BenHawkins

The glamorous assistant has finished the advent calendar well ahead of time. That is a full set of fasteners for the gearbox so she has moved on to fasteners for other parts.

I have done more of the machining on the radiator castings. One lunchtime I picked up the tube plates which came in cheaper than expected; if you base your costings from online retailers, it is often rewarding how much cheaper you can get them from a company on your doorstep. I have to confess it was nice to be able to buy the 1/8BSW screws for the badge off the shelf.

Unfortunately the radiator gills have come in a long way over budget. I had a quote for these a few years ago but the company no longer does radiators. The new quote is a significantly higher sum; so high in fact that it is more than the pattern making, castings, tube plates and tubes put together.

The gills are made from 0.010" (0.25mm) tin plated steel 15/16" across flats to fit 3/8" diameter tubes; I need around 14,000 of them. The price quoted has made me consider punching them out myself but so far I am unsure how the profile is achieved. 14,000 on the fly press may be more than I can ask of the glamorous assistant; perhaps I should offer to do 7,000.

42 minutes ago, Asciidv said:

Ben, Looks very good! What length of end mill do you need to get to the bottom of that face? Did you finish off the screw cut bolts with a die? The thread length looks very uniform or can your glamorous assistant throw your lathe into reverse with super fast reactions just at the right length?

Barry, the end mill only needs to cut just over 3". I have a 14mm end mill that will cut more than that; it has a 12mm shank and I use it with my Diemaster mill but it is not stiff enough for this job (and I don't have a 12mm R8 collet for the Bridgeport I am borrowing). There is no rush to complete the task so I will wait for the long series 20mm end mill to arrive. I can get on with machining the other casting, ordering tube plate material and other projects so there is no risk of thumb twiddling over the Christmas break.

For the bolts we just mark a line on the blank with a marker pen and wind the tool out when we get that far, finishing off with a die nut. For the 1914 Dennis we mostly used modern off the shelf BSW & BSF bolts and just machined the numbers off the heads but we are a bit more pedantic with the earlier vehicles where even a BSF bolt looks out of place.

I collected the completed castings from the foundry.

The header tank design meant the foundry got to spend a couple of hours getting the core sand out through the small holes. I couldn't wait to get on with them so did some of the rough machining. The casting was supported on some 3D printed blocks to keep it vertical, they also fitted into the slots in the table to keep it straight. I have ordered a more appropriate cutter to finish off the ends but it will probably not arrive this year.

I have blasted and painted the first batch of nuts and bolts made by the glamorous assistant.

Nearly all the gearbox fasteners are complete so we need to come up with a few more items to add to the list.

One week of immersion didn't seem to be enough time to free off the carburettor, but after three weeks and with the assistance of some heat the outer throttle was persuaded out of the body. A day later I managed to remove the inner throttle from the outer throttle. When reassembled none of the parts rotate freely so I will need to spend a couple of hours with some micrometre blue and a scraper to undo the damage done by the mechanic with a chisel.

The car project I have been working on is nearing completion so with a couple of hours to fill I decided to machine the castings that connect the water jackets of the four cylinder blocks. One of the broken and corroded originals is in the background.

I came up with an alternative craft advent calendar; the glamorous assistant is coming out to the workshop after dinner and making the old Whitworth (BS190) type fasteners for the gearbox. She has made 16 off 5/16 nuts so far so we are a bit ahead of the plan; I might even be able to increase the scope of works at this rate! No Christmas parties to get in the way this year so all the evenings are available.

The radiator patterns still need a little bit of tidying up so I am unlikely to get them to the foundry this week.

For two of our other projects I am trying to make some sense of the numbers on White and Poppe carburettors. They are variable jet carburettors; when the throttle opens the variable jet is also simultaneously opened. However, the handbook suggests the size of the regulating jet and how far it is offset from the axis was varied by the manufacturer to suit the particular engine requirements.

Each float bowl lid is marked with the serial number and a series of numbers along the lines of 30.450/500 (1/32). The 30 refers to the diameter of the throttle bore but I am not yet certain of how the rest of the numbering system works. The carburettors are also handed to make finding a replacement more difficult. 

The carburettor that came with my engine was quite grubby and does not want to come apart. The throttle barrel has signs of having been chiselled out in the past (quite a bad sign) so I decided to immerse it in WD40 for a week before giving it another go. I didn't have enough WD40 so I topped it up with heating oil. 

The glamorous assistant kept an eye on the printer whilst I was at work this week as she continues to work from home. I am lucky to work in a manufacturing environment so have managed to continue to travel the short distance to work each day and have not yet exhausted the projects at home.

I milled the slot in the MDF backing panel for the overflow pipe connection and cut a 44mm diameter hole to accept the 3D printed piece for the water inlet. That should pretty much finish the core box if the paint polishes smooth enough once it has dried (just the pattern coat to go). 

I have these lamp brackets, the sidelamp bracket is quite similar to those in photos but only uses two bolts to mount to the bulkhead. My chassis is not drilled for headlamp brackets.

These hand controls don't quite match the parts book either but could certainly be used if nothing else turns up.

The core box is coming along pretty well, the front half is basically complete. The two bosses thicken up the casting so I shouldn't break through when drilling and tapping the casting for the name plate. The back half will be slightly more complicated as it needs to allow for the overflow and water inlet port.

The printing does not always go to plan; in this example the nozzle had a blockage and as a result subsequent layers were under-extruded. Most of my prints are around 12 hours and I think my failure rate is less than 5% or about every 240 hours of printing. 

So far I have not printed any pattern structure that I could not have made in wood but the printer can be going whilst I am earning a living or working on other projects. The glamorous assistant is working from home at the moment, so can switch it off when things go wrong.

I needed to get some parts cast for other projects; it seemed to make sense to get the radiator sides cast at the same time.

There is a brace across the bottom of the radiator but the pattern was too big to print in one piece so I split it into four. I included dowel holes so I could fit them together with glue and some 4mm steel rods.

It needed a little filler and sanding but is nearly ready for some pattern coat.

With that success in hand we continued to print the components for the front half of the header tank core box. I ran out of filament for the printer but was able to glue and screw most of the pieces to the MDF board. I don't know if the foundry would prefer to pack sand into the assembled core box or prefer to mould the two halves and glue them together but the design allows for either method.

8 minutes ago, Tomo.T said:

The ASC (Army Service Corps ) No. was an early means of registering military kit, including vehicles. The system did not work in practice and there were many duplicate no's issued. The whole system was scrapped in early 1915 and replaced by WD ' bonnet ' No's.

Thanks Tomo, I thought that was probably the case but didn't want to jump to conclusions.

I was wrong on the "The Austin Motor Company (1914) Ltd" statement. They appear to have reverted back to "The Austin Motor Company Ltd" in 1916 so the plate could be from before or after that period, but I think the font of the brass plate puts it earlier. I have seen a couple of the later brass plates but do not have any photos I can post.

My engine number is also stamped on the two halves of the timing case (where they join at the top over the magneto drive), does yours have a stamping there?

I obtained a copy of the instruction book for the 3.5kW set (four cylinder) from the Vintage Austin Register. It is undated but states it could be provided with Claudel, Zenith or Solex carburettor so the Zenith is perfect for my two cylinder after all.

For ordering spares the book states that engine number or A.S.C should be stated.  I am not certain what A.S.C stands for either but some generators have both ASC and Engine number brass plates. 

9 hours ago, lynx42 Rick Cove said:

This is the Claudel Hobson on my 2 cylinder Austin engine. No. E181 or E136 take your pick. Does anyone have any info on this engine?

Thanks Rick, so the stationary engines (and probably the generators) did not have Austin branded carburettors, at least that should make it slightly easier to find.

My makers plate shows "Austin Motor Company (1914) ... Engine number 213" and the dynamo is dated 1914. Austin Motor Company (1914) was formed in February 1914 to replace the existing company so given the slightly earlier number and lack of date in the name, I would guess that your engine dates from slightly before that. No idea why there is an E prefix or dual numbering.

6 hours ago, 8_10 Brass Cleaner said:

The carb is very like an early Austin 7 one. Is it a 22mm?

Yes, 22mm and almost certainly off an Austin 7. The two cylinder Austin generator probably started life with an Austin branded Claudel Hobson but the Zenith will not look out of place.

2 minutes ago, andypugh said:

How does the top tank attach to the radiator core? 

It is a horizontal tube radiator, the two brass tube plates get sandwiched between the cast sides and the top tank (with lots of 1/4 BSW cheese head screws). Only one of the tube plates has a hole in it to let the water through. The baffle in the cast sides put banks of tube in parallel giving the water a serpentine path (putting each bank of tubes in series with the next). The radiator outlet is at the bottom of one side.

The brass pipe bend I had cast recently fits to the radiator outlet and is coupled to the water pump with a piece of flexible hose.

I have just found this photo showing Locomobile buses with boarded up windows. Thought it would be of interest to Ian and others. Shame there is someone standing in the way but I guess the photo would not have been taken without him!

Although I have drawn the radiator out in CAD, I wanted to check the dimensions against the engine and chassis before gluing any of the 3D printed features in place. No drawings have survived for the radiator so it is all worked from photos and chassis dimensions.

A little bit of glue, filler and some paint completes the spilt pattern for the top tank but I still need to make the core box before I can drop it off at the foundry. 

The sides are pretty much finished now (just need to polish the pattern coat).

Having never seen ECL self generating lamps before I purchased the pair at the end of last month, I found another one this week. It also needs some weld repairs to the generator and some parts making.

My good friend Mick has found me a lovely Zenith carb to replace the unsightly aluminium downdraft version fitted to the Austin generator. The Zenith does not appear to be missing any parts, unlike most autojumble finds. Mick has been a huge support (enthusiasm and parts) for my projects over the years for which I am deeply grateful.

The commercial vehicle projects are on a bit of a back burner as I am working on other projects (including building a blacksmiths shop at the bottom of the garden).

However, I could not resist a trip out yesterday to pick up these ECL lamps.

Obviously, the glasses and burners are missing but I have a feeling there should also be brass cups in the generators to hold the calcium carbide. Without brass cups I think the alkali solution of calcium hydroxide would eat through the aluminium quite quickly. Does anyone else have the same model of lamp and would be willing to take photographs for me?

Virtually all of my casting work is done by Andy of AJD Foundries. I can get there from work during my lunch breaks and I have been really impressed with the quality of work.

The water manifolds have turned out well; the foundry seemed quite happy with the 3D printed patterns so I can continue to use the printer for the smaller patterns and details on the larger ones. 

The pipe bend for the radiator outlet also looks good. When I have finished the patterns for the radiator and made the patterns for the water pump there will be somewhere to fit it.

Thanks for the kind comments on this project. It is a lovely little lorry to drive, managing quite a high top speed, pretty light steering and clutch, fairly good brakes and half decent visibility with reasonable weather protection .

The Aster engine is half the power of the engine originally fitted so you get the fun of changing down at least one gear for every hill; at least it gives good miles to the gallon (more than 10).

When I started putting the Dennis projects together I was working out of prefabricated concrete garage adjoining my end of terrace house. We looked for a house where we could build a suitable home for the lorries but ended up buying the Edwardian printing works in the photo, this gave what I thought would be enough garage space but I needed to spend two year converting some of it into suitable accommodation for the glamorous assistant. Another task for this year is planning the next garage.

On 7/13/2020 at 8:57 PM, Foden7536 said:

Where are you based Ben? I get aluminium castings done by “Harling Foundry” in Hastings, they are very sympathetic with work on older stuff and delicate with patterns. They do quite a lot of vintage and veteran car stuff for me. Lloyd (the boss man) is very pleasant and knowledgeable. 01424 443160 If that’s any help. 

Thanks,

I am based near Birmingham, my usual foundry appears to have been on holiday this week but has the advantage that I can get there in my lunch breaks. Good to know there are others out there.

Not too much progress on this particular project this week, I have just been putting metal back onto some of the body ironwork where it has been cut or broken off. The repair pieces are being machined from EN3 steel and arc welded to the wrought iron. These ones make up the back corners of the body and carry the rear hoop.

With things slowly returning to normal and a dry forecast we decided yesterday would be a good opportunity to take the lorry out for a small drive. It has not been out of the garage for six months; not at all what we had planned back in January.

We emptied the petrol out last time we used it so put four gallons in the tank and it started first swing. I have added a felt seal behind the fan belt pulley since the last drive; it has slowed but not eliminated the oil leak so I will need to revisit that at some point.

Another task completed recently has been the reshaping of the headlamp bracket I made to fit a Powell and Hanmer self generating acetylene lamp. The in-service photo showing this model of lamp arrived after the bulk of the restoration was complete and I managed to find the correct lamp at the start of this year. The lamp is slightly narrower than the ECL but needs to sit higher to clear the water trap.

Another detail I was missing was the canvas sheet "roof".

I have been collecting period photos of fruit vehicles and found there appear to be three standard types of gathering baskets; these have been meticulously recreated by Pascal Carr of All About Willow.

On 7/5/2020 at 7:31 PM, Scrunt & Farthing said:

What foundry are you going to send them to, Ben?  I have no experience of Alu in v.low volume, only Bronze.  I need to make some similar bits for my Leyland at some point.

Dave

I think I will be visiting the foundry with a batch of patterns this week so I will check he is still happy to do aluminium and for me to give details here.

The 3D printer has been used again to make the core prints for both ends of the header tank. The first step was to glue ans screw them on.

Filler was used to cover the screw heads and tidy up any small gaps. The front half of the header tank pattern is now finished but I need to confirm the locations of the features on the back half. I don't have the drawings so it is being scaled from photos and chassis details but I am still not sure if there should be a flange for attaching to the front of the bonnet.

I took some of the bits of wrought iron to work and blasted then in my lunch breaks. They have had a couple of coats of Bondaprimer

1 hour ago, Citroman said:

Hi Ben, that was a good bargain, these are very nice carburettors, my Citroen 5HP has a similar one. Also with barrel throttle. The venturis are just bolted in so you change them to the right size.

This belgian collector has a lot of old parts for sale as he is selling the lot of his collection. He only speaks french but Google translate is a good help.

http://levidegarage.wifeo.com/

Regards Fer

 

Thanks,

I seem to remember more of my schoolboy french than I thought as I can understand a quite a bit of that without google translate. The Solex is really well documented so once I have confirmed the bore and stroke it should be quite easy to set the carburettor up correctly.

Yesterday morning we had a drive down to Somerset; setting off early to avoid the queue of caravans heading south now they are allowed to stay over night.

We spent five hours picking through piles of cart and carriage ironwork in an attempt to find all the remaining parts from the long dismantled Lyons tea van. It was moderately successful as we came back with a boot full of iron for this and some other projects.

Am I a rustaholic, or do I just think I am? Anyway, it is not a complete set so I will continue to build my blacksmiths shop.

During the week I drilled the two halves of the header tank pattern so I could fit the alignment dowels. This morning I marked the location for the filler and drilled a 20mm hole to locate the 3D printed filler neck and core print.

After the filler neck halves were glued and screwed in place a bit of filler was used to blend them in and cover the screw heads before I gave them a coat of bondaprimer.