Lyka Kit #12 Engine Part 1a

On May 10th, 2018 Steam Traction World dispatched the first kit of three for the steam engine. There were two parcels, one was the mainframe for the engine, and the second was the machine parts for the cranks, cylinders, mounting brackets and hardware. I was excited to see that one of my parcels arrived on May 17th. Pretty darn good!, however looking at the tracking history, I could see that the parcel with all of the various machine parts was stuck in Memphis, TN (FEDEX's main hub). I waited to the 21st to file a missing parcel report. Luckily my package was found and was finally delivered on the 23rd. The box was beat up, a tear in it and some of the hardware was loose. Also most of the machined parts had dings from rattling around in the box. I made a suggestion to Steam Traction World to possibly double box in the future for overseas shipment - especially if it is a heavy box with many parts. The box was more round than rectangular. Anyway - all the parts were present and accounted for - luck me 😊
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So of course the process is to deburr, prime and paint. I have chosen to paint the mainframe, cast bearing blocks black.

The cranks and cylinders I decided to paint them bright red to add a little pizazz, similar to the chassis. However thinking about the temperature that the steam cylinder would see, a little research indicates that the steam will be around the 300°F mark for a pressure of 200 PSI, this I believe requires a better paint than what I used on the chassis. So off to the local auto parts store to browse the paint section. I found a pretty good match that is used on disc brake calipers that can withstand temperature up to 500°F. The only down side is that this paint has a 7 DAY cure time !! I decided to paint the Cranks with this paint to match the cylinders.

Before painting the steam cylinders, I happened to go on Alan's Steam Car Blog and noticed how Alan was modifying the steam exhaust port. Alan's right about smoothing the transition. As currently machined the exhaust port sees a sharp obstruction. This would cause an unnecessary restriction with turbulence, reducing the flow. Who knows by how much, but design-wise it is common sense to smooth this transition. (By the way, I check all fellow Lyka builder's blogs a lot! I learn so much from their experiences because they are usually ahead in their build). You can just barely see in the next picture how the exit port is occluded. See below:

After a little Dremel tooling with a dremel cutter....

A much smoother transition.

I actually elongated this a bit more. Now the cylinders are ready to be painted with the red disc brake caliper paint....and wait seven days!  In the meantime, I will try to assemble the crank shaft into the main engine frame.

The first task is to see if the chain sprocket will fit into the mainframe.

Whelp, it doesn't. It appears that the weldment bead for the rectangular tubular steel is just barely interfering.

Again using my Dremel and dremel cutter I remove as much as necessary to allow the sprocket clearance to be assembled.

And the placement of the sprocket with the shaft in the mainframe pictured below:

 

Next I need to assemble the bearings into each bearing bracket. This is achieved by using my vise that I have equipped with plastic jaws to gently press the bearing. You never want to press a bearing into a housing by pressing the inner race - only the outer race for a bracket like this one. If you were to press the inner race you would be pressing on the ball bearing balls and indenting them, making a "ding". This would cause premature failure.

Of course if I had an Arbor Press I would use that instead of my vise. Next picture shows the bearing bracket assembled on to the mainframe and sprocket shaft.

At this point I disassemble everything to touch up the paint from grinding away the inside weld in the mainframe and wait the 7 days for the red caliper disc brake paint to cure before attempting any more assembly. That will be covered in my next posting Lyka Kit #12 Part 1a.