Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

It came out great, very well done Bruce!

How did you make the steamchest on the cylinder...
Did you drill and split a solid block of brass, or did you happen to have a fitting ball nose end mill?

I do have several ball nose end mill bits , none were a perfect diameter for the cylinder , so I used a slightly undersized bit & "crept" up on the cradle fit. I made it just a little loose to compensate for the solder fill , I got lucky because it worked well . I had made 2 cylinder cradles, but only needed the 1st one. the pivot post is threaded into the cradle & the whole thing (cylinder & all) was soldered together at one time. the cylinder is one piece Brass. the piston connecting rod is threaded into the piston , so I had about 1/8" adjustment to fine tune the fit for optimum running. the piston was such a tight fit that although it would go into the bore ....I couldn't get it in very far , I hadn't drill the steam port into the rear of the cylinder & it was compressing air when I tried to push in & it would just pop right back out, until I drilled the steam port...lol.