Two steps forward one step back again!
by John
I had a whole day to myself, in the workshop. SWMBO was happy painting or something, and the kids did not need us to baby sit the grandchildren. So, let’s make the 6″ boiler fire door and ash pan door.
But first, I silver soldered the 4 joins on the super heater, and all went well.
The firehole is oval shaped, and the plans call for a rectangular door. So I spent some time planning the machining for the rectangular door boxed section. Then I thought … hang on…. this oval is really nice… why am I hiding it behind a rectangle ?
So back to the computer, and I worked out a method to make an oval door. A bit like a hobbit door, with an adjustable vent.
And here I am, machining it with a 2mm cutter. In 1mm deep bites. That brass is 4mm thick.
And I made a bracket to complete the hinge….
Drilled the holes for the 1.5mm pin…..
And the f*****g drill bit broke!!!!
I could not get it out. It was a cobalt bit, and all of my methods for digging out broken bits were tried, taking a couple of hours, and failed.
So I reshaped the hinge end of the door..
and I will silver solder a hinge end on tomorrow.
johnsmachines 
Looks good, and in response to your earlier question I like the daily updates. It is the interesting little ideas that I find the most interesting, not the big end of project stuff that glosses over all the intermediate steps. Peter
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thanks Pete!
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Hi John,
Have you considered a small spark eroder for removing the broken drill.
Yellow pages…
Solidarity brother!!!
Cheers,
Tim
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I agree with Peter. It’s the small detail which is not only interesting, but also helpful to others. Keep up the great work.
Could I ask you to hark back to the triple for a moment here? The plans call for 3/4″ from the pads for the standards, to the top of the main bearing posts when machining the base plate. On my casting, even if I machine the pads down to virtually nothing, and take the bare minimum off the top of the bearing supports, the most I can get is about 0.650″ height for the supports.
I would be interested to know the height measurement from the standard pads to the top of the main bearing support post on your engine if you wouldn’t mind?
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Hi Graham, I found your message while cleaning out my spam folder. Sorry that I had not seen it sooner. You have probably sorted it by now, but if not, send another note. Any further mesges should come through now. John
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Thanks John. Have that bit sorted now. Just finished the crankshaft from solid 4140 steel, and now trying to align everything includ ing
the crosshead slider bars.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your interesting trip.
Kind regards
Graham Kelly
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Much the same as Peter, I enjoy watching you work your way through these complicated, precise engineering projects and sharing the challenges and solutions as you progress. They are works of art to me.
Now, when are you going to fire that cannon?
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Do you want me to post from jail? Strict gun laws here, thankfully. Much as I would love to.
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