Wongster's Production: Millie

I'm home alone today. My wife brought the girls out to the Bird Park with her girlfriends and their kids. I was invited but I feel kinda weird to be the only spouse around. Further, I'm attending the bank's Dinner & Dance tonight (for the dinner part. I can't dance...). Beside catching up some sleep, I completed the Cylinder Mount for my first engine.

From this and previous sessions, I found that my mill doesn't seem to move the distant I dialed into. I rely on the layout lines to locate the hole locations most of the time. Will have to check that out soon.

A square piece of brass was included in the kit for this engine running on compressed air. It measures 1/2" square and slightly more than 2" long to make the Cylinder Mount and the Cylinder.

I started by slicing up the brass stock on my bandsaw for the 2 parts freehand.

Next, the flycutter was used to thin the piece for the mount to 3/16", as called out in the plan.

The insert used is from AR Warner made of HSS.

Yet again, I was out by 0.004"... Really need to pay attention to creep up to the right size... I'll move on and rebuild any parts that won't work later.

The 2 sides were trimmed next.

I did it yet again - undersized by 0.006". What's wrong with me...

I decided to layout the hole locations rather than relying solely on the handwheels as I seemed not to get the distant dialed.

The first hole, 1/8" diameter. Again, I've not gotten the reamer. The 1/8" drill will have to do for now.

I should start drilling the holes from the top of the workpiece (the right side in the pix), which is the datum shown in the plan), but the top 2 holes (the 1/16" holes on each sides of the centerline). I wasn't confident in remembering how many turns I made and therefore started with those 2 on the centerline.

Holes all done. The 3 smaller holes to the right are right on the marks but not the 1/8" hole.

The plan calls for the hole in the middle to be counterbored.

I should have done the counterboring in one setup but... it is not very concentric to the through hole. That's the price to pay for not planing forward. Anyway, that's a good lesson learnt.

The 2 inlet ports (is that the name of the holes?) were drilled till each broke into the 1/16" hole on each side.