Babbitt pour York bedplate

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Anne from Little Britan
Anne from Little Britan
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Babbitt pour York bedplate

Post by csonics » Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:55 pm

Posted on behalf of marinesteam:

marinesteam
Lighting the Boiler


Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 39
Location: Colorado, USA
Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:02 pm Post subject: Babbitt pour York bedplate
Hello all,

Finally had a chance (and some help) to pour the lower Babbitt bearings for my York compound and thought I'd share some of the pics.

The pour went much better than I had thought it would. Much has been written about leaks and other things that can go wrong. The number of things that needed to be done seemingly all at the same time made the process somewhat hectic, but all in all the pour went rather smoothly. Hopefully it was due to the planning and preparation and not just dumb luck as I still need to pour the main caps and connecting rod ends.

The bedplate tinned showing anchor holes.
Image

Final bit coming out of the ladle
Image

Just after pour with "Babbitrite" dams
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Closer view of pour
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After removal of mandrel
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Overall
Image

Ken
marinesteam

Maltelec
Site Admin


Joined: 23 Sep 2007
Posts: 156
Location: Cumbria, UK
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:21 am Post subject:
Looks like it worked well for you. I've just bought a large melting pot and home-made furnace. It came with two pouring ladels.
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steamboatjack
Urchin


Joined: 01 Oct 2007
Posts: 39

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:05 am Post subject: babbitt bearings
Hi great to see someone using white metal bearings , just one point.
I would have expected to have done the initial machining on the bedplate surfaces before doing this? leaving just a finishing cut to do while machinging the bearings, any reason why not?

regards
steamboat jack
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marinesteam
Lighting the Boiler


Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 39
Location: Colorado, USA
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:40 pm Post subject:
The machining and pour could probably be done in either order. I didn't really give machining the bedplate before pouring the bearings much thought because the machining note says: Babbitt before machining.

I'm really not sure why it's specified this way. The benefits that I see from pouring first then machining are:

The bearing tops and sides get machined by default when the bedplate machining is done. I don't need to finish theses surfaces of the bearings by hand or do another mill setup to finish the bearing.

The shaft was very carefully located before the pour using the v-blocks as fixtures. I can use the shaft as a reference for the remaining setups. The shaft is a much better "edge" than any of those on the bedplate casting (cast iron) so the mill setup will be quicker.


Ken
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marinesteam
Lighting the Boiler


Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 39
Location: Colorado, USA
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:06 pm Post subject:
The furnace and ladles sound like a good find.

I needed to cobble together a ladle. It was pretty easy though. I bought a Lodge brand "melting pot" and ground the handle to fit inside if a piece of 1/2" electrical conduit to make the handle long enough (about 24") to keep hands away from the heat. A tapped hole and bolt made short work of fastening the handle to the pot.

I used a white gas camping stove to melt the the babbitt right in the pouring ladle as it was large enough to hold enough metal for two of the bearings, adding a chunk finished off the third. The white gas stove put out enough heat to melt the babbitt to where the doug-fir stick would char but I couldn't get to the "bursts into flame" temperature. This was probably a good thing as that's what I wanted.

I have a IR temp gun but didn't use it as I was to busy keeping all in order and forgot to do the secondary check with it after the stick charred.


Ken
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preaton
Just Starting Out


Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 10
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:44 am Post subject:
Well done Ken. Nice to see you have got started on the York compound. I did things the same order as you have. I would enclose a shot of milling the flats if I knew how.
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marinesteam
Lighting the Boiler


Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 39
Location: Colorado, USA
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject:
Nice to hear from you,

I would post your photo if you send it to my e-mail address.

add @mindspring.com to my member name.

I was also wondering what you did to line bore the bearings. If you have photos would you send those as well.

Thanks in advance.

Ken
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preaton
Just Starting Out


Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 10
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:02 am Post subject:
Dear Ken

I've sent the photos as requested. I did a series of articles in Funnel (SBA UK mag) so took lots of photos most of which I still have. Ask and you shall receive

Cheers

Paul
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marinesteam
Lighting the Boiler


Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 39
Location: Colorado, USA
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:37 pm Post subject:
Here is a photo of Paul's set up for milling his York engine bedplate.

Image

If anyone is looking for the inspiration to build their own engine, York or otherwise, I highly recommend Paul's excellent articles on the building of his engine in the Steamboat Association of Great Britain "Funnel" newsletters. You can still get back issues and they have an index on their website.

Ken
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