Has anybody built the flame eater "Nick"?

Can anybody tell me what parts 14 and 16 are on the burner and where they go ?

Try looking at a few photos on the net it on;y takes a second

Thank you.

I spent this afternoon silver soldering the chimney and the meths tank. The chimney has turned out okay : it is perfectly straight and is perpendicular when placed on a flat sheet of glass. There is nothing worse than a wonky chimney...well, maybe a wonky flywheel ! I  used a mandrel to complete part 29 of the chimney.

I will silver solder the wick socket to the tank tomorrow. Then I will soft solder (243 degrees) the meths plug/bushing and the holding brackets that fix to the bottom of the tank.

I also made the piston rod and the connecting joints as in the photo. I am a bit puzzled about the lubricator (part 24) as the instructions say NOT to use oil on the piston, only a little graphite. Could graphite be put inside this lubricator...I would not have thought so ?

I will be buying an 18mm flex hone (240 grit) to finish the cylinder for this engine. The 18mm flex hone can also be used on 16mm bores so this one 18mm flex hone can do three of the Bengs kits (John, Nick and Sophie).

Edited By Brian John on 27/05/2016 14:24:12

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I was going to start on the cylinder today but I am a bit confused about something : the holes in photo 1 seem to be at the wrong ends. The six holes should be on the left at the lubricator end because the cylinder bracket (19) goes at that end. The four holes should be on the right at the cylinder head (21) end. Am I missing something here ?

I

Edited By Brian John on 28/05/2016 10:31:46

Edited By Brian John on 28/05/2016 10:33:01

It is just what is known as "drawing projection" depending on whether the drawing is in first angle or third angle will determine where the end views are placed.

J

Thank you, hopefully I will drill the holes in the right ends

What about that ''shoulder'' on the LH end of the cylinder (20) : it does not look like there are any dimensions for that. I assume that this is not critical or perhaps not even necessary ?

NOTE : This is the largest and most important part of the engine so I have to get this right.

Edited By Brian John on 28/05/2016 14:52:01

All dimensions appear to be there to me

Do you mean Chamfer? if so then its not critical. The 20mm dia by 4mm long spigot is important.

Jason : yes, I need to be careful of that spigot. I might just leave the chamfer for now. It's going to be covered by the cylinder bracket (19) so I am really not sure why it is even there.

Roy : no, you probably cannot see it on the photo but the ''inside'' of the chamfer lines up with the 20mm line but the ''outside'' of the chamfer does NOT line up with the 19mm line.

I still have to work out how I am going to make the cylinder head (21). Ideally this would be made in a milling machine but my options here are a hacksaw or angle grinder/cutting wheel to remove that top section and then tidy it up by polishing on a sheet of glass. The chimney is fitted to the top of this so it needs to be flat and accurate.

Edited By Brian John on 28/05/2016 17:37:37

Edited By Brian John on 28/05/2016 17:39:23

The flattened top is not so hard, its how you are going to doi that "D" shaped recess 0.5mm deep for the valve to slide in!

Brian If you look carefully you will see the 19mm is the outside diameter of the cylinder at the depth of the fins  It has nothing to do with the chamfer

Edited By roy entwistle on 28/05/2016 18:38:00

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Jason : that D shape is part 22 (cylinder head cover) and it is pre milled ie. already cut to shape.

Roy : that is what I was trying to say. The 19mm is nothing to do with the chamfer. You said all the dimensions to cut the chamfer appear to be there so I thought you had assumed that the 19mm was part of the chamfer dimension. I still think the chamfer is missing its dimensions but as I am not going to cut it (at this stage) then it does not matter.

Can anybody see the purpose of that chamfer ?

Edited By Brian John on 29/05/2016 02:19:04

Looks nicer.

I would say its 1mm in either direction giving 1.4mm length on the face

Thats good to know the slot has been machined for you.

Part 22 (photo3) has been pre-made but there are etch markings of some sort on the surface. I think these will have to be removed somehow.....I am not quite sure how I will do that yet.

I finished the burner today. The ends of the tank were silver soldered, the wick holder was soft soldered using 243 degree solder, then the filler plug bushing with 188 degree solder. The base of the scissor frame was soldered using 243 degree then the tank soldered to the scissor frame using 145 degree. It all seems to work rather well. The soldering could have been neater : I am used to free flowing silver solder and the 243 does not flow as easily. The 188 and 145 flow quite readily. I will know next time.

Instead of using some brass tube as a rivet for the scissor frame as per the instructions I have used a 3mm thread cut from a socket cap and held on with M3 nuts. I will put some brass M3 nuts on later after it comes out of the white vinegar pickle.

You can also see where I have made a start on parts 20 and 21 by parting off. The instructions say to bore the cylinder first then cut the cooling fins but I am inclined to cut the cooling fins first so that I can support the cylinder between centres.

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Edited By Brian John on 29/05/2016 10:39:07

Those are marks left from when the "D" shape was cut with a CNC mill and are more visual than an actual rough surface, I would not worry about them at the moment.

Yes probably best to drill a ctr hole for teh tailstock to give support while you cut teh grooves and then bore it out.

J

I can definitely feel those marks with my finger. The instructions say to polish the slider plate (23) and cylinder head (21) with a fine grinding compound to get a perfectly smooth surface. I would have thought that the cylinder head cover (22) should also be polished but I will just leave it for now. Perhaps the slider plate does not rub on that...we will see.

The slider will be drawn against the head due to the cooling action of the flame creating a vacuum, it won't really contact the cover

On my flame lickers I lapped the sliding valve plates, mine have the advantage of having a slot that goes right across the head, the head and the valve on my motors are cast iron.  If you look in the sticky in the beginners section you might be able to nut out the drawings.    Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 29/05/2016 15:56:25

I had a few problems making up the cylinder head (part 21) today. I marked an 18mm chord on the work piece then attempted to cut it off with the slitting saw. I wasn't sure if the piece could be held firmly with only one bolt but it was no problem. The slitting saw would only cut half way before the nut got in the way even though I was using a smaller nut than that supplied with the saw. So I had to turn it over to complete the cut. The cuts did not meet so I evened things up with the bench grinder then I used a large file while the piece was held in a vice. By the time I got a perfect rectangle on top I was down too far and the chord was actually 21mm.

So I fished around in my box of parts and found two 30mm diameter brass cylinders which were 12.5mm thick, both with a 6mm hole already drilled...sometimes you get lucky ! I faced off until they were both the required 12mm thick and bored out the centre holes to 8mm. I  used the slitting saw to cut a 15mm chord (not 18mm), then the bench grinder, then the big file while held in the vice and finished off with 800 grit on a sheet of glass. This time I ended up with the correct dimensions and a perfectly flat surface on which to mount the exhaust chimney. Yes, I made two of them ! I still have to tap and drill them tomorrow ; extra care needed here.

If you look at the plans above you will see that they mark the countersunk hole as 7X90 degrees. Where do they get 90 degrees from ? All the countersunk holes are marked like that.

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.

90° is the included angle of the countersink.

... by far the most common ... but not universal.

MichaelG.