Stuart 10 Machining Steam Chest

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

A Youtube video of Joe Pie machining the steam chest for a Stuart No 10 engine using a special holding fixture. (although a bit over-the-top for a one off part)

(And using a material tor keeping the drill aligned when cutting the hole on the far side which is not available in Australia )

**LINK**

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

[RedsetterParticipant @redsetter]

A competent person can do that whole job in a four-jaw chuck very easily without any special fixtures.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

That is an absolutely ludicrous waste of material. Mass production jig instead of learning what can be done with a standard lathe. Typical youtube stretch it out and blow it up to make a video.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

The fixture makes the video a bit longer and allows him to get a couple more adverts in, shame he did not show beginners how to make it even if it was OTT. 4-jaw and a long series ctr drill has always worked for me.

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

And why I said it is a bit over the top for a one off part.

[Ramon WilsonParticipant @ramonwilson3]

That's the first time I've watched a Joe Pie video.

Well, I've always said there's more than one way to skin a cat but that's excessive approach in the extreme for what relatively easy components to machine

What ever happened to the simple faceplate angle plate set up for such a job – much less time consuming and no redundant fixture left at the end!

I'm also surprised at creating a datum face from the as cast flat surfaces by milling the edges first then using those to mill the flat faces ??

Whatever, each to his own and the end result is good, but certainly rather long winded for me.

[Ches Green UKParticipant @chesgreenuk]

I think Joe's background is small batch, high accuracy medical devices. So he is probably used to making jigs for a lot of his work, and he will have a decent supply of stock materials at hand.

So he does what he knows, and he likes to challenge himself. I certainly didn't do my 10V in any way remotely close to how Joe does it, but his video series is still fascinating to watch.

Ches

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

He does say at about minute 13.00 that if he were making just one part, he would not make the jig. But he says because he has two of the same part to make and he does not feel like messing around with them, he "went overboard" and made the jig.

Even for two parts it is somewhat overboard as he says, but nonetheless a good demonstration of how to make a simple jig that could be used on other harder to hold items.

(Before the purists point out it's a fixture if it does not guide the tool, for some reason in the auto industry they are all referred to as jigs on the shop floor so it is habit for me, even if it is a bad one!. )

As with most jigs/fixtures it looks like making the jig/fixture took much longer than making the part, so definitely overboard. Perhaps Joe is thinking of mass producing the S10?

 

 

Edited By Hopper on 15/05/2023 11:45:37

Edited By Hopper on 15/05/2023 11:53:39

[DjangoParticipant @django]

The end result is what really matters. It may seem a bit wasteful, but if he makes another, he is all set and he has no jaw marks to deal with. He may alter it at some time when doing a different engine.

Personally, I would not use a guide block. A long center or spotting drill seems to work fine, but that doesn’t mean that he did it wrong. Unfortunately, he will probably need a new guide block for each steam chest.

It seems that his steam chest locates to the cylinder nicely and the video was well done and could be instructional to someone that is not comfortable with more conventional methods. It’s always good to share ideas and methods and this might inspire others to be more creative in their methods. I give him two thumbs up.

[Author]

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