My 1910 Mitchell "parts car" project

[JV Puleo]

With the inlet side of the pump in place I drilled a center hole.

 

 

Then went through with a 3/4" drill.

 

 

And set up the boring head.

 

 

Bored out to 1-1/4"

 

 

The last step was to mill a flat.

 

 

I've discovered I have a fitment problem I will have to give some thought to so I'll be making more drawings tonight. Tomorrow I may made the threading gauge I need and thread the outlet tube.

[JV Puleo]

Not much today... I made the threading gauge for 15/16-20 so tomorrow I'll probably be able to thread and install the water outlet tube. I may even mill the off-enter middle of the pump.

 

 

 

It's not very exciting but still an integral part of the job.

[JV Puleo]

I threaded the water outlet tube this morning.

 

 

 

I also threaded the other end where it will attach to the water tubes. All the threading has to be done before it's in place because there is no way to do it later. With that done, I pressed the mandrel out with my arbor press. I like this press, especially as the base is made from an old railroad switch.

 

 

Here's the finished piece... except that it didn't readily fit. I'd hardly have believed it if you told me yesterday but it took the rest of the day to fit it. A major part of the problem was that the tolerances are very close and the piece is very fragile. If I got it stuck half way in there is no good way to remove it so it was a long and fussy job.

 

 

But, it did go in. the knurled brass piece is there to hold it while screwing it in. It's so tight now that I have to wait for the thread locker to set up before I can get it off but overall I'm pleased with it. Tomorrow I'll bore the center and this part should be just about finished.

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Mike Macartney]

12 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

I'd hardly have believed it if you told me yesterday but it tool the rest of the day to fit it.

 

I would! Also, it looks as if your spell checker has become dyslectic like mine!

 

Thanks for showing your Arbour press. I don't think I have seen it in your photos before.

[JV Puleo]

The center of the pump centered under the spindle of the mill. Once centered it was moved .125 off center. This will give me a 1/4" gap between the impeller and the output side.

 

 

I've bored about as far as I dare. I may have created a small leak because the bored hole extends up far enouth to catch the relief at the end of the threads. There's no way to tell if that is the case without testing it but if I did create a leak I'll clean out the slot from the inside and put some Devcon aluminum putty in it. It's not perfect but it should work just fine.

 

 

With the o-ring seal in place...

 

[JV Puleo]

This bar is going to be the water inlet tube. One of the problems I discovered with the first pump is that I failed to take into consideration the distance between the sub-frame and the inlet tube. As a result, the fittings I'd made didn't fit - or would only fit if I canted the pump. It is actually quite a problem because the inlet radiator hose should line up with the radiator and the pump. Never having seen the car assembled I don't know how it was originally done but I took some measurements and it looks as if the hose has to be about an inch below the sub-frame. That created a big problem if the tube from the pump has to project below the sub=frame. I think I've worked out a solution but it involved designing right-angle fittings. These pictures aren't going to make much sense until I'm further along an can show the entire thing.

 

 

The tube is about 5-1/2" long and the quill on my lathe doesn't extend that far. To get a hole through the entire piece I carefully indicated it and drilled it out 1/14 undersize from each end.

 

 

Then reamed it to 1". The reamer couldn't go all the way through but by indicating it carefully I was able to get the two hole to line up. I then turned one end down to 1-1/4" to fit into the pump and with a small flange separating the ends, turned the other end to the same dimension.

 

 

I'm putting another flange on the very end of the tube so I made that first our of another piece from my
used fixtures" pile.

 

 

Here it is threaded onto the holding fixture.

 

 

Now I need to thread the end of the tube, put the flange on and turn it down to 2".

 

 

As I said, none of this makes much sense yet but it will as I finish the other parts. When this threading is done I should be able to get the tube welded in place.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I threaded the inlet tube and made the lower flange.

 

 

The long section in the middle lines up with the sub-frame. It doesn't touch but the space between the tube and the frame is too small to attach the nut I made the first time around. I should have anticipated that... but didn't and only discovered it after the pump was largely done.

 

 

I then made a similar flange for the output side. Both of these are part of the right-angle water fittings I've designed and which I didn't come up with until after I'd made the original output tube.

 

 

I used the 1"-20 holding fixture I'd made earlier. Because the pressure from turning it tightens the thread, it can be a real bear to remove. But, based on something I saw on this forum with the fellow restoring a Chevrolet, I got this fabric strap wrench - something I'd never heard of until I saw it here. It works a charm... I've used it two or three times now and removed very tight pieces without any scratches.

 

 

Here is the flange installed. I have a lot more small parts to make and I'm waiting on some materials so the next batch of shop photos won't make much sense...at least until I have everything ready to assemble them.

 

Edited September 6, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

More small parts. I have several things on order...more brass rod and a tap so I can only make the parts that I have the materials and tooling for. Today I wanted to make two more brass nuts, one 1"-20 and the other 1-1/4-20. I thought of this trick - something I've done before but I'd completely forgotten about. You wouldn't want to turn anything too big or put too much stress on this setup but for making nuts it worked a charm.

 

 

The small nut...

 

 

And both of them finished. These are actually going to be plugs. I'll thread the center portion and solder it in place. The idea is to get threads that run right up to the face of the nut without the relief I have to put in to use the threading tool.

 

 

This is a flat belt pulley from my first horizontal mill. It must be "shop made" - in the ordinary course of events no one would make a pulley out of brass. I imagine whoever made it just had the material at hand - something I can identify with. It has been on the shelf in my pile of "I'll use it some day" stuff for at least 5 or 6 years so I', happy to have thought of something useful for it. It will be another part of the water inlet system.

 

 

 

[JV Puleo]

The old flat belt pulley turned down to 2.050. The .050 is for finishing after I've plugged the holes.

 

 

Then into the lathe to make the temporary ID.

 

 

I opened the hole up with two drills but drilling brass is a PIA. It's gummy and gets very hot and when it does it can literally clamp down on the drill. Drills for brass have a different point angle but I don't do enough of it to have special drills. In fact, I have no way to sharpen a drill bigger than 3/4". I got the hole out to 63/64 and decided to bore it the rest of the way. It takes longer but the end result is usually better.

 

 

I took it out to 1.365 and reamed it to 1-3/8.

 

 

This is the interim size. After the plugs and the water inlet tube are in place I will bore and ream to 1-1/2".

 

[JV Puleo]

I am still waiting on some materials so I'm making the pieces I have the stuff for. today it was the plug that will seal the water outlet connection. First I threaded a piece of 1" brass.

 

 

 

With it screwed into the nut, I soldered it in place. Now I have a plug with the threads running right up to the inside face.

 

 

 

 

Then the end was faced off to 3/8" thick and the chamfer added. By using such a fine thread the line between the two parts is invisible.

 

 

I then made the 1/4" thick aluminum piece that will press down on a gasket and threaded it on to the plug. It gets turned down to 1-3/4", just a tiny bit larger than the distance across the points of the brass hex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

 

I had some other things to do today but found time to make the aluminum washer for the input side of the pump. Believe it or not, these washers are more work than the brass plugs.

I used a piece of 1/2" flat stock, 2-1/2" square (because I didn't have anything round that was the right size) and turned it round.

 

 

Then turned a rebate on the front end. This is to make certain it goes in the chuck flat...something that is near impossible to do by eye.

 

 

Then faced off...

 

 

Bored to 1.2"...

 

 

And threaded.

 

 

It then went on the turning fixture with spacers behind it so that it overhangs the outside edge to allow for reducing the thickness. It's important to put the faced off side on the inside. That way both surfaces will be parallel and perpendicular to the threaded hole. The spacesr are from my 1-1/4: arbor for the milling machine.

 

 

With that done I turned it down to the finished diameter of 2"

 

 

It's a lot of work for a threaded washer but the end result will be very good.

 

[John S.]

Amazing work, just amazing! John

[JV Puleo]

Thanks. But its really more a matter of persistence than skill. You have to be prepared to keep doing things over until you get them right.

I had a magazine article to finish today but did get the time to work on the plug for the inlet side of the pump. It's drilled and reamed to 5/8". This hole will be tapped 3/8 NPT for the water drain plug. This is at the lowest place in the cooling system so it will be possible to drain the radiator, water pump and blocks from the same point.

 

 

 

Then threaded 1-1/4-20

 

 

 

And on to the camp stove to be soldered. I'll let it cool overnight and finish it tomorrow.

 

 

[JV Puleo]

Here is the other end of the plug. You can just see the solder in the threads.

 

 

I then put the female threading gauge in the lathe and indicated it by screwing the male gauge in. This is give me a way to hold the plug without damaging the threads.

 

 

Faced it off and put the chamfer on.

 

 

Then threaded it 3/8 NPT for the drain plug.

 

 

The last step was to screw the washer on. so as not to mark the aluminum up I wrapped it with an old piece of leather belt.

 

 

That part is done.

 

 

 

I also soldered two 5/16 screws into the holes in the piece I made out of an old pulley. The threads were not very good so I'm a little worried it may not be perfectly sealed. If not, I'll have to drill them out and put something in with a fine thread.

 

 

I then went on to the center of this (lacking a better term) "modified banjo fitting". Here it is reamed out to 7/8".

 

 

Then counterbored .950 ...

 

 

And threaded 1"-20...

 

 

I then had to take it out, turn it around and do the other side. It screws on to the outlet of the pump.

 

[JV Puleo]

Today was basically more of the same. I cut off the brass screws I'd soldered in and turned the OD of this piece to the finished dimension. I'm not completely happy with it. The threaded holes were loose and, as a result, the solder didn't fill the gaps as precisely as I'd like. I may revisit this but if it doesn't leak, and it doesn't show I'm not sure it is worth the effort.

 

 

I also made the internal part of the water inlet connection. The design is the same as the outlet connection but the dimensions are larger.

 

 

When finished, the internal piece (on the left) will have holes and a groove like a Banjo bolt. It will fit inside the larger piece which will have the actual water connection and everything will be held in place by the nut. This is going to allow me to adjust the angle of the connection to match the outlet from the radiator which, since I've never seen it assembled, I can only approximate. I'm building all sorts of adjustments into this project to compensate for the fact that I've never seen the engine assembled and am still missing some important parts.

 

[chistech]

So the old saying is “blind and flying by instruments”. I would have to say we’re all confident you’re going “land” this project without a hitch joe.

[alsfarms]

Joe, What are you using to take such good close-up pictures with?  I can get some but not all of my close pictures to turn out like yours.

Al

[JV Puleo]

It's just a cheap Cannon point & shoot camera. I've decided the trick to getting closeups is to stand back from the shot. I then crop all the photos to show just what I want but I have Photoshop for my real work so editing photos is relatively easy for me.

 

I could have had the inlet tube welded into the pump last week but I was worried that these parts might not fit...that was a good thing because I'd made the threads at the bottom of the inlet tube a little to long. This morning I trimmed them down so the central piece will thread on.

 

 

 

Then I went on to the outer sleeve of the outlet fitting.

 

 

I need an inside dimension of 1.125 and not having the appropriate drill I bored the hole and reamed it.

 

 

 

Then pressed it onto a mandrel and turned it down to 1-3/4".

 

 

Here are the four parts. I now have to make the actual connections that will screw into the outer sleeve and be soldered in place.

 

 

This will be the outlet connection...

 

 

Faced on both sides and reamed to 3/4". This is a fairly complicated piece so I'll do it tomorrow morning when I'm rested.

 

[JV Puleo]

The inexpensive cameras don't focus well close up. They are really intended for taking snapshots of girlfriends, pets and football games...

I have a much better camera I use in my work but don't want to take it into the shop...plus I don't want to change the settings.

Edited September 13, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

Here's the outlet fitting turned. The red section will be threaded 1-3/8-16 for a knurled cap to match the others on the water system. The smaller end will be threaded 1"-20 to screw into the outer sleeve of the fitting.

 

 

The first part went easily but, of course, I've now done this half a dozen times.

 

 

The second thread was much more a challenge because I'm severely limited by the thickness of the pieces and don't have enough to put the relief in that I usually do at the end of a thread. It calls for threading up to a stop, something this lathe doesn't do automatically. You could use a die but it would be nearly impossible to start it straight and, I don't have one. Last night I came up with a possible technique. I put a radial mark on the piece at the desired depth and a horizontal mark crossing it using the point of the threading tool. Then I threaded it as usual but watched it very carefully and pulled the tool back at the moment it hit the intersection of the two marks. Unfortunately, this photo is out of focus but...

 

 

it worked better, and was a lot easier than I'd anticipated. I'm quite pleased with this piece.

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

The tube for the inlet fitting...a piece of 1-1/4 bar bored to 1"

 

 

Then counterbored to accept the 1" tubing.

 

 

I then turned it around to thread the other end. I did get this reasonably goo photograph of how I mark the piece so I can withdraw the threading tool at exactly the right moment. I dn't think I'd try this with a coarse thread but for fine threads like this it seemed to work just fine.

 

 

The piece threaded... except that I made an error with the threading gauge. It's actually a tiny bit too big so I got a false reading and the thread on the piece is a bit too big. It just so happens that I have a 1-1/4-20 die on the way so rather than do it over I'll just run this through the die when it arrives.

 

 

The finished pieces. Tomorrow I'll bor and thread the holes for them.

 

[JV Puleo]

This will be the nut to attach the water lines to the pump. I want it to match the other nuts and I thought I'd made an extra threaded insert for the partly closed end so this was supposed to be an easy job.

 

 

Since I have a tap in this size I decided to use it. That was probably a mistake. Either the tap is slightly dull or maybe tapping a 1-3/8" hole is never easy. In any case, I probably should have single pointed it. It did go through and the threads are good but I had to use my biggest tap wrench and the 3-jaw chuck bolted down to the mill table.

 

 

It turns out I did make an extra insert but it was just a few thousandths too big to screw in easily so what I though would be the work of an hour or two took all day. I found this lump of brass in my "brass scrap" drawer. I've no idea what it was or where I got it but there was just enough metal to make the needed piece. The worst problem was getting the hole in the middle. The hole you see here is very off center so I had to bore it to get it concentric.

 

 

I reamed it 1" and threaded it to fit the cap. Then soldered it together. I also got a small amount of solder in the threads which, in other cases would have been a disaster but there is another piece that goes in here, soldered to the water pipe that saves the situation.

 

 

Here's the 3 pieces together...the threaded end goes to the water pump.

 

 

The setup to mill the notches for a hook spanner is the same as I needed to drill the water passages in the inner sleeves.

 

 

The four holes are calculated to have a larger area the the inside of the water line at that point. After drilling a pilot hole, I used an end mill to get a nice hole.

 

 

The knurl on the nut is probably the best I've ever done...though it's hard to see because the flash obscures it. This is the result of two days work. Tomorrow I have to put a groove in each of the inner sleeves, connecting the holes, so that the water can flow around the center of the fitting. That will be exciting because it occurred to me that I can use the grooving/cut off tool for fear of it catching on the holes. I have an idea of how to do it that I'll try that tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[chistech]

Really looking great Joe.

[Mike Macartney]

I agree. Yet another of Joe's 'Work of Art' that I would be happy to have on my coffee table as a conversation piece.

[chistech]

13 hours ago, Mike Macartney said:

I agree. Yet another of Joe's 'Work of Art' that I would be happy to have on my coffee table as a conversation piece.

I’ve got a friend who kept a runnable model 9 cylinder radial engine on his coffee table. He passed a few years ago and and his wife still keeps it there. It is about 14” in diameter. It’s a technical work of art and is just amazing to look at. Company that made it is Technopower. Not sure if they’re still in business.

[JV Puleo]

So far things are going better than I could wish for. This is the technique I used for putting in the slots for the water passage. I realized late yesterday that I can't do it on the lathe with a grooving tool because it will catch in the holes. I'd forgotten about that so it's a good think I had this idea. I am milling them by mounting them on a mandrel and turning it under the end mill.

 

 

It worked so sell that I finished both before I had a chance to get my first cup of coffee.

 

 

Then I went on to fitting the water connection to the outer sleeve...

A pilot hole, then drilled out to 3/4"

 

 

 

Then bored to .950 for a 1"-20 thread.

 

 

Because I don't want the threads to show, I counter bored just slightly larger than 1" and just to the depth that will allow the threads to bottom on the lowest sides of the hole. This is really necessary because getting the tap to go in straight when the surface is curved is almost impossible - so it serves two purposes.

 

 

Then I threaded it without moving the piece.

 

 

I checked to see that it screwed in correctly and then coated the threads with flux and soldered it. It's effectively one piece now.

 

 

 

The next step is to drill and ream it to remove the part of the water connection that is projecting into the inside surface. That presents another problem I hadn't anticipated...it won't fit in the 4-jaw chuck because the water connection is in the way so I will probably use the 3-jaw in the 4-jaw trick again.

 

 

[JV Puleo]

I put the 3-jaw in the 4-jaw chuck again. I indicated the the second chuck and then put the piece in. Surprisingly, it was right on but this is actually a very good 3-jaw that hasn't seen much use. It was given to me by a friend, a former shop teacher. He pulled it out of the dumpster when the geniuses in the school department closed the shop program, sold the machines and threw all the tooling away before the auction.

 

 

I bored it very carefully, taking small cuts because the end of the water connection projects inside. I was going to take it out to a few thousandths under 1.250 and then ream it but I was getting such a good surface in the hole that I simply finished it with the boring bar. This is the inner sleeve inserted. There is about .002 clearance between the pieces.

 

 

This is how it goes together....

 

 

I also made up the little part you see on top of the water connection. It's the flange that will be soldered to the water tube. In this case, I had one left over from the earlier water connections that just needed to be reamed out to .875.

 

 

I also decided that I'm not at all happy with the plugs in the holes of the large input sleeve... thus far, every part of this assembly has come out as close to perfect as I've ever done and I just can't abide using it with such a visible flaw. I drilled out the plugs that were there...

 

 

And soldered in two 1/4NPT pipe plugs. I'm not certain this will work but if it doesn't I have enough 2" bar to make the piece over.

 

 

The challenge here is that the OD has already been turned so I have to reduce those square ends without taking more than a few thousandths off the OD. I'll do try to do that tomorrow morning.

[JV Puleo]

I worked on the rescue of the large outer sleeve today, boring the inside until it was with a few thousandths of 1-3/8" and turning the outside down to get the plugs flush. I ended up loosing abut .004 on the diameter - not enough to give any consideration to. You can just about see them which is all I could hope for.

 

 

Then into the milling machine to bore for the tube that connects to the radiator hose.

 

 

And threaded 1-1/4-20.

 

 

I tried to recut the threads on the tube that screws in here...and started them crooked so I'll make that part again tomorrow. It's pretty ironic (in a good way) that the only part I've made an un-fixable error on was also the simplest part. I'll make it a bit longer too. I had intended to do that in the first place but forgot my reasoning. I am a little concerned that all these added parts make the pump heavy so I'm thinking of incorporating a support of some sort for the line that goes to the radiator.

[JV Puleo]

This morning I made a new water inlet tube. I didn't bother photographing it because it's exactly the same as the one I made earlier but this time I got the threads right. It screwed right in.

 

 

Then I soldered it in place. I couldn't use the camp stove because I didn't want to melt the solder that is holding the plugs in so I put it in the milling vise - which I hoped would act as a heat sink. I put a lump of heat stopping putty on top of the plugs and used my acetylene torch.

 

 

 

You can see the solder on the threads. I made the threaded section too long...

 

 

But I didn't realize that until I put it in the lathe to bore the inside.

 

 

There wasn't enough clearance for the boring bar which presented a real problem because it was no too late to take it apart and modify something. I fished around for an answer and came up with this. I put a 1" end mill in the tail stock of the lathe and very gently ran it through the piece. This removed enough material to allow the boring bar to fit without touching the inner walls.

 

 

It was then just a matter of boring it out until the inner sleeve fit. Which it did quite nicely.

 

 

Here it is assembled on the inlet of the pump. Now that this is done I feel safe in having this welded to the pump body.

 

 

Next I have to surface grind the ends of both inner and outer sleeves so that they are exactly the same height.

[JV Puleo]

What I hope will be the last step on these fittings was to grind them so that both sleeves are exactly the same height. To do this with the surface grinder I had to think of a way of holding the inner sleeve firm in the outer sleeve. This idea came to me late one night... I put both pieces on the surface plate and warmed them up with a heat gun. Then I rubbed some "sticky way" around the seam between the two pieces hoping some would capillary down. This way is used for making fillets in patterns. I bought it when I was making the pattern for the impeller but didn't use it because it came in too late. I used Bondo instead.

 

 

It appeared to be working so I moved over to the grinder using this grinder vise I was given just about 3 weeks ago. Because the pieces are brass they aren't magnetic but the vise is steel and stick to the magnetic chuck just fine.

 

 

The whole process worked extremely well. In fact, the job may not have taken much more time than it takes to post these pictures.

 

 

I had planned to put a groove on the inside of the outer sleeve to align with the  water passage that was milled away but I think it would be a good idea to test it first. The groove might weaken the solder joint and there is a good chance I already have enough clearance for the water to flow freely. I won't try it unless I have to.

Edited September 22, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

These will be plates to go on either end of the pump to cover the seal and provide a surface for the thrust nearing I will be putting there. The plates will be brass but I've found that turning something this thin (they are 1/8" thick) is easier if I do it between two other pieces. It largely eliminates the burr you'd get otherwise and it's much easier to use the micrometer to measure the diameter.

 

 

Mounted on a stub arbor with the brass piece in the center.

 

 

And turned to the finished diameter. If I had a working band say I'd have knocked the corners off first.

 

 

It goes on the pump like this.

 

 

I then made the cover for the other side.

 

[JV Puleo]

I had another one of those days when I spent the entire day on what I would have guesses was a two-hour job, fitting the brass plates that will cover the seals on the ends of the pump. I started by taking .100 of the input hub. It was thicker than it needed to be and I'm trying to get as much room as I can between the pump and the magneto.

 

 

Then I set the whole thing up in the mill to drill the holes - only to discover there wasn't enough clearance to tap them while the piece was secure in the rotary table. so, I took it all apart and set it up on the drill press.

 

 

After that, it went pretty smoothly. Here's the small end...

 

 

And the big end.

 

 

Tomorrow morning I'm off to see the welder.

Edited September 24, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I dropped the input side of the pump off with the welder this morning and didn't get in until noon. After putting away some of the stuff I used yesterday I started on the impeller. Here it is indicated (using that boss in the center which was included in the casting expressly for this purpose). I drilled and reamed to 3/4"

 

 

Then flipped it around and faced the bottom.

I also turned the OD just enough to get it perfectly round.

 

 

And put in a set screw. In its final form it will have both a set screw and a woodruff key.

 

 

The set screw allows me to use a piece of 3/4 ground stock as a mandrel and exactly replicate the pump shaft.

 

 

So that I was now able to turn the OD to the final size. Its still about .054 big but its the end of the day and I decided to leave this fussy bit for tomorrow morning.

 

[JV Puleo]

I finished the OD of the impeller this morning but I can't trim to the proper height until I get the rear plate back from the welder - that should be tomorrow.

 

 

Then, because I didn't want to waste the day, I started on the adjustable coupling that will attach the water pump drive shaft to the pump. I'll have to post the illustration from PM Heldt later this evening so you can get an idea what's going on here. This piece of brass is something I bought some time ago to make an impeller - before I decided to go to aluminum.

 

 

I indicated it and faced it off. Unfortunately there is a hole in the center and it is very far from concentric with the outside OD. This presents a problem because you can't drill it. The drill will want to follow the hole and in this case it's way off center. I put a 5/8" end mill in the tail stock of the lathe and very carefully "drilled" it. End mills are not made for this and you have to be very careful not to push it too hard. It's very easy to jam it by getting too big a chip on the end. You can see here just how far off the original hole was.

 

 

 

It did work...and from this point I drilled and reamed it to 3/4".

 

 

Then each piece went on the expanding arbor to face off both sides.

 

 

This is the finished product. There is still a lot of material to remove and the diameter has to be reduced.

 

[Luv2Wrench]

Nice tip!

[JV Puleo]

This is what I'm making...

 

 

An adjustable flanged coupling. One flange has 18 holes in it, the other has 20 holes but in both cases there are two holes exactly a 180 degrees from each other. If you move the driven part one hole in relation to the driving part it advances the timing 2 degrees. This should allow nearly unlimited adjustment of the ignition timing relative to the valve timing. The problem is that I only have 1-1/2" to work with for both flanges and they have to align with each other perfectly. Another advantage is that, as originally constructed, you'd have to remove the magneto driving gear in the front of the engine to service the water pump so if this works it should be an all-round improvement.

 

This is from Heldt's Gasoline Automobile, 1911.

Edited September 27, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

The hubs of the adjustable coupling are almost the same size as the nut on my stub arbor so I started by turning that down about .050...just to get a little clearance.

 

 

And just as I started on that, the welder called to say the pump was ready so I closed up and went to get it. This time the weld looks better. It's still more prominent than I'd like and I haven't decided if it's worth the effort to smooth it out (the last one taking a week)... I have to think about that but it was an ordeal and I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

 

 

The adjustable flange will go in the space between the front bearing mount (for the water pump/magneto drive shaft) and the rear mount which holds the water pump. Getting it all in there will take some careful fitting so I've left a little extra metal on both ends of the flanges pieces. It's a bit of a fiddle trying it too because I don't have either of the caps then went on these brackets.

 

 

I decided I'd best get the flanges to the point where I can put them aside for the time being before I went back to the pump. As you can see - a lot of metal was removed.

 

 

I also miscalculated the OD but, as luck would have it, a friend stopped in and I was able to get him to hold a piece while I measured. The actual OD of the flange will be 2.8". This one is 3.4". I turned the 2nd' one to 3" and when the holes for the set screws are drilled and tapped I will turn them down together to the finished size. That way, even if they are out by a few thousandths they will be identical.

 

[JV Puleo]

I turned the big plate down to 3" to match the smaller one

 

 

Then drilled and tapped holes for set screws. They will also get Woodruff keys opposite the set screws.

 

 

Then put both pieces together in the lathe and turned them to the finished OD.

 

 

 

I also checked to make sure the OD clears the block and the head of the bolt on the left front engine mount.

They are still oversize on both ends but I can't adjust that until I'm able to assemble the parts on the engine. Except for the key ways and drilling the holes this is as far as I can go until I have line bored the on the crankcase and fitted bushings. Drilling the holes, however, presents a new problem because I don't think it can be done accurately enough with the rotary table. To work, it has 38 holes that have to align perfectly in any combination. This is a job that calls for the dividing head but to use that I will have to make a backing plate for the little chuck that screws on to the head. That's a relatively complicated job (though no more complicated than Mike McCartney's 5C adapter). I've been putting off doing it for at least 5 years but have, at least, found some of the bits I'll need. Brown & Sharpe used a 1-3/4-5 thread on these and the chance of finding a chuck with a backing plate in that size is just about zero.

 

 

So, I went back to the pump, setting it up in the mill to remove the section of tube that projects into the water passage and, hopefully, clean up some of the rough surface.

 

 

It worked better than I'd expected, leaving me wondering what I did wrong the first time.

 

 

Now I have to finish the impeller and make some gaskets at which point I should be able to test it.

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Mike Macartney]

The aluminium welding this time looks a lot better than last time. Do the holes have to be that accurate if the holes on one side were slightly oversize? My only attempt at using my dividing head was trying to cut gears for the 1899 Perks and Birch (Singer) motor wheel tricycle. It was on that 'cheapo' bench mounted Clarke Drill/Mill, it turned out a disaster, as I ended up with the last tooth being a half a tooth! I think I was a bit ambitious attempting something like that with my very limited machining knowledge. After following your machining work over the last 15-months, putting into practise your ideas and help, I am sure I will do better next time.

[JV Puleo]

There isn't much room for oversize holes. If the holes are 1/4", twenty of them equals 5 inches of circumference. If I drill them on a 2-5/16 circle, I have .113 between the holes. The OD of the piece is 2.8" which allows just enough for the heads of the bolts and nuts if there is room for them. I'm undecided as to whether to use through bolts or thread one of the plates. I may do both so there are lock nuts.

 

My first dividing head project came out surprisingly well. It's a gear on the inside of the apron of the lathe that has now been in everyday use for something like 8 years. That said, it is very easy to make a mistake.