Author Topic: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)  (Read 327580 times)

Offline crueby

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #585 on: February 09, 2020, 02:14:41 AM »
Thanks, Chris and Carl,
Appreciate your stopping by on this rainy Saturday!  (of course, this time of year, most Saturdays are rainy in the NW :) ).
Kim
A snowy Saturday over here!

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #586 on: February 09, 2020, 03:27:05 AM »
That came out really nice Kim.   :ThumbsUp:

 But.............geeeez...............did you have to slip in that picture of your SPI Mini Protractor? I mean ..........that ranks right up there with those pictures that some people slip in of their Starrett 'Mini Mike"!   :embarassed:

So anyway...........where can I buy one?  :thinking:

Jim
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #587 on: February 09, 2020, 04:47:51 AM »
Gezzz Jim you mean you DON'T have one??

Digital angle gauge should find …..


like here   http://www.wixey.com/anglegauge/

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #588 on: February 09, 2020, 06:14:01 AM »
Hey Jim,
Yeah, that's a handy little gadget to have for sure.  I think I picked mine up on sale at MSC.  I checked there now and they want' $104 for it.  I'm pretty sure I didn't pay that!  There's one on eBay for $50 https://www.ebay.com/itm/SPI-Magnetic-Base-Digital-Protractor-1-360-and-4-90-Measuring-Range/114097765749?hash=item1a90c1bd75:g:dRgAAOSwwgVeOIGN which is getting closer.  I'm pretty sure I paid around $30 for it, but I could be wrong.  It was several years ago, so the price doesn't bother me now :)

The ones that Kerrin points to are probably just as good.

The SPI digital protractor works quite well and has been accurate enough for any use I've had for it.  The display shows two digits of accuracy past the decimal point, but the hundredths is always zero.  And its pretty clear that the tenths digit is somewhat imaginary too.  It gives you readouts to the tenth but the documentation says its only accurate to +/-0.3o.  So I'm sure there are more accurate indicators out there. But this one is nice - it has a magnetic base and has done the jobs I need it to do.

Another fun tool to add to your list!

Kim

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #589 on: February 16, 2020, 02:04:36 AM »
Chapter 5.12 – Coal Stopper

Today I worked on the Coal Stopper.  This is a gizmo that goes in front of the coal bin (I’ve been calling it the horseshoe) to keep the coal from rolling out.  Interestingly to me, it doesn’t seem like there’s much room for coal on this tender, but I guess that’s because it’s a switcher and generally only putters about in the yard. So, I guess it doesn’t need a lot of coal.

But, before I start on the Coal Stopper, I wanted to show the Headlight Base.  It's upside-down here, but that’s so you can see the two little spots along the front top edge that were filled with JB-Weld.  It looks pretty good. And once it’s painted, nobody will be any the wiser!


OK, now we start on the Coal stopper.  I cut the required pieces out of 4130 Sheet Steel (1/16” and 0.040”) then squared them up and took them to size in the mill.


Here’s all three pieces. The larger one is the stop plate and the two thin pieces are for the brackets. I’ve left them long and will cut to size after bending.


I drilled holes in the stop plate for some solder holding screws.


Then bent the brackets (still not cut to length).


Next, I rounded the top corners off the stop plate.


Here are the three pieces all ready to be soldered together.


Well, I forgot to take any soldering pictures, but here’s what it looks like after silver soldering.


And its high time for some family shots showing the progress.  So here are a few shots of everything completed so far:






This was pretty exciting for me!  It’s the first time I’ve had all the pieces together for several months, and it looks pretty good!  It's starting to look like something :)

Thanks for coming on by!
Kim

Offline crueby

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #590 on: February 16, 2020, 02:13:40 AM »
Great looking family shot, following along!   :popcorn:

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #591 on: February 16, 2020, 02:40:58 AM »
That IS a nice family shot Kim. Really gives a feel for what the Tender is going to look like. Quite the project I must say!  :ThumbsUp:

Jim
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #592 on: February 16, 2020, 05:20:38 AM »
Thanks Chris and Jim!

Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #593 on: February 16, 2020, 07:45:21 AM »
Hello Kim,

Beautiful workmanship on these parts and incredible amount of work involved.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Thomas

Offline fumopuc

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #594 on: February 16, 2020, 09:59:07 AM »
Hi Kim,
some good locking success there at the bench.

Kind Regards
Achim

Offline Firebird

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #595 on: February 16, 2020, 10:29:51 AM »
 :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :praise2: :praise2: :praise2:

Cheers

Rich

Offline cnr6400

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #596 on: February 16, 2020, 12:16:14 PM »
Looks great Kim!  :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
"I've cut that stock three times, and it's still too short!"

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #597 on: February 16, 2020, 12:44:07 PM »
Beautiful job!  :ThumbsUp:

I suspect you felt some giddiness when you took those photos. Really great job.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #598 on: February 16, 2020, 05:41:24 PM »
Thanks everyone!  :cheers:
Yes, Zee, I was (and am) quite pleased!  Even had to bring it in to show my wife! She's very tolerant of my show-and-tell sessions  :embarassed:
Kim

Online Kim

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Re: Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)
« Reply #599 on: February 23, 2020, 01:06:39 AM »
Chapter 5.14 – Dummy Side Plates

The last parts for the Tender Tank (Chapter 5) are the Dummy Side Plates.  These are made from 0.040” brass sheet.  But before I went cutting any brass, I wanted to make a cardboard template so that I could adjust the size and shape as needed to fit my tender.

Since I didn’t have a piece of cardboard large enough, I taped together several smaller pieces. These were just the backs of pads of paper or something – nothing too fancy.  Then I marked out the basic shape, cut it out, and trimmed it up to fit the way I wanted it to.

Here’s my template:


And here it is placed on the side of the tender:


Then I laid them out two of them on the brass sheet.  Using the template made it easier to optimize the brass stock, which is important with how expensive that stuff is!


It was too big to cut on my HF 4x6 band saw so I used the reciprocal saw.  It works well and cuts fairly fast but you have to leave a healthy margin because it's not overly accurate (to say the least).


I was able to take that to the bandsaw and cut the two pieces apart.


Then I used double-sided sticky tape to stick the two pieces together for the final shaping.


And I shaped it using files, holding between a couple of pieces of flat steel screwed to the side of my bench.  Not the best vice, but it works for these long pieces!


After I had it square and to the basic shape, I rounded the corners:


And then carefully separated the two pieces.


This gives you an idea of how the were taped together.  The spots on the left plate are some corrosion on the brass plate, not tape residue or anything.  I cleaned these up after I peeled the tape up.


Then I set about making all the rivets around the outside edge of the side panels.  For the spacing of these rivets, I again relied on the size of the rim of the die.  It worked quite well to keep things evenly spaced.


There are two rows of inner rivets. These are supposed to be done with double the spacing of the other rivets, so I just marked the spots where I wanted to emboss a rivet for these rows.


And here are the completed Dummy Side Plates.


Next time I’ll attach those to the tank and we’ll be on to the next chapter – The Tender Manhole!

Thanks for following along,
Kim

 

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