Chris's Diesbar Engine Build

[crueby]

that is a neat engine! And I suspect I will be marveling how quickly it is completed! Chris I know this has been mentioned by you, probably many times, but what solid modeling program are you using?

Thanks!  I am using Fusion 360 from Autocad for my CAD modeling. Given all the CAD I do, for the models and for the magazine articles, it was worth buying the full license for it when they started restricting some features of the free version.

[PJPickard]

Thanks Chris, the reason I ask is I have been a nearly 20 year user of Inventor and that has always come with a license for a seat at home. But with retirement coming in a couple years I won't have that luxury. I have played with Fusion and it is what we use for all the CAM work at my job. So I think I will I will have to go with the free Fusion version when the time comes. I hope the transition is smooth!

[crueby]

Thanks Chris, the reason I ask is I have been a nearly 20 year user of Inventor and that has always come with a license for a seat at home. But with retirement coming in a couple years I won't have that luxury. I have played with Fusion and it is what we use for all the CAM work at my job. So I think I will I will have to go with the free Fusion version when the time comes. I hope the transition is smooth!

Big differences with the free version are how many projects you can have active at once (you can have more archived and you have to manually set which ones can be editted), and what file formats you can export, like PDF.

[crueby]

This morning I turned/bored the trunnion bars. The ends are drilled/bored to take the o-ring steam/exhaust fittings later on. The grooves near the end will sit in the bearings on the lower frame.

Here they are, test fit in the ring blocks, ready to be silver soldered in place:

After soldering, I can start milling in the passages for the steam and exhaust, the flats for the steam chests, and get the centers bored out to final size so they will fit over the cylinders.

[Kim]

Thanks Chris, the reason I ask is I have been a nearly 20 year user of Inventor and that has always come with a license for a seat at home. But with retirement coming in a couple years I won't have that luxury. I have played with Fusion and it is what we use for all the CAM work at my job. So I think I will I will have to go with the free Fusion version when the time comes. I hope the transition is smooth!

Big differences with the free version are how many projects you can have active at once (you can have more archived and you have to manually set which ones can be editted), and what file formats you can export, like PDF.

I use the free version of Fusion and don't find the "10 editable projects" limit to be much of an issue for me.  It will automatically convert a 'read only' project to editable if you try to save it. And if you've already hit the max of 10 editable projects, it's not hard to go mark a bunch of them as read only.  They have a button you can click to see all your editable projects, so it's easy to see them all and mark them as read only.  A bit of a hassle sometimes, but for the amount I use Fusion, it's a good choice for me.  Chris is a super user so I can see it being worth his while to upgrade! 

I don't think you'll find it much of a limitation.

Kim

[Kim]

The cylinders and trunions are coming along nicely. 

Will you drill the trunions through before soldering? That would also decrease mass to be heated.  But it might make them more prone to warping.  Just a thought.

Kim

[crueby]

The cylinders and trunions are coming along nicely. 

Will you drill the trunions through before soldering? That would also decrease mass to be heated.  But it might make them more prone to warping.  Just a thought.

Kim

Hi Kim,
The trunnions are drilled in from either end to the inside edge of the ring - didn't bother past that since it will get trimmed out anyway. Shouldn't warp since it is down the center of the trunnion. I'm going to bore the inside of the ring to final size last, in case the milling of the passages and the flat for the steam chest causes any stress-relief type warping of the ring.

Just back from a long lunch with friends, then I need to get the back lawn mowed (was too hot yesterday to do more than the front, much cooler today). After that I might set up the torch and get the rings/trunnions soldered. Or in the morning... We'll see!
Chris

[crueby]

I just finished silver soldering the trunnions to the rings, appears to have gone well - had to use my second-largest torch nozzle even with cutting the center out of the rings, its still a lot of mass to heat up. The solder penetrated right through to the inside of the ring, could see the shiny solder against the brass. Its outside still, cooling off, and will take a swim in the pickle solution once its cool.

In the meantime, the 4 chime whistle that I ordered off fleabay arrived today!      I've gotten it added to the row of single chime ones that I made last year - quite a different sound given that its about the same size as the others. Going to have to lock up the compressor tonight or the elves will not let me get any sleep...
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_e49CvdaGI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_e49CvdaGI</a>

[crueby]

Here are the trunnions/ring blocks after silver soldering and a soak in the pickling solution, the wire brushing:

The solder was only applied on the outer ends of the trunnion joints, and I know the joints got filled all the way through since the solder shows up on the insides too:

So, next time I can start in on milling the steam passages...

[Sanjay F]

That is impressive, can see some serious heat was applied to get those glowing and the solder circulating! 

[sid pileski]

Chris- watching another interesting build!

Question- are the reversing levers to each cylinder/valve chest independantly operated by the engineer?
In the video and the model it looks like they are.
Maybe I'm missing something?

Thanks, Sid

[crueby]

Chris- watching another interesting build!

Question- are the reversing levers to each cylinder/valve chest independantly operated by the engineer?
In the video and the model it looks like they are.
Maybe I'm missing something?

Thanks, Sid

Hi Sid,


Each cylinder has a separate throttle and also its own pair of valve control levers. In each pair, one disconnects the valve from the eccentric arm. Thats the one you see him pull out to free the valve. The other one  he raises or liwers to directly move the valve. Then he opens one or both throttles to start the engine moving in the new direction, partway around the eccentric hits the stop block and starts moving with the crankshaft again, at and the disconnect lever is popped back in place to reconnect the eccentric arm. Also he opens the second throttle at the proper time, The engine is then off and running as normal in the new direction. Quite a dance of m9ving controls at just the right time in just the right direction! A lot of skill there. It reminds me of how the very early pumping engines were started, but here there are two cylinders. When the engine is running on its own, you can see the two levers, that he had moved manually to set the valves, tilting up and down as the eccentric moves the valves.




I spent a lot of time studying the video in slow motion, comparing it to closeups of the still photos that Michael got me, before I  understood how all the pieces played together. Fascinating  machine! I'm not  sure how long it will take me to operate the  model to reverse it, might just rotate the crankshaft manually  to slip the eccentrics  into the new position for quite a while!  In one video I  remember  seeing him fine tuning the position of one of the  stop blocks on an eccentric.

[crueby]

That is impressive, can see some serious heat was applied to get those glowing and the solder circulating! 

Yup, I  used the nozzle one step smaller than the monster that I  use on copper boilers. This time I  used the Easy grade solder, which flows at a slightly  lower  temperature and  flows very well into joints. Don't  recall its exact temperature  range, think its around 1150F, give or take 100 degrees. At the lower end of red heat. I judge the heat more by when the flux goes clear than metal color, also I start with a short bit of the solder laying on the joint so I  can see it soften and start to flow, then add more from a long piece of the solder wire as needed, all with hold8ng the flame around and on the opposite side of the  parts rather than letting the flame be directly  on the solder, which would melt the solder and have it ball up and run off before the metal is hot enough. Key is to get the metal to melt the solder so it flows into the joint. Just weighed one of the blocks, its 2.2 pounds, quite a bit to heat up!

[cnr6400]

  Soldering is looking great Chris! I'll bet there's plenty of silver ions now around those trunn ions...

[crueby]

Soldering is looking great Chris! I'll bet there's plenty of silver ions now around those trunn ions...

Thanks  Jeff!  Glad you are back online again!