Building a Twin Cylinder RACING GAS ENGINE Here's a Model Craft project that will challenge the terest of all model makers. First of 2 parts. By GARY MOORE Craft Print Project No. 61 HERE is something about the building vf a high speed miniature racing engine that appeals to every modelmaker. Perhaps the appeal lies in over coming the many prob lems involved in its constuction or in ac complishing the preci: sion machine work required. Whatever the faceination, the under g is am interesting one. Duilding @ two-cylin- der working miniature gas engine from the 140 ground up is a big undertaking, The wood patterns and complicated core boxes needed in hav: ing the castings made will be far more dif- ficult to tura val than all the machine ‘work on the little «n= gine itself. The mod clmaker who is not So well versed in pattern making ean work from a set uf readymade castings, as T did in buslding the engine shown in the photogeaph, Fig. 1. ‘The rough eastings fry which the en- ike was built ae Shown in Fig. 2 Wherever possible the castings were made of the light and hard aluminum alloy, Dural, This was done to keep the weight uf the finished engine at a minimum. How- ever, some vf the smallor eastings were made up in hranze where it was felt this Suumncy AND Mrcetaxtes metal would castings were boxes shown The build yond the 300 fhe. accompli maker, from this reason | built pattern give the beg! work and ski set and help the skill and The photog e der block a cave pera allow it 19 itellow for indes liners Shaft, water ti Space, b passages, © photo, Big. 4 this same mi ten with som ecenmaty of ved in eat rious pat Interior of dar block ane case housing Slows the ond "eplinde pation and box forthe « Tig. 6 ahoy the various The main ce rotary valve the upper needed tor part. The m the connect Tone, 1946Es] Ff Pe athe weight of coe nas ‘metal would serve the purpose best. All thése teastings were made from the patterns and core boxes chown in the photos Figs. 3, 4 and 5 "Tha bnilding af patterns and core boxes is be- yond the scope of this article, but the work can he accomplished, by the experienced model maker, from the accompanying drawings. For this reason the complete set of professionally built patterns und cute boxes is shown. It will give the beginner a good idea of the amount of ‘work and skill required in constructing a similar set and help him decide whether ur uot he has the skill and experience to tackle the job. "The photograph, Fig. 2, shows the main eyti der block and crank. ease pattern with its various cure prints to allow it to be case hallow for the eyl- inder Liners, crank- shaft, water circula- tion space, transfer passages, ete, The photo, Fig. 4, shows thia same main pat- tern with some of the necessary core boxes used in casting the various parts of the interior of the cylin- der bluck and crank- tease housing, It slso shows the flywheel and cylinder head patterns and the core box for the cylinder top Fig. 5 shows the patterns and cure buxes for lise various small parts which are east in bronze. The main center bearing, which also acts as a rotary valve, is shown by the two half-dises in the upper Tight corner loug with the core box needed for casting the hollow intake ports in this part, The main end hearings, the rotary valve, the connecting rod and timer patterns van be Sox, 1946 easily recognized, but the large black core box tnd the small circular part below it are nul 30 easily made out. This is the pattern and core box for the pistons, and quite a fine job it ts, for they must be made just so, with the pruper wall thickness on the upper part to receive the rings while the lower skirt must he thinned down to reduce the weight of these reciprocating parts, ‘The bosoca for the wristpin muat be cast on the inside and of course this must be allowed for in the core box. It can be readily seen from these photos that the patterns are complicated wid their construction a little beyond the ability of the beginner who is not well experienced in the ‘art of pallern making, When T had a set of castings, 1 studied them wall and compared thom with the blueprints until the working of the little engine was thoroughly understood. Thén, and only then, the machine work’ was started, ‘As a0 many of the engin emaller parts are fitted to the main cylinder block, it seemed best to start the machine work on this main casting. Tt was first cleaned up slightly with a coarse Mle so it would sit Tevel on the faceplate where it wae firmly holted, ag in Fig 6 Here the top of the casting was machined to proper height and faced smooth to form a compression.tight joint for the eyhinder head. The posi- (lun of the casting was shifted off center on the faceplate, as in Fig, 7, where the holes for the eylin- er liners were bored. "The photo chows & heavy steel dige mannted on the faceplate as a counterweight to balance the off-center work. ‘This is good lathe practice ae the boring can be ac- complished at higher speeds and greater wecurucy obtained. When fone hole was bored accurately to size the easting was shifted, prop- erly centering the other eylinder | |smooth to receive the end Leuring plates. ‘The cylinder liners, made up from @ cored stick of cust irun, were un- dertaken next. A solid bar can be Used as well hut it will require dei: ing before boring and will take slightly more work to complete Wait the cored piece. This was chucked ‘in the three-jaw, as in Fig. 10, where the cylinder Lule was bored smooth- ly and accurately to size First a heavy roughing ent was takon to got under the oxide scale, and this was followed by yeveral light cuts will very fine feed. ‘The boring tool was freshiv ground and keenly honed and a very fiue power feed used for the final cut in the bore ‘The work was then mounted on a mandrel held between centers, a3 in Serres ayn Meesrantes Fig. 11, w turned to cylinder bl were made eral thous light cuts food, earef press fit in If the li the eylinde and it, t Suse, 1946