Stuart S50

[samc88]

Thanks Chris 

Little bit done tonight, I got the sides milled ready for silver soldering the new valve chest together, the chilled one is shown next to it to show hownit will look. The round features Ill make on the lathe and solder them in afterwards

[propforward]

Thanks for sharing that video! Very well done, the engine looks like everything moves very smoothly. Nice job! 

[samc88]

Valve rod was made up along with the nut and the slide valve finished with a needle file so the nut was a loose fit in it.

Once that was done I went to plan C for the steam chest and decided to make it from solid, mainly because I found a piece of 1/2" steel and my time is cheaper than silver solder. Was hacksawed roughly into shape and then milled to size, was quite an enjoyable process. The slot was then marked out ready for cutting out, im going to chain drill, then mill the slot flat and then probably just touch up the corners to be square with a file.

[samc88]

Got the centre of the steam chest cut out tonight. I chain drilled around the area to come out and then used some files to get it to size, will do the bolt holes tomorrow and also the holes for the gland and valve spindle guide, my plan is to make these items on the lathe to be a press fit inside the chest

[propforward]

Nice progress! Coming along very well indeed. I think your approach on the steam chest is very smart. That’s much better off as a machined piece rather than soldered. I’d have gone the same route.

[samc88]

Thanks Stuart, Im quite enjoying machining it from solid, its nice drilling into the material knowing its the same throughout with no hard spots.

The main body of the steam chest was finished tonight, with the 4 clearance holes drilled and the 2 centre holes drilled and tapped to 7BA.

The holes for the gland and valve spindle were then drilled and reamed to 3/16 in one operation to keep them aligned. Im going to make the gland and spindle guide to be a light press fit (probably over the weekend as Ive got more boring things like stripping woodchip wallpaper taking up my time for the rest of this week

[samc88]

Whilst the mill was set up with the drill chuck I drilled and tapped the valve chest cover of the S50. Just got to take the thickness down now. I did it this way round after spending ages machining the chest only to find it was too hard for my drills. This drilled really nicely and is already to size against the chest

[propforward]

Looking very good indeed - looks well on the way to becoming a runner!

[samc88]

Finished off the steam chest the other night. First i used my small hole gauges to check the size of the reamed hole either end so I could make the spindle guide and gland to be a light press fit. This worked out really well, I think I'd definitely do a steam chest this way again in future.

Only got the valve fork to do next and I have to do that a different way to whats in the kit as my 4 jaw doesnt go small enough for the square bar (I do however have some brass round stock which i can use and mill square)

[crueby]

Looking great, not long now!

[propforward]

That was a great approach to the steam chest - nice solution. We'll soon be seeing that flywheel spin over.

 

[samc88]

We have a runner!
Had a good evening on this, made up an inlet fitting for some tubing to go over and then machined up the valve fork from some 1/4" brass round rod (i forgot to take pics when machining but was a fun little piece to make.

Once that was done i set the position of the slide valve and gave it a try and it runs! Still a bit to do before I call it fully finished, got a couple of air leaks to sort around the glands, paint touch ups and the cladding etc amd a fiddle with the timing. Overall im very happy with it! Please excuse the creaking chair in the video, the camera microphone seems to like it

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/jf_29lQiQW0[/youtube1]

[RReid]

Looks and sounds like it runs very nicely indeed. Congratulations! 
(I spy a couple of interesting looking airplane models in the background as well.)

[crueby]

Running nicely!  Always those last few things to get done, well done!

[propforward]

That's great Sam! Runs really well, nice job all round.