Mini Flame Eater Engine Part 6 - Cylinder & Cylinder Head

00:10 - It has been a few weeks since I’ve had the mind set to continue this project.

00:14 - I will share details in the video description as too the reasons and they aren’t relevant to this video content.

00:20 - Normally January is our cold month, but this year it came in February.

00:23 - We experienced some fairly cold days at -40 Celsius plus the added wind-chill factor.

00:28 - The cold snap lasted about 10-12 days. Here we are a month later, and now things are melting.

00:40 - Awhile ago I ordered an auxiliary screen for my camera.

00:42 - It helps to visually check what the camera sees and ensure the frame is in focus.

00:46 - I paid $30 for it from Amazon and it isn’t very high end.

00:50 - None the less, it works well enough for my application.

00:53 - The first part I am machining is the Cylinder.

00:55 - This part is stainless steel. The part consists of a bore, some cooling fins, a milled face and tapped holes.

01:02 - The tapped holes will be performed later as I have to order all the small screws.

01:05 - No one stocks these small screws in our local stores.

01:11 - The first step is to face the shaft. This sets a reference face for measuring and allows a flat face for center drilling.

01:17 - I am taking very small cuts as the shaft isn’t supported very well considering how far it is extended from the chuck jaws.

01:23 - The general rule of thumb is about 4X the diameter extended from the chuck jaws.

01:29 - For this video I have one again placed the speed at which the clip is played at the lower left of the screen.

01:34 - Between the two parts it was 3 hours of footage and slowly I was able to break it down.

01:38 - With a lot of editing I am between the 20-25 minute mark.

01:47 - I do not have much experience machining stainless steel.

02:07 - It is a tough, gummy material and requires very sharp cutting edges to be able to machine it well.

03:23 - I started with a “dead” center to hold the part as the “live” center diameter interfered with the tool holder.

03:30 - The stainless material easily wore the taper of the dead center.

03:34 - The alternative was to modify the DIY tool holder to allow more room for the live center to support the shaft.

03:39 - I ended up modifying the holder a few times, as you will notice as the video progresses.

03:52 - A few years ago I discovered I could grind carbide with a cheap $3 diamond coated disk from a hardware store.

03:58 - Here I have the diamond wheel chucked in a small drill press.

04:00 - The tool holder had some surfaces removed and squared to allow better position in the tool holder post.

04:10 - Did I mention stainless is tough to machine? The first grooving tool snapped around the third or fourth groove, I didn’t catch it in the recording.

04:27 - The lathe was in high gear and eventually it became too high a load on the spindle.

04:31 - That is why the lathe kept cutting out and stopping the spindle as you seen.

04:53 - Once the low gear was selected, it resolved that issue.

04:55 - The height of the tool was dropped a little lower then the center of the shaft, which seemed to allow the cutting edge to machine better as you will notice on the last few grooves.

05:04 - The steel chips finally started creating ribbons rather than small chips caused by chatter.

05:09 - Notice too, the position of the toolbit is changing locations on the holder as the machining progressing.

05:15 - Each time I have to pickup the face with the bit, move the thickness of the bit and zero the caliper that measure the distance traveled for the carriage.

05:47 - The toolbit I ground for the grooving measured. 047” or approximately 1. 2mm.

05:52 - The grooves are. 080” or 2mm wide. Moving the toolbit back to the start, the bit was indexed to each measurement and then moving. 031” or 0. 8mm to widen the groove to the desired 2mm groove width.

06:15 - Lastly, a groove was cut to create a reference for the overall length of 36mm with an added 0. 5”mm to allow facing to length on the lathe.

08:36 - Here’s a little tip. A large diameter drill bit has a thicker web and therefore makes it harder to feed and drill through materials.

08:43 - If a small drill bit is used first, it makes it much easier to feed the larger drill bit through afterwards.

08:49 - The thick web doesn’t need to be push through the material and only the cutting edges engage the material.

09:18 - To bore the inside diameter of the cylinder I needed a boring bar.

09:33 - Since I didn’t have one that was long enough, I took an old ³⁄₈” hex bolt and drilled a ¹⁄₈” hole through the middle near one end.

09:39 - Then on the end, drilled and tapped 8-32 threads for a setscrew.

09:44 - I then proceeded to grind the ¹⁄₈” carbide shank with a cutting edge along with side and back relief.

09:49 - I am using water to aide as a lube and keeping the diamond from clogging.

09:53 - I have found that grinding soft materials tends to clog the wheel rather quickly.

09:57 - I use the wheels only for grinding carbide.

09:59 - I wear a mask as well, grinding carbide creates very fine dust.

10:11 - To determine the diameter of the cylinder bore I am going to use gage pins.

10:24 - 11mm = 0. 433” so I am going to use. 433,. 432 and. 430” pins to determine how close I am to the final size.

10:36 - The pins will also check for any slight taper that might develop.

10:40 - I do use a caliper to measure the bore until it is close enough to fit the first gage pin.

10:45 - Once the first pin slides into the bore, I know only a few thousands of an inch remain to be machined.

13:00 - Now it is time to mill the flat face on the cylinder.

13:02 - I choose to use a fly cutter as I knew that using an endmill on stainless steel would likely ruin the endmill.

13:08 - Also, I have the means to sharpen the carbide tool so it made more sense.

13:11 - After removing most of the material it was very apparent that the tool bit needed sharpening.

13:15 - Once sharpened, that last few cuts were light passes of. 010” depth of cut.

13:39 - A micrometer was also used to measure for any taper but the part was consistent across.

14:02 - I then brought the thickness to its predetermined size of 19mm.

14:06 - For the final pass I used a slow feed and a light cut depth to attain a smoother finish.

14:38 - Off camera I deburred the edges using small files.

14:41 - Here I am using 400 grit abrasive paper and gently sanded the face.

14:45 - Since a circular valve will open and close a hole on the face, I wanted the surface to be rather smooth.

14:50 - The stainless steel takes on a nice polish after a few minutes of sanding.

16:05 - The 4mm hole on the bottom of the part is for mounting on a brass pin which in turn mounts to the base.

16:09 - I didn’t want in anyway to accidentally drill through into the bore, so I used the depth stop on the mill/drill to reduce the chance of that occurring.

16:44 - For now, one last step for this part, the oblong hole for the flame heats to enter.

16:49 - Using an indicator, I leveled the part. Then used an edge-finder to pick up the edges and zero the dials on both axis.

16:55 - I created a small hand drawing of the hole locations referencing the same edges as I picked up and then traveled to those hole locations.

17:06 - In turn, I center drilled, drilled the 2. 5mm diameter holes at each end of the oblong hole and followed up with a small endmill to create the flats of the oblong hole.

17:15 - The only small endmill I had was. 055” (1. 4mm) diameter and that would have too do.

17:22 - Taken very light cuts, I blended the flat areas into the end holes creating an oblong hole.

17:56 - The last part in this episode is the cylinder head.

18:28 - After having machined stainless prior, machining aluminum is a piece of cake.

18:32 - Everything cuts so freely with no real effort.

18:34 - The cylinder head is rather straightforward.

18:35 - Lathe to sizes, smaller diameter that fits the cylinder and a flange that rests against the face of the cylinder.

18:44 - I am not drilling and tapping screw holes until I know what screws I can readily order.

19:38 - Here you will notice a slight transition in the machining.

19:41 - The part went from being held by the outer diameter to the small recess machined.

19:45 - This way I could get the caliper across the thickness of the flange to measure accurately.

19:49 - Lights cuts had to be taken as the jaws are only hold on. 080” material or (2mm) of material.

20:18 - The last step for the cylinder head is to mill the flat.

20:21 - The flat ended up being. 004” proud, so I will either file it or use abrasive paper to bring the flat to the same thickness as the cylinder.

20:30 - The next video will be the brass flywheel. I had the machining almost complete when the drive belt of the mini lathe ripped.

20:35 - I have two belts on order, which will hopefully arrive soon.

20:47 - I appreciate all those who have subscribed and would love to hear from you in the comments.

20:50 - If you are new to the channel, consider subscribing if you have enjoyed the video and would like to see more.

20:56 - Thank you for watching and stay safe!.