Every once and a while you come across something that’s just pure genius. That’s how I feel about Norman Leonard’s reverse tumbler design for the Grizzly G0602 10×22 Lathe.

It’s not that Norman has broken new ground and done something that has never been done before. There are after all lots of lathes with reverse capabilities. It’s also not like Norman’s solution is all that complex or difficult. But therein lies the genius of it.

A few months back a forum member by the name of rdfoster asked if anyone had come across a design for a reverse for the G0602. This prompted Norman to casually announced that he was going to build a reverse tumbler setup for his G0602, which is the same lathe that I and many others own. The G0602 is an extremely capable lathe, and as such is very popular among the hobby machining community. But it’s not without its limitations. Cutting left-hand threads is one of them. Norman set out to remedy this, and he did so within a matter of days, all out of his head, following no plans.

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I’ve been working on Jan Ridders’ “Flame Eater” engine for over a year now. When I first started I didn’t have a mill (nor a plan as to how I would complete the project without a mill) but I started on the engine anyway. Eventually I turned just about every piece that could be turned and then hit a wall. Without a mill I could go no further. So the project got shelved for months while I searched for, purchased, and restored and Atlas MFC mill. A few weeks ago I finished my mill restoration and it was time to get back to my little Flame Eater.

Many of the pieces for this engine are easy to machine and require no explanation, but some are a bit more difficult. My intention here is to describe the more complicated pieces and the machining steps I used to complete them. My methods aren’t the only way to machine the engine, but if they worked for me, they should work for you as well. I’ll be documenting this project in several parts:

Part 1: The Cylinder
Part 2: The Piston, Valve, and Connecting Rod
Part 3: The Flywheel
Part 4: The Ball Bearing Support and Spirit Burner

So let’s get on with it.

Part 1: The Cylinder

Jan recommends using “pearlitic cast iron” or stainless steel for the cylinder, piston, and valve. I’d recommend trying to get cast iron if you’ve never worked with it before. It’s different than steel and very messy to turn, but I think that it’s properties lend itself well to the cylinder design. For one thing making the cylinder, piston, and valve from cast iron helps with lubrication because cast iron rubbing against cast iron is somewhat self-lubricating. With a flame eater engine you don’t want to use oil to lubricate the cylinder because it will eventually burn away and gum up the cylinder. Another benefit of cast iron is the fact that it was easy to cut the fins with a parting tool. The cast iron chips were short and broke away easily unlike steel, which often produces long springy chips that bind in between the two halves of the piece being parted off (or in this case between the fins).  In my opinion it would have been a little more difficult and taken more time to cut the fins in a steel cylinder. Whichever you choose, be sure to make all three parts out of the same material. If you make the valve and piston out of steel and the cylinder out of cast iron (or vice versa) they won’t expand and contract at the same rate leading to either a sloppy fit, or too tight a fit once the engine heats up during use.

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Those of you who frequent the forum may have already seen this nifty little project, but I thought I’d share it with the rest of you.

Vernon Peterson came up with a great idea when he decided to build a base for his Magnetic Drill. Personally I’ve always wanted a Mag Drill, but I’ve never had a project that required one so it was a hard purchase to sneak past the wife. But with Vernon’s base I could totally justify adding a Mag Drill to my shop because it would double as a second drill press!

Here’s a video of Vernon’s creation:

Vernon originally posted this project to the forum here, but I liked the project so much I felt it needed to be featured on the home page.

I hope it inspires those of you who own a mag drill to pull it out, dust it off, and turn it into a more frequently used tool in your shop.

You can download plans to make your own below.

  Mag_Drill_Base_-_Drawings.pdf (981.4 KiB, 205 hits)
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