2 little Indians

You could also use a drill press with the power of and belts off .Holding the tap in the drill chuck turning by hand.Those coil inserts are great aren't they.I've used them a lot on cars. Cylinder heads etc.

BTW Klip what did you clean them with ?They look great.

All gone very quiet Mr Klippy. Have you gone on holiday, or just taking a break?
I am finding this thread very interesting.

Del Piero.

Me too Klippy . U OK? BTW would the steel you are using in them suit my Atom If so would you get some and add it to my bill. The steel you suggested ( EB 30 N ) noone seems to have heard of. Or do you have another suggestion? What did we say about A Nichrome steel in the end? [badass]

Sorry guys. To continue, #1 needed a test run, after a long search I couldn't find my diesel fuel, or my fuelling/priming bottle! The only alternative was to make some, for which I would need Ether, Castor oil (or suitable synthetic) and Power paraffin which had to wait for my monthly trip to town.
Then I've had a week of guests and interruptions, grrr.
Ok, then I made up fuel, then I had to make a nozzle for a fueller etc!
The long and short of it is that #1 won't start. I pulled out my Mills 1.3, that started on the same fuel, so the only explanation is that we have insufficient compression in #1, so as the Americans say, 'go back 5 and punt'.
I'm still cogitating over that.
#2 with the bent conrod. The problem with aluminium is it work hardens very quickly so I will only get one chance. I'm currently figuring out a way to straighten it that is repeatable. ie, if I go too far I won't be able to bring it back again. Which will mean making a new conrod. And we already know that I will never get a reamer that size.
Watch this space.

one tenor wrote: Me too Klippy . U OK? BTW would the steel you are using in them suit my Atom If so would you get some and add it to my bill. The steel you suggested ( EB 30 N ) noone seems to have heard of. Or do you have another suggestion? What did we say about A Nichrome steel in the end? [badass]

Ok John, it's EN30B but a Nichrome steel will work just as well, I've put out feelers on this side and will PM you soon. If you could source a Nichrome steel in an appropriate diameter, enough to make 2 shafts it would be even better.

will try

one tenor wrote: will try

Klipkopwildlife wrote: #2 with the bent conrod. The problem with aluminium is it work hardens very quickly so I will only get one chance. I'm currently figuring out a way to straighten it that is repeatable. ie, if I go too far I won't be able to bring it back again.

When I was in my first workshop engineering practice training, there was an old boy who liked to show the tyros how fast aluminium hardened by cracking a thin piece with a single blow with a hammer. He would mount the piece in a vice and knock it over 90 degrees and usually it would split most of the way across. Looking back, its maybe as likely the ally tore against the sharp edges of the vice as hardening and cracking, but still, we were young and impressionable.
It is also easy to anneal though - heating it with a flame to almost melting temp and allowing to cool slowly will soften it 'again'. The method I was always taught to judge the correct time to stop heating is to rub bar soap on the piece and stop when it turns brown. The internet says using permanent marker also works.to indicate when to stop. I have a question mark over how deep the heat and thus annealing has penetrated using this method but heating slowly should help and I guess metal conducts quickly.
I put 'again' in quotes because soft aluminium doesn't machine easily so the conrod was probably made from something a bit harder in the first place - for wear resistance too? - so it might need hardening again after straightening. Heat and quench as I'm sure you know.
Hope that helps, good luck, looking forward to hearing how the reality works out.
Nigel

What about jewellers reamers? Annealing my ides too Draw file reamers

Jewellers reamers? I didn't know they existed! If I was still working I would have got the Tool maker to spin down a 2.5mm to the right size. What I might be tempted to do is order a few number drills close to the size, drill it close but undersize then force the gudgeon pin through the hole. A bit 'Neanderthal' but we used to do the same thing with 'Turbo savers', except we used a ball bearing in a fly press.

Jewllers reamers are known as broaches and some are just flat steel with draw filed edges and an introductory taper to start the hole then goes parallel They use them to open holes in brass plate. You could make your own with your skills Just need a good mike or vernier..I don't suppose there is enough meat in the rod to it? Or a bit of nice dural and cut a new one. Annealing alli heat it BTover a flame or hot plate and rub with a dead match until it leaves a brown mark.Allow the alli to cool on it's own.I remember broaching with a bolly and a press too.Woe betide if the hole was too small or the bolly too big Crack! BTW the broach edges are tapered to a cutting edge both side but the best are fluted which gives a number of edges You can sometimes pick em up at flea market and often on Fleabay

www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/REAMERS.html
This is just one site I found by Googling reamers but there are loads of others covering all types and sizes of reamer so don't worry too much about making your own unless you want to for fun
www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-i...s+cutting+broaches&* Also here As small as you like going up to as big as you are likely to need

Jewellers reamers only go up to about 1.6mm, plus, with only 2 or 4 cutting edges the hole they make will never be round. But thanks for the input, every little helps.
I have successfully straightened the conrod.


I put hardwood jaws in the vice and used a clock to measure how much deformation I was applying.


and after. I wound the carriage up to the chuck and applied a known amount of bending. I found that .1mm of bend gave .01mm of permanent set.
Once straight I reassembled the engine ready for testing.

Good show but I am sure I saw bigger reamers and types when I googled for them