Shop Notes 1/4 - 1/4hp Steam Engine Machining, day 2

Got a model steam engine kit for Xmas, which has to be machined almost from-scratch using blueprints.🥳😎

Today's working on the base of the machine, which consists of cleaning up a few faces and drilling some precise holes to mount the upper engine, bearing blocks, and floor mount.

(yesterday's update here:   https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1324884662417362950?referrer=hakasays)

Started with sandpaper to start polishing the bottom face, but that was getting me absolutely nowhere fast, so I tried switching to a cordless sander

A *little better, but progress was slow, still felt like I was trying to paint a house with a toothbrush.

Eventually I just gave up and broke out the angle grinder.  That smoothed everything down in minutes, leaving a slightly rough surface that could be flattened more evenly with sandpaper.

Leaves a huge mess though....   Carbon dust from the cast iron seems to go everywhere...

With that done, the next challenge was trying to mount the base to the CNC mill to drill all the required holes.  There was only room for a single clamp, which introduced a little flex, but just for drilling holes this did not cause any real problems.

Anything with a milling cutter would be liable to grab the casting and fling it out of the clamp and across the room.

Drilling+tapping holes for the frame mounts.

Also hit the first snag as I accidentally drilled one set of holes offset by 1/2"  (I think I must've read 2.75" as 2.25"🤤).    Luckily these holes will be covered by the upper casting so I can pretend this didn't happen🤭

Last operation is flattening the top surface, only removing exactly what is necessary.  This took quite a few passes but luckily there was still a lot of 'meat on the bones'.  Probably removes about 40 thou to clean it up.

I'm gonna call this done for now.  I'll redrill the flubbed 1/4" tapped holes closer to final assembly just in case I run into alignment issues near the end.

That's it for today.  Tomorrow will probably be starting the pillow blocks that hold the axle to the frame, and maybe turning out a few more small parts that will be needed later.

Hope you enjoyed🤠