The Workshop Progress Thread (2017)

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Finally made some progress out in the workshop. Lost a lot of time recently due to 3 weeks in China (work), 2 weeks in Wales / Yorks (hols) and bringing the ceiling down (planned and almost controlled!) in the new kitchen / dining room, so there hasn't been much activity out there for a while. I also spent some time commissioning the stick, MIG and TIG welders, so I'm back in the welding game again.

Previously I'd designed a tool setting fixture to hold my ISO40 ER40 collet chucks during tightening. There is no easy way to hold an ISO40 toolholder without damaging it, unless you have a suitable fixture. Tightening them in the spindle is not recommended and you could make a grand mess of your knuckles if you slipped when tightening a sharp new cutter.

This was largely a CAD/CAM/CNC exercise, designed to progress a complete design from the PC into metal, using my (now largely finished) CNC milling machine. It's a 1983 Shizuoka that I have retrofitted with a 3-axis Chinese Fanuc clone controller. Although I've now got a fair bit of experience with 3D CAD, this was my first start-to-finish project using CNC. All in all it seems to have gone rather well – no obvious dimensional cockups, no broken tools and it bolted together nicely.

The remaining component parts:

Machine tapping with 100% thread in the manual mill:

Finished assembly. All parts fit like the proverbial:

In use:

So that's another one ticked off! Quite a few milestones passed on the way, so feeling quite fulfilled. Time for a couple of beers perhaps.

Murray

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

Vertical Cross coming along nicely George.

As I remember Stew's design calls for the piston valve hole to be made all the way through the valve chest and a plug to be inserted to seal the bottom. I found I was able to drill and ream to within a couple of mm of the bottom and the valve still had room to operate and I avoided the need for a plug and the potential for an air (or steam) leak.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Posted by Muzzer on 11/08/2017 10:47:57:

So that's another one ticked off! Quite a few milestones passed on the way, so feeling quite fulfilled. Time for a couple of beers perhaps.

Never mind a couple of beers, I think that effort deserves the whole case. ^ 10

Very impressive, and no broken tools, way better than I managed. It must have been a sizeable task on it's own justgetting the mill going.

Andrew

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Murray, when you bought that load off BT40. Tooling off me didn’t you grab the bolt on fixture off the end of the CNC Beaver?

Check your pm for one from me please

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Posted by Jim Nic on 11/08/2017 12:03:31:

Vertical Cross coming along nicely George.

As I remember Stew's design calls for the piston valve hole to be made all the way through the valve chest and a plug to be inserted to seal the bottom. I found I was able to drill and ream to within a couple of mm of the bottom and the valve still had room to operate and I avoided the need for a plug and the potential for an air (or steam) leak.

Jim

Yeh, realised same … after I did mine…​, will just have to make plug… anyhow did the counterbore for the stuffing box…

​Will have to rethink the gland follower stud spacing as didn't have 7mm counterbore so used 5/16" end mill for flat bottom… 0.9mm larger…so it put the hole centre distancing out… could have used 7mm drill I s'pose…

​George.

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

Hi George

Here I come with advice a bit late again. I am still using carbon impregnated string as a seal medium so I use ordinary twist drills for stuffing boxes and leave the conical seat at the bottom of the hole after tapping and then the flat on the end of the gland follower tends to compress the string on to the shaft. Counterbores or such are not then necessary. Small O rings are the modern method I understand, so a flat bottomed hole will work just fine or just leave the drilled seat.

Jim

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Thanks for the info Jim; me trying to be too fussy I guess…

Geo.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

This week's been spent tuning up my lathe (Real Bull 0618A from SPGTools).

The main focus was on improving the rigidity of the saddle with an approach based on a you tube video by Steve Jordan.

Basically the idea is to replace the steel plates and screw adjustment with thickish brass bars and shims.

Most of the detail in the video didn't work (I didn't have an extra 3mm at the back and I had to shim the back and not the front), however, I've ended up with a saddle which is pretty solid. if I put a clock on the saddle an lift it I see around .005mm movement, but I think that's the the bed sagging as much as the saddle loose!

apologies for the pretty grotty photos here.

The result of which is that I can now part of steel bar, Prior to this I got a lot of chatter and shriekingand it basically didn't work. Now I can actually relatively quickly and the cheap QCTP looks like the limiting factor.

At the same time I continued to Wyattise my lathe. A recess milled into the cross slide and a lead screw protector as below.

I feel quite happy with this. All I need to do now is actually make something.

Iain

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Iain Downs on 15/08/2017 15:43:44:

At the same time I continued to Wyattise my lathe.

Oh heck…!

Neil

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

Today I acquired a Tyler Minor band saw, nice little thing, cast ally frame not pressed tin,small footprint and very quiet running.
It is only missing a 1/2" circlip to retain the top wheel.

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

Today My C3 MiniLathe had it's tenth birthday. Only replacement part has been a 60 tooth gear wheel which was found early on to be in partial mesh so got burred. Soon rectified with a new spacer and a gentle tweak of the banjo.

One niggling problem has been a slight tendency to chatter when parting (even in reverse with an inverted tool) so finally investigated further by placing a 6 inch rod in a toolholder and leaning on it while watching a dial test indicator mounted on the bed.

Interesting results. The saddle was fine (no detectable movement). The x-slide showed barely a flicker of movement, well less than 0.01mm at the rear edge. But the top-slide showed a 0.15mm deflection when measured 70mm to the rear of it's pivot point.

So out with the 800 wet and dry (wrapped around a file) to remove machining marks from the slides. Lapped the gibs on more wet and dry over a granite tile and then gently lapped the slides with a fine diamond lap.

Cleaned, oiled with WD-40 Teflon spray (it's very slippery) and re-assembled. Took a bit of care to get the gibs quite tight (I use ball bearings under the cup point screws) so that the slide moved smoothly but with a bit of pressure on the handle. Also tweaked the x-slide gibs a little snugger.

End result, top-slide deflection reduced to 0.02mm. Put a piece of 25mm brass rod in the 4 jaw, clocked it true and took an aggressive cut with a 1.2mm HSS parting tool at 500rpm. Usual brassy squeal, flakes of brass flying everywhere and not a sign of chatter, well less than a minute to a perfect parting result.

For less than 2 hours work it was a worthwhile exercise.

* Danny M *

[William SParticipant @williams]

You lucky person to acquire such a simple yet elegant machine there John, something that has a heap of character yet will function for many years to come. would also be something that would fulfil my needs perfectly, suppose I'll keep looking then!

Thanks

William

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Did some more on my Vertical Cross; bit annoyed with myself as didn't Loctite spool valve rod to spool, it came loose as I was trying it out for sliding fit & some Loctite had got from the valve chest end cap plug into valve bore & locked up the spool, the same at the valve stuffing box end, I had made it too tight a fit so had no way of removing spool ​. Doh!. I ended up stripping it all down, knocking the end cap plug out, persuading the stuffing box out, cleaned it up for an easy push fit, made sure the spool valve slid easily, put some cyl oil in both, fitted the piston, checked for operation, detected some compression & suction in both cyl' & valve chest, so looking good…

George.

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

George

You will soon be making the valve rod guide. There are a couple of ways to do this, you could make a 2 piece guide as Stew originally did and either be super accurate or leave the mounting holes loose for wiggleability or fabricate a 1 piece guide as I did. Either way, to help locate the hole in the guide I made a dummy piston valve and shortened operating rod from a piece of silver steel and formed a pointed end on the top of the rod; when hardened this became a centre pop. I assembled the valve chest with the dummy valve and the guide in place and was able accurately to mark the guide from underneath with the pointed rod. (Unfortunately the photo of the dummy rod I had was lost when my computer died a couple of months ago, I now have double backups of everything I've taken since that day. Bolted horses and stable doors spring to mind!)

Hopefully this pearl of wisdom gets to you before you've made the part and helps in some way.

Jim

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Another option if you have a mill is to put the whole cylinder assembly on the table and clamp, locate the valve rod hole below the spindle and lock the table. Then screw the guide into place and drill the valve rod hole, this should put it directly above the valve hole. A bit of packing may be needed to stop the guide bending while drilling.

J

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Jim / Jason, Thanks for the info' have already made the guide in two pieces as per Stewart's dwg, with a bit of 'wiggability' clearance in the mounting holes so I should be ok, I do like the look of a one piece though. Looking at your valve chest Jim I note the yours doesn't have the two 'exhaust ports in, only one in the front of the chest cover ? I made mine to Stewarts dwg which show two ports, is this your variation on design, or have I dropped a proverbial?
I can see the operational process would have the same effect but I am following Stewarts drawings hence the two ports, mind you I found Stewarts dwgs for the chest confusing, trying to figure out where it went from 1st angle to third angle to sectional, or else my grey matter is really getting slow…​. Some enlightenment would be appreciated.

​What sort of paint finish have you applied, it looks like some form of baked on coating or are you just good at 'spray can' methodology… ​. I have plenty of coffee stirrers & wood stain to do the lagging so shouldn't be a problem on that score.

Cheers
George.

[egaParticipant @ega]

Posted by john carruthers on 17/08/2017 08:07:05:

Today I acquired a Tyler Minor band saw, nice little thing, cast ally frame not pressed tin,small footprint and very quiet running.
It is only missing a 1/2" circlip to retain the top wheel.

Does it indeed have a spiral blade ie one which cuts in any direction?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

looks like Jim has a separate valve chest cover which I suspect is hollowed out behind to join the two holes into one. Julius did similar when he redrew Stews drawing but put the block on the side of the valve chest, though I think Jim's is a neater solution and also 4 less holes to tap into that already busy valvechest.

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

Jason got it in one.

It was done just to be different and I preferred the look with the exhaust piped away. It also gave me more room on the valve chest side to fix the banding for the lagging.

I tend to do things differently from engine designs just to put my own stamp on them and in some cases make the models look a little less "modelly" to my eye. I started this when I built John "Bogstandard" Moore's Paddleduck engine from his build log where he showed what was possible by making 2 very different looking models while keeping the same basic shape and important dimensions.

Jim

 

Edited By Jim Nic on 23/08/2017 12:50:21

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Jim / Jason; thanks for the info'. re. the paint work, is it 'spray can' applied or something else, what colour, looks bluish with a tinge of grey in there somewhere ?, not that I'll be using same colouring.

TIA
George.

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

It's a Revell colour SM 350 which is more of a slate/blue colour than it appears in the photos. It has a semi matt finish and I applied it using a cheapish Badger 200 airbrush over rattle can primer.

I find that to my eye semi matte or satin finishes give a more scale like appearance than full gloss. I recently visited the London Museum of Water and Steam and although most of their engines are gloss painted, from a few metres back the gloss reduces to a more semi matt appearance. Having said that, I know Jason uses gloss on a lot of his true scale models and they look fantastic and I did my version of his Jowitt engine in gloss and that looks good too.

Jim

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Jim;
I have used gloss rattle can paint on my Stuarts models & they look good to me but was intrigued by your colouring. Looks like I shall be digging into my pension for an inexpensive airbrush kit next month.

cheers
George.

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Today the electrician and I started on rewiring my garage. I am the cable monkey doing the unpleasant stuff like the cable runs in a filthy and dusty garage loft! But, what I do, I don't have to pay him for, and running cables is much easier with two.

First in were 5 x 5' 2x30w LED strip lights – one each over the two lathes and milling machine, and one over each of the two benches. I can see!

Then we fitted a new 10 way consumer board, wired in my compressor direct to the board (3hp motor), and fitted a new earth point for the garage.

He's not back until Tuesday, then our next job will be to add another couple of twin 13a sockets next to the new bench, then wire in the Transwave rotary converter.

Finally wire in the three 3 phase machines to plugs (two lathes and a Clarkson T&C grinder), and at long last I can make swarf!

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

>>Does it indeed have a spiral blade ie one which cuts in any direction?<<

Sadly no EGA, I have repaired the broken 1/4" 8 tpi blade that came with it, just silver solder, until the new blades arrive from Tuffsaws (who are happily located near my son-in-law's workplace at Dyffryn).
The spiral blades can be had from the US but the usual shipping is prohibitive.
The blades are 1140mm so hand held power hacksaw blades should fit?
I've crowned the top wheel slightly and replaced the missing rubber tyre with some inner tube I found while walking the dog.

I now see that the case is cast iron, should last a few years.
A sound investment for £20

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

A bit more (slow) progress on the Stew Hart Popcorn engine. A trial assembly of the eccentric and valve linkage to check it all fits and moves as it should. There is a support for the valve rod to make and fit and then I plan to get it running before turning to the inlet manifold, governor and, most important, the whistle.

Jim

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