Author Topic: PM Research Engine Number 1  (Read 42822 times)

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #45 on: January 05, 2020, 11:22:34 PM »
Thanks John, I appreciate you looking in and your positive comments. I'm not as skilled as most other members on this forum, with some of their frankly astounding builds, but practice makes perfect and all that. I need more hours "behind the wheels" of my machines.

Anyway, a bit more progress. Yesterday I fixed up my rotary table, and made a successful test, so today I went live with it.

I finished the step on the outboard cylinder head, so that it fit nicely in to the cylinder.



Then I turned it round and dressed up the outside a bit.



I decided on just enough clean up to provide a flat surface for the clamping nuts when the time comes. I felt it maintained the "cleaned up casting" look. Maybe it should be cleaned up a bit more. Don't know yet.



Anyway, on to the rotary table, and spotted and drilled the bolt holes.



Something got out of position, because when I went in to deburr the holes, the chamfers are definetely out of synch with the main bolt hole pattern. Not that they will be seen on the finished engine, but these kinds of errors and mishaps really grind my gears. Must do better than this. I bet I moved the slip ring 5 degree dial collar on the crank handle - it is only spring loaded, and has has no locking screw. I may well add one to try and avoid this.



I thought I would make a start on this part.





Cleaning up and getting ready:











Lots to do yet.

Anyway, something that has been bothering me is the backlash on my lathe cross feed. The cross feed just feels really slack, and then today the backlash seemed to increase on the main carriage. When I turn the dial on the carriage, the backlash gets taken up, I can feel everything engage - but then I can turn the dial a bit more, feeling a little more resistance, before it really starts to drive. I was worried that a gear might be slipping on a shaft or something, so I have taken most of the saddle and cross slide apart. I want to just make sure everything is set up right before going any further.



It will be good just to look everything over and make sure all is well. Seems like I spend more time setting up my machines than actually making things.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2020, 11:41:14 PM by propforward »
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #46 on: January 07, 2020, 12:28:46 AM »
Progressing, nice and steady.

Frustrating as it is, you did right to dismantle the cross-slide to diagnose the slop. If you hadn't, it would have niggled at you...

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #47 on: January 08, 2020, 06:38:39 PM »
Thanks Gary, you're absolutely right. Also, when I took it apart I found a lot of "stuff" stick in nooks and crannies that I can now get out of there - I think left over from the manufacture of the lathe. I can't find anything wrong, but I'll clean and regrease everything and have it back together this weekend, and I can get that cross slide motion tightened up a little bit too. If nothing else, I'll feel good knowing more about the way this tool was built.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #48 on: January 09, 2020, 12:37:05 AM »
Way to go. It's bound to improve the machine and how you feel about it.

Looking back to the start of your thread here, you've got to love that five-spoked flywheel:





This engine will be a beauty when it's done.

 8)

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #49 on: January 11, 2020, 11:28:15 PM »
Thanks Gary. I think this will be a nice engine. Funny thing is, when I first looked at the engine on line I didn't like it at all, but after a while it really grew on me, so I'm excited to be moving it along.

Lathe is all back together - feels a little better now.



I've been reorganizing as well - moving some of my raw material off the wooden shelves, and sorting out tool storage there. Still got to do the lower shelf.

With the lathe back together I made some progress on the cylinder.

I mounted it on the angle plate. I used a 1-2-3 block as a stop, and made sure that was parallel to the table, then repeated the parallelism check on the face of the cylinder once I had it clamped in place.



I used an edge finder to find the center of the high edge of the bore, and then after a little trigonometry calculated the position of the centers of the two port holes, and spot faced them with a 1/8" end mill, then drilled down to the slot that was previously milled in the steam chest.





I am pleased that I hit the slots dead on - right at each end of the slot. It was a real fulfilling sense of achievement when I felt the drill break thru into the slot.

Now to turn it over and repeat on the other side. This part is actually close to completion! I hope to drill the other ports tomorrow, and do a little more turning on the inboard head.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #50 on: January 12, 2020, 09:14:36 AM »
Cylinder is looking great.

So is your shop. Mine is chaos at the moment... :o

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #51 on: January 12, 2020, 09:44:16 PM »
Thanks Gary. My shop is about the only thing I'm having success with at the moment.

I drilled the other two port holes today, but got them off center. They will still work, but I'm getting a bit tired of making parts "that will still work". Not sure where I went wrong - whether it was in finding center or if I just indexed too far when moving to the drill point. I'm not even going to post pictures, too embarrassing. I might go ahead and buy a new casting, on the basis that implementing what I've learned on the first one will make for a really nice second one, however I shall be extremely disappointed if I have to replace every casting in the kit.

Which brings me to my second issue of the day, and a real disaster.

I picked up the inboard head again, and was having a good time with it. I cleaned it up, got all diameters and faces true, and even drilled and reamed the through hole.





Then brought the disc to final thickness.



Got a lovely finish on it, and the thickness within .001" of dimension from the print. Great!

Proceeded to turn down the face some more to make the step, and that was going well, or so I thought, when suddenly my thickness measurements started moving around back and forth.........



Blast, and quite a lot of other words.

I don't really know how this happened. The part never grabbed, I was taking nice light cuts, everything seemed to be fine.

On top of that, I discovered while making this that there is still something wrong in the carriage of my lathe. The handwheel drive is not at all repeatable - go to move the carriage .020" - it moves .01 and change. Move it back down the bed and bring it back to zero, it ends up going past zero by .02" or more. So a key or a pin has broken in some gear or other in the saddle. I'll take that apart again before attempting to remake this.

At least organizing that area of the shop went well, and the cross slide adjustments worked well.

I'm not giving up. I'm going to finish this engine, and if I have to remake parts along the way, so be it.


Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #52 on: January 14, 2020, 02:36:09 PM »
Well, after having had a big slice of humble PIE!, I called the nice folks at PM Research, and have ordered a new cylinder and a new inboard head casting. I think I am going to continue with the cylinder as is so far, because it can be made to work, and then with more hours and experience under my belt later on I'll make the new one to replace it. For the inboard head I may make one out of brass stock in the meantime, see where I went wrong on that.

I ordered an engine #5 at the same time as ordering the new parts. Looks like a nice engine from a couple of threads here, so will be another fun project.

I am not going to put this engine aside though. I'm going to keep on it. I may not be doing very well so far, but I put that down to inexperience. I've had my shop and tools for quite a while, but don't have many actual hands on hours on them. Now that motorcycling is not my main pass time, and I'm selling off all my bikes and replacing them with tools, this hobby is becoming my number 1, and so with more hands on time will come better results. If I don't get things right first time, then I'll do them again. As long as my working practices are safe, and I'm not catapulting chuck keys across the shop then I'm happy.

Oh, and I have to fix the drive system in the lathe apron. That job is up first.

Carry on.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #53 on: January 14, 2020, 03:03:27 PM »
Well, after having had a big slice of humble PIE!, I called the nice folks at PM Research, and have ordered a new cylinder and a new inboard head casting. I think I am going to continue with the cylinder as is so far, because it can be made to work, and then with more hours and experience under my belt later on I'll make the new one to replace it. For the inboard head I may make one out of brass stock in the meantime, see where I went wrong on that.

I ordered an engine #5 at the same time as ordering the new parts. Looks like a nice engine from a couple of threads here, so will be another fun project.

I am not going to put this engine aside though. I'm going to keep on it. I may not be doing very well so far, but I put that down to inexperience. I've had my shop and tools for quite a while, but don't have many actual hands on hours on them. Now that motorcycling is not my main pass time, and I'm selling off all my bikes and replacing them with tools, this hobby is becoming my number 1, and so with more hands on time will come better results. If I don't get things right first time, then I'll do them again. As long as my working practices are safe, and I'm not catapulting chuck keys across the shop then I'm happy.

Oh, and I have to fix the drive system in the lathe apron. That job is up first.

Carry on.

Stuart............that's a bummer about the cylinder and head castings................but you have a great attitude!  :ThumbsUp: It does help having replacement castings available. I know that it's lowered my stress level on my PMR #5 build.

It's really frustrating to have accuracy problems with one's equipment.............I hope your able to get that sorted out.

Glad to hear you ordered the PMR #5. I've been enjoying my build. It'll be nice having company.

Jim



Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #54 on: January 14, 2020, 03:52:17 PM »
That's why I went with PMR kits as my first casting builds. Good availability of parts makes for a little reassurance.

I'll get the lathe fixed - I bet it's damaged keyway slot or something simple like that. I already checked with Grizzly, and any of the parts that I think might be damaged are in stock there, so after I pull it apart and find the issue, it shouldn't take long to get back up to snuff. It's all part of the experience.

Actually very much looking forward to making PMR #5 - I've been enjoying your thread. I might make it in parallel with #1 - see which one pops out first. :D
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline Don1966

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #55 on: January 14, 2020, 10:07:15 PM »
Very nice work and photos Stuart........ :ThumbsUp:




 :cheers:
Don

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #56 on: January 15, 2020, 12:37:05 AM »
Thanks Don, I appreciate you looking in. A bit of drama on this one, but all part of the fun and learning.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #57 on: January 16, 2020, 11:20:25 PM »
That's why I went with PMR kits as my first casting builds. Good availability of parts makes for a little reassurance.


I have the kit for a PMR #6 waiting in the wings. I'm still not at the point where I'm brave enough to touch it...

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #58 on: January 17, 2020, 03:47:16 PM »

I have the kit for a PMR #6 waiting in the wings. I'm still not at the point where I'm brave enough to touch it...

Lovely! From what I've seen you shouldn't have any fear making an attempt on that engine. I have a PMR #4 waiting - I got very enthusiastic a while back. Now I've learned that I need to learn more before I start that one.  :embarassed:

Even so, after this engine and the #5, I intend to just get on with it!  >:D

Maybe we'll run those builds in parallel with each other some day. Could be fun.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2020, 12:33:44 AM by propforward »
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline propforward

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Re: PM Research Engine Number 1
« Reply #59 on: January 18, 2020, 01:03:45 PM »
Well, for the sake of the blow by blow account of live and up to the minute excitement, I received replacement castings yesterday.



Although I'm going to keep going with the current cylinder for now. It will work, but I'll have to rotate the outboard cylinder head to get the tapped holes to not interfere with one set of port holes. That will not look very good on the finished engine, but right now I want to keep going, make some progress, learn some more. I'll re make the cylinder later on.

Engine #5 also arrived, which looks like a delightful engine. In some ways I wish I had picked this one as my first casting attempt, but this is where we are. I'm not backing out now.



Anyway, today's first job will be to dismantle the apron on my lathe and find out what's going on with the drive system. That will dictate what progress gets made on engines this weekend.

Riveting stuff I know.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

 

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