The Le Rhone 9C

[bent]

Sounds like you are back on track, Craig!
 

[Roger B]

Looks like you have a solution     

[Craig DeShong]

Chris, CNR, Kim, Jo, Ben, and Roger; thanks for your comments. Thanks also for everyone who take the time to stop by.

Jo:  my Mom  had one of those machines too.  She made a lot of dresses for my daughter back when she was small.  Jessie had a teddy bear, and she made a dress for my wife, my daughter, and the teddy bear; all the same material and the same design.

Didn't find a photo of all three, but here's a photo of my daughter, taken many years ago with her teddy.



I've made the first of the “new” cam rockers.  These required a lot more filing to finish that the previous ones; they may be a bit larger, but the design doesn't lend itself to finishing on the mill like the previous ones.




Here you see one mounted to the engine case.  Still need to make the cam rollers and shoulder bolts that attach them to the rockers.

[RReid]

You took a fall but are back in the saddle! Way to go. And that's a very cute pic of your daughter.

[Admiral_dk]

Crossed fingers here - as I hope that you have found the better solution and will be revarded for it 

Per

[bent]

No fall recorded, just the usual tweaking needing to be done in R+D!   She'll be firing on all 9 in short order.   

[Craig DeShong]

Ron, Per, Ben, and everyone else who is hanging with me through this venerable slog.... I suspect we'll get there... eventually.

The more I looked at the cam disks in my previous post, the more I disliked them.  The approach ramp was way too steep, and though the rollers on the cam rockers would climb them; I could tell they weren't happy about it.  I thought another re-design was in order- making the ramps a bit less severe.  I needed to remake the cam disks to do this because I still needed the duration of the valve opening to be correct.

Below, you see the “new new new new.... new  ” cam disk design.  The rollers on the can rockers are really happy with this new arrangement; they climb the ramps easily and with no potential binding.


Now, to get busy re-making the eight remaining cam rocker assemblies.

[cnr6400]

 

[Admiral_dk]

Great to hear See a positive Result posted by you Craig 

Sounds like perserverance pays off again     

I have done a small number of maintanace things on the outside off my house durring the last month (or so) and I can't count the number off times I had to change my approch / ideas on 'How-To' ....  ... (it should have been so simple).

Per

[crueby]

Excellent!  After the rocker assemblies, what is left to make?
 

[bent]

As stated previously, this is R+D at its finest.  Ok, forensic R+D, but still... 

[AlexS]

Looks great Craigh interesting design!

[Craig DeShong]

CNR, Per,Chris,Ben, & Alex; thanks for your comments.   Thanks to everyone for just taking the time to stop by.

Chris; just ignition and carburetion.

I just looked back at the first post on this thread, dated early September last year.  Back then, if anyone had told me I'd still be working on this model over a year hence, I'd have thought them crazy.  This model has had it's challenges but I'm determined to persevere to the conclusion, might still be a while.

I'm slowly working through the “new, new” cam rockers; currently working on number five or nine.   So you have something to see with this thread and not think I've silently abandoned the project, I'm going to give you the details of making one of these things.  It seems to take about a good day to make the rocker and then another day to make the rollers and shoulder bolts; then fit them to the engine assembly.

Once again, I finish a rocker assembly, remove it from the engine and set it aside.  I want to have as much control as possible on each rocker assembly regarding fit and possible binding and I can't really gauge the fit with all the other rockers in place.

So you can see where I'm headed, I give you a rendering from Alibre of the designed part



After trying several fabrication methods, I've settled on the one I'll show you.  It has it's issues, but not as many as the others I've tried.  As I shape the part it seems to “grow” out of the end of this piece of steel.

Below I'm just getting started.  Here I've drilled the .156 inch center hole.  The off-center 1/4 inch hole was made with an end mill.  Can't drill it with it partially off the work piece.



Next, I drilled and tapped the threaded holes in which the shoulder bolts that retain the cam rollers will attach to the part.



Using my rotary milling head, I machined the two arcs that define the top and bottom edges of the roller arms.



And then, rounded off the ends of the roller arms.


Maybe a few of you folks havn't seen a rotary milling head?  It attaches to the spindle of the vertical mill and cuts arcs around the center of the spindle.  This is probably the most useful addition I've made to my Bridgeport mill.



A view of the part so far.... but as I look at it I realize I've missed a step.  I need to cut the 5/16th inch diameter shoulder over the center hole.  Good thing I saw that before I went much further.  The part might have been hard to hold later on.

[cnr6400]

 
Looking good! You are lucky to have the Volstro unit. They are getting scarce. 

[bent]

Following along...looks good so far.  Do you leave the rotary head attached most/all of the time, or do you remove it to perform standard x-y milling tasks?