In this episode: Finishing the drilling operations on the steam cylinder. Machining the steam chest cover and steam chest. Trial fit of the new components. Kangaroos in the garden.
The probe has been a real game changer for me. Especially on small bores and pockets. There are some features in TouchDRO that allow for digitising existing parts. The plus version of the app will do this semi automatically. The down side is that the probe tends to be quite delicate and you cannot allow it to sit in a puddle of chips and coolant. Regards, Mark
Mark, I worked with an old Machinist who always kept a bucket of ashes from a wood stove to slow cool cast iron he was working with or anything that he needed to slow cool. He would just bury the parts in the ash and let them sit overnight .
I tried something similar by burying the parts in lime but small parts will cool very quickly with room temperature insulating powders. I once threw some old files in a burning tree stump. When the stump had burned away the files were beautifully soft and easy to machine. Nice quality steel too. Regards, Mark
I always look forward to your videos Presso. You are a great teacher and your explanations make it easy for someone who may not know much about engineering and machining. I often know what is coming but still watch and listen because you keep it interesting. I suspect that your past students would have you categorised as "one of the cool teachers" which is no mean feat.
Thanks for that. Sadly, many of my students didn't always appreciate what they were being offered for free. I am guessing but I would say that only around 2% of students had the natural curiosity and willingness to persevere at a task to take full advantage of the curriculum we offered. On very rare occasions, the student ended up knowing more than I did. Those were the moments that made the job really rewarding. I once had a student that I was training using a CAD programme called CATIA. He designed a model car body using lofted profiles. It was a complex 3D shape but it had only one feature and a handful of sketches. I tried and failed to replicate what he had done. He went on to study at university and completed a double degree in Engineering and IT. Regards, Mark
@@Preso58 One common problem with being a student is often we are still young and haven't had enough life poked in our eye to realise some things from a more seasoned perspective.
Coming along great. I haven't worked with cast iron too much, those chilled areas are something I wasn't really aware of. I noticed when you drilled the 3rd hole on the steam chest cover that the drill started wondering slightly. It must have hit one of those hard spots.
Yes, that's the problem. Carbide end mills will cut chilled iron but they don't like it. If you are trying to drill with a HSS bit and it encounters a chilled edge it will deflect easily. It's not easy to tell how far the chilled surface extends to but if it was really critical I would want to be using a centre cutting carbide end mill. A lot of holes required in model engines are number or letter drill sizes and I am guessing it would be difficult to find carbide end mills in such odd sizes. Nothing is simple! Regards, Mark
Love the 10H series. I was wondering if the hole for the valve rod could have been drilled, into the valve chest cavity, then a transfer punch used to spot the other side? Clearly the aluminum plug worked perfectly but I like to consider other ways of accomplishing the same task. Cheers
I must say I am not a fan of transfer punches. They tend to be a bit hit and miss and for most applications it's probably not necessary to be super accurate. However, just a few microns of misalignment would mean that the valve rod would bind. Regards, Mark
With all the wildlife you have around, it brings up a question- would a dog have sense enough to not mess with a Roo? Especially with a Joey present 😂. The barking in the background brought up the query. Y’all got critters I’ve never had the opportunity to get to know their characteristics. Always informative ye be 😊
Kangaroos are often attacked by dogs and many are killed that way. Having said that, a fully grown male Kangaroo is capable of defending themselves against dog attack. They will often lure dogs into a dam and drown them by holding them underwater. ua-cam.com/users/shortsLEQ2h_V1fz0 The other way a kangaroo can defend itself is to rear up on it's tail and kick with it's hind legs. A big kangaroo can disembowel a man with the sharp claws on its powerful hind legs. If attacked they say it's best to lie face down and cross your arms over your head. The three eastern grey kangaroos that we have around the house are fairly docile and they keep their distance from us but we had the young juvenile right outside our back door today. Regards, Mark
Exceptional build Mark. I agree the correct type of material should be used as in the prototype. My pet hate is models with brass flywheels, never seen a full size one with a brass flywheel.
That's right. The Handmaiden that was made by Tubalcain (not Mr. Pete, the other one) had a steel connecting rod. He started with a 10H kit but he did modify some of the parts to make them easier to shape using just hand tools. I now have a stainless steel eccentric rod and strap but I cheated somewhat. (It's 3D printed). Regards, Mark
Exactly! It's already done and even I was surprised at how much it looks like a casting. The first version made it to the shelf of shame though! Regards, Mark
I bought mine on AliExpress. There are lots of sellers and they are all the same. The one I linked to in the video description is now inactive. Try searching for 2024 latest V6 anti-roll 3D Touch Probe edge finder Prices are in the AU $75 range. I have two of them and they have performed perfectly. The older one is about three years old and it gets a lot of use on my small CNC mill. They are delicate though. Regards, Mark
Hi Mark, great video. Can you send details of the electronic centre finder. I too love touch DRO. so much better than the expensive Easson I originally bought, Cheers, Richard
I bought my touch probes on AliExpress. Just search for "2024 latest V6 anti-roll 3D Touch Probe edge finder" There are lots of sellers but they are all basically the same. The one I linked to in the video description is now inactive but you should be able to find the same one. Regards, Mark
Mark, when you have a chilled cast iron casting with the hard areas, couldn't you heat the part to, say, a red heat and let it cool slowly to eliminate the hard areas? Do you have an oven of some sort that can reach the needed temperatures?
I don't have an electric furnace and that is the most reliable way of annealing iron and steel. I did once anneal a bunch of hand files by throwing them into a burning tree stump. The fire burned overnight and it must have cooled slowly. The resulting steel was a joy to machine and it hardened up again easily. The downside was that it oxidised but not as badly as I thought it would. I had read that you could heat hardened steel or iron up to cherry red and then dunk it into a tub of lime powder. The idea was that the lime would act as an insulator and allow the part to cool slowly. It didn't work but probably because I was trying to anneal a very small part. The lime was at room temperature and it chilled the part instead of insulating it. It would probably work well if the part had a lot of mass. Regards, Mark
Thank you for the excellent videos! I’m interested in the Touch DRO but the app only runs on Android. Do you know if they will make an app for iPad? Thank you!
As far as I know TouchDRO is only available for Android devices. However it will run on quite old Android devices so it should be possible to find a relatively cheap, used device and keep it as a dedicated DRO for your machine. Regards, Mark
That little kangaroo is certainly growing up. I think that you are onto something with the two part eccentric drive for the steam control rod. On the steam box valve cover, are you planning on casting your own with the "S" correctly oriented? Nice work though as always.
Thanks. I have the new parts for the eccentric rod and strap. You may think it a cop out but I had the parts 3D printed in stainless steel. It was out of curiosity really. I just wanted to see if a vendor could make parts to my specifications. The cost was relatively low and the parts are actually very good. With regard to the steam chest cover, the new parts for that have also been made. I have a nice little brass "coin" with the S letter engraved in it. It looks exactly like a casting and it fits perfectly. It only took two goes to get the toolpath sorted but it was a "learning experience'. Regards, Mark
I have then new parts and they are surprisingly good. (I had them 3D printed). A cop out I know but I was keen to see if having complicated small parts outsourced was viable. Regards, Mark
Presso, thanks for these videos. I also wasn't sure about another steam engine build but as always, your delivery, presentation, tips, practicality, and personality make it highly interesting to watch. Could you offer any thoughts on dealing with the hard spots other than using carbide - maybe heating the parts or using a sacrificial tool that can be easily hand sharpened?
I watch a lot of videos by Clarke Easterling of Windy Hill Foundry. He always stress relieves any castings he makes in an electric furnace. Stress relieving is all about ensuring that the cast iron doesn't twist, bow or flex after machining but it will also soften any chilled edges. I don't have facilities to do that apart from just heating the part with oxy acetylene and trying to insulate it so it cools slowly. You can sometimes make the problem worse if you cannot control the cooling cycle accurately. Modern carbide cutters can handle chilled iron but they don't' like it and there may be a danger of chipping the cast part on the edges. Drilling can also be risky. HSS tools won't touch chilled iron at all. They blunt almost immediately. Luckily carbide tools are now relatively cheap. Regards, Mark
from memory I thought the gland was off center on the chest, or maybe they have changed the drawings? Be glad when you get rid of the wonky "S" must have sent you the wrong one😁
I just checked the drawings and the gland is definitely on the centre line of the steam chest. I have fixed the sideways "S". It is now a separate part made of brass. I machined it on the little CNC mill and bead blasted it to look like a casting. You will see it in the next episode. Regards, Mark
I believe it can be done but I have never tried it. I don't own an electric furnace which would be the ideal way of annealing iron castings. I note that Clarke Easterling of Windy Hill Foundry always stress relieves any castings he makes in an electric furnace. Stress relieving and annealing are sort of different goals but the end result will be a casting that machines well. Regards, Mark
Mark, I’m really looking forward to the pouring of that tiny white metal bearing. I’ve seen it done on 5” bearings, and I’ve seen it done on 20” bearings …. but never on a miniature . The two-piece setup c/w poured bearing will be super authentic. Regards Robert
I have made small axle bearings for a 3 1/2" gauge model steam locomotive but only because I was too lousy to buy bronze for the axle boxes. I used mild steel and cast the bearing shell which was later bored to fit the axle journals. The only issue with really small bearings is that the molten babbit has a lot of surface tension and it doesn't like to "wet" the steel. If it won't work the backup plan will be to make a bronze liner. Regards, Mark
Nice work indeed. I'm seriously considering trying to make something similar to this from the 10kg of scrap cast Aluminium I have, by casting up new parts. It won't be steam-powered, I nearly paid a very high price when a high school steam turbine project I made blew up in my face, luckily it only got my neck and chest because I threw my head back in the knick of time. So I will just used compressed air to run it. 👍
Ha ha. I shouldn't laugh really but turbines are both scary and exciting at the same time. I have a book called "Model Steam Turbines" by HH Harrison and I was dead keen to make one many years ago. I ended up building a turbojet instead. It scared the living daylights out of me when I started it for the first time. I think I would still like to make a steam turbine though. Stay tuned! Regards, Mark
Thanks Christian. I am having a break from the Stuart engine while I repair my Sieg CNC mill. It turns out, the column of the mill was massively out of tram with the table. I did a Stefan Gotteswinter and used a steel filled epoxy to shim the base of the column. A big job but I think it was worth it. Regards, Mark
I'm sold on the Touch DRO and the probe! Joey is cute! Wish we had some rather than 7 cats!!!!
The probe has been a real game changer for me. Especially on small bores and pockets. There are some features in TouchDRO that allow for digitising existing parts. The plus version of the app will do this semi automatically. The down side is that the probe tends to be quite delicate and you cannot allow it to sit in a puddle of chips and coolant.
Regards,
Mark
Enjoyed…great discussion and build
Very interesting thanks Mate.
Mark, I worked with an old Machinist who always kept a bucket of ashes from a wood stove to slow cool cast iron he was working with or anything that he needed to slow cool. He would just bury the parts in the ash and let them sit overnight .
I tried something similar by burying the parts in lime but small parts will cool very quickly with room temperature insulating powders. I once threw some old files in a burning tree stump. When the stump had burned away the files were beautifully soft and easy to machine. Nice quality steel too.
Regards,
Mark
I always look forward to your videos Presso. You are a great teacher and your explanations make it easy for someone who may not know much about engineering and machining. I often know what is coming but still watch and listen because you keep it interesting. I suspect that your past students would have you categorised as "one of the cool teachers" which is no mean feat.
Thanks for that. Sadly, many of my students didn't always appreciate what they were being offered for free. I am guessing but I would say that only around 2% of students had the natural curiosity and willingness to persevere at a task to take full advantage of the curriculum we offered. On very rare occasions, the student ended up knowing more than I did. Those were the moments that made the job really rewarding. I once had a student that I was training using a CAD programme called CATIA. He designed a model car body using lofted profiles. It was a complex 3D shape but it had only one feature and a handful of sketches. I tried and failed to replicate what he had done. He went on to study at university and completed a double degree in Engineering and IT.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 One common problem with being a student is often we are still young and haven't had enough life poked in our eye to realise some things from a more seasoned perspective.
Excellent , Love the extra bit with the young Kangaroo
Very nice, thank you !!
Thats looking good Mark. Keep it up. Can't wait to see it running.
Steve.
Really enjoying following this build!
New iron cover offer still stands 😉
Thanks. I have fixed the cover though. You will see how in the next instalment.
Regards,
Mark
Excellent! Pleasant surprise as I just checked for something else 😊
Thanks Mark.
Little Roo! ☺️
Excellent workmanship, Sir!
Beautiful job Preso, cheers
Coming along great. I haven't worked with cast iron too much, those chilled areas are something I wasn't really aware of. I noticed when you drilled the 3rd hole on the steam chest cover that the drill started wondering slightly. It must have hit one of those hard spots.
Yes, that's the problem. Carbide end mills will cut chilled iron but they don't like it. If you are trying to drill with a HSS bit and it encounters a chilled edge it will deflect easily. It's not easy to tell how far the chilled surface extends to but if it was really critical I would want to be using a centre cutting carbide end mill. A lot of holes required in model engines are number or letter drill sizes and I am guessing it would be difficult to find carbide end mills in such odd sizes. Nothing is simple!
Regards,
Mark
Hey Mark, Thanks for the videos... Cheers!
Love the 10H series. I was wondering if the hole for the valve rod could have been drilled, into the valve chest cavity, then a transfer punch used to spot the other side? Clearly the aluminum plug worked perfectly but I like to consider other ways of accomplishing the same task. Cheers
I must say I am not a fan of transfer punches. They tend to be a bit hit and miss and for most applications it's probably not necessary to be super accurate. However, just a few microns of misalignment would mean that the valve rod would bind.
Regards,
Mark
With all the wildlife you have around, it brings up a question- would a dog have sense enough to not mess with a Roo? Especially with a Joey present 😂. The barking in the background brought up the query. Y’all got critters I’ve never had the opportunity to get to know their characteristics. Always informative ye be 😊
Kangaroos are often attacked by dogs and many are killed that way. Having said that, a fully grown male Kangaroo is capable of defending themselves against dog attack. They will often lure dogs into a dam and drown them by holding them underwater. ua-cam.com/users/shortsLEQ2h_V1fz0
The other way a kangaroo can defend itself is to rear up on it's tail and kick with it's hind legs. A big kangaroo can disembowel a man with the sharp claws on its powerful hind legs. If attacked they say it's best to lie face down and cross your arms over your head. The three eastern grey kangaroos that we have around the house are fairly docile and they keep their distance from us but we had the young juvenile right outside our back door today.
Regards,
Mark
You're right on the rod. If you use the one included in the kit, it will not look good. Steel will be better.
The new one will be stainless steel. I cheated but you will see exactly how I cheated coming up.
Regards,
Mark
Looking good so far Mark.👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Exceptional build Mark.
I agree the correct type of material should be used as in the prototype.
My pet hate is models with brass flywheels, never seen a full size one with a brass flywheel.
That's right. The Handmaiden that was made by Tubalcain (not Mr. Pete, the other one) had a steel connecting rod. He started with a 10H kit but he did modify some of the parts to make them easier to shape using just hand tools. I now have a stainless steel eccentric rod and strap but I cheated somewhat. (It's 3D printed).
Regards,
Mark
Looking froward to you removing the "S". I foresee you CNCing something and pressing it in.
Exactly! It's already done and even I was surprised at how much it looks like a casting. The first version made it to the shelf of shame though!
Regards,
Mark
That's coming along nicely Mark. As someone else has asked, what touch probe are you using?
I bought mine on AliExpress. There are lots of sellers and they are all the same. The one I linked to in the video description is now inactive. Try searching for 2024 latest V6 anti-roll 3D Touch Probe edge finder
Prices are in the AU $75 range. I have two of them and they have performed perfectly. The older one is about three years old and it gets a lot of use on my small CNC mill. They are delicate though.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Mark, great video. Can you send details of the electronic centre finder. I too love touch DRO. so much better than the expensive Easson I originally bought, Cheers, Richard
I bought my touch probes on AliExpress. Just search for "2024 latest V6 anti-roll 3D Touch Probe edge finder" There are lots of sellers but they are all basically the same. The one I linked to in the video description is now inactive but you should be able to find the same one.
Regards,
Mark
Mark, when you have a chilled cast iron casting with the hard areas, couldn't you heat the part to, say, a red heat and let it cool slowly to eliminate the hard areas? Do you have an oven of some sort that can reach the needed temperatures?
I don't have an electric furnace and that is the most reliable way of annealing iron and steel. I did once anneal a bunch of hand files by throwing them into a burning tree stump. The fire burned overnight and it must have cooled slowly. The resulting steel was a joy to machine and it hardened up again easily. The downside was that it oxidised but not as badly as I thought it would. I had read that you could heat hardened steel or iron up to cherry red and then dunk it into a tub of lime powder. The idea was that the lime would act as an insulator and allow the part to cool slowly. It didn't work but probably because I was trying to anneal a very small part. The lime was at room temperature and it chilled the part instead of insulating it. It would probably work well if the part had a lot of mass.
Regards,
Mark
Thank you for the excellent videos! I’m interested in the Touch DRO but the app only runs on Android. Do you know if they will make an app for iPad? Thank you!
As far as I know TouchDRO is only available for Android devices. However it will run on quite old Android devices so it should be possible to find a relatively cheap, used device and keep it as a dedicated DRO for your machine.
Regards,
Mark
👍👍😎👍👍
That little kangaroo is certainly growing up. I think that you are onto something with the two part eccentric drive for the steam control rod. On the steam box valve cover, are you planning on casting your own with the "S" correctly oriented?
Nice work though as always.
Thanks. I have the new parts for the eccentric rod and strap. You may think it a cop out but I had the parts 3D printed in stainless steel. It was out of curiosity really. I just wanted to see if a vendor could make parts to my specifications. The cost was relatively low and the parts are actually very good. With regard to the steam chest cover, the new parts for that have also been made. I have a nice little brass "coin" with the S letter engraved in it. It looks exactly like a casting and it fits perfectly. It only took two goes to get the toolpath sorted but it was a "learning experience'.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Mark. Looking forward to seeing you make an alternative bearing. The engine is coming along beautifully. 👏👏👍😀
I have then new parts and they are surprisingly good. (I had them 3D printed). A cop out I know but I was keen to see if having complicated small parts outsourced was viable.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Oh, added interest. 😱
Coming along nicely!
Presso, thanks for these videos. I also wasn't sure about another steam engine build but as always, your delivery, presentation, tips, practicality, and personality make it highly interesting to watch. Could you offer any thoughts on dealing with the hard spots other than using carbide - maybe heating the parts or using a sacrificial tool that can be easily hand sharpened?
I watch a lot of videos by Clarke Easterling of Windy Hill Foundry. He always stress relieves any castings he makes in an electric furnace. Stress relieving is all about ensuring that the cast iron doesn't twist, bow or flex after machining but it will also soften any chilled edges. I don't have facilities to do that apart from just heating the part with oxy acetylene and trying to insulate it so it cools slowly. You can sometimes make the problem worse if you cannot control the cooling cycle accurately. Modern carbide cutters can handle chilled iron but they don't' like it and there may be a danger of chipping the cast part on the edges. Drilling can also be risky. HSS tools won't touch chilled iron at all. They blunt almost immediately. Luckily carbide tools are now relatively cheap.
Regards,
Mark
from memory I thought the gland was off center on the chest, or maybe they have changed the drawings? Be glad when you get rid of the wonky "S" must have sent you the wrong one😁
I just checked the drawings and the gland is definitely on the centre line of the steam chest. I have fixed the sideways "S". It is now a separate part made of brass. I machined it on the little CNC mill and bead blasted it to look like a casting. You will see it in the next episode.
Regards,
Mark
Great work as usual! Would it be an advantage to anneal the castings to avoid the hard surfaces do you think?
I believe it can be done but I have never tried it. I don't own an electric furnace which would be the ideal way of annealing iron castings. I note that Clarke Easterling of Windy Hill Foundry always stress relieves any castings he makes in an electric furnace. Stress relieving and annealing are sort of different goals but the end result will be a casting that machines well.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Mark I have sent you photos of the same engine I made a few years ago. In your private message.
Thanks, is that on Facebook or Instagram? I have had a look and I cannot see any messages about the engine.
Regards,
Mark
Is it possible to anneal the hard/chilled cast iron surfaces?
I believe so but I have not tried it.
Regards,
Mark
Mark,
I’m really looking forward to the pouring of that tiny white metal bearing.
I’ve seen it done on 5” bearings, and I’ve seen it done on 20” bearings …. but never on a miniature . The two-piece setup c/w poured bearing will be super authentic.
Regards
Robert
I have made small axle bearings for a 3 1/2" gauge model steam locomotive but only because I was too lousy to buy bronze for the axle boxes. I used mild steel and cast the bearing shell which was later bored to fit the axle journals. The only issue with really small bearings is that the molten babbit has a lot of surface tension and it doesn't like to "wet" the steel. If it won't work the backup plan will be to make a bronze liner.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58
Mark ,
Can the shell be ‘tinned’ with some soft solder?
Robert
Great job and great vid, Preso.
Waiting for the next part and wish you a nice weekend ! 😊
Great work again Mark. It will be good to see it running.
Nice work indeed. I'm seriously considering trying to make something similar to this from the 10kg of scrap cast Aluminium I have, by casting up new parts. It won't be steam-powered, I nearly paid a very high price when a high school steam turbine project I made blew up in my face, luckily it only got my neck and chest because I threw my head back in the knick of time. So I will just used compressed air to run it. 👍
Ha ha. I shouldn't laugh really but turbines are both scary and exciting at the same time. I have a book called "Model Steam Turbines" by HH Harrison and I was dead keen to make one many years ago. I ended up building a turbojet instead. It scared the living daylights out of me when I started it for the first time. I think I would still like to make a steam turbine though. Stay tuned!
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58It was my 66th Birthday yesterday, when I look back at some of the stupid stuff I did as a kid, it's a wonder I made it this far. 🙄
Nice done Mark! Have a quiet sunday!
Thanks Christian. I am having a break from the Stuart engine while I repair my Sieg CNC mill. It turns out, the column of the mill was massively out of tram with the table. I did a Stefan Gotteswinter and used a steel filled epoxy to shim the base of the column. A big job but I think it was worth it.
Regards,
Mark