Hi all,
I have recently started work on a Stuart 10V (for which I bought the castings a couple of years ago). This is the first time I have made anything from castings. I have studied the 'Building a Vertical Steam Engine' book by Pengwern, but have hit a stumbling block with regards to the cylinder.
Initial clean-up and measurement of the cylinder casting reveals it is 2.6mm oversize on its length, so will need 1.3mm taking off each flange to keep the flanges of equal width. The book states it is desirable to keep the flanges as such. I have since found that the pre-cast inlet and exhaust ports on the port face are not in the centre:- they are displaced 0.9mm towards one flange, and approx 0.5mm to one side of the portface. Obviously, the ports must be on the centreline (between flanges) of the cylinder to allow equal timing on each part of the cycle.
Is it normal to find the port holes to be this far out? What is the correct way of working around this? As I see it, I could:-
1). Take 0.4mm off one flange and 2.2mm off the other to end up with the exhaust port on the centreline of the portface. This will of course leave one cylinder flange a lot thinner than the other. Is this acceptable considering the fixing studs thread into the flange?2). (Probably a bodge). Fill the as cast port holes with steel loaded epoxy or similar, then re-cut the ports in the correct position.
3). Return the casting for another. Does anybody feel that the amount the ports are displaced by as cast is excessive, or am I expecting too much?Advice/thoughts much appreciated.
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