Not a big show for today's work (I watched the Grand Prix)  but we move forward, all the bearing caps are drilled for the studs and oil hole and the beds for the nuts milled out.  A bit more tidying up and they will be ready for fitting to the beds.  Slow but steady.......

Malcolm sent two pics of a Stuart 5A in a boat at the Windemere Boat Museum.  Same engine basically as the small ones I am making.

Just think what the bigger engine will do......  Hee Hee!  Wrote another article today and did some tidying up on the pedestal caps.  Not a serious work day but progress nevertheless.

Very nice arent they, just love varnished wood on boats. All you need to do now Stan is build a boat and a boiler, not far to go......

Steve

All the studs for the pedestal caps are installed and the caps fitted and centered.  We need a hole.....

There's no point mucking about!  I want a housing slightly over 17/16" so it's time to be brave and poke a big drill through, with care and very slowly.  I bored the caps from each side, not straight through because it would be too hard to guarantee the right centre.

To make sure the bore is straight and the right size, I poked an adjustable reamer through.

Just to check I put a 3/4 reamer through both bores at once and then tried a 3/4 brass bar in the hole.  Lovely fit and the caps are dead tight.  One tip about the studs.  It's very difficult to get all the studs bottomed and poking out just the right distance, too long is easy, just grind a bit off the stud.  Too short is easy as well, drop a scrap of lead in the hole and tighten the stud on it.  Dead tight and perfect.

Here's the line-up.....  The end one looks better than the others!  It's slow but we are making progress!

Stanley

Filling up the bottom of a stud 'ole with a slug of lead is so obvious, I'd just never think of it! I'd end up with all the effort of making a new stud - I am making notes!

Malcolm

Hi Folks,

The engines are coming along very well now, looking the part as they say. I like your tip on peg removal, the power of hydraulics is never to be underestimated.

Well I have my own bit of trepanning amongst other things to share with you, but again I shall paste a link for anyone interested, as it's kind of grown into a lengthy few pages on my site.

http://www.workshopman.co.uk/uphill_and_son/pages/engineering/machinery/lorch%20schmidt/lorch%20page%2003.htm

All the best Steve

Still working on the beds.  Here's the first small engine with the bearings fitted, I'd got to this stage on Tuesday night but then I had two more jobs to do.  Fit a steel peg in the bottom half of the shells to locate them on the bed and drill the oil hole in the top shell.

Then I allowed myself to be diverted and sharpened the adjustable reamer I was using.  Never thought of doing one before but what a wonderful improvement.  The T&C grinder is so handy.

Forward with the beds....  Here's the 5/16 reamer going through the pilot holes, not to clean them up as they are only a pilot for the big drill but just to make sure that they are in line and on the centre line of the bed.

The siver steel magic wand in place before grabbing the bed in the four jaw for boring with the big drill.  Handy for getting somewhere near straight.  Final adjustment done with the tail stock centre.  Then into the vice and poke the big adjustable reamer through both at the same time before fitting the shells.  I had visitors in the afternoon but even so I was at the stage where the third bed is in the chuck ready to be bored.  It struck me last night that after boring the beds on this and the next soleplate, I shall have to decide on the relationship of the two beds as they have to be bolted together and the matching face will have to be milled off with the bearings out so I might as well do it now.  My reason for this is that all four bearings will have to be lined up and it will be a lot easier if the matching faces are milled and the beds capable of being bolted together.  Progress.......

Here's the line-up at lunchtime...  all the bearings installed, lined up, pegged and oil holes drilled.  I realised when I did the last one that I didn't have to worry about the joining of the beds yet because the soleplates don't need anything taking off them.

I spent a pleasant hour making a centre which fits in the head of the column, registered in exactly the same position as the centre of the cylinder with a silver steel pointer that reaches just short of the centre of the shaft.  I've milled the dummy shaft out and tomorrow I'll find a centre on the flat and use this set-up to get the standards dead central in relation to the shaft.  Time well spent I think.  I never bothered much with the first one I made and it showed when I did the final fitting.  These engines will be dead on the mark or I'll know the reason why.