The Le Rhone 9C

[Craig DeShong]

Thanks for all the well wishes regarding the knee replacement surgery.  The surgeon did a partial joint replacement (insert a prosthetic at one of the touch points as opposed to all three) so my recovery has been quicker and less painful that a complete joint replacement. I’m two weeks out of surgery and my recovery is well ahead of the curve (so my Physical Therapist says).  So much so that I’ve placed attending the Cabin Fever Expo, held in mid-January at Lebanon Pennsylvania, back on the schedule.   I’m even planning to exhibit my four Otto & Langen models; a few friends have committed to doing the heavy lifting in moving them in and out of the exhibit hall.

Today, I even managed to get in a little shop time.  I’ve been pondering how to make the connecting rods with attached slipper shoes and I’ve come up with a jig that I believe will facilitate my machining of them.  Below I give you a view of said jig:

[crueby]

Glad the recovery is going well, must be fun to ease back into the shop again.   

[cnr6400]

Glad to hear things are going well Craig! 

[Dave Otto]

Good to hear that you are on the mend. 

Dave

[Admiral_dk]

Great to hear that you are doing well - so is it still 'No pain - No gain' with the therapist 

Per

[Craig DeShong]

Chris, CNR, Dave, Per; Thanks for the well wishes.  It’s great to be back in the shop again.  I wasn’t really expecting to get there till mid-January.  They took the staples out of the incision today so I should have more movement now.  My Physical therapist, with a gleam in her eye, said she would have a whole new series of torture exercises for me when sees me next, which will be tomorrow.

Back in the shop for a few hours today.  I’ve been keen to try making one of these connecting rods with integrated slipper shoes.  Below I’m centering, drilling, and reaming the hole for the wrist pin that will connect this connecting rod to the piston.



Next I’m thinning down the width of the connecting rod.  The full width is the width of the slipper shoe.



Next I’m using my Volstro rotary milling head to form the top of the connecting rod.




Shame, shame; after showing you the jig I made for milling the slipper shoes, I failed to take pictures of how I made the slipper shoe.  No problem, I have eight more connecting rod/slipper shoes to make.  I’ll get you some photos later.

Below is a photo of the completed connecting rod-slipper shoe, attached to the piston with a wrist pin.



Below,  a photo of the slipper shoe inserted in the rear half of the slipper disks.


Finally a photo of the slipper shoe and slipper disks mounted on the crankshaft in the engine.


I’m delighted.  The crankshaft spins easily with no noticeable drag.  Whew! Only eight more to go.

[kvom]

I'm guessing that there are three rods for each groove, and that the length of each set of 3 rods is different.

[Craig DeShong]

Thanks for stopping by to see the latest.

Kirk:  you are correct, three slipper rings with three slipper shoes made to fit each slipper ring.  Cylinders 1,4,7 use the inside ring; cylinders 2,5,8 use the middle ring, and cylinders 3,6,9 use the outside ring.

I worked on making another connecting rod and slipper shoe today.  This will be for cylinder 4.  I took photos along the way so you can see the procedure I used.  Below is a photo of a connecting rod with slipper blank inserted in the jig I made a few posts back.  This jig allows me to turn the connecting rod over and still maintain the centered orientation of the –in process- slipper shoe.



I spent some time trying to decide if I wanted to make these slipper shoes on the turntable or with my rotary milling head on the mill.  The rotary milling head on the mill won out when I realized I could set a stop in the mill vice jaws and repeatedly remove and re-insert the jig, containing the connecting rod & in-process slipper shoe in the vice without losing my set-up.   

Below is the setup I using to  machine the slipper shoes with the rotary milling head on the mill.
 


I first cut to full depth, the inside bearing face of the slipper shoe.



This was followed by cutting the outside bearing face of one side of the slipper shoe.



By turning the jig over I could cut the other side of the outside bearing face of the slipper shoe.


I have my mill tied up with the rotary milling head and don’t want to lose the setup.  I can ‘try’ the slipper shoe in the slipper rings.  As long as I don’t change the setup on the mill I can place the jig containing the connecting rod with slippers back on the mill and make a few adjustments to the rotary milling head to change the profile of the slipper shoes.

This is one of those times I’m thankful I kept my mill-drill when I upgraded to the Bridgeport mill.  It’s nice to have a second mill; though I don’t need one often.  Below, I’m finishing profiling the slipper shoes at the end of the connecting rod.



A bit more profiling on the mill-drill.



Finally, a photo of the semi-completed connecting rod with slippers.  Like the connecting rod & slippers I made up thread for cylinder #1, this connecting rod with slippers slides nicely in the slipper disks.  However, when assembling both connecting rod & slippers to the engine frame I have a collision between the slippers.  Each is a bit too long.  This was actually expected and a little judicious filing to shorten the slippers will correct this problem.  The day is waning however and this sounds like a good place to start tomorrow.

[crueby]

Those slipper shoes are intricate things, very impressive work!

[petertha]

Yes, that is some jewelry making. Bravo. I've never seen a rotary milling attachment, very cool.

[Art K]

Craig,
Are the slipper rods made out of steel? Great work there! I had never seen a slipper rod so it's good to finally understand exactly how it works. I have to admit that the rods look delicate compared to the rest of the engine.
Art

[Craig DeShong]

Chris, Peter, and Art; thanks for the complements.  Thanks also for those of you who take the time to just stop by the see the latest.

Art: the connecting rod & slipper shoes are made of 12L14 steel.  Also, I'll agree that the slippers look rather fragile.   Were my model preserving a scale bore and stroke there might be cause for worry, but since my stroke is shorter than scale and my bore is less than scale; the cylinder displacement come out to under ½ the volume that would be true scale.  I doubt there will be enough power generated to damage them.

Today I completed making the connecting rod & slipper shoe for cylinder 7.  This completes the row of slipper shoes for the inner slipper disk slot.  After fitting all three slipper shoes to the slipper slot so there would be no collisions between the slipper shoes as the engine rotates, the engine case spins freely.   I though you might enjoy seeing a video of this inner ring of slipper shoes running in the slipper disk as the engine rotates.  The below video gives a good view of how the slipper shoes 'slip' in the slipper disk as the engine rotates.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7TedFSj7Ns" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7TedFSj7Ns</a>

[crueby]

Very interesting motion. Was the rows of shoes something that Le Rhone invented or is that common on other brands too?

[Craig DeShong]

Chris, I believe the slipper shoe/disk arrangement was unique to the Le Rhône, though I might be mistaken.

 I’ll also add that I only have the rear slipper disk installed on the crankshaft so the motion of the slipper shoes in the slots can be observed.  With the other half of the slipper disk installed and the remaining connecting rod/slipper shoes installed, I would anticipate the slipper disk to rotate on the crankshaft and the  movement between the slipper shoes and disk slots to be only what is required to allow the connecting rods to remain aligned with the crankshaft throw.

[Kim]

Wow, Craig! That is just really cool! 

Can't wait to see all nine of them in there slippering around. That'll be something!

Kim