Quote:
Originally Posted by jhowes
My son bought a line bore set up with forms to to pour the babbitt bearings. We don't plan on going in the business but we are interesting some young people to see how it was done in the past. So far they have been a part of resurfacing valves in the three step process and other mechanical examples. What we need now is the fixture to bore, ream, hone, whatever the rod bearing babbitt. Does anyone know of a fixture that we could buy without going into permanent debt? This is for demonstration and fun. So far it has been a blast. Jack
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Jack, I am only one of several professional engine rebuilders that frequent this forum, so my answers are just from my experiences and should not be considered the only answer but having something small enough for show & tell yet still be robust is going to be difficult at best. Maybe it would be best to have a vendor offer you a few rods in different phases of the rebuilding process for you to show.
If you do decide to bite the bullet and purchase some equipment for demonstration purposes, here are my thoughts. What I learned the hard way in this business is poor equipment sells for cheap money. Poor equipment creates poor results. Many older pieces of tooling can be restored (-which might be a great option for you), -and on some of mine that is exactly what I have done, but other machines are cost prohibitive to restore.
So to answer your question(s) specifically, you asked about machining the Connecting Rod 'babbitt'. I use a Storm machine to machine rods. It is a machine that was specifically designed and used in a production atmosphere to machine connecting rods. Including purchase price and restoration on the unit, I probably have $10k in it. To hone the wrist pin bushing, I have a Sunnen pin fitting machine. Many of these in worn condition can be found for cheap, but a good one of these that has an AG300 gauge on it will be in excess of $3k.
Both of those may be more than you are wanting to spend just for performing demonstrations. Therefore I would suggest in your situation, I would find/use a Bridgeport vertical mill to do both ends with the exception of final hone of the bushing. Since I believe you frequent the Model-T forums, I would suggest to speak with Dean Yoder there and let him post some pictures of how he fixtures and machines rods on his Bridgeport. If you have access to a Bridgeport Mill, this may be the best option for demonstrations
And finally, there is one or two items that you really need to do a quality job on rebuilding rods is a Straightness Checker and a Rod Press. While I don't have pictures on my phone of my press or straightener, I feel certain Herm will be along directly and he likely has pictures of his to show what to look for.