Member postings for Clive Hartland

Here is a 2Cyl. steam engine at the trial assembly point, Just ironing out some of the 'Kinks' that have appeared in the construction.

Made mostly from brass and bronze from the scrap box and expensive Hex. screws.

The control gear is stainless steel as is the crankshaft. The open crankcases are brazed up and so are the cylinder heads.

Now I have to set the sliding steam valves in the right position and add the rest of the screws.

Clive

Hello Will, Tardy of me not getting back to the forum quickly, lots going on with the bees and I had to go to a bee keepers apiary to sort out what was happening. He had united four hives into two and it was all wrong and he wanted another Nucleus as well. Alls well now and I onkly hope he stops manipulating the bees so they can get on with what they do best !

Looking at the choices of metal, first go for the Mehanite Spheroidal. the choice of metal for the spool as you call it, is of course the s/steel and then the free cutting mild steel, equivelent to our EN1 I think.

Buy a length of each and even if you dont use all of it, it is still useful.

The flexible steam pipe I dont know but hopefully someone will read this and have an idea, I have not seen flexible pipe in small dia. that we might use.

I am going to clad the boiler with some thin insulation blanket which I have now found and then cover it wih a metal covering. Lots of work involved and fine detail.

I am afraid bee keeping has raised its head again as I have an order for some more bee boxes to make, so everything goes on the back burner while I do them.

Shortly I will be taking honey from the bees and having to spin it out and filter it, too hot at the moment as we are sweltering with 29C here at the moment at 2030hrs. We are not used to it at all.

Clive

Try:- pts.uk.com they have lots of small screws.

Clive

Just a point here Wolfie, were you running the lathe backwards?

I had an expert turner who cussed and swore and stamped way saying the lathe was useless, he was running it backwards !

Clive

Wolfie, my way is to use a coolant and a tool with a slight top rake angle, I cannot tell you how much but re-grind till you get a good cut. Then keep that tool for the next lot of bronze work.

The tool should have a very small radius on the cutting edge.

When turning Phosphor Bronze it gets hot and the chips come off hot so take care.

Drilling, again take care as it will grip and bind so you need to grind off a bit of the cutting edge flat on both lips.

Only drill in small steps, backing out and clearing regularly.

Reaming, take care as it will grab and you will not get the reamer out unless you knock it out so only allow a very small amount for reaming to size.

Boring, rough turn, clearing chips and swarf as you go and then a fine cut for finishing.

Speeds, fairly fast for the outside but slower for drilling and boring and dead slow for reaming.

No doubt someone will have a different set of ideas.

Clive

1/16" sounds a bit thin for 1.5" steel, I would recommend something a bit wider and stiffer.

I use a 3/32" blade on my ML10 and close to the chuck will do a 1" depth cut with ease @ 800rpm using brush applied WD40.

Keep close to the chuck, keep even constant cut and make sure the cutting edge of tool is correct, tipped tools will not alleviate chatter !

On a seperate note, has anyone found that steel lately has bands of harder materiel in the depth of the metal when cutting ? Recently I found at about 1/8" in, a hard band that was like a sheath of hardness through the metal.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 16/08/2012 07:33:50

Hello Sid, Here we have what is called 'Stubbs Steel' , high carbon which is centerless ground and is nearly always to size.

It does not machine well, the surface finish is a bit ragged when turning and the best method is grinding.

It is suitable when heat treated for punches and screwdrivers and locating pins. It will also make small 'D' drills and other shaped cutters.

It comes in all sizes and I have seen a diameter of 1". Usually I use a set diameter for whatever I am doing and do not machine it apart from cleaning up the ends and a chamfer. It is quite tough in the untreated state and suitable for most applications as its main attribute is its stated size/diameter.

Clive

Bill, most of the Escap motors I have come across in my work are low voltage and in the Drives of theodolites they run on 6vdc.

Clive

Doug, the silicon is very hard to get rid of and if you paint over it , the paint will never stay on the metal.

If you get it on a windscreen then you will not be able to see through it when it rains. I t acxts basically as a repellant.

Also if it gets into a thread it can sieze the screws you put in.

Clive

Thanks for that lead Michael, I have downloded the drwg and will study it to see if I can machine it with what I have.

Mark, I have taken that on board as my freezer is right alongside my workbench.

Clive

Michael, Thanks for clarifyng some of the 'Dark details' of the steam engine. As you say a lot of designs just follow successful previous designs and whether they work well is another thing altogether.

Normal saturated steam and super heated steam, does cladding help in the first instance? I would assume that the less thermal transfer the better.

The reason I ask is that the boiler on my Evening Star is shown as bare and with no cladding, which is the best way to deal with this?

Clive

Hello Will, Your hovering Moth is a 'Hawk Moth' which mimics a humming bird, we get them here as well.

This evening I transferred the bees into a travel box for delivery on Sun. morning. I will go down tomorrow night at dusk and close the entrance and bring the up home and they go first thing in the morning.

I think most flywheels I have seen on models seem to be relatively heavy, they must add inertia to the motion. Working out what size and weight I have no idea. If it looks right it will work !

As most steam engines have the cylinder head flush with the head of the bore some relief is needed to clear the steam inlet ports. On the little 2 Cyl. model the cylinder head goes into the bore about 1mm as the inlet port is machined in the cyl. head, but on the Evening Star the piston stops about 3 or 4mm short of the end of the cylinder. This to keep the steam inlets clear which are drilled through the sides of the cylinder at an angle. It all depends on the design and method of steam transfer used.

I suggest that you draw it up and use cardboard shapes of the components in the flat with fulcrums pinned down and see what happens as you turn the parts. It will give you a good idea if your design is feasable.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 10/08/2012 22:08:03

Ha Ha, pulled out my Allen Key box and there were two chuck keys I never knew I had.

Clive

Will, Arc Eurotrade do diamond stones, a set of 4 at £12.60 . these are what I use. They are on a plastic handle and weigh nothing, so post will be cheap.

I use both types of grinding wheel, it all depends where I am at the time I need to sharpen tools as I work in two different places.

materiel, I would ask for S/steel in 304 grade for the spool and a bit of bronze for the piston if its used in a Cast iron cylinder. If its a Bronze cylinder then a bit of S/steel will do. As long as they are different no problem. You only need small quantities, unless you want to hold stock for other jobs. Remember to order enough to hold in the lathe so that you can get the job out of it !

Aluminium bronze is much harder than ordinary bronze so avoid it. Leaded bronze is good.

The bees were flying well today and I have another sale for a Nucleus as the chaps hives have all lost their Queens. I may visit to have a look myself to make sure. This chap is always in the hives and I think it upsets the bees.

I may take some honey next week, i hope the weather holds out, it was 23C at 3pm today.

Clive

One thing I did before machining mine was to paint the spokes and rims inside and out with black enamel paint, that is after fettling the spokes and rims to size.

Machining does not affect the paint job.

Clive

Biggest problem is not enough clearance between the cross slide and the center of the boring bar.

I made my own and it worked fine but as I said I had minimal clearance to fit the job to be bored through.

Clive

The specified bend is 4mm Radius so it is pretty tight bending with 4mm Dia. copper tube.

Its a bending jig for sure, I will start on it this evening when it is cooler as the sun is right in the front of the workshop.

Clive

Hi Will, The Ifanger Boring tool system is in a size system from about 3mm upwards to a quite large set suitable for boring very large cylinders.

Sharpening is easy, touch up with a diamond stick or a light touch on a white wheel, they are very tough and are Cobalt tooling and last a long time .

The head shapes are specific for 60Deg and 55Deg, with angle heavy duty and corner types. There is a set for cutting internal Cannelures.

i bought the cutters as certain types of work came up and the smaller ones were for a job doing Fibre Optic receptacles, a long complicated job that was.

The bigger ones I used on the Mill for boring bigger internal diameters rather than use the lathe as the job could stay on the rotary table.

Clive

It looks like I will make a mini Pipe bender as part of the exercise. I will need one for a later job anyway.

Clive

Any one know how to get a nice bend/curve on 4mm copper tube?

I have tried spring tube benders and it kinks and I now contemplate lead filling.

Do I make a tube bender?

Clive