Member postings for Ron Laden

Thanks Jason for the explanation and drawings.

Jason, I am intrigued by the throttle adjustment which I think you said was operated by revolving the fuel jar, can you explain how that works.

The head turned out well Jason and it really does look as if its come from a casting.

Four hours with the files and emery and its as good as it gets but I,m happy with it, its not perfect in places but thats ok, gives it a bit of a casting look. I have gone with 4BA for the fixing bolts and the mounting holes in the saddle are tapping size ready for spotting through once I know its position on the boiler.

I am a big fan of 638, it cures quite quickly probably too quick if you have adjustments to make but in some assembly situations the speed can be a bonus. It has good gap filling up to 0.25 mm if I remember correctly and the cured joint is extremely strong. For permanent fixing and retaining of parts 638 is the one I always use.

Jason, out of interest what material are the timing gears cut from, also do you cut each position to full depth before moving to the next or do you work around the gear gradually increasing the depth.

Excellent Jason, I do enjoy your build threads mainly because I usually learn something from them as well as admiring your work of course.

Great stuff.

Thanks Jason,

I have enjoyed making it, though a couple of areas had me a bit challenged but just down to a lack of experience I guess. For the saddle fit to the boiler I have gone with an average of what I measured from the tube, the tube looks fine but its not so true when measured. I havnt checked yet but does the cylinder to boiler have a gasket I,m assuming it does and that will help with the fit.

Ron

Just about there with the one piece cylinder block from bar stock, a couple of angles to mill on the left hand edge of the saddle and then hand finishing. I am glad I had a go at doing this, a few lessons learnt I think and if I had to do another one there are areas which I would do differently. I will be away tomorrow for 3 days so wont get back to the shop until Friday when it will be a case of getting the files out.

I dont think hideous Michael and I agree quite clever really.

Looking at it from just the tooth side and not knowing anything about clocks I would have probably glanced at it and thought it designed that way and served a function for each revolution of the wheel.

Ron

Yep its working now, and what a lovely little engine. I love the sound of it very nice indeed and good that you got it running so quickly.

I have probably taken the long and winding road approach to making it but its worked out so far and its getting there slowly.

p.s. The notch along the length of the left hand saddle is still outside the rad (just) so should be ok when it comes to hand finishing...

Edited By Ron Laden on 12/10/2019 10:33:40

Jason, I looked at the R C Machines link you posted on another thread. In their "flying" wheels range they do a partly machined 6 inch wheel for 29 euros, looks really good to I cant buy a C/I blank for that price.

Edited By Ron Laden on 11/10/2019 17:42:19

Edited By Ron Laden on 11/10/2019 17:43:35

Dont think I will need the rotary table just working around the radius by eye, should blend in with a file ok.

Edited By Ron Laden on 10/10/2019 08:55:14

The largest lump I have had on the little mill so far, even had to remove the vice jaws to fit it in. Hopefully a one piece cylinder will come out of it. First job reduced the height by 15 mm with the flycutter, faster than back and forth with an endmill. I do most of my fly cutting now with an insert tool robbed from the lathe, works really well. The radius is 45mm which is about as much as I would want to go but it worked, dont think I would go that large with steel, well not in one pass. The slight tool out of balance vibration disappeared above 1500 rpm so I ran at 1750 with 0.030" cuts which sailed through it. I dont have any GT inserts, maybe I should get some and use those for ali.

Thanks Paul/Jason I will look at doing something on those lines.

Ron

I am wondering if cast iron would be ok for the cylinder rear cover, I know CI is a good bearing material but would it be ok in this application. Having no piston I am extending the cover into the cylinder to offer more support to the piston rod, it will be running in a bearing length of 22 mm plus the piston gland.

Its just that I have the CI on the shelf but if it would be better to go with bronze I will have to get some in.

Welcome Patrice, some lovely work there, very very good indeed and imaginative and different too. I cant make my mind up between the loco with tortoise or the dog with umbrella as my favourite, both excellent.

Ron

I know I really should set out my stall and start building the engine from the ground up, its just that I keep finding parts that take my fancy or look interesting to make. It all needs to be made at the end of the day though, well thats my excuse anyway.

Thanks Jason, as I mentioned it was seeing the method of cutting facets around the rad which was in one of your threads that got me there. In another set up I did, I,ve got my boring head adjusted for the boiler rad in the bottom of the cylinder, did a test piece and its a nice close fit.