FH - we have oil! And where we want it!

 Today I applied a bit more elbow grease to the ratchet spanner I was using to turn the mainshaft and attempt to get some oil circulating in the engine. I realised that if I put the machine in fourth gear I could achieve the same thing turning from the rear wheel, perhaps with a bit less effort because I'd have the full diameter of the wheel as leverage to turn the engine. 

This worked really well and I was able to get the engine moving quite quickly by pulling on the tyre. I persisted with this routine each time I visited the workshop during the day.

Suddenly, it all started to get easier. This happened with the Square Four - the oil reaches the major bearing areas and they start to slide much more freely. I decided to give the big drill another try.

Even turning the wheel I had started to see a lot of oil around the pump. This would be emerging from the cam and idler bearings I think. With more engine speed derived from the drill, this area became a lot wetter but I still wasn't getting anything at the tank.

I was on the verge of giving up for the day and heading home for some tea, when oil appeared at the tank return. It takes a while to get up here when you have a filter, because of course the filter has quite a significant volume to fill:

A couple more minutes on the big drill had oil appearing at the rocker feed banjos.

So that's that - very pleasing. The next step is to close it all up and get it running. Oh, and by the way - this is Morris SAE 30 Running-in Oil. I'll be using Morris SAE 40 generally.

Sounds so easy when you say it like that!

FH - creeping forward

 That hasn't been much of a week. My wife and I have both been in bed with the flu, so nothing much has happened on any of my bikes or any other job come to that; I even had to cancel a railway trip this week. 

However, the oil tank is hooked up and I started to try and crank over the engine using the gearbox mainshaft nut as an access point. It was quickly shown to me that using a power drill here was not an option, because of course we're driving through the clutch and a primary gear ratio to get to the engine unlike the last time I did this which was directly to the square four front crankshaft.

I've been cranking by hand using a half inch ratchet spanner. I've got oil at the relief valve:

I've got oil at the return filter, which proves that the return filter union connections weren't tight enough. 

Trouble is I don't have oil at the tank return connection yet, nor at the rocker box banjo connections:

More cranking required. Maybe I’ll roll it down the hill?

Sewing Awl

 It’s amazing what you can do with a few bits of junk lying around the workshop. A leatherwork project (shortening a belt) revealed that sewing leather is not as easy as it looks - even when you have made the holes with your awl, you still need to re-open them as you make each stitch, and I didn’t have a sharp awl.

I had a long, sharp needle of about 2 mm, and went in search of a file handle - all of which had file-tang size holes in them, when the little wood lathe caught my eye. I sliced a bit of scrap oak on the bandsaw to make a 1” square blank, and attacked it with chisels:

I turned the end to 13 mm OD, to fit snugly inside a bit of 15 mm copper tube; I annealed the tube and formed the end over so that I had a neat ferrule, and glued it on the handle with some Loctite, pushing the needle into a 1.5 mm hole in the end.

Took about an hour:

FH - where are we?

 A bit of a boring post, but I just need to catch up with where I am. I have four work faces with various bits on order and I’ll summarise where I am in order to work out what to do next:

1. Engine: waiting to fit the rocker box and the ATD. I need a couple of replacement studs for the rocker box/head/head steady connection which I’ll make on the lathe. I’ll spin the engine to get the oil circulating before fitting the rocker box, and I’ll fit the ATD when the rocker box is fitted.
2. Oil System: waiting to finish the connection of the chain oiler and rocker box pipes, and clean the oil tank, before finally fixing the oil tank in place. I’ve ordered the running in oil and the SAE 40 for later. I’ll need to put a cupful in the sump (probably through the rocker box drains) and to fill the return filter through the hose.
3. Gearbox: I’ve made the new pushrod from 5/16” silver steel; I have the gasket and the ball; I’m going to spin the engine on the mainshaft nut to get the oil system working and once I have done that I can fill the gearbox and put the kickstart case cover back on.
4. Clutch: waiting for the gearbox to go back together for testing. May need new corks, which are in stock.
5. Chains: primary is in, tensioned but not oiled; secondary has a dummy fitted.
6. Exhausts: waiting for the clutch dome and timing covers to go on.
7. Electrics: I’ve reviewed the wiring diagram, estimated the cable lengths and ordered the cables, bullets, straps and sleeving. The dynamo is not connected up yet (mechanically or electrically), but it works.
8. Control Cables: There’s nothing stopping me making the cables for the carburetter, though  the clutch cable needs to wait for the gearbox case to go back together.
9. Wheels & tyres: these are parked until the machine is running.

That about sums it up. Opportunities today are:

1. Make some rocker box studs
2. Start wiring the dashboard
3. Finish the oil pipes and clean the tank
4. Fit the rear chain

Every blog post needs a picture, even an old one!

Skiving Knife

As you know I have a diverse range of interests, though they are often linked in some way. When the Model A finally finds a space on the bench, it's going to need a seat cover and two leather 'front's' for the toolboxes, so I have a hankering to learn about leather working. I've also made one or two knives...

Leatherworking is one of many hobbies for which you can buy a huge range of tools with an equally huge range of qualities. I'm a beginner, unwilling to invest in some I may be no good at, and unsure of what tools are really useful. My wife bought a few old leatherworking awls, which I cleaned and sharpened, with a view to trimming an over-long belt that I have had for years, from the buckle end..

Remanufacturing the belt with the buckle in a different place involved slimming down the end of the belt to reduce the thickness of the leather - a process known as skiving.

Skiving is used in leatherwork especially in areas that are to be bent or folded and which must be pliable without becoming weakened. You really need a wide bladed knife for skiving; there are plenty of cheap ones available on eBay but of course you get what you pay for and they are unlikely to be made of decent steel. As you know I've made a few knives and it was a simple matter to make one of my own from a piece of 40 mm wide 1095 knife steel.

As usual I drew out the pattern on a piece of paper stuck to the steel. This is 3 mm thick flat bar to provide a stiff and heavy knife. The profile was cut out with the hacksaw and filed to shape. 

I cut the primary bevel on the linisher before heating the blade area cherry red in the furnace and the quenching in oil.

Whilst the blade has yet to be tempered it takes an edge very well and it's perfectly suited to the job it was designed for.