Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)

[b.lindsey]

Nice write up on the riveting Kim. That will help a lot of us now or in the future I am sure!!

Bill

[10KPete]

I've done a bit of riveting but never seen a chart on how to do it right. Sucker's down loaded!

Thanks,
Pete

[zeeprogrammer]

Nice post! This is very helpful.

Thanks!

[Dave Otto]

 Hi Kim,

I have the same problem as you, in some places it will be very difficult to get the tools in place to set the rivet. One thing that I didn't try in my test was tool #1, I will have to make one and give it a try. When I first saw the drawing I thought wow, he went to way too much trouble. 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question I appreciate it.
Dave

[Kim]

Glad you found it of some value.

Dave, I hear you.  When I first read about other people making multiple tools for riveting (Stan for example ) I kinda thought it was overkill.  So I went with the minimalist approach.  But as I worked with it and ran into problems, I started to see how each of those things I thought was 'overkill' would help me get around my problems. So, in the end, I've got just as many tools as Stan did.  Should have taken his blog more to heart to start with!

Thinking about it more, I think that cool picture came from one of the UK sites that Jason pointed me to.  But I can't find exactly where.  I can post the PDF of it if people are interested (maybe its better than the screen shot JPG I took so I could post it on PhotoBucket ).
Kim

[Kim]

Today's first job was to finish attaching the Firebox Wrapper to the boiler shell.  This went pretty quickly with my new, incredible, amazing drill bits.   Here I'm drilling one of the last rivet holes in the boiler shell:



Next up is the Steering Bracket Mounts.  These are small simple sheet metal parts that will (eventually) hold the steering mechanism.

Starting with a small squared up piece of 22GA sheet steel, I marked out the part, and cut it close(ish) to the line.


Then, using my disk sander, I squared up the edges I just cut.


Here's a shot of the Steering Bracket Mounts after drilling the mounting holes. I laid them out the same, but they need to be mirror images of each other (left & right).  Luckily, as long as I flip one of them over before I bend it, I'll be OK.


After lining it up carefully, I bent the angle with my cheap, but serviceable brake from Harbor Freight.


And here they are, Left and Right!  (I remembered )


Those didn't take too long, so I had time to start the Firebox Throatsheet.  I'll cover this in my next post.

Thanks for looking in.
Kim

[edit: changed 20GA to 22GA steel sheet.]

[Kim]

On to the Firebox Throatsheet.

The process here is very similar.  But since I'm new at this sheet metal stuff, I'm going to share it in excruciating detail again.  I promise I'll drop some of the details soon, but this is how I learn; exposing my weird machinations to you all so that you can tell me better ways to do it! 

Again, starting with some 22GA steel, which I previously squared up one corner, then blued, I marked up the Firebox Throatsheet.


Then cut it to approximate size with the bandsaw.


And squared up the fresh-cut edges on the disk sander, bring it to the correct size.


To cut the semicircle out of the top I used these fancy shear items - not exactly a nibbler, but not standard sheers.  These don't seem to curl the sheet quite as much as regular sheers.  And they took the corner OK, as long as I went slow and careful.


Well, the end of the cut got a little bent up, but I was able to straighten that out using some flat jaw pliers.


Then using a drum sander in the drill press, I sanded up to the marked line.


Then I kept sanding (carefully!) till I got a good fit around the boiler shell.


Next, it was off to the brake to bend the edges for riveting.


Here's the finished part:


And what it will look like in place:


No to drill and rivet.

It's starting to feel real!
Thanks for following along.  And any suggestions you may have on my sheet metal work would be more than welcome!

Thanks,
Kim

[edit: changed 20GA to 22GA steel sheet.]

[fumopuc]

Hi Kim, looking great your fabrication work.

[mal webber]

Looking good Kim.

[Bertie_Bassett]

looking good there! keep it up

[zeeprogrammer]

It's starting to feel real!

Exciting! 

[Kim]

Thanks Mal, Bertie, and Zee!

I can tell you, I'm pretty excited about it right now

I also have a confession to make - I've been lying in my posts.  I said I was using 20 gauge sheet steel (0.0359")for the metal work. We'll, its really 22 gauge (0.0299").  Oops...  I'll go edit my posts to fix that.   

Kim

[Don1966]

Good to see you moving forward Kim. You know I have the same bending brake and love it. Keep it coming bud..........

Don

[b.lindsey]

Nice fabrication work Kim and the fit looks spot on too!! Does that HF brake handle this stock pretty well?

Bill

[Dave Otto]

Hi Kim

Looks like you are getting along with the sheet metal pretty well; the boiler shell is coming along nicely.

Dave