Packard V-1650-7 Merlin

 In my previous post you got to see the casting and a few little machining operations, but I changed my mind on how I wanted to do the second stage. I decided to leave the casting as a finished part and then make a derived part from it to do the machining.  The benefit of this is that it provides a disconnect between the cast part and all it's hundreds of features, sketches, and legacy data and the work I'll be doing going forward.  This allows me to make changes to the casting that will, for the most part, remain completely disconnected from machining.  If I notice I forgot something in the casting, I can go back and fix it and it won't cause a cascading failure in the feature tree when it updates all the features that are below the change in the tree. The new part is little more than a dumb solid with no legacy data, however if I make a change to the original casting part it will update that dumb solid with the new geometry.  I'm also going to highlight the ne...

 I've been working on a model of the Packard Merlin in SolidWorks for a couple of years no, mostly just when I'm bored.  I think now is a good time to pick up work on it and thought blogging might help.  I've already finished three minor subassemblies. Clicking the link in the title of each part will take you to the GrabCAD page where you can download the completed parts. The Starter The Starter Engagement Mechanism and The Magneto Drive Assembly The Crankcase 618110 CRANKCASE - UPPER HALF I am currently working on my fourth assembly, 610995 - ARRANGEMENT CRANKCASE UPPER.  It's the largest assembly and part I've worked on so far for the Merlin, with the crankcase casting itself being the primary focus.   The easiest way to start would be to go over the other parts I've done in the assembly, which are the crankcase to head mounting studs:   Left to right they are 608502, 608519, and 608520. There are seven main bearings in the crankcase and each be...