Stephenson’s Rocket

[Bob Wild]

Kim, it is going to run on air. But it does have a blooming great chimney. Watch this space !

Bob

[crueby]

Then definitely using wood for the cladding is fine! Watching along, the Rocket is a cool engine.

[Bob Wild]

Got the chimney finished. The corona was an interesting challenge. Being such a thin wall I made a wooden plug to fit inside it. Then milled down  with progressively smaller bits staring with 8mm then 7, 6, 5 and finally 4. After I was able to file it smooth by hand. As I mentioned earlier, it does look impressively huge!

[Kim]

That is one big beautiful chimney! 
Kim

[RReid]

That's a clever approach to making the corona, and it came out looking great! Very well done!

[Admiral_dk]

Great result that looks like the original       

Per

[Bob Wild]

Thanks chaps for all your interest

[Bob Wild]

Started on the front springs.


I thought it would be a good idea to glue them all together to make them easier to assemble. But it wasn’t! I forgot that loctite needs both surfaces to be in good contact and they kept coming apart. Had to separate all the strips and clean off all the adhesive.
Anyway it worked in the end and here are all the bits prior to assembly:

And here are the parts mounted on the chassis:


Now I have to repeat the whole lot again for the rear springs

Bob

Seem to be struggling to get the pics in the right place but I think you will get the gist

[Bob Wild]

I have to take a short break from my workshop, so I am using the time to consider and draw the details which Julian has omitted from his "looking at" model. The biggest challenge is the valve gear, He gives no information about the eccentrics, the port sizes and throw of the valve. I can get a fair idea from Glithero's drawings but they are difficult to scale as they are all in isometric projection. So any help and suggestions would be most appreciated. I do know the size of the cylinder and the throw of the crankshaft, so I assume that would be the best starting point.

Bob

[Bob Wild]

Got the rear spring assembly finished an here is what it looks like. Very fiddly as there are 18 parts for each side.

Next up are the cylinders. I have sorted the valve gear thanks to the help from other members but I have still to work out the eccentrics and the reversing mechanism. The more I get into this project the more apprehensive I feel about my abilities.
Bob

[RReid]

Your abilities certainly look up to the challenge from my viewpoint. The spring assembly looks excellent!

[Kim]

I agree with Ron, that looks great! 

Kim

[Bob Wild]

Thanks Ron and Kim.

[Bob Wild]

Got the cylinders made and associated bits to mount them on the boiler. The cylinders were made with the protrusion for the valve chest (not sure of the right name) all in one piece. The semi-circular part was done on the rotary table which was turned through a couple of degrees after each pass. Then smoothed off with a file. I bit the bullet and bought a print from the NRM of the sheet which covers the valve and eccentric mechanism. Still trawling through the layout in Solid Edge - watch this space.

Bob

[Kim]

Nice work on the cylinders!  They look great!   

Kim