Ageless 9 cylinder radial engine build thread

[starr256]

This is an effort to document my build the Ageless 9 cylinder radial engine.
Some background: I have been active in hobby machining for 4 years, since retiring as a software engineer. Prior, I had no machining experience. Since embarking on this hobby, I have had many successful projects, a couple of not so successful ones, but all were educational and fun. One success is a hit-miss engine. One not quite success is a clock (runs fine for only 30 minutes). Anyway, my point here is that I am not a journeyman machinist, but I am working and learning to be a competent machinist.
I have the a PM1030V lathe with DRO and a PM727V bench mill also with DRO, a 6" rotary table. It is a small shop that is shared with wood working stuff.
Now, why did I pick the Ageless 9 cylinder radial engine for my next project?
1. It looks like a challenge. It has complicated components that will take some effort and new skills. It has a number of components are duplicated. This will require thinking in terms of production processing as opposed to one off stuff.
2. The documentation is great. It is a huge binder of over 200 pages. The drawings appear to be complete. There is an operations list for each component. This is important because I have found one difficult part of machining is to determine the order to do things.
3. The documentation contains drawings for jigs and other tooling needed. I don't have to guess.
4. It will keep me busy for a couple of years while locked down again cause the COVID pandemic isn't over.
It is my intent to only upload pictures of finished components with comments on issues/non-issues found during the machining.
5. I also hope I can get answers to "how do I do this?" from you folks.

Note: I started this effort back in May 2021.

 

[starr256]

This engine is composed of over 20 components, many with duplication. And all the componets need to fit together precisely. So, where to begin and what order to build. For such a detailed manual this is one area where Mr. Hodgson is vague. After a lengthy review of the documentation, I decided on starting with the crankcase. But the operations indicates that to compete the crankcase, the rear main bearing and the oil pump housing need to be installed. OK. So we start with the rear main bearing, as the oil pump housing is a much more complicated piece. Bought the material, bronze, and went to work. Nothing special here. I probably machined away 2/3 of the material. I saved the chips for a side project of making a set of checkers pieces.

 

[starr256]

Have been working on the crankcase for a while. It's not done, waiting on tooling. There were a couple of issues, mostly related to limitations of my equipment and skill.
1. There is an internal cavity for the rods. This cavity was a bear to bore out. Why? The cavity is 0.400" deeper that the edges and the edges are in about 2" into the case. The boring required a long (6"), stout (3/4" diameter) and sharp/hard (A1 drill rod) boring bar I had to make. All of the internal grooving tools I found online were insufficient in depth of cut. The one I made worked, sort of. It chattered ridiculously no matter what I did. Got the job done, but it ain't pretty. Should have asked for help.
2. My 5" rotary table with it's 3" chuck were a challenge. Forget the chuck. Made a plate to hold the case against the table.
3. Bought a Tormak Superfly cutter. Nice, really nice.
4. There are about 140 4-40 holes to be tapped. I am fretting over breaking a tap and have a thread (no pun intended) on holes/tap. One suggestion I latched on to was to acquire a Tapmatic (or other brand) tapping head. Got one on eBay, tested it with 1/4-20 holes in aluminum and was impressed. Unfortunately, I need a different collet for the 4-40 taps. Those are a little harder to find. An interesting note. A friend in the machine tool business told me that they used to sell boat loads of Tapmatics, but the current predominance of CNC machines has made the tapping head superfluous. Not for me though.

 

[macardoso]

Looking great! Can't wait to see more.

 

[Lo-Fi]

Looks fab, but that's a terrible design with that undercut! A classic example of a part not designed for manufacture.
A different approach to constructing that would be two piece, with one of the ends threaded into the part with the undercut/cylinder mounting. Machine the extension with allowance for finish machining once it's mounted and put a fine thread where it'll go into the main piece. Needs to be a radial and axial shoulder somewhere for positive location. Then machine the main part. Thread internally to fit the other piece you've just machined, clean and locktite then finish machine. The undercut is then a plain old boring operation.
I know it's too late and you got it done, but thought I'd chime in with some thoughts on doing it a different way. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build.

 

[rwm]

Very slick!
I don't design anything using 4-40 unless it does not require tapping. I fear that even with a Tapmatic you will get a broken tap. Wouldn't hurt to order some nitric acid or find a shop with EDM!
Robert

 

[tq60]

Do by hand...

Get a keyless chuck.

Drill hole.

Change to BEST TAP YOU CANFIND, 2 FLUTE.

Tap by hand with fingertips only.

It is perfect alignment and fingertips will slip when it binds.

When done put drill back in BEFORE moving to next hole.

Tapmatic will break taps much faster...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[JRaut]

Woo! Looking forward to following along!

I've been working on a 5-cylinder radial for a couple years over here:

Edwards Radial 5 build thread --- PHOTOS!

Episode 1 || Introduction to My Build Thread Background After a brief search through the H-M.com archives, I was a bit surprised that nobody had documented their journey building an Edwards Radial 5-cylinder engine. These engines are reasonably complex and time consuming to construct, but as...

www.hobby-machinist.com

Lots of helping hands on this site.

 

[starr256]

An update that may be of interest.
1. I have tapped 90 4-40 holes to date. All by hand using two taps. The taps are HSS spiral two fluted bottoming taps. Sharp, damn sharp. I was amazed how easy it went. Still have another 50 to go, but I am feeling a bit more comfortable with the process. Why didn't I go with the Tapmatic? The needed collet won't be here for another week or so. Jittery impatience, that's why.
2. Came across another build order issue. I want to finish everything that needs to be done while the crankcase is on the rotary table, as I thing it will be a real bug-a-boo to get it aligned again if I were to remove it. Well, the holes for the value push rod tappets are to bushed (real word here?) with brass busing that are to be reamed after they have been pressed into the crankcase. The holes are 9' off each cylinder's centerline. It will be easy to get the reaming alignment right I leave the crankcase on the rotary table. Hence, I really should make the bushings (18) now, press them in and ream the accordingly. So, we will stop and make the bushings. So many chicken and the egg discussions.

 

[rwm]

Spiral flute or spiral point? What brand?
Robert