Author Topic: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine  (Read 428606 times)

Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #495 on: December 26, 2016, 05:00:14 AM »
:ThumbsUp:
 Thanks for posting the findings Chris. A friend of my who is a gun collector has mentioned trying some of these....I've mentioned your build  (& my excitement), about building model engines, He's getting closer.  :slap: As always, fantastic build,  :embarassed: I was going to mention to you about some of the track parts losing a little paint earlier from playing with them too much..but, how could you not? I love it all.

 I hope the shop elves treated you well for Christmas, didn't eat too many cookies, & had visions of Lombard haulers dancing in your head.

 Looking forward to the book.  :stir:

 John

Thanks John! Christmas went great here, just out with the elves looking at all the stars, got some nice tools today, lotsa food, good time had by all!

I've been going back and 3d modelling the fixtures, generating views and plan sheets for everything, plus accumulating old pics and articles for the book. I have been in touch with the people up at the museum in Maine and have a couple trips there planned forthis spring and summer. Can't wait!

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #496 on: December 26, 2016, 05:01:07 AM »
Well, big correction on the bluing post!

I was curious if the bluing chemicals would work for touching up the scratches in the paint on the stainless parts without messing up the surrounding paint, and was surprised to see absolutely nothing happening. Anywhere. Then dabbed some on the the test piece from earlier, nice reaction. Then pulled some fresh bar, still has the 303 stainless label on it, and found the chemicals might have well been water for all the nothing they did. Turns out the test piece I tried must have been a chunk of CRS or maybe some W1 steel. Near as I can find out, cold bluing on stainless is limited to certain alloys, 303 not being one of them.

So, the test I showed is fine for other alloys, not for stainless. Whoops!!   :facepalm:    :noidea:

Chris,

Elvis Presley did a song about this called "Blue (ing) Christmas" if I remember the title correctly!  :naughty:

Your results today reminds me of this quote:  “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”  :shrug:
― Thomas A. Edison

Merry Christmas to you and your helpers.

Jim
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"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #497 on: December 26, 2016, 06:04:34 AM »
The blueing/blackening of sstl, out side of an industrial setting, has been a holy grail of gunsmiths for a long time, Chris. I wanted to say something when you first posted the testing but decided to wait. For all I knew, Brownells had come up with the magic elixer!!  But not to be.

The gas cylinder/front sight base on the Garand rifle is stainless steel. It's blackened at the 'factory' and the finish is great. But after a lot of use it wears off and makes shiney places not desired on combat equipment. Armorers have wanted something besides paint but no joy..... yet!

This project of yours is just wonderful!!

Pete
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Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #498 on: December 26, 2016, 06:29:10 AM »
Always fun to learn something new, at least new to me!

Some chemistry student somewhere probably came up with what we need, just didn't know it, and flushed it!

Offline AOG

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #499 on: December 26, 2016, 06:12:25 AM »
Chemical blueing is a form of corrosion layer. The stainless part of of stainless steel inhibits good corrosion as well as bad corrosion. That's why you had problems. On another note chemical blueing isn't very robust. It will rub right off under handleing loads. That's one of the reasons I switched to hot blueing. It's still not as robust as a commercial blue but it's more durable than the chemical stuff and you have control of the shade you get.

Tony

Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #500 on: December 26, 2016, 06:47:27 PM »
Well, so much for the 'blues'! I've gone back to experimenting with the fixtures/parts for the roller chains, making a set, checking fit, tweaking sizes in the plans, repeating....

More details in a few days when I get the process sorted out....

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #501 on: December 26, 2016, 05:31:45 PM »
Well, so much for the 'blues'! I've gone back to experimenting with the fixtures/parts for the roller chains, making a set, checking fit, tweaking sizes in the plans, repeating....

More details in a few days when I get the process sorted out....

I'm looking forward to the next installment, Chris.

Also, I've been meaning to mention that I really enjoyed the Lombard videos you posted. Having followed along on your track building project, it was neat to see them working in real life.

Jim
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"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #502 on: December 26, 2016, 07:46:18 PM »
Well, so much for the 'blues'! I've gone back to experimenting with the fixtures/parts for the roller chains, making a set, checking fit, tweaking sizes in the plans, repeating....

More details in a few days when I get the process sorted out....

I'm looking forward to the next installment, Chris.

Also, I've been meaning to mention that I really enjoyed the Lombard videos you posted. Having followed along on your track building project, it was neat to see them working in real life.

Jim
Thanks Jim, I particularly liked the ones where they were out in the snow. Can't wait to get up there and see it running in person.

Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #503 on: December 28, 2016, 04:00:41 PM »
All right, the holiday festivities are winding down, time to get back into the shop again....

One of the tool presents this year was a small powered chop saw from MicroMark, nice little unit with both wood cutting blades and metal cutting abrasive wheels:

Nice little unit, should make cutting the side plates for the chains much easier! There are a number of cheap knockoffs of these saws, from what I have seen they are worth the cheaper price - this one is much better built.
Here is a test on some of the bar stock I was using to test the bending jig:

Nice clean cut, the vise holds well, though I think I am going to rig up a length stop for doing repeated cuts. With the small toothed blade it should be a handy addition for the wood models as well.

Back on the chains, I did some experiments with the link pins. The initial design calls for doing the pins with a step to hold the outer plate, rivetting over the ends to hold it all in place. Note the word initial - more on that below.

I made up a test part, starting with cutting the end step in a longer length of bar stock in the lathe using a parting tool

and then moving the bar out since it is too thin to use the parting tool that far out from the chuck, and cranking in the distance from the first step to position another one at the other end

and then parting off the piece

Then I got out the rivetting fixture I made earlier for the track pins, and drilled a new hole at the end so that I could let the side rail overhang

positioned the rail on the stepped post,

and peaned it over with a ball peen hammer. I think the post I started with was a little tall, leaving the head larger than I would want - one of the things to fine tune.

Here are the parts so far, ready to slide in the other rails, the roller, and peen over the other side.

All that goes fairly simply and quick, but it does require lots of steps for each pin, and also drilling different sized holes in each end of the side rails, which would get old quickly. I did another test with just rivetting over the head of the full diameter rod, without the step, and think that it will work out just as well. The rod was stiff enough that it did not bend, and only headed over at the end being hammered. So, once I get the first few side rails and rollers made I will try that method as well. Given that I need to make four roller chains, each 30 or 40 links long, plus two simaler drive chains, the simpler they are the better. I am still waiting on my order of the narrower bar stock for the side rails, hope that will be here in the next couple days.
In the meantime I got started on the rollers for the center of the chain. They are a simple thing to make, drill a 1/2" deep hole in the end of some round steel bar, and part off two rollers (filing the corners round as I go).

Move the bar out and repeat.

After a couple of short sessions, making about 30 at a time, I had the pile needed for the roller chains. Just need to nip off the little burs left by the parting tool (they pull off with pliers very easily).

While waiting for the side rail stock, I am going to do some more experiments with the pins to see how well the non-stepped versions work, and figure out exactly how long they need to be to rivet over without tightening down on the inner rails. Then I can mass produce a pile of those.
The bending jig is working for the side rail stock, I think I will also need a holding jig for drilling them - should be able to make up a simple jig to align and hold them in the mill vise.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 09:02:18 PM by crueby »

Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #504 on: December 28, 2016, 04:50:07 PM »
While I was on the computer, figured I might as well make up the plan for the rail drilling fixture in 3D. Here is a screen grab of it:

The main part of it is thinner than the side rails are wide, so that it will let the vise grab the rail parts rather than the fixture. The top and one side edges were left thicker to rest on top of the vise jaws, so that it will always position the same. To use, I can slip it into the vise, put in 3 of the rail parts (limited by the width of the vise jaws), and clamp down the vise. Then I can crank horizontally along, drilling all the holes, and know that the positions are repeatable. The slots where the parts will go are spaced at .600 centers, so once the mill is zeroed on the first on, it will be even numbers of turns on the handwheel to get to the next one.

Once I get to drilling the parts, I'll show it in use...
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 09:02:25 PM by crueby »

Offline Don1966

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #505 on: December 28, 2016, 05:47:11 PM »
Awesome work Chris your just one little busy beaver, you don't come up for air. I have that Micromark chop saw and very disappointed with it. No power when cutting metal parts and takes forever. It's great for the real small stuff but .5" or more sucks.


Don

Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #506 on: December 28, 2016, 07:18:50 PM »
Awesome work Chris your just one little busy beaver, you don't come up for air. I have that Micromark chop saw and very disappointed with it. No power when cutting metal parts and takes forever. It's great for the real small stuff but .5" or more sucks.


Don

I would agree with that - it cuts the thin steel (1/8" or so) with no problem, I can see where it would bog down for thicker stock, but for that I would get out the hacksaw or the recip saw anyway. For the little parts, like the chain rails and pins that I am going to be cutting, it looks to be fine.

Otherwise its like a crawfish trying to be a lobster! (hows that for an attempt at Southern humor?)   :Lol:

Online vcutajar

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #507 on: December 28, 2016, 08:02:34 PM »
Congratulations on your new toy.

Vince

Online crueby

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #508 on: December 30, 2016, 12:34:34 AM »
All right, got a couple other tasks out of the way, and the metal bar (1/16" x 1/8") for the chain side rails arrived today, so time to get back to the chain construction. The bending fixture is putting out consistant results - been a few posts, so here is the bender again:


and I added a stop block to the new little chop saw - just a block of wood stuck on with a drop of superglue for now, I want to go back and make an adjustable one later on. The block is positioned so that it just touches the front corner of the bar being cut, so it wont jam the part against the blade when it cuts through.

I have bent and cut a set of the side rails, here is how they look set up with one of the rollers:


Now I need to make the drilling jig

so that I can test with the cross pins, and fine tune the length of the pins so that when the ends are rivetted they are a close fit, but don't bind the inner rails from pivotting...


« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 09:02:45 PM by crueby »

Offline GailinNM

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Re: Chris' Build of a Lombard Hauler Engine
« Reply #509 on: December 29, 2016, 11:15:07 PM »
Looking great  Chris.
Little parts are sluch fun.  Reminds me of a cartoon from years ago that shows several men crawling aroundon the floor of the office of Micro Parts, Inc.  Caption read "We dropped last weeks production".
Gail in NM
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