Model Engine Maker
Supporting => Vehicles & Models => Topic started by: samc88 on April 15, 2020, 09:26:51 PM
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Attempting to break my track record with build logs with this and hope to keep it updated. I got an almost complete set of Tich castings for £60 a few years back (just missing 3 wheels and a couple of minor bits) and since I'm off work with this lock down due to medical reasons I thought why not get on with it.
Cut the frames and buffer beams out with hacksaw and files and upon test fitting all looks nice and square.
Cut out the corner angles ready for riveting and made a clamp for machining the hornblocks on my vertical slide. I've cut the hornblocks in half from the casting stick and marked them up as two pairs (would have liked to machine them together in the one stick but I don't think it would work well with the limitations of my machine)
Will be lots of questions I'm sure
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Will be lots of questions I'm sure
Heres a question: What the swarf is a Tich? :headscratch:
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Will be lots of questions I'm sure
Heres a question: What the swarf is a Tich? :headscratch:
Little tank engine designed by LBSC in model engineer magazine years ago.
Here's one I found on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUHigofV4fU
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Nice engine, should be a fun project!
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Lovely, I will be following :popcorn: "files and hacksaws" my favourite system :LickLips: Terry
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Hi Sam
I have a few bits of a Tich lurking in the rafters, another ebay purchase. I'll be following along with great interest :popcorn:
Cheers
Rich
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Not done much tonight other than sort out my metal stock and marked out the hornblocks. Set up the clamp and the first hornblock in the slide and squared it off ready for milling to size tomorrow. Put it on the table and used a square off the lathe bed against one side of the flange to set it up.
Once I adjusted everything it milled quite nicely for a small machine
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Heres a question: What the swarf is a Tich? :headscratch:
According to the former AJReevesLtd, gleaned 20 years ago from their records of number of castings sets sold, the TICH is the single most-built live steam locomotive in history. The #2 engine, at over 10,000 sets sold, is probably the 1/4" scale 4-8-4 offered beginning in the 1930s by the Little Engine Co. of Lomita California.
These rankings represent the number of castings sets sold, not locomotives completed, which I'm sure is a considerably different number, especially that of the LE 4-8-4.
Harry
(Builder of a 2X TICH)
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Hi
There is a 5'' Tich on ebay right now, some nice pictures
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-LBSC-Tich-Live-Steam-Locomotive/274239351273?hash=item3fd9f069e9:g:yiQAAOSwIYJeMtaH
Cheers
Rich
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More fun with hornblocks. First picture is how I set it up in the vertical slide against a square off the lathe bed and the second shows using the frame as a gauge for when it's a good tight fit, all fit nice and snug doing it this way I found and they all fit nicely.
Used the eyeball Mk. 1A to mark out the 6 holes in each hornblock and then drilled through these to mark the frames which were then drilled with a No. 41 drill and they all lined up nicely. Was getting a bit late to start hammering with the rivets so I've cut the rivets to length ready and cleaned and deburred everything ready for tomorrow. Once I've riveted these in place I'll machine the axle box to finished size so I can use them as a gauge for finishing the inside of the hornblocks
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Nice work, following along. :popcorn:
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Thanks Crueby :) Bit of a large learning curve for me, quite nice to be hand fitting again, doesn't come up very often these days in work with the maintenance work on police boats we do
Got the riveting done today, the side plates I'd countersunk a little deep so had to put a skim of filler over them, the buffer beams I'm much happier with. Did another test fit and all looking good, just had to fettle the slots ever so slightly to get it sitting properly square. Next task will be machine the axle boxes to size to use as a gauge for the inside of the hornblocks
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Last thing I've done tonight is break out the trusty miluloyo (yes I know) finger DTI and clocked the vice properly. After a couple of goes with a small mallet making adjustments I got to within 0.01mm (under 0.4thou) so quite happy with that.
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Test post to see if the file resize app I have downloaded works. If it does it'll save having massive attachments which is a pain with this phone(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200418/2a882b4029211375a7eb0bd205016857.jpg)
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I built a 71/4 inch gauge version of TICH many years ago, i simply scaled up the original LBSC 31/2 inch drawings and used judgement where things looked too chunky. One thing i remember is being told that there were errors in the LBSC drawings especially for the valve gear linkage. I checked using the available theory for Walshearts ( spelling?) gear and found one link was too short. I cant remember which or by how much. My loco ran well so i take this as confirmation that I had corrected error. It would therefore be wise to make your own check on valve gear dimensions.
Perhaps others have a view on this.
Trevorc
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Interesting to see a milling attachment used on the lathe, likely the way LSBC did it. I know that the Westbury paddle engine I built was done that way in the 50s.
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I built a 71/4 inch gauge version of TICH many years ago, [snip] Perhaps others have a view on this. - Trevorc
I will eventually get to my point and in the meantime my apologies for semi-hijacking samc88's thread, which I'm also following with interest.
I have a 2X (7.5"ga) TICH under construction but I changed a number of frame dimensions to accommodate larger drivers so the original valve gear drawing (adapted from LBSC's 3.5"ga by Harry or Chas Kennion) won't apply to my chassis. I have to do my gear from scratch, and it's giving me fits, but in all fairness to the gear I've yet to sit down with a saucer of biscuits and a full pot a' and wrestle it into submission.
I've also learned that valve gears are a particular source of errors, innocently made perhaps, but never corrected despite being widely found. My first mentor, a meticulous builder, embarked upon an LBSC MABEL only to find a major error in the rocking linkage location which required remaking most of the valve train. He was not pleased, and I've come to view valve gear designs through very squinty eyes. :Lol:
It would therefore be wise to make your own check on valve gear dimensions.
If you're not already familiar with them, the Dockstader valve gear programs are excellent for just that. Dockstader is not a "design" program per se, although it can certainly be a valuable tool in helping develop your own gear design or adapting one, rather it's intended to be a testing tool, which will give you an animated picture and report of the events of a given gear design.
Running the basic TICH gear through Dockstader won't necessarily expose "errors", but it will show how the gear as-designed behaves and will tell you where improvements in events can be made, if you want to make them.
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Thanks for the information on the valve gear. Shall definitely bear that in mind when I come round to it, I think I'll be doing the Walschearts mechanism as to me it looks better than the slip eccentric. Don't consider it hijacking the thread, it's all good to know!
Kvom, yes the vertical slide is handy but when I move to my new place a small mill is definitely on the cards
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After playing around with the land rovers this morning pulling my brothers 90 forward in the garage with my 88 I set about on this for a bit more work
First off I drilled the brackets for 7BA bolts and did another assembly. I'm using hex heads rather than cheese head bolts as they just look better to me (also I already have some to hand)
Next I machined the axle box rebate to use as a gauge for opening out the hornblocks. This was an interesting thing to work out but got there in the end once I took the splash guard off, not the most rigid set up but with light cuts it worked well, just have to finish the corners by hand as I don't have a cutter long enough. Axle box is a snug fit so with some final fettling by hand it should all run smoothly.
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Finished off the hornblocks and bolted up the frames. Also machined the pump stay at both ends to be a nice fit between the frames(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200420/482495bd6c6150ed5ddb3fa71b7c01dd.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200420/15310f8c204b5ec276a5a095c4ba2a48.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200420/da0fa8562466015e7ad64cdcc9963495.jpg)
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Rolling right along! :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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Not a great deal to report, been busy with other things but got the time today to square up the second pair of axle boxes ready for final machining to size and tidied up the workbench and toolbox
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Bit more axlebox progress, machined the sides of the second pair so they're a snug fit which is what I wanted, means I can finish them both to a nice fit now, only needs a couple of thou coming off the side to go up and down freely I think. Once that's done I'll machine the other faces. The frames are black as I had a bit left after I was painting my garden roller so just put a thin coat on to protect it a bit
Also shown is my milling set up and how I can accurately set my Z axis which is now going along the lathe bad rather than up and down on a conventional machine. I took a gear out of the change gear train at the headstock end so the leadscrew is free to rotate, I then lock the half nuts and wind the lead screw with a 10mm spanner which moves the carriage left and right (into or away from the cutter). Eventually I'll actually make a proper hand wheel for the lead screw (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200424/e5dae517da5b8cf46566ff53286e9689.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200424/8832a8f3db8e408901b9e00346cfed55.jpg)
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Hi Sam, you are making great progress.
That is a very nice vertical slide for your lathe, I can see why it works so well. I have not seen one like that before, perhaps I was not looking very hard. Good idea on the lead screw too. The one I bought had provision to rotate the slide and around an axis parallel to the lathe axis, which, while it might have had some extra functionality, made the support very flexible, so it did not work so well. Nothing like the rigid mounting yours has. Probably why I never found it very satisfactory.
MJM460
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The saga continues.
Now I've verified my lathe and had more experimentation with milling now that the spindle doesnt have a good few thou of play in it, I thought I'd carry on with the axle boxes. Set up the slide tonight and started by squaring up the end of the casting stick.
I'll square the other end tomorrow and then cut it into the individual axle boxes for the further lathe operations. Ideally I'd mill each pair together but it's pushing the travel a bit which was my issue before. Must be set up properly as the axle bix is surprisingly square
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I also think I'll invest in an MT3 milling cutter holder. I've a feeling it'll be more rigid than the current collet set up which sticks out a bit
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Change of plan. I had a turning job to do and I cba setting up the vertical slide again so decided to do some lathe jobs which I enjoy more at the minute. Mini mill is on the cards when I move house.
Anyway, I've made up the pair of axles. I've added a decorative centre either end just so it looks like it's been turned between centres similar to a full size one. They came out really well and bang on dimension. I've turned the end to be 1 thou over 5/16 to be an interference fit with the wheels. Investing in a mag back dti has made a huge difference to easily making shoulders to identical lengths (I haven't got a carriage stop for this)
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Also made a start on the wheels, faced the back and drilled the centre 19/64. I've got a hand reamerbon order to do the final size later. I haven't the clearance in the lathe to turn the OD of the flange as LBSC writes in the articles on doing this so I'll make a mandrel to fit in the centre hole. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200712/987bd43826b05a1d225189d367bcff68.jpg)
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I got carried away as the cast iron castings machined beautifully. The mini lathe handled 20 thou deep cuts in it really well.
I flipped the wheels around in the chuck and machined the boss and rim face. I took 10 thou off the edge of the wheel then using my depth gauge I took the boss down to required size (0.031" proud). Once that was done, I flipped the wheels round again and took the total width down to a total of 3/8".
To machine the outer diameters I made an aluminium mandrel and threaded it M6 and clamped it with an M6 bolt and penny washers. I did originally use normal flat washers but they didn't offer much grip and the blank did spin with the interrupted cut so I found some penny washers and they worked out much better.
One wheel is finished other than reaming the axle hole and then drilling the crank pin hole. All in all its been quite a successful afternoon
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4 wheels now machined to size. With that done I marked the location for the crank pin. To do this I put a sharp tool in the tool holder and set it over on the centreline of the lathe, then I pulled it back by 9/16" and marked the hole centre
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I drilled the crank pins, typically I havent got a reamer so I've ordered one. I simply moved the mandrel to the drill vice and clamped everything down. This has resulted in holes in the same place in each wheel.
Since the 4 jaw is in the lathe I think I'll look at turning the eccentrics next (I'm edging towards doing the walschaerts valve gear but may make the slip eccentrics since I have enough material for practice)
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Cracking on with the running gear and got the pump eccentric machined other than cutting and facing to length tomorrow evening and running my reamer through it
The groove was cut with a stumpy grooving tool I have which works well in the mini lathe as it has no extra length to flex. I then marked out the axle centreline and used my wobbler to set the centre. First time using it (I usually use 2 dead centres and the dti) and it works well.
Really satisfying job
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWLn6NFMBw8(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200713/292e54aed6f3fac207a2b1986da08477.jpg)
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My 5/16" reamer came in the post today so did the wheel centres nd pressed one on each axle. Before this I took a fraction off the other end, my pan is to use loctite on the other end so I can get the quartering right. Being my first loco I didn't trust myself with pressing on both ends and keeping everything aligned, I should have leway with the loctite to get everything spot on whilst it's setting
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Finished the eccentric. Drilled and tapped for a 6BA grub screw, then used the rotary parting tool to cut to size before facing off to length and reaming to 3/8. Fits nicely on the axle, just need to get a grub screw for it
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Had my first go at making an eccentric strap yesterday. Looked complex at first but the way LBSC describes doing it is actually fairly straight forward. The only difference I did was to size the hole to the job (I rechecked the eccentric in the 4 jaw to have the groove running true, bolted the strap to it and tightened it until it started binding up, then using a feeler gauge in the open gap between the halves told me how much to take out of the eccentric, turned out to be 8thou to get a nice running fit).
Pretty enjoyable thing to machine and really satisfying seeing it work when I test fitted to the axle. I'll mill the groove for the pump rod to be fitted later on as it means setting the vertical slide up and I'd rather do that when I have a couple of milling jobs to do to save set up time
My new Er32 collet chuck came in the post this week so might look at making the crank pins next to try it out. I also think it'll work better for lathe milling as it's more rigid than the other collet holder I have
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:ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: lookin good!
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Thanks cnr, I'm really enjoying this smaller side of engineering, quite a nice change from my normal job dealing with big stuff in boats.
Made a start on crank pins. First thing I did was to make the washers, I chucked up a piece of 3/8" mild steel, faced, centre drilled and drilled with a No. 41 drill then countersunk. Parted off to a thickness of 1/16" which went well.
Once that was done I started on the driving crank pin made from 1/4" silver steel (drill rod I think it's called over in the US). To start with I faced and turned down the spigot to fit in the wheel to the dimensions on the drawing, this led to the wheel being a slip fit on it, not ideal. Then i remembered I had some really small bore gauges and using them in the crank pin hole in the wheel I found my reamer cut the hole oversize. Not to worry. I started again and got a much better fit (1.5 thou over hole size so is a nice fit). The wheel is just starting to go on the end so should press together quite well I hope. Will part off and do the other one tomorrow.
I have some 3/16" silver steel in the post too to do the other pins.
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Not really done much a I've been sorting out my camping equipment for going away in the land rover this weekend. I did find time to finish off the first driving crank pin. Achieved a very nice light press fit in the end and went together well in the vice
I'll probably look at making the rest next week once I'm back, or I'll make a start tomorrow if I get time
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Getting back into this, had a lot of other things on in the background. Made up the leading crank pins today, first made a split Bush and turned the spigot to be a press fit in the wheel (2 thou interference fit pressed in nicely).
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I also remade the drvng pins as I was t happy with them, this time I used a piece of steel drilled and reamed to 3/16 as a gauge and I'm much happier with them
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Got into gear and started on redoing the axle boxes, I wasn't happy with my first attempt and decided to go about it in a different way this time. I basically, squared off the end of the casting stick and cut it into 4. Then using the side of the end I'll I machined all 4 to length, then to width, before machining the centre portion and the flange. Got two finished today and pleased with how they've come out, they fit nicely in the hornblocks, I think I'll do a light lap to get them running really smoothly. Looks like the wheels will have minimum side to side play too when I fit the axles
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All four are now machined to size and stamped with their location. I have pilot drilled them for the axles but my phone ran out of charge to take a photo. My pillar drill won't run slow enough to do a good hole for the axles so I'm going to drill them and ream them in the lathe using the 4 jaw. I'm quite pleased how these have come out considering the mini lathe isn't the most rigid of things for milling on
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:DrinkPint:I drilled the axle hole in the lathe with the 4 jaw. These appear to line up nicely with each other. I thought I had a 3/8 reamer but it was not to be so I settled for drilling the spring pockets. I did originally drill an oil hole in the middle but then learnt that this wouldn't work properly for the oil film in the axle box so I blanked off the middle hole and drilled through the spring pockets into the side of the axle bore. Quite happy how these have turned out, I hope to have a rolling chassis by the weekend if the reamer comes soon.
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Found a reamer, it was cunningly hidden in the box marked reamers. Needs a little bit of fettling to get everything running smoothly as I made the axle boxes to be a good fit in the hornblocks, nothing a few strokes with a file won't sort out.
Also quartered the wheels on the leading axle using a method described by LBSC in the build articles, using a square across the centreline of the axle and the crank pin and a height gauge set to the axle centerline. This is done with loctite so I have some leeway (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200915/ab1a38c00e0fe4b399ea0702465d3166.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200915/cf1717c76a75af9cd1484e6b15603aac.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200915/436ecef374c79e279e6598ae23947d88.jpg)
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A rolling chassis - congratulations on reaching the first milestone :cheers:
Per
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Back in business, I've recently moved house so obviously all work on this came to a halt, upon further looking into the drawings I decided that it would be easier to drill the holes for the brake shaft bearing with the frames apart so they were stripped down again and tidied up and the hole drilled. I've recently acquired a Warco WM12 milling machine is so much better than the vertical slide, more travel for one thing and it saves the hassle of stripping the machine down every time. The first picture is the workshop, yes my washing machine and dryer also lives in there
Since I had a miller I took the opportunity to redo the buffer beams and tidy up things I wasn't really happy with, these are meant to be 3/4 angle but I used 20mm and forgot about the extra mm so they didn't sit right on the frames. Whilst doing this I decided I'd prefer the rivet heads to be visible on the outside which I prefer. I also tidied up the horn guides as these were slightly undersize and I wasn't happy with the finish and the uneven heights whihh was a legacy of struggling with the vertical slide when the lathe still had ball bearings rather than taper ones
As it stands the frames are now properly bolted together and ready for the frame stretcher to go in, I've diverted slightly from LBSC and fitted lock nuts to the bolts rather than solely relying on the 7BA tapped holes in the buffer angles (can see them coming loose with vibration possibly). Long way round to where I am, learning to deal with smaller machines than the large ones in work and the challenges that come with them has been quite enjoyable however
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Pump stay milled to width this evening, haven't got any pics of the actual machining unfortunately. Quite happy with how it's turning out, pleased to see the casting details are still fairly even after machining. Tomorrow I'll look at sorting the height and drilling and tapping the mounting holes for the chassis and also the water pump as it turns out I have the right taps for that. I think I'll also take the casting number off it
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Been a productive evening, the frame stretcher was finished and fitted and then I made up the reverse shaft bushes from bronze and fitted them, had a piece of 1/4" silver steel lying around so used that to check alignment and it spins over nicely.
As the bronze is still in the lathe I'll make the brake shaft bearings tomorrow.
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Got the brake shaft bearings made up today, turned the 8mm section down from 5/8" bronze bar and then filed to size. Just need to get a drill to tap 9ba and these can be fitted. Quite a fun little part to make
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Been doing some bits and pieces on this and hoping to get going again on it now the house is pretty much sorted.
It's a proper rolling chassis now with springs and things and hornstays made up.
I also knocked up a couple of mock conrods with some spare material I had to check the quartering and all looks good!
[youtube1]https://youtu.be/qc5oNLmgY_I[/youtube1]
I've ordered some material for the coupling rods but in the meantime I thought I'd start on the water pump and it's fittings, the picture is of the three castings post fettling with a file, Ill look at making a start on them later on,
Cheers,
Sam
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More progress, I just keep forgetting to update the thread. Pump is finished and is working well, only thing I haven't done yet is the drive rod which i think is my next thing to do. I did modify the pump ram to take a small o-ring which works really well, plenty of suction in the pump
I also made the coupling rods, bushes and crank pin washers and everything turns over nicely. I'll get a video this week on YouTube.
Once I get the pump drive sorted I'll make a start on the cylinders and actual steam enginey bits
Cheers,
Sam
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Hello samc
Looks like you are making good steady progress. Looking at your postings is a memory trip for myself having built a 7 1/4 inch gauge version. During that build I discovered there were some errors in dimensions of valve gear items( too long ago to remember) so beware.
I used the LBSC book and doubled most of dimensions.
Best wishes
Trevorc
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Thank you Trevor, I've gained my enthusiasm back now I've got the rods done. I have heard to be wary of the valve dimensions but I've noticed the dimensions on the drawings I have are slightly different to the ones in the book so maybe they've been updated at some point?
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Drive rod for the water pump finished. Rather than mill a slot in the eccentric to take the rod like the drawing, I simply milled a 3mm step into it to take the rod which i think will be stronger as there's not much meat in the eccentric. I riveted them together but thought I'd have a go silver soldering as I've not done it before and it's an ideal practice piece, after all it's riveted anyway so have nothing to lose. It came out okay, hopefully I'll improve with practice.
With that done I've made a start on the castings for the cylinders. With my ebay casting set was a complete cylinder kit, as Im unsure of their provenance I thought I'd start on the easiest bit and mill the valve chest covers to get a feel for the material. My fly cutter did a lovely job on them. First I held the chucking piece in the vice to fly cut the top flat, then I faced two sides and marked the dimensions out. The DTIs are used to dial in the final cuts, my lathe is imperial and the mill metric, using the dti just saves confusion until I can get a DRO. Very happy with how these came out, all dimensions within a thou, I know these don't have to be too accurate but it's good practice.
With those done I then set off on a bigger casting which is the valve chest. Cleaned up the casting with files and stuck it in a three jaw chuck getting it to run relatively true by eye. First job is to turn the cast on boss to 5/8" diameter. Hopefully do a bit more on this tomorrow. All in all quite pleased with progress lately
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It's always nice when things go your way, without any nasty surprises - especially on such complex project as a lokomotive :cheers:
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Nice looking water pump, Samc! And great start on the steam chest. Enjoying following your build!
Kim
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Thank you both, got some more progress done on the chests tonight. The end I turned with the 3 jaw was then put in my collet chuck which allowed me to turn the other side. As this side is going to be drilled for the valve rod I put a centre in to give me more support when facing the chest. I couldn't resist trying out the valve chest cover on the valve chest, hopefully get the other faces machined up tomorrow and then order the drills and taps I need to finish them on Friday as it's payday
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Very pretty steam chest & cover!
So, in that first picture, are you using a dead center between your part and the live center? Does that give you much support? An interesting setup.
Kim
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Very pretty steam chest & cover!
So, in that first picture, are you using a dead center between your part and the live center? Does that give you much support? An interesting setup.
Kim
Yes it is, I use it a fair amount for this sort of work where the live center or the tailstock gets in the way of the tool post, Works pretty well, especially for the small cuts taken with the mini lathe. I wasn't too sure how my collet chuck would react to the off centre interrupted cut so at least this helps keep it more secure. It's also a handy way of centering odd shapes with a 4 jaw chuck when you've got a centre punch mark to put it against.
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Productive morning today and finished off the machining of the steam chests. Next operation is drilling the mounting holes and also drilling and tapping for the gland (guess what drills I don't have?), so it's stop on these until they turn up in the post. In the meantime I might have a look at the cylinder castings.
I've got some material coming too so I can hopefully make a start on the valves and pistons too so the actual steam side of things can get done and tested before working on the valve gear itself
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Good news! I found a drill which was slightly smaller than specified but still suitable for 7Ba clearance so went ahead and drilled them. Bolts are 7BA with 8BA heads which look good I think and give a more scale impression than full size nuts or the countersunk screws LBSC specified. I'm tempted to use studs and nuts rather than bolts though which should look quite good.
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I find studs and nuts to be far more convenient in a steam chest than bolts/screws. The studs act as alignment pins, making partial disassembly, such as removing the top cover for valve adjustment, easier and more convenient. Very nice looking work! :ThumbsUp:
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Made a start on the cylinders. Got both of them machined to length, bored and reamed to 11/16". Hopefully I'll get a chance to machine the bolting and port faces in the mill this week. Lovely castings to work with so far, they machine really nicely.
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Ah, freshly machined bronze, such lovely stuff!
Looking great!
:popcorn:
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First cylinder machined to final size. Second picture shows how I managed to use the bore centre as a datum. I turned a piece of aluminium to be a good fit in the bore and then using a depth gauge allowed me to take off the required amount. It came out quite nicely :)
Then the second cylinder happened, milling away the port face and then a large void appeared. Luckily it's away from the ports so I think I'll get away with using that wonder stuff JB weld. I was originally going to silver solder it until I realised how big the cavity actually was and didn't fancy spending lots of money on silver soldering what is essentially a non critical area of the face.
Next job on these is the ports but think I'll do the cylinder covers and other bits first
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:ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
Cylinder parts are looking good!
You're going to be doing a large filling today Doctor, with the JB Weld cavity filling. Hope you've got a new toothbrush on hand for the patient! :Lol:
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Not done a great deal to this, I'm awaiting a DRO for my mill so I'll finish off the cylinder bits once that's fitted
In the mean time I made up the valve spindles and piston rods today out of some 5/32" silver steel(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211124/fb6cb6ddf4a1547b279813d215d421ec.jpg)
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Oh also I did fill the cylinder with JB weld and that worked really well, I forgot to picture it
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Time to drag this out of hibernation now the S50 is done.
Before diving into finish the cylinders I thought to get me back into the build I'd start with the buffers. I started with opening out the holes in the beams and tapping 3/8 x 32. To save buying material I already had a length of 1" steel which needs to be taken down to 3/4". Theres other ways of doing this but Im also using this as an excuse to dial in my tailstock properly as Ive not really had the chance lately after using it for taper turning (was just setup again by eye using a blade between 2 centres). At the last cut I got the taper down to 2 thou over a 6" length. Was getting a bit late so will carry on tomorrow trying to get it spot on, still got 70 thou to come off it so plenty to play with to get it set up right.
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Buffer work continues with the stocks. The OD of the steel was finished to 3/4" and then sawn to get 4 sections to make the stocks. I made the outer sides first on each, facing off and then machining to diameter 1/2" for a length of 5/8" before drilling all the way through with a 1/8" drill bit then following with a 3/8" drill to open it out for the buffer heads to slide into. This was repeated for all 4 before turning around in the chuck and turning the section to be threaded 3/8" x 32. Seems to fit quite nicely, just got to finish off the other 3 now
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Nice progress on the buffers, Sam.
Great to see you making some progress on your Tich again.
Kim
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Not had a lot of shed time lately, mainly due to patching up the lacework that was the bulkhead and rear crossmember on my land rover but was determined this weekend to get back into it and so I started on the valve gear, starting with the lifting arms. These were laser cut from MEL along with a few other bits, they were cleaned up with a file before drilling the holes and then milling the slot with a 2mm cutter before dressing with a needle file to the required 3/32 size using the loco frame as a gauge for the fit. Pretty happy with how these came out, I get nervous using such small cutters sometimes
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:ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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Those are nice-looking little parts, Sam. It's surprising how much work it can take to make little parts like this! :popcorn:
kIM
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Its been a while, had lots of other things going on, mostly land rover related and being away with work up to Scotland on a few boat deliveries. Getting back into it I thought Id tackle the steam ports.
First I marked out the locations before fitting the cylinder in the vice. Then i used an edge finder to find the centre of the exhaust port (my chosen datum point). This was then cut with the ¼" mill before then cutting the other 2 out with a 3/32" slot drill. Just the other cylinder to do this to and then its the steam passages (fun)
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Back to the Bench and making parts :ThumbsUp:
Per
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Long time no update, I have made some parts however despite lacking in time last month. Starting off with the steam ports, this was done with a 3/32 drill in the mill with the block at the correct angle (done by eye by scribing lines on the cylinder).
Once that job was done it was on to the covers. These were first held by the chucking piece to turn the register and drill the centre hole in the case of the lower covers. Next was to bore out a piece of aluminium to be a snug fit on the register, this was used as a kind of superglue chuck to let me turn the other side of the covers, worked really well.
The next operation was the mounting holes which was pretty simple using the DRO (I love this thing)
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For a change from cylinder bits, I decided to work on the reversing gear, I had already made the links so why not do the rest. First job was the shaft, one end was turned 3/16 to be a good fit on the link. Next was to mark the distance between the shoulders using the parting blade to leave a mark before the bar was cut and the other side machined.
With the shaft done, the next operation was to make the reverse arm that connects to the reach rod. This was drilled first and then the shape marked out and made to size using the trusty hacksaw and files.
The next op was to silver solder the arms together so I made a jig from some scrap aluminium to hold them together at 90⁰. This was my first proper go at silver soldering and Im pleased with how it came out, still a lot of practice to be had though. The arms were then loctited to the shaft using a drill in each link to ensure they were inline with each other.
With that Im now up to date, Ive got the lifting links currently on the go and got some material for the reverse stand on order. I do have a toolmaking project coming up soon as well which Ill do a thread on when I get round to it
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Great to see your progress! :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn:
And it's fun to see you working on the cylinders and reversing gear since I've just recently finished up those myself on my A3! :)
Kim
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Looking great! excellent progress. :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
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Very good work. I enjoy watching the locomotive being built.
Michael