Author Topic: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel  (Read 574299 times)

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2580 on: December 04, 2018, 07:50:06 PM »
Chain drilled the port slots, and drilled the inlet/outlet passages which were also counterbored to take the ends of the pipes.

Then a couple minutes with the air handpiece and dental bur to connect the chain drilled holes and square up the ends of the slots. The valve face was then lapped on a pair of diamond plates, finished with some diamond lapping compound on a flat plate (I was taught to use these methods to sharpen wood chisels/planes by a master boatbuilder years ago - makes for a razor edge). The final step with the finer lapping compound had to be skipped since that tube dried out from old age, and the replacement has not arrived yet. Still, quite a good finish on it as is - when starting to lap the surface it quickly showed how un-flat the side of a piece of rolled steel is, the sides were higher, the center lower, and the surface had lots of little micro-pinholes in it. So, took it down past those imperfections, and it SHOULD be a good seal with the valve slider.


Here are the parts so far:

Next step is to drill/counterbore/tap the hole for the control rod in the end of the steam chest, then get the steam pipes soldered in to the base plate. Also need to make the new flange plate that takes the steam up to the axle of the hoist drum.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2581 on: December 05, 2018, 06:05:27 PM »
Pipes fitted and silver soldered in place, just need to plug the ends of the passages and get the control rod bushing drilled/tapped into the steam chest...

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2582 on: December 05, 2018, 06:57:52 PM »
Control rod bushing drilled/tapped, everything is moving smoothly, and it passes a low-pressure (blowing in inlet pipe) leak test with valve closed, can hear air through with it open, so on to making the gaskets for the steam chest...



Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2583 on: December 06, 2018, 02:54:58 PM »
And we have liftoff! Well, hold-down? Anyway, the new clutch valve is in and working well. I made up the paper gaskets for the steam chest this morning, and got everything installed. Still a little bit of an air leak around the pipe that goes into the axle, but I kind of expected that since there is no compression fitting on the o-ring (it would take up room on the outside of the axle that I dont want to use), and it works quite well as is.
Here is a short video of it in action - you can see the clutch piston moving the lever over at the right when the control lever is thrown, and the bucket moving up on the left as the gear is turned.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASkFAlRMbvU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASkFAlRMbvU</a>

Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2584 on: December 06, 2018, 03:01:44 PM »
Hello Chris,

That is cool. :praise2: Sure is neat to see a device like that scaled down and working..good job.  :ThumbsUp:

Have a great day,
Thomas
Thomas

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2585 on: December 06, 2018, 03:10:22 PM »
Hello Chris,

That is cool. :praise2: Sure is neat to see a device like that scaled down and working..good job.  :ThumbsUp:

Have a great day,
Thomas
Yeah, it was a big relief when this worked, its a critical function and I've never tried anything like this before. The other tricky one coming up will be the slew/crowd engines, they have a very different style valving to them and are fairly small. Then the steering engine, which is identical but 1/3rd smaller than those two! Next up will be the hoist engine, that is pretty standard aside from the fact that the two cylinders are not directly connected to each other, but bolt to the floor either side of the gear train (common crankshaft) so alignment will be interesting.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2586 on: December 06, 2018, 09:15:29 PM »
Turns out the air leak was not at the axle but one of the joints near it. Solved that, now now hissing sound!


 8)

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2587 on: December 06, 2018, 09:46:55 PM »
Yeah, it was a big relief when this worked

 :ThumbsUp: I expect a few cookies were had in celebration.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
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Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2588 on: December 06, 2018, 09:50:41 PM »
Yeah, it was a big relief when this worked

 :ThumbsUp: I expect a few cookies were had in celebration.


There will be some munched contentedly soon, the shop elves beat me to the cupboard and ate them all, had to get more out of the stash in the freezer, waiting for them to warm up...

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2589 on: December 06, 2018, 10:11:30 PM »
That is formidable!

 :ThumbsUp:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2590 on: December 07, 2018, 12:14:54 AM »
Yeah, it was a big relief when this worked

 :ThumbsUp: I expect a few cookies were had in celebration.


There will be some munched contentedly soon, the shop elves beat me to the cupboard and ate them all, had to get more out of the stash in the freezer, waiting for them to warm up...
Mmmmmm.,..  took some back in the shop to sit and admire the project....  Munch munch  mmmmmm...


Buurp...

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2591 on: December 07, 2018, 12:37:22 AM »
 :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2592 on: December 07, 2018, 12:48:35 AM »
Thanks guys!


Next up will, finally, after over a year, be the main hoist steam engine!  No castings to fondle, so got the plans for it printed out to drool over. Original is a two cylinder engine, 12" bore, 16" stroke, with reversing gear. They used a short straight version of a typical Stephenson linkage, which saves space at the expense of no adjustment for lead and cutoff, but they only did short runs so that was not needed, just full power starts and runs for a few seconds. It looks a lot like a mill engine, but split to sit either side of the gear train. I am going to start with the crank discs and eccentrics and work towards the cylinders from there. Not tomorrow though, am taking my mother out Christmas tree hunting instead. Hmm... Will need a mini one for the shop elves too...


 :cheers:

Offline Don1966

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2593 on: December 07, 2018, 01:27:37 AM »
Dog just another chicken for the licking. That’s is just peachy Chris and very nice work.

 :cheers:
Don

Online Kim

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #2594 on: December 07, 2018, 06:57:06 AM »
Just very cool, Chris!  And you found the little leak to boot!  :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
Way to go.  You earned your cookies today!  :Lol:
Kim

 

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