This week for my Saturday shop time, I ended up spending most of the day repairing a desk lamp. Earlier in the week, the bracket holding the switch and bulb socket to the lamp broke. Looking at it I figured I could make something that would work just as well. So I did.
No 'progress' pictures, but here's the finished piece (made from a piece of Aluminum from my scrap bin).
And here it is, in place. It holds the switch in place, and holds the bulb socket to the lamp shade. I'm happy to say it works better than the original part (even before it was broken!)
Today, however, I did get some time to make a little forward progress on my tractor.
Before attaching the Horn Plates, I needed to make sure things were all aligned and square. I started by making sure that the Firebox Wrapper was the right height, and square with the boiler shell. I used parallels that were just the right height (1 5/8") as a support for the boiler shell, and slid the Firebox wrapper back and forth across some sandpaper, held on a flat surface:
My next problem was that the two sides of the firebox wrapper weren't parallel with one another. After lots of fiddling and mulling, here's the process I came up with; I made a spacer that was the correct width and height to fit inside the Firebox wrapper:
Placed it inside the firebox, like so:
Then clamped things together to verify alignment.
With that done, I got some 1/4" bars to align the two Horn Plates, like so:
I then clamped the horn plates into place over the Firebox Wrapper in JUST the right spot.
This is where I should have drilled the bolt hoes in the fire box wrapper. Instead, I stupidly drilled them earlier (thinking it would be easier when the sheet metal was flat, which is when the book tells you to do it, BTW). And of course, they don't line up properly now.
So, I finagled up a way to hold these in place on the mill and used a 3/32" 2 flute mill to enlarge the hole in the Firebox Wrapper to match the one in the Horn Plate.
And this is where I had to go in...
I was able to get three holes on one side aligned, with bolts through. But my fear is that the holes in the Firebox Wrapper will be too big, there will be too much slop, and it will allow the horn plates to get out of alignment.
If that turns out to be the case, my plan will be to go up to the next larger size of bolts - from #4 to #6. Then I'll use a 9/64" mill to widen the holes. This should make a very close fit for a #6 bolt. I'll have to get an 9/64" end mill (and some #6 bolts) on order!
Ah, the wonderful learning experiences I'm getting here! I assumed that if Rudy's instructions said "Drill the holes now", that I'd be OK doing that. I don't see ANY WAY anyone could make those holes line up if you drilled them as listed in the instructions. How can you know exactly how the metal will deform during bending? I'm going to have to be more careful with this going forward.
Thanks,
Kim
