The springs are coming along nicely Chris, and that ring gear is a work of art! By the look of it you got good value for your money there!

 

Tom

Thanks! These are not the springs, these are the frames that hold the springs, bearings, axles, etc. They do look a bit like leaf springs. This is what they will look like (hopefully!)

The springs are coming along nicely Chris, and that ring gear is a work of art! By the look of it you got good value for your money there!

 

Tom

Looking Good    (both of you  )

Re the locked up Lombard - it was nearly a CAD situation - chipmunk aided destruction!  Rodents can do a LOT of damage to any engine.

The gear and axle assemblies look great. The Ball engine plans were fun to see. Looks like a fine engine. The "CVT" style double cone variable speed drive for the governor is interesting.

Love the new CAD definition!  That was my first reaction too, CVT! The catalog pages say it will give a  1x to 6x speed range, though the letters back and forth say otherwise, at least till they figured out the wrong dimensions and orientaion of some of the parts. Whoops! Interesting to see all the maintenance and service letters. The Ball engine company went through several owners, and each did things different ways. This Ball engine company I think was spun off seperate from the portion that became Erie Shovel, later Bucyrus Erie. This engine was used at least through the 1950s, I think 1960s, in a couple different paper mills.

Todays fun was to get back into the shop and get the keyways cut into the middle of two of the axles to hold the travel gears:

The new shop gnome, who is pretending to be a stupervising elf (the rest of the elves are NOT buying it) is pretending to check the fit against the plans...

The two middle axles get gears, the rest of the gears will be held in a frame in the center of the main carbody, taking power from the engine through a shaft through the middle of the turntable.


Speaking of the turntable, the internal ring gear/roller ramp part that I had sent out for CNC-ing is due to be delivered tomorrow, hopeful that turned out well. Its just too big for my machines, and doing the internal gear teeth would have required major invention.

I did get a chance to flip through the pile of plans and such for that Ball engine I mentioned yesterday. Here is a picture from the top of the the cylinder arrangement - two mirrored cylinders, flywheel and governor in the middle (and these are full scale original Ball plans, not published model plans, from 80 years ago)

and an end view showing more of the governor. There is an adjustment screw to push the belt back and forth to change the speed of the shaft powering the governor, rather than changing a spring or weight on the governor itself. The plans call out a Pickering governor.

The valves are a spool valve rather than a D valve.