Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)

[Kim]

Thanks for the encouraging words everyone!  But we all know that I'd have ended up with a warped, melted mess if not for all your excellent advice.

It takes a village to build a steam tractor!

Thanks!
Kim

[Roger B]

    

[Kim]

Over Thanksgiving weekend I was able to finish up the wheels. I've summarized what was really an inordinate amount of time in three photos.  It was pleasant work, but it just took me a long time to complete all 96 rivets.  I broke one more drill bit in the process too, and ended up using the same process to mill out and plug the hole.

After getting all the grouters attached, I cleaned up the topside of rivets by filing them flat with the top of the grouter with a file


And here are the two completed rear wheels.





This weekend I started on the front wheels.  They should go much faster than the rear wheels, but still, there are a lot of steps for these puppies.

If you recall, several pages back (3-4 months ago) I made the rims for the front wheels.  Now all I have to do is drill the holes for the spokes.  To do this, I made a plywood mandrel for the front wheels and mounted them on the RT.  Here I've just spotted the holes for the 8 spokes on one side of the rim and am getting ready to drill them. The brass nail is there to ensure the rim doesn't rotate during this operation (I drilled one of the holes for the tire rivets).


After the spoke holes were drilled, I wanted to drill the holes for the tire rivets before I took the rim off the drilling jig.  So, I went to cut a 1/4" strip of steel for the tire.

This proved to be a lot harder than I thought it should have been.  I tried using sheet metal shears (like these HF Throatless Shears) but the metal curled up like a pigs tail.  When I tried to straighten it out it just went all weird.  It wasn't straight and it wasn't uniform width.  I tried all sorts of things, but was never able to make it work.  To make it worse, the nice straight edge of the piece of stock was all messed up too, and no longer straight.

What I finally did was to use two pieces of steel for straight edges, and clamped the sheet metal between them with just a little bit exposed.  Then I was able to carefully file up to a line getting the piece fairly straight and uniform.  Here it is, just after I finished filing it true(ish).


Using that straight(ish) edge, I used a guide in the band saw to get a fairly uniform 1/4" strip, that wasn't all screwed up.


Sheet metal is harder to work with that I remember!  When I worked with it at school I had a guillotine shear and a pan break. Those probably make a big difference.  But they are expensive pieces of equipment that I don't have!

Anyway, I'll figure it out, and that's a big part of my learning with this project, isn't it!

After cutting two strips, needed to drill the locations for the rivets.  RK calls for 5 rivets, one on each end, and three equally spaced at 90 degrees around the rim.  So, using Pi and the diameter of 3.25", I calculated the locations for the rivets, and marked them:


I drilled the five rivet holes and made ittiy bitty countersinks, just like I did for the grouters.

Then I took it to the wheel and used that brass escutcheon pin to hold the tire in place while drilled the next hole.  And then added a brass pin to that hole:


This is where I'm drilling the last rivet hole.


And there we are, the rim removed from the plywood and the tire re-attached.  Not too bad!


Here's my current dilemma though;  I put a couple of 'trial spokes' in place to check this, and it looks like it's going to be REALLY hard to get my rivet anvil (or whatever you call it) in between the spokes & the hub to set the rivets.


I had been worried about this.  That's one of the reasons I did the tire now.  One of my thoughts was to go ahead and rivet the tire in place now, before I solder the spokes & hub.  This will make the riveting much easier, but will make cleaning up the spoke stubs harder. And I'm a little worried that I might get solder on the tire. Let's call this Option 1.

The other option (Option 2) would be to solder the spokes in place and then fight the issue of figuring out how to rivet in such a confined space. 

So what does the advisory board suggest?
Option 1, easy riveting, hard cleanup?
Option 2, easy cleanup, hard riveting? (maybe really hard)

I'm open to suggestions!

Thanks for looking in,
Kim

[10KPete]

Cut down the riveting anvil so you can rivet after soldering. That's my vote anyway!

Keep up the good work!

Pete

[b.lindsey]

It's easy to armchair quarterback Kim, but I am with Pete here, assuming you can modify the anvil enough to get it between the spokes and keep it solid enough at the same time. At lease you won't have as many rivets to contend with on the front wheels!

Bill

[Roger B]

I would tend towards soldering first and then riveting if you can make a suitable anvil. The one you used for the rear wheels appeared to be taller (longer?) than it possibly needed to be. As Bill says, it's easy to advise when you don't have to do the job.

[Kim]

Thanks for the help Pete, Bill and Roger,
The advise seems pretty unanimous - solder first and figure out the riveting problem.

Now I need to make the hubs so I can do the soldering

Thanks for the time to give me advise.  I really appreciate it!
Kim

[Don1966]

Kim like Pete and Bill I vote to cut down the anvil. The problem I see soldering after riveting is the heat will expand the grouters and mess them up. I can see them rising above the wheel. I don't see a problem with a smaller anvil as long as you keep a firm grip on it in the vise.

Regards Don

[Kim]

Thanks Don!  I will be following your advice!

Before I can do the soldering, I have to make the hubs.  So out comes the 1/2" brass rod.  Here I just drilled and reamed a 1/4" hole for the axle.



I was going to cut the hub to shape while still on the original stock, but I couldn't get the tool in close enough with the live center to support the far end.  So I cut it off and put it on a 1/4" Mandrel for shaping.  I ended up sacrificing the nuts, but that's no biggie. They're pretty disposable.


Here's one hub off the lathe.


Now to the mill and the RT to drill the spoke holes. The front wheels only have 16 spokes, 8 on each side.  So, they are a simple 45 degrees between spokes, with the two sides offset by 22.5 degrees.


Then I cut spokes, (3/32" brass rod) clean up all the parts, and flux them up for soldering on the wheel fixture.


And here it is, in all its ugly glory, after soldering and a pickle bath (and some scrubbing).  It was much uglier before the pickling!  It was from this picture that I noticed that a few of the joints didn't seem to have soldered all the way through, so I did those again (note the spokes at the top of the picture).


Next was to file down the nub ends of the spokes on the outside of the wheel rim.  The lathe is only being used for support here, I didn't turn it on till I got to using some sand paper.


And here are the front wheels with all spokes soldered, and some level of clean up completed.  Now, to rivet the tires!


To do rivet the tires I have to make my anvil shorter.  To do this, I needed to anneal the anvil (which I had previously hardened) so that I can cut it down a bit.  Unfortunately, I think I got things too hot and the bottom of the anvil became misshapen.


I left the anvil cooling and will see what it looks like tomorrow after I chip the crust off of it.  I'm hoping that I can still use it - the business end seemed fine. But if not, I'll just have to make another one. And this one I can make the right size from the start!

Thanks for watching,
Kim

[derekwarner]

Those wheels are a very crisp build Kim..... ...did you need to re-ream the bores to cleanup, or achieve true running?......... Derek

[Don1966]

Looking good Kim..............

Don

[b.lindsey]

Those turned out very very nice Kim. You are fast becoming the guru of traction engine wheels

Bill

[Dave Otto]

Nice work on the front wheels Kim, they look great!

Dave

[Kim]

Thanks for the comments Derek, Don, Bill, and Dave,
I really appreciate the encouragement!

Derek, no, I didn't re-ream them. They came out 'close enough' to true.  One runs very true, the other there's a itty-bitty wobble, but not very much. And nothing that can be noticed when still or running at normal speeds.  If I thought the wheel's would be turning at 50-60 RPM I might worry, but they won't.

I was going to wait to drill them till after I got the hubs soldered in, but then I realized I'd have no easy way to hold them in place while soldering.  I could have drilled undersized, but then I'd have to bore the hole, and boring a 7/8" deep, 1/4" hole seemed hard. I don't have a tool that could do that. So I just decided to go for it.  Seems to have worked out.  Within my tolerances anyway.   Maybe I'll tighten up my standards as I progress, but for now I'm pretty stoked about what I've done so far

Thanks,
Kim

[fumopuc]

Hi Kim, nice front wheels. Is there any later painting scheduled ? I am asking about the tyre riveting.