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Building Fred

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arnoldb:
This is another re-post; this time of my very first live steam project (and third fourth) running engine build) of a 32mm (O Gauge) "coffee-cup" steam locomotive.
It's based on the "Idris" plans that Mr Dave Watkins kindly made available for free; If you'd like to read more about the background of this locomotive or download the plans and Mr Watkins' build description, you can follow this link to his home page.

It was the most labor intensive engine I've built to the present date, but even now, two and a half years on, this particular build is by far the most fun one.  It was built only on the lathe and drill press, and if ever there was one of my builds where I could attribute real skill-building (well, such that I may have anyway) to, it's this one.  I got to try out many new techniques - such as making rivets, plate work, building a properly tested boiler and so on. 

By far the best lesson I learned from this build was that the humble file is one of the most useful tools in the shop.  In fact, since this build, my collection of different shapes and sizes of files have grown exponentially; and it is extremely rare for any part I make now, no matter how small or large, not to be touched multiple times by a file during the build and finishing process.  To all my mentors that demonstrated and commented on filing techniques - THANK YOU!  :NotWorthy:

I'll be doing some, but minimal editing to the original build log while posting; it takes quite a bit of time to do that...

07 November 2009
It's taken quite a lot of searching to get together suitable materials for the build to start, but I think I have enough together now.
 
 My loco will be called Fred - after my grandfather, who provided me with a nice piece of copper plate and other odds & ends.
 
 First up, I'll do the loco frame. Please excuse the quality of the photographs; there is something wrong with my camera....
 
 Thursday evening after work I managed to get into the shop for an hour and a half. I started with a piece of 1.6mm plate I got off an old UPS cover:
 
 
 I marked and bandsawed 2 x 24mm wide strips off it - this is oversize so that I can file the sides straight and to the required 22mm width:
 
 
 Then I clamped the plates and a guide plate together, mounted the whole assembly in the big vise and settled down to an extended period of filing:
 
 
 One of the things I have not been able to find is suitable 6mm angle for the frame supports and corner pieces, so some improvisation is needed. At noon today on I started in the shop by sawing some square tubing I got out of an old printer in half to get angles. I did this on the bandsaw, using the table blade groove as a guide. It's blade does not run in the exact center of the groove, but I used this to my advantage to get one "good" piece of angle iron from the cut; the other side warped away:
 
 Some more sweat and filing was then applied to the angle to trim it up.
 
 Part of the reason for my late start today was that I needed to go and get paint stripper from town to get the old paint off the plates. What a waste of time. I don't know what kind of paint was on these plates, but the paint stripper did absolutely nothing to it. So I took the lot outside, and used a blow torch to burn off the paint. Then an extended session with a wire wheel in the drill press to get rid of all the last bits still sticking. A bit of a safety note: On many drill presses (like mine) that use a morse taper shank and jacobs taper on the chuck, one of the two tapers is liable to come loose when trying to use loose running toolbits like a wire wheel. To make sure the jacobs part on my setup does not come loose, I fit the chuck to the shank by heating the chuck in the oven and freezing the shank in the deep freeze, then tapping them together. This pretty much a permanent solution; one is very unlikely to get them apart again. To make sure the morse taper does not come apart, I made a ring with 2 rows of grub screws that secures the shank to the spindle after it is inserted. If anybody wants a picture of this, just shout  :)
 
 After the plates were clean, I superglued them together, and swiped permanent marker ink over the one face to do the layout:
 
 
 Some quality time with the measuring instruments followed, and then a lot of hole-drilling. Part way through chain drilling for the cut-outs, the heat generated started to melt the superglue and the one end of the plates wanted to come apart, so I had to clamp the plates on that side. I let things cool down and drilled the last couple if holes. More filing still required:
 
 
 Next up was a lot more filing. It was 34 degrees here today, so it was hot job to do the filing, and once done, I called it a day. End of day's work - not much for all the time spent! - Frame sides done, and some 6mm angle:
 



08 November 2009
Didn't get too much done today; just drilling and riveting - and sorted out the camera.
 
 First up, cut the angle to the needed lengths, and clamped to the "inside" surface of the side plates to drill for the rivets. I marked both side plates on the inside with a couple of punch marks so that I would not get them mixed up and end up riveting the angle to the wrong side. All drilled through:
 
 
 I have never in my life done riveting, except for pop-rivets. Searching around locally, I could not find suitable ones for the project, so some improvisation was needed.
 After some testing, I came up with a method that seems to work OK. A piece of 1.5mm copper wire, a pin with a hole drilled in for a short length, and a pin with one end turned down to get in the tight areas, and the point dimpled with a drill to help form rivet heads (sorry for out of focus):
 
 
 First off, I insert the wire through the plates and into the hole in the pin clamped level with the top of the vise:
 
 
 Then clip the wire off a short length above the plate:
 
 
 Hammer it down with the dimpled pin:
 
 
 The half-formed rivet already stays in place and holds the plates together, but pulls easily out of the bottom pin, so I just did all the rivets on one side (the inside where the "mess" I made will not be as visible  :paranoia: :
 
 
 Then turned the whole assembly around - here you can see the other sides of the rivets showing:
 
 
 I then clipped all the rivets evenly to about 1mm length with a side-cutter and used the dimpled pin to form the rivet heads. By having the excess to an even length, a fairly uniform row of rivet heads were formed on the "presentation" side. End of work today showing one side plate's "inside", the other the presentation side:
 
 
 The plans calls for "curved" angle and side plates, but I'm not making that. My boiler will be a couple of mm less in diameter than the plans calls for, and will have adequate clearance. Dave Watkins mentions this possibility in his "build log" - with the caveat that an alternate means of securing the boiler will have to be found.


14 November 2009

After a month's wait, I finally received the railroad track I ordered, but the people at trainz.com sent me the wrong tracks... When I placed a complaint, their inventory manager responded that I need not send the wrong track back because of the international shipping costs, and that the correct track would be dispatched immediately. If they come through on this, I would qualify it as GREAT service; If not, I'm out of pocket a lot of money - I'll see which in 4-5 weeks...
 
 My old faithful camera has finally given up the ghost after many thousands of photos, so this morning I splurged on a new one. I'm still learning it's ins & outs, so the photos below might not be quite up to standard... (though mine has never really been  ;) )
 
 On to work.
 Yesterday evening, I finished the front and rear frame plates. Just more sawing & filing & paint removal & hole drilling, so not a lot missed without having a camera.
 
 I made one build "error" so far; I didn't drill & thread the angle pieces that would make the front & rear frame plates bolt to the side plates before riveting the angles to the side plates... Drilling & tapping the holes were now pretty difficult. To do this, I used some threaded rod through the holes for the wheel bearings to set the side frames to the correct width apart. A strongish magnet helped to keep the end plates in place so that I could clamp them up:
 
 
 As I had to manage the entire frame, and had to drill on the ends, I decided that it might be easier to just clamp the whole assembly in the bench vice, and drill the 1.6mm holes with the Dremel. BIG mistake. My 20 year old Dremel does not have speed control and runs at 15000 rpm (I think), and on the second hole, I didn't dive in positively enough, and this happened to the 1.6mm drill bit because of friction:
 
 This also work-hardened the hole in question a LOT!
 
 After that, I "fudged up" a way to hold the assembly in the drill press. I couldn't properly clamp it, so held it by hand with the toolmaker's clamps resting and providing some support in the ring normally used to secure the drill table. Forgot to take a photo of that setup; if anyone's interested I can take a "staged" one at some point. Fortunately, I had a couple more 1.6mm drill bits to finish the job. The work-hardened hole blunted another one...
 
 Tapping the holes was fun. All went well, except for the work-hardened hole... I broke a tap for the first time in my life; so destiny has finally caught up with me; it was bound to happen at some point:
 
 Fortunately the hole was nearly done and the broken bit came out easily with the automatic center punch. I just _very_ carefully used the plug tap to finish the hole; lots of to-ing and fro-ing, and lots of lube.
(2 1/2 years later, this is still the only tap I ever broke :agree: :) - I hope that doesn't jinx me now :facepalm: )
 
 I haven't been able to find any 2mm screws locally. Ordering from RSA/Overseas takes weeks, so for now, I'll just make up my own ones. One partly made from excess I cut off 5mm bolts from the scrap bin:
 
 
 When parting off the screws-in-making, they want to disappear in the swarf, so I just used a spray can bottle cap to catch them:
 
 
 End of work today; not a lot to show, but a most interesting experience so far. The frame taking shape; bolted together with screws-in-making, and a countersink screw-in-making bottom right. I stopped, as my concentration was going haywire. I think I need to experiment with an angled-tip parting tool as well, as the parting excess on the screws are going to be a pain to remove:
 



More to follow when I have a bit o' time  :)
Regards, Arnold

Edited to change running engine count; there was the little matter of another rocking engine that I built as a gift before I built Fred!)

zeeprogrammer:
I remember Fred...and the excitement!
Very glad you're reposting it here.

Dan Rowe:
Arnold,
I will be watching with interest. I knew about this design and I have seen a few examples in steam.
It will be interesting to see how you went about the work.

Dan

mklotz:
Fred?  What prompted you to choose that name? 

I want to know when Shrek gets his own namesake engine.  It would have to be noisy, dirty and have a lot of odd, eccentric motions.  Something like a railroad handcar with square wheels might do the trick.

rleete:

--- Quote from: mklotz on August 14, 2012, 11:31:37 PM ---Fred?  What prompted you to choose that name? 
--- End quote ---

Reading fail!  From the first post:  " My loco will be called Fred - after my grandfather, who provided me with a nice piece of copper plate and other odds & ends."

(just kidding Marv...)

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