Building a 31/2" Gauge Locomotive Engine

[Divided he ad]

Yep:- got the bearings safely stashed away for when they are required, also some garage door material for the cradle.   

Stew

Top job 


Looking forward to seeing it       





Ralph.

[SPiN Racing]

Very Nice!

Looks like the con-rods will be up to the task for her once she is together. 

[sbwhart]

Now to finish off the rod, by slotting the fork. I've left this to last as the forks will only be 1/16" and will be very easy to bend, I cut the slot with a 1/8 slot drill gripping the rod in the vice with the fork bit sticking out of the side, found the centre of the fork and milled the slot out, the first was a bit of a disaster I wish I'd made a spare  . I said they were flimsy well the cutting forces bent the rod, giving a off centre slot. For the next rod I supported the fork with a parallel this one was OK so the rest were dealt with the same way.

The rod on the right has the off centre slot



The set up that worked





The eccentric strap and rod were assembled using the assembly jig you have to get the hole centres the same or the motion works get constipated and jamb.

Assembled on the jig and one hole drilled for 1/16 rivet



A rivet is put in the hole to stop things moving and the second hole drilled.



You have to be carfull to do the assembly in sets as they are left and right handed.



I'm going to sleep on it  :scratch:as to remake the the wrongly milled fork. it may be OK

Stew

[Stilldrillin]

Don`t think I have commented on this project before, Stew.

I`ve just re read it, from page 1.....

Very nice to see it all coming together & being shown, (small) warts an all..... 

Blummin well done! 

David D

[sbwhart]

Thanks Dave

Spent yesterday with my wife manning a check point at a charity walk in "sunny" Darbyshire checking people in, handing out water choclate bars and dealing with emergencies (fortunaly none), so didn't get my Saturday moring in my shed.

Made up for it today, first job was to clean up the eccentrics and fit them in the loco to see if there was any issues with the dodgey one.



By the look and feal of it I think it will be OK so I'll go with it as it is.   

Then did another of those little tool improvements that John infects me with  that on another link (Small M3 Running Centre)

Stew

[Stilldrillin]

Spent yesterday with my wife manning a check point at a charity walk in "sunny" Darbyshire checking people in, handing out water choclate bars and dealing with emergencies (fortunaly none), so didn't get my Saturday moring in my shed.
Stew

Funny you should say that Stew!

A "Run for Life", at Bakewell, cost me a fiver yesterday....... 

David D

[Divided he ad]

handing out water choclate bars and dealing with emergencies

Couldn't do that job Stew.... I'd be eating the choccy bars, 1 for you, 1 for me.... 


Back on track (Eh, Eh! )  I think that it looks pretty good from here.... Well it's a darn site better than I'd have done that's for sure 


Looking forward to it running.... How long will that take? A week? what....? more?      





Ralph.

[sbwhart]

Looking forward to it running.... How long will that take? A week? what....? more?      

Ralph.

With all the divertions I'm finding on her    5 years, but hopfully when I finaly finish work in September about 1 or 2 years, but every now and then I like to do something else, just to give it a rest.

Stew

[cedge]

Stew
Marvelous work. It isn't made wrong if it fits and runs as needed.....it's modified....(grin). I'm watching your progress even if I'm a little quiet. 

Steve

[sbwhart]

Thanks Steve

This is certainly a long term project, you've just got to break it down into little bits and treat each bit as a project, then one day you wake up and ther's no more bits and you've got a running Loco (with luck). Its quite nice to break off from time to time and do something else, I've got it in mind to build another small engine probably in September when I finaly retire, got a number of ideas, I'm toying with a multiple build, it apeals to my production engineering mind set, but who knows I may see something on here that sends me off in another directions. 

Cheers

Stew

[SPiN Racing]

Very cool.. glad to see it looks like it went together correctly!!


And easy on the additional projects <WINK> I just ordered a blank arbor and mini center!!!   

SO yes I will be making a clone of that mini center... hopefully next weekend.. if the UPS people are on track. 

[sbwhart]

Well Madmodders

I've been busey making the motion linkage, this is mainley made from 1/8" hot rolled mild steel plate. The work consisted of cutting the links out drilling the holes rough milling and filing to shape, nothing realy exiciting. The only thing to be carful with is the fact the links come in pairs and the hole centres for each pair of links have to be exactly the same, the easyest way to do this is to mark out and drill the holes in one link, in the other just drill one then fasten the two together with dowel, and drill the rest of the holes, that way they must be the same.







With the lifting link as well as two holes there is a slot for the lifting block to slide in, this slot was first chain drilled, then milled out with a slot drill, the corners were squared out with a file, for a nice sliding fit on slip gauges, the lifting block was milled to the same size as the slips.



The valve link was made out of 1/4" sq mild steel, again they come in a pair with matching hole centres, the holes were drilled using the same procedure.
This is one of those jobs where you have to read the drawing carfully, otherwise you end up putting the holes in the wrong side and cutting bits out where you don't want them to be cut out. Only scrapped one off 

The slots were cut out witha 1/8" slot drill, the slot having first been chained drilled out with a 7/64" drill.





These are the links the valve link on the right is the scrapper spot the deliberate mistake.



And this is how they will fit together with the eccentric link.



It's quite enjoyable doing these links only 3 more to do.

Have fun

Stew

[CrewCab]

Nicely done Stew 

CC

[Divided he ad]

That's all looking very nice and neat Stew 


I was joking about the time limit by the way..... I'll give you 9 months to have a fully running chaisis.... Then the body you can take your time with     
(Seriously, you just take it as you are.... Nothing wrong with that )



Looking forward to seeing the rest take shape     




Ralph.

[sbwhart]

Thanks CC/ Ralph

Ralph: Its one bit at a time, like Sir Ranalph Fines going up Everest plod plod plod then one day you can't go any higher because your there.   

Have Fun

Stew

[sbwhart]

Lifting Block

I decided to make the lifting block out of an old rail spike I picked up on a walk, it sort of appeals to my sence of history.

Her it is with the middle bit cleaned up



First job mark out the holes and cut the block out.



Next job mill the block out to size, because my vice is dead square, and using a parallel as a stop, pushing the block hard up against the stop automaticaly brings it square (using the in built acuracy of the tool)



Then the holes were drilled I drilled the holes first for two reasons 1:- It will take some meat out for when the slots are milled. 2:- After the slots are milled the ssction will be thin, that could bend if you tried to drill the holes in it.

To get the block square it was first lightly gripped in the jaws then a parallel placed on top and the parallel tapped with a lead hammer bringing the block level with the jaws.





To mill the slots again the squareness of the vice was used to set the block square. The slots were first chain drilled out 7mm deep then the slot cut out using an 1/8" slot drill to a depth of 8mm.



The final job was to mill out the angles and file the rads using filling buttons



Her it is finished



And this is where it will fit.



Thats it a bit of Railway History built into my Loco

Cheers

Stew

[bogstandard]

Wonderful bit of work Stew.

It is not the shape of material that you look at, but the shape that is inside the material that counts.

Use anything you can get your hands on.

John

[Stilldrillin]

Nicely done Stew! 

David D

[Darren]

You are making a wonderful job of this Stew, that part looked complicated, well to me it did 

Great thread, following with even greater interest. Nice to see you are showing how to tackle each part 

[sbwhart]

Thanks for the encouragement Chaps

Now for the last bit of the valve linkage the Rocker Arms this is the bit that will move the valve rod in and out.

The arms has a left right bend in it and is fabricated up from 4 bits that are silver soldered together.

These are the bits



The bends were done in the vice with a wolop from a trusty hammer (when I nod my head hit it  ) in order to form the bends packing pieces were used.







The bits were soldered together and the arm griped in the chuck by the sacrificial stub, it was centre drilled followed by a 1/4 drill.





You have to be carfull you don't tangle with the whirling arms.

The sacrificial stub is cut off.

The rest of the required holes drilled, the top one is a slot that is done with a file, and the finished shaped filed out and cleaned up.



Thats it job done the rocker with the longer arm also doubles as the drive to the lubricator.

And this is where it fits.



I've still got to case harden the links don't let me forget that 

Stew





 

[kvom]

Nice work!

[SPiN Racing]

Very Nice Stew!


Sacrificial part..... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh    (we need a smiley with a lightbulb over its head)

Very smurt. I never thought of that... I may have to pirate that idea!


Looking really nice though... very intricate.. Reminds me of the Marklin train I had/have as a kid. I gather its worth a goodly sum nowadays. I took it in to get serviced 15 or 20 years ago to a bug moodel train place.. and they were all ga ga over it. Its HO scale.. but has super detailed mechanisms, all to scale I gather...   I need to dig it out I think.  Seeing you make these driveline mechanisms is really fascinating to me, cause I never really gave the operation of the individual arms much thought. Really cool!!

[bogstandard]

Real nice work Stew.

Isn't it good when things start coming together and it begins to look nice and complicated?

I see you are going to case harden a few things. Are you applying it locally as it looks like you might run into trouble with your silver soldering if you want to take the whole part up to cherry red.


John

[sbwhart]

Hi John

The eccentric links that are silver soldered just hold the pins in place so are not subject to wear so they won't be case hardened.

The rocker arms are different kettle of fish though they will be subject to wear, reading old Curley's words and music recommends mild steel and silver solder, no mention of case hardening so he may have just gone with mild steel  . I've got a little set of gas bottles that I can get a fine flame with so I'm going to try and localy case harden the arms, if it doesn't work out I'll just have to make new from a chunk of gauge plate, I know a man who's got some  and I'm far more confident with my mill now I know could mill one out from solid with it.

Stew

PS is your swivel chair still missing a wheel only I aquired some the other day.

Stew

[NickG]

That is quite a collection of fiddley little bits Stew! They are looking great, you've just made all the bits that scare / put me off projects! Well done, how far off is a trial run on air then?

Nick