Today I managed to get back into the workshop and having received the camshaft fixture plans and the cutting chart from Steve Huck (thanks Steve) I decided to leave the casting I have been working on and return to making the camshaft.

The first job is to make the fixture and after locating the nearest sized steel, it was a case of squaring up the base and two upper blocks. It never ceases to surprise me how much time is spent in setting up compared to actually making swarf! I now I have to concentrate more than most and this must add some time, but it is still catches me out.

So the sum total of my work today is to get the base to size and the two upper blocks cut roughly to size. More work tomorrow will be required before the fixture is completed. I have time on my side however, as the material I was going to use, then harden, will not now be used. Instead I will be trying Steve's recommendation of using silver steel (drill rod in the USA I believe) instead without hardening. Time will tell but Steve has built, and run successfully, several cams in his engines this way.

So I will need to buy some material for the camshaft. Between its arrival and starting to cut the cam lobes, I will go back to the main cylinder block and carry on with boring the crankshaft aperaures.

 

Steve Huck's camshaft turning fixture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Huck's fixture plan sent to me along with the cutting chart.