Northumbrian Build Thread

[peteh]

quarter circle home made tool for forming the radii at the ends of the waist.

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[peteh]

Finished blank. Gave up at 11am due to heat (35c +), glad I did as Perth Airport got above 39c ! Meant to warmer the next few days as well. Mind you I would rather the heat than the floods a lot of the eastern side of Australia is suffering from.

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[peteh]

2nd connecting rod blank now made (no photo). Another heatwave due to start tomorrow

[peteh]

Just a quick update on the connecting rods - nearly finished

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[Shawki Shlemon]

Very nice rods , it look like you are going to have very nice engine .

[peteh]

Well this was areally warty weekend!

Managed to stuff both of the connecting rods and then had to make my own 10mm sq as I had no materials left

One rod was bent somehow in clamping, even with a spacer piece supporting the rod. Suspect that it was over the gap for the Tee nuts in the table. Second one somehow aquired a taper .

The current machine operator has now been sacked (until tea establishes better equilibreum).

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[peteh]

Making new 10mm sq from 10mm x 100mm plate. First hand saw to length (to fit mill)

Mill edge square. Offset by 10mm + cutter width. Use slot drill to make new 10mm sq pieces. Repeat for second piece.

As I only have a light duty mill I am limited to around 0.15mm per cut - thats around 70 passes for each piece!. Very boring weekend

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[Shawki Shlemon]

Are you normalising the steel before machining ? If you don't there is the possibility of distortion .

[peteh]

Hi Shawki,

Normalising?

Is that heating and then letting cool naturally?
This was all cut cold.

[Shawki Shlemon]

Pete ,that is it , technically the part should be cooled slowly in an oven or buried in hot ash and let it cool , I normally heat it to bright red , keep it at that for a while and then covering it with hot fire brick and let it cool on its own , it works OK for me , it is not the best process but satisfactory .

[peteh]

Spent a few hours today making what feels like good progress on con rods 4 and 5 Plan this time is to do all of the mill/drill work before turning. Managed to get both blanks all sorted apart from the centre drilling ready for turning. Hoping nothing goes wrong when I'm turning tomorrow.

I know these could have been fabricated but the challenge is in making them one piece rods.

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[peteh]

Well I have FINALLY finished a pair of conrods - only took a month (part time)!

Final method was
1/ machine ends to size (withlots of overhang allowance)
2/ Drill holes
3/ Turn shafts
4/ Saw/File ends to finish size

These are actually attempts 4 and 5.

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[Smifffy]

Perseverance Pete :-)

Those that don't make mistakes don't do anything. It took me three days to make two Anchor Links last week - mistake after mistake after mistake.

The satisfaction of the finished result always makes it worthwhile......

[peteh]

You said it Smiffy.

Part of it was my pig headedness in wanting to do one piece conrods. Still - nothing ventured nothing gained. I now have a better understanding of what works for me.

[peteh]

Started on the valve rods today. Drilled and one end filed. These are meant to be 3/32 thick but I am tempted to leave them at 1/8" to give as little more meat to the pin holes.

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[peteh]

Not perfect but finished for now.

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[peteh]

Put in quite a few hours over the weekend (inbetween painting posts for a new fence) but was working on reducing a length of 100x250x20 into a 75mm diameter plate, ready to finalise the wheels. Once the drive wheels are finished I will reduce this to 45mm for the trailing and tender wheels.
I must admit a power hacksaw is looking mighty tempting at the moment as it took several hours first cutting the 100mm length off for a square and then cutting the corners off to make an octogon, before turning to round and size. Trouble is no where to put it.

[Shawki Shlemon]

Pete , for many years I though there was no place to put the power hacksaw but eventually I improvised and since then never looked back , one of the best tools in the workshop .

[steam4ian]

G'day Pete

My $20.00 power hacksaw is still in the carport. I recall in works and factories the power hacksaw often lived under a small lean-to by the steel racks outside the main shop.

Regards
Ian

[peteh]

Well a few more hours and the driving wheels are turned to thickness and drilled/reamed for the axle. 6 tender/trailer wheels to go and then finish the wheel turning plate to do the tread profiles.

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