Yesterday I fixed up my rotary table, and made a successful test, so today I went live with it.
I finished the step on the outboard cylinder head, so that it fit nicely in to the cylinder.
Then I turned it round and dressed up the outside a bit.
I decided on just enough clean up to provide a flat surface for the clamping nuts when the time comes. I felt it maintained the "cleaned up casting" look. Maybe it should be cleaned up a bit more. Don't know yet.
Anyway, on to the rotary table, and spotted and drilled the bolt holes.
Something got out of position, because when I went in to deburr the holes, the chamfers are definetely out of synch with the main bolt hole pattern. Not that they will be seen on the finished engine, but these kinds of errors and mishaps really grind my gears. Must do better than this. I bet I moved the slip ring 5 degree dial collar on the crank handle - it is only spring loaded, and has has no locking screw. I may well add one to try and avoid this.
I thought I would make a start on this part.
Cleaning up and getting ready:
Lots to do yet.
Anyway, something that has been bothering me is the backlash on my lathe cross feed. The cross feed just feels really slack, and then today the backlash seemed to increase on the main carriage. When I turn the dial on the carriage, the backlash gets taken up, I can feel everything engage - but then I can turn the dial a bit more, feeling a little more resistance, before it really starts to drive. I was worried that a gear might be slipping on a shaft or something, so I have taken most of the saddle and cross slide apart. I want to just make sure everything is set up right before going any further.
It will be good just to look everything over and make sure all is well. Seems like I spend more time setting up my machines than actually making things.