Horizontal Air Cooled Engine

[Brian Rupnow]

Chris--Doing some research on that right now. right now I'm seeing "unalloyed grey cast iron and "meehanite grade 17" and "centrifugally cast iron". I have to call around and see delivery and pricing.---Brian

[Jasonb]

GR17 is what we tend to use over here but expect it has a different code number stateside. Yours look more like ductile iron as mentioned earlier.

[Brian Rupnow]

A little help here please--from North America--I have determined that the material I am using for piston rings is the wrong kind. I buy it from a local steel supply shop and they don't really seem to know much about the cast iron which they are selling me. I am sure they are selling me ductile iron, because when piston rings are made from it, they bend easily. Not break!!! Even after heat treat they bend. I have just about worn out the internet this morning searching for correct ring material. My research tells me that cast iron material for rings should be A--Pearlitic grey cast iron with a low modulus of elasticity.  B--centrifugally cast, not ductile  C--Durabar cast grey iron  D ---fine grained grey cast iron  E--pulltruded .
If you live in the U.K. you should use class 17 Mehanite  (I don't live in the U.K.)
 I need a foot of this material in 1" diameter (well actually it's a bit more than 1" because it is cast) but I am having a terrible time figuring where to buy this stuff in Canada. It's heavy, so shipping charges will be high. If I buy from USA and can get a foot of the proper material I can probably eat the shipping cost. What I really need to know is where the heck I can buy this material (preferably in Canada but USA will do).---and what exactly is it that it's called when I go to order it?---Brian Rupnow

[propforward]

McMaster Carr has this, which I am pretty sure is what you want.

https://www.mcmaster.com/8909K78/

McMaster Tech support are very helpful (I have found) so you can always call them and confirm (they can look up material cert and spec), but this is specifically gray cast iron, and is identified as brittle. MCMaster also sell ductile cast ironm which is not what you want of course.

The only other sources I have are wholesalers. Online metals and metals depot don't seem to stock cast iron any more.

[Sleddog]

Another source is Hobby Metals Kits. Call & talk to Bernie. He’ll help find what you need.

https://hobbymetalkits.com/

[propforward]

Most excellent! I was not aware of them. Probably the better source - McMaster is very convenient and very fast, but you pay extra for that.

[Hugh Currin]

Hard to find stuff. As mentioned McMaster Carr has a good selection of Gray Cast Iron (A247) and Ductile Iron (A536). MSC Industrial has some, Gray Iron and Ductile Iron. They give "Manufacturers Part #" as GR12 and DR12 which may or may not be a material spec. On Line Metals does have cast iron, but only drop shipped in 6' lengths.

If you find a great source let us know. Thanks.

[propforward]

On Line Metals does have cast iron, but only drop shipped in 6' lengths.

So they do - you just have to use their search. They don't have it on their material headings. Bad assumption made on my part.

[Brian Rupnow]

I talked to Bernie at https://hobbymetalkits.com/ and this man seems to know what he's talking about. I ordered a foot  of the 1" diameter cast iron which meets all of the specs for making rings.  The material itself is only about $14, USA but the shipping from Wisconsin is going to be horrendous. This will last me for the rest of my life making rings. I'm sure that there are companies in Ontario that sell exactly the same material, but I haven't been able to find them or contact them.

[Sleddog]

Propforward, McMaster is normally my go to source & has been for over 30 years. Their customer service is old school & shipping is more than fair.

Brian, I’m glad Bernie was able to help find what you need. He knows his stuff.

[propforward]

Propforward, McMaster is normally my go to source & has been for over 30 years. Their customer service is old school & shipping is more than fair.

Oh yes, a great company to deal with - plus what they sell is only good quality stuff.

[Brian Rupnow]

Today is a "machining free" day.  Hooray!!! My little machine shop doesn't have a spare inch of room anywhere in it. I wanted to have some dedicated cabinets for small bits and bobs that were important, and didn't have room for anymore cabinets inside my shop. I didn't want them too far away either. A quick survey of the wall space I had available outside of the machine shop showed that I had a 12" wide area of free wall space between my shop door and the wall adjacent to it. A quick search thru the Princess Auto website showed  almost exactly what I wanted 11" wide for $14. I bought two of them and mounted them in the wall space, and spent a good part of this morning moving  things and making labels so I would know what was in the cabinets. As much as I like machining things, it's quite nice to have a rather laid back day where I do something else that needed doing.

[crueby]

Great spot for the storage, room for more above/below if needed. Now, will you let us know when you spend an hour looking for something you relocated to the new units but forgot that you did? I've done that many times after rearranging...!

[Admiral_dk]

Now, will you let us know when you spend an hour looking for something you relocated to the new units but forgot that you did? I've done that many times after rearranging...!

Ain't that the way it always goes 

Though at least you remembered to write what's inside from the beginning 

[Brian Rupnow]

And now---I have a strange story to tell (but it has a happy ending). Couple of days ago I had the engine setting on my side desk, chugging away happily, and I was congratulating myself on what a clever fellow I was to build an engine like that. And then----it quit!!!
Well Poop!!--Must be out of gas. Opened my fancy blue gas tank, and it had lots of fuel. Okay, if it isn't fuel. it has to be spark. I pulled the sparkplug out and laid it on the cylinder head and cranked the engine. Lots of spark!! Well sir--What do I do now? The automotive gasoline in the tank had been changed out for Coleman fuel, because Coleman fuel doesn't stink when it's being burned. Maybe the engine was seizing up, but I've never really had that happen. I grabbed the flywheel and gave it a couple of spins, and it turned freely, so determined that the engine hadn't seized. Maybe the set screws in my ignition cam had slipped and the engine had "jumped time". Checked those screws out and they were tight. Maybe the set screws in one of my timing gears had slipped and the valve timing had gone screwball. Checked those set screws and they were still tight. Maybe the Viton piston ring had failed and I had lost compression--but no, engine still has terrific compression when turned over by hand. Maybe something wrong with the carburetor--but no, those carbs don't have any small moving parts that can fail or vibrate out of place. How strange!! My engine won't run, and I can't diagnose what is wrong. Had some serious thoughts about making another head with a vertical sparkplug in it (A 1/4-32 sparkplug would fit beside the valve cages)--I laid it out on my 3D program and it would work, but Damn, there's a lot of work in making a cylinder head. I looked at my files from ten or eleven years ago when I built my own sparkplug for the Kerzel engine, but I really didn't want to do that. Went to bed, disgusted with small engines in general. Today I thought, "If the engine ran okay (which it did) and the engine then stopped without any clanks or bangs or obvious signs of distress (which it did), then what can possibly have changed? I pulled the sparkplug out and looked at it under my lighted magnifier, and seen that the spark gap was only about .005". Enough to give a bright spark when laying out on the cylinder head but not enough to light the charge of fuel under compression. Fetched out my trusty jacknife and opened the gap to about .025" and reinstalled the plug. Engine started right up and ran like a race horse. Relief, relief!!! I have no idea what closed the spark gap up while in the engine. Maybe a piece of dirt from when I was trying the piston with the cast iron rings. Maybe it was the bad engine fairy.--I don't know, but man, I'm glad I got it sorted out without having to remake anything.