Elmer’s #3 part five
Today’s job was to produce the inlet pipe from the forward/reverse control to the cylinder head. A simple little part that should only take a few minutes - wrong ! I guess it took me a couple of hours to machine the small connecting manifold requiring both my lathe and mill. The pipe was bent to shape using a handy tool that I made last year and silver soldered to the cylinder at one end and into the new manifold at the other.
I learnt early on that in model engineering time is unimportant - it’s how you spend that time that is crucial. Satisfaction is not gained by how quickly you can make things it is gained by developing and improving your skills. When you take stock after completing a model you most likely have two trains of thought. The first is you may be self critical as you see imperfections in your workmanship but deep down you have the enormous satisfaction of knowing that your skills are gradually improving. The joy of seeing your new creation spring into life makes the effort and time spent seem irrelevant.
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- The turned manifold was not separated from the bar and was inserted into the mill vice and a centre finder used for positioning.
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- The readout displays were zeroed then using the 'x' travel it was an easy job to locate the correct position for the manifold bolt holes.
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- Drill bits were used to locate and level the manifold 'disc' in the vice.
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- The manifold was machined to depth, the DRO zeroed, the piece flipped over to machine the other edge.
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- The inlet pipe positioned prior to silver soldering in place. I intend to cover the art of silver soldering in a future article.
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- The soldered joint after 'pickling' in a jar of citric acid for half an hour.
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- The finished pipe now bolted to the bearing block with two M2.5 cap screws.
Hi
Good to hear from you and I hope you find my website of help to you. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions you may have and remember the only silly questions are the ones you don’t ask ! I look forward to hearing further from you.
John