It might not look much, but the first cuts on the mill have been done. These will be the radius of the conrod as the thickness increases to the eyes of the big and small ends. A simple groove on the rotary table.

Except that nothing is simple is it? The mill isn’t big enough to do the slot in one go, the job would hit the body of the mill. We had to do one half from each side. Hard to explain in words, but obvious as a dog’s doo-dahs when you see it.

Big end done on both sides, on to the little end next.

We took turns as its quite laborious. I’d not operated such a large lathe before, it was good fun!!

Plenty of swarf came off and there’s plenty more to come. Or as Nick calls it – Man Glitter!

Usually being turned down has negative connotations, but not this time. Bob and I turned down the bar for the conrod to the right thickness and I drilled the mounting holes for the rotary table.

Not particularly difficult operations in themselves, but it’s a start and it’s something! There was no fanfare or ceremony, but I feel like there should have been. An actual engine component was started today and that can only be good 🙂

Now with the outline marked on you get a better idea of what’s inside that aluminium bar….

I’ve just come back from a break for my holiday. Back at it now so hopefully there’ll be a little more progress now.

Here’s a picture of the conrod. Granted, it may not look like a conventional conrod, but the conrod is there I assure you! It’s inside that big piece of aluminium, I just have to machine it out 🙂

Currently it’s on the big lathe in Bob’s shed. The first job is to thin it down to the corect depth, to take the radius off the sides where the bar was extruded and ensure that the sides are flat and parallel.

Then it’s onto the Miller, but I’ll upload more photos at that point. I might also get back down to the airfield this weekend, to try and remove some more parts from the engine there. But the apples are falling from the tree so Sunday could be a Cider making day!!

Bob is as keen as ever to help out. It’s like having a shed fairy!