CONWAY 0-4-0 3 1/2" GAUGE LOCO

[Firebird]

Thats a good question Willbert

I have absolutely no idea 

Cheers

Rich

[crueby]

A lot depends on the steel hammer. A heavy one will move the metal more, work hardening it faster, though the distance moved is similar. Ghe danger with a steel hammer is denting the metal. A wide slightly convex hammer is used for things like bowl raising, takes a bit more skill than forming over a lip with a plastic or hide mallet. For making the endcaps, the plastic or hide mallet is a much better way to go.

[Firebird]

Hi

A printed template is stuck inside the smokebox tubeplate and all the positions centre punched. 4 of the holes are drilled 4mm

Screwed to a piece of scrap wood

By moving the screws about all the holes can be centre drilled

The larger holes, one for a bush and one for a super heater tube are firstly drilled out with a step drill

the super heater 1" hole needs to be slightly undersize for now so a guage is used

Finally the firetube holes are reamed 1/2"

Cheers

Rich

[scc]

Rich, Thank you for  troubling to detail your build as you do. It makes inspiring reading. I'm following and enjoying

Regards            Terry

[crueby]

Following along, very interesting!


 

 

[Firebird]

Hi

Thanks Terry and Crueby

Quite early on in the text it says make the large bush that the regulator goe's in and silver solder into a large hole in the top of the boiler. There is no mention of drilling and tapping you sort of have to work that out from the description of the cover that fits over the regulator, the cover isn't mentioned until much later on  Anyway 8 tapped holes are required, the plans specify 6BA but I have gone with 3mm.

The bush set up in the rotary table, drilled and tapped

Now onto the large hole, 1 3/4" in the top of the boiler. I knocked up a jig to hold the boiler from scrap wood, and bolted it down in the mill. A couple pull ties help to keep it it in position

A step drill removed most of the waste

Followed by the boring head. I had to add a couple of angle plates to the set up to stop the boiler moving sidewards

carefully machine until the bush just fits

I'm not going to solder the bush in just yet. The regulator looks like a tricky job on its own, I'll look into that first

Cheers

Rich

[Jasonb]

Rich, its best not to fully tap any bushes as the heat of soldering can damage the threads. Best to just start a taper tap by a couple of turns so it locates easily after soldering to finish the job. Apart from that looking good.

[Firebird]

Hi

Thanks for the tip Jason 

The regulator body is a gunmetal casting, cost me £17 so I don't want to mess it up.

A small piece of oak

5 minutes on the band saw and I have something similar

Which means I have something I can play about with and shows that if I do mess up the casting I could hack one out of brass

Cheers

Rich

[Firebird]

Hi

Ok then my learned friends we have a problem 

The regulator. I don't know why but I was worried about this little so and so.

In the mill and fly cut the port face and the lower mounting. A good finish was achieved

Drill and tap the port face 5BA. Drill the lower face 1/8"

Centre drill the position of the two ports

Fly cut the bottom face

Two 3/16" holes have to be drilled very close together to a depth of 3 1/2" !!!!!

First centre drill. Then drill down with a standard length drill. Change to a long series drill, the depth marked with a bit of masking tape. The right hand side drilled perfectly. The left hand side went ok to about half way down then the drill wandered off and ended up drilling into the first hole 

I cross drilled the two port holes and they both joined up with the long hole. Blowing through there is a clear passage.

Will that allow enough steam through.

Cheers

Rich

[crueby]

What does that regulator do? Is it a type of safety valve?

[wagnmkr]

Is that not what a throttle is called on a locomotive?

Tom

[Steamer5]

Hi Richie,
 That's a bugger! Sure others will jump in but I would think that as you have a reduced bore size by basically 1/2 that you will be short of steam! At 3 1/2 deep I don't think you would find an end mill that would reach anywhere near total depth. Sounds like there may of been a hard spot that kick off the drill. As a possible fix how about flipping the regulator over & drill, milling down from the top on the effectd side & hopefully managing to connect  to the "short" hole, tap & plug the entry point.
All the above assumes that you want to keep the current regulator & dont want to get another casting, or make one from solid.
Looking forward to other suggestions!

Chris Tom yes throttle equals regulator in loco speak!


Richie,
 Just had another thought, flip the regulator so the port face is down, & mill the back of the regulator out, so that you open up the drilled bores to a rectangular opening full width of the 2 holes, will give you a bigger opening for the steam. When done silver solder in a cover plate.......sounds easy......

Cheers Kerrin

[Firebird]

Hi

Thanks Kerrin, I sort of went along the lines you suggested 

Out of trouble I think

Firstly I opened up the end with a 3/16 cutter as I deep as possible

Then milled a slot in the side

A piece of 3/16 brass rod in the good hole to act as a guide

And finally the long drill. I decided to do this by hand sooner than in the mill, has a better feel

Now all I have to do is make up a piece to fit in the slot.

Cheers

Rich

PS

Will brass be ok to silver solder in the slot or do I need to use gun metal

[crueby]

....
PS

Will brass be ok to silver solder in the slot or do I need to use gun metal

Brass takes silver solder very well.

[Firebird]

Hi

Heres the piece that fits in the slot, machined from brass

Its in the pickle now

Moving onto the disc, chuck a piece of stainless steel centre drill and face. I use a home made cutter with round tool steel for facing, I get a very fine finish

Move over to the rotary table, drilltwo 3/16 holes and two tapping size holes for 3mm

Back in the lathe and part off

The bolt, stainless steel, called for some fine turning and milling

Cheers

Rich