Author Topic: Elmer's #33  (Read 17950 times)

Offline Heffalump

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Elmer's #33
« on: February 22, 2014, 01:49:53 PM »
My first project served its purpose, and now I think it's time to make something I can be proud of! I'd picked this engine before I realised that Stan was making his. When I did see, I thought again, but then I reasoned that having someone as good as Stan making his at the same time could be beneficial to me! I'm going to try to make this thread as detailed as possible, and leave in my many mistakes, so if there are any other beginners like me, we can share our travesties!

It will probably be quite a slow build, due in part to the many mistakes I will inevitably make, but also because I will be building this during my lunch breaks at work. I have taken Elmer's plans and begun converting them to metric measurements, as my machine tools are metric. I'll be buying some imperial drills and reams for the fitment of shafts & bearing surfaces etc, but all the fasteners will be metric.

I decided to start with the sub base for no apparent reason. I laid it out with permanent marker, and scribed the edges to cut out, as well as the centres to drill. I started with our little bandsaw in the shop, but soon realised it was too weedy, and cracked out the hacksaw.



Quite a lot of time and a cup of tea later I'd made it this far:



And finally got it free.



I made a mark with the hacksaw when it jumped out of the slot. (Sweary swear swear) But I'm hoping this will disappear when the edge is bevelled.

If you have any tips, advice, or questions please pipe up - I can take criticism!

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2014, 01:56:58 PM »
Well, while I was asking about your interests on the intro post your were already busy posting this Jim. And you obviously remembered your camera too :)  Off to a good start there and I will look forward to seeing it progress. As you say it is often helpful when someone else is working on the same or a similar engine. Glad to see you jumping right in here on MEM !!

Bill

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2014, 03:23:22 PM »
and leave in my many mistakes, so if there are any other beginners like me, we can share our travesties!

 :ThumbsUp:

Yes. I learn from other's mistakes and hope they learn from mine.
I expect I will learn less and less from your mistakes, yet more and more as you gain experience.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline Heffalump

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2014, 03:42:46 PM »
and leave in my many mistakes, so if there are any other beginners like me, we can share our travesties!

 :ThumbsUp:

Yes. I learn from other's mistakes and hope they learn from mine.
I expect I will learn less and less from your mistakes, yet more and more as you gain experience.

I look forward to getting to the point where I begin to be able to answer questions as well as ask them!

Offline smfr

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2014, 05:16:15 PM »
That's a good start, Jim!  :ThumbsUp:

You should resize your photos to be about 800x600 so they aren't too big to download, or require scrolling on smaller screens.

Simon

Offline Heffalump

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2014, 05:19:07 PM »
That's a good start, Jim!  :ThumbsUp:

You should resize your photos to be about 800x600 so they aren't too big to download, or require scrolling on smaller screens.

Simon

Good plan - I'm used to everything resizing itself. I'll do that in future.

Offline Heffalump

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2014, 06:47:06 PM »
I got the base set up in the mill ready to tidy up the edges to size



And got to work!



Re-viced the work piece and cleaned up the last edge



After using a drill blank to indicate the work I got ready to drill the three mounting holes, looks like my maths was right!



Didn't take any photos of the actual drilling. I'm going to use M3 screws through the base, and had some handy 3.1 drill bits to spare, so I used the DTI to set my locations whilst checking against the marks I made earlier, centre drilled then drilled out the holes. Then it was time to flip the part to machine the slots for the fake anchor lugs. As they were purely cosmetic, I didn't mark out to double check my winding, but used the DRO and trusted my maths for the locating. The plans call for 1/4", and I had a brand spanking 6mm end mill ready to cut the slots with, I just need to remember to annotate the drawing before I start making the anchor lugs.

I needed the slots to be 4.762mm deep, so I took two 2mm cuts down before measuring and taking a final cut.



All ready now for some de-burring and cleaning up, before the bevels are added much later on.



Lastly, does anyone have any tips for holding work in a vice/chuck without marking it, but still keeping it true?

Thanks for looking.

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2014, 07:18:27 PM »
Hi Jim, you aren't wasting any time making some progress on the #33. As to the vise issue, the most obvious thing is to make sure the jaws are clean and free of any chips which can press into the work when the vise is tightened, but you probably know that already :).  Aside from that, I don't  find the vise marks any worse than the machine marks usually, but even so, I leave a few thousandths on the edges to carefully finish on a flat plate with 400 grit sandpaper after the machining is all done. This takes some elbow grease but eliminates both the machine marks as well as any vise marks.

The same can be done with the lathe chuck, leaving just a bit of OD to clean up carefully with sandpaper or scotchbrite. if the jaws leave marks.

Bill

Offline sshire

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2014, 07:37:51 PM »
 Hey, Jim
I'd better get moving on mine before you catch up.
I usually find something that I forgot to do after I've finished a surface. I've made a set of aluminum soft jaws for my vise. As Bill said, clean the jaws. If the part is steel, the aluminum jaws aren't going to mark it. If it's aluminum, a piece of thin card stock (Manila file folder) seems to help. I saw someone on YouTube use copper sheet vise jaw covers for gripping brass and aluminum. Seems like a good idea.
Best,
Stan

Offline Heffalump

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2014, 09:26:51 PM »
Hey, Jim
I'd better get moving on mine before you catch up.
I usually find something that I forgot to do after I've finished a surface. I've made a set of aluminum soft jaws for my vise. As Bill said, clean the jaws. If the part is steel, the aluminum jaws aren't going to mark it. If it's aluminum, a piece of thin card stock (Manila file folder) seems to help. I saw someone on YouTube use copper sheet vise jaw covers for gripping brass and aluminum. Seems like a good idea.

I don't know about that stan, I've a lack of work holding equipment that's going to make the cylinder extremely interesting! We don't have a rotary table, although the mill vice is rotatable with a degree scale, so I suppose it could be turned by hand making very shallow cuts to a certain degree of accuracy, I'm not sure how safe this is though. I was even worried about how I would hold the work at an angle to mill the 3o bevel, until I realised I'm using a Bridgeport and the head nods very easily! I like the card stock idea - I'll be using that one, thanks.

Hi Jim, you aren't wasting any time making some progress on the #33. As to the vise issue, the most obvious thing is to make sure the jaws are clean and free of any chips which can press into the work when the vise is tightened, but you probably know that already :).  Aside from that, I don't  find the vise marks any worse than the machine marks usually, but even so, I leave a few thousandths on the edges to carefully finish on a flat plate with 400 grit sandpaper after the machining is all done. This takes some elbow grease but eliminates both the machine marks as well as any vise marks.

The same can be done with the lathe chuck, leaving just a bit of OD to clean up carefully with sandpaper or scotchbrite. if the jaws leave marks.

Bill

Nice and steady does it! Thanks for the tips, all added to the repertoire!

Offline Heffalump

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2014, 02:22:19 PM »
I had a fight with a scalpel this morning and lost. Unfortunately the Emergency Department took my machining time today :( And I was SO looking forward to hacksawing the base out of sheet! :Jester:

Offline Heffalump

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2014, 10:22:58 AM »
Quite a deep cut on my thumb has made certain operations on the tools a little uncomfortable so I've been taking my time, but it's about time for an update. I got the base marked out on an ali sheet ready to cut out.



I do love to use that hacksaw



a little bit of trimming down and sizing in the mill, and a check against the sub-base





Wheres where I made a mistake, I marked out the through holes on the bottom of the part, but I forgot to flip the Y axis for my bottom face marking out. When I flipped the part, unsurprisingly, my marks were in the wrong place! Point to note, if marking the bottom, flip the Y axis!

Re-blacked and marked out again





Hot to trot now, I got the part viced up and used a 4mm rod to set the DRO



Now follows a lot of centre drilling...



Drilling...



And tapping. (Of which I don't have a picture.)

I've almost done all the drilling and tapping, maybe more updates later :)

Offline steamer

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2014, 10:34:12 AM »
Sorry to hear of your accident!....Take time to let it heal, and keep the shop stuff out of it.   Nasty infections from metal chips...

Did the same thing with a lathe tool once...opened me up quite nicely....4 stitches on the digit....to say nothing of the beating I took from myself!.. :facepalm2:

Took 3 days for the Marcaine to wear off enough that I could actually feel my finger.....but no tendons or ligaments....thankfully!

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline Heffalump

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #13 on: February 28, 2014, 10:56:00 AM »
Sorry to hear of your accident!....Take time to let it heal, and keep the shop stuff out of it.   Nasty infections from metal chips...

Did the same thing with a lathe tool once...opened me up quite nicely....4 stitches on the digit....to say nothing of the beating I took from myself!.. :facepalm2:

Took 3 days for the Marcaine to wear off enough that I could actually feel my finger.....but no tendons or ligaments....thankfully!

Dave

The most important thing I've learned - don't cut cable ties with a scalpel!

Offline smfr

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Re: Elmer's #33
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2014, 04:56:11 PM »
Looks good! One word of caution; it looks like you're milling the end by holding the long part vertically in the vise, and end-milling? Be careful if you have to cut so far above the vise; there's a lot of leverage, and it's easy for the part to move. It's much better to hold the part horizontally and side-mill in cases like this (but it does required that you've trammed the vise accurately to keep things square).

Simon

 

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