SHED MATTERS 2

[Stanley]

First job this morning was to cut the keyway in the actuating arm. I plugged the hole with a piece of 1/4" stock and drilled it 1/8" to give me a straight start.



Then out with the warding files and a bit of patient filing and fitting.



The cam is a good tight fit on the key. Now we have to estimate how much to cut off the brake band and rivet the connector on the end. You wouldn't believe what a fiddle this is. I admit to flying blind a lot of the time!



I made the best estimate I could and set about fitting the connector.



For better or for worse, here it is firmly attached!



I hit a snag. The brake arm fouls the bed plate so I relieved the end of it.



It took a lot of fiddling and swearing but I eventually got it all laced up and working. I got the length of the band about right and the angle of the cam. The brake band connects but not quite the powerful brake I expected, it could probably do with a friction lining but in terms of the mechanism it is a good and accurate representation of the brake. It's never going to have to be used in anger so this will do me. I reduced the pedal a bit, it was too clumsy. Looks better now.



I married the two halves up. Looking impressive even though I say it myself! Next job is to erect the entablature and the bearing for the pinion. This and the flywheel will govern the relationship between the two halves and it ain't going to be easy! I shall have to give this a bit of thought before I go any further. But that is for tomorrow..... It's knocking off time.

[Stanley]

I was in the shed in good time but this doesn't mean that masses of machining was done! The first 90 minutes was spent in working out what I had to do and which was the best direction to approach it from, just as important as making swarf.... Now I have the basis of the winch done I have to address the entablature and the arrangement of the drive from the engine to the gearing. Luckily there isn't a great deal of difference between the centre line of my pinion and the one in the drawing, nothing I can't accommodate when I fit the bearing. The biggest problem is that the drawing bears no relationship to what I know I have to do, machine the castings and mount the entablature on 4 hollow columns. The drawing tells me I need to make eight in three different sizes and I can't see for the life of me where he gets these from. So as is par for the course now I shall just have to use my head!



The first job was to get the main beams of the entablature machines to the correct size and identical. Once of a day I would have wanted them machining all over but I am older and wiser now, I do what the old engine builders did, only machine the fitting surfaces.....



They are flat, straight and identical......



You can see here what almost became a serious problem. If you remember I said that the casting for the winch drum threw all the measurements on the drawings out because the flanges were slightly further apart than the drawing. This means that the distance between the bearers is greater and as you can see I only just had sufficient length to get the centres for the stud holes for the columns but they will do.



Closing time. I have decided on the length of the studs and the columns and found the 3/16" rod I need to make four long studs. But that's for tomorrow.....

[Stanley]

Friday is always a busy morning but I managed to get an hour in the Shed. I started by making the four studs I need for the columns that will support the entablature beams. Here they are fitted.



Next thing I need is four columns which are 2" lengths of thick wall tubing, 3/16" bore. Wall thickness to be decided when I am making them because the holes at the end of the beams are very close to the edge of the casting. Ideally I needed to start with some 1/2" MS stock but I am short of that. I have however got threaded bar. So I decided to make them out of that. It's nasty stuff to turn because it has been work-hardened by the threading process which was probably done by rolling the threads. Anyway I mounted a piece up and by knocking off time had taken the worst cut, roughing the threads off. I know exactly where I shall be starting tomorrow!

[Stanley]

There will be no shed today. I have to do some cooking, go for an eye test at 09:00 and could really do with writing some stuff for the paper.... Back in there tomorrow lads!

[Stanley]

I wrote an article this morning to keep my conscience clear but eventually got in the shed. I finished converting the threaded rod into usable stock. Using this wasn't a good choice, I couldn't get a finish on it but beggars can't be choosers!



I used Trefolex for my drill while I was making the entablature pillars and we reached an historic moment. I have been using my old tin for about 50 years and finally reached the bottom of the tin. I have had this new tin in stock for at least 30 years and finally opened it. I was surprised to find it was green! I think this might last me out......



By knocking off time I had the pillars made and fitted. One of them will have to be reduced to allow for the quadrant that carries the clutch lever for the winch drive. But the next job is to fit the cross member that carries the pinion bearing and then we can get some accurate measurements. That's for tomorrow.....

[Tizer]

I've just posted elsewhere on the OG forums to tell members about a very good online bookshop I've discovered which sells second-hand books on all things mechanical: LINK

[Stanley]

Interesting Tiz but at the moment I'm in spending purdah as we struggle to survive the interim between Janet's death and the probate of her will..... Thank God for the Treasure Chests!

[Stanley]

This morning's job is to fit this cross member to the entablature. It's an awkward shape and there will have to be some very careful measuring as we progress. Paradoxically the casting has no end of excess meat in it, lots of CI to come off.



It won't surprise you to see that the first thing I did after a good study of the problem was to touch my cutter up. From taking it out of the chuck to being ready to start cutting was less than 5 minutes, well worth the trouble!



I won't bore you with the different stages. Suffice it to say that I had to get one dimension right at a time, it's an awkward shape. You can see that the cutter is making a good job.



Here we are at knocking off time. It fits now and at first glance I have plenty of scope for mounting the pinion and its shaft. But first I want to mount the quadrant for the clutch lever......

[Stanley]

Here's where I started this morning. I've popped the pinion on the gear just to give you an idea what we are aiming for. The cross member is ready for fitting but before I start bolting anything in place I want to prepare the quadrant for the clutch lever so it is ready for fitting because for one thing the pillar at the front corner needs to be reduced by the finished thickness of the quadrant. Also, the quadrant sits right next to the cross member and I want to make sure I have the size right for fitting. So this morning has been taken up with some high risk milling, this is an awkward little bugger!





Light careful cuts has been the order of the day because I don't have a lot of hold at times!



Here's where I got to when I had to break off to deal with other matters. According to the drawings I should have reduced the thinnest section of the casting to 1/8" but I stopped before I got down to that because I wasn't sure whether the casting would stand the grip of the vice when I got that thin. I've just measured it and it's 3/16", that's plenty thin enough! I've broken all the edges and tidied it up, we are ready for some fitting tomorrow.

[Stanley]

I want to finish the initial fitting of the entablature today but there's still a lot to do so I had to get on. I started by reducing the pillar at the quadrant corner by the thickness of the casting.



Then there was an hour of drilling and tapping. The new Trefolex is a lot better than the old!



Eventually I had it all fitted up and P will be glad to know I reduced the pillar studs and rounded them off. Bleeding obvious tip here, use a shim as a stop to get all the studs the same length.....



By closing time I had the entablature laced up. Here is what it looks like with the pinion in roughly the place where it will be mounted.



Then I had a thought and put the flywheel in approximately the right place to get an idea of how the shaft will line up. It looks as though it might just clear the bed level of the winch which is going to be handy. Tomorrow I shall have to have a good think about how to proceed. I need to make a bearing on the cross member for the flywheel shaft but even more pressing I have to work out how to make a clutch in the drive..... I think there will be some head scratching. I have alerted the design committee and they can burn some midnight oil!

[Stanley]

The Design Committee didn't crack the problems but overnight they came up with some suggestions... I decided to start from the winch end and first crack the problem of the clutch. I lined the pinion up and marked the centre on the bearer and then had a good think. I realised where I had been going wrong in my thinking. The pinion isn't mounted on the flywheel shaft, it's on a separate stub shaft and actually slides out of gear to break the drive, it isn't a clutch as I had thought.



This is how I started with some very accurate measurements and a fag packet drawing. I won't bore you with all of it, suffice to say that after two and a half hours of puzzling and re-design I think I know where I am going.....



I got to this stage, finding a piece of stock from the scrap box that I can make a bearing cap out of. At this point it was very nearly closing time so I treated myself to an early finish. I think I know where I am going now! I have it all worked out right up to the motion on the engine.....

[PanBiker]

Just noticed on the Index page that it is Doubleboost, John's birthday today, Happy Birthday Bonnie Lad. Waiting to see if he does a birthday cake bait video

[Stanley]

Many happy returns John!



Friday is as you know, always a busy day and this morning I made it even busier by writing an article for the paper. I like to keep my editor off my back! But I was in there by 09:00 to carry on where I left off yesterday, making the bearing housing that will carry the sub-shaft for the pinion. The first job was cutting a piece of steel to about the right size.



I gave the cutter a going over before starting milling, it needed backing off as well as sharpening.



At knocking off time I had the blank to size, square and ready for fitting to the crossbeam. Not a lot done but another step forward!

[Stanley]

Still concentrating on the pinion bearing housing. Quietly away and after about an hour I am here. The housing is fitted and drilled for its oil hole, it needs boring now to accept the brass bush. Luckily the size isn't critical as I will make the bush to fit what I end up with.



As usual start with the centre drill and then open out in two or three stages. I took it up to 1/2"......



And finished up with this. If you haven't come across them before, this is what is known as a 'blacksmith's drill'. They all have 1/2" shanks but come in larger sizes, this is 7/8" and as usual I am sucking and seeing as I go. I decided I could get away with this for the outside diameter of the bush and was very lucky, it just fits between the drillings for the cap bolts!



Blacksmith's drills are notorious for not drilling accurate round holes so I popped this adjustable reamer through to improve on what the drill gave me.



Here's where I finished up at closing time. I'm ready to make and fit the bush now, a nice point to leave off.

STOP PRESS. The postman has just delivered the test bar courtesy of John and Mick. Thanks lads, it's an impressive piece of kit. God knows what they cost to produce. Just the job for checking lathe levelling and alignment!



I've oiled it and kept the tube for storage.

[Stanley]

We live by our measuring tackle and I decided this morning to use my digital calliper a bit more, they don't like being left for too long. At the same time I got a vernier out that reads in 1/100ths, the one I use all the time is fractional and reads in 64ths, very handy if you work in Imperial as I do. Then I went and looked for a bit of bronze stock to make my bush out of. Let's get on with the main event!



I did a fresh fag packet drawing and sharpened my cutters..... re-checking centre heights.



I got it finished and parted off. It's asymmetric because there's very little clearance on the pinion side. I've given it an annular channel and three oil holes in case it spins in the housing at some time.... Then I made a mistake! I spent a lot of time carefully fitting it including milling a rebate on the winch drum side to clear the flange and then when I came to fit the beam to the entablature realised I had mounted it at the wrong end! I had to take it off and refit it the opposite way round.



But I got there in the end after half an hour's overtime, no way was I going to leave it half done! All is well, despite the close fits the winch drum spins freely and the bush is in exactly the right place. I can go ahead now and make the stub shaft that carries the pinion and address the clutch. That will mean fitting the intermediate pedestal and bearing...... I tell you, it's a complicated little bugger!

[Stanley]

If you are wondering where this fits on the winder, it doesn't! An anglepoise lamp went AWOL this morning and I soon realised it was a fault in the fitting. It's one I won many years ago and was originally wall mounting on a bracket. This is a cast iron base I made for it and it has done many year's service so I didn't muck about, I binned the lamp. The thing about this base is that it was originally a cast iron wall plate on Wellhouse Mill that somehow finished up in the long grass off Bank Street when they demolished the sheds. I brought it home and made this base out of it. It will come in useful again one of these days so it has gone into the treasure chest!



For a bit of light entertainment I machined the cast alloy bracket that will eventually support the outrigger bearing on the flyshaft. I don't need it yet but its time is coming!



Here it is ready for fitting. It will need a rising block but I'll measure that later. If you look on the bench you'll see that I have been having a last check of sizes for the pinion shaft.



I treated myself to some new EN8 bar and started on the shaft. Roughing out here.



By closing time I had the pinion a perfect fit on the shaft. We'll do some more tomorrow!

[Stanley]

The first job this morning was to part the stub shaft off the longer bar leaving enough to grip it by. I want some meat to hold it with as you'll see a bit later. I tried it in the bush and it's a good fit.



I re-chucked it and squared the shoulder that locates the pinion. I don't know whether you can see it but I punched the number 1 into it next to the No. 1 jaw so I can re-chuck it somewhere near where it was originally gripped.



Then some careful work getting some shape into it. The 1/4" groove between the two shoulders is where the selector sits and the one nearest the chuck is where it will eventually be parted off for finishing.



This is why I wanted some spare meat on it. I have to mill out the 1/8" groove for the key that will locate the pinion on the shaft.



This is where I knocked off. The key is a tight fit in both the shaft and the pinion. I haven't driven the pinion on to it because we have more operations to do yet and when I drive it on I want it to be permanent. Good progress and no cock-ups! That's OK by me, bugger rushing!
One other thing, I wasn't satisfied with the digital calliper yesterday, I was getting some funny readings. This morning I made a proper check on it and as I thought it is not accurate. I don't know if this can happen with age but I have put it back in its box and got my Moore and Wright dial calliper out which agrees with the micrometer!

[Stanley]

I started this morning with a tidy up and chip chase, then I touched up my milling cutter and then got round to parting the stub shaft from the stock.



Once I had it off and tidied up it needed to be drilled 1" deep, 11mm, to accept the end of the flyshaft that will drive it by means of a key that can slide in the stub shaft enabling it to be moved out of gear by the selector.



To accept the drive I need a keyway inside the stub axle end. I made a plug from silver steel to fit into the end so I could accurately drill a keyway. I knew this job lot of silver steel was a bargain when I bought it many years ago and it still come in handy. The plug fits flush inside the recess.



Set up ready for drilling but I ran into trouble, I had a hell of a job getting it started. It had to be accurate because I am perilously close to the bottom of the groove in the selector.



I got there in the end but not before I had scarred the end face. I shall have to live with that!



I could permanently fit the pinion now and make sure at was a good fit when the stub axle is in its bearing. I got a surprise. The pinion I had been working with is slightly undercut! I had two choices, re-cut it or swap it for another. Luckily I had a spare 15 tooth gear and so I had to spend half an hour re-fitting it. All went well, here we are at closing time with a pinion that meshes and a bearing that's a nice fit. I will address the matter of the drive from the flyshaft to the pinion when I come to it. I have a good accurate keyway in the stub axle even though it is a hemisphere. It will still drive. Tomorrow I shall have to decide where we go next!

[Stanley]

I'm having problems loading pics so it will be a bit hit and miss until we get the new version settled in again. However, I think I've managed to get these posted. I'd reached the stage where in order to get on I have to start working on the connection between the engine and the winch which are on different levels so my first job was to determine how much the engine has to be raised to line up with the winch. The crucial element is the pedestal on the engine for the flyshaft and the pinion drive on the winch.
I made a centre that fitted both bearings and measured it with the height gauge. Near enough I need to raise the engine 1 7/8" so I found a good piece of wood and cut it. Only problem was I got confused and it wasn't thick enough so I bit the bullet and asked B&D to cut me one. I got that yesterday and we are ready to go forwards. I'll try posting pics but there seems to be a limit on my shed album so I'll see what I can do.

[Stanley]

No good, I'm getting this error message
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

Field 'image_exif_data' doesn't have a default value [1364]
I'll get Ian or Pluggy to look at it. We will get there eventually!

[Stanley]

Later..... I haven't given up on getting in the shed but up to now I have been busy on so many different things! I shall do my best......

[PanBiker]

Gallery is down again Stanley, good, it wasn't right.

[Stanley]

No problem about the gallery, I have complete confidence that you and Pluggy will find a way round the glitches even if it means throwing money at our contractor. Go to it, I'm right behind you!
On another matter, apologies to the congregation, daughter Susan arrived just as I was gearing up in the shed and she brought the video of Janet's funeral so when she'd gone I watched that. After that I wasn't fit to do anything..... I'll do better tomorrow!

[Stanley]

For the information of the congregation..... At the moment after the site crash we have no way of posting pics but I will continue with the text and store occasional progress pics to post later when we are up and running properly.
The state of play at the moment is that I have the raising block under the engine and it, the flywheel and the winch in relation to each other and it's starting to look impressive! Susan saw it yesterday and said two things, she urged me not to paint it but leave it 'as finished'. I told her that it was a good job she liked it because she was going to have to look after it as I haven't got room. She says no problem she'd love to add it to her collection of dad's engines! I agree with her about not painting it. I want people to see exactly how it's made and where my mistakes are! I think they'll still be impressed.....

[Stanley]

Later..... I got my cooking finished and got in the shed around 09:00. The first job was easy, drill three holes in the engine bed and countersink them for the 3/4" No 6 screws that fix the bed to its new raising block. Then it was a case of a good dose of thinking. The next obvious job is to put in the outrigger bearing for the flyshaft and up to now my thinking has been that I fix it on the winch bed but now I can see the rabbit I'm not sure. Another factor that's been influencing my thinking is the fact that I have the base for the bearing as part of the package from Hemingway. So, after some measuring up I went on a hunt for a piece stock about 4" X 2.5" X 3/4". This wasn't easy but in the end I found a slab of aluminium I can easily get it out of. Problem solved..... But then I started thinking. It's going to be a big structure compared to the winch and this bothered me. So I had a rethink, the bearing I want to support is only a small one for a half inch shaft so why not ditch the purpose made casting and simply fabricate something smaller. That's what I have decided to do and so I had another look at the rabbit.
That was when something else struck me so I did a check on the throw of the pinion as it comes out of gear. Bit of a problem, I am short of room! I need to site the pedestal slightly further out. Question is do I make it overhanging the edge of the base or outside the base altogether. This is where I am at the moment, still mulling this one over. I think I need to review the whole thing and come up with a different solution. It may become clear after the Design Committee has had a cogitate.... Sorry for the uncertainty but I'm not going to rush into this and finish up with a dog's breakfast.