It is many moons since I have done bling of any sort of size, well over a year, and seeing that these new engines had sprung up onto the scene, I thought I would give myself a rest from my mundane workshop chores, and get myself a bit of a moral booster.
Stew called yesterday, and was sworn to secrecy over it, with me having it finished and displayed by the end of today.
Unfortunately, personal issues got in the way, and the project had to be dropped just after lunch. So I have just been in the shop, and taken a piccy at how far I have got at this time. I will just make a normal sort of post out of it.
BLING - shiny bits, an engine that doesn't look like the original, if there is an original. ONE STEP BEYOND (or even a few).
Just to give you would be blingers a little help to achieve the simple effects I will be showing here.
When an engine is designed and made, certain points have to be adhered to. Usually strokes, cylinder bores, port positions etc.
The parts that hold all these holes together are usually left as a bland lump of metal. So if you can carve that plain looking stuff into another shape, and if you can get a bit of polish on it as well, then you end up with an engine that is truly yours, and not just another copy.
Not a full warts and all, just moments in time.
As usual, I did a little forwards planning, so instead of starting off with a square bit of bar, I took an oversized lump of round and got it onto the RT.
I then used the RT to put a square end on it.
Slap it onto the lathe, and get the square end's dimensions spot on.
The bore was then drilled and reamed to both depth and size.
It is now where things start to change. Unfortunately, no pics were taken, but I hope you can understand what I got up to.
The part was swung around, and because I had more meat than shown on the original plans, I could carve it to whatever shape I liked. This time, I thought I would make it look like a single cylinder IC engine, complete with domed head and a small inlet tube, to take a silicon fuel tube type airline. The grooves and inlet were formed on the lathe with cutters, all the rest was filed and shaped by hand on the lathe.
But as you can see, nothing of the original drawings are changed, except the bits of metal holding things in the correct positions.
The part was then put onto the mill, and the square bit cut to shape, and the hole put in it for the crankshaft bush.
Remember, if you are going to hold bits in the vice like this, you must put something exactly the same width at the other end of the jaws, otherwise the part is liable to become airbourne, because the jaws tighten up on the tilt and don't hold the part correctly. I used a 1/2" wide parallel.
So this is a pic of the original, and my meagre not quite finished offering.
If you look very carefully, at the back edge of the bottom plate bit, you will just see the end of a tiny slot. This is where the redesigned stand will be silver soldered to.
Getting ready to bore the soft jaws to get the flywheel on it's way. The boring was completed, and the flywheel blank was made. This chuck will now be fitted to the RT and the flywheel carved to whatever shape takes my fancy. It was at this stage, that I had to leave in a hurry.
So these are the bits that I have nearly finished so far.
The flywheel needs finishing off, and the crankshaft and disc need to be made.
The stand base was carved and shaped by means of machine and hand, out of a grotty bit of offcut brass, and the stand upright was hand carved and shaped out of a bit of brass engraving plate.
I got the original Crap-o-Cad designer to do an artists impression of the finished engine, at great expense to myself. The whole tip of a pencil was almost worn away.
So that's it for now, I hope to get back onto it tomorrow, it all depends what the day brings.
Bogs
