Machining a Model Steam Engine - Part 5 - The Crosshead 

Thanks for the metric conversions !

Its been a real education to see how a professional would go about the processes of machining this part. Brilliant explanation - as usual. Thank you Joe

It’s always satisfying to have another component finished and put it in the done box. I lost count how many parts I had to make on my project but I got there in the end. Nice job joe.

Professional. No wasted motion!

Another awesome lesson, especially sharing the dents and features, traps for young (and old) players. Thank you Joe

Joe, Once again, you havre amazed me with your setups not only visually but also the indepth explanation. It really makes sense once you explain it. Thanks for your presentation.

Beautiful It’s a work of art! Kieth Appleton says every piece of a model, is a model in itself.

Yet again, a brilliant instructional video. Thank you once again Joe

Soo many great lessons in this series 👍I am absolutely amazed. Thank you Joe

I pretend it's me doing all the good work, and then I'm proud of what I've done. Thanks !

Thank you for the metric! I am imperially challenged and it really helps give an idea of how large (small) the parts are.

This series is a master class! Thank you Joe Pie

Joe, I've been making models for nearly 40yrs, all self taught, boy I just wish that I'd had the internet and your experience to call on before. I've sure been making parts some dumb ways before, thanks for all your instructional videos especially the latest ones on machining these odd castings. May my precision now be as good as yours.

thanks for the video Joe- use of jigs was interesting and the deformity from the copper was alarming. Glad to see PM research left a comment on hardness as well

Thanks Joe for your time, knowledge and efforts.

Thank you. Glad I turned in on your channel again. I bought a lathe mill drill couple years ago to learn to make madels. Thanks again

Not to put the other video guys down but it sure is great to see somebody who is not a cork sniffer get in there and get the job done like they meant it without playing games. . You da' man, Joe. Keep kicking butts and taking names my brother.

Its a real art form to work with castings, even if they are refined plaster or investment castings. In the Aerospace business we spent big bucks just making fixtures that would establish the starting datums to machine from. Thinking through the entire machining process and proper fixturing can save you lots of headaches and scrap parts.....well done Joe.

Still making it look so easy, great explanation of how and why....

Outstanding as always Professor ,Thank you

Thanks Joe. Highly anticipated by me. The cross head and slide surfaces are the hard-to-do yet 'make or break, so I must get it right' for an engine. I am looking forward to the remaining engine videos.

Thanks Joe - was amazed at the deformation from the copper wire!

Thanks Joe! Showing how to work with the castings to establishing reference surfaces, and then using them is very instructive. Also, there is something beautiful about sand cast parts :-)

Great work. Soon my DIY mill will be ready, so I will order this kit, to try it out. 🤩

Joe, you're an artist! Beautiful work!

I'm really enjoying this series. You make all of your actions make sense and certainly impart practical wisdom. I'm a little smarter after watching video..thank you.

As usual, I learned a few things from another of your videos Joe. For the record, I hit LIKE before I watch any of your videos just because it’s a given! Cheers from the snowy Eastern Arctic of Canada.

Really appreciated the square collet instruction and other minor but important little details. Most of my experience has been lathe and family large horizontals so the intricate work is indeed intriguing,. Thanks oe

Job well done. I have learned a new way of doing this part. I am enriched.

Nice touch with the blast blending the file area back to rough casting look.

That tip with zeroing the callipers was very helpful, no doubt I’ll be using that

Nice Video I was blown away when you showed how aluminum and copper wire damaged the part!!!

Joe, I would really enjoy seeing how you tackle the frame. I wouldn't worry too much about doing something that's "already been done" - I think people are really looking for *your* take on it.

@Joe Pieczynski - Thank you so much for the legends with metric numbers converted from the originals. I hope that could help many more people besides me. Very kind of You.

Thanks for the video Joe.

Your machine work is well over my head but I still always learn something, thanks Joe

"for you men, and women..." - great. Another masterpiece. Thank you for your time and effort.

Hey Joe, another great video thanks for sharing. I was surprised to see the casting being deformed from the copper and the aluminum as well. When I was a young guy learning become a tool maker and then eventually a tool and die maker one old-timer back in the day showed me a trick then and that was use a thick piece of leather belt to clamp up against to keep the pieces from being damaged as well as to keep them from moving in the vice. I see that you take pride in your work as well as myself, keep up the good work and can't wait to see more of your videos.

I really love and enjoy the problem solving of machining complex fiddly parts.

It's very illuminating to see you do these small parts. And the attention to detail. Thanks for posting this. One of the things I remember hearing is to treat every part as if it is it's own model. It helps me keep perspective. Hopefully the precision out stacks the errors! If I do it by eye, I'm not really interested in precision. It'll look like a steam engine, but it won't run like one. If I'm putting in the effort, I want it to run like a precision machine, too. Otherwise, just hang a picture of one, it's quicker.

Another video with great content, AND machining techniques. Great CAMERA WORK ....BTW. Thanks for spending this time with us, and sharing....!

Another educational voyage. The approach was extremely useful. It makes a whole lot of sense to think these things through before carving into it. Thanks for the lesson.

I watch a few channels that do precision machining in metric and just realized the humor of you putting the metric dimensions to the nearest micron (0.001mm). There's nothing wrong with it at all; it's just realizing 1 micron is ~1/25th of a thou. I'm somehow reminded of my dad (a surveyor) complaining about civil engineers dimensioning a soccer field to the nearest thousandth of a foot or some such.

Fantastic video! I really like that you show the entire process,"warts and all"! I'll use a trite comment of Simply Amazing!

Very good Joe - thanks. Hope you are enjoying this glorious weather we are having...

I like your presentation. Explaining why or how you approach each machining operation is very helpful. Thanks.

Thanks Joe Great video, excellent information

Nice Job Mr. Pieczynski.... no one will know about those micro blemishes unless you point them out! Us model builders strive for perfection, but it's real hard. "Murphys Lore" often prevails! Model Engineering is an art form, preserving a scale appearance whilst achieving mechanical functionality. Really appreciate all the fixture tips. (p.s. I also noticed there was too many commercials)

This is just as entertaining as This Old Tony! Completely different sense of humor, too. It's nice to have a break from the nincompoopery found on TOT. I'm kidding of course.

OK Joe, after watching that other video, I understand why you are making your own series of videos on this model steam engine. As an ME/AE, I would much rather deal with a machinist who tells me why they did some things a certain way instead of just interpreting a drawing and complaining how dumb the engineering is. People need to realize, that even though a Mechanical Engineer is taught from very early on to always consider the viability and therefore the possibility of creating a certain part, with what tools they have available, that sometimes we depend on the machinist to think above and beyond their accrued skills, to inform us if adjustments should or are needed for the successful manufacture of certain parts. This is why communication is key when dealing with complex parts. I Love your videos. After 25yrs of engineering I still learn so much from them.

Thanks Joe for the awesome videos.

Oooh, you're doing a bit of a Clickspring at the end shots. Love your work 😃

"just hit the numbers and you'll be fine" I'll take that to heart.

Per PM Researc, "Thank you for your interest in our products. The bronze we use to cast our parts is NS#C93700 Heavy Lead, Tin Ingot." From Internet sources, this is essentially bearing bronze. The yield strength of C93700 ranges from 93 to 172 MPa. Typical copper electrical wire is 180 MPa so you need something softer than copper wire to prevent deforming it - lead solder maybe? Great video.

Thank you Joe for showing those "apprentice marks" from the copper wire!! Everyone needs to see that even proffesionals make mistakes sometimes and don't always get it right first time.

You're an artist, Joe

Hi Joe, just discovered your channel. I am not a machinist and have zero experience with operating machine tools, which is just as well since I suck at math. I do find it fascinating, whittling parts out of metal. Thanks for sharing.

Looking good. Enjoying the series.

The big thing I learned from this edition of the Joe Pie Show: whistling is apparently is the machinist’s description of “reciprocating motion converted to rotating motion”... fascinating. 😉

Hi Joe, A good video… I like that you were considering the cosmetic aspect of the project… Also, it was great to see you using hand tools (the files), It reminded me of my apprenticeship where I spent the first 8 months of 4 years filing, needless to say that was many moons ago. Take care Paul,,

Joe i really enjoyed this (TOP MAN) great job mate

Thanks again Joe, enjoyed as always!

Really like your channel Joe! Always looking for something new from you in my feed!

A thought: Usually, great care is taken to have the print match the actual part and capture unexpected deviations. Once the part is finished, the revised drawing smooths the path to subsequent builds. You might show your viewers how to red line a drawing. This may be the only time many of your viewers get insight into the management of command media. BTW I use Popsicle sticks to avoid indenting soft materials. Cheers.

Great discussion/demonstration

The casting material is most likely gunmetal not bronze and is quite soft but is a good bearing material for this application. Copper work hardens so could easily be harder than the gunmetal.

Awesome work Joe, thank you!

and thanks you for you help and knowledge really appreciate you

Nice build as usual Joe! Considering how soft that warm butter turned out to be, I think I might have considered squeezing it in the vise to move much of the displaced metal back to where it came from before using the file. Not that it really matters much.

Honestly thought you would do the pin bore first, but I see how you did it and great work!!!

Another great video thanks Joe!

Well thought,well done.Thank you.

I'm not kidding when I say Hand Filing Technique is away underrated. Hand Filing is the most "zen dependent" operation. It's very easy to mess It all up and perfection depend on controlled complex movements. At 5:05 You'll can see some of that "efficient ballet". I'm still impressed.

Another great video Joe!

The cross head is the most forgiving parts in the dimension of thickness. the important dimension is from the center line of the piston rod to the bottom slide surface. I have two ten hp. engines and the top dimension is made right with shims. there is no shame in the end result of your cross head perfect in every way. the 46 minutes was like a blink loved it.

cant wait until it's done and working

Aloha Joe I have made several of this company's models and casting offset is one of the major problems, and your are right many times your dimensions are not possible to obtain, but there is always a preferred surface that needs to meet print dimensions. I wish your had done this a few years ago, before I started making these models, try their shaper or milling machine kit!!!

Always impressed Joe...If u were a tool Id have 2 of them... or more.

Great video Joe! thanks!

Before I start this video I just need to say OMG..... HOLY (enter expletive). I just watched a video from another RU-vidr working on the cylinder casting. Wow!!!. Ok now I'm going to watch an artist.

Another splendid video :-) Thank you for including metric measurements. I can now understand the dimensions you are working to. However, it saddens me that this steam engine is highly unlikely to ever be run on live steam. Perhaps some kind soul will send Joe a PM Research BLR-2 boiler kit - what a fascinating project that would be!

And all at once I thought... wait... that’s just a big freakin fancy clevis... 🤯😂

Those castings can be a bit of a nightmare to start establishing the principal dimensions so every edge will clean up. Its been years since I have made such a model but I did used to spend some time marking out the casting and hole centres to work out my positions of the first features to be machined. The problem is if you had moved the pin hole back you would have had to clean up the outside radius to centre the hole on the boss but then lose the casting look, although I thought your shot blast finish looked really good. Its a personal thing but sometimes I think the casting finish can be a little too rough for scale models and also casting relief angles can be too prominent. Excellent videos by the way, a really good balance between progress and machining footage.

When you set the cutter height using the feeler gauge - what kind of slip fit are you looking for? A slight drag, or a decent binding? I realize it's a feel thing. Thanks for the content!

The brass grade is "Gunmetal" or "Red Brass"...butter soft. Works like Babbitt Metal. The Part Nests are a wonderful fixturing tool, Thank you!

A common misconception hobbyists have with these old kits is thinking they are designed with specific skill levels in mind, like modern hobby kits are. With these old steam engine kits, the design is the design, and you got what you got and dealt with it. If you didn't have the skill to swing it, you'd scrap it and have to resort to shenanigans to hopefully salvage it into a working state. That's simply how it is with these old kits. This particular kit is not of amazing design quality, and has a lot of poorly thought out dimensioning practices probably because the blueprints were made to fit the prototype, rather than the prototypes being refined to fit a well designed blueprint. Because of that, this is a pretty advanced kit, even though it might seem simple at first, especially to a hobbyist who doesn't know what to look for. For a machinist, a lot of these castings are simply a slog to work with, because we could make something from solid stock with less workholding effort. Additionally, I see a lot of people pointing out having a "big expensive shop full of expensive tools." That doesn't make it any more or less possible to build this kit, it just makes it faster. If you really wanted to, you could make this kit with nothing but hand tools and a drill press. It would take forever, but it could be done.

Another great video Joe. Love the way you discuss your approach and plan the sequence of operations. Knowing what you know now, what material would you have used to hold the part since copper and aluminum are harder than the bronze? The leather mentioned earlier seemed like a good idea.

Thanks Joe

I zero the DRO with the cutter on the top of the parallel then the DRO reads part height directly.

Awesome...thanks....I would have lost the bar bet on copper deforming this material!

Not quite the same as the full size original pieces they probably setup with some wood blocks, wedges hammer, level, scibes, and a trained eye. :-) I got to use a vise to hold a part last week, I had almost forgotten how. LOL

Nice I really enjoy these

Nice work.

looks pretty good

Really like your content, Joe. There's always something to learn, other ways of doing things. BUT, and it is a Big BUT, there was 13 add breaks in your video. I think there would have been more if i had not jumped as soon as was possible! I think i've watched every video you've done, just about. But if this is youtubes direction, 'im not going to be there, sorry. Carl from Oz.

Thoroughly enjoyable!

Joe, two cures for the bronze crushing; lead sheet for the shim. or make those "shoes" in pairs. poppy's workshop says HI

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you... for the metric. Not a lot of Americans do that when they are the odd one out.

Greate work Joe

@JoePieczynski You or your father/grandfather/anyone has arrived from Poland? Great series with steam engine.