First Steam Engine Build

[crueby]

Great  progress, those counterweight  pieces fit nice!

[Admiral_dk]

Result looks great - but I got Scared when I saw the picture of the Parallels in the Chuck    Imagine them flying out when the Chuck starts to spin and hurting somebody like yourself 

Per         

[stevendavis]

Thanks guys!
Yup, I always pull the parallels before spinning up!!

[crueby]

Thats why I like to use chuck spiders, spacers that fit around the jaws. You leave them in, and they can't slip out without removing the part.
 

[stevendavis]

Thats why I like to use chuck spiders, spacers that fit around the jaws. You leave them in, and they can't slip out without removing the part.
 

I'm going to have to look into that! Do you make your own?

[crueby]

Thats why I like to use chuck spiders, spacers that fit around the jaws. You leave them in, and they can't slip out without removing the part.
 

I'm going to have to look into that! Do you make your own?

Yes - drew them up in Fusion and 3d printed them. You can also make them from some aluminum sheet or bar, just mill in slots to fit around the jaws. I made mine clost to the diameter of the chuck so I could use them for large diameter parts when the jaws were reversed, but you really only need it to be larger than the hole in the center of the chuck. They center is solid to hold the 'wings', so there is a limit on how small a part you can grip unless you have the wings connect out at the rim. I put the holes in the wings just to speed up the printing time. I made a set of three, different thicknesses so I could stack them for different spacings out from the chuck for different thickness parts. Very handy accessories!

[stevendavis]

I'll have to print a couple and try them out!

[stevendavis]

Found a secondary use for the saw table. Works good for sharpening lathe tooling!

[stevendavis]

Got a little work done on the connecting rod. It gave me a chance to try out the die filer as well. I worked very well to file the curves on the con-rod. I started out just hand sanding the large end of the con-rod flat so I could get it in the mill vise. I squared off the large end in the mill, then brought the large end to outer dimension. Once I had that good. I used it to measure off the distance I needed to take off each side of the small end. I took several passes and light cuts to keep the small end from moving around. It worked out really well and squares up nicely on the crank and crosshead. Still have to split and drill the con-rod.

[stevendavis]

Got a little more work done on the con rod. I center marked the crosshead end and used it to mark out the crank end. Used a magnified center punch to mark it for center drilling.

[stevendavis]

Next was to drill in the cap bolts.

[stevendavis]

Couple more. Still have to drill in the crosshead end, but I'm waiting on a reamer.

[crueby]

Quite a lot done, looking great!

[stevendavis]

Thanks crueby!
Took me a while to just get that done.

[Bear]

Looking good, Steve.