a newbie's take on the A3 switcher

[Pogo_proptie]

All right time for a big update

If the chapters of kozo's book had had a titles; chapter 5 would be named :
sketchy setups for miles and miles

Last update i was done with the walls  now I'm done with the tank. Here's is the report
The store was out of quarter inch so i had to get flat bar wider et saw it open banana split style and mill the cut which went well. Then the very stress full bend went ok but not great


I seem to be missing the coal bunker wall pics but i have the little collar on top. Best was was hands down to cad the part and print it to scale and file to the line


Mostly on the belt sander. The little border was done the same way. (I think quinn misread the plan saying there was no dimensions on the plan. You actually have some numbers to had to the basic expanded diagram to make the second piece which were super easy to do in sketchup and reprint)

Here is the fast version on the coal bunker


now the sketchy setup part started for all the screws to put before soldering



then it was soft soldered in place. it went ok, i did have to squeeze a couple scrap to close some of the gaps in the back curve that will be forever hidden..



next i made the rivet puncher which was fun to quench

was quite happy with my test piece


not long after i had the tank coming along




then more sketch press drilling for yet fixturing screws



final fitting i did have to shave a bit of the back on the sander to really hug the curve


i was resourceful and had to use the RT as an angle plate to fixture the last ones. came out great

lol just saw this detail of the youngest always keeping me company

 
ready for flux and go time


this was my plan to make sure the holes would fit again after the heating.. i replicated the hole on 2 scraps where the flex was already quite real so the final piece would still fit.



and BOY did it work. only 1 hole at the back is a bit hard after. might massage it further or enlarge it ever so but it's a very good success. it is kinda watertight but not perfect at the top, but as i understand, water will never come higher than the square hole for the hatch anyway and some sealant will take care of the rest.




while stressful it was quite easy heating

As promised it was a big update. almost done with chapter 5. the lamp support and coal stopper are done but not pictured.

Still having tons of fun but i kinda want to move on to more choochoo part as this detailing is not my favorite part at all. i don't have the material for the rail so this will be on the to do pile. 

fun epilogue, i did go see the Colorado railway museum and saw a loco of the same era, check out the shape of the tender, stairs and rail design, kozo was REALLY accurate when you look at it. 



Hope you like it, don't look at the mess to much see ya next time

Pogo

[Kim]

Great update, Pogo! 

There's a LOT of work in the tank and you tackled it quite well.  I too remember some sketchy setups to try and hold that large tank for drilling the fixturing screws.  I seem to recall doing some of the drilling with a hand drill!  But you got it all to work and soldered it together well.  It looks great!

Are you planning to paint?  Or leave the metal finish?

Kim

[Pogo_proptie]

I will paint but absolutely no eta for it. Nothing can rust so I'm  in no rush lol

[Pogo_proptie]

hello modelers

another update of the past month's progress

with the tank sound, i did the side panels.. they are very banana shaped but a bit of hamering on the curve made them better and should screw flat later



next was the hatch components. that was a lot of work


and this was the easy part


i improvised to make the man hole fit in the plate instead of trusting my filing like kozo suggests.. what i did is remember some highschool math and bored the same diameter as the tube but at the final angle like this

i dubbed that sketchy setup the ''vice in a vice next to another vice''


the result was quite nice



ready to use to much solder as is tradition


only the hole and fixturing remaining but it's pretty good


this was done the kozo way and easier than i initially thought.


a weird timing issue made me try the pump soldering quite late and after i killed the torch i took this picture to amuse the kids


very fun part to make the pump (apart from the stainless piston and handle, for me it was like cutting diamond. it was the first time on this train that I was actually HATING  every  second of my shop time. FARK you 304 SS   
I was having such a bad time that I don't have picture (its to mangled to show you anyway)

BUT i made it



and after amazon delivered the tiny ORING i could test it and it was PERFECT. to pump of air and little jets after.. I was all smiles and so proud. then.. i put my thumb on the output and 

it's getting out on the piston size..

so after a bit of cool down i'm pretty sure that my last facing cut on the bronze retainer took out a couple thou more than necessary and the Oring is not sqwiched in the shoulder. so this is my next step. the fell and action of the pump feels really good so no panic yet, just some more learning.

while i was waiting for the Oring i did bend the hand rails but they are not done yet..

So that it for now hope you like. will update when i have a pump, and you you need a couple milliliters of water to move, just call me

POGO

[Kim]

Nice work on the sides, manhole hatch, and the hand pump, Pogo! 

Yeah, I had a lot of difficulty with the hand pump too.  That O-ring retaining mechanism is kinda iffy.  If you tighten the set screw on the O-ring retainer tight enough to hold things in place, it squishes down on the plunger.  What I did to finally get it all working was to put a divot in the top of the o-ring retainer for the set screw - my thinking here is that I wouldn't have to tighten it down as much to keep it in place if it had something for the set screw to hold on to.  I also had to make the plunger hole in the O-ring retainer larger to make up for the fact that it was pushed off-center by the set screw.  This seemed OK since the water tightness property comes from the O-ring, not the close fit of the plunger through the O-ring retainer.  I also ended up putting TWO O-rings in front of the retainer, but this was probably because I got the O-ring ledge a little too deep in the pump housing.  But it allowed it all to work, which is nice.

I believe Quinn (Blondihacks) had a similar issue when she made her hand pump too.

Good luck getting the pump working.
Kim

[Pogo_proptie]

all right my new bushing seems tight. now the only leak I have is from the little screw in the front but i haven't put the proper locktite in there yet (what kind should i use for leak proof locktite)

next task is the railing and after the piping museum will commence.

POGO

[crueby]

If that screw ever needs to be removed, the low strength 'blue' loctite is perfect. Be sure to shake the bottle or tube, that version has a tendency to  separate  when sitting for a long time. If there is any chance the liquid could run into moving parts, the other easy option is to tightly wrap the screw with teflon pipe tape sold in the plumbing section. Seals great, no chance of it getting into moving parts, and can be taken apart easy. I use it a lot.

[Pogo_proptie]

i'm still here. progress was made.

since finishing the tender i realised i'm not close to experienced enough so i went and stretched my wings. so i made the PM1 engine and a vertical boiler (not finished but going well).

then while waiting for some obscure taps and die for the boiler i pickup the train again. so here we go.






making progress on the frame




starting to look like a frame


front bolster was ok but i made it out of 3-32 instead of 1-16th. so the bent part are WAY oversize.. but that'll do.. i'm not redoing it i figured the mistake too late.

this is one my proud moment. how to make the hole in front of the long 17 in part with little Z room...



I could even edge find and use the DRO for the other hole

now time to give some love to the castings i got 1 year ago.



cast iron was so much more fun than the tender wheel



almost there


just for fun, nothing is glued


the clever quartering jig




quartering worked, go for the side rods





almost up to date, more photos tomorow.

thanks for stoping by

POGO

[Kim]

Wow! You're making great progress! 

Kim

[crueby]

C9ming al9ng great!   

[Pogo_proptie]

 a promised the main rod fully completed (will polish the four as best i can when the main are done.




I never realized how hard it is to make parts look good on a camera but i know they are intented to be a bit of a flex on the capacity of the fabricator.. well. i for me i guess that's as good as it gets  ..

the main rods are 90 % done but i'm out of the shop for a couple days.. can't beleive the cylinders are next..

POGO out

[Kim]

Yeah, those certainly are challenging parts to get to look nice, I agree! 

Kim

[Pogo_proptie]

kim i'm requesting your help, i feel a bit stupid watching the book and trying to figure out how to find the dimension for the offseted bore on the cylinders.. i'm left with only the 7/8th from the top and the 23/32 R from the edge as a position finder.. is this it??

so one line on the surface plate at 7/8th an than somehow roll in at 45 degrees with an angle touching the same surface at 23/32 and x marks the spot?..

also my 932 round bar is made a bit more than 2inches (so you can machine it to 2 i presume, but it seems you started yours as it was, what your round stock 2inch perfect or like mine like a 16th over?

thanks

POGO

[Kim]

Hi Pogo,

Yes, my 932 bar was also oversized.  It measured at 2.042” in diameter, or so.  I’m not sure it was overly consistent.  But this is the value I used for my calculations.

I didn’t exactly do it the way Kozo showed.  I kinda did my own thing for finding center and the sides.

Here’s my drawing that I found of what I did, if it is of any help.

I’ll see if I can remember how I came up with all this.


You can see the 1.024” in the middle there. That’s my assumed diameter of my 923 bar.  The 0.8365” dim looks like it’s the radius of the larger interior circle, but it’s not.  It is the distance between the center of the bar stock and the edge of the face that mates with the Steam-Tee (1.042”-3/16”).  The 3/16” is the distance that I used from one edge of the bar to the Steam-Tee face.  Kozo uses 11/64”, but since my bar was bigger than 2”, I took off another 1/64”. Not a lot, but it made me happy to push the whole thing closer to the center of the bar.

So my first step listed on the bottom of the page as (1) was to cut 3/16” off of the right side.

Then I did side (2), the opposite side.  I cut this side down till it was 1.666” from the other one.

I got the 1.66625” from Figure 14-3 where it shows the diameter of the outside of the cylinder is 1 7/16”, and the distance from the center of the cylinder to that Steam-T face is 15/16”.  So, I took half the diameter (0.71875”) plus 15/16”, plus and extra 0.010” (to give me some material to shave off when I was making the outside of the cylinder round).

0.71875” + 15/16” + 0.010” = 1.66625”

For the third op (3) I held the part between the two flat -faces I’d just made and cut the top of the cylinder down to 1.666”.    This will be the top face (which is the valve face).

This number was calculated pretty much the same way – the raidus of the outer cylinder circle plus the distance from the center of the cylilnder to the top of the valve face, which is 7/8”, as shown in Figure 14-3.  Now I ALSO added in 1/16” of an inch space at the bottom, where Kozo only adds 3/64”.  Again, that extra 1/64”, just to keep it more centered on my slightly larger bar. And I also added in an extra 10 thou to make sure I had something to shave off later.

0.71875” + 7/8” + 1/16” + 0.010” = 1.66625”

Then my final cut for this initial shaping step (4) was to cut that 3/32” deep step that is shown in Figure 14-3.  I could do this in the same setup, of course.

All the rest of the features, including marking the center for the cylinder, were measured from the valve face and the Steam-T face that were cut here.   The center is 7/8” down from the top face (valve face), and 15/16” over from the side face (Steam-Tee face).

If I remember right, both cylinders can be cut like this.  They don’t become left/right handed till you start drilling holes in them. Then you have to start being careful about left/right parts. At least, I THINK that’s right.  Do the mental exercise and make sure I’m right about that.  It’s been several years since I did this.

I attached a PDF of this drawing too just in case the JPG doesn't provide enough clarity on my sketchy numbers I wrote. 

Hope this helps!

Kim

[Pogo_proptie]

thank you so much.. i also was wondering where you put the little flat on your build picture (the 3/64). and i measured my bars and i have the exact same 2.042 starting diameter and enough material for exactly 3 cylinders. my plan was to shave 2 inche to 2. flip it and shave the other side so i can have i fatal mistake but not more. And I'm not completely crazy this is not an easy feature to place.. also quinn made her cylinder from the castings so I can't copy her setup on that front.

I will study you drawing a bit more thank you

(have you run you train on steam since it's done?)

POGO