tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
Some years ago I made cast iron piston rings, however, in the nearly 40 years since I have completely forgotten how. So, I’m reading lots of forums, references and articles on making cast iron piston rings. Whilst doing this I thought it was worth writing an article on the subject. I have listed references where … Read more
Machining the miniature Burrell cylinder cavity was quite interesting. Mainly because the cylinder was flat on one side and so the machining was an incomplete circle. This meant I needed to use the rotary table. I use the Warco HV4 rotary table quite a lot. To the extent that it has developed some slight slack. … Read more
Making a fire grate from a solid piece of cast iron. I wasn’t going to be able to buy one of these and I don’t have the kit to cast one. So, my only option was to machine from from cast iron. Cast iron disc 42mm in diameter and 8.5mm thick. This fits perfectly into … Read more
The Burrell engine flywheel at 1/20th scale is a tiny 72mm in diameter and just 9mm wide. I’ve machined this from a piece of solid extruded cast iron. Firstly turning the surface profile on the lathe. Machining the Spokes The process of machining a flywheel has been discussed before. Hence I will leave you with … Read more
As with a lot of my engine designs they start with the flywheel and in this case a cast iron flywheel that was machined from solid. This flywheel was first installed on my oscillating steam engine and then moved to the transitional engine. Once I had turned the basic shape of the flywheel I mounted … Read more
Sometimes when I machine cast iron the next day I have an upset stomach, this made me wonder whether cast iron dust is a health issue and I should be wearing a mask. Machining Cast Iron I machine cast iron without any cutting fluid and use tungsten carbide tools with a shallow angle. The result … Read more
Machining cast iron can be quite easy with the right tools, but you do have to be careful with cast iron that might have sand still in the surface and so I thought a page giving hints and tips would be useful. There are a number of different grades of cast iron and within these … Read more
Cast iron is a ferrous alloy; the carbon content is greater than the maximum solubility in austenite at the eutectic temperature. It tends to be brittle, except for malleable cast irons. With its low melting point, good fluidity, castability, excellent machinability and wear resistance, cast irons have become an engineering material with a wide range … Read more