At last I felt well enough today to get back out into the workshop. Nothing feels better than a successful or even semi successful session. It even gets better in that I was working on the Seal engine for the first time since the start of the Myford refurbishment.
It took quite a while to sort out the turning fixture for the camshaft with no parts fouling each other. I had to reduce the diameter of the front disc that registers the degree of rotation of the camshaft. Then there was a problem of getting the cutting tool to have sufficient travel without fouling anything. This all took time but eventually everything went around without anything going bang!
The cam blank I am using now was not made to match the fixture (my mistake) so I am going to complete the machining as a practice and confirmation piece. Confirmation that the process I am using will produce the correct camshaft.
To help me avoid mistakes (since I am cutting 6 cams at a time) I decided to mark which cam was which, on the offset turning fixture. This, together with the cutting charts produced for me by Steve Huck’s meant I had a chance of cutting the right cams in the right order. As an added safety measure I also marked all of the cams with a permanent marker. If those cams which had to be left remained covered with permanent marker ink, I wouldn’t have a problem!
For those of you who have read Steve’s cam article in both Model Engineering in the UK and Model Engine Builder in the USA (and available as a download on www,mikes-models.com), you will realise that ‘the first cut is the deepest’, as the song goes. Initially I need to remove 0.078” from all the Cam blanks, but in order. After that it’s a case of revolving the camshaft by 5° and making the cuts on the chart. I had printed out a set of charts already and filled the x boxes with a highlight colour then laminating them. However I decided to print a new set off and use a highlight pen to colour in the section that was being cut so I could keep count.
I need this amount of organisation since there are 47 rotations with cuts for the exhaust and 49 rotations and cuts for the inlet cams. So as you can see there is a lot of work to be done. Now multiply that by the 3 cams I will be making (this practice then two engines) and you will see this is not going to be quick!
More importantly though is the fact that I’m back!
About Mike Freeman
Hello, my name is Mike Freeman and I am a retired Chief Fire Officer from the United Kingdom with a keen interest in model engineering, silver caddy spoons and sea fishing. I live in the pretty fishing port of Brixham, South Devon, in the United Kingdom.
I am a sufferer of degenerative osteoarthritis, which impacts on the amount of time I can spend in the workshop, and is the reason why you will see seats and a stool in some of the photo's. I have only recently added the above sentence after a discussion with one of my Doctor's from the excellent pain clinic, based in Torbay. This does affect concentration one of the reasons why I double then re-double my measurements and set ups.
Before completing nearly 30 years of public service I and my wife Sandy, owned and ran, a small restaurant in Okehampton Devon. Prior to marriage I worked for my father in his various businesses, in the early days these were garages, which he bought in a run down state, then built them up before moving on, to start again.
I took every opportunity in those early days, to work in his workshop's
learning 'on the job' rather than as an apprentice. This, I suspect, is the reason why my building various model's in the early days, turned into model engineering, when funds allowed the required equipment to be bought.
My workshop comprises one half of a detached double garage. It has a
stud wall separating the two halves and unusually perhaps, its own
shower/toilet/washbasin compartment! (the true reason for buying the
bungalow - don't tell the wife!!!)
It is fully insulated with a ceiling and fluorescent lighting supplementing the one window. Several double electrical sockets are dotted around in
relevant positions.
Equipment consists of 2 lathes (1 Myford ML 10 and 1 Chinese variable
speed motor with etched glass DRO's), 1 milling machine (RF25 far East) floor standing pillar drill, Proxxon bandsaw, Warco bandsaw, 6" wire brush and polishing mop motor, 6" coarse and fine grinder, Proxxon mini drill, various benches and an engineers vice. I have just acquired a third lathe, a Myford ML7 which I am at present evaluating so I can decide which of the Myford's I will keep.
I have only just bought the Chinese lathe and had it fitted with DRO's prior to delivery. And what a bonus they are! So good in fact that I decided to buy another set for the Milling machine. Whilst my engineering experience can only be described as limited, I find the use of DRO's has affected my accuracy levels which have improved tremendously (although that's not saying much!) and would recommend their fitting to any model engineer.
Prior to retirement I built for my son's 17th birthday a Locost car. This
was a tremendous project and a great feeling when it passed its test. The book it was based on suggests it can be built for £250. Ours was nothing special in the sense of all new parts but still cost about £900 to build!
