Section 10 - Drive Rods

Drive Rods. Main, Side and Intermediate rods. Jan-June 2008
SideRodCleanup17Jul09
17-July-09 I experiment using the belt sander to clean up the appearance of the rods. Note the fancy coathanger retaining clip holding the shop vacuum hose to…
RodSpacer9July08 003
9-July-08 Here's a setup I've never done before: Chucking a chuck to hold the part. Bill did not want to make an expanding mandrel just for two parts, so we…
RodSpacer9July08 002
A finished spacer in steel.
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9-July-08 Turning the rod spacers from a piece of mystery steel from the scrapbox.
RodsFinished25June08 005
A Milestone!! The rods are fitted to the wheels and the chassis still rolls! Yea! 25-June-08
RodsFinished25June08 004
25-June-08 Using a reamer in the lathe (held by the chuck) to open and deburr the bearing brass bushings in the intermediate rods. We used the nose of the drill…
RodsFinished25June08 003
The finished knuckle pin and aluminum washer for the rods. The head of the pin is slightly crowned with a neat finish.
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25-June-08 The finished end rods with knuckle pins and washers in place.
RodsFinished25June08 001
Finishing the knuckle pins. After all the turning operations, the pin is held in the chuck, faced to size. To put a slight crown on the bolt, Bill left the tool…
SideRods19June08 007
19-June-08 Threading the knuckle pin. I used lead bearing steel for the pins, I can get a better surface finish out of this steel than plain cold rolled.
SideRods19June08 006
19-June-08 The finished knuckle pin with it's rod.
SideRods19June08 005
The finished intermediate rods with the bushings in.
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Boring the bearings out of bearing brass.
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Turning the bearing brass down to size
SideRods19June08 001
19-June-08 The end rods bored and cut, ready for bearings.
EndRods11June08 005
Slotting the end rods. The rod is bolted from the bottom to the t-shaped fixture under the clamps, a 1-2-3 block is placed against the side of the rod to…
EndRods11June08 004
Setting up to use the side cutting saw to cut the slot.
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11-June-08 Boring the rod end.
EndRods11June08 002
EndRods11June08 001
11-June-08 With the end rod securely held at the crankpin end, under the stack of washers on the tool holder, the other end is drilled so we can tap and bore…
14-May-08 Progress on the intermediate rods.
Using an endmill to enlarge the hole before boring.
14-May-08 Drilling the holes in the intermediate rod. The left side is bolted down to the fixture, the right side is lightly clamped. We used a drill with…
The set up to drill the crosshead end of the main rod. The fixture is the same height as the parallel at the other end.
Having bolted the fixture to the table, we indicate all around to center and make sure it is perpendicular to the table. A minor adjustment to the Bridgeport…
Turning the diameter to a sliding fit for the rods. The part is held between centers.
8-May-08 A piece of hot rolled bolted to the side creates a lathe dog for turning between centers.
Having completed the facing operation, the bolt is turned around and centered in the 4-jaw chuck, the end faced, deeply center drilled and then center drilled…
23-Apr-08 Turning an old bolt to make a holding fixture. First we turn the end flat since it will go down on the table.
23-Apr-08 Here's where we are on machining the rods.
The bored connecting rod hole.
23-Apr-08 Centering the connecting rod to bore the other end. We've moved the blueprint distance from the drilled end to the other end and are centering the…
The setup for boring the Intermediate rod.
17-Apr-08 Main rod with bearing installed.
Cutting the pressed in bearing to size. We later decided that cutting the bearing to size THEN pressing it in was a better approach.
Here's what we ended up with: A very flat thick washer (brass in this case) on the table, lifting the rod off the table with clamps holding it tight.
17 Apr 08 Preparing to bore the Main rod. ?How to hold the rod?
Milling the bearing ends to the finished size. This clamping solution turned out to be the best, the parts were solidly held to the table, without introducing…
The side rods with the clamping screw holes.
Using a cutter which has been profiled to drill and countersink a 1/4-20 hole in one operation.
Previous clamping attempts did not work. We needed a way to hold the bearing ends of the rod down to the table which allowed us to machine the very same spot at…
With the one machined side down on the table, we try to clamp them down to machine the other side. The "M" written on the part indicates the to be machined…
2-Apr-08 On to the side rods. Another set of castings, more challenges. Where to start? Using the center web as a rough guide, we clamp the rods on the vice and…
With the bearing ends machined to finished size, the tabs are then finished machined.
With the part clamped "up", the bearing ends are machined.
26-Mar-08. The Intermediate Drive Rods are another pair of challenging castings. The thin tabs at either end were warped and there was a twist between either…
11-Mar-08 We start a new Section! Like all castings, the question is where to start - nothing is smooth or straight.
11-Mar-08 Rough machining the Drive Rod. Castings are a pain for work with, especially something like this where the surface you want to clamp on is also the…
Trying to compensate and adjust for the twist in the casting and clamp with a neutral impact.
We machined only one side first to get reference surfaces.
With a machined, and hopefully true, side, we clamp it to the table to machine the other side.
Since we could not clamp over the machined portion, which would have been ideal, we spent a lot of time fussing with the clamps to hold the part without moving…