Engine Accessories

[CI]

I think the barstock build thing has been changed a lot by the advent of CNC.
With CNC, you can basically cut a casting out of a solid block, and so that is really a whole new ballgame, if you are into such things.
I am not sure if CNC work is considered strickly a barstock build.
Perhaps it could be called "barstock-plus".

And 3D printed metal parts also sort of blurs the line between traditional and new building methods.

Its all good as far as I am concerned, but I am interested in anything casting or casting related, since I have gotten into that game, and had some luck with it.

Barstock builds are a great way to get started building engines.
If I had initially had any success with that method, I would have probably stuck with it, but I ruined every part I tried to make from barstock.
I have all those ruined pieces, but I put them away in a box, since they are painful to look at.
One of the cool things about making your own castings is that if you botch machining a part, you just cast another one; no big deal.

3D modeling, and the things that spun out/off of that process have changed and will continue to change the hobby quite a bit, in my opinion.
From a design standpoint alone, 3D modeling had made tremendous improvements in the hobby and associated drawings/models.
The hobby is changing for sure, and I think in most respects for the better.

Edit:
Apologies to maury for chatting up his build thread......

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[maury]

All good stuff guys. Note: I am not trying to discount bar stock builders. I am a foundry kind of guy, and I know I'm biased, but I like building models of these old engines and believe castings give a more realistic look. The finish and contouring look is what I am after. Appearance is more important than ease of building or cost.

With the modern help of Solidworks, CNC, and 3D printing, pattern making is a snap. The ball hopper monitor patterns took me almost a year to make with only a table saw, jointer, band saw, wood carving tools, a caliper and some glue.

Btw, Since I'm retired I don't sell stuff any more, but I do try to give back to the hobby. I give my patterns to a friend who has a foundry, and castings for my designs will all likely be available through him. I just can't get him to do a web site!? Contact me.

[maury]

A bit of an update from the shop.

[Jasonb]

Well in that case

I think there is a distinction between the word Barstock as Pat used and what I tend to term fabrication and cutting from solid.
Yes a barstock engine can look just like that and is indeed a good way for a beginner to get started but you can also use barstock to make engines that look no different to the original cast engines.

Adding things like draft angles, fillets, rounding corners and generally using compound curves will replicate any casting. Lets face it if you are CNC cutting patterns then your casting will replicate the pattern so using the same CNC to cut directly from metal will give exactly the same form. Likewise a 3D printed pattern will only look like a casting if the 3D CAD also looks like a casting so using that same CAD to CNC cut the part will again give the same look of the final part but without the layer lines I see on a lot of parts cast from 3D prints which is hardly the look of an original. The same applies to machining from solid, if the builder puts the work in then there is no reason why their fabricated engine need not look like it was from castings.

Fabricating can also allow for thinner sections, one of the things I liked about this compressor was it's light and simple frame. Scaling that off a photo it looks like the original was no more than 1/4" thick. so I could easily fabricate a frame from 2mm steel if it were a 1/3rd scale model or 1.5mm if 1/4" scale. I see those that favour casting sometimes having to use thicker sections to ensure the metal flows, Ok on things like a hopper or tank where you can't see it but on a visible frame that is a different matter if you want to replicate the original as close as possible in miniature

I've been making my "barstock" versions of engines for 20 odd years many done before I had CNC and you would not know they were fabricate dunless told, many are better representations of the originals as the ones from kits often had shortcuts to keep production costs dwn or just lacked detail.

I'll leave you with this snippet written probably some 60years ago by the well respected Model Engineer E T Westbury, I think I fall into that class.

[maury]

Some More parts machined on the compressor.