Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel

[crueby]

Have you tried cutting one link to see if there is a plating?  Once cut you can flex it to fatigue it, if there is plating it will flake off.  Should help you determine what you are playing with pretty quickly.

Mike

Good tip - just tried that, no flaking, and the acid did nothing as well. Must just be some polished mystery stainless alloy.

Also tried heating then oil, not much difference to just heating, which looks good enough for now. Another incentive to trying to make a chain bending jig later on with some known steel. This chain is like turnpike gas station food, no one knows what the heck is in it, probably better that way!

[J.L.]

Hi Chris,

Wonderful work again.

 

Before I was given a piece of steel the other day, the fellow who gave it to me, said that it was quite rusty so he sandblasted it.

John

[crueby]

Thanks John!


 


I'm in the middle of milling down the A frame legs to size, we have finally gotten some warmer weather so not as much shop time today, that outside place is back!

[crueby]

First A-frame leg milled to size, ready to round the ends...

[90LX_Notch]

Checking in.  Very nice work/progress Chris.

-Bob

[crueby]

Hi Bob!

Got the ends rounded over on the rotary table/mill setup. The angled ends took some fiddling till I found a combination of clamps that would keep the part from rotating since there was no way to clamp it flat on the arm. The screw at the center is in a bushing to match the size of the hole in the leg.

The other ends were much simpler, standard setup for parts like con-rods.

Two legs, ready to go:

Ready to make the pins for the bottom ends, and then the parts that go at the top end to support the boom and steam pipe for the crowd engine.

[mklotz]

I think I finally understand why your progress seems so rapid.

You must have a collection of raw stock of Brobdingnagian proportions!  We almost never hear you lamenting, "As soon as the ... arrives, I'll start work on ..." I'm sitting here imagining a rented Boeing 747 hangar filled to the ceiling with every type of material, in every shape and size increment.

I'm also imagining a smaller, Piper-cub size hangar filled with all the currency you use to buy all the brass you're using in this project.

Keep up the great work.  We're all enjoying this thread immensely.

[Kim]

Nice work, Chris, as always.

Marv, I love your posts! I always learn something!  This time I had to look up Brobdingnagian.  Guess I never read Gulliver's Travels.  And I agree with your comment!   I'd love to see Chris's stash of bar stock!

Kim

[crueby]

I think I finally understand why your progress seems so rapid.

You must have a collection of raw stock of Brobdingnagian proportions!  We almost never hear you lamenting, "As soon as the ... arrives, I'll start work on ..." I'm sitting here imagining a rented Boeing 747 hangar filled to the ceiling with every type of material, in every shape and size increment.

I'm also imagining a smaller, Piper-cub size hangar filled with all the currency you use to buy all the brass you're using in this project.

Keep up the great work.  We're all enjoying this thread immensely.

 

I definitely don't have a 747 hanger full of stock. Do know a guy with a small plane hanger, but he won't let me have a key... 

So far I've probably spent a couple hundred total on this project - and the steel is not that much cheaper than brass, considering I got most of the large brass as offcuts at a discount.

The reality is that the main stock rack is on the side wall of the closet in the back room I use as a model shop:

Some more on the back wall of the closet:

and the large offcuts sit on the floor:

Thats pretty much it - few bits of sheet stock in a drawer, etc. I do try and look ahead to the next sets of parts to see if I need to buy something specific, but I tend to get larger sizes and whittle them down as needed for a project like this - since this model is a direct scale of the existing, most of the parts are between normal stock sizes, this model was not designed as a model to use even sizes. So, I tend to buy bigger stock when I see it going by on sale somewhere, and haunt the commercial places for drops. Buying onsey-twosy of small pieces is the MOST expensive way to do it, both in price per piece as well as shipping costs, I'd rather spend twice as much on the stock, and have enough for the next three models. Some of the suppliers have regular sales, so I haunt those circulars too. 
 

Though, have to admit, the checks for the Lombard articles are more than covering costs for the Marion build!   

[crueby]

Nice work, Chris, as always.

Marv, I love your posts! I always learn something!  This time I had to look up Brobdingnagian.  Guess I never read Gulliver's Travels.  And I agree with your comment!   I'd love to see Chris's stash of bar stock!

Kim

I think I used to live near the Dingnagian's, though I don't remember which one was Brob....   

And I think we were typing at the same time, see previous post for the stash.

Oh, and its well guarded by a troop of Ninja attack elves and their miniature Dobermans!   

[Kim]

Oh, and its well guarded by a troop of Ninja attack elves and their miniature Dobermans!   

You can't be too careful with a stash like that! That's a lot of brass!
Kim

[crueby]

Oh, and its well guarded by a troop of Ninja attack elves and their miniature Dobermans!   

You can't be too careful with a stash like that! That's a lot of brass!
Kim

Half of it is steel.


The attack elves/gnomes used to be bodyguards for Disney. Very nasty.   


 

[ddmckee54]

I'd always believed that I don't have any shop elves because my neighbor's Marine gnomes scared them off, but you've got Ninja Attack Elves and Attack Gnomes working together.  Now I'm starting to believe that it's the working conditions, my shop is in the basement of a house that was built in 1890 after all.  At least if I do have shop elves I'm pretty sure the Clean-up detail is on strike, and has been for years.

You say the mint chocolate chip cookies work miracles right?

Don

[crueby]

I'd always believed that I don't have any shop elves because my neighbor's Marine gnomes scared them off, but you've got Ninja Attack Elves and Attack Gnomes working together.  Now I'm starting to believe that it's the working conditions, my shop is in the basement of a house that was built in 1890 after all.  At least if I do have shop elves I'm pretty sure the Clean-up detail is on strike, and has been for years.

You say the mint chocolate chip cookies work miracles right?

Don

Oh yes, the right cookies make all the difference. And the Attack'ers keep the local squirrels under control too... Salesmen, that is, not the little furry animals...   

[zeeprogrammer]

Don...keep in mind the kinds of elves Chris's mint chocolate chip cookies attract.
Think about it.

Think about it carefully.

If you want helpful and polite elves, you might try a different cookie.
If you can't make your own...Keebler can work in a pinch. Or Rice Krispie treats.

I had some elves...but they were attracted by another shop (T's kitchen).
I don't know her specific trick but I know it works on me too.

 

All I have now is something I haven't been able to see but keeps mumbling things like "Are you sure you want to do that?".