My FE2b reproduction..

[John McKenzie]

Hi Pete ..That IS small , approx 1 T nominal rad ( 1/2 T inside rad ) ...
Once you have the first 90 deg. bend , .045 wire would need imediate support over quit a wide area .Supposing you get it round the 180 deg. mark , any further attempt to complete the rolling around to contain the wire is not likely to be sucessfull , and from the 1/4" given ( without calc.), seems like you'd end up with not much more than a " doubled over" flange , with a small wire buried within the edge position. This would , likely as not compress the soft ally' that encases it and the thickness at the edge would end up not much more than double thickness anyway ..
For all the added stiffness it would give around the hole , then youd just as well just use an ordinary double thickness overlap .
I would think no less than 14 swg wire as a minimum for the 1mm thick ally sht. you have , to give worthwhile results. ..10 swg wire would be better.
Best to see what other factors govern this area of the deseign .
The front face has quite a load pushing on it I'd think ?
Perhaps some study of photos of originals may reveal the sort of detail needed here...Regards John.

[Dogtail2]

Thanks John,

I think some experimentation might be called for here. I have not found any clear enough photos of the original yet.
I have some 2mm stainless welding rod lying around. Might try that to start with. Maybe still a bit small.

Pete

[John McKenzie]

[John McKenzie]

[John McKenzie]

[John McKenzie]

Hi all....The exhaust consists of 6 tubes leading to a collector tube with 2 streamlined outlets.
The original 160 HP Beardmore from " down under" arrived in pretty much "as new" condition , having only ever been run as test and more recently at various airshows in and around "Oz ", being carted around and demonstrated from the back of a pick up .
Due , ( so the story I was originaly told by David Lawrence of RAFM.) to preasure from " 'er indoors " , the beleigered owner wrote to RAFM , out of the blue , and asked if the'd like to buy it , as the afformentioned "other half" kept tripping over it when it was stored in the front room (parlour ).
After the exchange of £ 27,000 the engine the motor was put on display at Hendon ,in the same princetine condition that it arrived in , .There being need only of a light dust over as opposed to any sort of restoration .
It is understood from a (since scrapped )draught manuscript by R.Simpson of RAFM for the C&C new book on the FE , that further work on the engine was carried out by the assembly contractor who replaced the spark plugs with the correct type .
I will try and dig out a photo or two of the engine to show its excelent original condition and post it here ....To be continued..JM

[FOKKERJ]

Hi John,

Facinating Stuff!

I am new to this thread and need to play catch up.
Wood/Clean, Metal/Dirty & Oily. I can relate to that!

Great story on the Beardmore from Down Under.
I am looking at these images of your manifold exhaust/collector/headers, fantastic workmanship.

The few times that I do visit this part of the Forum, it seems that the answer for bending/pulling
(moving mat'l.) of Aluminum is to use heat. My experience was seeing people use dry ice to take the
Aluminum to an "O" condition.

This practice of taking the Aluminum to an "O" condition with cooling rather than heat was used in
an Aerospace envirement, so I do believe that they knew what they were doing and for good reason.
I am not a Metalurgist and really don't know.
Does anyone here know the advantage of one over the other?

Keep up the Great Work John, I look forward to more.

Best Wishes, Jay

P.S. John, are the "Bullit" shaped exhaust/collector tips spun, swaged, or fabricated?

[John McKenzie]

Hi Jay..( FOFFERJ ) and all,Before continuing with the exhaust narative , we can just linger on the " Aluminium" side of things for a little longer....
Most (not all ) heat treatable alloys can be sucessfully softened (of reasonable size , of course ) by torch methods* ; and they will naturally age harden over time . The time factor depends on the particular alloy ; Often this ageing time is inconveaniantly TOO short (ie,rivets etc. ) and the natural ageing process can sucessfully be extended , after heat treatment ,(when ageing immediately begins ) by immediate freezing /immertion in dry ice or in a domestic freezer ..It could be this removal from dry ice (but after 700F appx heat-treat't ), just before use , that you have witnessed .With non-heat treatable alloys and pure ally , these will work harden to varying extents and may be annealed by torch methods * @650F , and quenched (the rate of quenching is apparently not too important )in water or by a soaked rag .Unlike the above , "heat treatable alloys" are critical with respect to temperature and length of time of hold ...Therefor in these cases , in the absence of a temperature controled oven , it is safer to use special " temperature sensative crayons " to gauge the correct heat . Annealing to remove work hardening on the non heat treatable alloys and pure alluminium , can be done as in automotive work , by carbon deposit from torch , BUT the deposite must be very light as there is a greater danger of burning the sheet befor the thick carbon deposite (glowing orange glare/flame ) burns off ......Auto bodies are usually as thick as .064"..16swg (1.5mm) , whereas aero parts may be only .028"..22swg (.7mm) , and that is why I would recomend to mark with a piece of soap , or colour sensative (650F) crayon...(some use felt tip markers ,but the carbon content variation makes this uncertain ) ...All followed by quenching ...Giving " O " condition .As far as I know , there is only " Heat" treatement ....( The Ice bit as above )Regards to all * John

[John McKenzie]

Hi , Back on the FE exhaust , ;The tail cone would be an ideal spinning job , BUT I had trouble with the local spinning firm just kept putting off my " One-Off" jobs , that I decided that I would have to do it myself ,
It was too heavyweight a job for me to do on my centre lathe , without "knackering it " , and so I machined up a lump of steel stock into the inside shape , to use as a former for making it in a couple of fabricated sections , gas welding the parts and dressing it down onto the steel former .
After a good dressing over , and a "bit of a spin" via holding it on its mandrill in the lathe ..Useing only light preasure/burnishing , the sheet steel part was removed and the end that fits into the tubular body , was joggled down to fit , so that the outside is flush after the welding together of the pieces.
The tube itself is rolled up from 20swg (.037" ) Mild steel sheet ( as was the cone part )..It is joggled and the joint riveted with 1/8" MS rivets....Continued
..John

[John McKenzie]

..The two streamlined outlets are used on the 160 HP machine ,with a solid rear cone , whereas the earlier and 120 hp model had no side outlets but the rear cone was liberally drilled with very closely spaced rows of 1/4" dia, holes to allow for the escape of the exhaust gasses .
The ends of the streamlined outlets are rolled over with a 1/16" dia inside..in this case ,a wire was dispenced with .
The six tubular inlets were increased in size to 2 1/4" on the 160 as opposed to 2" dia on the 120 HP motor .
Both the inlet and outlets fit to the fabricated tube "collector " with snugly fitting " saddle " flanges and are riveted in place .
The six inlet connectors allow the tube "headers" to fit inside and are secured by 1/8" MS rivets .
Not show at this stage are bosses ,later to be welded to each of the headers , and haveing a slot cut through them , in order to locate the locking tab plates for the exhaust to motor "lock rings " ....These lock rings came as supplied with the motor .
Whith the rings positioned over the tubes , the ends are flanged up to face against the copper sealing rings ... Regards..John