Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)

[Don1966]

Nice results Kim and it's shop time even if it wasn't on the tractor.......

Don

[mal webber]

Very nicely done Kim.

Mal

[Kim]

Thanks Don & Mal,
Yes, any shop time is good time, I couldn't agree more.
Though it looks like shop time for this weekend has evaporated.  Maybe I'll get a shot next weekend?  I tend to not know my weekends activities till we get there.  Probably better that way!   

Kim

[Kim]

Finally got some more time in the shop this holiday weekend.  After getting the platform base in place, I’m moving on to closing in the sides.  A few episodes back, I cut the sheet metal for this, and now it’s time to shape it.

So, taking one of the platform side blanks, I went to bending.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t use my break since it only PART of the length was going to be bent.  So, I created a make shift box break using some strips of steel and a seamer.  It worked tolerably well.  Here’s the first stage of forming the platform sides.  You can see the little piece of sheet metal (just in front of the lower left corner of the seamer) that prevented me from using the regular break.


The next step needed a 90 degree bend, but had other clearance issues, so I used a different method here.


And here’s a shot after the second bend.  Not too bad.


After that I bent a few other parts, but those were very straight forward.  Here’s all the sheet metal for the bulk of the platform sides & fuel bunkers, all bent to shape.


After this, I needed to drill matching rivet holes to connect the platform sides to the fuel bunker sides.  To maintain alignment during drilling & setup, I used double sided sticky tape to hold the parts together.  Here you can see the pieces held together with the tape:


Then I clamped them in place on the mill and went to drilling the rivet holes.  Except for one problem.  I couldn’t get the bit in close enough to line up the last few holes! The collet will be hitting the sheet metal if I go over any furteher!


What to do, what to do?  As is often the case in times like this, I fretted & paced and tried things, but no matter what, I couldn’t figure out how to get in there.  Then I hit me!  I can make a drill bit extender!  So, I did.  Here it is, just a simple 3” length of 3/16” steel rod with a #55 hold drilled in the end & the #55 bit Loctited in place:


And sure enough, that did the trick.  All done.  So easy once you come up with a solution!


Here’s one side, riveted together:


Next, I needed to connect the Fuel Bunker Rear to each of the sides (or vice versa).  Again, I used double sticky tape to hold this in place while I drilled matching rivet holes. Unfortunately, as I add each pieces, it gets harder to find ways to hold it.   In this case, the Fuel Bunker Rear is 6.5” long, and I had to drill into the end of it.  It just about maxed out my headroom on my Taig.  But with some careful clamping, I was able to get it done – just barely:

It’s hard to see, but there’s a long piece of sheet metal sticking down the back of that piece of wood there.

And here’s a close up:

The first time around I clamped the part with the holes to drill in the front, thinking it would be easier.  Unfortunately, the other pieces of sheet metal stuck out so far it hit the mill column.  So I had to do it ‘backwards’.  And while more difficult, it actually worked!

I drilled both ends of the Rear Fuel Bunker sheet before trying to rivet.

And that is where I left off for today.

Thanks for stopping by,
Kim

[b.lindsey]

Hi Kim, glad to see you got some shop time! I have been missing your progress on this great model. Tolerably looks pretty darn good to me! Happy 4th and here's to more shop time.

Bill

[Don1966]

Kim, like Bill it all looks good to me and good to see you get shop time in......


Don

[Dave Otto]

The sheet metal work looks great Kim!

Good to see progress!

Dave

[Kim]

Hi Bill, Don and Dave!  Thanks for looking in and for the kind words.
Kim

[Kim]

Having assembled the platform sides, it’s now time to attach the rear plate (the plans call it the Fuel Bunker Rear).

But before I do that, I decided I should attach the extra goodies onto that.  Figured it would be easier than after the whole assembly is riveted together.

So I made a few more sheet metal pieces: the Drawbar and the Rear Step.

The Drawbar is some kind of pin-coupler so the tractor can tow things, I believe.  Here’s the Drawbar, laid out on a scrap of sheet metal:


After cutting it to shape, and filing it a bit, I double sticky taped it to a piece of aluminum and drilled the holes.  I hoped that the sticky tape would be sufficient to hold against the drilling forces, and it was.


With the holes drilled, I filed the part to shape:


Then bent it.  And there we have a Drawbar (apparently).


The rear step is a simple piece.  The biggest thing here was to pre-drill the rivet holes before it was bent into shape (using double sticky tape again):


I used the same setup to drill rivet holes to attach the Drawbar:


Here’s the Fuel Bunker Rear with the extra pieces, just before I rivet them all in place.  Note the row of dummy rivets that were added along the center edge there.


And the after shot, with the step and drawbar rivted.


Next I drilled the bolt holes that will hold the whole side & fuel bunker assembly in place.  This is another step I decided I needed to do before the whole assembly was riveted together.  This shot shows the whole setup:


And this one is a close up of making the hole.  I did this once on each side.


Next up will be actually riveting the rear panel in place (what I started to do way back at the beginning of this post!)

Kim

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Kim, that's some mighty fine sheet metal work. The new drill bits must be working good; haven't heard you mention breaking one in a long time. I'm still following along.

Cletus

[Kim]

Thanks Eric!
Yes, the new drill bits are great!  Its been some time since I've broken any bits, that's for sure.  These US made, cobalt bits, are stronger and way sharper than those other cheap bits I was using. They cut the metal like nobody's business!

Kim

[Don1966]

Kim looks like your getting the hang of sheet metal work buddy. It all looks great from here.......


Don

[fumopuc]

Hi Kim, some very interesting fabrikation work. It is fun to follow your progress.

[Kim]

Hi Don and Achim, thanks for your kind support!

As promised last time, first thing I did today was to attach the rear panel to the sides. 


To complete the attachment of this sub unit to the platform base, I needed to add some brackets.  I cut some ½” aluminum angle to use for brackets, positioned them using double-sided-sticky tape, and drilled rivet holes.


Here’s the platform assembly, with the brackets riveted in place.


Then I reassembled the platform and sides, and finally drilled and tapped for 2-56 bolts to hold the back of the sides in place, like this:


And here’s a couple of shots of the completed platform & sides:




Just a few more sheet metal pieces, then I’ll be off on my next sub-adventure; cutting gears for the drive train! I’m excited about that!  I’ve downloaded Don’s spreadsheet and am starting to ramp on what I need to know for that endeavor.  It’ll be a while yet, but it's never too early to prepare!

Kim

[b.lindsey]

More great progress Kim! The sheet metal work is all coming together perfectly.

Bill