mills 1.3cc diesel crankcase model engineering mikes-models

22nd January 2008 session 6

Several things have got in the way of any more work on the Mills engine by Ron
Chernich, to date. Some quite interesting and others, not. However, late this afternoon I
did manage to pop my head into the workshop. So I decided to carry on for a short
while, with the profiling of the crankcase proper (not the defective practice piece).

I am only taking very light cuts of a couple of thou at the most, and it is true what Ron
says about being surprised at the finish that can be achieved. As a safety measure I made
sure that the power lead to the lathe was not only switched off, but also that the plug was
removed completely from the socket. Moving the 4 jaw chuck to and fro about 180
degree's was tiring on the wrists, even with the belt drive to the chuck disengaged. So I
put the chuck key in place and immediately felt the benefits when using the key to rotate
the chuck. (note added later...this proved to be the wrong method! I misread the
instructions - the chuck stays still and you advance the top slide!)

When only taking a couple of thousands of an inch off at a time, it is a slow process to
remove the metal, but I am pleased that the line for the crankcase bottom, is exactly
where the metal is coming off. Because I was making more progress now that I was
using the chuck key for leverage, I soon started to come close to the finishing line, so I
marked the remaining low points with my permanent marker to highlight how much more
metal needed to be removed until I was continuously cutting. From this point it would be
only one or two more passes at the most before this segment of the crankcase was
completed.

At this point since it was going well I decided to leave it until tomorrow, when this phase
of the project may be finished.

Time spent today 1 hours. Total to date 11 hours.