Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive

[crueby]

Thanks guys, I'm having a lot of fun on this build. Going a lot quicker than I expected it to. Combinationof being retired with more time and a summer with a lot of rainy days. Got to give credit to Kozo for great plans and tips in his book. Another few weeks and will be up to the chapters on the boiler - bit nervous on tackling that, but like the rest its one piece at a time. Thanks for the support!

[Steamer5]

Hi Crueby,
  Following along & enjoying the jounery! Pity we don't live a bit closer together, my youngest son scored the formers for the Shay boiler a few years back, it was Kozo's orginal one so maybe be a bit different, you would of been most welcome to borrowed them.

Cheers Kerrin

[crueby]

Hi Kerrin,

Be a bit of a long drive there!

Kozo's first shay used a very different shape boiler, since that was one from an earlier year. It was taller in back and had a different taper. Thanks for the thought though!

[crueby]

I got the lubricator pump housing silver soldered up and milled to shape - your basic little box, with a sliding lid. This pump is driven off an eccentric on one of the axles, and will send oil to the three steam chests. The pump bodies screw into the bottom of the box, and will have a spring loaded steel ball to act as a check valve.

The pump bodies were turned down from some hex rod, with a thread to go into the box and a protruding rod to hold the return springs for the plungers (made later).

After turning one end of the bodies, a piece of round bar was chucked up and drilled/threaded to act as a holder while turning the other ends of the bodies. To make sure it all stayed concentric, the holder was left in place till all three were done. The other end of the bodies were drilled in a sequence of sizes to form seats for the check valve balls inside, and finally tapped for the spring holders (made below).

Last on the bodies was to cross drill a number 60 hole at the end of the threads to make an inlet for the oil - this hole winds up just on the inside edge of the bottom of the box.

Fourth photo shows the progress so far, with two of the bodies screwed into the box. The sliding lid of the box is visible at the upper right - the hole in it is to provide a finger grip. The flange with two holes at the top of the photo is the mounting plate for bolting the pump to the upper crossbar of the truck.

Next up was to make the spring holders, which hold the springs for the steel ball check valve. They are made from a smaller hex bar (8mm), and were threaded one end, drilled for the OD of the spring, and then through drilled #60 for the oil passage. Nearly missed this step - Kozo does not mention it in the text, was wondering how the oil intake worked for a while and finally spotted this hole in one of the diagrams. Been a few cases like this from the book - the text is sparse in a lot of places - he tells you once how to do a procedure, then assumes you will remember things for the next time around. That is fine, but in places where he goes into great detail in the text on part of a piece he says nothing about the other portions. Still, better than having plans with no text!

The holders were then turned around, and held in the chuck using one of the pump bodies - the area of the hex remaining at that point was too small to hold securly in the chuck. The second end was turned down and threaded.

The last two photos show the pump body assemblies test fitted to the box. The steel rod through the box is the axle that the pump eccentrics (3 lobes, one per pump body) will fit onto. Lot of stuff to fit into a little box!

[crueby]

Got most of the rest of the lube pump done (waiting on an order of a bunch of sizes of steel balls for check valves, and viton rings for pistons/shafts/etc for the rest of the engine). The pump plungers are simple shafts with discs silver soldered up at the tops, to ride on the cams.

For the eccentric straps, was about to dig out some flat bar stock, when I noticed that Kozo milled his down out of discs of brass - I happened to have a piece just big enough left over from making the bevel gears, and split it down with a parting tool on the lathe to make two discs, one for each pump strap.

Before sawing the disc into two halves for top/bottom of the strap, I milled in some flats and drilled/tapped for the bolts that will hold the straps together. Doing it now meant that the two halves would line up correctly.

Then sawed the disc in two (not in the center, since there is a protrusion on one side to attach the conn-rod) with a slitting saw.

With the two halves screwed back together and held in the 4-jaw (one jaw turned around to give clearance to the lathe bed), I bored out the centers to match the eccentric diameter (the eccentrics were made along with the wheels, and are already on the axles).

Then moved to the mill, and held the strap from the inside with the 3-jaw on the rotary table, and milled the arcs on the outside, leaving the bolt extensions and the con-rod flange. Kozo did this without a rotary table (dont think he has one, never saw it in the books). He held the strap on a vertical post, and did a whole lot of plunge cuts, moving the strap a little around the post between cuts. Much faster with the table, though end result is the same.

Last step was to slot the attachment flange with a slitting saw.

Last photo is the pump assembly on the left, and the eccentric strap for the feedwater pump on the right. That pump and the hand-pump come next.

After that, the real fun begins - the boiler! Gulp.

[PStechPaul]

Nice work, especially since the parts are so tiny. Or do you have a monstrously huge hand? 

I admire your diligence, patience, and productivity. 

And I learn a bit more about setup and use of tools by seeing what you are doing. 

[b.lindsey]

Another nice update crueby!!  Thanks for taking the time to do such a thorough build log. I am really enjoying it.

Bill

[Kim]

That's a lot of work to get some small parts!  At first I was thinking that the bar stock would have made less swarf.  But then I realized that you were able to use up a short piece of scrap and turn it into useful parts.  That's not wasteful at all; that's recycling!  How very green of you!

Thanks for posting your progress,
Kim

[crueby]

That's a lot of work to get some small parts!  At first I was thinking that the bar stock would have made less swarf.  But then I realized that you were able to use up a short piece of scrap and turn it into useful parts.  That's not wasteful at all; that's recycling!  How very green of you!

Thanks for posting your progress,
Kim

Is 'green' another word for 'cheap'?! 

[crueby]

Nice work, especially since the parts are so tiny. Or do you have a monstrously huge hand? 

Yup - I am the Jolly Green Giant's little brother - the pump is really 4 feet across.....

After a while of working on small parts, they seem to get bigger - learned that doing ship models.

[crueby]

Got a start on the second axle pump, the boiler feedwater pump (there will also be a manual pump used to fill boiler and also to do hydrostatic tests).

This one is pretty straightforward turning so far - I noticed that so far on this build the vast majority of it has been mill work, very little lathe time, opposite of most of my projects.

The pump consists of two bars joined in a T shape, with check valves at each end of the crossbar for inlet/outlet, and a slide that will move up the body of the T to move the water. So far, have the parts made and test fit ready to silver solder together (burned my fingertips on a hot offcut from the plate, so taking a day before getting out the torch. Turned out to be a perfect detector for a slitting saw blade going dull - that sucker got HOT very fast rubbing on the brass, though it cut okay. The blade, a cheap one, had worn down the set of the teeth enough to rub. The plate is C260 cartridge brass, which did not help. This is about the last of the 260 brass sheet I had, be glad when that stuff is gone - much prefer the C360 alloy for everything. Wont buy it again if I have a choice!).

The flanges on the base plate are screwed in place for soldering, after soldering the base plate gets trimmed down to final dimensions and the screws heads filed off.

[crueby]

I just got back from a trip to Cass, West Virginia. There is a state park there that has 5 operating Shay engines, an operating Hiesler, and a Climax that is under restoration. They take trains up the old logging rail up the mountain there (up to 4700 feet) - fantastic place for steam engine junkies! The track is so windy that from one car or two back you get a nearly straight side view of the engine, and the grades go up past 9 percent. I am starting to get a ton of photos off the cameras, will be uploading some of them later on today.... Below is one to get started, plus this one is a shot of my boiler all done - didnt it come out great? Okay, busted - it is one of thiers in the shop - might be the one from the Climax engine, not sure, may be a Shay boiler - they had one of each out in the shop.

Below are links to some videos from Cass of the trips on the Heisler and Shay engines. Great incentive to keep working on my model! Also took a ton of detail photos of thier engines for reference. Thier website is:

http://www.cassrailroad.com/

If you are anywhere near West Virginia, I highly recommend taking a trip over there to see/ride. I dont know of anywhere else with that many Shay's still operating regularly.


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D56DUJAcATs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D56DUJAcATs</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufAkbULIt1s" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufAkbULIt1s</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBnOhObSslg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBnOhObSslg</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcxlyrVsUxY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcxlyrVsUxY</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7uNDmel9U8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7uNDmel9U8</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEts5HV71xM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEts5HV71xM</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8rhUcCYV80" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8rhUcCYV80</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YkqtPhkNus" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YkqtPhkNus</a>

[crueby]

Okay, time to get caught up a bit - between a vacation week and time spent helping out with an illness of a relative, been away from the shop for a while. I got the rest of the parts done on the feedwater pump, which at last posting had the main parts blocked out and ready for soldering together. First photo shows the parts soldered up - you can see that the base plate extends out from the center body, that was to hold it all together for soldering.

The next shot shows how the base was milled back to final dimensions, same width as the center body column.

Then, with the body held in the lathe chuck, the column was drilled and bored for the pump plunger, then the column was cut off to length back at the chuck end.

Last parts to make were the top cap and valve assembly for the bottom. The bottom assembly was drilled/tapped and shaped on the lathe, then taken over to the mill to cut in the hex portion. You can see that there are two hex parts - the bottom one will become the retaining nut. after the rest is parted off.

Then a photo of both the lube pump and the feedwater pumps all put together. Little more cleaning up, a coat of paint, and they will be ready to install.

Also got a start on the hand pump, which will be used to do the static test on the boiler later, and also will be mounted inside the tender to use in filling the boiler before use - it will not show in the final model without raising the tender lid, so it will not be fancy - just a larger version of the axle feedwater pump. Got the first couple parts blocked out and ready for soldering up....

Should be getting back in the shop more regular next week, I hope.

[b.lindsey]

Loved the videos Crueby!!  All three classes of engines...Shay, Climax, and Heisler are fascinating to watch, each in their own way. Thanks for posting those. Nice to see you back on your build as well.  Seeing the real ones at work (or play) must provide some great motivation as well.

Bill

[crueby]

Okay, finally getting back in the shop again on a regular basis (minus time today for a canoe trip - weather this week has been amazing for this time of year).

Got the main body for the manual feedwater pump (used for boiler refill during use, plus will be used for static pressure testing) done. Started with the main pieces I showed last time, and silver soldered them together. Took a lot of heat for the crossbar through the rectangular body, lot of mass there to warm up. The baseplate will be attached later after machining, since it would not clear the chuck jaws.

With the bottom of the pump crossbar held in the chuck, the top end was bored for the valve seat, and the end tapped for the cap. Slow speeds used since it was so off balance.

Then, the bottom end was trimmed to length, and the top end held in the chuck to drill/tap the bottom end. Little tricky with the plate sticking out, had to make sure nothing got in its way.

Last lathe sequence was to chuck the rectangular body for drilling/counterboring the body. This hole will take the pump shaft itself.

The hole was bored out for the o-ring retainer (made next time).

The rectangular body could now be cut to length and milled off square.

The completed pump body, ready to solder on the baseplate. Next time I'll be making the top/bottom caps and the pump shaft/handle assemblies. After that, on to the boiler. (gulp!)