[SEL] Silver Soldering Failure

[Luke Tonneberger]

I'd like to thank everybody for the comeback on my failed silver solder 
attempt. For the record, I've sweated copper fittings and thats pretty 
simple. Anyway, I worked on a few more pieces of the model last night and 
put it all together to see how it fit up. It wasn't pretty. The piston makes 
a pretty serious popping sound at one point in the stroke. It binds pretty 
seriously in a couple spots. I think this is from the crankshaft not being 
square. I sorta felt that it wasn't perfect prior to my failed soldering 
attempt, but I went ahead with it anyway. After cleaning the piston, rings, 
cylinder and assembling it back together it gets a dirty gritty feel to the 
oil after cranking it over 15 or 20 times. I feel the aluminum I used for 
the cylinder is too soft. It is what I had on hand and figured if there are 
Briggs engines with aluminum cylinders then I could use that too. I could go 
on and on with the bad stuff. I'll spare you. I just don't feel I have the 
skills/knowledge to be a model maker at this time. I can draw them on the 
CAD, but I'll leave the bulding of them to the machinists. I've wanted to 
build a model for years and am glad I attempted it. I really learned alot. 
It might sound like I'm crying in my beer but I am not. I am not unhappy 
about the failed model or my decision to not build models. Just wanted to 
let you guys know so your not expecting to see a finished model someday. I'm 
sure I could make some parts over and have a finished running model. Just 
will not be happening at this time. I'll put what I have up on the shelf and 
who knows what I'll do in the years down the road. Here is a web site with 
some pictures showing some of the stuff I did and the progress I made.

http://www.oldengine.org/members/luket/model/model.html

Luke Tonneberger
Rockford, Michigan
USA