Hi
And now for something completely different.
Looking through the plans to see what part to make next I came across the smokebox front plate. This is available as a casting for about £25.00. The casting would still need maching so I looked at whether or not I could fabricate it.
Next job was to look through available materias and I came up with a bit of 1/8" brass plate and a length of 1/8" x 1/2" brass bar
Print out an actual size drawing and stick it to the plate leaving 1/2" extra at the bottom for fixing
I have a 7" rotary table that I built some time ago, here's a link to the build
http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,2375.0.htmlUnfortunately photosuckit have removed all the images but there art a few videos still viewable
A scrap of 18mm MDF cut into a 7" circle
The rotary table is centred under the mill, dials set to zero and the X and Y tables locked
Drill and countersink 4 6mm holes in the MDF and fix to the rotary table with 4 countersunk cap head screws
The brass plate is centre punched in the centre of the hole and centred on the mill. 4 large (5.5mm) self tapping screws
hold the plate down
move the table over and drill a start hole.
Change to 1/4" cutter and cut out the centre
Then take lighter cuts to finish to size
Move 2 of the screws and machine the outer profile
Move the other 2 screws and machine off the bottom edge
Using my home made bending rolls,
http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,5751.0.html to curve the brass bar
I couldn't get the shape quite right without it springing so I silver soldered just a part of it then clamped the next piece and silver soldered and so on
Cut off the waste
After a spell in the pickle
Looks ok
Cheers
Rich