A fine project for a newly restored lathe

[Refugee]

Here you are Colin have a go at this little challenge with your newly restored vintage lathe
http://www.wimp.com/tiniestengine/

[camallison]

9 minutes 25 seconds to cover 1220 hours of work - surprised it didn't take much longer to build.

Colin

[Refugee]

It was a lot of work but he still has to make a scale model F1 racing car to mount it in.

[pwdrive]

Here's a real one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mutb7KgA9NM

Lawrence.

[TerryG]

And for an encore, the ultra compact 12 cylinder swash plate engines found in such applications as torpedoes could provide a challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5xGvnhds_I

[Refugee]

I have seen a video of a petrol swash plate engine.

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Refugee for adding this thread and yes it would indeed be an excellent project to christen my newly restored Lorch lathe.

I'm a bit slow in replying because I wanted to watch the videos in full and all are most interesting. was watching the video you supplied Refugee and noticed the swarf coming away whilst the crankshaft was being turned; it looks like stainless steel which is a real pain to turn without suds because stainless heats up a great deal and is bad on tooling. Just one slip would have ruined the crankshaft especially whilst turning near the center of its length due to whip. Brilliant workmanship though and I was most interested in the small alloy timing gear cover wondering how he made this; perhaps he farmed this out as a small casting job?

Both the other models are also a credit to their makers and how many hundreds of happy hours went into producing each of these working models? It's only a short while ago I watched a short report on TV Refugee showing a company developing a special swash plate engine hoping to put it into production? A couple of years ago whilst experimenting with clutches in the garage I took a car air conditioning compressor apart and this compressor was a swash plate type.

I wonder what effect centrifugal force has on the rods in these swash plate engines; the force must be considerable at 10,000 rpm and the longer the rods are the worse it will become? Just a thought.

During all my many years working with lathes I've never considered making models or miniatures; I like playing with full size then I have something useful I can use. This is one reason I decided to leave vintage radio restoration; once I had fully restored a basket case "Woody" even though I gained immense satisfaction I could not do anything with the restored radio or TV other than look at it? Over the last few months I've fully restored a Union Graduate woodturning lathe and a Wilmac bandsaw. I'm now in the final stages of fully restoring my Lorch engineering lathe and all these machines are not only a joy to own but they will earn their keep. I've been using the Wilmac bandsaw over the last couple of days and it's become obvious that I need to add dust extraction to it because it throws fine sawdust out at an alarming rate covering everything and me in so doing.

Many owners of small engineering lathes go in for making model steam engines whether stationary or locomotives and derive great pleasure from their activities. At the moment I'm rather too busy still restoring my machines to think of uses I'll be putting them to once restored but I do like lathe-work of any kind and I enjoy all aspects of woodworking so I don't think boredom will ever be a problem.

One thing about buying old machinery and fully restoring it is that these old machines are reasonably priced (OK cheap) and unless something drastic has happened to them they can be fully restored without facing bankruptcy; I find the restorations mostly come down to labour in cleaning/painting/adjusting. If old style cast iron machines are bought these tend to be built to last many lifetimes. Industry has discarded thousands of such machines simply because they no longer meet current health and safety specifications such as having braked motors which are expensive to retro-fit but for anyone in a home workshop what a true bargain such machines are.

I'm fortunate insomuch that restoring such machines is easy for me and not really a challenge at all; I'm so used to making new parts and sorting the electrics out that I don't need to think about it. My only challenge in the Lorch restoration is in joining the leather drive belts and this is only because I've never attempted doing this previously; well glued joints anyway. Most people with a home workshop could restore these old machines but care would be needed to keep accurate records of where each part fits during strip down; if in doubt about the electrics ask a chum who is into such things? Motors and motor starters are cheap enough through eBay and for the more adventurous then there is the 3 phase VFD route to power these machines. I gain as much pleasure out of restoring these machines as I do in using them and one good point is that unlike restoring a basket case radio a restored machine will be worth a lot more than it initially cost?

Time I got something done before another day whizzes by. Interesting thread Refugee and a subject so many home workshop owners are interested in.

Kind regards, Col.

[Refugee]

I do restore vintage electronics and only have about 5 or 6 valve radios and do not propose obtaining any more as I usually restore things to return them to full service and use them.
I have a pair of cinema amplifiers that are used for daily recorded music playback in the lounge they have more than enough volume to rattle doors and windows. I modern domestic hifi would be hard pushed to go any louder.
My workshop has a mixture of old and new test equipment and I tend to do one or two of each kind of equipment including the odd strange item.

There is a corporate video of the swash plate car engine about. If i see the link again I will post a copy here for you.

When I lived down south there was a model railway that opened a couple of times a year and all the guys that had completed the locomotives used to bring them along. Several owners could afford to insure the locos to pull passengers. The track was about 1/3 of a mile long through woodland.

[camallison]

When I lived down south there was a model railway that opened a couple of times a year and all the guys that had completed the locomotives used to bring them along. Several owners could afford to insure the locos to pull passengers. The track was about 1/3 of a mile long through woodland.

http://www.flmr.org/

[Refugee]

I did not nab any of there photos.
They were running the weekend after I had just bought a new camera so they are my own photos taken while i was getting used to the camera.