut all the outside profiles and then removed them and sawed them from the chucking lug with a slitting saw. This way I wouldn't have to try and hold the small pieces to cut them to width.
The next operations were putting the center slots and roller slots in. For this I made pockets in an aluminum fixture plate to hold them.
The final operations were radiusing the noses and bottoms then polishing.
I think this is the most tedious work when making multi-cylinder engines.
gbritnell
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Looks great George! I like the bearings....what size is the roller on the rockers?
Dave
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Yup! I would say you have been busy George. Thanks for putting the penny next to them, it's good to have some size comparison. Just beautiful work as usual and waiting to see it all complete and running. George are you going to offer some plans when complete, or is this just a one of a kind make? It sure would be nice to pass the torch to someone who can keep you work going. :praise2: :praise2:
Don
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Hi Don,
I'm making the drawings as I go along. When the engine is finished I should have a full set. The builder who doesn't need all the detail work could just simplify a lot of the complex shapes. I have them in there to replicate the 300 engine.
gbritnell
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Hi George, very impressive work as always!
Do you have any pictures of the sleeves before installation? I'm not quite getting the picture on the various diameters; is the press-fit section at the bottom or the top? You mention 0.002 clearance at the top end; does that leave a small gap? Does that matter?
Also, it looks like the bored holes in the block end up very close together; any troubles boring those out?
Simon
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Hi Simon,
Rather than try to explain what the different sizes meant I'm posting a couple of the drawings for you to see. Had I taken pictures of the liners you probably wouldn't have been able to see the small step anyway.
gbritnell
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Thanks George, I think I see how that works now! The liner is a press-fit in two bands, one at the top and one at the bottom, a flange around the top keeps it from going too deep, and there's a void around the center part: something like that? (Sorry if these are basic questions; my experience with IC engines is almost nothing!)
Simon
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Hi Simon,
You are correct. The bottom diameter and the top diameter have a .200 press area that are .001 larger than the block bores. The area around the liners has been opened up to form the water jacket.
gbritnell
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Here's the latest update on the engine. I have finished the top end, head valves, rocker arms etc. In the past I have used different methods for retaining the valve springs and caps to the valve stems. With very small stems I have threaded the top of the stem and then screwed the cap down until it bound up and locked itself. I did this with my 4 cylinder OHV engine and have never had any problems. Another way was to cross drill the stem and use a keeper pin set into a recess in the cap. This is good for larger valve stems, say .093 and larger. On my radial I made wire rings that were locked in place by a taper cut into the cap. For this engine I took a page from Steve Huck's build and used tiny E clips. My valve stems are .078 diameter and I was able to get metric sized clips that seem to work well. Time will tell.
When I mounted all the rocker arms to the pedestals I realized that some of them were very close to the bosses on the inside of the rocker cover so to remedy the situation I used one of the fixtures I had made when I first machined the rocker arms and cut a taper on the pushrod side of the rockers. Actually I like the looks better with the taper.
The springs are .026 diameter wire with 7 coils and 1-1/2 coils at each end that are tightly wound then ground flat. I'm not sure of the spring weight but this will get sorted out when I run the engine and see what it does.
gbritnell
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Amazing work, as always George! :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
Simon
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I look at that George, and I keep looking for the pickup truck in the background that it goes in!
:lolb:
:NotWorthy: :NotWorthy: :NotWorthy: :NotWorthy: :NotWorthy: :NotWorthy: :NotWorthy:
Dave
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Most impressive George, amazing work as usual. :praise2: :praise2:
Don
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George, I look at those pictures of the rocker arms in place and can almost see them moving and the whole engine purring away. Great progress, great pictures and great build log as always!!
Bill
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Hi George!
I´m impressed like h... of your works!
I´m thinking of what kind of rockers I would make to my inline 6 now then I startb building again to the winter here.
Had thought about to make the originals to Cox inline six but your looks better but a lot of work of course.
I have a question about how you set the play into the valves?
Is it by shims in the stud or do you have it in the bottom of the pushrods? :thinking:
Ove
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Hi Ove,
The rocker arm rotates on a cylindrical piece with a hole drilled through the center for the stud. This slides down on the stud and is held in place by the elongated hex nut. The hex nut is long enough so that a set screw/grub screw goes in against the stud. To adjust the valve you turn the hex nut to get the desired clearance then lock it in place with the set screw. Quite simple actually.
I have several other types of valve adjusting configurations, adjustable pushrods, adjustable screws with cups on the rocker arms over the pushrods and adjusters over the valve stems.
gbritnell
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Hi George,
I follow along your build all the time. It is very impressive as usual.
I like your valve adjustment system very much. Very simple and it sparks a few new ideas for me.
Thank you.
Gail in NM
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I would love to see the pockets in the fixture plate to see what you did. Possible?
Thank you,
Mosey
Good going George, the usual inspirational work!
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I like your valve adjustment system very much. Very simple and it sparks a few new ideas for me.
Hello Gail!
Do a google search for "poly lock rocker arm" and see what pops up. I made the poly locks for the Demon V8. If it's good enough for a big block chevy, it's good enough for me. The only problem with making them is the parts count goes up pretty good.
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As I had mentioned earlier I had used Steve's idea for the rockers on this engine and he's correct, the parts count goes up greatly from the standard rocker shaft with adjusters on either end of the rocker. One of the reasons for using this method was that my pushrods had to be moved farther apart to get the spark plugs in between all the while keeping the valves inside the combustion chamber, so in other words my rockers are canted. On top fuel engines they still use rocker shafts for strength and they use offset rockers to accomplish the same thing. The 300 six has individual rockers so that's why I made mine this way.
Mosey, the next time I take the rockers apart I will fit one of them into the fixture I made so you can better see what I did to machine them.
gbritnell
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Thanks for the insight George!....I have a project on the WAY back burner that will need rockers like that I think... :ThumbsUp:
Dave
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As I had mentioned earlier I had used Steve's idea for the rockers on this engine and he's correct, the parts count goes up greatly from the standard rocker shaft with adjusters on either end of the rocker. One of the reasons for using this method was that my pushrods had to be moved farther apart to get the spark plugs in between all the while keeping the valves inside the combustion chamber, so in other words my rockers are canted. On top fuel engines they still use rocker shafts for strength and they use offset rockers to accomplish the same thing. The 300 six has individual rockers so that's why I made mine this way.
Mosey, the next time I take the rockers apart I will fit one of them into the fixture I made so you can better see what I did to machine them.
gbritnell
Thank you, George!
Mosey
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Since completing the top end of the engine I turned my attention to the distributor. Quite naturally to keep things close to scale this is a Hall triggered distributor. The outside diameter is 1.050. It has a single magnet controlled by by a shutter disc with 6 windows.
gbritnell
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For this distributor I purchased a piece of black Delrin for the cap and rotor. I have never used this material before but the properties look pretty good and it machines nicely. I used a double setup consisting of my rotary table with a small indexing attachment mounted to it. This way the cap could be indexed then rotated with the rotary table to create the bosses on the cap. The electrical contacts were turned, installed and then lightly riveted from the inside. The rotor has a piece of .01 phosphor bronze for the center strap and is riveted to the rotor with a brass contact similar to the ones in the cap.
gbritnell
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The magnet post is adjustable and is held in place with a 0-80 socket head screw. The idea is to move it outward as far as possible without rubbing against the inside of the timing rotor. The timing rotor can be adjusted to set the timing and then locked in place with a 1-72 set screw. The rotor is then mounted and it has a 2-56 set screw to lock it to the .093 shaft. The distributor body has a .04 pin on the outer diameter to locate the cap. The cap is held in place with 2 stainless steel straps made from old windshield wiper inserts. I cut strips from the inserts (.100 wide) and then bent them to hold the cap down. Finally the Hall plate was mounted with 2- 0-80 socket head screws.
gbritnell
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Here's 2 video links. The first one showing the distributor and a spark plug being fired when the distributor shaft is rotated.
The second is an updated video just showing the engine, head and parts.
gbritnell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3HNroyfWWM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AaXhMzmCQk
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George I am full of envy. :praise2: That distributor is way to cool. :ThumbsUp: I can' wait to see it running. You must be getting real close to it. Is there going to be a fuel pump on it and I don't remember if you made an oil pump?
Don
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Wow George! That's all he could say was "Wow"...
That's much smaller than I'd imagined as I saw you making all the parts. Seeing your hand in there next to your engine really gives you a sense of its small size! And the distributor is amazing too, just like every other part of your build. Thanks for posting these videos. Its great to see it that way and hearing you describe some of your reasoning for how you did things.
Wow...
Kim
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Marvelous, George!
How do you attach the magnet,,, with epoxy glue? Other?
Mosey :noidea:
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Hi Mosey,
I lightly press it in place and then use a dab of JB Weld on the backside.
gbritnell
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As I'm sure you know, black Delrin grows when you machine it.
Mosey
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That distributor is an amazing piece of work :praise2:
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Gentlemen,
Here's the progress report on the engine. This episode is the construction of the water pump. I apologize for not taking pictures while machining but when you see the pictures with the reference penny you'll understand why it's so hard to take shots of these small pieces.
The housing is made from aluminum. It started as a rectangular block. The next step was to put the through hole and counterbores in each end, one for the pump cavity and the other for the 'O' ring seal and at this point, bronze bearing. The shaft is 303 stainless and the impeller is bronze. The impeller was machined with a .062 endmill to create the fins. You can see a line on one of the impeller blades. This was from the small cutter flexing slightly.
The final piece is the fan hub. This has a 2-56 set screw to hold the shaft in place with the proper spacing. I was going to press it on the shaft with the impeller but when the 'O' ring wears I would have to press it apart so this way I can just remove the hub and slide the shaft out.
I'm going to see how the bronze bushing holds up, if not then the cavity is bored for small ball bearings.
gbritnell
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Simply amazing George!
Kim
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George, as always, Excellent work! I can't wait until NAMES to see this project in person.
I have a question that might be of interest to others as well. Did you do your water pump impeller on the RT? If so, how did you figure the angles for making the cuts? I have been able to make similar parts on the RT, but I always get my head turned inside out trying to figure out the angles. There must be a way or a trick the experienced guys use to figure this out.
maury
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Hi Maury,
The impeller was quite simple actually, other than having to use a .062 end mill. The vanes are straight but offset from the centerline. I have a small indexer that I made with a 3 inch 3 jaw chuck. I mounted the chuck so that it is like a set-true type affair that way I can center a part perfectly. I'm attaching the water pump drawing so you can see what it looks like.
Actually these type of 'pumps' shouldn't be called pumps but circulators. All they do is move the water with the angled vanes more or less centrifugally.
gbritnell
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Beautiful Work George!
Dave
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Here's today's update on part production. I have finished the water outlet, fuel pump, oil filter, flywheel and breather cap. The fuel pump and oil filter are non functional but part of the overall look of the engine. I chose to add teeth to the flywheel for basically the same reason. Why not gear a starter to it you ask? Well even in the larger sized engines the size of an electric motor large enough to crank them over is way out of scale. With the high rpm's that they spin they can be geared for enough torque but this too adds to the overall size.
First up is the breather cap and flywheel.
gbritnell
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These are the pictures of the water outlet, fuel pump and oil filter.
gbritnell
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Here's the final picture for today. It's an overall shot of the engine with all the parts and pieces attached. Next up will be the dipstick (functional), starter (non functional) and spark plugs. For a project that was going to keep me busy over the winter suddenly is closer to being finished than I would have thought. When all the parts are made the engine will need to be taken apart for a few more machining operations on the block and rear main bearing.
gbritnell
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Thats beautiful George!.....are you going to paint it Ford blue...or leave it natural?
Dave
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Hi Dave,
The original intent was to paint it Ford blue. Although I have become a fan of bare metal engines I think this one will get the full paint treatment, much like my 302.
gbritnell
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Metal sculpting that beautiful deserves to be seen au naturel. Would you paint Henry VIII's armor?
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That is a beautiful looking engine and it's hard to imagine that you have created such a marvelous piece of metal art. That is true craftsmanship in every since. Well done George, well done. :praise2: :praise2: :praise2:
Don
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Thanks Marv,
I never thought of it quite like that. "Squire, fetch me thine armor!" "Aye sire and I've given it a fresh coat of Lavender." :ROFL: :lolb:
gbritnell
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Stunning George, just stunning!
Although it is beautiful as is, it is a model so good it cries for its rightful clothes.
Just my 2 cents.
Ron
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I agree with Marv, something that good does not need it!
If something is painted, I tend to wonder how much bog was used to tart it up.
Pete
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George aren't you glad you have all this help!!!! :lolb:
How ever you want to finish it maestro, I am sure it will still be gorgeous! :NotWorthy:
Dave
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George,
Paint what looks like it should be, and leave the rest alone. 2Cents worth. It gorgious!
Mosey :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsDown:
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Exquisite, undecided on paint - I would leave it. It only because I'd mess it up! You won't though.
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Gentlemen,
It's down to making bits and pieces, plugging holes and other miscellaneous jobs.
To keep with the overall look of the engine I started on the alternator and starter. I didn't envision a starter at the beginning of the project so when I made the drawing for the block I didn't provide for the area where the starter would go. The bellhousing had a flange for it but I needed to modify the block to clear and adapt the starter. On a full sized engine the starter bolts to the bellhousing but the block flange is short enough that only cutout is necessary. For my installation I had to make a spacer block with the same shape as the flange on the bellhousing to put the starter in approximately the correct position.
The alternator, along with the aesthetics, will allow the fan belt to be tightened up. It has 2- .125x.375 bearings for the shaft to spin on. The housing is 2 pieces to facilitate fabrication and assembly. Later on near final assembly time I can add a few more features to it to pretty it up. I had to set up the head to drill and tap the hole for the upper bracket. The block will need a tapped hole for the lower adjusting bracket but that will be done prior to final assembly also.
gbritnell
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They came out just gorgeous George and realistic looking. Any paint job you do will be great I am sure.
Don
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George, you certainly have created an original. Not many six cylinder model engines out there and none come close to the accuracy and detail of yours. What gorgeous piece of work!
Chuck
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George, your engine is beautiful. I like it very much. Very impressive.
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Amazing work George! Simply stunning...
Kim
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Awesome work George! I'm astonished about details... Moshe
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Agree Chuck, you don't usually see this configuration of engine, just can't believe how good it looks though :praise2:
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Gentlemen,
First off I would like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.
This will be my last update for awhile. I have a portrait commission that I have to get done by the first week of February so here is my latest addition to the engine.
For the fellows following this build you know that I'm trying to give this engine somewhat of a look of it's full sized counterpart so with that I wanted the fan to 'look the part'.
I had to come up with a way to add the ribbing and do the bending and forming in a methodical way as to not lead into a dead end for the next step.
The fan is made in 2 pieces. I'm assuming the full sized fan has the central ribbing on both the front and rear blades. This would necessitate complex dies for different radii so I opted to fully stamp the outer blade and then stamp the inner blade up to the edge of the outer blade tangent point.
I machined up the male and female die pieces from some scrap aluminum. The lower die was machined to hold the blade in place and provide the slots to hold the .062 drill rod to form the ribs. The .062 was a little larger than what I wanted but the next standard ball mill size was .047 and that was too small.
With the slots made I cut pieces of drill rod, one set for the full stamping and another for the half stamping.
I then made the upper die and cut the outer grooves with a .125 ball mill. This would accommodate the .032 aluminum stock.
gbritnell
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I cut a couple of pieces of stock, .600 wide and 2.60 long to fit the die. I radiused the corners to fit in the die. These would get larger later on so this was just to match the radius of the cutter I used when cutting the die.
I set the first pieces of drill rod into the lower die, inserted the blank, put the upper die in and squeezed it with my vise.
This came out ok. so I removed the full set of drill rod pieces and inserted the 2 short ones for the rear blade and formed the ribs on it.
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The next step would be to put the twist on the blades. I don't know what the grade is of this aluminum sheet is but it's very soft. I had done some experimenting prior to making the dies and found that clamping and twisting the blades in my vise, with sharp edges, would tear the aluminum very easily. I experimented with different thickness spacers, between the vise and twisting tool to allow the proper room for the twist. What I found was that if I radiused the edges of the clamping pieces I could get more of a bend without tearing the aluminum. I had this information so I then made up a set of clamping blocks with grooves in the one piece to go over the ribs on the blade and a slot in the other piece to allow it to locate squarely in position. I then made up a twisting tool that would clamp of over the blade. One side had the clearance groove and the other side was flat. I clamped up the first blade between the holding dies, mounted the twisting tool, allowing .125 space between the 2 and starting twisting the blade. It worked fine so I did the other side of the blade. I then did the other blade.
With both blades ribbed and bent I laid them over each other and found that the twist near the inner edge wouldn't allow them to lay flat against each other. A little filing and this was corrected.
You remember me saying earlier on that I didn't want to get to the point where I couldn't perform the next step, well it happened. I didn't give much thought to drilling the mounting holes figuring I could do that at the end but I found out that there was no real accurate way to hold the now bent blades for drilling.
All was not lost though because with the blades formed I found that they seemed a little short when held up to the engine so before I started on the next set of blades I modified the dies to allow the blade to be made .150 longer.
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I also found out that with the first bending and the need to file the inner edges of the blades I remade the clamping blocks .062 wider. This should allow a nice flat fit between the blade without filing.
I made up another set of blanks and this time using the lower die for holding and positioning I drilled the mounting holes first.
The ribbing was formed as explained previously and then the blades were clamped and bent using the wider blocks but still with the .125 spacer.
With the bending complete the blades now laid flat against each other. A little filing at the inside edge of the rear blade ribs allowed the outer blade to line up perfectly.
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The added length now seemed just about right. I filed the radii on the ends of the blades. The trailing radius is different from the leading one for some reason. I then bent the tips as per the full sized fan. Here again I don't know why, it must have to do with aerodynamics.
The blades were then polished and bolted to the water pump hub and pulley. I then found out that the tips of the blades hit the damper pulley so I machine a spacer, which some engines use, and remounted the blades. Here you see the finished fan in place.
gbritnell
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Here is a picture of the full sized fan for comparison.
gbritnell
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George.
I'v been followed you from the start on this build, I have to say this is a pice of art George.
My first whish for the new year that I could have a day in your shop just watching you do your tricks. Well I will be in the States for some days in july but not in your area :facepalm:
Second wish is that I will get some grip on the cnc stuff :shrug:
Best wishes for you and your family
CS
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That's some piece of work George and thank you for the step by step. I can actually understand how and why.
Happy New year to you and your family.
Don
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George, even what you consider a screw-up looks great. "Just Amazing", is all I can say. Now, unless the subject of your commission is young, smooth skinned and beautiful, you might not want to add the level of detail to your painting as you have to this build. Kinda like HD television, the actors and anchors hated it, the plastic surgeons loved it :naughty:. Now get the painting done and let's fire this sucker up. :cheers:
Whiskey
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I'm with you Whiskey this is a Classic!
Pete
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Hi George, I love your 302 but I believe the 300 6cyl is even better. Your attention to detail is unbelievable. Did you learn the step milling at Ford in metal pattern making before CNC? Enjoying all your posts, Gary
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Thanks once again everyone for the comments. Gary, when I learned my trade the only machines for making complex shapes were hydraulic duplicating machines. The model had to be made and then it was set up on the duplicating machine. A stylus attached to a very complex hydraulic valve mechanism would deflect when it was run up against a wall. This would then move the ram or head on the machine to duplicate the model. For small or quick jobs the only way to do them was by hand cranking a milling machine to given numbers. This is how I learned what I do today.
gbritnell
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Words continue to fail me George....sheer poetry in metal. The fan blades alone are a wonderfully defining detail!!
Bill
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Well I'm finally back in the shop. It felt good to fire up the machines again. Next on the agenda is the spark plugs. I'll post a couple of pictures just to keep continuity to the thread but will start another thread on the plug build.
gbritnell
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Those look awesome George! Glad you're back in the shop!
Dave
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George I am also glad to see you back in the shop. Those are some nice plugs. Would it be to much to ask if you could give us a lesson on how you go about doing your sheets to mill for say the heads? Some pointers on how to go about it and where you would start. It would help us newbies some.
Thanks For sharing
Don
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Hi Don,
Are you referring to how I step off radii when I make a part or something specific to machining a head?
gbritnell
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Hi Don,
Are you referring to how I step off radii when I make a part or something specific to machining a head?
gbritnell
Hi George thanks for the reply. Steps in making the radii is what I am more concerned with. Do you make a spread sheet with calculations in them or just work as you go along. I know you have to know your radius and depth to begin with, but I just curious as how you go about doing it. This would give me some in site without having to go through the trail and error of learning how to start, if that makes since to you.
Regards Don
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Hi Don,
I'll try to explain my steps for creating a part.
I have an AutoCad program on my computer. There are good free ones out there like Draftsight.
I kind of have an idea of what I want to create in my head and will sometimes make a quick pencil sketch so I have a roadmap to follow.
I then create the multi-view drawings of the part I am making.
The mathematical calculations for what I was taught as an apprentice are known as sine and cosining. An example is to draw a circle and put a vertical centerline through it. Now to follow the radius of the circle in trigonometric steps is to use the 2 functions, sine and cosine. From the point where the vertical centerline intersects the circle draw a horizontal line about .25 down and over to where it intersect the circle. Now draw a line from both intersections of the circle, this will be the hypotenuse of the right triangle. You know that you went down .25 so you have to find the side adjacent of the triangle to find out how far to move out from the centerline.
With my part drawn I take the radius that I want to step off and create another radius outside of it equal to the radius of the ball cutter I'm going to use. This is the radius that's used for the calculations.
I then draw equal angle radians from the center of the radius out to the outer radius. I then move my X -0- and Y-0- datum point to the top of the radius and using datum dimensioning I put numbers at each intersection point, one for X and one Y. I then print out this layout and use it to step of a radius.
I'm attaching one of my worksheets for the top cover of the T-5 transmission. Maybe this will visually help with the explanation.
gbritnell
gbritnell
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George I can' thank you enough for going through the trouble to explain and show me how it's done. The datum helps to visualize the radius. I understand the circle coordinates and when I get some time will try to work out a spread sheet to do it with. I have Autocad and all these points can be done and calculated with Autocad then print it out. I believe my DRO has a radius function built in to it. I need to pull out my book and do some learning.
Much appreciated Don
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Don,
I haven't checked it yet, but try this on for size
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Nice to see you back in the shop George. though the display of your artwork in the interim is just as inspirational as your artistry in metal !!
Bill
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Don,
I haven't checked it yet, but try this on for size
Thanks a lot Dave, you can also use it backwards for cutting a radius cavity.
Don
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Thanks Dave,
I plugged in some numbers and it works great.
gbritnell
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Thanks for checking that George!.......Too much going on!
Dave
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Things have been quite productive in the shop. I don't know if it's trying to make up for lost time but I'm getting near the end of the parts making. First on the agenda was some type of motor mounts. I had made provisions on the block by adding tapped bosses at the front so I only needed to drill and tap the bellhousing for the rear mount. I added some lightning holes to each to give them an industrial look.
gbritnell
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The next 2 parts are the carburetor and air filter canister. The carb is an air bleed type but very small. I moved the needle from the customary bottom position to the back. I wanted the carb to have somewhat of the appearance of an automotive carb. The fuel tube which can be seen in the one picture is pressed into the back wall of the carb. The needle valve controls the fuel flow coming from the fitting at the front.
Rather than use the customary throttle barrel stop screw I put a boss on the bottom of the carb to hold a 0-80 screw which will be used to adjust the idle.
The air filter housing lower body was turned with an extension on the bottom to fit over the boss on the carb, The inlet tube was made from a rectangular piece of aluminum. I mounted it in the vise and using the boring head set to the diameter of the housing I cut a .015 recess on the top and bottom. The side were then milled .015 deep to match the tangent points of the radius on the top and bottom. This way I could press the inlet tube into the housing and it would have a nice radius to match. I then put the piece on end and drilled and milled the inside out. The walls are .015.
gbritnell
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And finally for today some overall shots of the engine on the mounts with the carb and air filter housing in place.
gbritnell
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George,
This is another of your finest projects, and truly inspirational. Thank you for showing to us. :praise2: :praise2:
Mosey
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Beautiful and totally amazing!!! I'm a loss for words that is one amazing looking piece.
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Wow! That is beautiful. That straight six makes me miss my old Ford. Yours probably runs better and uses less oil.
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Brilliant George
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Awesome, inspirational
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Hello George ,
Can't wait to see it run ! Glad your back up to speed in the shop ! :)
Brian
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George,
Do you have a routine for getting a finished engine ready to run? Such as, taking apart and cleaning crankcase parts? Torquing internal bolts, ie., big ends, bearing caps, etc.? Adjusting valves?
Setting timing?
How do you break in a new engine?
What do you use for fuel?
When they run for the first time, do you smoke a Cuban cigar with a glass of old wine? :cartwheel: :cartwheel:
Mosey
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Just love her :Love:
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Hi Mosey,
Although outwardly this engine is almost finished I have some internal work yet to do so the entire engine will be pulled apart to do the few final machining operations. Once complete everything will be oiled and assembled. I do have some beak in time on the engine (running in the lathe between centers) but will give it a little more. The timing will be set, the valves adjusted, the fuel hooked up and the engine spun over. I usually set the air bleed on the carb to half open with the needle valve closed and the throttle cracked a little above the idle position. As I'm cranking the engine over I slowly open the needle valve until I get some kind of firing. I play with the needle valve until the engine continues to run. At this point usually the engine won't rev up because the mixture is adjusted for the air bleed opening and goes lean when trying to throttle it. From here I open the needle valve and open the throttle simultaneously until it will rev up. Now when the throttle goes back to idle one of two things will happen, the engine will go rich in which case I open the air bleed screw some more or it will go lean and the air bleed needs to be closed a little. Calculating the air bleed hole size and adjustment takes a little doing some time.
Now this is if everything goes right. If not then playing around with timing and such is required.
I have done this enough times that I have a baseline for timing and carb settings so I can usually come close right from the start.
I use pump gasoline, 86 octane. I have always had good luck with this fuel so that's what I use.
gbritnell
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I wonder if you have any idea of how many days you spent on this build?
I have build only on evenings and weekends in 5 month on my six.
Ove
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Hi Ove,
I really don't keep track of hours any more when I'm building something. I looked at the first drawing I made and it was dated August 13, 2013. I finished all the block drawings, (5) before I started to build so I probably made my first cuts around August 24th. To really tally the time I would have to add in the design and drawing time so if you take 6 months x 22 days x 5 hours average you end up with about 700 hours. Now there was Thanksgiving and Christmas in that time so the 5 hours per day is an average. Some days I would spend 8-10 hours and some days 3-4. The 22 days per month is subtracting weekends. Here again on some weekends I would work a full 8 hours and some not at all.
gbritnell
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Gentlemen,
Boy it's been quite some time since I last reported. I'm finally home from Florida where I was helping my brother-in-law put some hot rod tractors together. Along with the week my wife and I spent there I have been gone for almost 6 weeks.
I finally got back into the shop and had my list of remaining items that needed to be completed on the engine so the whole engine was torn down.
gbritnell
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First on the agenda was the crankshaft. I had never put keyways into it because I didn't know exactly which way I was going to go at the beginning. I used the fixture plate that I had made when I first started on the engine. The crank was bolted to it and aligned so the key slots would be in line with the #1 cylinder at TDC. I put it in the mill vise and used a small Woodruff key cutter to cut the slots, one on each end. The fixture was then set vertically to drill and tap for the front pulley bolt.
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Next up was the rear main bearing. When I originally made it I machined a groove for an O ring to be used as an oil seal. The problem was not having the proper O ring on hand when I machined it, I just assumed it to have a .062 cross section, which it didn't. It is actually .068 and wouldn't go into the recess. I tried to chuck it in my 4 jaw chuck but couldn't get it square to I had to make a small fixture plate to mount it to. This was then mounted in the 4 jaw and the groove was opened up to the correct size.
Job 2 finished.
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The next operation was to do some more drilling and tapping on the block. The original mounting holes for the water pump needed to be moved because the pump shape had to be changed along the way for clearance. While the block was standing up in the vise I also drilled and tapped the hole for the lower alternator bracket.
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My 4 cylinder engine has a crankcase vent on the side of the block and it works fine. For this engine I hadn't thought about the crankcase vent until the build was about halfway through and then decided that I would use the cap on the rocker cover as my vent. To get the pressure from the crankcase out of the engine I would need a path through the block. To do this I drilled 2 holes between the end sets of lifters. This would allow the fumes and pressure to pass through the block by way of these holes and into the lifter cavity. From there it could pass up the pushrod holes into the rocker cover and out the vent cap.
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The biggest part of the job was to move the dip stick boss. I didn't do a layout on it when I started drawing up the engine and when I made up the dip stick and slid it into the tube I found that it hit one of the crank counterweights. Hmmm! I could just use a dummy stick and forget about it but I really have no other way of checking the oil so the move had to be made. I did a layout of the boss, moving it into one of the crankcase webs and came up with a drawing for a patch that would cover the old hole and create the new boss.
The block was set up and indicated and then the old boss was cut off and the patch area was cut out. To follow the block wall contour I would need to put a step in the patch both on the top and bottom surface. The patch piece was cut leaving extra material on the boss to hold in the vise to put the .03 step on the bottom side.
Once the machining was done on the cavity and patch I made up some aluminum screws. These would be tightened into the block holding the patch in place and then broken off. That is what the reduced area behind the head is for. I left about .004 stock on the sides of the patch so that I could fit it tightly into the cavity.
gbritnell
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Nice patch there George! At this stage, every operation seems like a nail-biter!
Simon
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Nice to see you back in the shop George. Every time I check in I am inspired by your work and attention to details. Not that I am tired of seeing pics of your inline 6, but did you happen to take any of the hot rod tractors to show us while in FL?
Bill
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Hi Bill,
As a matter of fact I did. I'll post some of them on the miscellaneous category.
gbritnell
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Patch worked out well - amazing mass of parts - looks jut like the real thing stripped down!
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Well the patch is in and finished. I ended up with one tiny mark on the edge of the one screw head. C'est la vie!
Tomorrow I can start reassembling.
gbritnell
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That turned out really nice, George.
Chuck
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Well done George! I am constantly making boo boos that need to be fixed on my projects lately it seems. Now I know how to fix some of them. Thank you thank you! :cartwheel: :cartwheel:
Ron
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From the old Robert Burns poem, "the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray."
Being a little behind on finishing the engine I have been working steadily to get it done in time for the NAMES show. The last few days here in northern Ohio have been beautiful, upper 70's so the plan was to get the engine out on the bench and see if it would fire up. Well this is Tuesday and true to Ohio's spring weather I refer back to my opening statement. Overnight we got snow and cold temperatures, yet again. This had been the winter from well you know where!
It's supposed to warm up in a day or two so I'm getting everything ready for the first fire-up, engine full of oil, plugs clean, timing set and ignition boxes charged up.
In the meantime here's some pictures of the 'finished' engine. These show all the finished pieces bolted up where they should be, alternator etc. The newly positioned dip stick boss had it's tube and stick in place. The plug wires have been made up and installed. I even found time to make 4 spare spark plugs.
I'll keep everyone updated on the starting progress.
gbritnell
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A few more finished pictures.
gbritnell
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:NotWorthy: Wow, I have only just caught up with this thread, Wow, what a little gem.
I can't wait for it's first fire breathing start up :popcorn:
Graham
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:o :o :o :o
What a beautiful craft! you have impressed us all with your work!
Like Graham, I´m too waiting for the first run video :NotWorthy:
Saludos!
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The engine looks amazing. Can't wait to see it in person (running, I expect).
--Tim
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Awesome George, you are my hero and I want to grow up to be like you. :lolb: Superb work as usual and I am chumping at the bits to see it running. I bet see runs smooth and purrs like a Kitten. I like.......... :praise2:
Don
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George, if I hadn't just driven 500 miles each way to CF, I would sure be tempted to drive up to NAMES if only to see your work and Steve Huck's and to see this little gem in action. Congratulations on another perfect model...I suspect the running part is even now a foregone conclusion :)
Bill
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George, that is a very fine looking 300 Ford!
Regards,
Chuck
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Wow, George! That's simply stunning!
Kim
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Hi George, I have spent a long time to look at these pictures of your engine. The more I look at these pictures, the more I recognize amazing details at your build. It is fantastic and so impressive to see it. Perfect job.
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Jaw dropping.
That's just awesome, George.
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:ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
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Looks fantastic George.
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George,
Your new engine is really impressive. It shows what the ultimate in engineering, craftsmanship, and industry of modelling are. I copy your pictures and refer to them all of the time as the example of what I aspire to achieve. Thanks.
Mosey :cheers: :cheers:
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An amazing piece of craftsmanship!
Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
Dave
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Piece of art george :praise2: I hope when I have my 3D CAM software up and running I will be able to get more details in my parts, by hand its out of my leage......
Hope to hear this beauty running soon.
Jeroen
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Well i couldn't think of a better way to spend a Sunday than going through ea and every post :-)
A true work of art as many have said and a piece of engineering to be proud of and will inspire many for years to come
Bernie
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Thanks for resurrecting this post - definitely worth reading!
I had a variation on the straight-6 Ford 300 engine for some years - it was in an old F100 that I bought many years ago - but it was a 5-cylinder engine. Well, I guess there were 6 in the block, but 5 that actually worked. :)
Of course, I only paid $50 for it - and got a lot of years of occasional use out of it for hauling mulch and such - and sold it for $200! :)
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Somehow I missed this post, it's stunning George!