I decided to have a go at making a con-rod for the crankshaft I made earlier.
This took all day today.
I started with a wedge of Swiss cheese,
and faced it into a block of Swiss cheese
I cut the block in half and soft soldered it back together, drilled it through the cut, thinned it down, drilled two holes in the end and bolted it to a 10mm flat steel plate with a keeper plate. I got the keeper idea from here
Cool and weird building plans of boats, go karts, archery, metal shop and more for your home, farm, or compound!
www.vintageprojects.com
and as it now looks like I am going to build a steam engine I will probably steal the Stephenson's link design from here as well.
Then back in the chuck between centres and turned down
then flat in the 4 jaw to bore the big end out.
I was given a set of telescoping gauges a couple of years ago and this is the first time they have been used.
I like them.
I was able to bore the big end to around a thou under size so its a very tight fit on the crankshaft.
so I gave it some wellie to run it in, tightening it down after a while.
This worked very well and didnt flap around, the blue stuff is chain saw bar oil.
Its still too tight so tomorrow I think some plastic for the rod to slide on and leave it running.
An expanding reamer would be nice but I dont have one.
The keeper plate and the corresponding part on the end of the rod will be thinned down to what looks right.
My theory on the swiss cheese is the holes will hold some oil helping this along.
Now I have to think of how I will make the little end