The Workshop Progress Thread (2017)

[egaParticipant @ega]

john carruthers:

Thanks for the additional information about this nice little tool. My query was prompted by wondering how a spiral blade would react to what look like conventional guides; presumably, the spiral is run without guides.

Shame about the supply position but, of course, a good 1/4" blade will cut quite small radii. I, too, am a satisfied Tuffsaws customer.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Jim Nic; your popcorn is looking good, is your base aluminium plate?

George.

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

Hi George

Yes the base is 10mm ali plate with the edge shaped with a ball nose end mill. Eventually it will have the top surface engine turned.

Jim

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

Popcorn runs!

A first trial of Stew Hart's Popcorn Engine running.  It is a bit tight and leaks air all over the place so needs 20 PSI of air to run but a bit of fettling should reduce that considerably.

It sounds as if there is a knock somewhere but the noise is coming from the exhaust which opens direct to atmosphere from the cylinder block.  Hopefully I can reduce it by adding a pipe with an angled end and reducing the air pressure when it loosens up should also help.

Now on to the governor which looks a bit tricky so should keep me well entertained for a while.

Jim

Edited By Jim Nic on 03/09/2017 12:16:19

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Edited By Jim Nic on 03/09/2017 12:36:19

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Looking good, could just be the exhaust note as an engine under load will bark so may just go as things loosen up.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Lovely to see it in action Jim.

Neil

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Nice work Jim, try putting some medium grade steel wool into your exhaust assembly, that may quieten the 'click', I did on my Stuart D10 vertical, made a noticeable difference.

George.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Yesterday actually; went to drill the vertical cross, cross arm rods /ends for pinning… snapped two 1.4 mm drills, wasn't in the best of moods to start with… said something like… 'oh dear how sad'… but in a more colloquial dialect… locked up garage, went & had a glass of vino… you get those days sometimes don't you…

George.

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

I was recently offered an Edward Blake No 2 Tap Taper Grinder and bought it at the asking price of £25 in the hope that I can use it for endmill and slotdrill sharpening.

It originally came from the Marshall works at Gainsborough but I suspect that before that it was used in a R.O.F..

There are some arts missing and some of the operation of it is a mystery but I am getting some help from people on a webite called "The Hobby Machinist".

The machine is dismantled at present but I will post some pictures when it is all back together, until then there is a picture of a very similar machine on ebay.

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

George

You've probably pinned your cross arms by now, but if not – don't. I fixed mine with just Loctite 603 and they've been fine and, just to rub the salt well in, I saved myself the cost of a couple of 1.4mm drills.

On the down side I didn't have an excuse for the vino but then who needs an excuse anyway?

Jim

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Jim

…. 'You've probably pinned your cross arms by now, but if not – don't. I fixed mine with just Loctite 603 and they've been fine'…

​Thanks for the info, I've already Loctited the ends on at the set distance, was going to pin, as per dwg to look the part but will not now, makes things a lot easier, fortunately it was the first arm that I broke the drills on so just have to fill in with Milliput or similar & blend in.

Cheers
George.

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

I posted some pictures of the progress that I have made with a gang tooling fixture for the Tormach PCNC 1100 Mill on the thread "What Did You Do Today" yesterday These showed the fixture plate without tool holders, today I managed to finish the first one.

Here is a picture of the finished fixture without tool hangers.

Here is picture with the first tool hanger fitted and a boring bar mounted on the bottom of it

The tool hangers can be turned through 90 degrees to enable turning tools to be mounted.

Here is a picture of the same hanger turned through 90 degrees and with a parting tool holder attached.

The tool holders are the small size QCTP type, not sure what number they are but they are clheld in position by tightening up four allen cap head screws that draw a dovetail insert into the dovetails of the holder, the insert is visible just below the counterbored bolt hole in the hanger.

I have two more hangers to make and when they are near finished I will mount the fixture in the mill and use the Rapid Turn Lathe attachment to bore out the hangers to accept the Tormach TTS system tooling. I will post some more pictures and vide once done.

[thaiguzziParticipant @thaiguzzi]

Finally got round to making the Hemingway Kits Marlco copy knurler that I bought in, ahem 2013. Sat under the bench till last month, now finished, guestimate total time approx. 30-40 hours in it. As per usual with all my steel tooling over here, has the usual anti-sweaty fingers and anti rust TG black finish.

[Jon CameronParticipant @joncameron26580]

Made my first parts on the Myford ML4, complete novice to using a lathe, this is my first attempts. I think I need to adjust the tool angle as the finish isn't great!

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

…I think I need to adjust the tool angle as the finish isn't great!​…

​Looking good Jon, you will get a better finish if you stone / lap a small radius on the tip of your cutting tool & ensure that you have no top rake, it is possible that your feed rate is a little fast from what I can see on enlarging the pic. If you're hand feeding the tool, experiment & see what results you get from slower feed rate, try & keep a constant speed up, not a Myford owner but I think the ML4 has a dog clutch driving the leadscrew so it may pay to look at your change gear set up.

George.

Edited By mechman48 on 09/09/2017 14:44:21

[Jon CameronParticipant @joncameron26580]

Thanks George, I’ll look at that. The ML4 has change gears driven direct from the spindle to the Lead screw. For my first attempt I’m happy enough, though I do need some more experimenting to find a good setup for machining brass with what I have.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Just finished the bending rolls, Mostly (!) to GHT's design. I've used 30mm silver steel and the rolls are 12.5 inches long. The hot rolled steel that I bought for the side plates was not particularly friendly to machine – certainly no exhibition finish on this. Seems to work though:

I profiled the upper roller release latches on my little Sherline/Denford CNC mill. First time I've used this in anger and I will need to make some mods for both cutter and work holding. (Thanks Baz!)

Cheers,

Rod

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Between playing with boxes I have managed a bit more on the 1/4 scale Otto Langen. One side of the octagonal base was milled away and the valve block machined and screwed into place

Also got a fair bit done on the bearing supports but progress was slowed by a hard spot in the piece of hot rolled which took a while to cut through and also depleted my cutter stocks including destroying 3 solid carbide ones.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Finished all the machining on te hotto bearing blocks just need a tickle with the Dremel to knock off the corners and give a cast texture and also to add some Milliput fillets to the internal corners. The bit of filler is where I had to use a larger dia cutter than needed to get through the hard spot in the steel. As an idea of size the ones at the back started life as a 80mm length of 25×50 hot rolled steel.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

YES! YES! YES! I'm super-excited!

My first steam engine and it works!

It's running on a tyre inflator from my care and appears to be going like the clappers. It's hard to tell from the video, but it looks like it's rotating at least once per two frames or so and it could be more than that! (so 15+ revs per sec which is 900 rpm.

I could run my lathe of it.

So what's a reasonably easy next step? I wouldn't mind something which moved rather than a stationary engine …

Iain

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

Well done Iain.

It's always nice to see a runner and the feeling of achievement and satisfaction, for me anyway, is always there but never again quite like the first. I would counsel caution in choosing your next project, things that move are several levels above oscillating stationary engines so I would suggest an engine with a valve, maybe if you're feeling ambitious a multi cylinder job, before a loco or a traction engine.

Just my 2 penn'orth, others may suggest otherwise.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Posted by Iain Downs on 17/09/2017 19:47:42:

YES! YES! YES! I'm super-excited!

My first steam engine and it works!

Excellent!

You're officially ahead of me now, as I don't have anything running, just a pile of bits.

Andrew

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Bit of a while since I posted in this thread but as the weather now means it is a bit more comfortable in the shed to crank over engines I thought I would put a bit of fuel into the horizontal and give it a flick of the flywheels. After a lot of flicking and fiddling with the ignitor we have a runner all my other static settings of timing, exhaust valve movement etc were Ok just the ignitor and slight adjustments to needle and choke to get it going. I have not got teh governor hooked up as it is one less thing to worry about but as you can see it will coast and then pick up again.



Always nice when an engine fires into life as it shows you must be doing something right

Just needs a lick of paint now.

J

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Nice one Jason

[sean logieParticipant @seanlogie69385]

Posted by Jon Cameron on 09/09/2017 12:20:24:

Made my first parts on the Myford ML4, complete novice to using a lathe, this is my first attempts. I think I need to adjust the tool angle as the finish isn't great!

Great stuff Jon , I now wish I'd kept my ml3 ,totally regret selling it . There was something really interesting about the little lathe , my own fault for being in too much of a rush wanting an up and running lathe .

Sean

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