I thought I would share with you how I am making the valves for the Seal engine design by Edgar T Westbury. Sadly I am a 'list man' and after working through my first machining method list it was amended yet again in the light of experience. Having completed 5 now I believe I have now tied it down reasonably well.

I have the list alongside the lathe as an aide memoir and it goes like:-

1. Face off the stainless steel bar and then centre drill for the tailstock centre.

2. Extend the bar 1.75" away from the chuck and lubricate end for the half centre.

3. Using DRO scribe line 0.25" from tailstock end.

4. Using HSS tool steel (ground to cut from left to right) turn down the required 0.250 long valve end stem to the diameter of 0.0709" (I round to 0.071") for 8BA threading in phase 2. (Should now be as picture 1).

5. Change tool to one that cuts from right to left and set it against the face of bar (the 0.071" diameter) and set DRO to 0.000.

6. Using DRO scribe lines for length if Stem, length of taper cut (45 deg), and overall length of valve. These marks only serve as checks whilst machining the rest of the valve.

7. Turn down diameter to the finished valve head size for length of the bar (using the DRO and scribe marks made in 6 above. (Should now be as per picture 2).

8. Now turn down to main valve Stem diameter (picture 3).

9. Using DRO, re scribe the marks for the taper to cut and end of valve before cutting the 45 degree face (picture 4).

10 Change the tool for parting off  and checking with the DRO part off the valve (leaving the oversized bar at the valve stem end.

11. Hold valve in vice by stem end and use Proxxon to cut the valve off.

This completes the first phase and what I call a 'valve blank'.  The second phase requires the valve blank to be placed into a home made collet, allowing the threading of the stem to 8BA for 0.250" .

The final stage is to measure the length of valve so the amount to be removed when facing the valve off can be ascertained.

Now all you have to do is repeat the process another 15 times (plus the ones you mess up....and that can be quite a few with me!) plus a couple of spares for the future.

As a meerkat once said...'simples'

Just had  a short session this morning and continued with the flywheel project for the Seal engines being built. However after getting the outside turning round and facing off I was left with 2.6315" diameter (need 2.5" finished size) so was pleased with progress. I don't know what specification the brass is made to but it machines great!

So feeling smug I thought I would rough turn the inside of the cavity (will be the rear of the finished flywheel) and using one of my home made boring bars before reversing the blank and bringing the front to roughly the correct diameter so that finishing cuts could be made all the better when running the lathe at faster speeds than the unbalanced blank would allow. This is when I hit a snag! One that I did not expect or had come across before using the Turner lathe.

The diameter of the cavity when finished, will be 1.75" and when I reversed the jaws, they were too big to go inside the cavity! So my smart thoughts went out the window! I will now have to remove the remaining excess by another method.

I did however resolve a question I had about the small diameter of the valve liners for the Seal. The answer came to me when studying the drawings last night and the reason is the need for the valve spring to sit over the outside of the valve guide. Mystery solved and I will just have to be careful when making them!

When I resume work on the flywheel I will hold the turned part in the 4 jaws as normal. A few photo's below show progress........

This morning I managed to make a couple of gear studs for the Myford ML7 I have just refurbished. If you want to see more then visit my Myford specific site. I managed to turn a couple of gear studs which have replaced the old style that came with the lathe. With the newly made studs I do not have to dismantle as much when gear changing.

My next project will be to resume the camshaft for the Seal engine and make inline boring bar and a tool setting device for the boring bar so watch thiis space. I will be producing drawings for both the inline boring bar and the tool adjustment fixture as part of my learning to use 3D cad software.