Stephenson’s Rocket

[crueby]

Barrel, thats a good one.




Well, aside from shaping the staves out of wood loke a full sized one, which is complex, a few ideas in no particular order...

• 3d print the barrel
• Turn the shape on the lathe and scribe in lines to simulate staves
• Turn the shape oversized slightly, an slice it along the stave lines, glue back together
• Make it as a modern version with 55 gallon drum shape     just kidding!

[tghs]

I've been looking at cooperage as I will need to make some waterbreakers and buckets shortly.. it's just a math problem to make the staves, divide the large and smaller circumferences by the number staves predicted with these numbers make a pattern,, most coopers have a wall of patterns.. thinking about carving a plug the barrel shape, soaking the staves so the bend, clamping/strapping them around the plug,, after drying remove the plug and assemble the cask/barrel..

[Bob Wild]

Thanks Chaps and wow - that is a brilliant model of yours tghs. Fortunately my barrel is circular in cross section. I was thinking of turning a solid former to glue the planks to. My biggest worry is to get the tapered planks all the same and the correct size. I'll try a fixture to shape each one the same and maybe a little trial and error to get the taper right.

Bobb

[tghs]

what is the size for your barrel? the water cask I get to make will be just over 3 inches long,, you could shape a board with the stave shape and then saw off staves, that way you don't have to shape each one, just maybe lightly angle the edges for good fit to each other.. hose clamps or zip-ties to bend the soaked (and maybe hot) around the form..

[Bob Wild]

If you want to hear a tail of woe and misery read on.

Having made all the parts for the valve and drive gear I thought it was about time do set up to run on air. Having made all the parts I assumed this would just be a matter of setting the timing. How wrong it proved to be. Here is a list of all the problems and disasters that followed.

1 The lower cross shafts consisted of a small diameter shaft for one bell crank and a larger one bored to fit over the first for the other crank. I though it looked a bit odd because both valve levers seemed to be moving together. And this proved to be the case, since it was so long since I made these so long ago that they had rusted together. So they had to be freed.
2 The upper shaft somehow became misaligned by a millimetre with the bearing hole in the post which was mounted on the valve chest. So that meant making another post with the bearing hole in the correct position.
3 I had never been able to get the reversing mechanism to slide freely on the drive shaft so I decided to do away with it.
4 Also there seemed to be too much play in the eccentric straps, so I bit the bullet and made two new ones.
5 To my horror I discovered that one of the crossheads was fouling on the support bracket and bending it by about a millimetre. I don’t know how that happened because it didn’t foul when I made it in the first place. So I plugged the hole in the little end of the con rod and drilled another in the right place.
6 I could finally get on with setting the timing. I realised that I had to adjust the valve such that it was in the middle of the valve ports when the throw of the crank was in the centre. I adjusted the timing of the eccentric such that the valves were opening when the crank was at TDC or just before. Try as I might I could not get either cylinder to drive. I adjusted everything I could think of with no success. I even tried altering the valve travel by changing the bell crank throw both by increasing it and decreasing it. All to no avail.
7 Having spent several weeks on this, I finally admitted defeat and decided that this would have to be just a looking at model (unless there are any experts in West Yorkshire who would fancy a day out!).
I thought I would do some machining for a change and started on the steam dome. So I dug out my ball turning  attachment and fitted that to the cross-slide. Unfortunately I forgot that the mounting plate would not fit under the chuck jaws. When I switched on the motor the chuck collided with the plate. Result: 1000 rpm to zero in a millisecond. Ouch. The motor had died. Spoke with a very helpful chap at Warco who said that the most likely part that had filed was the motor drive board. So I forked out £100 for a new one.
8 I found two fuses had also blown (although the wiring diagram showed only one). Another few days wasted while I awaited delivery of some new ones.
9 And then when I tried to remove one of the burnt out fuses the holder also broke. So another few days wasted while I waited again for some new ones.
10 Then when the new board arrived I started removing the connecting wires which were fixed with spade connectors. On the first attempt I pulled the wire itself which promptly became detached from the connector. So I called on my very helpful son-in-law who came round with some new connectors and the proper crimping tool.
Everything was hunky-dory when we switched on the motor, so I was good to go.
11 And then, would you believe, after a couple of minutes turning another fuse blew. And that is where I am at the moment. Scratching my head and wondering what on earth to do next.

Anyway, I feel a lot better now that I have got it all off my chest.

Bob

[PaulR]

What a nightmare, it must be awfully frustrating. I have a few different hobbies and when things go pear-shaped with one I completely forget about it for a short while and concentrate on the others. When I come back to it later it never seems quite so bad as it did. Hope things come right for you shortly.

[Kim]

Wow! That is QUITE the tale of woe and misery! 
I'm sorry that you're having so many difficulties all in a row.  It would be nice to have a success here and there to provide some hope.

Stick with it, and I'm certain you'll figure it out.  Get the machine running and you can start to make progress again.

I'm dealing with an inoperative lathe at the moment to.  Hopefully, the part I need will come in today and all will work again.
Best of luck to you, Bob!
Kim

[Admiral_dk]

The parts are bad enough (or at least very annoying) - but having Tool problems is depressing 

If you have access to an Insulation Meter - please measure that the Motor has high enough Resistance between the Wiring and the Case @ the correct Voltage (more than 500V and >50 Mega-Ohms) - as bad insulation can dammage the Electronics .... Not saying this is the case here ....
It can be used to test the rest of the Wiring - BUT please do NOT have the Electronics connected while measuring.

I hope that you have a simple, cheap and easy fix for the rest of the problem.

Best wishes

Per     

[Bob Wild]

Thanks Per, Kim and Paul. Thanks to my brilliant son-in-law the lathe problems have been solved. The most likely candidate for the final problem is a sub-standard fuse holder. Tried another from the same batch and the machine is working fine now. Not that I am accusing the well known online retailer from selling poor quality stuff, heaven forbid!

Bob