Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel

[crueby]

The rest of the chain guide circle parts are milled to shape, and I bent up the vertical band (paint cans are handy forms) into a circle and riveted the crossover point to hold the diameter.

Next step is to silver solder the horizontal segments to the vertical band. Clamping it all to the base circle would work, but would make for a huge heat sink and most likely permenantly join it to the base, which I dont want to do yet. Parallel clamps work to hold it together, but also suck a ton of heat off and not sure I want to mess up the hardness of the clamps, so I am thinking of womping up a batch of mini c clamps, like this:

Made from some small steel bar, would not draw a lot of heat, and would hold well enough for the job. I think. Need to ponder over lunch...

[crueby]

After lunch, made up one clamp as drawn, worked well and so made up a bunch more, hope they hold under heating, should...  Pics after soldering, probably tomorrow.

[derekwarner]

Chris...the chain for the plate drum slew......from the original image [and compared to a US size 10 safety boot] it appears to be approx. 8" x 1 1/2" inner pitch x wire size link??....

[Images can distort , it could even be 9" x 1 3/4"]

The image also suggests approx. 20  links in 1/2 a diameter wrap

Does the chain shown equate in scale to these approximation?

Derek

[crueby]

Chris...the chain for the plate drum slew......from the original image [and compared to a US size 10 safety boot] it appears to be approx. 8" x 1 1/2" inner pitch x wire size link??....

[Images can distort , it could even be 9" x 1 3/4"]

The image also suggests approx. 20  links in 1/2 a diameter wrap

Does the chain shown equate in scale to these approximation?

Derek

Not sure if a size 10 is right for him, that was a big guy, but I never measured the bottom of his boot! 

As I recall the chain is 1-1/2" diameter bar, approximately 7"x9" overall outside links - would have to dig into my notes to get closer than that. The chain I found was as close to that as I could find, the links should be a bit thicker and longer to be true scale. I did draw up a chain bending jig to make it exact, but have not tried making it yet, may give that a try at some point - it would be a LOT of chain to make, couple of yards probably to do it all, not sure if I can get the overbend necessary to overcome the springback of the metal, probably would need a second finishing jig.

[crueby]

As promised, here is what the little clamp blocks look like, this was the first one made as a test:

Very small and light so as not to interfere with the silver soldering, and very quick to make so if I wreck them its no big loss.
Assembled all the parts for silver soldering, aligned with the bottom edge of the ring, and leaving the opening at the front uncovered:

fluxed the parts, added short lengths of silver solder wire (I buy coils of the thin wire version used by jewelers, easy to lay into joints or twist around rods and then heat to melt in) and worked my way around the circumference with the torch, used a pick to help the solder flow along the inner joint.

Removed the clamps and tested it against the base circle, still round so that is good, was nervous about it warping. There were two of the clamps that did not get enough NicroBraze so had to cut them free, little of the solder ran down and held them to the bottom flange.

All looks good, so its soaking in some pickle to clean it up, will start drilling and riveting the parts together once its been wire brushed clean.

[crueby]

Chris...the chain for the plate drum slew......from the original image [and compared to a US size 10 safety boot] it appears to be approx. 8" x 1 1/2" inner pitch x wire size link??....

[Images can distort , it could even be 9" x 1 3/4"]

The image also suggests approx. 20  links in 1/2 a diameter wrap

Does the chain shown equate in scale to these approximation?

Derek

Not sure if a size 10 is right for him, that was a big guy, but I never measured the bottom of his boot! 

As I recall the chain is 1-1/2" diameter bar, approximately 7"x9" overall outside links - would have to dig into my notes to get closer than that. The chain I found was as close to that as I could find, the links should be a bit thicker and longer to be true scale. I did draw up a chain bending jig to make it exact, but have not tried making it yet, may give that a try at some point - it would be a LOT of chain to make, couple of yards probably to do it all, not sure if I can get the overbend necessary to overcome the springback of the metal, probably would need a second finishing jig.

Correction, misremembered the size - its closer to a 5 x 7 link on the slew chain, here is one of the measurement shots, better than interpolating from an unknown boot:

[zeeprogrammer]

Fantastic job.

I think those little clamps are some of your best work. 

[crueby]

Fantastic job.

I think those little clamps are some of your best work. 

Oh, come on, there was the time the swarf made a picture...   

[crueby]

Last work for the day - got the chain ring drilled/riveted in place (used the pin locator holes from making the rim parts, just had to drill through the base circle)

Then made up the three strips which make up the center box beam in the center. They were rough cut to length, then fine tuned on the belt sander till they were a snug fit inside the circle rim.

Then, as before, the parts were silver soldered together and cleaned up. Here is the beam set into the circle.

Then it was riveted in place, through the angle iron in the center and through the circle plates farther out, spanning the area where the outer slots will go for the cross brace.

The tricky bit was drilling/boring the center hole through the beam plate, started with a rough guesstimate of the position and fine tuned it when the hole got out close to final size.

Then drilled and milled the holes for the shackle which the turnbuckles on the boom attach to, and the slot that the angle brace will go through.

Here is the assembled swing circle, quite a pile o parts!

Next up will be the T-shaped parts at the ends of the center beam, and the shackles. Here are what those will look like:

[crueby]

Coming down to the last few parts on the swing circle assembly. Today made of the T shaped brackets that hold the angled struts and the shackles for the turnbuckles. A block long enough for both was cut, the ends radiused on the sander just like the box beam was, and then the sides were notched in on the mill to form the T shape.

The underside was then slotted to take the angle struts.

The two parts were cut apart, clamped in place, and the hole in the base plate used as a drill guide for the hole to take the shackle pin later.

Then drilled the cross hole to take the bolt through the angle strut.

and drilled the two holes for the bolts that pull the T into the outer rim.

The angle struts are another of those parts where it is probably better to take the measurements to fit the existing parts rather than from the plans, there are SO many other parts riveted and bolted together between the ends of the struts, the tolerances can build up and throw off the measurement a little. This turned out to be true, the distances were just enough off that if I had drilled from the plan measurements they would not have quite fit. So, I drilled the first hole in the bar stock for the struts, ran a bolt through to hold it and marked the hole at the other end through the flange.

After drilling the second hole in each strut (the lengths worked out the same on both sides, but a few thou off the plans), the sides of the struts were milled down and the ends rounded on the belt sander. Here the first one is installed, second ready to go:

The final parts still to be made on the swing circle are the shackles that will go through the hole near the outer end of the struts, and through the larger hole just left of that in the photo. Then I can start on the lower base that this assembly sits on, which holds the vertical pivot tube that goes through the large middle hole of the circle. That lower base bolts to the front frame of the shovel, and helps support the A-frame.

[crueby]

The shackles are done, bent up from steel rod and the joints silver soldered closed. I think this completes the swing circle, next is the pivot base that it sits on.

The ends of the turnbuckles are through the shackles, the turnbuckles will be screwed back together once the boom is in place in the swing circle, which won't be till after the A-frame assembly is done, since that holds up the outer end of the boom. I also need the circle seperate for now, to fit the pivot base to it.

[steam guy willy]

Hi Chris,  wow that was quick  !! i do admire your alacrity with your builds 110% !!
Willy

[crueby]

Hi Chris,  wow that was quick  !! i do admire your alacrity with your builds 110% !!
Willy

Thanks Willy, thought it was longer than that, but its been just 9 days for the swing circle assembly, time fun when you're making swarf!  (better than Kermit the frog's version, 'times fun when you're eating flies' )

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Hi Chris,  wow that was quick  !! i do admire your alacrity with your builds 110% !!
Willy

Thanks Willy, thought it was longer than that, but its been just 9 days for the swing circle assembly, time fun when you're making swarf!  (better than Kermit the frog's version, 'times fun when you're eating flies' )

 

If you're zipping down the road and not catching a few flies...then you're not zipping down the road. Get my drift?

[crueby]

Today I got a start on the pivot base that the swing circle sits on. This is what the part will look like:

and with the pivot bearing in place, it extends down through the base, supports the swing circle while letting the hoist chain come up through the center.

It took some figuring to come up with how to make this, starting with a single chunk would mean hogging off WAY too much material, so decided to make the center in one piece, with two thinner pieces silver soldered on to form the flanges, plus the angled braces up to the front circle.
After digging through the stock racks, found a slab of 303 stainless steel, 3/8" thick, and wide enough to get the center section out of. I rough cut it to shape:

Then milled the sides to length, and started shaping up the front edge.

The circular section is just a thin overhang, so the back of that was milled out too:

The stock was slightly thicker than the finished part, so I took the notch in the back of the arc to size, which as expected made the arc warp out just a little - that will be flattened off when the stock is taken to final thickness. This steel does not move much when thinned on one side, but this section needs to be flat for the bearing to ride on, and it warped just enough to see some light when a straightedge was held to it. Good thing there is some trimming room.