Cretors #6 Oscillating Steam Engine Build

[rstreift]

The Gland Nut, #5

The gland nut is turned and threaded as a lathe operation.  Then to the mill for the hex feature.  I deviated from the drawing as it specificized an 11/16 hex and it just looked too big, so I made it 5/8.  The final operation was to part off on the lathe.
<5-GlandNut-1.jpg> <5-GlandNut-2.jpg> <5-GlandNut-3.jpg>

[Admiral_dk]

You are making Parts at a speed that I only have seen Chris Rueby do on this site 

They do look good too 

Best wishes

Per       

[rstreift]

Thanks Per

Although I have no idea who Chris Rueby is.   

Being retired certainly gives me a bit more say in my daily schedule.  I can also be rather slow.  I have a Steam Hammer kit of just two castings by Paul Breisch.  It is a Phoenix Steam Hammer, 1/8 scale, that I started a decade ago and ran into a plugged up cylinder casting.  Myers Models had ended up with this model and kindly sold me just the cylinder casting. When I finish it, I think is will be my longest build.    It won't be my largest, but at 15" it is larger than the Stuart Steam Hammer which I completed just before I started the Phoenix model.

On the other hand, it might be the posting of multiple parts at one time. I tend to wait to post when the weather is less desirable for outdoor activities.

Anyway, on to another part . . .

- Reed

[rstreift]

The Flywheel, #1

The flywheel comes next. It really would have been good if it had been cast in iron or bronze. I realize it would increase the cost and maybe that would push it over some folks $$$ threshold, an option to buy it in iron or bronze would have been nice.  I’m expecting it to run well and I always have the option to add a steel rim.  I’ve done that on a 1/2 scale Maytag hit-n-miss engine and it added enough mass to let it idle significantly slower.
I took a bunch of measurements to determine if there were non-uniform thickness on the rim and whether the hub was centered to the rim.  Turns out rim was about 30 thousandths difference from the thinnest to the thickest sections and the hub was reasonably centered.  I marked the center by measuring the diameter at 45 degree intervals and scribed from the rim to the hub 1/2 diameter at each point.  The resulting scribes were within about 15 thousandths from each other, nice finding.  The hub center was punched for the center tester/wiggler’s point (a shop-made version of the Starrett #65).
It is mounted on the lathe and indicated in with the wiggler.
<1-Flywheel-1a.jpg> <1-Flywheel-2.jpg>

[rstreift]

The center is spotted, drilled, and reamed.
<1-Flywheel-3.jpg> <1-Flywheel-4.jpg> <1-Flywheel-5.jpg>
The rim and hub are faced, but it cannot be machined to spec.  Before facing, the hub is already short the material to meet the dimension for it to stick out beyond the rim and also meet the dimension for the rim’s thickness.  It is not critical, so I turn just enough off to be smooth.
<1-Flywheel-7.jpg>

[rstreift]

I flip it over to turn the other side’s features.  It is indicated in via the center hole and faced.  When I examined the casting, I had determined this side had the most stick out beyond the rim, however, it is missing about 1/2” to be turned to spec.  That meant the setscrew hole will be on a slight angle.  If you look closely, one might notice the hub looks oblong, it is. Seems to be a pattern issue along with the missing length of the hub. :-(
<1-Flywheel-8.jpg> <1-Flywheel-9.jpg>
The remaining feature that needs lathe work is the outside of the rim.  It is mounted on a mandrel and turned between centers.
<1-Flywheel-10.jpg> <1-Flywheel-13.jpg> 

[rstreift]

The obvious issue with the setscrew is the interference with the rim to drill the hole.  I pulled a suitable stepped block from the scrap bin and cobbled together a setup.  It’s useful to have a variety of clamps.  Drilled and tapped, I’ll give the setscrew a slight grind to match the acute angle of the hole
<1-Flywheel-15.jpg> <1-Flywheel-16.jpg>
There is supposed to be a spacer (#11), but is is not for thrust from the bevel gears on the original as it is on the wrong side of the flywheel.  If there is any significant thrust, it is the flywheel and frame surfaces on the crank side.  Since the flywheel hub was cast to short, the spacer dimension will also be too short.
In any event, if It is needed, I’ll make it later.

[rstreift]

The Pedestal, #15
This casting didn’t have a name in the prints, nor a diagram; simply labeled “15” in the assembly diagram.  Since it is a pedestal, that is the name I’ll use for it.  As it does not have dimensions for the mounting holes, I laid it out based on the frame’s dimensions and eyeballed where on the base the frame should be mounted, those holes ended on the centerline and the first hole 3/4" from side of the “circle” on the plane of the frame’s mounting holes.
<15-Base-1.jpg> <15-Base-2.jpg>

[Admiral_dk]

Although I have no idea who Chris Rueby is.   

That is the Master Elf  on this site. His latest build is here :
https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,12000.0.html
And like you he is retired => lots of time to create parts 

Myself - a few year more to go ....

Per     

[crueby]

Although I have no idea who Chris Rueby is.   

That is the Master Elf  on this site. His latest build is here :
https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,12000.0.html
And like you he is retired => lots of time to create parts 

Myself - a few year more to go ....

Per     

Thanks Per - yes, retired and lots of shop playtime here, helps that my shop is in the house so no weather delays. And I too built a steam hammer finally, wanted to do one of them forever and a couple years ago finally did.


Following along on the Cretors build, great progress!!
Chris
 

[rstreift]

Chris, calling that a "pretty large" project is a bit of an understatement. It'll take a couple of weeks of evening reading to go through the current 53 pages, and I suspect there will be at least another 53 pages before you are painting it.  Beautiful workmanship.
- Reed

[rstreift]

The Piston, #14

The piston as diagramed bothered me a bit.  The design has the cylinder material as aluminum and calls for the piston to be aluminum.  I’d much prefer to have some combination of dissimilar materials with the piston being the more consumable material.  The cylinder is not changing and a material change for the piston will tend to make it heaver and/or less wear than the cylinder.  It’s a model and how much running will it see? OK, not much but it still bothered me.  There is room for the piston to be increased in thickness from 0.180”to 0.250”.  Doing so will allow a 0.125” wide Teflon ring with 0.0625” left on both sides of the ring.  So, I ordered 1/16” Teflon sheet to cut a 1/8” strip for the ring, the piston diagram was modified accordingly.

This piston is faced and turned to the specified diameter.  Spotted/drilled/tapped for the piston rod.  The parting blade is 0.125” and used to make the ring groove.
<14-Piston-1.jpg> <14-Piston-3.jpg>
It is parted off and mounted on the piston rod for facing to 0.250” thickness.
<14-Piston-4.jpg> <14-Piston-5.jpg>

[rstreift]

The Teflon sheet arrived and I cut a strip that ended up being 0.129-0.134” wide.  Closer than I thought I’d get with eyeballing on a 100ths inch scale.  A bit of work with sandpaper and the width is very close to 0.125” along the strip.  I cut a 45 degree diagonal and fit the strip with a final 45 degree cut to fit it into the groove. 
<14-Piston-6.jpg> <14-Piston-7.jpg>
Measuring the ring while it is wrapped around the piston left me with a need to cut the groove about 7 thousandths deeper.  I approached that slowly with several iterations of cutting, fitting as I went.
<14-Piston-8.jpg>

[rstreift]

Paint
The paint scheme red, blue, and black.  Most of the original engines have the flywheel spokes painted red and the body is black.  The cylinder looks to be a red brass, not sure of the heads but neither are painted, most are polished.  As the kit’s castings are a bit different, I’m not so excited to be bound to using the same color scheme as the original.  I like a bright blue with red trim and kept to the original with red spokes.
For the red and blue, it was sprayed with exterior enamel from Rustoleum Professional in rattle cans.  I took a picture just after spraying the parts.
<AssemblyPartsPainted-1.jpg>
It's assembled
This is the finished engine.  There are several minor differences as I noted in the previous posts, the changes all worked out well.  The following is a couple of pics of the engine and a couple of videos.
<FinishedFront.jpg> <FinishedRearLeft.jpg>

[rstreift]

Here is a video of it running.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLKQY6st8Wg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLKQY6st8Wg</a>