Author Topic: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)  (Read 327681 times)

Offline matthew-s

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #225 on: February 11, 2019, 12:01:56 PM »

I'd love to see your Pennsy.  Do you have a build thread going?  Don't remember seeing it.  If not, you should one and post a few progress photos!

Kim

I will try to remember to create one and show an occasional progress photo. I get so little shop time I try to maximize it. If folks would find value with random leaps of progress I’ll try to pull one together  :)

Offline Steve17

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #226 on: February 11, 2019, 09:00:00 PM »
Hi Kim,
I was always recommend to go down to a Lawn bowling club and ask if they had any split woods. They are rock hard and stable.

Steve.

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #227 on: February 19, 2019, 02:24:12 AM »
Thanks for the pointer Steve!

Here's my update for this weekend.

It took me a while to come up with a way to cut the bars to length, but this is what I ended up doing; I made a stack-up of the bars – not in the right order, but all in the same orientation.  I included the hole jig in the stack-up and used that as the reference length.

In this picture, the bottom is a correctly assembled truck frame.  On the top, is the various bars, assembled with the jig, ready to be cut to length.  You can see that the bars are in a different order in the stack, but all are the correct orientation.


Here is one of the stack-ups being milled to length.


To assemble the trucks, I needed some #3-48 1/4" round-head screws.  And I couldn’t find any 1/4" for sale.  I found 1/8”, and 5/16”, but no 1/4".  Not a lot of difference but the 5/16” were just too long.  Since I need a bunch of 3-48 x 1/4" I made a jig to help me cut them to size more quickly.  I know I’ve seen this several other places on this forum, but I don’t remember exactly who showed it, so will just give general credit to the list :).  I drilled and tapped a bunch of holes in a scrap piece of 1/4" aluminum bar then filled all the holes with the screws to be shortened.


I put the whole jig in the mill upside-down, and shaved off the excess lenght.


I was able to do 8 screws at a whack this way which made it pretty fast to do a bunch of them. And unscrewing them from the jig helped clean up the threads.  Worked a treat.


After I test assembled all the truck frames, I found they weren’t quite square with the world.  They would wiggle around when placed on a flat surface.  So I used the vice and a crescent wrench to encourage them to lay flat.


And here are all four of the truck frames!


With them all assembled successfully, it was time to take them apart and carefully mark each piece so I can get them back together in the same way.  I still have to assemble them around the bolsters!  If you look closely, you might be able to see the little numbers punched into the inside of the journal boxes.  There are numbers on the inside of each end of the bars and columns too.


I’m getting close to assembly time for the trucks, and before I get there, I needed to Loctite the wheels to the axles.  I’ve not used Loctite 680 before, but it is thick green stuff. It says it is designed for slip-fit joints. It was a bit messy, but seems to have worked pretty well!


The last thing needed before I can assemble the trucks are the suspension springs. So, first I made the mandrel (0.145” diameter).  And then I tried making a spring.  I forgot to take a picture of that – maybe next time!  But here’s my first attempt.  It seemed to go, OK, but my second attempt isn’t really worth showing.  I’m going to have to practice this!


That’s my weekend’s accomplishment.
Kim

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #228 on: February 19, 2019, 02:43:58 AM »
Those arch bars look really good, Kim. I've never built anything that didn't require tweaking, especially bent stuff. I'm eagerly awaiting the day those all go together!
 :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
 :popcorn: :popcorn:

Pete
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Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #229 on: February 19, 2019, 04:40:29 AM »
Thanks Pete!  Appreciate the encouragement :)
Kim

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #230 on: February 19, 2019, 01:13:33 PM »
They look fantastic Kim. Also looking forward to seeing the trucks assembled. Do you have a section of track to try them out on?

Bill

Offline steamer

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #231 on: February 19, 2019, 01:45:54 PM »
Yes those are looking fantastic!   Now do they stay bolted together?  or do you silver solder them once complete?   :headscratch:


Dave
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Damned ijjit!

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #232 on: February 19, 2019, 07:33:57 PM »
Dave, this part just remains bolted together as best as I can tell.  Hopefully that's good enough?  I'm sure it will be for the number of miles (feet?  inches?) my loco will run :)

Bill, no, I don't have any track!  That's something I'm going to have to figure out soon here, isn't it!

Kim

Offline kvom

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #233 on: February 19, 2019, 10:39:38 PM »
Any material can be used for "shop" tracks.  Just need to make the gauge correct.

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #234 on: February 25, 2019, 12:38:21 AM »
Chapter 3.6 – Coil Springs
Now to do the coil springs.  Yesterday, I started making the springs in earnest.  Or what I should really say, is making practices springs!  ::)

After a while, I got a process down.  I tried free hand first, but that didn’t work so well. They just didn’t look even.  So I set my lathe to do 12 TPI threads and used that to lay the coils. That worked quite well and made things look very regular.  The reason I didn't start that way is because doing course threads like this required a gear change and I wanted to avoid that.  I should have just started that way. It was clearly MUCH better! 

I would lay a couple of rounds very close, engage the half-nut, run about 7 turns, then disengage the half-nut and make a couple more close turns.  I got better at this with practice too.  Here’s a pretty nice one just before it came off the manderel:


And here’s my fleet of springs (and garbage) from my work. The bottom row are my initial practice springs and me trying to get the right TPI spacing on the coils.  The upper row is as I was improving.


This is also straight out of  Kozo’s book.  I punched a 1/4" hole in a piece of scrap and clamped it onto the rest on my grinder.  This worked really well to flatten of the ends of the coils and get them to the correct length.


And the final contenders for the springs.  I chose the best 8 of these to use in the trucks. The others are spares for when I inevitably lose one.


Then it was finally time to assemble the trucks.  This took an inordinate amount of time. There are a lot of pieces and the all have a specific direction to go.  When I got the second frame assembled, I realized I’d done the first one upside down.  So, I fixed that. Then I realized I’d done the second one inside out.  So, I re-did that.  It took me till the last side frame to get it together right the first time.  Then I realized I had to put the wheels in before I got it all assembled.  So back apart and together again!


Anyway, after all that, I’m super pleased with how they look. They are just a bit too fun!  :cartwheel:


Next, I get to start on the frame for the tender!

Thanks for watching,
Kim

Offline cnr6400

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #235 on: February 25, 2019, 04:07:23 AM »
Hi Kim, looks like spring's a bit early this year in your shop!  :naughty:

Everything looks just great on the trucks! well done.  :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
"I've cut that stock three times, and it's still too short!"

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #236 on: February 25, 2019, 04:40:15 AM »
There's no doubt that you know how to assemble those trucks now! Beautiful! I'd want a bit of track to roll 'em around on.... toot toot...   And you now know how to make springs. Excellent! :ThumbsUp:

 :cheers:

Pete
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Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #237 on: February 25, 2019, 05:53:55 AM »
Hi Kim, looks like spring's a bit early this year in your shop!  :naughty:
  :Lol:
Yeah, I wish. They're saying its going to snow more tonight!  ::)

Thanks CNR and Pete!  Yes, I think I've got the assembly process down.  And if not now, I will after I take it apart, paint it, and re-assemble!  :o

Kim

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #238 on: February 25, 2019, 09:33:28 AM »
Superb work, I reckon.

 :ThumbsUp:

gary

Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #239 on: February 25, 2019, 10:04:15 AM »
Hello Kim,

More beautiful craftsmanship from your shop. Really enjoying following this build.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Thomas

 

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