Topic: Jerry C starts building a Stuart Twin Launch Engine from castings. (Read 34199 times)

Jerry C · « **Reply #250 on:** November 04, 2021, 09:04:42 pm »

Good one George (spell checker just offered George&marian). They are bolted down but I’ll do it when I remove everything for varnishing.

Jerry C.

ooyah/2 · « **Reply #251 on:** November 04, 2021, 09:23:34 pm »

Jerry,
I found this pic of my Steam Tug D10 engine with the Scotch crank drive.
It's been in for about 4 years without an oil hole, it gets lubrication from oil flying about when running , so far no wear.
If I can remember correctly I case hardened the drive pin.

The balls in the pump are Nitrile 3/16" dia

George

Jerry C · « **Reply #252 on:** November 04, 2021, 09:42:06 pm »

That’s nice George. Do you make your own gears and worms ? I’ve never used the thread cutting gears on my lathe except for power feed.

Jerry C.

ooyah/2 · « **Reply #253 on:** November 05, 2021, 12:25:10 pm »

Jerry,
I don't cut my own gears I use a firm in Chesterfield called H.P.C. GEARS as I don't have much call for gears so I buy them.
They are not cheap but I class as the best.
When you get back to the U.K. you can call them on. 01246 269080. or e-mail sales@hpcgears.com and they will send you a Cat, web site is www.hpcgears.com

Here is a pic of my Flashsteam engine which had a 4-start steel worm and and a phos bronze 25T to match the worm,

George.

Jerry C · « **Reply #254 on:** January 09, 2023, 08:03:54 am »

Hi again, I’m back. Returned to Oz first week in November 22. Had to buy new car as we sold our Toyota Yaris after we returned to UK. Bought a Chinese MG3 which was waiting for us when we got back. Next job buy a Kawasaki 300 Ninja. Got rid of all the Hiroshima crap on it and get it back to original. Sold all the extras on marketplace which paid for the new original kit. Ordered a load of materials for the “steam plant”. Went for 3/16 copper pipe so made up a load of 1/4”/5/16” adapters. Bought 25 metres of copper pipe which turned out to be cupronickel brake pipe but it solders OK. Ordered a coaxial indicator set for my milk Nov 21st which still hasn’t arrived, it took 27 days to get out of China ffs. Apparently it in an Oz hub now and the seller knocked 30$ of the price. All materials have arrived so I started building the steam plant last week. I’ve borrowed my reverse flow scotch boiler from second steam launch and spent a few days making up all the plumbing. With a bit of luck I’ll remember how to put pics on here so I’m going to save this in case I lose it while posting pics.

Phew!
Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #255 on:** January 09, 2023, 08:06:08 am »

Forgot to add, lookin at PM Research generator kit and some lights and overhead drive to add.

Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #256 on:** January 09, 2023, 08:35:11 am »

We went home to UK beginning of November 21. Spent the winter in our marina on Angelica. Kept ourselves warm as toast with our Mørso stove. Started our summer cruise in April22. Intended to go north then east to Leeds but the high temperatures and nil rainfall put paid to that idea. Low water levels in the canal system reservoirs resulted in canal closures. We had to reverse our travel on the Leeds Liverpool canal and head south to the midlands and Birmingham. We were ok down there so diss Stratford and circled back to head to marina. Arrive back end of October and laid the boat up for winter and returned to Oz.

Jerry C.

derekwarner · « **Reply #257 on:** January 09, 2023, 10:28:20 am »

Welcome back to the WEB site Jerry............hope the limited river/canal trip was OK & all well with the Family in OZ......

Shall be watching in with your next machinings etc

Derek

KNO3 · « **Reply #258 on:** January 10, 2023, 11:14:59 pm »

Hello Jerry, your engine looks very smart in blue!

Jerry C · « **Reply #259 on:** January 11, 2023, 09:49:15 am »

Thanks KN03, never been keen on the traditional Stuart colours. I’m a retired seafarer, RNR retired so fly the Blue Ensign and worked for the Blue Funnel line, so, blue it is. I’ll paint the ends of the boiler to match.

Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #260 on:** January 15, 2023, 02:11:39 am »

I put water into the feed water tank to check for leaks. The pipe unions were mostly OK, a few needed nipping up, but there was one small leak in the condenser end plate. Removed it and the paint and soldered it. On test I now had two other leaks. Further soldering lead to exponential leaks. The problem was that the body of the condenser was too heat heavy and I was getting nowhere fast. I salvaged the heat exchanger coils but scrapped the rest. I bought two 2” dia. Straight copper pipe joints, soldered these together to make the body of the new condenser, made up new end plates and exhaust flange. A quick water test which was OK. Etch primed and three coats of topcoat and condenser finished. It’s 40°C in the shed so painting is quite a rapid process!
Stripped the boiler down, breaking the sight glass in the process and repainted the ends.
I’ve ordered a PM Research dynamo kit. Will be Fedexed to me shortly. Shipping cost more than the kit but a better deal than a Stuart dynamo.
Now looking around for dolls house stuff for some nice Victorian lamp standards for the dynamo to run.
I’m also going to take the drive from the flywheel up to an overhead transfer rod and back down to the dynamo pulley. Thinking two riveted lattice towers as supports???

SailorGreg · « **Reply #261 on:** January 15, 2023, 04:30:30 pm »

Really neat work Jerry. Most impressed!

Greg

Jerry C · « **Reply #262 on:** January 16, 2023, 04:28:32 am »

Thanks Greg.

I thought a description of water and steam flow might be helpful.

Starting with steam,

Boiler makes steam which is piped via a control valve to the HP cylinder valve chest, passing the displacement oiler. The HP exhaust travels to the LP cylinder valve chest. The LP exhaust passes to the main body of the condenser where it is cooled by the feed water coil inside. The steam condenses back to water causing a vacuum
In the condenser maintains by the air pump. The condensate is pumped back to the feed water tank.

Next the feed water side.

The feed water pump takes cold water from the feed water tank and pumps it to the condenser coil where it is heated by the exhaust steam. It continues to the economiser coil in the front of the boiler where it is heated further before exiting the economiser and entering the boiler hot via the check valve. There is a superheater coil in the hot end of the boiler but this is not suited to this engine so does nothing.

The only thing that goes up the chimbley is waste heat from the burner.
Any oil carried over floats on top of the feed water and can be removed with a syringe.

Clear???

Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #263 on:** January 18, 2023, 08:46:10 am »

The dynamo came in 7 days, New York, Hawaii, Sydney and home all via FedEx.
Everything well packed.
I started straight away with the main cast iron body of the machine. Fettled first with belt sander and file.

Mounted the piece upside down on my mill vice and milled the base until flat.
Repositioned the piece with machined base up against the fixed vice jaw and removed equal amounts of metal from each end and brought all down to final dimensions. The cast iron was nice to work with and no sign of any chilling.

Drilled through the boss on top for the lifting eye. All fastenings are tiny UNC threads so I’ve had to order 2 taps and one die locally which cost nearly half the price of the kit.

Next job, bore out the centre of the big casting. A hell of a lot of material to remove. All done on my mill with a boring head. This took over half a working day!

Fettled both aluminium end castings. Used my lathe for these bits. I mounted the commutator in my 4 jaw chuck.
Faced off the mating surface then remove 1/32” leaving a location step. Finally bored out the space for brushes.

Next I found the centre of the casting and centre popped it.

Back to the mill. I left the main body in the mill vice so it was already central on the x and y dro s so with my smallest centre drill in the mill chuck locating the centre of the end cover I superglued the cove to the main body. As PMR plan gives the offset for the securing screw holes so I found them and drilled tapping size holes and the hole for the shaft bush. Finally unglued the end cover and glued both end covers together to transfer drill the final holes. That’s where I’m up to at end of day 2.

Day off tomorrow for a bit of cycling and a thrash on my motorcycle.

Jerry C.

Some pics

SteamboatPhil · « **Reply #264 on:** January 18, 2023, 03:40:49 pm »

Nice work Jerry, if you do need any more UNC I have a box full ( I am still BA, ME, BSF & BSP ) and I ignore metric (sorry metric peeps)

Jerry C · « **Reply #265 on:** January 19, 2023, 07:58:06 am »

UNC/UNF aint metric it’s American imperial brought about so their WW2 aircraft had some commonality with Brit aircraft. BA on the other hand is metric but not like the Frogs!!!!

A bit more work today after a ride round the Tharwa race track as quite cool today.

It all goes together nicely and the armature spins freely. UNC taps and die on de way coming.

Another days work and she’s ready for paint.

Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #266 on:** January 22, 2023, 09:13:59 am »

I painted the whole lot last night and today I made the last part, the drive pulley. It’s barrel shaped to cater for leather belts. PMR give you 1 1/2” of 1/2” dia. aluminium to make it from. The radius used for the barrel shape is 2”. I hadn’t the first idea how to do it so looked on YouTube.
Put stock in lathe chuck with 3/4” sticking out. Face off end. Centre drill and drill through 1/8”.
Change tool to chamfering tool. Move carriage so tip of tool is 1/4” from end of stock and touching. Plonk my gas tank (4” dia.) on lathe bed with a load of weights on top to stop it moving (or find some way to clamp it). Rig up dial gauge so mimicking tool but touching gas tank at max dia. With gauge plunger at right angles to lathe bed and magnetic holder on carriage. Zero the gauge. Move tool to end of stock (dial gauge moves with it so shows a different reading. Start lathe then move y axis until dial reads zero. Pull tool clear and move x axis 10 thou left.
Repeat repeat until x has moved 1/2”.
You now have the barrel made but looks dog rough. The barrel though is at the bottom of the grooves so cover with marker blue then file with part spinning until blue is gone then part off.
A picture may help.

The first groove was a mistake (the gas tank moved). The second was just to give it company.

Final job is brushes and assembly.

Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #267 on:** January 25, 2023, 07:16:01 am »

I’ve been working on the the belt/pulley gantry. For materials I’ve used Bunnings (B&Q) aluminium angle bar and flat bar. Cheap as chips. I reduced the size of the angle bar from 14mm to 7mm and the flat bar to 6mm. Both 1.4mm thick. I tried on band saw but the blade wouldn’t track true and no amount of fiddle would make it. So, did it all on the mill. Slow job!
I cut all the required parts and I was two inches short on the angle bar so had to buy another length.
Today I started fabricating. First the two vertical pillars. Made a jig screwed to the bench to hold two lengths of angle (see pic). I made the first 45° brace and used it as a pattern for all the rest. Everything temporarily held together with superglue, until I can drill the river holes. Rivets in the post.

I managed two sides today and half way through the second pair.

Jerry C

Jerry C · « **Reply #268 on:** January 25, 2023, 07:59:52 am »

A quick question re pulleys and leather belts. Dynamo drive pulley is by design, barrel shaped. Google says this makes belt self centring. Does the othe pulley the belt is on need to be barrel shaped also?

Jerry C.

Circlip · « **Reply #269 on:** January 25, 2023, 10:23:08 am »

Quick answer, yes. 'Crowning' only works on the pulley it's applied to and can't compensate for miss alignment of drive layout.

Regards Ian.

Jerry C · « **Reply #270 on:** January 25, 2023, 11:02:23 am »

Many thanks Ian. I’ll see what happens.

Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #271 on:** January 26, 2023, 11:51:01 am »

I missed posting this one.

Jerry C.

SteamboatPhil · « **Reply #272 on:** January 26, 2023, 05:29:57 pm »

Nice one Jerry

Jerry C · « **Reply #273 on:** January 28, 2023, 08:24:22 am »

Rivet counters get loads of stick. I thought 50 would be plenty. There will now be an intermission while I wait for another 50.

Jerry C.

Jerry C · « **Reply #274 on:** January 29, 2023, 07:34:47 am »

I’ve not been idle. Today I’ve made a pair of belt pulley assemblies. The pulleys turn on shafts that are clamped eccentrically in two end caps which locate in side plates on the overhead gantry so facilitating belt tension adjustments. I’ve yet to come up with a method of fixing in position after tensioning but leaning towards a lever locating on a ratchet of some sort. Tomorrow I’ll crown the pulleys.
I bought some cowhide leather straps from a local saddlery. The guy in the store who can reduce them in thickness and width is away until Tuesday. I’m once it’s trimmed I can cut to required lengths, the return them to him for sciveing the ends so I can see them together to form the belts.

The final belt adjustment from gantry to dynamo pulley will be achieved by mounting it on sliding rails bolted to baseboard with captive bolts.

Jerry C.

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Author Topic: Jerry C starts building a Stuart Twin Launch Engine from castings. (Read 34199 times)