Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel

[crueby]

Got the holes for attaching the swing table base drilled/tapped:

As you can see here, had to support the frame beams out to the side, also had to move the mill over to the middle of the bench to get the room. The mill would not reach all the way across the frames, so did the left and right sides with the frame run each way.

Found that there is enough room to do the drilling for the rest of the holes with the middle two rails assembled to the front subframe, so I went ahead and ran in the rest of the bolts. The two outer frame rails will just be held with a couple bolts for now, so I can take them off easily to get at the inner ones for horizontal holes for all the control rods and such.
Here are some pics showing the state of it so far:

It is sitting up in the air since the bottom cross beam is in place. That beam has mount holes in the ends to take the lower track holder connections.

Next up is to drill the holes for the long rods that bolt the frames together side to side at the cross beams.

[crueby]

Yes that was his last name. There were two parts that were really difficult, the lowering of a 6ft long 65 pound model into the water without overbalancing and sliding it into the back of his station wagon without pinching a finger. Before he bought the station wagon he took the model to the dealers to make sure it fit,
Gerald.

Hey Gerald,
On the 19th, we are having our first RC submarine run of the season at the pond here, picnic too. Some of the Toronto submarine guys usually come down for it too, have not heard yet who is coming this year. Some others from Ohio will be here.
Chris

[crueby]

Got the holes drilled for the cross bolt rods for the beams:

Here is one of the front cross beams bolted up - you can see the rods passing through the cross beam to the next long beam.

On the rear sets of cross beams, the beams are all in line, so the cross bolts go from one side of the main frame all the way to the other, in one piece, squeezing the entire frame together. They must have had fun lining all that up and getting the rods in. On mine, I had to use a pointed fid, like what Cletus mentioned in an earlier post, to line up the holes. Need to thread the ends of four more short rods, and all 8 of the long rods, and can assemble the rest.

[Dan Rowe]

Chris, the wrench used for aligning bolt holes is a structural steel wrench or as we always called them spud wrenches. We used then a lot on ships to get the bolts back in a flange that would not quite line up.
https://www.aftfasteners.com/structural-wrenches/

Dan

[crueby]

Chris, the wrench used for aligning bolt holes is a structural steel wrench or as we always called them spud wrenches. We used then a lot on ships to get the bolts back in a flange that would not quite line up.
https://www.aftfasteners.com/structural-wrenches/

Dan

Spud wrench. Gotcha - basically the same on the pointy end as a fid, from my nautical background. Thanks!

[crueby]

All the cross beams in the first two sets are in and bolted. You can see them in each corner of the beams, above and below the center openings. These are all threaded 3-48 at the ends, using scale nuts from American Model Engineering.

View down the length of the frames (had to move the turntable off to another cabinet for a while to make room for the frame).

The first two sets of cross beams are there, next up is to make up the rear set (to the left) which support the rear tracks (they held the rear railroad truck set before the track conversion). The third set has wider flanges top/bottom, 1-1/4", where the front sets are under 1/2" wide. This last set supports the rear tracks, the boiler, and also anchors the long stays that hold up the A-frame at the front. I am going to piece these up, kind of a combination of what I did for the main frame rails and the cross beams.

On a side note, the meetings and presentations on the real machine are starting to have benefit, the historical society has received a couple of $1000 donations to the signage and stabilization efforts. There is a festival coming up this summer where they will be publicizing it, will have the model there for that again. The society is also persuing some grants, though that can take a while to come through if at all. I am going out again next week to get some more photos, realized I have tons of detail shots but not many ones that take in larger subsystems and areas - need some good portrait shots of it as well. Sigh. Forest. Trees. You understand...

[steamboatmodel]

Yes that was his last name. There were two parts that were really difficult, the lowering of a 6ft long 65 pound model into the water without overbalancing and sliding it into the back of his station wagon without pinching a finger. Before he bought the station wagon he took the model to the dealers to make sure it fit,
Gerald.

Hey Gerald,
On the 19th, we are having our first RC submarine run of the season at the pond here, picnic too. Some of the Toronto submarine guys usually come down for it too, have not heard yet who is coming this year. Some others from Ohio will be here.
Chris

Hi Chris,
I would love to come down, unfortunately my wife has me booked for a World Fiddle Day event on that date.
Gerald.

[crueby]

Yes that was his last name. There were two parts that were really difficult, the lowering of a 6ft long 65 pound model into the water without overbalancing and sliding it into the back of his station wagon without pinching a finger. Before he bought the station wagon he took the model to the dealers to make sure it fit,
Gerald.

Hey Gerald,
On the 19th, we are having our first RC submarine run of the season at the pond here, picnic too. Some of the Toronto submarine guys usually come down for it too, have not heard yet who is coming this year. Some others from Ohio will be here.
Chris

Hi Chris,
I would love to come down, unfortunately my wife has me booked for a World Fiddle Day event on that date.
Gerald.

You're a fiddler? Or she is? Never knew they had a holiday.


We do more events every month, another picnic one in the fall.


On the model, got some bar stock rough cut to piece up the rear cross beams...

[ShopShoe]

Slight OT, Nomenclature Question.

I have seen the wrench used by plumbers (here in Central USA) to tighten drain fittings, and sold as such, also called Spud Wrenches. A quick web search turns up a few. I am curious how the terms originated.

Back to plumbing: I know that dropping pipes from fixtures down for future connecting to main piping is "stubbing." Did someone modify the words along the way? (For example, from my distant days in a print shop I once knew the difference between "offset," "off-set," and "setoff.")

--ShopShoe

[crueby]

Slight OT, Nomenclature Question.

I have seen the wrench used by plumbers (here in Central USA) to tighten drain fittings, and sold as such, also called Spud Wrenches. A quick web search turns up a few. I am curious how the terms originated.

Back to plumbing: I know that dropping pipes from fixtures down for future connecting to main piping is "stubbing." Did someone modify the words along the way? (For example, from my distant days in a print shop I once knew the difference between "offset," "off-set," and "setoff.")

--ShopShoe

Wouldn't be surprised if the term for those wrenches varied by location too, like so many others.

[steam guy willy]

Hi people ,over here across the pond...spuds are the bits of metal they bolt onto traction engine wheels to let them traverse muddy ground better...they were bolted on with the tool called a spud wrench (spanner)  i think ...not too sure but that is what my brain told my fingers to write !!!
Willy.........

[steamboatmodel]

Yes that was his last name. There were two parts that were really difficult, the lowering of a 6ft long 65 pound model into the water without overbalancing and sliding it into the back of his station wagon without pinching a finger. Before he bought the station wagon he took the model to the dealers to make sure it fit,
Gerald.

Hey Gerald,
On the 19th, we are having our first RC submarine run of the season at the pond here, picnic too. Some of the Toronto submarine guys usually come down for it too, have not heard yet who is coming this year. Some others from Ohio will be here.
Chris

Hi Chris,
I would love to come down, unfortunately my wife has me booked for a World Fiddle Day event on that date.
Gerald.

You're a fiddler? Or she is? Never knew they had a holiday.


We do more events every month, another picnic one in the fall.


On the model, got some bar stock rough cut to piece up the rear cross beams...

She is the one that fiddles around, I have no musical talent."World Fiddle Day is an annual celebration of fiddle music, held on the third Saturday May. World Fiddle Day events are held around the world, …" https://worldfiddledaytoronto.ca/
Gerald. 

[zeeprogrammer]

I have seen the wrench used by plumbers (here in Central USA) to tighten drain fittings, and sold as such, also called Spud Wrenches. A quick web search turns up a few. I am curious how the terms originated.

Irish potatoes. AKA spuds. The tool used to dig them up.

I enjoy googling the origins of words and terms.

[crueby]

Hi people ,over here across the pond...spuds are the bits of metal they bolt onto traction engine wheels to let them traverse muddy ground better...they were bolted on with the tool called a spud wrench (spanner)  i think ...not too sure but that is what my brain told my fingers to write !!!
Willy.........

On the Lombard build, I learned that the ridges molded into the tracks for traction were Grousers. Is that just an American term? Or are the spuds bolted on a different name for a slightly different implementation?

Fun stuff.

[crueby]

I have seen the wrench used by plumbers (here in Central USA) to tighten drain fittings, and sold as such, also called Spud Wrenches. A quick web search turns up a few. I am curious how the terms originated.

Irish potatoes. AKA spuds. The tool used to dig them up.

I enjoy googling the origins of words and terms.

The spud wrench is not how you adjust the potatos?!