Author Topic: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)  (Read 242122 times)

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #990 on: April 22, 2018, 05:44:32 PM »
Good point, Dave!  I was thinking there should be some way to take advantage of that flat spot, but was so focused on the drawings I had that I couldn't visualize it.  But that would be a great simplification.  Thanks for pointing that out!
Kim

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #991 on: April 29, 2018, 03:22:03 AM »
Now to drill the vertical holes for the water intake and output.  The vertical hole is pretty intricate with varying sizes of holes and threads from each end.  Kozo shows 1/4"–32 threads, but I’m using 1/4”–28, because I have a tap for that.  :embarassed:


I drilled the 1/8” hole all the way through, drilled the 7/32” in the top part way down, and then drilled and tapped 1/4"–28.  Opps, I forgot to take pictures. But I really did it, as can be seen from this pic of the completed top end (the top side will be the pressurized output).


Flipping the casting over, I picked up the center of the 1/8” hole.   Looks like the drill wandered a bit on its way through, but this hole lines up with the ram hole that I drilled last week, so it’s plenty good enough.


Then I drilled it to 7/32” part way through (shown in the picture).  Then drilled and tapped (not shown).


Before the main housing is complete, I need to make a connection for the water output.  That will be a 5/16” brass spigot, that will be silver soldered onto the upper end of the vertical hole.  You can see that in the first picture in this post.

Here’s the brass spigot after I threaded it, 1/4"–28.


Then I drilled an 1/8” hole so the water can get through.


Here are the two pieces.  I still need to drill a hole for this in the casting before I can solder it in place.


That’s where we left off today.

And thanks for checking in on my build!
Kim

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #992 on: May 05, 2018, 02:07:08 AM »
Continuing on the main pump body, I made a tab to attach one end of the pump handle.

I went with Dave's suggestion from a few posts back, to put the tab on the flat spot on the base where it is clearly supposed to go!  This is a much better idea than the one I had been planning.

I took a 1/2" length of 1/8”x1/2” brass bar stock, squared it up, and drilled a hole for the handle.


Using the ‘drill bit through the hole’ technique, I rounded over the hole and shaped the tab.


Then milled a 1/8” slot in the base where the tab will be silver soldered.


I also needed to drill out the hole to for the output spigot fitting that I showed in the last post.  First drill through with a 1/8” bit.


Then drill to the right size for the spigot.


And one more thing I have to do to the main pump body before its done is to drill a hole for a 2-56 screw.  This baffled me at first, but after reading and contemplating, I now realize that it is to keep the input ball from coming up to high on the intake stroke and restricting the inflow of water.


Tapping 2-56:


All the pieces for the pump body so far:


And this is what it should look like when soldered up:


That’s it for this update.  Next time, I’ll do the silver soldering.
Kim

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #993 on: May 05, 2018, 02:10:58 AM »
Watching with interest Kim.  :popcorn:

There's stuff to learn and I may need it later.
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Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #994 on: May 05, 2018, 09:42:33 PM »
Thanks for looking in, Zee!

Today I soldered the two pieces onto the main pump casting.  I forgot to get a picture of doing the output spigot, but here’s a ‘before’ shot of soldering the handle tab in place.


And here’s the completed pump housing after some pickling and cleanup.


Next I made the plunger.  Kozo calls for stainless steel, but I don’t have me some of that, and a do have a piece of brass that should work just fine.  Brass shouldn’t rust, so I think I’ll be OK.  I cut a 30 degree cone on the front of the plunger.  Not sure this is necessary, but hey, I did it anyway.


Then I flipped it around in a 5C Collet Block and drilled a hole for the pivot.


And then cut a 1/8” slit where it will attach to the pump handle linkage.


And, the completed plunger.


Not a lot of progress, but it’s a bit.  And every bit nudges me forward!
Kim

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #995 on: May 05, 2018, 10:04:47 PM »
Looks like good progress to me Kim. The pump body looks very nice.

Bill

Offline crueby

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #996 on: May 05, 2018, 10:26:25 PM »
Looking great! The brass should work fine, not exactly a high speed or friction item. One of the pumps I made pumped well, but leaked a bit around the plunger, so I added an O ring near the end, short of the cross holes, soved the seeps while pumping.


 :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #997 on: May 07, 2018, 12:02:35 AM »
With the pump ram made, the next part is the O-ring retainer.  Chris, just like you said, I’m going to have an O-ring around the plunger, and this will help keep the O-ring in place.

Started with some Bearing Bronze (just over 1/2”).  Drilled and reamed a 3/8" hole for the plunger:


Turned down the outside section to 1/2", then cut off the part.


It was a perfect fit!  The plunger fit in the O-ring retainer, and the O-ring retainer fit perfectly in the pump body.
Unfortunately, they wouldn’t both fit at the same time.  :(
Somehow, my plunger hole and O-ring retainer holes were not concentric.


Not sure why this happened.  I drilled and bored these holes in the same setup.  Maybe the part got bumped a little between operations.  Or maybe the bit wandered some when I was drilling the plunger hole making it out of alignment with the retainer hole.
Regardless, I needed to do something about it.  So, I decided that keeping the plunger hole tight fitting was the most important, and that I’d re-bore the O-ring retainer hole concentric with that.

To ensure concentricity, I used a 3/8” Jobber bit to line up the hole in the mill.  I put the drill in backwards and just used it as a 3/8” dowel.  I vary carefully lined things up and got it clamped down.  It was very rigid, and the 3/8” bit would go in and out with nary a hitch – all the way to the bottom!


With that alignment, I put the boring head on and reamed out the bottom part of the O-ring hole a few thousandths.


Now it fits fine.  It’s a little oversized, but the O-ring should makeup for that.


Next, I drilled and tapped a 2-56 hole for a screw to retain the O-ring retainer! (wonder if that screw needs something to retain it? :))


Following this, I made the top plug, to hold the spring and ball for the output valve, and the input syphon.

The top plug started as a 3/8” piece of hex brass.  I brought it to rough shape, like so:


Then set the compound side to 45o and cut an angle.


Next, I cut some 1/4-28 threads:


And then cut off the plug.  The pip on the end will hold the spring in place.


For the input syphon, it was very similar, except that I needed a hole for the water intake.


Then cut some threads,


Parted it off, flipped it over in a 1/4" collet, and used a counter sink to widen the opening. I suppose, ideally, I’d have some screen across the input to filter out debris, but I’m going to ignore that for this pump.


Here are the two completed parts; the top plug on the left and the intake on the right.


And here’s what it looks like now, with all parts attached:


Getting closer!  All that remains is seating the bearings, making a spring, and completing the handle assembly.

Thanks for looking in!
Kim

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #998 on: May 07, 2018, 12:16:27 AM »
Nice update Kim! There is a lot of work in that little guy.
Your silver soldering also turned out very nice.

Dave

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #999 on: May 07, 2018, 12:40:18 AM »
Beautiful Kim!! If it works as good as it looks you will be all set.

Bill

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #1000 on: May 07, 2018, 05:55:02 AM »
Your silver soldering also turned out very nice.
Thanks Dave!  Hopefully it won't leak.  If it does, I guess I'll just bring it back to the fire bricks and try it again :)

Thanks Bill,  yes, I'm hoping it works too.  :)

Kim

Offline scc

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #1001 on: May 07, 2018, 12:46:47 PM »
Lovely :ThumbsUp:

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #1002 on: May 07, 2018, 05:47:40 PM »
Thanks Terry!
Kim

Online Kim

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #1003 on: May 07, 2018, 11:30:47 PM »
Today was about springs. I was following Kozo's method here, but I've seen others do the similar thing using a mandrel and a wire feeder.  The mandrel was a pretty straightforward turning exercise, so no pics there.  The wire feeder was also quite simple but I had to post a picture of that since it was the first time I’ve ever used an end mill larger than 3/8”!  This is a 1/2" carbide end mill in my new Grizzly, and it made pretty short work of taking a big notch out of a 1/2” x 3/4" piece of 1018 steel.

So, do the blue chips laying around mean I was pushing it too hard and the tool got too hot?  It seemed to work fine – I’m not used to that with HSS, but maybe that’s a carbide thing?

Anyway, here’s a shot of my spring making gear that I just made:


And then, it's off to the lathe where I practiced making some little springs.  Even though I turned the spindle by hand, I ended up using the screw cutting feed to help position the wire in a regular way.


It will take more practice to get good at this. But I made a half dozen or so decent springs and choose one among those to use.


Next was to set the ball seats. I followed what Kozo said, and what I’ve seen several other people on this forum do;  I used a little length of brass as a punch, and gave a good sharp rap with a hammer to seat the ball in place.
This was for the inlet ball.  But I did the same to the outlet ball seat too.


With that done, I assembled the pump according to the diagram, with the balls and spring in place:


And tried it out:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F37Pg0BAyxI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F37Pg0BAyxI</a>

Hot Diggity Dog!  It works!  :pinkelephant:

I couldn’t be happier! :)
Kim

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Steam Tractor 3/4" (Rudy K)
« Reply #1004 on: May 07, 2018, 11:35:32 PM »
Hot Diggity Dog!

It's pretty hard to beat a 'Hot Diggity Dog'.  ;D Congrats!  :ThumbsUp:
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