Author Topic: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel  (Read 572117 times)

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2070 on: September 16, 2018, 09:46:09 PM »
Hi Chris, great pictures.
Do you have another one, closer, of this drving ponton ?


As I mentioned, I did not have a camera with me, these are all pics another member took, all I have from yesterday. Which boat do you mean, I may have shots from a different day.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2071 on: September 16, 2018, 11:49:10 PM »
Back in the shop for a bit this afternoon, got the handles for the control levers turned from some steel rod, and bent/drilled the levers from flat stock. The ends of the levers were turned round, to fit in holes drilled in the bases of the handles, then silver soldered together:

Next steps are to make the spacer tubes that hold the levers apart on the pivot shaft, and to mill the openings in the floor plate for the bottoms of the levers. Three of the levers go through the floor, one (the hoist clutch control) stays above the cab floor, running to a valve next to the hoist drum. Also, the lever for the reversing gear on the main hoist engine needs to have a notched base and engaging handle made, to that the reversing gear will stay in the position it is set in. The other levers are free to move back and forth.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2072 on: September 17, 2018, 04:15:43 PM »
Bit by bit getting the lever assembly made up, here its test fit with some nuts used as spacers to test things out. The clevises are a little wide, so the lower ends of the levers had to be bent out to the sides a little for clearance.

and trial fit on the floor:

Next I need to figure out how to make the locking handle and latch on the reversing control lever...

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2073 on: September 17, 2018, 05:32:18 PM »
Jeez, was that thing operated by a man or by an octopus?

Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2074 on: September 17, 2018, 07:09:11 PM »
Beautiful job Chris, they sure will look good inside the machine.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Thomas

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2075 on: September 17, 2018, 07:12:00 PM »
Jeez, was that thing operated by a man or by an octopus?
Octopus!


There are two more levers that hang from the cieling, a floor handle and a pedal too.


Actually, they were very simple to run basic digging with, since once set there were just two handles used, the hoist and slew, while the crowd boom was operated by a second man on the turntable. Marion had clever valving on the throttles, so one valve controlled direction and speed on the slew and crowd engines, plus the hoist throttle had a bypass to hold and telease the hoist chain all from the one lever. Marion played up the simplicity and speed of operation in thier catalogs, and had the special valves patented. The reverse lever on the hoist was only used when driving the tracks, the steering engine throttle likewise, and the drain cock lever only when first starting up.

Online Kim

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2076 on: September 17, 2018, 08:06:31 PM »
That's a nice looking set of control levers, Chris!  :popcorn:
Kim

Offline ddmckee54

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2077 on: September 17, 2018, 08:39:43 PM »
Jeez, was that thing operated by a man or by an octopus?

Ever watched a video of somebody running a modern excavator using 2 joysticks and 2 foot pedals simultaneously?  That would be the equivalent of running at least 6 levers at the same time, maybe more.  It's all a matter of practice, LOTS of practice.

Don

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2078 on: September 17, 2018, 08:52:34 PM »
Enough time thinking about how to make the latching handle, time to make the thing! Started with the top handle, milled a notch in the side of some bar stock, then used the saw to notch where it goes over the lever:

And drilled/tapped the pivot holes for some 0-80 screws,

and milled out the other side of the handle:

After some filing to round off corners and edges, test fit on the lever:

There are a pair of bars running down the sides to the moving part of the lower latch, which will be held in place with the little U-shaped bit. Note that the latch is on the opposite side of the lever from the moving handle, and the bars cross the lever on the way down.

Still need to make the lower latch and the curved rack that it fits into, but that is enough teensy work for one day. Don't know how George makes the tiny bits look so good, his parts are half this size most of the time!

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2079 on: September 18, 2018, 02:45:09 PM »
And this morning nibbled the lower latch out of the end of a piece of bar stock with the mill. The narrow end is drilled for the cross screw at the ends of the long bars from the handle.

Here it is assembled to the lever. The pen mark shows the lowest point, where the latch is engaged to the rack (still to be made).

And here is where it rises to when the handle is closed against the lever, raises the latch to change its position. Not a whole lot of movement, but not a lot is needed to raise it from the notches in the rack. The latch is just dropped by gravity, the original had no springs so the model does not either.


And here is the whole lever:


Next up is the rack assembly at the bottom, which also has guides for the other levers to keep them from twisting sideways.

Offline Tennessee Whiskey

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2080 on: September 18, 2018, 03:06:49 PM »
Really looking good Chris. While the operating may not have been all that hard, I bet it wasn't a task that you could perform and play with your smart phone like so many today are :thinking:

Whiskey

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2081 on: September 18, 2018, 05:47:32 PM »
Amazing work Chris. I certainly enjoy this thread.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2082 on: September 18, 2018, 08:10:18 PM »
Really looking good Chris. While the operating may not have been all that hard, I bet it wasn't a task that you could perform and play with your smart phone like so many today are :thinking:

Whiskey


 :ROFL:


Oh, yeah, the operator of the shovel would get a text from his boss: 
A) you just dug a trench across the road
B) you are fired


 :Lol:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2083 on: September 18, 2018, 08:10:44 PM »
Amazing work Chris. I certainly enjoy this thread.


Thanks Carl!


 :cheers:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2084 on: September 18, 2018, 11:34:09 PM »
Okay, time for another of those complex shape parts. This is the casting that guides the levers just above the floor, keeping them running in a straight line and not getting bent off to the side at the pivot, sort of like a shift gate on a car. I thought about making it out of sheet metal, but its so small that it would be tough to get it accurate and strong, so milling it out of metal seemed like a better idea. Holding the part for working on it is the biggest problem to be solved.
The topmost surface is an arc, that will form the notched rack that the reversing lever latches to. That arc is fairly large, which means that I could not offset a small bar in the 4-jaw since it would go well past the center point. So, I decided to use a short length of round bar, and offset that in the chuck, then mill off one side. Yes, I can hear some of you screaming at me for wasting precious brass stock, but I have a pile of round bar stock that I got cheap several years ago, and this is what its for! So, go scream in a sack of swarf, and I'll get on with making the part!   :ROFL:
Started with offsetting the bar in the 4-jaw enough to cut the arc in one side. The dimple you see to the right on the bar is the centerpoint of the lathe, after chucking it up I drilled a starter hole there to give me something to measure from, since I want the radius of the arc to match the distance up the lever that the latch is from the pivot.


Then I moved the chuck over to the rotary table on the mill (rotab is set vertically), and milled off the other side from the center of the arc, leaving the distance from the flat to the top of the arc matching the distance up from the floor it needs to be. This is where I hear screaming from some of you.


I'll wait.

Done?

Okay:


Then turned the rotab 90 degrees either way, and milled the sides in equally, leaving the desired width of the part.

Switched to a smaller mill, and cut the notches in the side to form the feet where it attaches to the floor, and also lowered the top down where three of the levers go through.


Turned it 45 degrees, and cut the bevels on the lower section.


Then rotated it so the bottom was facing up, and milled out the underside:

Then milled off some more on the end nearest the chuck, to form flats big enough to hold in the mill vise:

and used the slitting saw to cut the part free of the end of the round bar. The top two sections in this photo are the actual part, the rest is just there to hold it in the vise without squishing it.


Now the tricky bit - measured out the locations for the slots that the levers will ride in, and used the slitting saw to cut them. It took two passes at different heights on each to get the slots wide enough for the bars.

Then cut the part free of the base, leaving the finished length:

With the part held sideways in the vise, carefully cut the end back to shape underneath. This cut only goes to the far side of the first slot, it does not go through to the lower section.

Here is the part so far, all the main milling is done. Still need to cut the notches for the latch, and mount holes in the feet. Fairly complex shape, for something so small, but a very important part.


And here it is sitting next to the levers, where it will be on the floorboards. Since the handles will not fit through the slots, I'll need to disassemble/reassemble the levers on their pivots to install this part, so that will wait for the next couple of steps.


 :cheers:

 

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