Making a piston valve engine from mainly junk materials

[bogstandard]

Hi Peter,
Looks fairly easy to make, just repetitive parts making, five of most things, ten of a few others, plus a few one offs. I should think somewhere around a month should see it done.
I will wait for him to get all his notes sorted first, then maybe he will have a few mods to be done.
I am just designing a twin cylinder flame gulper for this show I am attending, so I have that to build next week.
And that brings me to this weeks little project.
You must remember by now that I built one of these steam engines in parallel to the prototype. Well I have finished doing all the custom parts, and now on the pic you can get an idea of what I will be doing.
To keep Derek happy I have taper turned the columns, plus you will notice the lovely pink background, I know that he is going thru a Barbie phase so I thought it would cheer him up.
The cylinder block has been machined to simulate separate cylinders and the relief that is machined in the side has been painted in Ford Modeena Green, which I think is the perfect complimentary colour for this engine, besides the fact it was the only gloss spray can I had in my workshop.
The engine turning took over five hours to do to get the holographic effect I was after.
The next post will be the custom engine assembled.

John

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's.... :hmph nice how a 5/8" diameter five start straight fluted UNEF plug tap can be converted   into a lubricator looking device.... & the brass plating is a superb job

It must have near the equivalent surface area as SCOTLAND.... :ohno you may end up FREEZING the steam...........& the tapered columns look well proportioned   in taper  :music

Oh BTW John....we don't have Barbies in OZ... we have pet Witichie "D" Grubs  

[bogstandard]

Hi Derek,
Don't usually hear from you until tomorrow morning (GMT), are you throwing a sickie and staying off work for the day?
Got a bit carried away with the luber, didn't quite look right with just straight fins, so I thought machine a bit away, ended up with about 90 separate fins.
The taper on the columns is about 4deg inclusive, the prob was I don't have a taper turning attachment and I didn't fancy kicking the tailstock over, so used the topslide on the compound. Not enough reach on that so had to make something up for the top. It doesn't look too bad when assembled.

By the way don't understand this -

Oh BTW John....we don't have Barbies in OZ... we have pet Witichie "D" Grubs  

Please explain in words of two syllables or less so that I can understand.

John

[Bill Hudson]

John,

The engines I have started designing for my stern wheeler in 1/2" = 1' have a bore of 1/2" by 2 1/4" stroke. Will have a hull length of 68" x 13' beam.
check our (Paddleducks) downloads section and check E. T. Westbury's stern wheeler engine.
Bill

[bogstandard]

Hi Bill,
Thanks for the input, I had already looked at this set of plans.
They are really designed for a fairly experienced machinist in mind and I was looking to make an engine that is semi universal which with slight modification could be used with both sidewheelers and sternwheelers and still look fairly authentic, and to power a model sternwheeler of about 4ft or a sidewheeler a little larger.
The main criteria being that it can be made by someone with a fairly basic machining setup and with a little help by being 'talked' thru it, be able to produce a working, useable engine.
This time though, I am considering building one first just to prove the design, rather than this build which materialized as it went along, which was a bit of a strain on the old braincells at times.

Thanks again

John

[derekwarner_decoy]

OK PD's .....& a few corrections

a) no John - self employed persons are not allowed   to take sickies
b) @ 0600 AEST this morning I could not resist commenting   on the oiler
c) when I termed the lubricator as a converted 5/8" diameter five start single fluted UNEF tap.... :music .. I was totally incorrect as you have explained the 90 cutting landings....so     and after recalculating this it must be

a 5/8" five start straight fluted LEFT handed BSF tap ....as clearly you wouldn't need or purchase any of that 60 degree YANK reject stuff  :news  :post    

d) in OZ we do have BARBIES.... but these are when a few mates get a small fire + a hotplate going + some prawns + garlic + a few shelias + a few   ... so what happens :?: - the girls cook the prawns & the Witichie "D" Grubs on the barbie & we have the  

[bogstandard]

That's better, back on GMT, the civilised time.
 :lol:
Aha! Self employed -  overpaid, underworked and pays no tax, I always thought of becoming one of those. Maybe I will have a go sometime.

Misunderstanding of cultures going on here, the 'Barbie' I mentioned is a  small girlie doll, usually attired in pink or shades of. :ohno

Nearly there on the tap size but this is a custom job, 5/8", straight six flute with a square section thread, but this is where the custom bit comes in, it can cut either left or right hand, just depends which way you turn it, flexible cutting teeth and all that. :nah

Anyway all this idle gossip isn't getting anything done, I've got an engine to assemble today.

John

[Bill Hudson]

John,  Westbury's engine does seem a bit complicated for a beginner and it is not really traditional in design but I'm sure it works fine.  I think If I were to design around that engine for a first timer I would go with piston valves.

I am designing my engines around the engines found in the booklet The Marine Iron Works Of Chicago U.S.A.  The source of that booklet is mentioned in the "paddle wheels" forum of PD under the thread of "pitmans revisited."  

Bill

[bogstandard]

Bill,
It will have piston valves, as the one on this build. It was Sandy from ACS who explained it all to me and now I have the grasp of it, the system seems ideal for these easy to make and easy to control engines, no difficult reversing systems.
But I have such a lot to do at the moment I just won't be able to get round to it for a couple of months at least. This one is sixth in the project queue at the moment, and that's if I don't get another commission.

John

[bogstandard]

Hi All,
Hopefully this is the final part in the build saga of this engine.
As you know, I built two in parallel, and the second one I decided to give it a bit of a 'lift' from the basic design and hopefully if anyone ever decides to make this engine, it will give them a few ideas to make it different.
The first four are different views of the engine and the last is showing the two together.

John

[derekwarner_decoy]

Goodness PD's ....over the past months I have posted a few humble :bow re the build/s by our John [bogstandard] work...& tonight we see the culmination of the past work between the No 1 & No 2 engine
so from here   I will offer comments from 20,000 Km away

a) 10 out of 10 for the new base mounting rails
b) 10 out of 10 for the new flywheel drillings
c) 20 out of 10 for the new square to round tapered engine columns.......
d) 10 out of 10 for the engine block seperated & painted GREEN
e) 2 out of 10 for your steam discharge tube exiting the reversing valve....the bend on the 180 degree line is out of wack!!!!!!!!!
f) your 90 tooooooooootht cooled lubricator......I would prefer not to comment on  

John.......I know I speak on behalf of all PD's   & thank you for the series of both the osilitator & the P/S valve engines ......made from JUNK  

....& we look forward to the next set of installments HORIZONTAL - ..............................................your colleague [& @ 57 YO still a student ] in OZ     regards

[crash93]

I want to know how he milled the centre out of the block and made it round on the inside ??

Peter

[Bill Hudson]

Well John, that is just too pretty for words.

Bill

[bogstandard]

Peter,
You must know that cats have very rough tongues.
Well I coated where I wanted the metal removed with double cream and gave it to the cat to lick on.
Back in the real world, I mounted each cylinder bore in turn on a mandrel mounted on my rotary table, and machined away an arc using the same centreline as the bore, taking care I didn't break into the mounting holes coming from underneath the block.

Derek,
Thanks for the compliments.
'nuff said :nah

Bill,
I did this to show that a totally ugly engine like this one in the prototype form can be made to look almost nice with just a little work.

John

[derekwarner_decoy]

OK..... & just PD's....but could the engine builder please explain the question in the attachment :mrgreen:  :kewl

  ...the text is so small....the question is..."how did you tighten this SHCS [socket head cap screw] ....an answer of a...'bald headed  : woman or a ball headed allen key is not acceptable'