I recently rented “Operating an Atlas Horizontal Milling Machine” by Rudy Kouhoupt from SmartFlix and I wanted to take a moment to review the video.

Topic: Operating a Horizontal Milling Machine (Atlas MFC)
Level: Beginner
Format: DVD (2.5 hours)

Overall I think the video is definitely worth renting, especially for anyone who owns an Atlas mill, or anyone who is new to horizontal mills in general. However, more advanced machinists might find parts of the video a bit slow.

There are two projects included in the video. A saw arbor and a clamp block (basically a fixture plate) – both are of Rudy’s design. Plans for both projects are included with the video and Rudy spends the second half of the video showing how to make the clamp block step-by-step.

ProjectsInMetal readers can now sign up for Machinist University through SmartFlix and get the first month free! That’s a $23 value. There is no obligation and you can cancel at any time. I’ve been renting from SmartFlix for a few years now and I have never had anything other than positive experiences. Click on the link above or the image below for details.

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My lathe’s tailstock has a lot of backlash (.006), a short throw (1.500), and sixty graduations (a number that has never made any sense to me). I’ve always found it difficult to drill to accurate depths.

For example, 0.875 divided by .060 equals how many rotations of the tailstock handle? It’s ridiculous to me that I need to do math (even simple math) just to drill a hole to a depth of 0.875. If my tailstock had 100 graduations things would be a lot easier … but it doesn’t. It has 60.

60? Really?

Now, about the backlash. I know what you’re thinking. Who cares about backlash in a tailstock? Apparently I do. My psychiatrist and I are working on that …

And yes I realize that 99.9% of the time the depth of a hole isn’t a critical dimension – but I’d still wanted more control and accuracy out of my tailstock.

At least, that was the case. But no longer! With the exception of the short throw all the other issues with my tailstock were resolved with one simple stop that you can easily make in an evening.

This project is very simple. The only thing that I can see tripping someone up is remembering to create thread relief for the cap screw. When you drill and tap for the 1/4-20 cap screw, you’ll want to also drill a .250 thread relief  to the halfway point (where the slitting saw will eventually cut) so that the dial stop is only threaded on one of the two sides. If you thread both sides the two sides won’t draw together when you tighten the cap screw.

I didn’t draw up plans because of the simplicity of the project and because each person will need to scale the project up or down to fit the size of their lathe. I did, however, make a build video. Let me know what you think!

If you make your own please post pictures on the forum.

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This is the third and final engine contributed by Jan Ridders of the Netherlands, a pressure controlled 2-stroke engine.

I asked Jan to pick his most simple designs in each of 3 categories, Stirling, Flame Eater, and IC.  This set of plans is for his most simple IC design, a pressure controlled 2-stroke engine. If you’d like to see the other two designs shared by Jan, they can be found here: Jan’s Coffee Cup Stirling Engine and Jan’s Flame Sucker. And of course, all of Jan’s other engines can be found by visiting his site, which is written in both English and Dutch.

Here’s an animation and a description of the principle behind Jan’s masterpiece (excerpt from Jan’s site):

A ball valve only opens when the pressure below the ball is higher then above the ball. For the upper valve this is only the case, and for a very short time, when the piston reaches the exhaust port. The pressed gas mix below the piston and between the two ball valves is injected then, filling the cylinder and pushing out the remaining burned gases. Before and shortly after that moment the pressure above the ball in the upper valve is always higher then below the ball. When the piston is moving upwards there is an overpressure above the ball (gas mix compression) and a lower atmospheric pressure  of the sucked-in fresh gas mix below the ball. When the piston is moving downwards there is a high overpressure above the ball due to the combustion (power stroke) and a much lower overpressure of the compressed fresh gas mix below the ball. So also during that power stroke the upper ball valve keeps closed until the piston opens the exhaust port.

So the timing of the process is exactly right and automatically controlled by the alternating pressures in the system. That is why I called this engine the “Pressure controlled Two-stroke”.

Here’s a video of the engine in action:

For more information on this engine (including construction tips and trouble shooting) please visit Jan’s website. Jan also has many other engines on his site and he shares his plans freely with anyone by request.

I’d like to say Thank You one more time to Jan Ridders for sharing multiple sets of plans with this site. By sharing your plans you’ve helped this site grow.

  Pressure_Controlled_2-Stroke_Engine_-_Jan_Ridders.pdf (5.1 MiB, 330 hits)
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[nms: stirling engine]

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