Chris's Build of Battleship Ohio Engine

[Michael S.]

You're making good progress. 👍
And a jig for machining is always good for mass production plus spares.........

best regards Michael

[crueby]

Thanks Michael!   This jig is saving a lot of time and making things very accurate across all the parts, once the first part has the next cut set up, all the rest go very quick.


Next steps were to cut the inside opening out. Started with chain drilling several holes down the center, then milling out the webs between them, followed by cutting the straight section tht will be at the top of each piece.

Right now I am milling the angled sections on each side of the inner opening.  For size reference, these parts are 1" long.


That will complete the profile shaping, after that I'll set up a corner rounding end mill and go back around the edges on both sides of every part to round the corners. At least, that is the plan - I'll do one (the spare) and see how it looks first.

[crueby]

Got the last of the inside openings shaped, and set up one of the parts to test out the quarter round end mill. I've got several sizes, this needed the smallest of them. Went around the perimeter inside and out, using the notes from the shaping to get the angles right. I like the look, will do all the parts this way. It will take several sessions, thats a lot of corners to round!

[Vixen]

Hello Chris,

That's a dern clever bit of machining, all done on the handwheels and no CNC.     

Cheers

Mike

[cnr6400]

 

[Kim]

That's a lot of yokes!  Guess the yokes on you, eh? 

Are you going to round the edges on both sides of the yokes? Or just one side?

Kim

[crueby]

That's a lot of yokes!  Guess the yokes on you, eh? 

Are you going to round the edges on both sides of the yokes? Or just one side?

Kim

Both sides will get rounded, going to take a while but will look good. Near as I can  tell from the original plans  they were rounded.

[EricB]

Are you planning on making the cone shaped pistons as shown in the plans?

You must go through quite a few end mills.

CNC!

Eric

[crueby]

Are you planning on making the cone shaped pistons as shown in the plans?

You must go through quite a few end mills.

CNC!

Eric

Yes, the pistons will be cone shaped. The piston rod glands stick up above the bottom of the end cap into where a flat piston head would be. The top caps need to be domed up in the middle to make room for the center of the piston too.




And yes, end mills are a consumable  when doing this much machining! They last quite a while but eventually  go dull. I was able to find a bunch on Amazon  a couple years ago that some vendor was selling off cheap, they only had a few of each but they had a big variety of sizes. Haven't  seen a bargain like that in a while since.




Glad you like my cnc definition.  And its digital, since I  can count on my fingers!   




 

[crueby]

The shaping on the yokes for the eccentric arms is done, ready to make the rectangular plates that go on top of them which will hold the bearing blocks, then the arms and lower plates to attach to the eccentric straps...

[Kim]

Nice work on all those yokes, Chris! That's a lot of edge-rounding work for sure! 

Kim

[cnr6400]

  Plenty of carving-out in those pieces!

[crueby]

Enough time spent yoking around, time to start on the plates to hold the bearing blocks!   

Lots of drilling and tapping to make the plates. For the bearings on the yokes, I need 16 sets of uppers and lowers. I'm doing the drilling first in lengths of tool steel, then will cut them aparts and trim the cut ends. Much easier and faster to do them while still on the bar, though it does make it look like I am machining my own set of Meccano (or Erector Set, depending which country you grew up in).


When these 16 sets are done, I get to do it all over again for the links to connect the middle posts back to the crank arms! Only 8 of those links, but they are double ended so still will need 16 sets. Then I'll start making a bin full of bearing blocks... 32 of them...   

[Vixen]

Hello Chris,

Lots more intricate parts. Nice work. 

Any idea what your swarf to parts ratio is?

Cheers 

Mike

[crueby]

Hello Chris,

Lots more intricate parts. Nice work. 

Any idea what your swarf to parts ratio is?

Cheers 

Mike

That ratio varies a lot, all depends on the parts. Lathe work usually generates a lot more swarf volume, especially when boring out cylinders, aside from that its hard to judge.