I have machined a 20 hp "R" and a 30 hp "85" differential castings so far and I put the "O" ring groove on the outside edge of the bores instead of in the middle of the bores. The differential housing pivots on the rear axle and it needs lubrication across the whole bearing surface. That is why I chose the outside edge of the bore for the "O" ring. I copied the idea from my 10 hp type 6 engine. No oil leaks from any of the three differential housings. For the right size O ring, I cut them to the proper length circumference and I sewed the O ring ends together. There is a glue that does this also but I didn't have it on the shelf. For the engine frame rod bores, I drilled them in my milling machine by first drilling a pilot hole, which unfortunately gave me 6 inch deep crooked holes, next by milling their holes straight again to about final size and finally by running a reamer through them for a perfect fit. I had bought the unmachined 30 hp aluminum casting from Carl Amsley. It was a bugger to get the 30 hp rough castings centered up on each other because the casting halves were not a good fit to each other to start with. The 20 HP "R" unmachined aluminum castings that I bought from Alan Kelso were an excellent fit to each other from the start. My milling machine did all of my work. It was fun.

I'd like to machine it for O-rings - I can remount it in the lathe but I'd have to mount a boring head in the headstock and use that to cut the groove - not easy but should be possible. What is the best tool shape to cut a groove like this without the swarf gumming up the tool?

Jeff

I used a round nosed bit that matched the size of the O ring being used. If using a high speed steel bit, I cut at a 300 surface feet per minute. With carbide cutting bits, you can cut at 800 surface feet per minute on aluminum. To calculate rpm: (cutting speed X 4)/ diameter = rpm. Depending on the alloy of the aluminum, I have often used lanolin as a cutting oil for a finer finish cut. If in doubt about what speed to use, always start at a slower speed and work up. For the ultimate finish cut, I always finish honing my cutting bits on a hand held hone stone. FYI comparison...(Mild steel has a cutting speed of 100 surface feet per minute with a high speed cutting bit.) Another benefit of having the O ring on the outside of your differential housing, it is to keep the dirt out of the bearing surface between the axle housings and the differential housing. On the outside of the differential housings there are steel thrust washers that the differential housing centering adjusting screws rest against. The thrust washer is against the outside edge of the differential O ring groove. I made my o ring grooves shallow eough so that when the adjusting screws are brought up against the thrust washers, the O rings have a slight compression for a better O ring seal. We have kind of gotten away from this threads original topic......

Today Merrily and I had the help of SACA/NW President Eric Gleason in getting our 1916 Stanley Mt. Wagon ready for the Sol Duc Hot Springs Centennial this week end. Sol Duc had about 7 Mt. Wagons operating between Lake Crescent and the Hot Springs in 1912. There were more than that many operating between Lake Crescent and Port Angeles at the very same time and owned by another transportation company. Our Mt. Wagon is the guest star at their Sol Duc Hot Springs Centennial. We flip the top assembly forward so that the Mt. Wagon can fit into our short enclosed car hauling trailer. Photo was taken by Eric's best friend, Jackie.

Some views on the road to Sold Duc Hot Springs in about 1912

May 12 and 13, 2012 we attended the Omak, WA car show. They had about 200 cars on the field. Our 1914 Stanley took best in its class and the Stanley 606 was also a crowd pleaser. Check out the photos below.

Having built several wooden boats and my last steam boat was aluminum built 23 years ago I was re-reading some back issue of Wooden Boat mag, that I no longer subscribe to. I was looking for a particular article I remembered reading of on a keel splice.
What was interesting about this splice was that it was used on a 400-ton merchant ship sunk of the cost of France in a storm 100 years BC. The ship was 131 feet long and had two of these splices in the keel. I was intrigued by it and always wanted to make a sample of it to see how well it worked. Fantastic joint.
Ever try to find an article in a back issue. I looked through every issue I had and could not find it. Then I went on the Internet and looked up Wooden Boat and sure enough they had a search bar for past articles. I hit it first time and went back to my pile of books and found the issue and looked up the page and there it was.
I cut mine out of a piece of 1-1/2 square Poplar. Not the greatest journeywork but it works. The keel on the 400-ton ship was 14 inches wide (sided) by 16 inches high (molded). And there was a second keel hung under it with mortise and tendon joints.
See attached photos.
Rolly



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2012 03:58PM by SSsssteamer.

I am machining up cast iron brake drums for our 1914 Stanley 606 roadster. The original steel drums were very poor at cooling. Hopefully the cast iron brake drums will be a big improvement. I purchased rough brake drum castings through Alan Kelso and I completed the machining of the drums today. Tomorrow I hope to have the new cast iron drums on the car and I will be wearing in the new brake lining by the afternoon.

I steamed the 1914 Stanley up today to try out the new cast iron brake drums. They worked well. Not good, but just well. I can kid both rear tires with a tank full of water aboard. I couldn't do that before. I have yet to get them overheated. Time will tell if this was really a worth while conversion from steel to cast iron drums.

Our Mt. Wagon had developed a knock in tune with the power strokes. It also developed a few steam leaks from the back heads and steam chest cover. I went looking for the knocking. I first cheked the hanger strap. Tight. I then checked the wrist pins. Just right. What could it be? Finally found it. The engine frame rod nuts for the cylinder had backed off a bit. Tightened them up and no more knocking. I got the steam chest repacked with a new cover seal. No leaks there. Now for the rear heads. With the engine still in the Mt. Wagon, that should be fun trying to get to them. An good ideas on getting the packing to stay in place on the heads while I tighten the heads down? I have tried twice now and every time that I pull the heads up tight, either I get a gap in the ends of the packing rings, or the packing pops out from underneath the head and block. I even tried to use contact cement to keep the packing rings in their little groove. That didn't work. I also tried a lap cut instead of a butt cut on the packing rings. That didn't help either. Any good ideas out there on how to make the packing rings stay put where they belong without them bunching up or popping out when the heads are screwed down?

I finally got all of my heads all sealed up in the Mt. Wagon. The first packing I installed when the engine was rebuilt apparently was a little undersized. The new packing has a full figure and was a tight fit, which was good. How I finally got it repacked follows. Cleaning the head groove out completly, I even chased it with a small round file to make sure that the last thread allowed the packing unobstructed room. I installed the packing much like a boat builder caulks the hull boards of a boat. I took a larged bladed screw driver and drove the packing into its groove all of the way around including the butt cut. I then took small round stock and layed it parallel against the packing seam and tapped a nice matching curve from the screw driver into the packing. I liberally lubricated the heads and packing with an anti-seize to help keep the packing in place. I used my home made head wrenches to torque the heads as tight as I could physically tighten them. So tight that even with a punch and hammer, I couldn't drive them any tighter. Took the Mt. Wagon for a spin around the neighbor hood this evening and it was very quiet. No steam leaks. :)

Pat making up the tool to screw the head in centered is a big help. I often wondered why Stanley being so inventive didn’t predate Bryan in there head design.

Rolly

Been turning the castings for the cast iron brake drums for the R. The shop is sitting at about 90 degrees at it's coolest now so I tend to come out looking like the graphite man! Also been making the exterior brake band bits. One quick question - what type of rivets did they use to hold the lining on the exterior bands - see last photo. Is it a large hollow rivet swaged over a washer - the band seems to have a raised area around the rivet. That's assuming this photo shows the original.

Jeff

Jeff
I bought my brake banding from All Frictions Co Portland CT 860-342-2001
They shipped brass rivets, I’m not sure what the original would have been, but brass won’t dig up the drum if they get that far.
Rolly

For Brake Lining Rivets, use conventional brass brake lining rivets. Using the hollow rivets with the correct diameter and length will make for a perfect fit, without washers. Using old bands with oversized holes, then a washer might be needed to take up the slack.

In drilling out rivits from the peened over end,,
the rivit will part off and stick to the drill,,,,usually,
making a small washer,, the drill has NOT gone through the band,,just touched it,,
Now tap the rivit through with a small punch,,,[ or nail ]

The split rivits spoken of the other day were an invention made to reline model T Ford transmisson bands without taking the steel bands out,,!!!
Just drive the rivit through the cotton web,,til it bucks up on the steel drum and the rivit will part ways left/right and secure?? the mess,,,,,,There is a volume of T shortcuts,
You either like Ts or not,,,dont say I said so,,

Precision miniature tubing bender.
Several years ago I built a small precision tubing bender. The bend takes place with a back die so all the bending is done with a die around the entire tube. Very little distortion in the diameter of the tube.
The bender was for a fixed die size of 1/8 inch tubing, and after building it I realized I should have built it so I could make different die for different size tubing and bend radius.
So I finely got around to it and built a new base and die block for 1/8, 3/16, and ¼ tube diameter.
Rolly



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2012 01:00PM by Rolly.

It’s amassing how curded up a burner gets after a boiler gets scorched.
I found the slots in this early burner for a 1901 Locomobile to be 0.020 and my exacto knife was 0.019
Worked just great to clean all the slots.
Rolly

Dear Rolly, Slotted burners need their slots cleaned out as regular maintenance just like the drilled burners do, but not as often as the drilled burners. To clean the rust and crud from a slotted burner, I use a hack saw blade, I break it in half and use the half that will give me a pull stroke during cleaning. Next, grind the set out of the teeth and grind the blade's thickness to match the gap of the slot. This way, a cleaning can quickly be done and when finished, the burner grate will look almost like new again. With the burner turned upside down, use a air nozzel in the mixing tubes to blow the dirt out of the burner slots.

Thanks Pat I did use the air, all kinds of crud came out. The grate was a new casting and very little hours were on it. I did not want to use a hacksaw on it as yet. I have some 0.025 blade stock and thought about taking of the set with the grinder but the exacto knife worked ok along with the air. Down the road I’ll have to make up something for the owner, it’s not the type of job I want to do again except on my own car.
Rolly