Florian's bending rolls

[Florian Eberhard]

Hey Pete

Thank you! I've had them on my list for quite some time too. But its good that I was "forced" move them form the bucketlist to the "work in progress" list
The next (not really easy) job was machining the rolls. I started with the smaller, adjustable roll to get into machining them. That required the use of the steady rest
Unfortunately I was too busy to take pictures, so here is the already finished roll put on top of the machine. 
And I couldn't wait to do this:
Then I took the longer roll which is going to be the fixed one. That is also the only picture from machining the second roll.
And here is the second one finished on the lathe.
I will need to machine a square on one end and a slot for the key on the other end.
Oh and also in my shop, not everything is going well. I cannot understand how it happened but somehow, I machined the axle journal 0.2mm to small on one end when I was rough machining that diameter. Although I checked the diameter before the last pass.
You can imagine how I was swearing and shouting around  - I mean those rolls have been quite some work and also they were not cheap.

Finally It turned out well because I can just replace a bronze bushing with a self-made version which has the right bore diameter.  I guess I was a bit lucky about that! 

Cheers Florian

[10KPete]

Gee, 0.2mm..... pffftttt!  You can whip out a new bushing in less time than it takes to talk about it!! 

Pete

[Roger B]

These things happen  but the fix is not too much work. I did the same with a crankshaft so one end is 12mm the other is 11.5mm. I can say it is a special feature so I can't install the shaft the wrong way round 

[MJM460]

Hi Florian,

The API compressor spec requires that feature for certain parts.  Looks like you made it right and the drawing was wrong.  Better update the drawing.

Seriously though, thank you for your detailed posts. Beautiful and inspiring work.  Can't wait for you to get back to the Cochrane boiler.  I thought Harris was kidding when he proposed it for a model in the book, but you have made it look more than possible, and have demonstrated amazing skill.  Thank you.

MJM460

[Florian Eberhard]

Hey  - I still someone reading? (I guess so )

You guys didn't hear a lot from me in the last time. Thats because I had to move and organize everything new (the shop is not yet reorganized - that will hopefully happen this fall)
However, I acutally completed my bending rolls a while ago but then the dropbox-disaster happened and I had to reupload pictures not only in this forum (i am not yet finished here) but also in a german forum aswell and that took a lot of time since I like to attach a lot of pictures to my building logs / whatever posts.  Oh and not to forged that I am very busy at work and also enjoying the beautiful wheater that we had here in switzerland for most of the summer.

However, when I was reparing my posts, i was reminded that I didn't even finish here (and also with some other posts further back!  ), so I am right now kind of easing my conscience 

The last thing you saw was machining the rolls on the lathe. After the lathe, one roll got a square machined to one side for the crank and a keyway milled into on the other side for the drive of the other roll.
For this operations, I needed something to support the rolls at the end they were machined and kind of a dividing apparatus on the other end. I came up with what you can see on the first picutre. The roll was clamped in the big vice. Then I clamped my small direct dividing head onto the roll, disengaged it and used another vice to clamp the dividing head. After that, i clamped the smaller vice to the milling table and was ready to machine the rolls.
This worked really well and I could machine the square on the "free" end of the roll without having any vibration problems.
The keways on the two bigger rolls were machined in the vice aswell although I didn't use the dividing head anmyore.
With the rolls all completed, I changed to machining gears. First i bored up the blanks with my bigges mt1 drill. After that, I machined the bore to size using a hss boring bar. A quick check showed that the gears fit the rolls just like they should.
The unneeded stub was then parted off holding the gear with an expanding mandrel.
The almost same procedure was done to the idler gears aswell and finally I had four (almost) finished gears.
I will have to broach a keyway to the driver and the driven gear and press in bronze bushings into the idlers.


Cheers Florian

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Beautiful work, and hope you get settled back in your shop soon.
Thomas

[Florian Eberhard]

Hey Thomas

Thanks!
I am working at getting back into the shop but the good wheather is working against me   

Florian

[Dave Otto]

Hi Florian

Beautiful work as always, its good to see you posting again; I always enjoy seeing your work.



Dave

[zeeprogrammer]

Beautiful work as always, its good to see you posting again; I always enjoy seeing your work.

  Same here.

[Florian Eberhard]

Thanks guys! Not that my work would be that special - its all photoshop  
NO - i am just joking, those pictures are real, I didn't change anything but the size of them.

Back to the bending rolls:
I replaced the earlier mentioned bushing which was now too big for the roll with the mishap. I used gunmetal and I'd say it turned out pretty well.
I also shortened some standard bushings for the idler gears (two per gear) and will press-fit them.
Then the next subject. I wanted to use shoulder screws for the sheet pressing screws but found out that they are made with very big tolerances - the pressing screw bridge levers were acutally blocked at a certain position and not on another one.
So i grabbed some drill rod and machined two screws.
The same with the idler axle. I also wanted to use a shoulder screw as axles. But after tightening, the shoulder screws were not square to the side frame and this resulted in blocked gears. So I also made two axles from drill rod, almost like a shoulder screw. Whats different is that - since I only had 12mm drill rod (nothing bigger) I will need to make a retainer disc. But that not too bad, that shouldn't be too complex.

Finally I also added the pressing screw bridge-levers with the self made shoulder-Screws.
And it just looks good and additionally works as well.

Cheers Florian 

[Florian Eberhard]

Good Evening!

There is only one thing left to be made and that is the locking screw which will hold those levers in place when working.
Oh - i almost forgot to mention that I had made some retaining discs for the idler gears which hold them on place. (No pictures of that)
I bought handles but with an M8 internal thread (since I could not get anything just like I wanted it).
The material is drill rod and the threads were cut on the lathe (and had to be supported by a revolving centre)
After that, I applied some loctite onto the upper threads and screwed the handles on pretty tight.
And finally, the last puzzle-piece could be added to my version of the bending rolls! 

Well - the bending rolls are ready - and so was a piece of sheet metal to test it. 
Working pretty well - all that's left is some finishing like blackening of some of the parts and chamfering some edges.

But that will have to wait until the Cochran boiler is complete. And that is where the journey goes to right now!

Cheers Florian

[Ye-Ole Steam Dude]

Hi Florian , absolutely beautiful piece of equipment and wonderful machine work.

Thomas

[simplyloco]

Delightful job. I have an italian three way bruiser: the rollers are too big for anything except mid size boilers, and the shear needed reworking before I could use it! Well done.
John