Cant beat old school machining. I understand alot of people will disagree with that statement with todays technology and capabilities. Awesome boring machine.....Great video!
Manual machining is essential for situations where you only need to make a few (or one) of something, or where you need to make a repair, or a part made to fit. It makes no sense for large scale production, but the skills are invaluable.
Manual is almost always faster for one-off work. And conversational is still better than g-code/CAD/CAM for short runs and prototyping. Being a good manual machinist will almost always make you a better programmer, too.
There will always be a need for manual machine work and welding for repairs, prototype and small batch work. Sometimes a manual machine is even faster than a cnc machine if the operation is simple.
It's great watching the hobby machinists making small steam engines on their small mills and lathes but watching the professional machinists machining on a full-size steam engine is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
I worked for GE gear plant in Lynn MASS and almost all the machines were manual because there were no production runs. Except my 4 axis cnc horz boring mill devleig . We did machine our own operating cylinder which looked a lot different. One large drum and had 2 cylinder bores that paralleled the drum and those 2 were honed. This was almost 35yrs ago and I lefted GE after they announced the reduction of over 10k union jobs. Completely left machinist trade and worked for a large gas utility that gave my family a great lifestyle. I will never forget walking into the old factories that at one time had 30k union workers making jet engines, steam turbines of different sizes, and gearing for the U.S. Navy. When I walked into the gear plant for my interview they were setting a bull gear for a U.S. carrier on to a vertical turret boring machine. I only seen this in videos in high school and now I'm going to be working around all the big machines. The horizontal boring mills all used the steel slotted floors as tables and needed over head cranes to load parts. The last machine I ran was a new 7 axis cnc horz boring mill that also had an index table that rotated as 1 axis and also moved in and out as another axis.
I just gotta say thanks for mentioning at the end that the single pass took 104 mins. As a hobby machinist where all my learning is TH-cam, it’s really nice to hear what is actual reality around how long a job takes. It doesn’t help that I watch practically all YT at 2x speed as well! You’re so correct- if we didn’t own machine shops (even hobby shops) there’s NO WAY we could possibly afford to do all the stuff we find trivially easy, let alone the big jobs!
Another BORING day in the shop with Josh. When I saw the size of the casting, I knew we were in for some fun! Good job and nice explanation of your setup.
Working in the oilfield we use steam piston oil to liberate our mud pumps. It’s expensive but it works great. We had a fleet manager with zero maintenance skills try to use gear oil as liberation and parts failed dramatically. He tried to blame it on lack of proper maintenance. He got run out on a rail from the meeting. The look on the executives was priceless. We continued the meeting and all were at an agreement as everything was explained and facts proved themselves and spoke volumes. Thanks for sharing.
Honing would be nice but would probably require shipping the heavy cylinder off somewhere with a long turnaround time. Maybe some light hand polishing with ScotchBrite?
Above all, if someone watches this video and has a similar project, you have the experience. I like how you explained the setup. Thanks for saving the cylinder and not giving up.
Yes, now to convince people to ship me work. That is the most difficult part, as I am off the edge of the world. There was no gibing up on this, I have too much invested to give up.
I have done a lot of boring on corrugated cardboard box machines. We used slotted criterian boring heads with lathe insert tools. That worked out very well.
It sure was nice to see Rocky on duty!!!! It was important to line it up in all directions. I know it took a lot of time but it will be good for another 100 years now. Thanks for the video!!! You make every job interesting. I am glad that you are happy with the results!!!!
I have a load of brazed carbide tools that someone gave to me. Never used them and get stick from others for keeping them. One day I will get smug points when they’re the only option. Nice job Josh, look forward to seeing the engine in steam.
Great video.....Your comment on owning a machine shop when owning that old equipment could not be more correct. I have old things like my "hit & miss" engine, brass era automobiles etc. Finding a machine shop to support playing with this stuff is hardest part of the game. Wish you were close to me. Keep up the videos they are fun.
I'm close enough. You can always ship. This is my biggest problem in this business, people don't want to ship more than 50 miles. It's killing my business
I think you chose wisely by dialing in the crosshead end of the cylinder. Especially getting concentric to what was likely the piloting diameter for the cross head frame. Your bore is now concetric to the cross head frame bore and square to its mounting flange. I was surprised that the first cutting tool was able to cut at all. It didn't look like it had any side clearance (i.e. the non cutting edge was parallel to the cylinder bore). However, it may have just been the camera angle that made it look that way. Regarding not honing the cylinder, I would assume the machining marks would do just as good a job of holding lubricant as the cross hatch would. It all turned out well. Ken
Happy days Josh, can't beat a good old boring job buddy, great work around, fixing the quill and moving the table, to true it up, makes perfect sense once you worked it out, 🎉 thank you so much for sharing
Thats the difference in machining a billet or stock, any manufactured part, and worn one needs a lot of pre-inspection, and set-up 👌👍. Im not a fan of Co-Axial indicators for precision indicating, fine for quick set-up, but nothing beats a DTI correctly used. Looking forward to more onnthis project Josh. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome workshop, thanks for posting. Your cutting tool looked like it was above the centre line of the axis of the boring machine spindle,, something that is often overlooked when using a boring head. Just like a lathe the tool cuts best when on centre. Love your work please continue with the videos A big thumbs up 👍
😢G'day. A nice job challenging the machinist. Some years back, I did a similar job on a 1921 Ingersoll & Rand horizontal double acting air compressor. The same deal as yours wear on the top & bottom of the bore ,set the barrel as you did on the barrel mounting end. I had 4 good locations for toe clamps, I used quantity H.S.S also with good results, my first cuts had a small amount of chatter, but once through the skin, this settled down, the boring machine had an outter support. I made a new piston & rings from a quality cast iron I think it was Meehanite from memory,I did hone the bore as I think this helps with lubrication. Good luck with the project.
Always wanted a co-ax indicator, but always cringed at the price for a USA one. Then about 3 years ago I took a chance on a $85 one from Ebay. It's a life changer! Saves me SO much time with setups in the shop. The Ebay one I'd say works as good as a USA name brand unit. I love it.
Smooth is good but honing with some cross hatching will make a place for oil to cling when the rings move on the bore just like a gas engine has . Good job on checking out the machine for being true .
Thanks as always for the great content and editing. Good to see you did not shortchange setup time on this job - getting another cylinder or sleeving this one would not be easy!
G'day Josh. Nice work on that steam engine cylinder mate. I love seeing that horizontal boring machine of yours coming to life and doing "real work". Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Aaron.
Good job Sir! When I first saw that weird looking cylinder casting with 6 juicy, big studs at either end, I thought "That could be relatively easy to set up with a portable line boring machine". But I forgot that you probably don't have a need for such a machine with your skill set and the array of machines that you have in your workshop.
RESURRECTION OF AN OLD STEAM TRACTOR. Hi josh. I enjoy your videos and appreciate them a lot. I lived in Spooner in the 1950s when I was a kid and we moved to Milwaukee when I was 11 years old. It was then that I realized how much freedom to roam I had had while in Spooner and I have always considered it my home town. Here is part of a letter that I had written to a friend about how a guy saved one of those steam traction engines. here it is: The Resurrection Of An Old Steam Tractor Here's kind of a neat story about one of those tractors that happened to me up in Rice Lake. They have a steam engine show every year at the fair grounds in Rice Lake and I was at a show once while visiting Mom and Dad in the 1990s. I was watching a steam tractor working and I was standing near a hippie type guy of about 30 years old. It was well after the hippie era and he appeared to be kind of living in the past. He had some ragged bib overalls and no tee shirt on and looked really scruffy with shoulder length hair. He looked to me like he smoked a lot of pot. He talked to the guy running one of the big steam tractors for a little while and then was standing near to me. We struck up a conversation and he told me about that tractor. He said that he used to own it. He lived in the brush out east of Rice Lake near Birchwood and there was a swamp on part of his land. He saw something sticking out of the mud one time after a hard rain had washed some mud off of whatever it was sticking out. He said he thought it might have been an old paddle wheel boat or something with just the paddle wheel sticking out of the mud. He went down to look and saw that it was part of one of those tractors. He got his chain saw and cleared the brush around it and wondered how much of it was there. Right at that time there was a company clearing the right of way for a power line going through and he hired the bulldozer operator of that crew to use that dozer after work and come and dig around the parts and see how much was there. It took a couple of evenings of dozing and a couple of days of his digging by hand and they discovered that it was the whole tractor that had sunk into the mud!. They hooked some chains onto it and got it back on its wheels and pulled it out of the swamp and onto hard ground. The hippie guy dragged it home with his tractor and had it parked in his yard. He worked on cleaning the mud out of it and fixed things up for a couple of years. He told one of his older neighbors about it and the neighbor guy had all of the brass gauges off of it in his garage. The neighbor had stripped it down a long time before and after it had sat in the swamp for years. He thought that they were the only parts worth saving. He gave the gauges back to the hippie guy. They weren't on the neighbor's land and he didn't want to steal them. The tractor sat in the hippie- guy's yard for a couple of years and his wife finally got him to sell it. He said they could use the money anyway and it was in the way. That was about 10 years before and it had been sold twice since he had owned it but was all fixed up now and demonstrating at those steam shows. I thought it was kind of a neat and unexpected story.
@@TopperMachineLLC That's because it is my own, true story. There were more details but I didn't write most of them down back when this happened. The guy, hippy, did tell me that he did do a cold pressure test on the boiler before his wife got him to get rid of it. He seemed quite knowledgeable about steam engines. I used to work on commercial river boats and my old boss was a steam boat man and I heard a lot about them. Those days and those old guys are all gone now. Our old house was right on the north edge of Spooner on hwy K near Lombard's farm. Fred.
A lot of set-up and labor, but a money saver. Cast iron engine blocks are the same, after time and use, they get seasoned and are ready to work harder. Have a Merry Christmas Josh and family and Happy New Year.
I woked a Kearns SH75 horzontal borrer for 13 continous years. The quill (spindle) should be set up so that it is very slightly facing uphill not downhill. The Kearns had a metre movement on the Z axis quill. This set up this allows for gravity to pull the spindle down further when the spindle is fully extended.
I agree in a perfect world but when the vertical ways of a boring mill get worn they tend to start boring slightly uphill because the head is heavier in the back than in the front.
Boring cylinders which are costly or impossible to replace needs a stable boring bar, a carbide bit of very good quality , small radius , low speeds, medium feeds and a lot of patience.
The Cumming GA fairgrounds has a "Baker Fan" for testing steam and other engines. I thought - I wonder if it's the same Baker as your traction engine? And indeed, it is! Too cool. Excellent video! For some reason, the silly old TH-cam isn't notifying me of your new videos, grrrrrrrrr!!!
Hi Josh, with my Seco Tools hat on I was screaming at the computer saying you need to change that insert tool. What you used was a facing tool and not designed for longitudinal machining. You should look at buying a MTJNL style as this will give you plenty of clearance. The insert on the facing tool you were using was probably dragging along the side during the cut and I think that is what caused the chatter. Love your Ford sign and me being a Mustang owner concour with it. Cheers Ian
I really enjoyed you boring your steam engine cylinder. I have a 40 horse case that I may want to do in the future but I bought a boring machine for John Deere two cylinder tractor. I’m hoping it would work on the steam engine as well horizontal pistons were on the bottom and that’s what gives them that egg shape.❤
Nice work Mr. Topper. Who knows maybe Ed Dickens of Union Pacific Steam might give a call to do UP Steam Engine 844 or UP 4014 Big Boy Steam Engine. Now that would keep you busy. Yet you could do it. Super video.
So always tough to pick up on existing work! I have over 20 years of milling experience both vertical and horizontal. Extending your quill is definitely going to affect rigidity and accuracy during set up and machining. Your quill will sag...even on newer horizontal machines. Always keep the quill as short as possible and feed the table. I probably would have that piece line bored...just a thought
when i was a kid i was not allowed to lien on the table it will shift the bore, the hard spots won't bore the same even on a new machine, that's why it needs to be honed
I find it amusing how many people were told that. Having done this over 25 years, the only time leaning on a machine caused problems was either a flimsy little pos or an improperly setup machine.
Lovely work!! Enjoyed every minute. Got me thinking how they would have done this 100 years ago. I would guess they didn't have carbide cutters, just HSS
Nice work Josh. I always like watching the HBM Action. I think the cylinder cleaned up good.💯 What is the bore diameter? I am always a fan of honing cylinders. Years ago I got the Sunnen racks for large diameter bores. I used them for honing vaccuum pumps for a dairy. I think I can go to 10.0 inch. Have a great weekend. 👍🇺🇸👍 Take care, Ed.
Chandler boring head in it's element....Nice. Looks like a custom tool holder out on the end of 'er. I am a fan of the Chandler's and I have a couple of them too. Looks like it came out real nice Josh. I am gonna guess you had too much radius on the HSS bit and that was causing the hate and discontent. I would be interested in your take on that. Cheers
The chandler has served me well, but I wish inhad something better. The real problem.i was finding was hard spots in the casting. So, carbide was the answer.
@@TopperMachineLLC I would use a carbide tool but one with a small radius maybe 1/32 or even 1/64. It doesnt take much of a radius to cause chatter when you are sticking out that far. We use a 1" lathe tool in our boring head on the G&L boring mills that we have but many times we have to run a tnmg 431 insert so the radius is small enough to prevent chatter. Even on our cnc lathe if the boring bar is long we have to run a 1/64 corner radius. I make some large bronze bushings in a manual lathe that are 36" diameter and 24" long and I have to use a sharp carbide tool since the bar is long and I have to bump across cast in grease grooves. The boring bar I use is 8' long and weighs atleast 1000 lbs.
20:45 that dark area where the piston was rubbing is the location where trouble will start. The fact that your cutter didn’t clean it out is a sign that that area is deeper than the surrounding surfaces and you should run at least one more pass after you use an inside micrometer to verify that that area is not deeper than the rest. If clearing all this out took you beyond the specs, can you bore it out enough to install a sleeve into that housing you can machine again to size?
Had the boring not worked out as well as you wanted, would it be possible to press a sleeve into the cylinder? What condition is the piston in? I am a retired railroader and have an interest in steam locomotives, though I operated diesels my whole career. TH-cam has been a fascinating venue for watching you guys bring these things back to life. I hope you'll show us the whole process. Great video, Josh!
Don't try this at home, at least not this big. How to fix a steam engine cylinder in 24 minutes, just like remodeling a kitchen in 5 minutes on a home reno show. Nice exercise in problem solving, the skills keep on improving. Great video for encouraging others to persevere.
I can't wait to get my boring mill out of storage and put it to work and really enjoy learning by watching your work. Have you ever used the Giddings and Louis? I got my hands on a really nice looking 340T.
Geat vid! I might be wrong but knowing nothing about steam machines, could be the case that linner may have been actually connical from the factory? The tighter diam on the steam inlet side. Thks!
At 22:49, it looks like some pits on the left side of the cylinder, but maybe they are just stains in the metal. Do you use the steam cylinder oil that is for saturated steam, as that is what you are running?
I have seen pictures in old books showing steam cylinders mounted to the lathe carraige for boring with a boring bar between centers. Most early lathes had t slots on the carraige for this type of use. I have bored small excavator buckets that way on my hendey along with other odd objects since I don't have a boring mill and the lathe spindle is much stouter than the Bridgeport of course.
What’s the most challenging vintage repair project you’ve worked on? Share your tips and experiences in the comments below!
Cant beat old school machining. I understand alot of people will disagree with that statement with todays technology and capabilities. Awesome boring machine.....Great video!
Those who disagree, don't have the skills or knowledge to do it manually.
Manual machining is essential for situations where you only need to make a few (or one) of something, or where you need to make a repair, or a part made to fit. It makes no sense for large scale production, but the skills are invaluable.
Manual is almost always faster for one-off work. And conversational is still better than g-code/CAD/CAM for short runs and prototyping.
Being a good manual machinist will almost always make you a better programmer, too.
There will always be a need for manual machine work and welding for repairs, prototype and small batch work. Sometimes a manual machine is even faster than a cnc machine if the operation is simple.
I agree being a retired manual machinist and worked on all type of machine tools including horizontal boring machines in a shipyard!!!!!1
It's great watching the hobby machinists making small steam engines on their small mills and lathes but watching the professional machinists machining on a full-size steam engine is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Lol. Yeah, I don't like small stuff. Too hard for my old eyes to see.
@@TopperMachineLLC does your lucas have a tail stock?
@311Bob no
I worked for GE gear plant in Lynn MASS and almost all the machines were manual because there were no production runs. Except my 4 axis cnc horz boring mill devleig . We did machine our own operating cylinder which looked a lot different. One large drum and had 2 cylinder bores that paralleled the drum and those 2 were honed. This was almost 35yrs ago and I lefted GE after they announced the reduction of over 10k union jobs. Completely left machinist trade and worked for a large gas utility that gave my family a great lifestyle. I will never forget walking into the old factories that at one time had 30k union workers making jet engines, steam turbines of different sizes, and gearing for the U.S. Navy. When I walked into the gear plant for my interview they were setting a bull gear for a U.S. carrier on to a vertical turret boring machine. I only seen this in videos in high school and now I'm going to be working around all the big machines. The horizontal boring mills all used the steel slotted floors as tables and needed over head cranes to load parts. The last machine I ran was a new 7 axis cnc horz boring mill that also had an index table that rotated as 1 axis and also moved in and out as another axis.
I just gotta say thanks for mentioning at the end that the single pass took 104 mins. As a hobby machinist where all my learning is TH-cam, it’s really nice to hear what is actual reality around how long a job takes. It doesn’t help that I watch practically all YT at 2x speed as well! You’re so correct- if we didn’t own machine shops (even hobby shops) there’s NO WAY we could possibly afford to do all the stuff we find trivially easy, let alone the big jobs!
Not the size of the shop where a man works but the size of the man who makes a shop shine in what it does well to great. New sub
Another BORING day in the shop with Josh. When I saw the size of the casting, I knew we were in for some fun!
Good job and nice explanation of your setup.
Working in the oilfield we use steam piston oil to liberate our mud pumps. It’s expensive but it works great. We had a fleet manager with zero maintenance skills try to use gear oil as liberation and parts failed dramatically. He tried to blame it on lack of proper maintenance. He got run out on a rail from the meeting. The look on the executives was priceless. We continued the meeting and all were at an agreement as everything was explained and facts proved themselves and spoke volumes. Thanks for sharing.
Cylinder oil is cheap when it is what is needed to protect the equipment.
Did you mean lubrication instead of AI generated "Liberation" ? Not so Intelligent is it? lol
Great video. It's nice to see you saving a vintage machine from the scrapyard.
It was never going g to be scrapped. These engines are far too valuable.
Hone it Josh, even if you do it yourself. It was probably honed when it was made. Someone once said. Get it done right the first time. I like that.
Stay tuned for the followup.
Honing would be nice but would probably require shipping the heavy cylinder off somewhere with a long turnaround time. Maybe some light hand polishing with ScotchBrite?
@ellieprice363 stay tuned.
Hone it. Ring seal. Hone it by hand
Watching how you figure out the setup is fascinating. Setup seems like the heart of the job.
Setup is the most important part of any job.
Above all, if someone watches this video and has a similar project, you have the experience. I like how you explained the setup. Thanks for saving the cylinder and not giving up.
Yes, now to convince people to ship me work. That is the most difficult part, as I am off the edge of the world. There was no gibing up on this, I have too much invested to give up.
I have done a lot of boring on corrugated cardboard box machines.
We used slotted criterian boring heads with lathe insert tools.
That worked out very well.
That butt clenching moment when you set the tool in motion at speed with the feed engaged !
Nice cameo appearances of the shop guard dog.
Yeah, pucker factor was at max on this one.
It sure was nice to see Rocky on duty!!!! It was important to line it up in all directions. I know it took a lot of time but it will be good for another 100 years now. Thanks for the video!!! You make every job interesting. I am glad that you are happy with the results!!!!
I have a load of brazed carbide tools that someone gave to me. Never used them and get stick from others for keeping them. One day I will get smug points when they’re the only option. Nice job Josh, look forward to seeing the engine in steam.
This is exactly the project I like to watch. It was great to see how you overcome the setup issues. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video.....Your comment on owning a machine shop when owning that old equipment could not be more correct. I have old things like my "hit & miss" engine, brass era automobiles etc. Finding a machine shop to support playing with this stuff is hardest part of the game. Wish you were close to me. Keep up the videos they are fun.
I'm close enough. You can always ship. This is my biggest problem in this business, people don't want to ship more than 50 miles. It's killing my business
Thanks!
I think you chose wisely by dialing in the crosshead end of the cylinder. Especially getting concentric to what was likely the piloting diameter for the cross head frame. Your bore is now concetric to the cross head frame bore and square to its mounting flange. I was surprised that the first cutting tool was able to cut at all. It didn't look like it had any side clearance (i.e. the non cutting edge was parallel to the cylinder bore). However, it may have just been the camera angle that made it look that way. Regarding not honing the cylinder, I would assume the machining marks would do just as good a job of holding lubricant as the cross hatch would. It all turned out well. Ken
Love the video and setup, I could smell the cast iron dust thanks for sharing and the all the effort it took you to film this thanks again ed
The smell, then the blowing your nose afterwards. So black and nasty. Lol
Greetings from the oldest town in Texas, Nacogdoches. Hope y’all are keeping warm, it looks to be a little chilly up there. Nice machining.
We had 1° this morning.
That sounds very chilly to me.
Happy days Josh, can't beat a good old boring job buddy, great work around, fixing the quill and moving the table, to true it up, makes perfect sense once you worked it out, 🎉 thank you so much for sharing
Thank you Josh!
Amazing what you can do with that boring mill. Thanks for bringing your viewers along!
Nicely done Josh! It'll be fun watching the rest of this process
Good work Josh! Perseverance always pays off. Thanks for sharing!
Awesome job and the Old Lucas. Looks amazing!
Thanks!
Thats the difference in machining a billet or stock, any manufactured part, and worn one needs a lot of pre-inspection, and set-up 👌👍.
Im not a fan of Co-Axial indicators for precision indicating, fine for quick set-up, but nothing beats a DTI correctly used.
Looking forward to more onnthis project Josh.
Thanks for sharing.
The only real problem with a DTI is seeing it in all positions. That is where a coaxial shines.
it would be neat to see the machines they used to work those engines when they were new.
I wonder what they had.
Heck of a process. Great to be able to see the different approaches as you worked through it. It’ll be great to see that tractor come to life.
Great enjoyed watching the process. Glad the finish is what you were hoping for.
Like the video retired engineer from Sheffield UK
that's a subscription worthy intro. I'm looking forward to this journey.
Thanks for the great explanation, josh, you teach me much
Really enjoy watching that Lucas work. Very nice finish.
Yeah set up sometimes takes longer than the boring especially with those non
cooperating shaped parts.
Great to see you have shop dog 🐕
Setups can take a lot longer than the job sometimes. Had one years ago that took 6 hours to set up just to do an hour of work.
Looks great Josh, excellent job, I don't think it needs honed, smooth operator, great video, keep'um coming.
You should always hone a cylinder. The cross hatch from the hone holds oil.
Awesome workshop, thanks for posting.
Your cutting tool looked like it was above the centre line of the axis of the boring machine spindle,, something that is often overlooked when using a boring head. Just like a lathe the tool cuts best when on centre.
Love your work please continue with the videos
A big thumbs up 👍
😢G'day. A nice job challenging the machinist. Some years back, I did a similar job on a 1921 Ingersoll & Rand horizontal double acting air compressor. The same deal as yours wear on the top & bottom of the bore ,set the barrel as you did on the barrel mounting end. I had 4 good locations for toe clamps, I used quantity H.S.S also with good results, my first cuts had a small amount of chatter, but once through the skin, this settled down, the boring machine had an outter support. I made a new piston & rings from a quality cast iron I think it was Meehanite from memory,I did hone the bore as I think this helps with lubrication. Good luck with the project.
Nice finish.
Always wanted a co-ax indicator, but always cringed at the price for a USA one. Then about 3 years ago I took a chance on a $85 one from Ebay. It's a life changer! Saves me SO much time with setups in the shop. The Ebay one I'd say works as good as a USA name brand unit. I love it.
Love your show Top!
Smooth is good but honing with some cross hatching will make a place for oil to cling when the rings move on the bore just like a gas engine has .
Good job on checking out the machine for being true .
Stay tuned.
The cross hatch of the hone gives the oil a place to be. It will wear much slower if you give it a deep crosshatch hone.
Thanks as always for the great content and editing. Good to see you did not shortchange setup time on this job - getting another cylinder or sleeving this one would not be easy!
There is no replacing this one. Sleeving it is an option, but there was plenty material to bore a few more times.
Hi Josh & it's is Randy and i like yours video is Cool & Thanks Josh & Friends Randy
Sounds like a Great video series, Can't wait :) Thanks for the great and educational channel :)
G'day Josh. Nice work on that steam engine cylinder mate. I love seeing that horizontal boring machine of yours coming to life and doing "real work". Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Aaron.
Been looking forward to this one! Thanks, Josh
Good job Sir! When I first saw that weird looking cylinder casting with 6 juicy, big studs at either end, I thought "That could be relatively easy to set up with a portable line boring machine". But I forgot that you probably don't have a need for such a machine with your skill set and the array of machines that you have in your workshop.
Josh, Wowzers that looks like an interesting job. Love it, I learn so much each time I watch you at work.
From kiwi land.
Can't wait until you fire up the steam engine! Thats going to be awesome! 😎
Thanks for the video! Great result!
RESURRECTION OF AN OLD STEAM TRACTOR. Hi josh. I enjoy your videos and appreciate them a lot. I lived in Spooner in the 1950s when I was a kid and we moved to Milwaukee when I was 11 years old. It was then that I realized how much freedom to roam I had had while in Spooner and I have always considered it my home town.
Here is part of a letter that I had written to a friend about how a guy saved one of those steam traction engines. here it is:
The Resurrection Of An Old Steam Tractor
Here's kind of a neat story about one of those tractors that happened to me up in Rice Lake.
They have a steam engine show every year at the fair grounds in Rice Lake and I was at a show once while visiting Mom and Dad in the 1990s. I was watching a steam tractor working and I was standing near a hippie type guy of about 30 years old. It was well after the hippie era and he appeared to be kind of living in the past. He had some ragged bib overalls and no tee shirt on and looked really scruffy with shoulder length hair. He looked to me like he smoked a lot of pot. He talked to the guy running one of the big steam tractors for a little while and then was standing near to me. We struck up a conversation and he told me about that tractor.
He said that he used to own it. He lived in the brush out east of Rice Lake near Birchwood and there was a swamp on part of his land. He saw something sticking out of the mud one time after a hard rain had washed some mud off of whatever it was sticking out. He said he thought it might have been an old paddle wheel boat or something with just the paddle wheel sticking out of the mud. He went down to look and saw that it was part of one of those tractors. He got his chain saw and cleared the brush around it and wondered how much of it was there.
Right at that time there was a company clearing the right of way for a power line going through and he hired the bulldozer operator of that crew to use that dozer after work and come and dig around the parts and see how much was there. It took a couple of evenings of dozing and a couple of days of his digging by hand and they discovered that it was the whole tractor that had sunk into the mud!.
They hooked some chains onto it and got it back on its wheels and pulled it out of the swamp and onto hard ground.
The hippie guy dragged it home with his tractor and had it parked in his yard. He worked on cleaning the mud out of it and fixed things up for a couple of years.
He told one of his older neighbors about it and the neighbor guy had all of the brass gauges off of it in his garage. The neighbor had stripped it down a long time before and after it had sat in the swamp for years. He thought that they were the only parts worth saving. He gave the gauges back to the hippie guy. They weren't on the neighbor's land and he didn't want to steal them.
The tractor sat in the hippie- guy's yard for a couple of years and his wife finally got him to sell it. He said they could use the money anyway and it was in the way. That was about 10 years before and it had been sold twice since he had owned it but was all fixed up now and demonstrating at those steam shows.
I thought it was kind of a neat and unexpected story.
Never heard this story. Thanks for sharing.
@@TopperMachineLLC That's because it is my own, true story. There were more details but I didn't write most of them down back when this happened. The guy, hippy, did tell me that he did do a cold pressure test on the boiler before his wife got him to get rid of it. He seemed quite knowledgeable about steam engines. I used to work on commercial river boats and my old boss was a steam boat man and I heard a lot about them. Those days and those old guys are all gone now. Our old house was right on the north edge of Spooner on hwy K near Lombard's farm. Fred.
Love all you do for us Josh….cheers from Orlando, Paul
Many thanks!
Interesting work 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇬🇧
I’m so glad it did not creep loose from the table. Biting my nails.
A lot of set-up and labor, but a money saver. Cast iron engine blocks are the same, after time and use, they get seasoned and are ready to work harder. Have a Merry Christmas Josh and family and Happy New Year.
Perkins Engines, up in Peterborough, leave their engine block castings outside for 2 - 3 years before machining them.
Good end result . 👍
I woked a Kearns SH75 horzontal borrer for 13 continous years. The quill (spindle) should be set up so that it is very slightly facing uphill not downhill. The Kearns had a metre movement on the Z axis quill. This set up this allows for gravity to pull the spindle down further when the spindle is fully extended.
Good thing it is slightly downhill already. I thought it should be parallel to the table.
I agree in a perfect world but when the vertical ways of a boring mill get worn they tend to start boring slightly uphill because the head is heavier in the back than in the front.
Very nice work❤
Good to see you making progress on the Baker. Good practice if you do mine some day!
Boring cylinders which are costly or impossible to replace needs a stable boring bar, a carbide bit of very good quality , small radius , low speeds, medium feeds and a lot of patience.
The Cumming GA fairgrounds has a "Baker Fan" for testing steam and other engines. I thought - I wonder if it's the same Baker as your traction engine? And indeed, it is! Too cool. Excellent video! For some reason, the silly old TH-cam isn't notifying me of your new videos, grrrrrrrrr!!!
Nice work !
Thanks!
Hi Josh, with my Seco Tools hat on I was screaming at the computer saying you need to change that insert tool. What you used was a facing tool and not designed for longitudinal machining. You should look at buying a MTJNL style as this will give you plenty of clearance. The insert on the facing tool you were using was probably dragging along the side during the cut and I think that is what caused the chatter. Love your Ford sign and me being a Mustang owner concour with it. Cheers Ian
Looking forward to more steam videos! I did think it was funny worrying about 0.020 out of round in something that size :)
I really enjoyed you boring your steam engine cylinder. I have a 40 horse case that I may want to do in the future but I bought a boring machine for John Deere two cylinder tractor. I’m hoping it would work on the steam engine as well horizontal pistons were on the bottom and that’s what gives them that egg shape.❤
Nice work Mr. Topper. Who knows maybe Ed Dickens of Union Pacific Steam might give a call to do UP Steam Engine 844 or UP 4014 Big Boy Steam Engine. Now that would keep you busy. Yet you could do it.
Super video.
I have a Chandler Duplex for my Index Mill, its a #9 taper and looks to have never been used.
So always tough to pick up on existing work! I have over 20 years of milling experience both vertical and horizontal. Extending your quill is definitely going to affect rigidity and accuracy during set up and machining. Your quill will sag...even on newer horizontal machines. Always keep the quill as short as possible and feed the table. I probably would have that piece line bored...just a thought
If those old machines could talk . . . the stories we would hear!
Good job
when i was a kid i was not allowed to lien on the table it will shift the bore,
the hard spots won't bore the same even on a new machine, that's why it needs to be honed
I find it amusing how many people were told that. Having done this over 25 years, the only time leaning on a machine caused problems was either a flimsy little pos or an improperly setup machine.
Looks fantastic
Lovely work!! Enjoyed every minute. Got me thinking how they would have done this 100 years ago. I would guess they didn't have carbide cutters, just HSS
100 years ago hss wasn't even widely used, a lot of tooling was just carbon steel
Good to go again.
Nice, Good job
Excellent job Josh 😊. Could you have back bored it to simplify getting to the adjustment?
Thanks for the vedio
Nice work Josh.
I always like watching the HBM Action.
I think the cylinder cleaned up good.💯
What is the bore diameter?
I am always a fan of honing cylinders.
Years ago I got the Sunnen racks for large diameter bores.
I used them for honing vaccuum pumps for a dairy.
I think I can go to 10.0 inch.
Have a great weekend. 👍🇺🇸👍
Take care, Ed.
Chandler boring head in it's element....Nice. Looks like a custom tool holder out on the end of 'er. I am a fan of the Chandler's and I have a couple of them too. Looks like it came out real nice Josh. I am gonna guess you had too much radius on the HSS bit and that was causing the hate and discontent. I would be interested in your take on that. Cheers
The chandler has served me well, but I wish inhad something better. The real problem.i was finding was hard spots in the casting. So, carbide was the answer.
@@TopperMachineLLC I would use a carbide tool but one with a small radius maybe 1/32 or even 1/64. It doesnt take much of a radius to cause chatter when you are sticking out that far. We use a 1" lathe tool in our boring head on the G&L boring mills that we have but many times we have to run a tnmg 431 insert so the radius is small enough to prevent chatter. Even on our cnc lathe if the boring bar is long we have to run a 1/64 corner radius. I make some large bronze bushings in a manual lathe that are 36" diameter and 24" long and I have to use a sharp carbide tool since the bar is long and I have to bump across cast in grease grooves. The boring bar I use is 8' long and weighs atleast 1000 lbs.
20:45 that dark area where the piston was rubbing is the location where trouble will start. The fact that your cutter didn’t clean it out is a sign that that area is deeper than the surrounding surfaces and you should run at least one more pass after you use an inside micrometer to verify that that area is not deeper than the rest.
If clearing all this out took you beyond the specs, can you bore it out enough to install a sleeve into that housing you can machine again to size?
hi there interesting .i have 3 engines my self but just power , best to all john
C'est tres cool mon vieu!
Didn't look like it was completely cleaaned up? Not as important in a steam engine? Thats one big bore. Thanks for sharing the process.
It was cleaned up mostly. Just a little spot on the end where it got some chatter. Not overly important. But more coming.
Had the boring not worked out as well as you wanted, would it be possible to press a sleeve into the cylinder? What condition is the piston in? I am a retired railroader and have an interest in steam locomotives, though I operated diesels my whole career. TH-cam has been a fascinating venue for watching you guys bring these things back to life. I hope you'll show us the whole process. Great video, Josh!
David Richards has a good channel for this type of job.
Dave is a subscriber here
Good Stuff
If the height changes witht the stick-out, because of slight angle, did you measure and cut with the same stick-out? Nice video!
Since the saddle feeds true, the slight angle doesn't matter. It was very little also.
Don't try this at home, at least not this big. How to fix a steam engine cylinder in 24 minutes, just like remodeling a kitchen in 5 minutes on a home reno show. Nice exercise in problem solving, the skills keep on improving. Great video for encouraging others to persevere.
Difference between "perfect" for combustion and steam are pretty crazy
I can't wait to get my boring mill out of storage and put it to work and really enjoy learning by watching your work. Have you ever used the Giddings and Louis? I got my hands on a really nice looking 340T.
Geat vid! I might be wrong but knowing nothing about steam machines, could be the case that linner may have been actually connical from the factory? The tighter diam on the steam inlet side. Thks!
How are you going to resize the piston?
Good job
At 22:49, it looks like some pits on the left side of the cylinder, but maybe they are just stains in the metal.
Do you use the steam cylinder oil that is for saturated steam, as that is what you are running?
I wonder how they machined the cylinders in the old days before modern milling machines
I wandered that too. Probably on a vertical boring mill
John Wilkinson Wikipedia
machine tool for boring cast iron
cannons presaged the accurate boring of cylinders for the
first Watt steam engines (wikipedia)
I have seen pictures in old books showing steam cylinders mounted to the lathe carraige for boring with a boring bar between centers. Most early lathes had t slots on the carraige for this type of use. I have bored small excavator buckets that way on my hendey along with other odd objects since I don't have a boring mill and the lathe spindle is much stouter than the Bridgeport of course.