Cretors #1 Horizontal Steam Engine Build

[rstreift]

Before putting the components back on the base, I took the 0.093” off the bearing pedestals to eliminate the shim under the cylinder. 
I can’t help noting that the crank end bearing and frame castings both had plenty of metal whereby I could have eliminated the bearing/frame shim by making the frame just 0.078” longer.  A more experienced modeler may have noticed that, but I’m not that person yet.  At my age, prolly not going to happen. 😊
The base still needs some attention.  The hole for the exhaust and the spotting on the bottom side for the cylinder mounting bolt heads.
The exhaust hole does not have a diameter dimension, but does indicate it is on a cylinder center line.  I have the cylinder center lines’ origin as ABS 0 in the DRO, so I go back to it.  On the cylinder print, the location of the exhaust hole center gives me that last dimension and I now have the location to drill.   

The last item is to turn the base over and spot the cylinder mounting bolt holes.
S330-A-Base-11.jpg, S330-A-Base-12.jpg

Putting the components back on the base and having the items fit up and the shaft rotate freely gives me the feeling that the end is in sight.  The last casting to machine is the flywheel.  Obviously, a bunch of details are left, however it is coming along.
S330-S332-FitUp-2.jpg

Catching up on another detail.  The bearings are spec’ed to be 1” wide at the crankshaft.  This final milling could have been completed after the bearings were bored, but wanted to see the fit up.  😊 
Each bearing was respectively remounted on the jig plate, fixed in the mill vise, and milled to spec.
S330-C-MainBrgCrankEnd-12.jpg, S330-D-MainBrgOuterEnd-9.jpg

[CI]

 

[rstreift]

Getting there.  It is starting to look like something that could run.

The Flywheel, #S330-B

The flywheel is the heaviest casting in the kit, although the cylinder was hefty too.  One point that seems silly is using a set screw to hold the flywheel in place.  I considered deviating from the model and making a taper lock, but it’s a bit crowded between the bearing blocks.  Instead, I’ll continue with my thought to cut a keyway.
The casting is a product of another nicely crafted pattern and well executed foundry work.  Variation is minimal in the dimensions I checked which made indicating it in the 4-jaw relatively painless. The side of the rim and hub is faced and the groove for the governor’s belt is carved out.
S330-B-Flywheel-1.jpg, S330-B-Flywheel-3.jpg

Drilling and reaming the hub is straight forward.  A little tedious as the only reamer I have in 9/16” is hand one I used earlier.
S330-B-Flywheel-4.jpg, S330-B-Flywheel-5.jpg

It seems that I have a dearth of 9/16” tooling.  The only 9/16” lathe mandrel I have is an expanding one.  Expanding lathe mandrels are not my first choice, inherently not-so-accurate (especially in the hobby budget range, which is what I have), they have slipped in use, and are a bit light-duty.  Juggling those cons with realizing this is “just” a flywheel and given I do only light cuts toward the headstock, this might work OK.
S330-B-Flywheel-6.jpg, S330-B-Flywheel-7.jpg

So much for the logic.  The cutting took way to long and I ended up with +0.020 variation in rim thickness and it visibly wobbles when rotating it.  The plus side of this attempt is I cut oversize and have material left to “fix” this. 
I order a 9/16” lathe mandrel.  Obviously waited for it and I am now a proud owner of a solid 9/16” lathe mandrel.  After redoing the features on a solid mandrel, the flywheel runs true and whatever the out-of-balance there is comes from the casting and not the machining.
S330-B-Flywheel-8.jpg, S330-B-Flywheel-9.jpg

[rstreift]

Continuing with the dearth of 9/16” tooling is a broach bushing for this.  I discovered this while deciding on doing keyseats on the crankshaft.  A bushing is a simple object and thought that I should make one.  I know I need it to be 9/16” in diameter and the collar is not critical.  What I struggled with was the depth of the slot.  I searched for that dimension and never found it.  So, I just bought one.
After I made the order, it gnawed on me that I couldn’t find it.  Back to searching.  Finally hit a video of a fellow making the same observation about the lack of dimensions for the bushing slot depth.  He figured the reason he could not find it was due to the answer being so simple.  It is simply the depth dimension of the broach’s starting end.  What a smack-the-forehead moment this was!!! Every broach carries this needed dimension!  ‘Nuff said. 😊
The picture is the second pass on the keyway with a shim. (a shop crafted shim, by-the-way.  Another reason I should have realized this slot depth dimension was not so critical)
S330-B-Flywheel-11.jpg

OK, now that I’m properly humble again, time to finish up the flywheel with a setscrew.  The plans call for a 1/4-20 setscrew, which is a bit large to hold a 1/8” key and the key is doing the holding now.  And since I already had an extended #25 bit to tap for 10-24 thread, I went with the 10-24 setscrew. 
I still needed to angle the flywheel for space to drill and tap.  An angle plate and a couple of properly sized pieces of wood gave me the required “tilt”.  I spotted with a long center drill and then drilled/tapped.  Didn’t have a pulley tap, but the rod-with-a-concave-tip and a small adjustable wrench worked out OK.
S330-B-Flywheel-12.jpg, S330-B-Flywheel-13.jpg, S330-B-Flywheel-14.jpg

[rstreift]

The Wooden Frame for the Base, #S330-A

The base needs to have something under it with a minimum height of 1” to allow for the flywheel that protrudes through the base.  Although I entertained putting some kind of feet at the corners, a wooden frame would be the ideal “riser”.  Joining the corners would be much nicer as a box joint than butting them together.  I have never made a box joint, so starting from the beginning with this.
Every once in a while, a DIY YouTube video is quite useful.  In this case a This Old House video that steps through making a jig as well as cutting the rabbits for a box joint.  Following the video, I made a usable jig and cut the box joints for the wooden frame needed to support the base.
S330-A-Base-13, S330-A-Base-14

The attachment holes are laid out and drilled.  Since I drilled/tapped the base by using the same offset from the edge on the four corners and used the same method on the frame, it was close.  I ended up needing to move one hole by about 1/16” (actually became a mini-slot).   After several coats of polyurethane, it is about as good as my woodworking skills can take it.

Paint, #S330-A, S331-A, and S332-A

Not many parts for painting as several parts will remain as they are in stainless, brass, or bronze.  The cylinder and frame are painted for appearance and rust protection.  The cylinder is partly covered in stainless lagging but some of it is exposed so it is also painted.  Firstly, they are masked and primed.
Paint-Base-1.jpg, Paint-CylinderEngineFrame-1.jpg

Then the topcoat.  The base is black as most of what I’ve seen of the Cretors engines has the base black.  The frame and cylinder are the same blue as I used in the Cretors #6 engine I previously built.
Paint-BaseCylinderEngineFrame-1.jpg

[rstreift]

Assembly

There were several partial assembles done to check fit such as the piston and cylinder, the piston, cylinder head, and frame which was fitted to the bearings/shaft; then to the base.  Now the entire parts pile will somehow transform into a working engine.  At least that is the plan.
With all the parts assembled and oiled, I needed the belt for the governor.  The first belt was loose and I neglected to clean the pulleys, all it did was spin on the governor’s pulley.  After cleaning the pulleys and taking 2 inches out of the belt, I still needed to help it.  Humm, , , I remembered that I didn’t grease the gears.  A sparing amount of grease and the governor turned with the belt. 
I put the two Cretors engines on a period appropriate table.  The Singer sewing machine’s wood parts suffered decay and the head became a parts doner, but I had a piece of maple from a table that needed a home.  So, I stripped the treadle to metal and applied modern paint as well as refinished the maple top with polyurethane.
FinishedFront-1a.jpg, FinishedFrontRight-2.jpg, Cretors_#1_&_#6_OnSingerTable.jpg

The finished engine running URLs are below.

Cretors #1 Horizontal Long
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZKyI9bmDG9c?feature=share

Cretors #1 Horizontal Short
https://youtube.com/shorts/Oj75OGjkSXk?feature=share

Cretors #1 Horizontal Slow
https://youtube.com/shorts/Lh5SDH0V21s?feature=share

[Sanjay F]

Very nice, looks great. The base looks very neat too and I like the colour 

[rstreift]

I like that color, maybe it is the two together. 
Seeing your recent oscillating engine build inspired me to pull out the kit of one I have on the shelf.  It is the same Murdock kit as being built in another thread.  I'm thinking a about that as the next engine, but it will need to wait for now.  Apparently my Dad got a replacement casting as there were two casting for the same part, one had some incomplete fill in some details.  Some things never change, eh? 

[Dave Otto]

Beautiful engine, it turned out really nice!

Dave

[CI]

It looks great !
.

[rstreift]

Thanks for looking at it.  - Reed