Kearsarge Windlass Engines

[crueby]

The carve-out begins! 

Thanks  Jeff!  I took a look at the setup for rotating the blocks to cut the curves, quickly realized that I'll have to  put the riser block in the mill headstock to move it out far enough to swing past the column. Hmm, or turn the rotab sideways on the mill table... Good excuse to finally make up a sidemount block... hmmm...


 

[ddmckee54]

Good excuse to finally make up a sidemount block... hmmm...

Since when do we need excuses to make tools/fixtures?  I must have missed the memo.

[crueby]

Good excuse to finally make up a sidemount block... hmmm...

Since when do we need excuses to make tools/fixtures?  I must have missed the memo.

Yeah, you are right - 'excuse' was the wrong word - 'incentive to finally make the darn thing' would be better!!   

[crueby]

Catching up on the cyilinder block shaping - yesterday finished off the milling of the flats:

so this is where it stood this morning (after mowing the lawn, shopping, etc).

Next step was to get it mounted onto the faceplate, with a sacrificial 1/4" plexiglass spacer so I could run off the ends, and started shaping the arcs between the flats.


And, after some checks, it turns out that swinging the rotary table 90 degrees on the mill table wouldn't help the clearance to the column, the solution was to just swap the rotary table from end to end on the mill table, swinging it around 180 degrees to let it swing the long part of the block overhang away from the column. That works, but took away the incentive to make the other mount. Someday will get around to it! Anyway, here is a shot showing the milling from the other end:

So far I have three of the four arcs milled in, may do the other one later today after some more outside time. Otherwise in the morning. After that, I need to do some tests with the ball end mill cutters to work out how to do the flutes in the sides of the cylinders, which are decorative but also would have reduced the weight without sacrificing strength.

[cnr6400]

 

[RReid]

Carve carve - whittle whittle. Great work, Sculptor Chris!

[crueby]

Thanks  guys! 




Over the years so far I've  carved in wood, stone, metal, clay, bone, ivory, plastic, hmmm, whats next?!   

[cnr6400]

For next, how about the very fabric of the Yooniverse? They say it cuts just like one of those Harbour Freight blue tarps... 

[crueby]

For next, how about the very fabric of the Yooniverse? They say it cuts just like one of those Harbour Freight blue tarps... 

Dwarf Star Metal. Same stuff that 1960s era orange shag carpet was made from, totally indestructible. Ugly forever!


 

[crueby]

The next step after the profiling was to add the flutes to the sides with a 1/8" ball end mill. Took some back and forth measuring and testing to find the right number of handwheel turns between each cut to get the spacing worked out, but then the actual cutting went pretty quickly. Tougher to get a decent picture with all the reflections!


It took swapping the cylinder blocks back and forth on the rotary table and swapping the rotary table end for end to get all the sections cut, since when tilted up for the arcs it would interfere with the mill column end. Here is the block after both sides were fluted all the way along. The two end spots marked in pen and not fluted are where the exhaust pipes will be.


Next up: turning the cylinders from just blocks into cylinders with bores! That will be done on the lathe, so the top/bottom plates were removed to separate the blocks again (all are marked for which way they go together again)

First one on the faceplate, ready to bore out. Here is where that 1/4" plexi spacer really will be needed, so the boring bar can go through the block and out the other side without chewing into the faceplate.

Drilled a starter hole and have begun boring the hole out to size, so far about halfway there, lots more turning and cranking to get to the final 1.5" bore...

[Michael S.]

Absolutely fantastically good idea on how you make the cylinder block.
It will look like a casting.   

Michael

[cnr6400]

 

[crueby]

Thanks Michael!  This whole project was made possible by the very detailed plans of the original set of engines that I found at the National Archives website. Maybe I'll get to the steering engine from the same ship at some point too, a much larger engine than the one you have but works basically the same way.

[Kim]

Wow!  A lot of work on that fluting, but it will certainly be worthwhile in looks! 

Kim

[pirmin]

  Wow i just Discovered this now ! Just simply amazing work !