Author Topic: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco  (Read 87938 times)

Offline sbwhart

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Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« on: July 30, 2012, 09:20:45 AM »
As many of you will have read elsware I've been completeing off a 5" gauge simplex loco that i bought that was suposidly 90% complete in reality when i got it home I discovered that it was far from 90% complete, and quite a bit of rework was required.

Loco as bought



Rather that start from the beginning of the story I'll just pick up the story from  where we are at the moment.

I had to do a bit of reworking on the cylinders and steam chest this consisted of cutting one of the steam ways into the cylinder making some studds for the steam chest milling one of the steam chests down so that it didn't foul on the frame when the cylinders were bolted to it and fitting cladding to the cylinders.

her's some shot of the cladding work.

Marking out the cylinder for drilling and tapping.



Tapping the drilled cylinders



Measuring the the required length for the cladding by bending a bit of wire to the shape then straightening the wire out and measuring its length.



The cladding was made from a  bit of 1mm ish thich breass sheet it was anealed firt so that it could be bent to shape then the holes and cut outs machined.

Another part that was required were the guard rails I think this is what they are called, their function is to stop the loco bottoming onto the cylinders if you have a derailment hence saving the cylinders and other bits from damage.

There wasn't any holes drilled in the fram to take the guard rails so I made up a simple mild steel jig clamped this at the apropriate position on the frame to locate the hole for drilling through with a hand drill.



The guard rails were machined out of some 1/8" mild steel and bent to shape.

Here they are fitted along with a clad cylinder.



And the rear jobs.



Stew

A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2012, 04:56:13 PM »
Prompted by Petes post

Its time I updated things on my Simplex Project.

Borrowed a quartering jig from the club and checked the cranks had been set correctly at 90 deg, whats important is that all the axles are the same it will stand a deg or tow out, as long as all axles are out the same.

This is the jig



And this is how you use it, you assemble the axles in the same orientation as they will go into the loco frame



You check the crank pin with fealer gauges what you want is for the same measurement under the same left or right hand crank pin.

Mine came out withing 0.005" to each other I think that will be OK when you take into account the play in the system.

Also checked the wheel centres using slip gauges the best I could determine is that the centres between the driving and leading axle is 7 3/16" it should be 7 1/8" and between the trailing and driving axle 7 1/6" again it should be 7 1/8", I've ordered a 12" vernier so will check them again when it arrives, if this is correct I'll have to adjust the coupling rods accordingly.

Taliking about coupling rods I've ordered a complete set of laser cut coupling rods and valve linkages they won't cost much more than buying the material and cutting them out myself.

Whilst waiting for the laser stuff to arive I've also built the oiler. The tank was fabricated from a thick brass plate box that Dek gave me (cheers Dek)



I was trying to follow a drawing for a lubricator that resently apeared in Model Engineer, but the drawings were all over the place so I just did my own thing its off the plunger type.

I could have used a friction clutch but I kind of like to watch the old ratchet type lubricators work so thats what I did, John kindly overed to cut the ratchet on his digital deviding head but I was kicking my heals any way so decided to cut it myself on me manual devider.

I used a little dove tail cutter got from RDG her it is with a couple of blanks i turned up to make the ratchets.



This is the set up for cutting it.



I cut 45 teath which is easy for a 90:1 wheel its just two turns of the handle for each tooth.





And the completed lubricator





Still needs those springs tidying up and some gaskets fitting but its more or less done and the ratchet does its job.

Stew
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Offline Stuart

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2012, 05:45:11 PM »
Stew

Please check your Email



Stuart
My aim is for a accurate part with a good finish

Offline arnoldb

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2012, 06:19:57 PM »
Good going Stew  :ThumbsUp:

Did you harden the ratchet gears, or is it a lighting effect that makes it look that way ?

Kind regards, Arnold
Building an engine takes Patience, Planning, Preparation and Machining.
Procrastination is nearly the same, but it precludes machining.
Thus, an engine will only be built once the procrastination stops and the machining begins!

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2012, 06:29:55 PM »
Thanks Arnold

Yes the ratchet is made from silver steel hardened and tempered, the pawls are gauge plate and they will also be hardened, but I'll finish it off some more before i do that.

Stew
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2012, 06:42:11 PM »
That's a good design Stew....I have one on my boat engine running at 550 rpm @ 1 click per turn and it runs great!

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2012, 07:35:05 AM »
Thanks for your interest guys.

The more I get into this project the more I regret taking it on, spent the last few days checking out the wheel,axles and axleboxes in the frame, and what a bag of crap they are   :cussing:

The axles are under size and tapered, the axle horns are 3/16" undersizes and the ones for the trailing axle are out of square in the frame, the axle boxes are undersize fit in the undersized horns as well as tapered and out of square, the axles centres should be 7 1/8" what I've got is 7 3/16" between the driving and leading axles and 7 1/16" between the driving and trailing axle. As a result everything fits like a turd in a pisspot.

I've bin pondering :thinking: long and hard the best course of action, and come up with a number of options.

Option one:- Find a bloody big hammer and beat the crap out of it  :hammerbash:, then cash it in at the scrap value.

Option two:- Just bodge it together as it is and hope for the best.

Option three:- Split the axle boxes off the wheels so that I can make new, as one of the wheels is pinned to the axles there is not much I can do with them except bore the bearing bushes to fit. As the frame is bolted together strip it down this will alow me to cut the axle horns to the correct size and to get them square and a correct fit on the axle boxes. Then I have to remake all the linkages and valve motion etc etc

I've too much cash tied up in in for option 1.

As for option two having spent quite a bit of time hanging round the club track, I've noticed there are two types of loco's there are those that run like clockwork visit after visit the owners will turn up get them in steam and run round for a couple of hours only stopping for water and coal, and there are those that turn up do one lap of the track then something falls off siezes breaks they lose boiler presure can't keep the water level up etc etc etc this happens at every visit. I don't want this i want something that is going to be a decent runner so option two is out.

So its option three:- But I'm realy getting itchy feat to build the Dake engine, so I'm going to work on the loco until end of September try get as much done as I can, then build the Dake I know it looks a complicated engine on paper but their realy arn't that many parts to it and having given it lots of thought I recon there's only two or three months work in it, I will then dedicate the rest of the winter to finishing off the loco, so that by next spring I should have it finished with luck.

Stew
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Offline Maryak

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2012, 08:15:56 AM »
From reading this, I hope you did not spend big money for what seems to be somebody else problems. You have my sympathy. It sure does not seem to be a quick way to the track.

Best Regards
Bob
Если вы у Тетушки были яйца, она была бы Дядюшкой

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2012, 09:09:41 AM »
Geez Stew....motion work too!  Yikes!   Sorry to hear than friend....I know you can sort it though...and I think your right in taking the "high road" ...even if it's number 3 on the list.....

Dave
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Damned ijjit!

Offline doubletop

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2012, 11:17:31 AM »
Stew

It occurred to me rather than using email I should check over here to see how you were doing. I wasn't getting pinged by posts to the thread  'cos I hadn't subscribed to it  :-[ Here now though.

We all knew you would go for option 3..............


Pete
« Last Edit: August 29, 2012, 11:22:29 AM by doubletop »
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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #10 on: August 29, 2012, 11:21:24 AM »
Stew

It occurred to me rather than using email I should check over here to see how you were doing. I wasn't getting pinged by posts to the thread  'cos I had subscribed to it  :-[ Here now though.

We all knew you would go for option 3..............


Pete




....... :Lol:....YUP!
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #11 on: August 29, 2012, 05:35:55 PM »
Thanks for your input and interest Guys

One of the things that I've been strugling with, is just how good do these things have to be, I know that for the thing to go round corners and for the axles to go up and down and for the thing to stay on the track you need some slack in the system but no one can tell you how much

Time to get a grip of the situation and get the bloody thing sorted

Up bright and early on in the shop after a bit of a rummage in the old stash i found the cast iron that a Guy gave me some time ago , a quick measure and whoopee I have enough for the axle boxes.



Next a rummage for some steel to  make a puller and cam up with this bit of garage door



Saw it in half then stick a 3/4" through the midle and a couple of 10mm clearance holes at each end, cut through into the 3/4" hole so that it makes a yolk to slip round the axle.  Drill and tap the middle of the other peice M10 two more 10mm holes at the end to match with the first peice.



So you've got this



I was telling one of the Guys at the club about my problems and he said the way to heat the wheel up to deactivate the loctite was do it nice and gently with a paint striiping heat gun:- so zapped one of the wheel for about 10 min to get it nice and hot then using leather gardening gloves assemble it to the puller.



Tighten the centre bolt up to give it a gentle squees and slowly she came off.



Repeat with the other axles and the jobs a good one.



This allowed the removal of the crap axle boxes, you can see one of their problems her as they were too narrow and the guys had bushed them with phos bronze bearing there wasn't enough meat to take them and the hole broke through the side.  :facepalm:



One wheel is pinned  to the axle you can see the pin at the 5 oclock position on the left hand wheel axle.



The next big decision is do I drill out the pin and make new axles, or do a leiv them and make the bearing bushes to fit.

Stew


A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Bogstandard

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #12 on: August 29, 2012, 05:49:06 PM »
Stew,

How could you do this post and not show what you showed me when you came around today?

John

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #13 on: August 29, 2012, 05:55:37 PM »
Stew,

How could you do this post and not show what you showed me when you came around today?

John

No picture and i'm cooking tea  :Jester:

And i thought i'd save them for later  ::)

Stew
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Finishing off a 5" Gauge Simplex Loco
« Reply #14 on: August 29, 2012, 06:37:29 PM »
Ho go on then


Picked up the set of laser cut linkages and motion works this afternoon, they will cut the old floor to floor time.

Stew
A little bit of clearance never got in the way

 

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