Let's Build A Model Steam Engine : Flywheel!

[@stevedelmore2277]

“Keep the hotdogs out of the blender”😂😂 Gold! Seriously though Quinn, every video of yours I watch just demonstrates how little I know about machining! Top shelf as usual, highly entertaining and informative!😎😎

[@frogz]

proof she is a machinist and im not is the large chunks of hotdog missing from my phalanges

[@adamduerr1203]

Dang it. I paused just to comment on this. You're right. Absolute gold. My 3 year girl old fell asleep to this video tonight. Thanks for helping me help them know "Girl Power!" Quinn.

[@PatrickPoet]

I usually have the opposite problem believing I know more than I actually turn out to know. I finally took a beginning manual machining class at the local community college pre-covid, and it was really interesting and fun to find how many of my preconceptions were 100% wrong, and how many things were completely not on my radar but were actually quite important. I _did_ do better than most of the class after I got _past_ that and I put it up to all of the time I spent watching KZbin machining shows. The class was geared (see what I did there?) toward making a little wobbler steam engine and I was the only one that got a working unit done. I put that up more to poor teaching, sadly, that I was better equipped to overcome from all the before-mentioned KZbin watching. I spent the first 90% of the term helping others but at the end I realized I had to get my butt in gear or I'd have nothing to show for the effort. I was shocked that no one else got to the goal including people who at the beginning of the class seemed to know so much more than I did. The class needed a lot more structure and hand holding. We were kind of thrown to the wolves with vague diagrams and vaguer instruction by a teacher that was more focused on outside efforts than on teaching. He _did_ tell great stories about racing strange vehicles though. You'd usually find him somewhere in the shop telling someone stories about _not the class content._

[@johnapel2856]

Neatly done. And two incidences of "That's exactly where I wanted that to go." Laughed at both! Thanks, and Meow to Sprocket.

[@tdscwhelan]

The first 4 seconds of this video made the highlight of my day :D

[@brainsironically]

That music killed it!

[@captiveimage]

I love how you take us through the entire journey, even the bits that you do to make tooling that you end up not using so we [the viewer] can learn about the whole process, not just the cutting bit. It's such a joy to watch you work, as ever. :-) Happy New Year!

[@koltonmajor9195]

You probably dont care at all but does anyone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account..? I somehow lost the login password. I would love any tricks you can give me.

[@ezrajoel870]

@Kolton Major Instablaster ;)

[@koltonmajor9195]

@Ezra Joel i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm trying it out atm. Seems to take a while so I will get back to you later with my results.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

Well as someone who used to hang out at steam fairs and railway meets I can say that your flywheel has (proportionally) less visible "wobble" than many real flywheels on full size steam engines I've seen. Also nice to see experiments with fixtures, not something you see much on youtube.

[@jonfeuerborn5859]

Considering what castings are, that flywheel concentricity looks about as good as anyone could get it. Nice work!

[@OriginalHuchang]

Wow getting towards 75k subscribers now. Good for you. You absolutely deserve it.

[@friendlypiranha774]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have taught me more in half an hour than I learned in the last half year. As a complete beginner, I was about to sell my steam engine castings because I didn't think I would ever be able to machine them... EVER. Now I have an action plan of how to proceed. THANK YOU Blondihacks. PS: That flywheel is looking beautiful.

[@bradgotschall3259]

I’ll call it a win 😊. A friend builds a lot of model engines. He does his wheels on a faceplate as well and has a set of adjustable standoffs to hold the spokes away from the face to allow complete access to the rim as well as make up for slight warp in the casting and spokes. You’re coming down home stretch and looking great 👍

[@jackbonanno8186]

I couldn't agree more with all the positive comments you get. You are such a joy to watch and so talented, you don't dwell on mistakes, you just cast them aside and come up with a solution to fix them. You are so incredible forward thinking.

[@sheep1ewe]

Awsome! You are a realy good teacher and i think You are underestimating Your own skills to be honest.

[@VincentGroenewold]

What I almost love most about all this, is that you simply make your tools if you need them. So nice!

[@joeromanak8797]

Well, you identified tasks, established order of operations, overcame obstacles and created an excellent finished product, as is the tradition. I’ve heard many of your viewers remark that you are certainly full of wit. You make it look easy and we’re living vicariously thru you. No pressure here. 😎👍

[@soundmaster1966]

Your creativity and logic behind the clamping concept you gone with in the making is outstanding! What a lesson👍 Thank you for this great video. Really can not wait to se the machine running. Superb entertainment. Stay safe and healthy. Cheers from Germany.

[@RickMartin67]

Quinn I have very much enjoyed your and Joe's builds on this steam engine . You are taking the approach that most of us hobby machinists would . While Joe of course is a full time professional machinist . Can't wait too see yours running ( full steam ahead ) 😁.

[@netpackrat]

Beginning hobby machinist here, and I too have liked watching both, and have managed to learn things from both. I personally don't have a huge interest in model steam engines, but the sum total of both channels doing the same project amounts to a work holding extravaganza, and well worth sitting through for that alone.

[@oldbatwit5102]

Fabulous. I wouldn't have done it quite that way but, like most youtube experts, I haven't got a clue what I am talking about. Looking forward to the next episode.

[@crorivpro]

Your videos are a lucky find. I really enjoy watching and your commentary. If I'm not careful I might learn something. I've been building steam and gas engines for many years. I can't remember how many flywheels I've machined, but this PMR No1 would give me bad dreams for sure. Your method looks like a good solid way to approach this little monster. Thanks for posting these videos I really enjoy them and I appreciate the effort.

[@kipsimpson2332]

I just finished a big burrito and a diet Coke and was happy to see that you had a new video that I could watch as lunch settled. I got to thinking about how nifty it feels to have learned so much from your videos that are also just... I just feel nice watching them. You are a gifted teacher and I am so impressed with your lack of laziness. Your work has impacted me and I am thankful for you. And burritos.

[@Clough42]

Excellent result. That's one of the best-running model flywheels I've seen.

[@rexmyers991]

Your patience in achieving the proper set-up is what makes you a great amateur machinists. AND, we all get to learn along with you. Thanks

[@charlvanniekerk8009]

You are awesome! that fly wheel was no easy task and as always some good humor, a mill that seems to love lacking real estate and a heck of a lot of skill made for a very entertaining video. Thank you for this amazing series and this wonderful video!

[@cbrusharmy]

Your commentary is very informative to my uninitiated ears. Thanks for that.

[@wi11y1960]

This was the way I would have done it as well. With the exception of placing some brass blocks between the flywheel and faceplate. To hold the flywheel away from the faceplate. Good job that you did. Some one doesnt like what you did, tough. Let them go build one.

[@tonywilson4713]

Hi Quinn, another great vid in this series. This is a great contrast to how Joe Pieczynski did his fly wheel and a fantastic example of being able to do something by other means and still get a great result. Not everyone will have an adjustable 3 jaw or a face plate or a 6 jaw or many other things. I'm expecting my lathe in a few weeks and it will be all I will have at first so I'll need a different solution for that 15deg hole. But that's the beauty of this wonderful KZbin community - different solutions. In a year of insanity, despair and uncertainty you and the rest of this community have helped. From Australian thanks. 👍👍🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘

[@mikeness5074]

Very impressive!! The proof of being done well is how smoothly it rolled on the crank. When you have good balance proves how long it can spin freely without slowing down due to physics.

[@dirkpieterdemol-meulendijk6615]

I'm loving this series on the steam engine, can't wait for it to be finished and see it in action!

[@markloving11]

With regards to the unusual fixturing methods, as my grandad used to say, if it works, it’s not stupid! I love you vids Quinn, please keep em coming!

[@claytonl.harper4222]

Tapping holes in the faceplate will give you more setup options for hard to hold parts. Very clever setup.

[@kristinamckeown5106]

Quinn, maybe you considered this and ruled it out. If you had a big enough piece (or two smaller ones) would it have been possible to bolt it to they faceplate (screwed from the back) and then tapped holes in the front where you needed them, for toe clamps? Had to do this for a really large part once. Also an option for large soft jaws when the part is too flimsy to clamp with the jaws alone...

[@kristinamckeown5106]

Oh sorry, piece of plate aluminum...

[@CraigLYoung]

The first 4 seconds of this video my thoughts were Quinn is spinning her wheels again. Excellent use of the face plate.

[@doseven]

You had my thumbs up from the intro!

[@paulp96275]

Fantastic piece of engineering you are a very professional person I wish I was as good stay safe 👨🏻‍🏭🇬🇧

[@joecolanjr.8149]

End result....a workable flywheel!! Looks great from here Quinn!! Awesome job!! Can't wait to see it in action. Take care and be safe!!

[@regmigrant]

the gameplayers would be betting strongly on you, loving this series.

[@James02876]

I was half expecting to see your dremel show up somehow mounted on your cross slide to get through the scale. Great video, enjoying the series!

[@craigtate5930]

Love the way you made your drill bit extender with the loctite. And the faceplate use was a great idea

[@millzee60]

Cool, a lot better result than some others I've seen.

[@MaxWattage]

Looking pretty fly, for a white metal wheel

[@artnickel7624]

Mother Invention.❤️❤️❤️ Love that drill extension!

[@MadeInGreatBritain]

You made a lovely job of that

[@randynovick7972]

Very exciting and surprisingly complex! Many thanks.

[@johnsherborne3245]

Thanks so much for the insights in your thinking. Well done cracking the shell of chill iron. For what it’s worth I found a home made angle grinder holder very useful, it clamps to the tool post and is great for dealing with hard stuff. I still have to work out how best to manage tool feeds, but as a solution it keeps coming back!

[@tonyschiffiler4816]

Very nice machine work. Thank You.

[@LordPhobos6502]

'Shop rag spider' 👍❤ Reminds me of my first lathe... which was a cordless drill and some scotch-brite for cutting & polishing brass tubing. If it works, rock on!

[@martinpanev6651]

Love how this is going! I'm almost finished with my PM2 Engine- First one I've ever done

[@madnessbydesignVria]

"Quatloos"... Love a good Star Trek reference! Always great content! :)

[@kevgermany]

Nice work. Maybe grind a flat on the crank for the set screw to bottom onto. Helps stop the flywheel turning on the crankwhen the screw isn't tight enough or works loose.

[@Blondihacks]

Yah, I think I will. That flywheel is very large for one tiny setscrew

[@kevgermany]

@@Blondihacks maybe a touch of blue loctite on assembly as well.

[@templer4295]

Thanks for the Stickers Quinn! Great video!

[@woutmoerman711]

This is not a job i am likely to do, machining a flywheel. But I learnt tons by watching this video!

[@mikey1196]

When I was still a maintenance mechanic intern at a small box factory, I wrecked a dial indicator by not pulling the plunger off of the part that I was attempting to "tap" into true on a WWII era South Bend Lathe. My mentor tried to stop me when he saw what I was about to do but he wasn't about to get his hand smashed either. I got a proper ass chewing and the parts guy made me order a new one instead of taking lunch with everyone else. Thanks for showing the proper way to dial something in.

[@johnkinnane547]

G'day Quinn greetings from Tasmania and happy New Year. You did a good job of that fly wheel I'm not sure how I would have tackled that and it was a poor casting which made it worse, but you came through on it good to see you again the steam engine is looking great take care stay safe kind regards John

[@BritishBlacksmith]

thoroughly enjoy the number of washers used in this project

[@richardlincoln8438]

i appreciate Your sense of humor. Thanks for sharing.... 👍💪

[@kolbroshop884]

The trick with rag, instead of spider in the back of the spindle, is pure homeshop gem... nice...

[@StyxHackshop]

Mate, that flywheel rotation looks amazing. Very impressed with the result from that setup.

[@ritaloy8338]

I can see where this did create some headaches for you. As someone who is a supporter on Patreon Thanks for the stickers.

[@davecross4321]

I struggled with flywheels until I worked up this method. Make a disk of plywood smaller than the rim with a hole in the center big enough to work on the hub. This disk goes between the spokes and the faceplate and keeps the rim off the faceplate. Next cut a disk from sheetmetal (1/4 ") like the wood one and drill 4 holes to match faceplate through both disks to clamp everything together with bolts. Center casting just like you did. Cut away. Don't through disks away as you will use them again.

[@Blondihacks]

Yah I looked at that method for this, but there was no room. The whole flywheel is only 1/2” thick and there’s no overhang on the rim. Nowhere for the wood to go.

[@daviddeangelo1330]

LOVED the video! And many thanks for the update on the current Triskelion exchange rate. I still had mine at the old rate of $5 to 73 quatloos.

[@dominiquewilk6894]

Vraiment super 👌. Bonne Année

[@georgewolf7063]

Yay! It's actually a beautiful flywheel, considering what you had to work with. ;)

[@paulmorrey733]

Thanks Quinn - great start to the new year

[@markwatters6875]

Another successful job done. Well done Blodi. Keep them great videos coming mate.

[@rpavlik1]

Great as always! I'm getting quite proud of this thing we're all building here 🤣

[@orcasea59]

Nice! It's fun to see your skills and confidence grow as time goes on. I look forward to seeing the journey :)

[@samcoote9653]

a few challenging setups in this one Quinn but as usual you came out on top, looks awesome! and love that you took the time to remove as much runout from the flywheel as possible :)

[@rhavrane]

Bonjour Quinn, Good job ! Having tools is one thing, knowing how to use them is another. You have both, I have neither, so I envy you and follow with great interest your ideas for shaping these kind of big pieces. Furthermore, you are able to drink a cup of tea with one hand and saw with the other, you could also be a great pianist :+) Amicalement, Raphaël

[@johnstewart-rixon2374]

Excellent series, I can't help feeling the engine would look much better with studs and nuts not slotted screws

[@Blondihacks]

Yah, I may replace those at some point. The slotted screws aren’t as nice

[@RockingJOffroad]

That was challenging! As usual you prevailed!

[@C2DSolutions]

Another way of machining this would be on the mill with a rotary table. You can then use carbide endmills for the hard cast.

[@Tinker001]

And THAT is why I just store all my tools in the chip tray.

[@PorchPotatoMike]

Lookin’ pretty fly!

[@mrdickntities81]

Thanks for the video! Buying a lathe since you have inspred me into machining 😁 (sorry for bad english)

[@davidowens8829]

I'm working on my engine, and was doing the spot face in a similar way to yours. Then my milling machine gave out the magic smoke. I think it's time for the flywheel since my lathes still good

[@scottrowlings5345]

“Keeps the hotdogs out of the blender”....I’ll have to use that in class! Happy new year, excellent video once again

[@mrstrawb]

14:17 New favorite safety tip analogy "...helps keep the hot dogs out of the blender." =D

[@MRRice-wz3bv]

Outstanding skill.

[@bbowling4979]

Another excellent video Quinn! Your production quality is top notch. Thank you so much for sharing this build with us.

[@danbreyfogle8486]

Getting closer, can't wait for the big TA DA!!

[@azlandpilotcar4450]

Lathe drive dogs do not associate well with shop cats: makes for a rough bearing surface. Liked the fixturing work. Perhaps consider an eccentric clamping set for the face plate as a future project?

[@TheMechanic626]

Loving this playlist 👍 great work as always I can’t wait to start one myself.

[@assessor1276]

Very nice - clever set-ups!

[@steveallen8987]

If you get inclusions that are too big, fill them with JB WELD before doing your finishing pass. With a difficult hard scale flywheel like this I find the technique I use to turn very small diameters from larger stock. Position the tool with the cutting edge parallel with the face plate and touching the OD of the flywheel, now pull away from the flywheel and feed in the cross slide to take a deep cut, check that the tool will cut material for the full rotation( no intermittent cutting or this won’t work) now start cutting, all the cutting force should now be in Line with the lathe bed so it shouldn’t move the casting on the faceplate. Also you are digging right under the hard scale. I had an irreplaceable flywheel from 1910’s that was hard as glass , it had a big casting mark where the riser had been hacksawedn off. The lathe wouldn’t touch it so I rigged up a turntable to a workbench and clamped down an angle grinder to grind this down to size then I tried this technique, it feels very very aggressive but is much easier on everything except the nerves. Steve. Ps one way to stop the casting sliding is to place coarse Emery paper pads between the casting and the faceplate, rough side to the casting. . One more thing, Check out this little baby for drilling those awkward grub screw holes. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193705210551 A bit of machining to fix into the tool post and voila.

[@christtophek9487]

you make my day... or night ! I did not know that it's was so fun to watch a flywheel ! keep going keep machining and all the best for 2021 !

[@vincentguttmann2231]

Haven't watched it yet, but what I can already say is that the stars really lined up this time: I just finished watching Clough42's video when this went up

[@joeypoortman3312]

His whole crankshaft wobbles like crazy did you see that ? :D

[@debonh3828]

@@joeypoortman3312 that wasn't Clough42, you are referring to a guy who knows nothing about steam engines,

[@joeypoortman3312]

@@debonh3828 Indeed!! Got them mixed up, but you know who i mean then ;) haha. Clough42 is a perfectionist machinist!

[@GoCreatehms]

Nicely done! A very satisfying part to make. Great video!

[@timbrocklehurst875]

Wooo! Blondihacks is on!

[@bobaloo2012]

Don't forget you can hold drill bits in collets, sometimes that comes in handy for clearance problems.

[@Blondihacks]

Indeed, I have shown that on my channel, but most drills are odd sizes for collets.

[@analog_music_lover]

Dynamic balancing is the next step for a perfect flywheel.

[@1bmwrider]

Another awesome job. Thank you for posting.

[@ch34pskate16]

Great stuff girl! Thanks for the video.

[@dieseldave564]

I am not a machinist, I just watch them on KZbin. Question: Why didn't you simply keep the reamer in the tail stock and use it as an indicating pin when you flipped the flywheel to the other side? Would it have not at least got your fixture very close to the ballpark of running true and saved you from indicating so much??

[@dieseldave564]

@@UncleKennysPlace I see your point. But using that logic, when Quinn used a cutting tool as a gauge pin, isn't that committing the same crime in a different point of view?

[@hairyfro]

Your wheel is looking pretty fly.

[@kandkmotorsports]

great job with all the thinking ahead and little details. BTW love your humor!

[@larrycherrington7338]

Nice job. I like it

[@christinehandysides6628]

use a boring bar upside down on back side of your tool post. you can machine a much larger diameter.

[@ronaldroberts7221]

I am learning a lot here, thanks! I am waiting for you to run out of ideas for video subjects, and then you stumble across some articles on solar Stirling engines...

[@Blondihacks]

Stirling engines are super cool. I’ll surely build one at some point on the channel

[@Clackvalve2]

I know you made this video over a year ago but this may be of use to someone. I am building a Traction Engine, when it came to the fly wheel, as you mentioned the outside face had to be slightly domed. I found the best way to create the dome was by hand, I botched up a scraper by using an old file, and about 2-3 degrees of relief and it5 worked great. I have to say, I was using Harrison M300 (Small industrial Lathe) at my engineering club. I'm not sure if it could be done on a hobby machine. I guess if you have good stability it could be done.

[@madmat2001]

If you intend to paint this engine you might consider filling in the inclusions with a filler of some sort. At my job we'd use Belzona as it's as strong as the iron is (and will be under load) but as you're just after aesthetics you could fill it with any number of materials. Metal putty, J.B. Weld, Bondo, etc. Just a thought.

[@Suinsap]

excellent, as always. I didn't understand why the 15° tilt

[@bernardwill7196]

Happy new year to you and your family .

[@formdog9861]

that came out great also addicted to this channel how does that happen lol thanks for the videos