How to Make Clupet Piston Rings at Peter's Railway

Christopher Vine’s series of 20 books tell the story of Peter and Grandpa building and operating a railway across their farm.
Combining real engineering with adventures and true stories, these books feed inquisitive young minds!
In this video, Chris Vine explains and demonstrates the secret of how to machine Clupet Piston Rings. These are designed specially to minimise leakage, but are notoriously tricky to make.

[ponkkaa]

It blows my mind to think that someone was able to imagine this, then design it and make it. We don't give engineers and machinists the credit they deserve. Well done sir!

[ricknijenhuis]

As a mechanical minded person with a machining background, I paused the video at the start to try to work out how to machine a ring like this but I was unable to work out all the details. I didn't think of turning the ring inside out and stress relieving it. Brilliant, thanks for teaching me this Chris. I don't need a steam ring but I might make one for the fun of it.😄

[rcdogmanduh]

Machining since 1971, manual then cnc. This here is what made me fall in love with the trade! Nicely done!

[cncshrops]

A daunting job broken down and explained in a way that de-dauntified it. Thank you.

[waynec]

If I hadn't seen you turn that ring inside out the way you did, I would swear you were lying about it! Incredible!

[diegovianavillegas]

That ring is a masterpiece. I've always used the Trimble method for my engine's rings. This ring makes the Trimble way look like a trivial thing.

[WithoutCertainty]

Thank you for bringing this to us. As an old steamboat builder, I very much enjoyed learning about this process.

[mikef.]

Great work, great explanation -- and Peter narrates it like an episode of Play School for mechanic-heads! I dips me lid.

[bobw]

Fascinating. Always interesting to see how something "impossible" is done.

[steveb]

Ha! Love the Super 7! The most versatile small lathes ever. The heyday of British design and engineering.

[savagebolt]

Excellent vid! The thought process, ingenuity, craftsmanship and patience that went into this is astounding. Thank you for posting.

[tfsupp]

I've made many rings for both steam, petrol and diesel engines over the years from the 50cc up to emergency hand forged 980mm dia with many from the 200mm to 600mm as I was a fitter & turner in a marine work shop and a ex marine engineer. But I have never made any of these and I was totally cringing as well as being initially confused as to turning them inside out, waiting for the snap. Thank you for this post I really enjoyed it and going to try one on my next little model engine for both the piston and shuttle. Thank you

[HaraldFinster]

Ingenious! Excellent explanation of the process and the underlying idea. A pleasure to watch.

[johnkerr]

chris, totally incredible and a great lesson in engineering , should be taught in the national curriculum

[robervine]

This has to be the most significant step forward in ring design and manufacturing for a very long time! Well done Sir 👍

[turbofan]

Mind Blown !
I hope there are young people learning these skills before the old guys depart.

[geoffmott]

I shall never need to make one of these, but I'm so glad to have seen it done.

[buckinthetree]

Absolutely genius work holding process. I will probably never need to make one of these, but I feel ten times smarter just by learning how it's done. Truly brilliant.

[BrucePierson]

That was very interesting. I'm a retired motorcycle mechanic and I still work on our own cars, but I have never seen a piston ring like that. It was certainly tricky to make, but you are well set up with your equipment, so you made it look easy.

[TK]

I've heard about these types of piston ring but never knew how they were made. What an excellent video.