Elmer's #24 Beam Engine

[EricB]

Thanks for the comments!

I did go back and work out the angle for the spokes. I needed an extra 3.67 degrees. On the first side, cutting on the back side in the picture, I hit 4.2 degrees from where I had the handwheel set. On the second side, front, I hit 3.8 degrees.

Back to working on the base today. Drilling and taping. I have enough parts to make it look like something.

[EricB]

Last bits for today. Squared up a block for the bearing and notched the base to a nice snug fit. That's almost all for the base.

[EricB]

While I was working out the order of ops to make the bearing, I started on the cylinder. The plans call for a piece of 1/2" hex brass. What I have is 15/32" which is a tad bit small. There isn't much room for error but I'm going to try and make it work. It looked like 1/2" hex.

For the bearing, I milled out the center leaving a bit on the top end for support. I left the stock long just for that purpose. Then I used the base as a jig for the mounting hole. Finally, the crank bore was drilled and reamed.

The next work on the bearing is tapering the top. Once that's done I'll remove the extra material at the top.

[EricB]

Finishing the bearing took a bit of thought. I looked at various ways that others have used to make angled features on parts, and considered all the different fixturing methods I could come up with. I guess alot of people compute angles and use angle blocks, or scribe lines on the part and cut to those. I was looking for something easy and repeatable.

Today I realized I could use the crank bore as a reference. Since it's centered in the part and a known distance from the bottom I could pivot on that and support the bottom end with a parallel. Since my vice jaws are 7/8" tall I used a 1/2" parallel for support. The resulting angle is slightly shallow from the plan calculation, 7.18 degrees vs 7.595, but it's close enough.

After clamping the part in the vise, I touched off with an endmill and moved down until the start of the cut was at the proper height for bottom of the taper on the part and installed a hard stop on the mill column (the tailstock riser block from my lathe). From there is was a simple operation to cut one side, flip the part, and cut the other side.

The remaining machine work was to simply remove the extra material and drill a couple of oil sinks for the crankshaft.

Here are the results.

[EricB]

Made a bolt today. Seems like my local hardware store hasn't restocked since covid.

[EricB]

Making the beam.

[EricB]

More of the beam. Rounded the ends and made the center pivot.

[EricB]

I found an appropriate sized piece of brass rod hiding in my stock pile so I started on the eccentric strap. The big end anyway. The parts keep getting smaller on this engine.

[EricB]

Here are the links for the valve gear. I still need to radius the small ends and add the pivot pins and a set screw to the smaller one.

[Sanjay F]

I must have missed the beginning of this build, but have caught up now - very impressive Eric, I really like the beam, it looks great. I'm following along 

[EricB]

Thanks for the comments!

I was not sure if I would like this one when I started but it's starting to grow on me. I'm trying to find ways to make it interesting.

Here are the valve links with the corners knocked off.

[EricB]

One more bit before calling it for the night. Rounded the tops of the bearings on the column.

[EricB]

Valve links assembled.

[crueby]

Those came out great! 

[EricB]

Those came out great! 

Thanks Chris.

The tiny parts for this are making me nuts. I think I've spent half the time looking for these on the floor.

Eric