Shed Matters 3

[chinatyke]

You're getting to be like Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine where he was constantly painting his front gate - it's time you got your teeth into another model!

[Big Kev]

Has anyone got a damp meter I can borrow for half an hour?

The survey on my house picked up a high moisture level in the chimney breast in the loft, looks like the flashing has failed. An easy enough fix. I've cut out the bit of plasterboard on the ceiling and a bit of plaster on the wall, everything looks dry but I want to check the levels in the timber before I put it all back together.

[plaques]

Has anyone got a damp meter I can borrow for half an hour?

Sorry no damp meter but at a push you could use one of those digital voltmeters and measure the resistance across two pins. You would have to do your own calibration by comparing different dry / damp materials. perhaps Ian would advise on this.

Damp in loft chimney breast. Our house was dripping with water but not from faulty flashing but down the chimney. The fault was someone had fitted a stop ventilator plug which wasn't the normal mushroom shape and without sealing the fitment tube the water just drained down the chimney. Worth having it checked out.

[Big Kev]

I was in luck, my neighbour had one. 10% in the structural timber (9-14%) is acceptable and 0.2% in the plaster. Looks like it was a recent failure and the moisture was just in the ceiling boards.

[Stanley]

China, you aren't dealing with the side effects of immunotherapy. I shall move on another model when the time feels right.

[Stanley]

Am considering painting the gate..... Or something equally important!

[Bodger]

Stanley, check your boiler.
https://twistedhistory.net.au/2016/04/0 ... explosion/

[Bodger]

A bit more, read the report on the left of the page
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/6047696

[Stanley]

All too common Bodge in those days. One thing that caught my attention is that the picture of the engine is not the right one, that engine was built a lot later than the 1863 mentioned in the inquest report.

[Stanley]

A bit of a useful potter this morning. I cleaned the VM up and went round all the oil and grease nipples. When you're doing stuff lubrication gets forgotten so It's a good idea to go round and give them all a shot or two occasionally.

[Stanley]

I pottered for an hour. That's enough at the moment, I have laid off too long and need to get back in training!



I had a 9/16" cutter that badly needed attention so I fired up the T&C grinder and sharpened it, I did the current 3/4" cutter that's in the mill as well. It wasn't bad but will benefit from a gulleting and a touch up.



In the same vein, I got the Picador drill sharpening jig down off the shelf and sharpened two 1/2" drills that have shown signs of needing a reset. I'm pretty good at hand sharpening but over time you can drift off correct angles.
That was enough for this morning. It did the T&C grinder good to be fired up. The motor and spindle bearings are very high speed and its a good thing to keep the lubricant fluid, the best way to do that is run them.
A useful hour.....

[Stanley]

I've been in the shed. This is a step in the right direction!



First job was to give my new boots a good oiling.



Then I addressed something that has been bugging me for a while. You might remember I found this aluminium casting in one of the treasure chests and kept it on the grounds it would obviously come in for something. It hasn't so I gave it a coat of looking at. I thought of a use for part of it....



First thing was to part it off.



I started to turn it down to what I wanted and this is what I found, it's a bad casting and is full of slag and blow holes. No point in bothering with it so I have binned it. I tried the other piece and it is OK so that has survived. What for I don't know but I;m not throwing a good piece of metal away!
No trees uprooted but at least I stood in the shed for an hour and a half.....

[Stanley]

I've decided that I have to get a new project to get me back in the shed. Watch this space, there is hope yet!

[Tripps]

Take it easy. Is there room for a high stool of some sort in the shed?

[Stanley]

No, and I have no difficulty standing. Besides that's what makes shed work 'light exercise'. I need to get back in there and educate my muscles again!

[Stanley]

Right! It's a picture of the shed after I spent an hour in there this morning. I am expecting news of my castings any time now so I went in this morning and gave everything a bit of TLC. A good clean up, ways and all surfaces oiled and everything wiped down. One or two infelicities in storage that have been bugging me for a while sorted out.
The general effect is that I am ready to get in there as soon as the castings arrive. No excuses about tidying up! It has all been done.
It's far too long since I was in there. You all know the reasons why, I am at the stage now where I can see a definite future. Time will tell whether I am right or not!
Onward and upwards!

[Stanley]

Mail from Stuarts' apologising for late delivery, they are waiting for one casting from the foundry. No sweat!

[Stanley]

I have a little something on my mind this morning to tide me over until my castings arrive. Once more it is a relic that Newton chucked out of his shop.

[Stanley]

This is the little mystery. It's fascinated me for a long time but I have never really had a look at it. So here goes!



First thing to do was lift one of what I suspected were cylinder lids and so it turned out. You can see the tell tale cut out for steam entry on one side of the bore and it's obvious that this is the head end and for some reason there is provision for a tail rod in this lid. The other end is threaded for a gland and the piston rod seems to have been 1/8" in diameter.



This face is ported for steam entry and exhaust and was evidently made to accept two slide valves, there must have been two because it's pretty obvious that this is a compound, there wouldn't have been any point in two bores if they were synchronised strokes, I would expect that there must have been two eccentric rods and the cylinder would be stroked at 90 degree angle to give a quartered power delivery. It was getting complicated!



I poked my screwdriver through from the exhaust exit on the end and sure enough both cylinders shared it.
That left me with the puzzle about how it was ported internally to get steam to the ends of the cylinders. Very careful examination and a bit of cleaning and polishing showed that it is drilled multiple times and the entry points for the drill are all closed with brass plugs. In short it's like a Gorgonzola cheese! One other thing I noted was a further complication, no doubt to separate steam passages, one set of entry ports was deeper than the other.
I have learned enough, I haven't any use for it but now have a better idea what it is and how it was built. Very tiny work well done by someone who had more patience than me. (And better eyesight!)
On the whole I doubt if this is Newton's work, more likely to be something that found it's way to me from one of the job lots I have bought over the years from other workshops. If it was meant to be an engine it was tiny. On the whole I suspect it had another purpose, perhaps driving a feed pump or something like that. I doubt if I will ever know but that's OK.

[Stanley]

Still no movement on castings. I have told Stuarts this is getting ridiculous and asked what my prospects are. I am close to cancelling the order!

[Stanley]

Castings will be dispatched today minus the column which will be sent afterwards when it has arrived from the foundry.

[Stanley]

The castings are here except for the column. I went in the shed this morning!





All I have done is get all the castings and bits out of the shrink wrapping, a longer and more fiddling job than you might imagine. After an hour I had them all out and sorted. I have to admit that my heart sank when I saw how small some of them were! Never mind, we will manage. I'm going into town now and apart from normal shopping I want a polythene container big enough to accept the parts except for the bed. I must keep them all tidy!
An hour was long enough, I am out of condition and will have to work myself slowly up to speed again. Old age is a bugger! Apart from that, getting this lot was a good idea, it's triggered my mojo again. I am already making decisions in my head about how I will attack the castings, the bed first!
So, tired legs but well pleased... Onwards and Upwards!!

[Stanley]

Today we make a proper start! This pic gives a clue. I am going to machine the bed and the slabbing cutter gives a clue. Horizontal milling is old fashioned these days, very few people give them house room but there are certain jobs where they still excel. Taking a long cut under power across a casting like this to put every surface in the same plane is one of them. So a bit of setting up. The base of the casting was the nearest to level so I decided to do the top face first.



I am on the second light cut here, I don't know if you can see it but the far side of the casting was missed on the first light cut so I'm taking another 30thou which did the trick. Long slow pass and a lovely finish, doesn't need anything else. Bleeding obvious tip. Note the piece of paper to give the casting a better grip on the bed. Only two small clamps used.



Here's where I finished up. The eagle eyed amongst you will see that I egged the pudding a bit more by taking a last cut on the face of the Stuart logo to give it a clean face.
I'm pleased with the result and tomorrow I'll look at the base. At the moment I'm leaning towards cleaning it up with a big flat file, I'll see what I think tomorrow. A nice morning and only just over an hour in the shed but that's enough, I have to play myself back in, there's no rush!

[Stanley]

I have spent just under two hours in the shed and am pleased. I haven't rushed and the funny thing is that none of the things I have done is necessary for the engine build. I've been gilding the lily.
I don't like the ragged edges of the holes in the bed, it's flash from casting. I also want some finish on the mounting lugs at each end. I could tidy it up with a file but just for fun, I'm going to machine them. First thing I had to do was work out a way of finding the centres. It's not critical but I want them somewhere near so I made a paper template and used that to position the quill of the mill.



The holes first. It's not often the boring head comes out but it's just the thing for today. A bit of quiet cutting and I have one good hole. Same procedure for the other.



I think you can see the difference!



I altered the holding down arrangement so that I could get at the faces of the lugs with a long endmill.



Here's where I ended up at knocking off time and I am pleased. Tidy apertures in the face and a nice finish across the face of the lugs. As I say, none of it strictly necessary but anyone looking at it will see that someone cared! Nice morning, I am happy.

[BobH]

Nice work Stanley. Is this a Stuart ‘standard’ beam engine. I am currently building Elmer’s beam engine. It’s a bit smaller than yours at just 3” high. I am not too practiced at working in aluminium and will be altering the design to put the crankshaft in brass bushes.

93D0388B-3C52-48C1-A150-5E3C3131D9EA.jpeg