BenHawkins

Much of this week has been spent priming all the timber and on a work trip but I have managed to cut the half lap joints between the rear bearer and the cab uprights. Trying them in place I then proceeded to cut out for the horizontal rail that supports the seat.

This weekend was another pilgrimage to Beaulieu auto jumble. It is one of the few UK events that reliably has parts for Edwardian vehicles. I am not sure how difficult the W&P engine will be to start so decided to buy this "easy starter". It is a small can you fill with petrol and using the plunger you can inject petrol into the inlet manifold. This means you do not need to get sufficient air velocity through the carb when cranking to get the carburettor to work properly. The engine is also fitted with the remains of a distributor for trembler coil ignition. There was a four cylinder Thomson Bennett trembler coil box at Beaulieu but with a price tag of 650 pounds I did not come home with it. I am not really sure if the distributor fitted just switched the low tension (requiring such a box with four coils) or if it in fact distributed the high tension and therefore only required one trembler coil. Can anyone identify the distributor, confirm how it works and/or provide any details on the missing parts? Another challenge for you all is to identify this cylinder block I brought back from Beaulieu! As you may have noticed I really like engines with separate T head cylinders. This one currently measures 86.6mm bore but may well have had a re-bore at some point. It came from a French seller and I thought it looked like some of the Aster engines I have seen in early magazines. If that is the case it would have to be a re-bored J (81mm) cylinder and the engine code would have been ??JS (S for separate cylinders). Perhaps the start of an Edwardian car project

The edge was then bevelled with the router. The front bearer was shaped in the same way as the rear. I decided to trim out across the whole width of the chassis rather than just for the brake turnbuckle adjuster as it gives better access to the gearbox. Holes were drilled to suit the existing holes in the chassis and counter-bored to suit the bolts I made. I will pick up the paint tomorrow so I can get everything primed and start to build up the layers.

All the glued boards were trimmed to the same length. Two were clamped together where the window opening goes. The frame was used to mark the opening. The opening was roughed out with a jigsaw and then a flush trim bit was used in the router to follow the frame that was screwed to the other side.

I cut the first pair of glued boards to length and used the bearer to mark the gearbox cut out. Then cut it out with a jigsaw. And used a router to bevel the appropriate edges.

We have been to Beaulieu autojumble this weekend. We picked up what appears to be a Dennis lamp bracket but for a 3 ton; it has been a bit butchered but nothing that can't be fixed. And a selection of general parts for the shelf including an exhaust whistle that is a bit too small for a lorry. On the metalwork front I have made four bolts for holding the cab bearers to the chassis; I took this design from a coachbuilders catalogue. They seem less likely to split the grain than a countersunk version.

The rear bearer for the cab has to clear the mountings for the transmission brake shoes. I marked out the centres for the bolts and cut through with a hole saw. Then using a saw I joined the holes up. Before marking through the existing holes in the chassis and drilling the bearer to suit. I need to tidy up the cut out a little with a plane and make some more appropriate 3/8 BSW bolts to hold it down. The bearer is perpendicular to the chassis rails and lines up with witness marks in the chassis so I don't know why the holes are so far from the centre line of the bearer.

Sorry for the lack of updates; we have been away a lot recently and also entertaining relatives. However, we have started to make a little progress again. I have been to see the machine shop and the cone clutch side of the flywheel has been finish machined but it has to wait for another slot on the lathe for the front face to be finished. A couple of weeks ago I submitted a cutting list to the timber merchant and they delivered on Thursday. I painted all the ash for the framing with a timber treatment and the douglas fir with thinned "extremely pink" wood primer. The boards for the back of the cab were originally 12" wide but I could not source any of these so I have glued pairs of 6" wide boards together. I will sand them flat before applying another coat of primer.

Are you concerned about the compatibility of zinc with modern petrol (containing ethanol)? The ethanol absorbs water and also decomposes fairly rapidly, resulting in a reduced pH (making the solution acidic) in tanks where the fuel is not frequently changed. Zinc is rapidly consumed in acidic environments. I guess there is less than 50 grams of zinc exposed to the petrol and the majority will probably only result in sediment. Worst case could result in leaks at the soldered seams, but that may not be an issue if/when the zinc is alloyed with the solder.

We have been on holiday so there has been a lower level of progress, but before we left I managed a couple of small tasks. A bit more bending of the gear selector arm appears to have made it the correct shape. We should now be able to trim and shape it. There are two props that support the weight of the canopy. These are mounted on the bulkhead so the props have to spread out to meet up with the corners of the canopy. I bolted a few bits of scrap together to make a jig to bend the props to the correct radius. Then it was just a case of warming the steel rods up and bending them around the jig.

I have been studying the parts book, general arrangement drawings and manuals as the action of the transmission brake did not seem ideal. It turns out there should be set screws to keep the brake arms centred. As the false frame rails are new it was just a case of drilling and tapping the rails; I should be able to pick up some set screws this week. Some models had an extra clevis to account for the sideways motion of the brake rod as the actuator arm travels through an arc. I decided to make one. But when I tried it in place I may have worked out why it was not fitted to all model. There is not enough clearance between this part and the handbrake equaliser; it limits the travel so I will go back to the previous arrangement.

The error on the centre point of the universal joint was down to small errors in the milling machine amplified by taking the knee and saddle near to the full extents of their travel. I corrected for the error and proceeded to bore the holes out until they were a little under size. The plan is to finish the holes with a reamer once the universal joint has been brazed into the prop shaft tube. I have had another couple of attempts at bending the gear selector arm. It is now close to the right shape but it shows up that I cut the shaft slightly too short so I need to make another one! One evening I had a trip down to Cheltenham to pick up some more planks of mahogany for the cab build. These were purchased cheaply from an online auction site but the ash for the framework will have to come from a timber merchant. Some horse hair for the seat has been delivered as well.

The keyway was cut with a broach in the press. That was all the way back on post 380; perhaps I should learn to finish jobs rather than starting more! I have warmed it up and put the first bend in the selector arm. The second bend has to be much tighter but at least it has a smaller cross sectional area at that end. The other job for this week has been continuing with the universal joint jaw. I started by machining the faces to the right dimensions. I then used a Dial Test Indicator to find the centre of the part before tilting the head on the milling machine and putting a pilot hole through. Unfortunately the holes do not line up perfectly so I need to have another go at setting up as I obviously got something wrong!

Whilst I was machining the UJ jaw the shaper was removing some of the excess material from the gear selector drop arm. I should really have turned the vice through 90 degrees for the sake of efficiency. And then tidied the taper off on the mill. The next stage will be to heat it up and bend it.

And finally the jaw set between centres ready for machining. Turning the outside diameter down. Machined down the 1.5" diameter. You might question why I left so much material on the casting. On my 1908 Dennis the jaw should be brazed onto a 1.5" diameter solid propshaft but on this one it is a brazed into a 1.5" ID tube. I didn't want to make two patterns. Hopefully putting the holes in for the drive pin bushes will go to plan!

And my plan D didn't quite work either. My headstock taper is 0.624" taper/foot like MT4.5 but a little larger (large end ca. 1.75"). The reduction sleeve that arrived from ebay turned out to be for a Colchester Student/Master 1800 so the same taper angle but slightly larger again. I clocked it up on a cylindrical grinder and reduced the diameter to suit the Colchester Master mk2. Unfortunately plan E was a failure too, a 3mt dead centre fitted to this bush then didn't reach the centre drilling in the universal joint before the jaw hit the catch plate. On to plan F; make the right tool for the job. I took some steel I had under the bench, turned the OD down at 3 degree included angle and then finished it off on the cylindrical grinder (just for a change I anticipated this event and had not reset the angle). With the new centre fitted to the lathe I turned the outside diameter down and machined a 60 degree point on the end. Then it was necessary to bolt a piece of steel to the catch plate to provide drive to the jaw.

The jaw for the universal joint on the back of the gearbox needs machining to 1-1/2" diameter so it can be brazed into the tubular propshaft. I thought I would be able to do this with the boring head on my milling machine but there is not enough height on the machine. Plan B was to turn between centres on the lathe so I scribed the ends and drilled for the centres. I thought a No 3morse taper sleeve for the headstock came with the lathe, but it was actually for collets. I don't remember where I found this 5mt centre but it turns out not to be right either! So plan D turns out to buying a headstock sleeve from an internet auction site. It was cheap, and the dimensions seemed right.

Whilst working in that general area I removed the gear selector cross shaft that was too long and cut it down. After facing the end off in the lathe I refitted it. I will have to finish shaping the drop arm so I can link that up as well.

The 1/2" steel arrived this week so it was fairly easy to make the second brake rod to fit the turnbuckle and the 1/2"BSW left hand nut to lock it off. It seems to fit quite well, but I had to take the bracket for the return springs off as there was not enough clearance. The bracket will have to be modified and refitted at a later date. I had forgotten that the thread on the brake arm adjuster was corroded away. So I made a new one of those as well.

I have made no progress on the engine over recent months. It seems to make more sense to finish assembling the 1914 Dennis before returning to this project. There will of course be plenty of photos when it does restart!

The cab is meant to have glass windows held in place by thin frames. I don't know if I will be fitting the glass but have had the frames laser cut. They have now been blasted, primed and given a coat of paint.

The brake rod between the bell crank and the foot pedal is meant to have a turnbuckle. There is a double clevis fitted to the pedal to allow for slight misalignment and therefore I needed to make a 1/2" BSW left hand eye bolt. I started with some 1-1/4" EN8 steel, machining it down to 1/2" diameter and cutting the left hand thread. The next stage was to fly cut the end. I scribed diagonal lines to find the middle. After drilling and reaming the hole I fitted the eye to a bolt and milled the outside diameter. I had made the turnbuckle from a laser cut profile previously. Unfortunately I ran out of steel so could not thread the final length of rod and fit it all together.

Adding the collar meant the shoulder screw was then too short so I made a longer one. After painting the parts were fitted.

I cut threads on some 1/2" EN8 rod to fit the clevises. This allowed a trial fitting of the bell crank to see if it was all going to work. These parts are off a variety of vehicles and resulted in the mechanism being tight because the eye in the bell crank was not directly above the eye in the actuator arm. I turned up a collar to move the bell crank over.

Nothing too exciting this week. I have instructed the machine shop to continue with the flywheel. I carried on with blasting and priming some clevises that will be used to link the transmission brake up to the foot pedal.