I had a great Easter holiday with both my daughter Vicky and son Adam, with their respective partners Justin and Jemma, down for Adam and Jemma’ s engagement party. Whilst it is very nice to see them it does take me three or four days to recover after they have left, so workshop time has been nil until today.

I started by trying to work out where I had gotten to with boring the second Seal cylinder block casting. Previous experience had led me to leave a note on the milling machine the last session, saying it was all set up for the next cut. However the reading on the digital readout did not match my setting when double checking everything. I do not know where I went wrong but the ‘y’ axis setting was incorrect. Looking through my scribbled note book I saw the reading I was on for the Y axis, but no workings on how I got there.

Whilst it was only a few thousandths out, it meant twice the error before getting to a round bore again. I could either go with the mistake for all 4 cylinders or make the first cylinder larger than it should be, but in exactly the right place. Since the error was contained inside the recess needed for the cast iron lining, I decided to alter the ‘Y’ axis reading to what it should be and accept that the liner would have to be slightly oversize on its outside diameter, to accommodate the error. At least it would be in the right orientation.

The rest of the morning was taken up with completing the 4 bores for the cylinder linings, including the top recess ...

followed by drilling out the top of the eight valve bores, reaming to finished size. The penultimate task involved using a 3/8” diameter slot drill to make the recess required by the valve guides. Leaving me with the final task of the day, that of milling away the side of the casting alongside the valves. I wanted to get the casting squared at the same setting as the bores for both valves and pistons, although the final finish will be carried out when the casting is held on an angle plate at 90 degrees to its present position.

It will need to be faced properly on the angle plate, after having the inlet and exhaust ports machined, along with various stud holes. However by taking a cleaning cut now, I would have a good face to make sure the casting was set up as true as possible.  That was enough for me for the first session back and it is progress at least.

Today I managed to finish turning the second camshaft as can be seen in the photo below although I have yet to complete cleaning up the camshaft. It is only held in the chuck to allow it to be filed and sanded. It is not unsupported for turning, just using the Myford as a very expensive vice!

The second camshaft took a lot less time than the first, but I did annoyingly catch one of the lobes with a nick. I blame SWMBO who came in at a very inopportune time! I managed to keep my muttering under my breath until she left. Then I said a loud tut tut. Fortunately most of the mark was removed with further cutting but part of it is still there, and I know its still there!

Hopefully tomorrow will see an end to cam cutting for a little while, although I still have one more to make. At least I now have a pair of camshafts and that should allow me to tackle the main castingsnext , namely the cylinder blocks. Anyway here is the photo of the latest camshaft, half way through tidying up.