Member postings for Clive Hartland

The way to do it is the other way round Will, the cylinder of Bronze and the piston of S/steel.

Firstly you will get a better finish in the bore and secondly its easier to make the piston from S/steel.

S/steel is not very forgiving and it will be hard to get a good bore finish.

This has all been done before so follow the masters on this!

Clive

With Ford they suffer from earth return problems so its worth while undoing all the earth connections and cleaning them up and retightening. Some of the lights have their own earth wires.My list of cars is as follows,Opel Kapitan then a Triumph which I got rid of soonest and then another Opel Kapitan this one did 88000 in one year.SAAB 95 2 stroke ran like a sewing machine then a SAAB 96 with a V4 engine, great car.Went to BAOR with a tax free Ford Escort estate and brought it back and kept it for 12 years and sold it for more than I paid new.Bought another the same and ran that for 13 years and then got a 2.5 Granada diesel and ran that for 12 years.Now I run a Volkswagen Passat est 1.9 and its also 12 years old.I do all my own repairs and servicing.

Clive

Stubs steel is very tough and I have always had trouble getting a good finish on it, I end up using a buff stick to polish down to size.Turning is always ragged and I have at times resorted to tool post grinding on the lathe for good bearing fits.It does not seem to matter what angles you grind the tool or what materiel the tool is , it still rags up.It will be interesting to see an answer to the problem.Regarding the finish I think that it is so tough that the tool has to shear its way through the metal. This raises the bad surface finish.

Clive

Will, perhaps you can give us some indication of the size of the item you want to build? Bore and stroke perhaps or even which named machine.

There is enough information in all the posts now for you to make a decision on what materiel you want to use and even how to do it.

Smaller details you can raise as and when you come to them, plan ahead and raise the questions before you need to do them.

Clive

A plane level device ( Flat bed lathe or a milling bed) would only be level if it was at right angles to a vertical line going through the center of the Earth. this applying to x and Y planes in the horizontal.This brings us back to the bubble vial where we attribute levellness to the bubble being in the center of its run when end for ended and any error adjusted out until it stays in the center in both directions.

Acceptable errors are are the sensitivity of the bubble.

A far better system of proving flatness/level is Auto Collimation and is measured every 200mm and graphed out using one station as a base point or even off the bed being measured.

Clive

At last i found a copy, in WHSmiths in Chatham. Even though I had asked before.

This time I approached a young man in the shop and asked and he dived into the racks and right at the back behind everything was a copy.

Still reading at the moment but a mine of historical and event info.

Clive

Will, for the smaller size cylinders for say a 3.5" or a 5" then mounting the raw cast cylinder onto a lathe face plate is the way.

Clamped to an angle plate then the face can be turned flat and having previously marked out your centers then you can drill and bore the cylinders.

larger cylinders may well be bored out by clamping to a table on the saddle and using a between centers boring bar good work can be done.

This is assuming you have a large enough lathe and equipment.

It would be possible to use a milling machine with a boring head, again having adequate movement of Z axis.

Finishing the bore is by lapping with stones on a mandrel and a spiral motion while doing it. The marks at about 45deg angle as you lap.

In any case the piston would be turned to size and be a sliding fit in the bore as you will then use packing of some sort in the piston ring groove.

There is nothing difficult about this as I did a 3.5" cylinder on an ML10 using the face plate and an angle bracket.

Reaming a cylinder in the smaller sizes is OK as you still have to lap the cylinder anyway and the result is a parallel bore, sometimes you may need a tapered bore on small engines.

As you work, a few thou. over or under a size given on the drawings is OK as long as you achieve the fit you need, being pedantic about exact size of a cylinder is not the way.

It will still work a few thou over or under size!

I have a small honing tool with three stones on it and I finish the bores to a nice matt finish as a shiny bore will not allow bedding in of parts.

making from bar or stock metal aim for a Cast iron or Bronze cylinder, the piston can be made of a contrast metal. Bronze to cast iron or cast iron to bronze as long as they are dissimilar its OK.

I used bronze on a cast iron cyl.and stainless steel on the steam valve piston.

Clive

I would try speeds at about 150% faster for the stainless steel, its always works for me.

Cooling, I use WD40 or 1 to20 cutting oil.

I use various tooling HSS and Carbide and pick which one gives the best finish.

I dont 'Dress' the finished article with stones but use Buff sticks.

Be careful with Stainless steel as there is sometimes a hard layer just under the surface of the bar and avoid end pieces that have been cut off with an abrasive disc cutter as it leaves a hard bit at the edge.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 29/05/2012 19:26:33

It seems I have stirred up a lot of Useful information here , not only for myself but other builders.

Thank you for all your help and interest.

Clive

The steam chests on my steam engine are only 22 x 15mm square and need to be sealed on both sides.

One against the face of the cyl. and the other is a cover plate.

Can anyone suggest a very thin gasket mtl.

Or should I use goo to seal the faces.

Clive

It might be an office embossing machine, it raises up the lettering with the right punches.

Other than that it could be as the 'Swarf' man says, an eyelet press.

I dont think it is anything to do with re-loading, wrong shape and size.

Clive

OK, I have carried out the lapping of the bores and I used a piece of PTFE rod.

After turning it to a push fit in the bores I slit it down the middle and then put a screw in the end and used 1000 grade abrasive.

Its come out fine with a matt finish on the surface in the bore, more than good enough for me.

Clive

Is there a hidden agenda here, the thefts of operating systems like cables and essential things keeps people in work replacing them.

I know that insurance premiums rise but what hasnt in the last few years?

Clive

Clive to Clive, This is a long shot for you, If you know anyone from the British Emabssy could you not try and get a small package through safely in a postal system that way?

John, as a long time engraver I would recommend the Coriann sheet as a base and to fill the lettering use cellulose paint in whatever colour you want.

Then I would spray all over with an Acryilic spray that they use on circuit boards.

There are Laminates wwith various interleaved colours that can be engraved through to the one underneath, for instance Black sheet with a white underlay that shows when engraved through.

I found Hindleys.com and their price for coloured laminate is good.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 24/05/2012 15:21:12

Clive to Clive, If its any help then gunsmiths use lamp black, a sooty flame held near the surface to be checked and it is easy to see where interferance starts.

Clive

Still no sign in my local WHS even though I asked, it did not come up on their search engine.

Clive

This is all about making money while they can, in the paper today a drug addict was jailed for two years while on bail for a similar offence, was caught on the roof of a Church after the lead.

Clive

It seems that the OSR plant has been genetically modified and the resultant oil is now called 'Canola Oil' (Canadian Oil Company)

OSR (Original) has a high Erucic acid content and the effects have been noticed in lab rats that it causes lung cancer and can also cause heart lesions.

The Canola oil is very low in Erucic acid and is edible but is not suitable as a cutting fluid.

Some commercial cutting fluids are vegeatable based but have additives to keep them clean. Most are used as spray coolant and mixed with water.

For smaller applications then you can use one of thos aerosol cans of oil for misting a frying pan.

Mainly used when machining Alu. and Copper and for tapping threads.

Various other oils are quoted such as castor oil and Peanut oil. Sperm oil is also quoted but is wasted on coolant as it is a superb quenching oil.

What ever is used like this is expensive so a normal aqua mixed coolant is best as it is inhibited and has a long life and is replaceable easily.

Clive

Thanks for the reply Neil, my thoughts also and was considering making a lead lap.

The job at the moment has to be mounted on a mandrel to machine the outside and I was considering using that as a lap but it is steel.

So I think I will go with the Alu. lap.

Clive