Without further messing about, I managed to assemble the engine and get it mounted to a 2x4 scrap for a temporary test base and plumbed up a plastic fuel tank from a local hobby shop and of course the S&S ignition system was rigged.
Believe it or, it started on the first attempt!! I did spin it with a drill motor using the starter hub mounted on the non-governor side of the engine. And here the run, without the governor installed.
Since the engine did actually start and run, I then installed the governor catch arm and got it set somewhere close to correct and tried again. And here's the result!
And one more short video of some of this initial testing, this time from above the engine so that you can see the governor in action.
You can see that the engine is clearly not in its finished state as there's no paint and several cosmetic parts are missing. But this, to me, is a huge accomplishment as I have an actual working engine!
Next I tore the engine completely apart, cleaned everything and started the paint and body work. I'll show just a few pix of the process.
Here are the major frame parts after some initial sanding and application of body putty to start filling in any minor defects, screw heads, etc.
The flywheels masked off with painter's tape ready for primer.
The water hopper top after being JB Welding into place and the initial coating of body putty applied.
The flywheels after primer was applied. I used Rustoleum filler primer and did thoroughly clean all parts first with alcohol then with acetone prior to spraying on the primer.
The flywheels are the paint was applied. Again this was Rustoleum enamel and the color is Hunter Green.
The water hopper / cylinder assembly after painting. On the AL pieces I used Rustoleum etching primer, then lightly sanded it and applied the Rustoleum Hunter Green paint, spraying from a can and putting on 3 coats. I'll say that I ended up not at all being pleased with the Rustoleum etching primer and paint when applied to Al. It seemed to remain extremely soft and the etching primer seemed to react badly to the body putty. I ended up repainting the Al parts several times as a result. For my next engine, I'm definitely going to do something different with respect to the paint. I'm going to explore what's available for automotive use although I have no desire to get into the highly toxic catalyzed paint systems.
Just to horrify both woodworkers and machinists, I'll show a few pix of preparing the permanent wood base for the engine. This is some extremely hard walnut that was from some trees harvested by my father from the farm we grew up in western Oklahoma. My father had the wood sawn at a local mill into some rough planks and my brother has stored that wood since the early 1960's. So every once in a while we use a bit of that wood for special projects. My brother is an excellent woodworker with the necessary equipment to cut and plane the rough lumber into useable shape.
This wood is so hard that I had to drill and tap 10-32 for the engine mounting screws. And shock and horror, I used my Bridgeport to do that!
Here I'm again using the Bridgeport to drill and countersink the mounting screw holes that will secure the riser block to the larger base.
Using some Torx deck screws to secure the riser to the base.
And finally, the last pix for this post, the wood base and the riser block after applying multiple coats of the finish. I used some Minwax WoodSheen 'rubbing oil'. There's no stain applied to the wood, that's the natural color. My brother selected a bit of wood that had a lot of color and character and I think it came out well.
And that's it for the build! I'll post the final pix and a few videos of the engine running in The Showcase portion of this forum under Engines. I'll try to post a link to that post if I can figure out how to do so.
I THINK this should be the link to the post for the completed engine in The Showcase under Engines.
https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,11380.msg266324/topicseen.html#newEnjoy!
Mike
