Author Topic: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive  (Read 194044 times)

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #525 on: February 19, 2015, 07:46:54 PM »
Well, Miss Piggy and I were pretty tight until she found out what I cook for a living  :lolb: :lolb:

E

Either bacon or frogs legs would get you in trouble with her!!

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #526 on: February 19, 2015, 07:59:14 PM »
Now to the heart of the engine - the pistons. They are bronze, pinned to a steel shaft. First photo shows a piston that has been drilled for the shaft, had the o-ring slot cut in the center with the parting tool, had the corners rounded, and is in the process of being parted off.

Second photo shows the first two pistons, one with the piston rod installed (cross-pinned and loctited). The thread at the base will be to screw into the crosshead.

After making all three pistons, spent some time fitting them to the cylinders. Two fit nicely, one needed a little shaving off from the bottom of the o-ring slot to get a good sliding fit. (photo 3)

Last part to make was a set of lock nuts for the crossheads. I did not have any nuts the right thread (M4) so made up a set from some steel rod. Drilled/tapped the center on the lathe, then over on to the rotary table on the mill to mill in the flats. (photo 4). Back to the lathe to part off a half dozen of them. (photo 5)

Last photo shows the pistons assembled and ready to go.

Next step will be to make the crossheads - good project to start fresh with tomorrow...

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #527 on: February 20, 2015, 05:53:35 PM »
Got a start on the crossheads today. They started out as bronze rod, turned to diameter with a smaller nub at the end which was drilled/tapped to match the piston rods. The ends of the crossheads are tapered just a little so they dont scrape off the oil on the guides - that just shows in the first photo.

Second photo shows the crosshead blanks all turned/threaded, one test fit in the guides.

Next step was to mill the sides off flat. Did first one side (photo 3), then the other. (photo 4)

Then drilled (photo 5) and reamed (photo 6) the hole in the side for the pin that will hold the conn-rod end.

Last photo shows the three crossheads so far.

Next step will be to mill out the recess in the end for the conn-rod...

Offline Tennessee Whiskey

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #528 on: February 20, 2015, 07:53:16 PM »
I've cracked a few jokes on your build thread,  I've tried to give praise sincerely,  but,  Crueby, I want you to know, this is one of the most inspirational builds I've seen in awhile.  You are using Sherline  equipment and producing Bridgeport and South Bend  (hey I live here) size and quality parts.  My hats off to you  :cheers:

Cletus

BTW the last time I called Miss Piggy,  they said she couldn't talk,  she had a frog in her throat  :lolb: :mischief: :naughty:
I

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #529 on: February 20, 2015, 09:28:16 PM »
I've cracked a few jokes on your build thread,  I've tried to give praise sincerely,  but,  Crueby, I want you to know, this is one of the most inspirational builds I've seen in awhile.  You are using Sherline  equipment and producing Bridgeport and South Bend  (hey I live here) size and quality parts.  My hats off to you  :cheers:

Cletus

Thanks!!

BTW the last time I called Miss Piggy,  they said she couldn't talk,  she had a frog in her throat  :lolb: :mischief: :naughty:

Good one!

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #530 on: February 20, 2015, 09:29:32 PM »
Here is the rest of the work on the crossheads. With them in the mill vise, drilled 3 holes across the end to remove the bulk of the material from the inner slot. (photo 1)

Then went in with a small mill and connected the holes and took it out to the design width/length/depth. With the drill having done most of the work this part went quickly, just had to check thickness of the outer walls with the calipers a couple times to see how much more to take off. (photo 2)

Third photo shows the change from no slot on left to slotted on the right.

Next steps were to take the bottom edge to shape. Started by milling out the center section. (photo 4)

Then, with the pieces angled in the vise, took off the slanted part on the sides. (photo 5)

Last step was to mill in a shallow groove on either side to form a groove to hold more oil. (photo 6)

Last photo shows the parts on the piston rods, one of them in place in the cylinder assembly.

Next up are the connecting rods and thier bearings onto the crankshaft. Once those are done, will be time to bolt it up and check the action - that will be a major milestone!

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #531 on: February 21, 2015, 12:07:23 AM »
Another great update Chris. Lovely work on the crossheads!!

Bill

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #532 on: February 22, 2015, 08:39:27 PM »
Got a start on the piston connecting rods. They are in two pieces that overlap above the crank bearing and are through bolted together. To start, got some stainless bars milled down with the fly cutter to the needed sizes, one set each for the top/bottom halves. (photo 1)

The stock for the bottom halves was left in one piece since they are so short. With the bar held in the vise, I milled out the top sections of each. This are is where the two halves will overlap. The bolts will go through the arms. By doing all three together it was easy to get the inner widths all the same, plus it was easier to align/hold in the vise with one long part. This was one of the few places Kozo did not show the setups for the milling steps, usually does for complex parts. (photo 2)

After milling the openings the three parts were sawn apart. Since the upper half needs to nest all the way into the bottom half, I swung the parts vertical and trimmed out the inner corners square. (photo 3)

Last step in shaping the part was to trim the bottom off to the final length. (photo 4)

Last photo shows the bottom pieces with the blanks for the top pieces. The lower one has the bottom sitting on it to show how they will overlap, and the rest of the conrod is sketched in. The extra width at the lower side in the photo will be used to hold the part when thinning down the upper arm (next time - got to get ready for an RC boat run with the club at the indoor pool up at the local Y, am testing out a bunch of changes to my submarine).


Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #533 on: February 23, 2015, 04:13:54 PM »
Okay, this is not about the Shay build, but a side project this winter - finally got the RC submarine I've been working on going well. First time out the bow/stern planes, which I had made to scale sizes, were too small to work well, so remade them larger. Also remade the sail/hatch area to take out some extra bouyancy. Working great now. Video below (no sound).

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8y6CJpsgY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8y6CJpsgY</a>

Service will resume shortly from regular Shay build channel....!

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #534 on: February 23, 2015, 04:38:21 PM »
That is most interesting Chris. I have seen a few of these at Cabin Fever at times and they are quite complex. Would love to see how you have arranged things inside the hull, etc.

Bill

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #535 on: February 23, 2015, 05:36:53 PM »
That is most interesting Chris. I have seen a few of these at Cabin Fever at times and they are quite complex. Would love to see how you have arranged things inside the hull, etc.

Bill

The hull was planked up with some cedar strips left over from a kayak build. The water tight compartment is a large lexan tube, with endplates sealed with some sheet Viton gasket material - the endplates are held in with studs threaded into the tube. For the through fittings from the WTC, I made up some brass fittings with o-rings at either end. The control rods back to the planes are flexible rods made for RC airplane/boats. The planes themselves are made from lexan, with brass rods through them to strengthen the thin areas and give a place to thread the pivots into. It is a static dive sub, meaning it has to be moving to dive since it has a fixed positive bouyancy (about 3 pounds of ballast in the bottom) and the hull outside the WTC is free flooding. Below are a couple pics of the innerds of it. The servos/etc are all mounted on a lexan plate that is attached to the aft endplate, slides out as a unit.

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #536 on: February 23, 2015, 09:37:21 PM »
Lot farther on the piston connecting rods today. Last time I got the bottom halves milled out, today started milling the upper halves to shape. First up was to narrow the bottom ends to be a snug fit in the gap in the bottom halves. Took down the ends with the side of an end mill... (photo 1)

With the bottom pieces pushed onto the ends of the top pieces, cross drilled for the mounting bolts.  (photo 2)

Bolted the halves together, and it was time to drill out the hole for the crank bearing. To keep the vise jaws square, put one of the other pieces on the right side as a spacer. (photo 3)

Then it was time for another little drilling jig - bolted a bit of brass rod turned to press fit in the bearing hole, and a guide hole the right distance up for the crosshead pin. Used that guide to drill the upper hole in all three conn-rods. (photo 4)

With the holes done, ready to start shaping the upper end down. First, set the piece up on its side in the vise. Here is where the extra width left on the one side of the blank came into play - that is how it was held. With an end mill, milled out the recess in either side of the upper arm. (photo 5)

Then, with the piece bolted down to a aluminum block in the 4-jaw on the rotary table, started to mill out the profile of the upper arm. The rotary table made it simple to line up each face with the table axis and take it to shape. The block was mounted so that the hole in the upper end was centered on the rotary table, so I could turn the radius at the end. (photo 6)

Next photo shows the first one milled to shape, and the second one ready to go.

Last photo shows it test-fit in the crosshead guide.

Next up will be to make the crosshead pins, and then start on the crank bearings for the lower ends. That will be a fun moment - get to reassemble the engine and get the whole thing spinning for first time (can't run with no valves yet, but close!)

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #537 on: February 24, 2015, 06:49:31 PM »
Last thing needed for the connecting rods were some smaller 2-56 nuts. The store-bought ones were too large, so they overlapped the sides of the rod (plus they just look chunky). So, drilled/tapped the end of a piece of stainless rod, and milled the flats with the rotary table. Got enough for 2 pair off either end of the rod. (photo 1)

Second photo shows the difference - set on the left is with the commercial nuts, the set on the right has the home-made ones - much more in scale, plus they wont project out and hit the crank webs.

On to the connecting rod bearings. They are made from bronze, in the same way that the main shaft bearings were made (shown in earlier posts). A piece of bronze rod larger in diameter than the finished bearings (to leave room for cutting it lengthwise) was milled flat on opposing sides, cut lengthwise, the cuts milled smooth, and the two halves soft soldered back together again. Then, that was chucked up in the 4-jaw so that the solder joint crossed the centerline, and the end drilled/bored out to size. The smallest drill possible to start the boring bar was used, so that it would not put much strain on the solder joint - on the first main bearing I went too large on the drill and popped the joint. Then the smallest boring bar I have was used to enlarge the hole out to the diameter of the crank pin. (photo 3)

After that, used the parting tool (well sharpened) to cut the recess in the center to match the bore of the connecting rod, and the bearing was parted off. (photo 4)

Last photo shows the first bearing test fit in the connecting rod. One down, two more to go....


Offline Tennessee Whiskey

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #538 on: February 24, 2015, 07:43:09 PM »
I really wish you could re-write this whole thread in book version,  I think we could sell it  :stir:. Hey Dave Otto, check these nuts out;Yo where's Stan?  Crubey your nuts look great,  maybe a shine next time before you let us see them  :naughty: :mischief: :lolb:

C
etus

Offline crueby

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Re: Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive
« Reply #539 on: February 24, 2015, 09:36:44 PM »
I really wish you could re-write this whole thread in book version,  I think we could sell it  :stir:. Hey Dave Otto, check these nuts out;Yo where's Stan?  Crubey your nuts look great,  maybe a shine next time before you let us see them  :naughty: :mischief: :lolb:

C
etus

Eek!  :paranoia:  Didn't they do a story on you on CNN for nut shining in public?

 

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