Author Topic: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss  (Read 13280 times)

Offline awake

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #60 on: May 14, 2020, 09:41:29 PM »
Craig, where did you have the surgery? (Just curious since I know the area ...)
Andy

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #61 on: May 14, 2020, 10:32:54 PM »
I've been using Raleigh Optomology for years, a good friend is a physician there.  Surgery was at Rexx
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline awake

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #62 on: May 14, 2020, 11:02:46 PM »
I was just coming back to delete my question - got to thinking that might have been a bit personal to ask on a public forum!

Rex is a good hospital - gave good care to my parents a number of times. A bit far for us, but then again, our local hospital is pretty basic, so if we ever have anything major we're likely to wind up somewhere in Raleigh. :)
Andy

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #63 on: May 18, 2020, 08:42:03 PM »
Thank you Jo, Terry, Kirk, MJM460, Andy, and others who I’m sure wished me well but didn’t specifically post saying so.

Thanks also for those of you who continue to stop by to see the progress.

I had the cataract in my right eye removed ten years ago and the technology has come a long way.  This time they used a robot to measure, and then do the surgical “cutting”.  It wasn’t the most pleasant thing to go through, but if that were the worst I’d face in a life time there should be no complaining.  Now, with the cataract removed things are brighter but still a bit out of focus.  I’m told my eyesight is so poor that the decision was again made to not try to entirely correct my vision, so I’ll still be wearing corrective lenses.  I’ve had them for a lifetime so no need to complain.

Even though I was told to “take it easy” for the next week I couldn’t stay entirely out of the shop.  I had purchased a billet of cast iron from which to make the cylinder liner, so I’ve been working on that.  This is not a lot of strenuous activity; setting the lathe up for a pass and then sitting there and twiddling my thumbs for the next fifteen minutes while the lathe does its job.

Here is a photo I took just as I called it quits for today, I’ve finished the internal bore to 1 ¾ inches; I’ll start on the external diameter tomorrow.

Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline kvom

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #64 on: May 19, 2020, 12:33:48 AM »
Quote
I’m told my eyesight is so poor

I'll see your bad eyesight and raise you one diopter.   8)

My surgery is scheduled for June 18. 

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #65 on: May 19, 2020, 01:56:03 AM »

My surgery is scheduled for June 18.

And I wish you the best of luck and a speedy recovery;  and as Jo said,don’t forget those eye drops. ^-^
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #66 on: May 19, 2020, 02:06:06 PM »
(Copied from another thead, didn’t want to hijack the topic)

Following along Brian  :popcorn: :popcorn:

Thanks Mike--I generally take a couple of weeks between builds, but with this damned virus there is absolutely nothing else to do.

I’m with you there, I’m not looking forward to finishing the Witte, I’ll need another project or I will go stark-raving-mad  :o

And actually, I may have a doozy in the works!


Scale Dusenberg engine?

D oooo zy      Chris, not. D use zy.  :ROFL:


Also, I suspect we have all seen Louis Chenot’s magnificent Dusenberg model?   :NotWorthy:  After seeing his stunning model, it would be folly for me to attempt anything of that venue.

« Last Edit: May 19, 2020, 09:25:16 PM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #67 on: May 19, 2020, 09:10:59 PM »
 Thanks for stopping by to see the latest.

 I received the flywheel castings from Martin Models yesterday.  I have to tell you that I’m again impressed with the quality of these castings.  This is the same vendor I used for the Crossley Otto Langen flywheels and these castings are just as nice as the ones I used on the Otto.




Today I finished up the cylinder liner.  If you recall, the cylinder on this model is also cast iron but, after deciding to have a working coolant system, I needed to form a water jacket between the cylinder and the liner.  Here you see the liner just before I used my parting tool to sever it from the base stock.



The hole in the cylinder is ten thousandths smaller on the bottom where the liner presses in than on the top.  The liner is made accordingly; therefore there is only a half inch press to seat the liner in the cylinder.  I went with a one thousandths press fit on top and bottom and the liner slipped into place, an easy press on the hand press.



I still had a bit of the day left so I made one of the steel rings that encase the front of the cylinder; here you see it between the cylinder and the head.  Another needs to be made that presses onto the rear of the cylinder.  I assume these were made and installed to prevent the casting (on the full size) from breaking out?



Didn’t think to ask Joe of he wanted his model painted a different color than the full size he owns.  If so, I suspect he’ll let me know. :-\
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #68 on: May 23, 2020, 10:20:57 PM »
Thanks for stopping by to see the latest.

I’ve been turning flywheels since the last post, and I took some photos of the progress.

As most of you know, you don’t center the flywheel casting on the lathe on the outside edge, nor do you center on the inside hub.  Since this inside rim will be the prominent “casting feature” on these flywheels once I get them turned I choose the inside rim as the prominent feature upon which to center the casting on the lathe.

These are CASTINGS so we all know that they can’t really be “centered”.  You just, sort of, find a “happy location” where the rim seems to have the least wobble, and call that the center.  Here I’m using my indicator as a pointer; it’s not really touching the casting, just using the end nub as a pointer to help me.  I’ve mounted the casting on my faceplate and I tap it lightly with a rubber mallet, turning the lathe spindle by hand, till I find a happy compromise .



Now I’m turning the face of the flywheel, working down to the dimension (on this side) for the outer rim.  I usually work these flywheels from the inside- out.  That way I don’t need to worry about the tooling striking the mounting bolts.  If they aren’t striking when I start, the tooling is moving away from the mounting bolts and the pass is done when the cut proceeds past the outer rim.



I chose these particular castings because they will turn down to closely match the flywheels on the full size engine I’m modeling.  To do this I need to remove all the material down to the width of the spoke webbing.  Here I’ve just finished that on this side.



Only thing left to do on this side was to face the hub.



Every once in a while you get really lucky, and with this particular flywheel, the scale diameter inside the outer rim was close enough to the outside diameter of my faceplate to make it such (10.05 inches).  By turning the inside rim diameter to this dimension, when I turned the flywheel over there was no re-centering involved.  It merely slid snugly over the faceplate, centered by default.

Then I started working this side of the casting down to the final dimension of the rim width.  Here I’ve just finished that task.



Only a little more to do on these flywheels and they will be finished.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2020, 01:55:07 AM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #69 on: May 24, 2020, 06:58:13 PM »
Thanks for stopping by.

Today, work continued on the flywheels. I turned the flywheel interior down to the width of the spokes; then faced off the hub.



Next, I drilled, bored, and then reamed the hole for the crankshaft.



Finally, I worked the finished outside diameter down to 10 ½ inches.  All this turning was slow going.  My lathe’s slowest speed is 70 RPM.  With a ten inch plus flywheel that’s a cutting speed of nearly 200 feet per minute.  This is way too fast for high speed steel tooling; even the carbide tooling dulled quickly if I took too aggressive of a cut or set too rapid a feed rate.

« Last Edit: May 24, 2020, 08:58:58 PM by Craig DeShong »
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #70 on: May 26, 2020, 09:07:45 PM »
Thanks for stopping by to see the latest.

I finished up the flywheels and got them painted, then made the gib keys to attach them to the crankshaft.

I also made the piston, fitted the rings; then made the remaining top to the connecting rod and the wrist pin.  I then fitted all that to the engine.  Everything seems to fit well.

I was curious to see what an assembly looked like so I, sort of, mock assembled most of the loose parts.  Below are a few photos of that assembly.






I’m going to need to make a wooden stand for the engine soon.  The flywheels are a bit too large for the frame to sit on the base without the flywheels touching.  I’m not sure the full size is like that, if not it must be close.

Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline awake

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #71 on: May 26, 2020, 09:25:32 PM »
Craig, it is coming along nicely! On the flywheels, I am thinking they must be cast iron ... but the pictures on the lathe looked almost like bronze - maybe just the lighting?
Andy

Offline kvom

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #72 on: May 26, 2020, 09:33:25 PM »
Not bad for one a guy with one eye.   :popcorn: :old:

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #73 on: May 26, 2020, 09:35:16 PM »
Andy, they are cast iron.  The vendor offers bronze but the full size is cast iron, so I chose that for the model also.
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: 15 HP Witte hit-and-miss
« Reply #74 on: May 26, 2020, 09:44:01 PM »
Not bad for one a guy with one eye.   :popcorn: :old:

 :ROFL:  The “peeper” is doing pretty well.  I need to wait a few weeks for things to stabilize, then they’ll get me a new glasses prescription.   For that I can’t wait, because the coating is coming off the glasses I’m using and my vision is pretty poor accordingly.  While in the shop, I use my reading glasses, so I can see pretty well, far vision is pretty fuzzy but in the shop, far vision is not required.
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

 

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