Author Topic: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)  (Read 242201 times)

Offline fumopuc

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #570 on: February 21, 2017, 03:12:09 PM »
Hi Kim, it looks like, that soldering is the same standard prozess in your shop as drilling a hole.
Kind Regards
Achim

Offline Don1966

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #571 on: February 21, 2017, 10:26:12 PM »
That is sweet, nice work Kim. The family shot is awesome.


Don

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #572 on: February 22, 2017, 12:53:08 AM »
Hey Kim,

The whole steering system turned out great, very nice work!
It is nice to have a big block of uninterrupted shop time; I also had the the pleasure of Monday off work.

I too miss the GEARS show each year; maybe we can meet up at the Brooks Steam Up sometime.


Dave

Offline Johnmcc69

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #573 on: February 22, 2017, 02:43:41 AM »
Geez Kim! Looks like you're on a "Roll".  ;D

 What's next?

 John

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #574 on: February 23, 2017, 05:53:46 AM »
Thank you to all for the kind comments!  I always find them so encouraging!

What's up next?  Good question.  I think that I might start the boiler next.  That's going to be an interesting project!  :o

Undoubtedly I'll need much advise from the forum as I move through this exercise!
Always something for me to look forward to on this build!
Kim

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #575 on: February 26, 2017, 01:52:36 AM »
What’s up next?  Not the boiler!  I’m pretty much following the order of Rudy’s write up in his book, and I was way wrong.  The boiler is one of the last thing I’ll be doing!  The next thing up is more items that attach to the Boiler Casing, like the Smoke Box Door, and the Smoke Stack.

But first! I spent some time reassembling things to get it back where it was before I did the steering.  And to do that, I had to create some 1/8” spacers (the 1/16” spacers didn’t leave enough room for the steering column).

Here’s the family shot, with the steering and gear train in place:





Next up is supposed to be the Smoke Box Door, but I couldn’t find the steel I thought I had for that :(  So I’m going to have to order some steel before I can do that.

So, it’s on to the Smoke Stack!  Here’s what I’m trying to do.  Notice that it doesn't give a dimension for the height of the smoke stack!  :o  It looks to be about 3" to me, based on the proportions of the drawing, so I'll probalby go with that unless someone else has a better suggestion?


I’m going to make the Smoke Stack in multiple pieces.  I have some 3/4" brass tube for the main part of the stack, and I’ll make the decorative ring at the top, the base, and the flange, all seperately, then solder them together toward the end.

I’m going to start with the decorative ring.  And to do this, I’ve decided to make a little form tool for the bead.  Starting with a length of W-1 tool steel, I cut a nice flat into one end.  I’m going to leave it with zero rake since this is going to be used on brass, and I’ve heard that’s not a bad thing for brass.


Then I tip it up ~10 degrees and cut some relief in the tool.


And staying at this exact angle, I cut half of a 1/8” circle in the tool using a 1/8” end mill.


After heat treating it, then tempering it, I set it up on the lathe with some 1” brass and have it do its thing.  It worked pretty well.  I went slow and careful, and it chattered a bit, but it worked!  Next time I’m going to take of those silly rounded edges from the round tool steel I used. It caused me some grief, but I worked around it.


Next I drilled a 1/2” hole in the end of the brass.  I don’t have any 3/4" bits that I trust for size accuracy, so I just bored it out to 3/4".  And that went quite well.


Checking for the final fit on the 3/4" brass tube:


And now, cutting off the ring:


And here’s the top ring in place!


Next time I’ll see if I can finish up the smoke stack.

Thanks for stopping by!
Kim
« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 07:02:26 PM by Kim »

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #576 on: February 26, 2017, 02:13:20 AM »
Nice! Very nice!

I'm betting you're feeling pretty darn good about that operation.  :ThumbsUp:
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Offline 90LX_Notch

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #577 on: February 26, 2017, 02:24:50 AM »
That form tool really worked well Kim.

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Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #578 on: February 26, 2017, 04:36:00 AM »
That looks good, Kim.  :ThumbsUp:

If you get a chance would you elaborate on just what you did for the hardening and tempering of the W1 tool steel? I've got some of that to do on my P & W build. After doing some reading, I've discovered that the W1 can be water quenched. Reading about hardening and tempering, the write-ups talk about heating to some temperature, for a certain amount of time based on thickness, then another temp. for so long, then cooling to some temp for so long, and on and on. Not something that most of us could do.  :wallbang:

Thanks, Jim
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Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #579 on: February 26, 2017, 06:45:23 AM »
Thank you Zee, Bob, and Jim,

Yes, I was quite pleased with the form tool!

Jim, about heat treating, I'm hardly an expert, but the process I used is what I've learned from the good folks on this forum! :)  If you go back to post #24, I talk a bit about the process I used for heat treating and tempering.  Dave, Jason and several other people give some really good advice there too (starting around post #21 or so).

Here's a link to post #24 of this thread: http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,5264.msg101318.html#msg101318

And in post #27, I've got a link to a 'color table' that maps the color of hot steel to the temperature.  Here's the link again just to keep it all in one place: http://www.smex.net.au/reference/SteelColours02.php

In summary, I heat the part with my torch to a nice bright "cherry red" for a while (I use the magnet trick if the part is small enough) then quench in water (that is, for W-1 anyway).  Then I polish up the piece to a nice shiny silver so I can see the color change, then temper it by trying to slowly bring up the temp till I see the "light straw" color, and then let the part cool slowly.

The heat treating isn't too bad. It's the tempering that I struggle with.  I try to heat it up slowly, but it looks like nothing is happening, then all of a sudden it jumps past the straw color (low 400's Fahrenheit) to the purples and blues (mid 500's).  But I'm getting better.  I'm sure using a torch isn't as good as using a heat treating oven. But I don't have one of those.  And I have a torch! :)

Kim

Offline scc

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #580 on: February 26, 2017, 11:35:20 AM »
Hi Kim,        I've been busy recently and missed a lot of Forum activity.    My word! you have been busy. This is a great project and I am very impressed.....can't wait to see it in steam :cartwheel: :cartwheel:      Regards     Terry

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #581 on: February 26, 2017, 02:49:11 PM »
Thank you Zee, Bob, and Jim,

Yes, I was quite pleased with the form tool!

Jim, about heat treating, I'm hardly an expert, but the process I used is what I've learned from the good folks on this forum! :)  If you go back to post #24, I talk a bit about the process I used for heat treating and tempering.  Dave, Jason and several other people give some really good advice there too (starting around post #21 or so).

Here's a link to post #24 of this thread: http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,5264.msg101318.html#msg101318

And in post #27, I've got a link to a 'color table' that maps the color of hot steel to the temperature.  Here's the link again just to keep it all in one place: http://www.smex.net.au/reference/SteelColours02.php

In summary, I heat the part with my torch to a nice bright "cherry red" for a while (I use the magnet trick if the part is small enough) then quench in water (that is, for W-1 anyway).  Then I polish up the piece to a nice shiny silver so I can see the color change, then temper it by trying to slowly bring up the temp till I see the "light straw" color, and then let the part cool slowly.

The heat treating isn't too bad. It's the tempering that I struggle with.  I try to heat it up slowly, but it looks like nothing is happening, then all of a sudden it jumps past the straw color (low 400's Fahrenheit) to the purples and blues (mid 500's).  But I'm getting better.  I'm sure using a torch isn't as good as using a heat treating oven. But I don't have one of those.  And I have a torch! :)

Kim

Thanks Kim,

Got the color able printed out. Your and other related posts were very helpful..........time to give it a go.

I also enjoyed reading about your riveting journey.

Jim
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Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #582 on: February 26, 2017, 03:18:58 PM »
Thanks Terry!  Sorry you were gone so long. Hope you still had some time to play in your shop and make some swarf!

Got the color able printed out. Your and other related posts were very helpful..........time to give it a go.

I also enjoyed reading about your riveting journey.

Jim, I also found that discussion very helpful! :)  As I've said before, most of what I know about machining and metal work, I've learned from the generous people on this forum!

There have been so many fun journeys with this build!  Riveting, sheet metal work in general, soldering, gear cutting, etc.  And so many more to go! (like the Boiler!  :o) I'm having a blast, even if I'm moving at a glaciers pace. :ROFL:

Thanks,
Kim

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #583 on: February 26, 2017, 03:55:21 PM »
I'm having a blast, even if I'm moving at a glaciers pace. :ROFL:

But you're moving.  :ThumbsUp: And having a blast.  :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
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Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #584 on: March 12, 2017, 01:03:28 AM »
Thanks Zee! True enough on the moving and blast having :)


Continuing on with the smokestack, next I worked on the base. The first piece is a 1/2" long tube for the stack to sit in, and the second piece will be the mounting flange.

The base starts as a 1” piece of brass round bar, bored out to 3/4" for a slip fit on the smokestack tube.


Then taking it down to the specified 15/16” OD:


And parting off at 1/2".


I also cut off the extra 1/8” bit to use as a spacer here, to help hold the base in place so I could shape it with the boring head.  This curve was cut to the radius of the boiler casing, plus 1/16” for the base flange (1 1/4").


Here is the smokestack family shot so far:


Next I took the smoke stack tube, and curved one end of it the same way, only the radius here was exactly that of the boiler casing (1 3/16”)


Making the flange was more complicated (for me anyway).  I took a 1/16” piece of brass, cut it to approximate length. After annealing it, I used an extra piece of the boiler casing as a form and pounded it around that to get its shape.


Then I put it in the mill and bored out a 3/4" hole, just the size of the smokestack tube.


And this is how it should look.  Bottom side:


Top side:


The last thing I wanted to do before I soldered it all together was to drill the mounting holes in the flange.  I measured carefully, from the inside of the smokestack hole.  My slightly bizarre setup here is to make the holes perpendicular to the radius of the flange.  It may not be exact, but its pretty close!


Then we’re off to the brazing station.  Clean up the parts, flux them up, and put little bits of silver solder around at strategic locations.  All ready for the heat.


I was a little worried about this operation – I’ve done some silver soldering, but not enough to give me much confidence!  But, armed with what little experience I have and the excellent tutoring from you all, I launched in like someone who has no better sense.  And it came out pretty good!  I didn’t scorch the parts as bad as I have in the past, and it actually came out tolerably well :)


I think I could have used a bit more solder in some of the lower sections – I think the solder I had there slid off when the flux started to boil.  But I’m not going to mess with it at this point.  That base is quite solid :)

After some pickling and cleanup, I put the smokestack in a 3/4" collet, and worked over the flange, putting a radius on it and taking it down to the 1 1/2" as specified.


The last part is to attach the decorative ring at the top.  I didn’t do this at the same time as the base because I wanted to be able to turn the base in the lathe I I felt it would be a LOT easier to hold without the ring!

And here’s the ‘after’ shot of the silver soldering process:


And with a first round of clean-up, it looks pretty good!  Looking at the picture I can see several places that need some additional TLC.  But all in all, I’m quite pleased!


And I just couldn’t stop today without taking a picture of the smokestack sitting in its intended spot:




After mounting the smokestack, the next part will be the smokebox door.

Thanks for following along,
Kim
« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 07:02:58 PM by Kim »

 

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