www.mikes-models.com blog

Hello, please bear with me if you  follow me on www.mikes-models.com my main website since I have had a terminal failure of my laptop and it will take some time to reinstall everything (some of which may not be recoverable!). Also little will be done to sort this out since the internet will be unavailable for the next week (so I am told).

Bit of a rubbish time really.

Well I have managed to get into the workshop again and am in the middle of making a power feed to my own design for the RF25 milling machine I bought from Axminster tools some years ago. I will be writing up the design including drawings when I finally complete it. So far I only need to secure the bars and create a cover and lever (to engage and disengage the feed). So far in tests it works well and I have a shaky video to show how it works.

Don't worry about the driving dog since this was the first casting and I intend to make a pattern updated to take account of lessons during construction. The idea is that the motor will be engaged and released by use of a lever to slide the whole motor head in and out.  A picture or two should help understand....

Work continued on the pair of patterns for the Seal engine. I am now at the stage of painting to get a good finish. To help me I use two different spray colours so I can see clearly the areas I am covering. This works well and after making a few more adjustments, seen because of the paint finish, I am not to far away from finishing these patterns befre casting some to see what lessons I can learn in pattern making.

Whilst I will need to dust off the furnace I thought it would be sensible to complete all the different project patterns making best use of the furnace time. I must admit to being a little surprised at just how many different jobs on the go (or waiting for me to cast the part). These include a pen stand to display the pens I make (I hope to try a local Saturday craft fair in Brixham soon), a casting of the 3 pronged bracket to run the power feed to the milling table project (I will try first to use the metal part it will mate with before seeing if I need to make a wooden one) and a more substantial table for my Clarke bandsaw (for use when operating vertically).

I am quite happy I have the system of melting the alluminum sorted now but am not so sure about my patterns but the only way to find out is using them. We shall see. I expect to use the furnace the end of this week if I am lucky so watch this space.

I have decided to make use of the fretsaw before putting it away after making a couple of wooden toys for my grandchild. I need to have two castings for the Seal that are handed different from the norm, allowing one engine to run in reverse, allowing contra-rotating propellers in the boat (Fairey Huntsman) being built by one of my brothers.

When phoning Hemingway's, the supplier of Westbury's Seal castings I found out that whilst Edgar T Westbury designed the engine to work in either direction, no patterns for the 'other' way exist. So I am making a couple of patterns to cast the two parts needed. This is my first attempt to produce patterns to the quality required so it is interesting to say the least.

I have started by looking at the plans and comparing the existing castings to them. Remembering to allow for shrinkage and having the sides sloping, I made a start by tracing the outline then reversing onto wood and rubbing the reverse side, transferring the shape seen in the photo below. One the outline was done it was over to the fretsaw and cutting outside the line the basic pattern produced.

My next stage is to use filler to get the shape I want before spraying in one colour, sanding/filling then spraying in a different one to get as good a finish as I can. Of course the final test will be when they are cast.

Whilst I was at the fretsaw I also cut out some templates to make a set of pen stand patterns. So sometime next week I hope to fire up the furnace. Lots to do but its a start and its working on the Seal. Will post more tomorrow hopefully.

I have finally completed the couple of wooden toys for my first (and only at the moment) Grandchild and considering my dislike for wood am now able to start working in metal again. The funny thing is though that today the first job I undertook after completing the toys was.......two wooden patterns for the Seal engine! So perhaps my Granddaughter is teaching her Granddad new things! For one so young, she teaches a good lesson!

Perhaps I am thawing to wood? Perhaps though its just habit? Anyway the toys are finished and whilst not proud of the quality hopefully she will enjoy them, safety paint and all!

I dislike working in wood and I hate painting. So of course with my new Grandchild the toys mum and dad want are........wood and painted!

The first toy I made was a puzzle and the only enjoyment was making the aluminium knobs, but Freya loves playing with it so that makes it all worth while.

However, the wooden box I am making at the moment with animals and shapes to push through corresponding holes, is not going well. The main problem has been painting. I decided to paint the inside of the box by painting the panels before assembly. Freya, like all infants likes to put parts into her mouth so all have to be a certain size and the finish must be safe! After searching the internet and eBay I found a supplier and bought pots of 6 acrylic child safe colours.

I decided that I would first sand, then paint with an undercoat, sand again then spray paint the acrylic. However the finish I was getting was poor in coverage, so I decided to dispense with the spray gun and use a brush instead. That's when I discovered that the problem did not lay with my many different mixtures of paint when spraying, but the paint itself is poor in covering even when using a brush.

Now the paragraph above is a shirt one but covered many hours of work! I decided to see if my local hardware store had any other types of paint that was child safe and surprisingly they did. It is called Plasti-kote fast dry enamel paint. I decided to also purchase a soft saple brush to apply it.

On return, after sanding back the previous work with the new Black and Decker Mouse sander I decided to apply a coat with a brush first since it takes a while to clean up the spray gun (and I didn't know how it would spray) and whilst it was in direct sunlight, was disappointed with the finish achieved. So it was sanded flat yet again and the spray gun got ready.

Earlier in the morning I decided to make up a 'lazy susan' (revolving table) using a bearing I had for some time. A couple of pieces of mdf were marked out using my chain method. Simple put I use a chain secured at the center with a screw and then one link is chosen and a pencil is placed in the link and the circle drawn. Good enough for a non critical dimension and it works. Once the pieces were marked it was over to the fretsaw and the circles cut out.

With the first attempt at a thinned mix, I was pleased at last to see good coverage! So at last I could move on and complete the inside part of the box. Additionally, the 'lazy susan' worked tremendously well and I only wish I had made one years ago! It is so flexible and helps spraying a part no end and it only cost a few pounds.

Hopefully now progress can be made and the box finished. With a set of blocks completed earlier in the morning, this is the last wooden toy to be made for a while. I am designing a motorised vehicle but I suspect I have 12 months to make that before Freya can use it. I intend to have it electric powered and flexible enough to allow the chassis to mount different bodies. That will be a project I will have no problem in enjoying though!

I needed to have a method of sanding in an awkward narrow square hole. Whilst visiting my local do it yourself  store looking for some child safe paint (see my blog about spraying and making a box for my Granddaughter) I spotted the Black and Decker Mouse sander and saw it came with a small nose extension piece that seemed ideal.

Whilst I may well have bought it cheaper elsewhere I picked one up as the need was for a solution now. The sander is a nice fit when working with the main sanding papers but I found it more awkward when using just the nose extension piece, but to be fair that my have just been the position I needed to be in when sanding the square hole.

Its performance however, was excellent and I could not have managed to sand the square without the mouse sander. Also I like the way they have produced the main sanding sheets with two outside tabs. These when removed are used to replace the nose part of the sanding body so extending greatly the durability of sanding time since the nose area can get greater use than the main body at times. So well done for that nice little touch.

Overall for £27.99, the sander is good value for money and a very versatile tool for small scale sanding, exactly what I wanted. I have no doubt it will prove very useful over the coming years.

Not a lot of work this week in the workshop on the Seal engines due to working in part on some wooden toy's for my new Grand child Freya (and I hate wood!). However it has given me time to reflect on the quality of work undertaken January last year and I have decided to replace the Seal block and start again. Whilst it may be a little drastic I think it is the right thing to do and for £38 for a new one from Hemingway's its not worth trying to adjust/bodge/amend the existing one. It will also allow me to 'experiment' with the placing of studs and error where two studs try to share the same hole!

My reason for replacing is the poor alignment I made when boring the seating s for the valve inserts and really came to light when inspecting it for the first time in over 18 months. On a positive note my skill level must have improved (it couldn't have been worse!) as shown with the second and later casting for the other engine.

Whilst talking to Kirk Burwell (very approachable man)from Hemingway's about the handing of timing cover and backplate castings Kirk confirmed these do not exist and suspects its because there isn't a lot of call for them so it looks like I shall be doing a little pattern making in the near future!

I am hoping that next week I can return to metal work instead of wood! However time always seems to be less available than the projects to be done. Watch this space!

In happier times -before cutting the seats for the valves poorly.

Yesterday I managed to make the tappets for one engine (8 in all) and they are now awaiting my first attempt at case hardening. To speed up their production I made a tube out of stainless steel to fit over the slot drill I was using. The method worked fine and it didn't take too long to make. However, today I only managed a short time in the workshop and looked at how to cut the chamber in the valve guides with the radius required at there base. I did try and make a special tool out of some drill rod (as the Americans call it) but whilst they worked to a degree I wasn't happy.

That's when my memory kicked in and I remembered the ball nose cutters I have and one was in the correct size of 0.250". A quick check of the radius showed it to be near enough so my previously turned valve guide was mounted in the chuck and when considering how to get to depth the second part of my memory decided to wake up. I have a clamp that I attach to the tailstock and then use a DTI, secured to a small magnetic base, to rest against the clamp so ensuring complete accuracy with depth. Why I didn't use it yesterday for the tappets I do not know!!!

I did not use the ball nose milling cutter directly on the valve guide but drilled it out first just undersized and using the cutter to clean up and cut the bottom radius.

Another plan issue showed itself yesterday when completing the two camshaft bushes. Neither the article or the plans show the angle of the oil holes required in both bushes.  Nor does it give the diameter of the hole.

My solution was to use the new digital angle ruler bought from Axminster tools on the plan (see photo). This gave a reading of 33 degrees and measuring the plan showed the hole size o be 1/16".  I had a bit of a blonde moment however when working out how best to drill the hole and its chamfered entrance. I thought the best was would be to use my Proxxon drill and stand. So I set the head over to 33 degrees and yes I know you will know but when depressing the stand of course it goes only directly up and down!

Blushing I got out my angle vice and after setting the digital angle meter to zero on the base of the drill stand, I adjusted the vice to the required angle and form then on it was simple.

The next session should see most of the valve guides for this first engine completed. After that as soon as the 1.8mm drills arrive I can complete the two nuts required for each valve before carrying out a new experience for me, case hardening the tappets and nuts. I will cover the experience in a separate section of the website as I have had some advice from a member of the forum I use.

If you don't know it then I can highly recommend the Home Model Engine Machinist forum, especially if you are a novice as they are both approachable and knowledgeable.

As always here are a few photo's that may help explain my ramblings.....