Well, it's been a while since I have posted anything in here, what with Christmas/New Year, daughter down from Rockhampton in Qld with her 3 kids for a month, a few shifts working with physically/intellectually disabled young adults, issues with Land Rovers, getting them ready for an Air Show etc etc, man have I been busy.
The Locomotive took a back seat whilst the visitors were here, as I couldn't concentrate using the lathe as one of them is near the shed door and the baby could walk in and cop some swarf, so not a lot happened, and the other issue, I had bought a few machine tools off ebay and they took their time getting here as well, but I have managed to get a move on.
I waited for a Fly Cutter that I needed to profile the brake shoes, I thought I had bought it from a seller here in Oz, turns out it was just a front for an extra $10.00 Au as it came from India
it did the job without any problems, the brakes are all fitted the mechanism moves back n forth, but they are only cosmetic value, as they will not stop the locomotive.
The front Pony truck had to come back off, as I needed to cross drill the pivot, but to get the pivot out I had to remove the oil check valve for the steam chests, very fiddly job, image slightly blurred sorry
getting the delivery oil line back onto the pump was damn difficult, I did some silent swearing I can assure you
but it's all back together now, hopefully it will not have to come off again
Now with those tasks out of the way, I needed to refit the running boards, as they have a mounting point just under where the boiler expansion plate is, the running boards are held in place by 5BA set screws, but they are only 5/32" in length,
they are way too long, so I had to make something to hold them whilst they were being shortened, a short length of hex/brass was drilled n tapped 5BA
this did the job nicely
I had to do this as I needed to make the boiler expansion plate brackets x 2
I quickly made a rough forming tool,
marked out some 1/16" thickness steel, drilled them the tapping drill size for 6BA
that will make it easier to transfer the holes when I'm ready to do it, the tool was put into action in the bench vice
that was the first stage a 90 deg bend then
and it looks like this x 2, you can see why I needed to mount the running boards as it's all very close
the top edge will need to be trimmed to size, but not just yet.
Before fitting the boiler to the frame, I wanted to make a new Ash Pan, I had made one 20+ years ago from mild steel
but over the past 15 months or so, I thought about the long term viability of having it in steel, ? it may rust out/burn out and I didn't fancy having to dismantle the locomotive to build another, so I bought some brass sheet and set about making it
here is the brass sheet, sitting on 2 x saw horses, as the temperature outside the shed was a whopping 47c, I was working only in shorts (n underwear of course) no shirt, I was swimming in sweat I can tell you
I had made some adjustments to the fire box grate as well
It has been marked out using all manner of small tools, including my optical center punch
all parts were marked out, but my mate who lives 45 k's away wasn't going to be home for several days, so I didn't have
access to his guillotine, he has often said just come down and use it, but my luck would be that some low life had been there stole a heap of stuff, I turn up and some one see's me in my very distinctive 110 and I would be the prime suspect, so I had to twiddle my thumbs so to speak for a few daze.
Not to be outdone, and waste too much time, I made 8 small pivots for the 8 wheel tender, these are pivot pins for the suspension on the tender
very small and fiddly, but I made the 8 of them without any stuff up's and the temp was up there at 46c again
this is where they fit on the tender frames
My mate Tim, rang me last night, he is home and I went there this morning to use Madam Guillotine, you make no mistakes doing this or you lose your head (get cranky++++ with self) anyway all went well no stuff ups
it was pouring rain at Tim's property, I love the sound of rain on a tin roof, I have a hearing deficit (too many years of shooting large calibre weapons Rifle/pistols) but the rain was heavy enough for me to hear it Lovely sound, anyway back at home, I had to remove the excess brass material using a hack saw, the first cut is always the deepest LOL
then some judicious filing with both pieces of the brass sheet clamped together so they end up being identical, I have made it almost the same size as the drawing
the next step was the form the lower floor section with it's radius, some off cuts of steel and a short length of 5/8" dia round bar, as I made the radius on the plate using using a 5/8" dia washer to mark it out, a quick heat with Mapp gas, quench mark it out clamp it tap it around the bar and it was done
all that's needed there is a quick wipe with a half round file and it will fit like a finger in a dogs bum LOL, anyway I have turned up the stainless steel pin that will hold the grate in position, it has a 3/16 x 40tpi on it with 2 nuts either side, the whole assembly will be riveted together and most likely silver soldered as well, anyway that's about where I'm up to at the moment cheers Dennis