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Burrell Front Axle and SmokeBox.

Following a visit to the midlands model engineer show, I purchased the material for the front axel. Probably EN8  - 3/4" steel and perhaps twice as long as I actually needed. As it is sold by weight from college supplies it was a good price. 

 The wheel-bearing material was easier to source. I found a bit the right size and it looked to be a good hard-wearing bronze. The reamer confirmed this when it tried to ream the center to the right size. Since I also reamed by hand in the lathe using just a spanner and both hands to rotate the chuck. As I was only able to find 1 piece though then I turned to a company local in Birmingham, after a follow-up email, it seemed the cost of the postage was prohibitive from using them. 
So Flebay it was, and a piece of SAE660 at a great price and it turned up in a couple of days.
This was considerably easier to machine than the previous one but looked the same, I hope my engine doesn't do a Fred Dibnah where he used a cheap/free unknown source material bearing to find it turned into brass slurry when in service!!


Still working on the door, a friend on traction talk sent me this CAD sketch of the points I was unsure The center portion of the ring and the outer detail, this is useful because the drawings are confusing and even though I've built another engine I'm still learning.

Even youtube comes up trumps sometimes I was watching a video about friction turning on a faceplate so I tried it. 
Before I was getting a nice machining finish until I got to the outer surface where chatter marks could be seen, on the unsupported part. But when the hole thing is squashed onto the faceplate more support is achieved and the finish improved 100%. 
I'm actually using a special TIP insert tool I was given free to try from  GreenWood Tools that is very hard and one that is especially for cast Iron.   Both proving to work really well.  
  


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