Author Topic: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel  (Read 573191 times)

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #570 on: January 22, 2018, 05:23:58 AM »
Oh GOODIE cookies!

Here’s me thinking it was just  :DrinkPint:

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #571 on: January 22, 2018, 11:16:10 AM »
Hi Chris

Did you post the pictures differently in post #564 ...?
I ask because I can't see them - they are just marked with an X in a small black square and nothing happens when I click on them  :'(

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #572 on: January 22, 2018, 01:34:45 PM »
Hi Chris

Did you post the pictures differently in post #564 ...?
I ask because I can't see them - they are just marked with an X in a small black square and nothing happens when I click on them  :'(
Post 565 maybe? They are same as the other ones, through Postimage.org. sometimes that site clogs up for a while. I am seeing all of them at the moment, anyone else having trouble seeing them?
Next step on the dipper handle front fitting, milled the slots in the upright block. These slots dont go all the way through, there is a cross-bar part way along it. So, took out the bulk with the 1/4" cutter like on the other block:

then came back with a smaller cutter to make the corner radii smaller:

Here are the blocks so far, ready to drill/tap for some small screws to hold them together for silver soldering - they will go into the narrow parts of the webs, since the thicker section will have a pivot pin hole bored through, and I don't want to interfere with that.



The blocks still need the bolt/pivot holes drilled, as well as having some of the faces beveled - going to have to make sure I do that in an order which allows for holding everything in the vise.

« Last Edit: June 16, 2018, 08:52:11 PM by crueby »

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #573 on: January 22, 2018, 08:57:13 PM »
It might just have been a temporary snag as you suggest.

I see them just fine here at home now - I'll check again at work tomorrow.

Thank you.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #574 on: January 22, 2018, 09:20:23 PM »
It might just have been a temporary snag as you suggest.

I see them just fine here at home now - I'll check again at work tomorrow.

Thank you.

 :ThumbsUp:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #575 on: January 22, 2018, 09:29:55 PM »
Bunch more done on the dipper fitting today - started out by finishing up the slots on the vertical plate, adding the middle one on the top, and taking a pass from the ends to square up the corners. This picture shows the right and middle one squared up, other 3 still to be done.

and here it is test fit together, with a pair of 1-72 screws through the webs at the bottom to hold it together - this will be used for the silver soldering step.

Next up was to get the pivot hole drilled through the vertical plate:

Then used that hole to set the height in the mill vise, took a pass with the part moved to several angles, using the pin to keep the cuts concentric to the hole:

Then drilled the bolt holes that will attach the bottom plate to the booms, and set it at an angle for milling the top surface down:

And a nibble off the thin end to set the angle there as well:

The vertical plate also gets its outer face tapered, leaving a narrow rib in the center:

And the final milling step, tapering the left/right edges of the bottom plate, using the fixture plate on the rotary table to align the cut to the mill cutter:

Then bolted the two parts back together, and did a test fit on the bucket - just needed a little adjustment with a file to get it to seat in fully, and held with a cross pin. Here are some pics of that:





So, just need to get the fitting silver soldered together and cleaned up. Time for a cookie!!
« Last Edit: June 16, 2018, 08:52:28 PM by crueby »

Offline Kim

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #576 on: January 22, 2018, 10:37:44 PM »
Whew!  That's a lot of work for one piece, Chris!  You must me exhausted.  I am just watching your updates.

Enjoy the cookie, you've earned it!
Kim

Offline J.L.

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #577 on: January 23, 2018, 12:21:36 PM »
Chris,

This is just outstanding machining and precision with details. You should be very proud of this significant part of the machine.

 Just think of how much work this device will be asked to do if in the real world. So much technology was called for with its design.

A stunning thread!  :popcorn:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #578 on: January 23, 2018, 02:27:00 PM »
Thanks guys! They definitely built them well, this one was in operation for decades at the quarry. Yesterday I was digging  :Lol:  through the patent dates on the plaque on its side, which lists just patent dates, and matched up all but 3 of them. The leaders at Marion had quite a lot of patents!

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #579 on: January 23, 2018, 07:36:52 PM »
And one more set of brackets to make for the bucket, these go on the top of the boom, with a s-shaped bar running up to the top of the bucket. Got the main shape nibbled out of a bar of 303:

Then rounded the tops with several passes, again using the drill as a pivot to position the part at a number of angles in the vise.

Then the two brackets were cut apart, and trimmed to length. Here they are completed:

On the real ones, there would be a small shock mount inside these, to reduce the shock loads when the bucket hits rocks (or wayward cars). For the model, not enough room for that to be practical, so I made them solid.
Last parts for the brackets are the s-shaped bars. I don't have any 1/8x3/16, so started by milling off the side of some 3/16 square bar. They will be heated for bending, then measured for the cross pin holes - the bars are left long for now, dont want to commit to length till after they are bent to shape.

Also, my order of the thin flat bar stock has arrived, so I can start laying out the stock for the dipper booms. I am going to make the booms like the originals, with a white oak core surrounded by steel plates.

EDIT: Oh - and this afternoon is moderately warm outside, so I am going to silver solder up the big bracket.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2018, 08:52:51 PM by crueby »

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #580 on: January 24, 2018, 09:11:17 PM »
Now that I have the flat stock for the dipper and main booms, it was time to figure out how to hold it for machining. The bars need to be narrowed from 1" to .9375", and trimmed to length. Later on, I'll need to do similar operations on the I-beams for the main frame. All of them are longer than the travel on the mill table (the floor beams will be around 30" long). Time for another fixture plate, something I can register against the edge of the mill table so I dont have to spend hours readjusting it every time it goes on and off.

I started looking at some aluminum bars I have, but none were large enough to handle the length and also the width of the stock (the main boom stock is 2" wide), so I went to my wood shop, and found some 'naturally grown metal' stock, a chunk of Guatambu, also known as Ivorywood, that was left over from a carving years ago. It is very hard and dense, and takes a thread a bit better than aluminum does. One side was recessed down (on the mill) to leave a nice straight lip to hang over the edge of the mill table, then a set of holes for both the t-slot bolts to hold it down and a set of 10-32 tapped holes for the hold-downs were drilled in. With it bolted to the mill table, snug against the lip, a shallow recess about .900" wide was milled into the top to give something for the stock to rest against. Here it is, holding one of the dipper boom side bars:

Using this setup, I milled each of the four bars down to the finished width. Since the bars are longer than the table travel, I made a pass as far as it would go, rewound the table back, slid the bar to the right, and made a second pass to finish off the cut. For the longer main boom and floor beams, it will take several passes per bar. One thing I found when setting up is that the 1" bar stock actually varies in width along its length, from 1" to 1.015" wide - one side of the stock was a little wavy in places, so I milled that side off, using the straight edge against the stop.

With the bars to width, I went and cut a pair or oak strips for the cores of the dipper handle. The table saw is no where near accurate enough for this, so I left them slightly oversize, then used the fixture to mill them to width and thickness. The cores were taken .025" shorter than the steel bars, to leave room for the end plug to notch into place.

Here are the bars and cores done. One set is clamped together on the upper right, the other set is laying on the table. Note that the top bar is thicker than the bottom one. Not sure why they designed it that way, though it may have to do with the fact that the bottom edge also will get the gear rack bolted to it.

And the bar held up to the bucket for a better sense of scale. The bottom bar has a slightly rounded edge, that needs to be filed slightly to let it fit snug into the slots in the fitting.


« Last Edit: June 16, 2018, 08:52:59 PM by crueby »

Online kvom

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #581 on: January 24, 2018, 09:55:45 PM »
Top bar is in tension, bottom in compression under a bending load.  Might be a reason foe thicker top.   :thinking:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #582 on: January 24, 2018, 10:05:18 PM »
Top bar is in tension, bottom in compression under a bending load.  Might be a reason foe thicker top.   :thinking:
That's a possibility.  The top also has the T shaped gear holder sliding along it, wonder if the made it thicker to allow for wear as well?
Wouldn't it be great to be able to go back and pick these guys brains?

Offline Don1966

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #583 on: January 24, 2018, 10:45:42 PM »
Just awesome!    :ThumbsUp:

 :cheers:
Don

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #584 on: January 25, 2018, 08:04:48 PM »
Top bar is in tension, bottom in compression under a bending load.  Might be a reason foe thicker top.   :thinking:

Took another closeup look at the photos, since this was not making sense to me - why it would be a different thickness top and bottom plates of the dipper boom? Through the grease/dirt on the boom, I could make out that there is a second layer of plate on the bottom to bring it up to the same thickness as the top. The bottom piece only runs about a third of the way back from the bucket, then the gear rack plate runs the rest of the way. Don't know why they made the bottom one in two pieces when the top is one - maybe thats what THEY had on THEIR stock pile!

So, easy enough to cut another length of the thinner stock for the bottom sides and add it to the stack - fortunately I have not started drilling for the bolts/rivets yet.

Since the rivets need to be flush with the surface of the plates, so they don't hit the main boom or gear guide, I'm going to experiment on some scrap with countersinking the hole, so the rivet has room to expand below the surface, then file off the top of the rivet head. Looks like they did something like that.

 

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