Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel

[crueby]

This afternoon I started making the diagonal brace rods from the brackets at the front corners of the frame to the outer end of the track supports. Realized that I had made the front and rear brackets at a 45 degree angle, but the frint ones should have been at 30 degrees.


 


So, tomorrow need to desolder and resolder the front ones at 30. Whoops! Fortunately easily fixed...


 

[Steamer5]

To many snooozzes on the front porch........sounds like the shop elves have been playing while you were dreaming............

She’s coming on nicely Chris.


Cheers Kerrin

[10KPete]

Your ratio of steps forward vs. steps back is very impressive. Such simple little problems are easily fixed...

Pete

[crueby]

To many snooozzes on the front porch........sounds like the shop elves have been playing while you were dreaming............

She’s coming on nicely Chris.


Cheers Kerrin

It would explain why they were snickering every time I got near those brackets!

[crueby]

Your ratio of steps forward vs. steps back is very impressive. Such simple little problems are easily fixed...

Pete

Just glad I spotted it before painting, cleaning off epoxy paint to resolser could have been a bigger problem!

[ddmckee54]

At least you didn't make a boo-boo like that on the track supports....Or did you and just not tell us about it? C'mon - fess up.

Don

[crueby]

At least you didn't make a boo-boo like that on the track supports....Or did you and just not tell us about it? C'mon - fess up.

Don

Nope, track supports are cirrect!  The plans on the little rod bracket clearly shows 30 for the front pair, 45 for the rear pair, I just forgot and made all 4 the same angle.

[crueby]

This morning got the front rod brackets resoldered, and also made up the brace rods. They are threaded at one end for adjusting nuts that hold the rods to the brackets, and at the other end they have a fitting to let them be bolted to the track supports. The fittings started as some flat steel stock, turned round and drilled for the rod at the end:



Then drilled for the bolt before cutting each pair of parts apart:



Then got out the rotary table yet again (getting a lot of use on this model) to round the ends of the fittings:



After test fitting to get the length of the rods marked:



the fittings were silver soldered onto the ends of the rods - they are in soaking in pickle acid now. At this point, I have disassembled the booms/turntable from the main frame, so that I can mark out and drill all the holes in the bottoms of the frames for all the brackets, fittings, controls, etc that are to come later. Once I start assembling in engines, gears, all that stuff, it will get complicated to turn the frame over for drilling/tapping, so this is the best time to accomplish all those tasks. Going to go through all the plan sheets and hopefully get all the holes marked out. If I miss any, it will mean trusting a shop elf on a creaper to slide under and drill a hole...
Here is what the bottom of the frames look like at the moment:





I will also take this opportunity to paint the main boom, track supports and brackets. Probably a good time to put a coat on the frames as well, though I am sure they will get scraped up and need touch up later on. So, there will not be a lot to show for a couple days while all that drilling and painting are going on...
On another note: For anyone within driving distance of Buffalo NY, on Sunday the 17th they are holding the once-a-year open house and tour of the giant pumping engines over there at the Col. Francis Ward pumping station. Here is a link:

http://www.buffaloindustrialheritage.com/

and

http://www.buffalohistorygazette.net/2010/09/holly-steam-engines-at-col-francis-g.html

They have five intact 60-foot tall 1100-ton vertical pumping engines. They are NOT running at this point - there is a similar setup in Boston where I believe they can turn them over, at this point the ones in Buffalo are not.

I found out about them last year one week AFTER the tour happened.   
So, have been looking forward to this years open house. If you are close enough, looks like a great opportunity to see them up close.

[crueby]

Got the locations for all (I hope) the holes on the bottoms and sides of the frames marked out, and started drilling....


One more set to go, then start tapping, most 2-56, some 1-72...

[Johnmcc69]

 
Wow. That's a lot of part in a small machine.
 Fantastic work Chris.

 John

[crueby]

Wow. That's a lot of part in a small machine.
 Fantastic work Chris.

 John

Thanks John! Glad to have you riding along. The frame is about twice as long as the mill table, and had to hold the drill bit in the lathe chuck for the side holes or the column maxed out. Glad I didn't make this at 1":1' scale!
Just finished drilling the rest of the holes in the bottom for the rear track mount. Now need to tap a few dozen holes...

[10KPete]

Chris, are you 'hand' tapping or do you have something like a TapMatic automatic reversing head?

I don't think I could do those little holes strictly by hand. I'd need a guide or tapping head.

Pete

[crueby]

Chris, are you 'hand' tapping or do you have something like a TapMatic automatic reversing head?

I don't think I could do those little holes strictly by hand. I'd need a guide or tapping head.

Pete

Hi Pete,

I prefer to hand tap, use a t handle tap holder. I like the feel of it, better feedback if the tap gets jammed with chips. For small parts will free hold the part, so it can move with the tap wrench to avois side stress. Some people prefer a rigid holder, for some reason this works for me. Just personal preferenc e, rarely break one, usually when its getting dull anyway.

[crueby]

A few sessions of tapping the holes in the bottom and sides of the main frame, then got busy with some paint. The smaller parts were done with the bake-on enamel used on the booms, but the main frame is too large for the oven so I used some automotive engine spray paint on that. Not quite as tough, but easy to touch up at least.

[crueby]

Got the track supports assembled on, just need to add some cotter pins. I was pleasantly surprised how rigid the assembly got - with the slight play in each hole for the main pins, I had thought there would be some wobble to the final assembly, but it went quite rigid and sturdy. Guess those guys at Marion knew their stuff! 


With the frame upside down, I think that the next parts will be all the little blocks for the controls and such, as well as the plates that the rear track and steering connect with. Once it is upright and things assembled to the top of the floor, it will never be this easy to access the underside. Also will make the base for the boiler support, which bolts through from underneath. Lots of fiddly bits to come...