Author Topic: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan  (Read 14257 times)

Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #30 on: November 09, 2021, 03:59:33 PM »
I've been drilling lots of holes in the bottom of the cylinder (not forgetting milling a bit for the port) :



And then tapping them:



Then drilling more in the top:



Then clamping the top cover on and drilling the clearance through that:



The gland has had the same done for it and I have also drilled for the cylinder lubricator.

If you recall I had only drilled the centre of the cover 4.5mm, time to ream it 4.76mm:



Trying it on the bottom plate. The holes line up  :ThumbsUp: .



But having slid on the cross head guides:



The lubricator hits the guide bottom plate :thinking:

Jo


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Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #31 on: November 09, 2021, 10:21:49 PM »
Very nice work Jo  :ThumbsUp:

Quote
The lubricator hits the guide bottom plate :thinking:

I would have been very surprised if something like this didn't happen from time to time on full size engines too .... one solution for a one off and another for production engines (several made).

Hard to tell - but will it clear if you 'Turn the Top' (placement of the lubricator) 90 degrees ?

Online Jasonb

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #32 on: November 10, 2021, 07:02:25 AM »
It looks like the lubricator is not screwed all the way into the cylinder cover and also the spindle looks to be either in the fully open position or too long if it is in the closed position, both of which should lower it. Last resort take a 1/16" off the lever.

Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #33 on: November 10, 2021, 07:23:56 AM »
The Brass bit of the Lubricator will not go any further down as it is hitting the bottom cap.

This is where Anthony put his lubricator but I have noted that others have turned the cylinder cover 90 degrees so the handle does not catch the sliding guide blocks.

Jo
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Online Jasonb

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #34 on: November 10, 2021, 12:46:05 PM »

This is where Anthony put his lubricator

Are you sure, looking at the photos in EiM he has it above the drain cock position. At least with the holes drilled on the DRO it won't be a problem rotating the cylinder cover 90deg.

EDIT you might also want to check the size of the bottom cap, the crosshead guides should be flush with its edge (see GA), yours sticks out suggesting they are larger.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2021, 01:01:16 PM by Jasonb »

Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #35 on: November 10, 2021, 03:35:43 PM »
I will be checking the dimensions of the existing bits and modifying them if required as I go  .

Jo
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Online Jasonb

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #36 on: November 10, 2021, 04:13:23 PM »
As I said the one in the magazine has it above the drain cocks, see attached.

There is also the fact that there should be three tapped holes in the cover, one for the lubricator and two for the two dummy access covers so both the early drawing with no holes and the modified one with two holes are wrong.

Not sure if you are building to the published metric sizes or just converting the imperial but the metric bottom cap is too small and the imperial too large when compared to the GA 1 1/8" square would do nicely.

Also check the guide block flanges which should be 1/32" not the 1/16" shown on the drawings and in the book.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2021, 04:19:36 PM by Jasonb »

Offline Roger B

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #37 on: November 10, 2021, 08:04:22 PM »
A lot of holes and quite a few challenges  :)  :)  :praise2:  :praise2:  :wine1:
Best regards

Roger

Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #38 on: January 03, 2022, 04:20:27 PM »
Thank you Roger,

I decided to leave Schoey today and do a bit more on this engine. I looked at the exquisite Steam chest Casting:



Not pretty  :ShakeHead: But I skimmed the top and bottom making sure there was plenty of the gland support in the right place and milled a piece of brass down to the correct thickness to act at the cover:




Soft soldered the cover on the chest (so I didn't have to repeat the machining on the cover later this way they are both done as one ;) )Then started milling the sides square:




Only to get side tracked as I was letting the power feed skim the chest/cover looking at these:




Yes the two outer crankshaft supports are wider than the bearing keeps, so time to:




Make use of that face cutter while it is on Tgs and to mill them to the same width. Then examine the tops  :facepalm2:




Yes the mounting holes are out of line. And you may have been wondering like me why the holes for the columns are so big; its a "Drawing feature" (otherwise known as an error  :-X ). If you read the text it says the holes should be 7/32" (5.5mm) but it was put on the drawing as 7mm.  :ShakeHead: This means I have no problem as I would want to correct the hole size so I can also move its location using a slot drill:




The holes in both are now 9mm diameter:



and will be sleeved with a sleeve that will also provide a nice land for the nuts to tighten against  :)

In the background you can see the next challenge  :paranoia: It is not parallel, the hole for the crankshaft is 12.7mm in one side and 13.3 to13.5 ish  on the other side :headscratch: Lots of opportunities to keep me amused  ;)

Jo
« Last Edit: January 03, 2022, 04:26:30 PM by Jo »
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Online Jasonb

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #39 on: January 03, 2022, 04:37:19 PM »
Good to see you back on this

I drilled all my holes to 7mm as Anthony says they are that size in the main frame to allow for adjustment so if you move the main frame you will also need to be able to move the outer bearings if you are going to keep the crankshaft in line. So to me the text is wrong not the drawing.

Depending on how accurately the existing base plate was drilled you could probably get away with 6mm in all of them as that is still a good amount of movement on the 2BA fixings, He may have suggested more as it was before DROs were common, even mills as I did not have one at the time.

Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #40 on: January 04, 2022, 11:07:21 AM »
Thanks JB  :D

The Main frame casting is all over the place  :facepalm2: The only thing that seems to be in about the right place are the four holes, so these are what I am going to use to hold this casting. Time for a jig:



I have made four spaces with 6mm holes through them and 7mm dowels to locate into the existing holes:



And I can confirm the holes in the casting are spot on  :)

We are ready to sort this casting out  :pinkelephant:

Jo
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Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #41 on: January 04, 2022, 01:19:05 PM »
First job run round the outside to get things square and take the one side that was still too thick down to 8mm:



Now to have a look at the alignment of the crankshaft bearing keeps. With the milling cutter in the centre line first look at one side and then the other and you can see they are not aligned :facepalm2:



Time to open it up so the slot is balanced around the centre line and accept that I need a new wider keep :



Having milled some off the side a quick check:



Yes the stud holes are not in the centre so fill those with some of "all thread" (finally found a use for it  :ThumbsUp: )




What I couldn't understand was why who ever made this had not previously cut the slots for the guides. Quick check: yes the holes were all over the place so first use a thin milling cutter and the power feed to put the (slightly larger  ::))  holes back where they should be:



Then mill each hole to 4.76mm deep before milling the slots:



Turn over and repeat for the guide slots:



I'm stuffed now  :Doh: I can't drill and tap for the keep holes until the loctite has gone off so best make those sleeves to go in all of these while we wait  :thinking:

Jo
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Online Jasonb

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #42 on: January 04, 2022, 01:30:17 PM »
You will have to stop posting about this engine, I keep getting tempted to dig my one out again. Though a bit worried about what horrors I may find as I did it a long time ago with a lot less equipment and ability  :-[ I seem to remember Anthony saying that you can't easily turn the engine over by simply rotating the flywheel as there is a risk of twisting all the cranks out of line, that is probably where I got to with a solid shaft that turned but too many errors in the frames and cranks etc to get it to turn over. :'(

Just seeing you flip it over were the thicknesses at the 4 corners all the same, trying to figure out what your marker pen notations mean. I have seen then done by spacing the two guide frames apart with a separate spacer so whatever vertical thickness you end up with between the milled pockets does not matter.

Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #43 on: January 04, 2022, 02:11:10 PM »
Just seeing you flip it over were the thicknesses at the 4 corners all the same, trying to figure out what your marker pen notations mean. I have seen then done by spacing the two guide frames apart with a separate spacer so whatever vertical thickness you end up with between the milled pockets does not matter.

The thicknesses are out by 0.2mm but I'm ignoring that, an extra coat of paint is about the same.

The marker pen notation is all the measurements where I was trying to find out what the original builder used as a reference. I decided what ever it was it did not include the use of a square which is why the two sides of the frame have been milled out of line and someone had to try to move things over. I'm doing something more drastic to correct things.

I will be taking your advice and when I make the buttons to go in these pieces I will give them a generous allowance and will bore them 5mm so there is some wiggle room  ;)

Jo

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Offline Jo

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Re: James Booth 1843 Rectilinear Engine - Orphan
« Reply #44 on: January 04, 2022, 03:26:16 PM »
That is it for today, the eight inserts have been made:



And there are the two keeps that need replacing   :)

Jo
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