Chris's Worthington Brewery Pump

[crueby]

Crueby,

Regarding the logging Locomotives:

The Black Hills Railroad "1880 Train" owns three logging locomotives they brought in from the west coast. My wife and I rode this train several years ago when they were operating one of those (Probably 104).

Follow this link and look for information on No. 104 and 103 and 108. (Under "Rolling Stock Restoration")

https://www.1880train.com/history.html

--ShopShoe

Great! Thanks!

[Krypto]

Always interested when you post pics of your logging locomotive.  Here in central PA there was quite a bit of logging in the 1880's and early 1900's but they always seemed to use the small narrow gauge locomotives like the Shay and Climax or at least when the camera's started to be a thing that's what they ran.

https://lumberheritage.org/resources/sunset-along-susquehanna-waters-a-glimpse-into-pennsylvanias-logging-railroad-era/

I have this entire series of books.  What's fascinating to me that many of these logging towns and sites have completely disappeared, sometimes with just a bit of earthwork of the rail line remaining that became trails through the woods.

[crueby]

Thanks Krypto!  And for those in the eastern US (or those passing through in the summer) I would highly recommend going to the train museum in Cass, West Virginia. I went there around a decade ago, amazing place. Its built around an old logging company town, at least at the time you could rent one of the houses there to stay in at a very reasonable price. They have a fleet (herd?) of Shays, Climaxes, Heislers that they run 4000 feet (vertical rise) up the mountain on an old style logging railway, very steep (for trains) and very tight curves, showing off the ability of those locomotives to handle that sort of terrain. The days I went up the last 100 feet of the mountain was in the clouds, the rest down in clear air with great views over the valleys. Nearby was the radio telescope facility with tours around the huge antennas. I think that place may have closed, don't know if there are still tours. And there was another steam train place not far away too with a track on the flats. I was there while building my model of Kozos New Shay, which was great timing! At least once a year they did a phtographers day where they had several of the locos out all together on the tracks down in town.

[crueby]

I took Michaels suggestion and soft soldered the outer shell land the inner plate set. Still needed a small torch since some of the panels are thick, and I used some tinning flux to get things started around the seams, then some rosin core solder. Here is the shell after giving it a soak in vinegar to help clean up the flux, and some passes on the 1" belt sander to knock off the screw heads:

I had also gotten the rest of the valves assembled, so they were screwed into the openings for them. Glad I made a couple extra, had some that were not quite square to the holes. I'm going to test things as is to see how the valves work out, if need be I'll make up the short coil springs for the valves, but just blowing through they do seem to seat fine without them.

I need to clean out a couple solder blobs that ran into the slots, keeping the crosswiswe vertical divider from going in all the way - there is a gap at the bottom of the leg next to the pen marking and across the top:

Also filled the top plate with valves:

That top plate still needs to have the mounting screw holes drilled/tapped to hold it and the top cover in place. I am glad I printed a sample top cover, it showed that the inside recess needs to be slightly longer/higher at the ends, it is just touching the end valves, causing the gap at the near corner. But, it shows how it will look when the real cover is made.

So, still to do on the pump assembly: bolt down top plate, make top cover, make plungers with o rings, make the outlet pipe section for the top, and make the force chamber. And paint it all. And make gaskets for the end caps. And studs for attaching everything. And anything else I'm not remembering at the moment!   

[crueby]

And as mentioned earlier, years ago I had gotten a copy of John Wildings book on making a tower clock, that is with the movement down at ground level, and a larger dial up high, in his case on top of his workshop. My version uses a lot of the information in his book, but is my own redesign. I have changed all the gears, the power (windup vs wieght), the pendulum length, the overall size, the frame, etc. So, almost the same!     I wanted one that could sit on a tabletop and have the upper clock be up above on the wall, and be spring driven rather than the huge weight down through the floor like his - with a large building-size clock you need a lot more power just to handle the weight of the hands, let alone wind/ice/etc. The pictures below show the current state of my CAD design, which is mostly complete, but does not have the remote dial yet. In the second picture there is a red arrow pointing at the shaft from a bevel gear set - that will have a bracket and long rod going up the wall to the remote dial, which gets another bevel gear and the hour/minute hand drive gears again. The lower dial is used for setting the clock, so no ladder or trained squirrels needed up high! 


This project has been on the back burner for a long time, partly since I had no good place to put the finished model. Now, there is a good spot in my new Engine Room, plus seeing Kim's great clock build has sparked my interest again. I've built a number of clocks in the past, so this one would not be my first.


One thing I like about Wildings design is how the gears are on independent posts that can be slid side to side slightly to adjust mesh. This makes the contstruction a lot simpler, no giant pair of plates needed, just a number of narrower bars. The short slots near the bottom of each vertical post has a locking bolt, and the posts have slots in the back to ride on the horizontal rail. In my scaled down version, all the gears are Module 1, largest is 3.622" diameter, pendulum will be around 9 inches long. The original one in the book has a 36" pendulum, and sits on its own floor frame. Mine will be on a table top. The take-off rod to drive the remote clock dial is pivoted, with the bevel gears able to angle as needed, which is something I really like about his design. That curved slot by the bevel gears will hold the bracket holding the horizontal-ish bevel gear, to allow adjusting the direction to the upper dial. I have not drawn that assembly up yet.


One thing my version allows is for two spring drums if needed for enough power to drive the bevel gears and upper clock dial. I'll start with one drum, and add the second if needed. I have a pair of commercially made spring drums that I will add a larger output gear to - they were made for some sort of mantel or wall clock. Should give me an 8-day movement.


So, this will likely (though not defintiely) be my next build after the pump is done.

[Kim]

That's really cool looking, Chris!   

The drive train is much longer than the clock I'm making - it looks like 5 stages of step-up on the drive train rather than the 3 on my clock (Great wheel->Center wheel->Third wheel->Escapement). You've got two extra stages in there.  But it also looks like your pinions are bigger with a lot more teeth.  Far more than the 6 or 8 leaf pinions that are common.  Is that because of the torque involved?  Or is it just because you need to get the escape wheel in the right position for the pendulum?

Looks like it will be a fun project for sure!
Kim

[uuu]

I always fancied a tower clock.  But the long pendulum that some have made me question whether it could be displayed running.   Then I thought that a compound pendulum could be made quite short and have a very pleasant motion of the correct period.  This would also allow for the escapement to be at table level, rather than projecting up.

In the foyer of the Royal School of Mines was an enormous clock with a compound pendulum, a lattice frame with a bob at the top, above the pivot, and the bottom - with a ratio of about 2:1 between the length of the lower and upper sections.  I loved the lazy way it moved.

Wilf

Edit - Youtube example: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmTzb2_TF6Q" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmTzb2_TF6Q</a>

[crueby]

That's really cool looking, Chris!   

The drive train is much longer than the clock I'm making - it looks like 5 stages of step-up on the drive train rather than the 3 on my clock (Great wheel->Center wheel->Third wheel->Escapement). You've got two extra stages in there.  But it also looks like your pinions are bigger with a lot more teeth.  Far more than the 6 or 8 leaf pinions that are common.  Is that because of the torque involved?  Or is it just because you need to get the escape wheel in the right position for the pendulum?

Looks like it will be a fun project for sure!
Kim

Yes and yes for the reasons for the extra teeth (15). The higher torque is a lot of it, as they had a lot more weight to let it drive the bevel gear sets and the extra set of hands (could be four extra sets if putting dials on all four sides of a tower/cupola). Also getting the height for the pendulum without having the legs be really long, so style factors in too. Its not that uncommon to have 4 or 5 stages in a clock, the designers could add them to control the number of teeth in the larger gears, or make room for striking mechanisms. Wilding had this one taller since he had a grasshopper escapement in it originally.

[crueby]

I always fancied a tower clock.  But the long pendulum that some have made me question whether it could be displayed running.   Then I thought that a compound pendulum could be made quite short and have a very pleasant motion of the correct period.  This would also allow for the escapement to be at table level, rather than projecting up.

In the foyer of the Royal School of Mines was an enormous clock with a compound pendulum, a lattice frame with a bob at the top, above the pivot, and the bottom - with a ratio of about 2:1 between the length of the lower and upper sections.  I loved the lazy way it moved.

Wilf

Edit - Youtube example: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmTzb2_TF6Q" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmTzb2_TF6Q</a>

Thats pretty cool, had not seen that style pendulum before. Like the escapement too, there were quite a few different mechanisms invented over the years.

[cnr6400]

So, still to do on the pump assembly: bolt down top plate, make top cover, make plungers with o rings, make the outlet pipe section for the top, and make the force chamber. And paint it all. And make gaskets for the end caps. And studs for attaching everything. And anything else I'm not remembering at the moment!   

  So I guess you'll be finished around Saturday afternoon then?  Just joking, parts look great Chris.

[crueby]

So, still to do on the pump assembly: bolt down top plate, make top cover, make plungers with o rings, make the outlet pipe section for the top, and make the force chamber. And paint it all. And make gaskets for the end caps. And studs for attaching everything. And anything else I'm not remembering at the moment!   

  So I guess you'll be finished around Saturday afternoon then?  Just joking, parts look great Chris.

Evening, maybe...       

[crueby]

Nothing new to show, been spending some time tweaking the valve bodies. The valve and pad are just touching the vertical pists so they dont move as freely as I  would like, plus the upper rail needs to be thinner to let the valve open further. So, clamping each in the mill vise and taking a little off those areas. Then will get the holes drilled in the upper plate to hold it to the shell.

[crueby]

Mods to valve bodies done, the valves are moving freely now, and things are test fit back together again, ready to start in on the plungers next time...

The valve plates will come out at least once more, to do final assembly with some sealant around the edges and gaskets on the upper plates and end caps. The gray top is still just the printed test piece, the real one is still to be made. I want to test things with the plungers and the engine running to see if there is suction/pressure from the valves before buttoining things up.

[Admiral_dk]

Love how it looks and are designed so far 

Per      

[crueby]

Thanks Per!