getting ready to start

[tom osselton]

Morning all as I said in my introduction I am new to steam. It was my fathers dream to putt about the inner harbour in Victoria bc and I was seeking information on a engine he had a photocopy of Saw thought it was a 6a well  I found the book it came from it was in a 1985 catalogue by “Coles Power Models”  model 6a.
1.5" hp & 3" lp



Well to bring you up to date I went back to Victoria from Calgary to pick up his tools, a clausing lathe and atlas 7b shaper as well as his kiln and stained glass equipment to mention a few. I also found “Verbal Notes and Sketches” 15 th edition volumes 1 &| 2 as well as 8 issues of Steamboating and Some Model Engineers Workshop magazines.
The lathe spindel was a bit loose so we tightend it up some and will look into new bearings my son and I will pull the apron off the carriage this weekend the crossfeed nut tightens by itself I think a clip has come off other than that it runs good.



the shaper runs good judging by the cuttings on the floor lol I'm working on that though and have a catcher mocked up not in this pic though.


And his fourth class engineer steam certificate dated 1948.



I also found his master drawing I guess you would call it and his patterns for the head, cores and columns so I'm a happy camper, I guess he couldn't find much info on the 6a either and was running with experience. I thought the ears on the head were too big but his design calls for pillars that I saw on utube for a triple expansion that fit them good it will give me a working distance between the head and soleplate once they are cast and in place. One thing I’m not sure about on his pillars the slider landings seem way small to me should they be bigger / wider or another one in the middle for rigidity 's sake?











first time posting like this  woohoo

[Stilldrillin]

Hi Tom.

WOW! What a great adventure you're starting! Picking up, from where your Father left off.......

The often used words come to mind. "If only....."

I hope you can develop some of his skills along the way, and finish his project successfully.

We'll be watching, willing you on. Helping, where we can.

Good luck!

David D

[saw]

Hi Tom. This is an very promissing project and I hope that you will manage to built youre fathers dream. 

[Troutsqueezer]

Since this hobby is as much about thinking and planning what needs to be done as it is about doing the actual work, you have already started.

Very ambitious. Should be a great accomplishment, one you and your son can be proud of.

[tom osselton]

 Thanks for the encouragement I haven’t taken apart the carriage apron yet my son had his daughter over this weekend and I want to do it together he’s been working at a machine shop for about 1&½ years and will start his schooling for apprenticeship soon so we are both looking forward to this build. As with any project there has to be research and getting the necessary tools and machinery so I’m looking at getting the Craftex cx601 at busy bee it seems like not a bad mill with a little bit more travel than others, they say it’s dro but that is just on the downfeed bummer but it’s only $2300 / 2500 with stand. So Santa is coming early this year I hope he will take it downstairs to the basement lol we winched the lathe down there.
One thing that seems strange to me is that in order to get the 2&½ stroke that dad wanted the rings will have to pass over the ports to my way of thinking that may damage the rings and the steam isn’t able to work the piston as it will be between the two rings which is probably the dead spot I’m hearing about and the use of the simplex valve to transfer steam to the other cylinder. Wouldn’t it be easier just to move the port closer to the top during casting or possibly seeing as there is 2 rings at tdc there could be 4 or 5 channels say ¼ “ wide / long to let the steam get by the top ring, if that is a dead area it should not matter there is still one ring in operation?
As you can see I tend to over think things lol bye for now.
 

[Fredbare]

Best of luck Tom, I also will be watching this.

John