Author Topic: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine  (Read 428630 times)

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #330 on: December 03, 2016, 03:08:50 AM »
Put your parts in a pan of water and bring it to a full boil; the flux come right off. I can see the advantages of a pickle if you were going to do more soldering on a copper or brass part but so far the boiling water has worked just fine for me.

Your parts are looking great BTW.
Dave

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #331 on: December 03, 2016, 03:10:51 AM »
Put your parts in a pan of water and bring it to a full boil; the flux come right off. I can see the advantages of a pickle if you were going to do more soldering on a copper or brass part but so far the boiling water has worked just fine for me.

Your parts are looking great BTW.
Dave
I'll give that a try on then next parts I solder, see how it compares. Thanks!

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #332 on: December 03, 2016, 03:18:53 AM »
I've found that soaking steel in water just make rust, especially in the cracks you  want the filler to enter. Boiling water is much faster, much more complete and, if you have your air hose handy, dries almost instantly. Blowing the water out of the cracks is the way to do it. The residual heat makes for a complete dry.

Pete
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Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #333 on: December 03, 2016, 03:29:25 AM »
I've found that soaking steel in water just make rust, especially in the cracks you  want the filler to enter. Boiling water is much faster, much more complete and, if you have your air hose handy, dries almost instantly. Blowing the water out of the cracks is the way to do it. The residual heat makes for a complete dry.

Pete
In this case, 303 won't rust like that, but using very hot water is great on lots of stuff, does a great job on cleaning off pistol actions, like you say it pretty much dries itself.

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #334 on: December 03, 2016, 03:41:03 AM »
Well, shoot. I completely forgot that this was stainless.... :embarassed:

Forgive me sire!

Pete
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Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #335 on: December 03, 2016, 04:06:53 AM »
Well, shoot. I completely forgot that this was stainless.... :embarassed:

Forgive me sire!

Pete

Well, to be perfectly honest, the thin edge strips are just normal tool steel, since it was the only stuff I could find in the thin and narrow sizes. So, thou arte forgivene...!   :cheers:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #336 on: December 03, 2016, 10:45:58 PM »
Well, I left the track frames in the pickle overnight to see what, if any, difference the extra time would make. Not much that I can tell - the first 1/2 hour or so was plenty to remove the hardened flux, and a wire brushing in running water rinsed away the remaining dirt. Almost all the silver soldering I've done up to this point has been on copper, bronze, and brass, which clean up in the pickle solution remarkably well. I guess the steel just doesn't, or at least needs a stronger solution to do any more. However, since these parts will be painted, they are plenty clean for that, so I am moving on. I did sand off the heads of the temporary screws on the belt sander.

Next step was to mill the sides of the bearing blocks at the end square to the plates - they had moved just a bit from vertical during the soldering - given there was only one screw holding them in the lower corner I am not surprised. So, a couple light passes with the side of the mill and they are straight again.

Then drilled/tapped the holes for the other two bearing block's hold down studs.

Here is one of them with some hex bolts to show where the studs will be. The two moveable bearings (one for the front sprocket, one for the center axle) have slots that go over the studs, and tensioning bolts that go forward to the frame.
Next steps on the frames: make the circular chain guides for the lower corners, and drill for the bushings in the rear bearing blocks...
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 08:50:23 PM by crueby »

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #337 on: December 03, 2016, 11:28:57 PM »
FYI to anyone in the northeast US - I just saw that the Maine Forestand Logging Museum has posted some dates for 2017 that they will be running the Lombard:
May 20 - Spring Run
July 29 - Heavy Metal Day, where they will be running both the steam and apparently a gas powered hauler, as well as other engines coming in for the event.
I am planning on being there for both, great chance to see it run and get detail photos and measurements for the model. With a little luck the model should be running for the July event - be great to get some pics of the model with its big brother!

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #338 on: December 03, 2016, 10:11:20 PM »
Chris, I see you and the gnomes have continued to be quite busy. The soldering looks great. Keep on keeping on :)

Bill

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #339 on: December 04, 2016, 03:36:21 AM »
Got a bit more done tonight - measured for the spacer blocks that hold the track frames parallel with each other, sits between them under the central axle. I don't know what the real block looks like, or if the frames were cast in one piece (though I doubt that) or had one or more block in between. I hope to find out in the spring if I guessed right when I go up to Maine. Either way, it needs something there, so I decided on a 1-1/2" long by 5/16" square block, bolted in from either side. Here it is with the blocks made and being used as spacers while drilling the track frames:

And a couple of shots of everything bolted together with some loctite for good measure:



The bolt heads are just out of the way of the roller chain, but I am planning to mill them thinner anyway and angle the heads so the chains won't have a tendancy to catch on them.
And here is a picture of the sprockets sitting about where they will when the bearings are made:


Next time I will get started on boring the holes in the end bearing blocks for the rear axle bearings.

It was brought up by AOG in an earlier post about leaving one of the cotter pins out so I can wrap the tracks in place and pin them then. I wasn't sure, thought I might be able to slip the track over with the bearing in a bit, but that turned out to be incorrect, there is not enough space to slack off the sprockets that much, so I will pull one pin when it comes time to assemble things. Not a big deal, the pins are just bent up out of wire. Everyone keep those comments coming - they have been very helpful so far!
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 08:50:37 PM by crueby »

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #340 on: December 04, 2016, 06:25:48 PM »
Got to work on drilling the rear axle bearing holes in the track frames today. First needed to make up a batch of 2-56 nuts for the bearing blocks out of some 1/8" stainless hex stock (off the shelf nuts wont fit the narrow space, let alone look correct). Drilled hole on the lathe, and used the parting tool to shape and part off each nut.

Here are the bearing blocks bolted up:

and being drilled for the bearings. Some bits of offcuts were used to give a solid purchase in the mill vise.

Here is a shot showing how it will all come together - the wood block under the track frame raises it up to about where it will be when the roller chains are made and installed. As you can see, the axle is a loose fit in the block since I have not made the bronze bearing yet, and also still need to make the bearing block for the front axle, which will also allow tensioning out the track.

One thing I did learn doing this test fit - it IS possible to install the track without removing a pin! It will require removing the nuts on the front bearing block to allow the front sprocket to raise up, but there is plenty of room to do that and slip the front sprocket into place, which will make trial fits much simpler later on. Also, I think I am going to take a trick from someone elses book (Chuck maybe? KVOM? Dont remember where I read it), and for the rear bearing block I will use some socket head screws with the outside of the head reshaped to a hex. Getting  a nut driver or small open end wrench into the tiny space at the rear block is very difficult, and very hard to get the bolt tightened down, so I will use the hex wrench with the socket head screws in the inside pair of holes. Normally I would use hex head bolts everywhere, but in that place next to the sprocket, under the track, and with the bolt heads almost touching, it just is not practical. The outer ones will have normal hex heads, as long as I install them before the inside pair on each block.

Anyway, this is a major milestone, bringing the track frames into place. Next up I will turn the bearings, and get started on the bearing blocks for the front axles, and the round chain guides for the lower corners of the track frames.

First though, tonight is one of our RC submarine runs at the local Y pool, so time to get that gear together...
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 08:50:47 PM by crueby »

Offline bruedney

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #341 on: December 04, 2016, 07:08:11 PM »
Impressive Chris

 :ThumbsUp:

Bruce
‘Results! Why man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.’ — Thomas Alva Edison

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #342 on: December 04, 2016, 08:27:35 PM »
Impressive Chris

 :ThumbsUp:

Bruce
Thanks Bruce!
Almost to the point where I can drive the tracks around...

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #343 on: December 04, 2016, 08:34:46 PM »
The rear axle bearings started out by drilling and turning down some bronze rod...

and shortening the outside end of the rear sprocket axles to match (had left them long till I knew how wide the bearings would turn out). They are thinner than I would normally do on bearings, but on the real thing the exposed portion is also very thin.

Here is how they look just slid onto the axles

I think that I am going to do the round chain guides at the lower corners of the track frames next, so that I can finish up all the drilling work on the frames, then move on to the moveable front bearing blocks.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 08:51:13 PM by crueby »

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #344 on: December 04, 2016, 10:37:24 PM »
And one more set of parts for the day, the cylindrical guides that bolt to the lower corners of the track frame. The roller chain that supports the bottom of the track turns around this guide to go back around to the other end. They started as a bit of 1/2" steel bar, turned the profile into the side to leave a flange at the outer end, and drilled/bored the center, leaving a solid base with a hole in the center to bolt to the frame.

Here are the four parts ready to be notched to fit over the bottom plate on the track frame. The one on the far right is upside down, so you can see the solid base and bolt hole in it. I need to do some figuring to work out the notch in the side of the cylinder - will probably do something really technical like cutting out a paper pattern!

To see where this is going, here is the picture of the real track frame again, showing the roller chain looped around the guides at the end, which are notched over the bottom plate.

There is also a short tangent flat plate to connect the cylinders to the middle beam, not sure how I will attach that, probably solder on a piece of sheet stock.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 08:51:19 PM by crueby »

 

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