Author Topic: my stuff  (Read 71423 times)

Offline STDDIVER

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #105 on: June 23, 2017, 03:03:32 PM »

Dennis - Congratulations - really enjoy this thread and your workmanship!  Well done and congratulations on working for only two bosses now and you are one of them!

Frank


Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #106 on: June 23, 2017, 07:08:19 PM »
Thanks for the compliments 303Gunner and StdDiver, but I never loose sight of the fact that I'm just a mug having a go LOL,the 8 wheel tender has several major components, the body which is all brass, the
floorplate also brass, the chassis 3mm plate etc and the bogies/brakes.
The floorplate has a brass angle riveted along it's edge 68 rivets I think @ 3/16" spaces
well you can't buy unequal brass angle, so I had to mill one side off

this has been achieved but has not been riveted to the floorplate as yet, my T/A aka wife
has been busy with other things including baby sitting our youngest G/daughter 3 days a week.
I had already made many items for the brake rigging, now before going any further on the brakes
I needed to make 2 brake bell cranks and the mounts & shaft as seen in the drawing half section AA

the shaft was the easy part of the task 5/16" dia bar, ends machined down to 1/4"dia x certain length
the 2 bell cranks took a little more thought (well for me it did) on the how too, anyway it was achieved
without too much fuss, reamed 5/16" and 3/8" then shaped/filed etc

the mounts had to be fabricated from what materials I had at hand, then turn
up some bronze bushes that had to be silver soldered to the steel then reamed @ 1/4" ID

I had to machine some brass weld off the strengthening plate for the front draw bar, to allow the brake
shaft cranks to fit in that small space

the bell cranks on the shaft with mounts etc

the next issue was making it clear the chassis rail, I had checked all measurements the issue was
on the crank, it was relieved as well as the bracket for the brake column

and on the underside, you might notice I had fitted the brass floorplate with all it's screws, which
all had to be shortened from 1" in length to just over 5/16" that was fun not LOL time consuming
it was, I needed to do this just to check nothing was going to foul, fit/unfit etc etc

Next item whilst still working on the chassis were these items which had to be fabricated, they hold
the chains off the bogies and I needed to make 4 of them

side view of the plan

so I thought about it (how too) I couldn't see me heating and rolling the edges, so I used 3/16" dia bar
with the 1/16" hole which I uprated to 5/64", then using a hack saw put a cut across the broad face,
using a needle file open it up to fit the .8mm steel strip

then to this

apply flux and solder together, very fiddly job but successfully achieved

next task was to cut the slots, I used a 1/16" slitting saw very carefully

and after some little time I had all four done

hopefully if it warms up later in the day I will drill and rivet them to the outside chassis rails,
after twiddling my thumbs for a short period this morning, the warmth factor got it's act together and the mercury climbed to 16c, still damn cold in the shed though, so my motto is "if you don't do it who will" me you goose LOL.
So I set about drilling the 1/16"dia holes in the appropriate places and moved them in pairs to the job,
here is the LHS pair being fitted, the first one is always the most difficult

and in no time using my rivet squeezer I was fitting it's mate

and in under 20 minutes I had all four fitted

now thinking as you have too, as this is worse than doing up a Land Rover as there is no "green bible" to refer too
and you have to be on top of it at all times, there is a sequence of events, another 5 rivets in place

he far end of this strengthening plate has to be braze welded, that will happen after I have finished
with the brass floorplate, in my movements around the shed I keep looking at the bogie sets

and working out in my head the methods of machining the various bits that make up the bogie units.
The next task on the brass floor plate was to fit the unequal brass angle, which I had milled a few weeks ago

here it is being held down by 3 engineers clamps using 5/16" square HSS for clamping force
before center dotting and drilling

and with my T/A's assistance I drilled 6 x 1/16" dia holes and broke a bloody drill bit LOL, anyway
it now has 6 brass rivets in place

tomorrow I will drill the remainder of the holes using the bench drill, then put the pressure on my T/A
to help with the riveting process, then I will be able to concentrate on the bogies, cheers Dennis
« Last Edit: June 23, 2017, 07:19:59 PM by DennisM »

Offline BEARMAN

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #107 on: June 23, 2017, 08:10:15 PM »
Dennis, that is beautiful work that you do. Well done!!!
09/1998 Perentie 6X6 ARN202516 - BRUTUS

Offline Rob6x6

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #108 on: June 23, 2017, 09:41:14 PM »
Totally agree with Bearman. You are a genuine graftsman. Cheers Rob

Offline Philthy

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #109 on: June 24, 2017, 05:59:43 PM »
Dennis thank you for your posting these detailed photos.

I have learnt a lot from this thread.

Cheers Phil

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #110 on: June 29, 2017, 10:52:08 AM »
Thank you chaps for your compliments, but I have always regarded myself as a rank amateur with my hobbies, I strive for the best that I can do, that's all I can do, I did manage to snap an image of the rivets in the floor plate of the tender (as I had forgot to do so in the previous post)

see where the blind silly old git drilled one off line LOL, and later that day I braze welded the rear stiffening plate, but methinks I should buy a new pair of welding glasses as it looked neat until I chipped off the hard clear flux, anyway it will do the job

Well it's wet cold n miserable here this morning so rather than go down into the freezer aka shed (yesterday it was 5c in there damn cold) I'm adding to my story and I will venture down there after lunch as I have some machining to do on the bogie frames, so here is an overview of some very repetitive work that I have done making small pins for the brake rigging, here is the list off the plan

To start with I didn't have any round bar stock @ 1/4" OD, so I decided to use 1/4" steel hex bar rather than wait days for supply from Bathurst, the supplier is 1st class Oz post is slow, here is the first of 2 at this size

I sometimes wish I had a CNC machine and of course the knowledge on how to with it LOL these pins all 34 of them would have been made in under 10 minutes once the machine was set up, if I told you each pin took approx 14 minutes to make you would think I was crazy, but you can only take small cuts 0.020" at a time as the material pushes away from the tool and it has to finish up at 0.125" with the cross drilled hole @ 1/16"

it looks off center but it isn't, the hex bar was marked against No 1 jaw in the chuck, so out of the lathe when it's down past the hex, marked for length and the cross drilled hole then drill back in the lathe and continue to turn it down to size, very time consuming, here is the first batch, with the larger pins as well

the hex was 300mm (12") that's what left, it will be put to use on something else I'm sure.
The next day after my back had 12 hours rest I was back at it again making the longer ones @ 3/4" in length, same deal very repetitive

this is where they lay in amongst the swarf until all done

I'm fairly fussy about keeping the machine clean n free of metal swarf, so I try to catch it using small trays, yes mad I know LOL
two days later I had finished this was the last of the pins @ 7/16" in length

and here they all are after having the small steel 'tit' removed and heads machined down to 3/32" in length

I have been making myself familiar with items etc on the bogies and I keep looking at the plan when I walk past it

I have made an awful lot of parts for it, but somehow I over looked two levers, one floating n one fixed, so I quickly fixed that shortage

I didn't have any imperial sized steel so I used the closest metric which was 10mm x 3mm, the parts loosely sitting where they hopefully will work LOL

anyway later this afternoon I will be using my older lathe and the mill to machine the bogie frames, I hope I don't stuff up as replacement cast iron bogies wouldn't be cheap today, cheers Dennis

« Last Edit: June 29, 2017, 11:15:41 AM by DennisM »

Offline 303Gunner

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #111 on: June 29, 2017, 12:16:54 PM »
Dennis, there is nothing nicer than a little pile of freshly machined fittings in clean metal. But as some of your pictures show, atmospheric moisture will slowly begin to coat exposed metal with rust. Do you have any methods in mind to preserve bare surfaces until (in time) you finish them with paint or other surface coatings?

I'd would like to see the rods and valve motion as polished oiled steel, but other large items like the frame might like to be phosphated or parkerised before it gets too hard to get into any nooks and crannys with steel wool.

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #112 on: June 30, 2017, 07:24:24 PM »
Well another couple of days in the freezer, but the sun was shining today but still damn cold in the shed, I had 2 jumpers on, I must be getting old.
Tony I usually bag things to keep moisture out, but the tender frame got a tad dirty/rusty from sitting on the shelf for 23 years or more, but I have a 42CFM compressor and my intention is when the time comes I will grit blast the steel frame and any other components etch prime and paint either flat or satin black, the motion gear on the engine will remain polished.
Yesterday morning I changed the chucks on my older lathe, they are not getting any lighter

I needed the 8" 4 jaw to accommodate the bogie frames, they needed to be bored out to 3/4" x 3/8" deep, this was an easy task
but not as quick as on the newer lathe as the old one doesn't have quick change tool posts, so setting it @ center height took
a few minutes of trial n error

after that job was completed on both bogies, I roughly assembled it and marked them using a texta pen, side view

and from the top as they

are front and rear with some of the fittings that have to be still made but fit in different spots on each bogie, they both had to be
milled flat on opposite faces for brake hinges

I spent some time yesterday pondering whether to make these links

there are 8 of each size to be made, so I was looking at the possibility of fabricating them, but after making
a couple of the items needed I changed my mind and milled one from bar stock, getting the middle of the bar was
a real trick, as if your not careful you end up adding thousand's of an inch just by the way you apply the scribing tool

then it was divide 5/32" and add that half to half of the width of the bar, do it on both side so you end up with 5/32"

well I was out by a whisker as 5/32" = 0.156250 and I ended up @ 0.158" LOL but I will live with that.
This still needs to be finished off

in the meantime I made a couple of filing buttons from silver steel and hardened them in brine

they seem to be working OK, but if you have drilled the hole a few thousandth's of an inch off center it soon shows
anyway I know I will have a lot of file finishing to do, so to finish off this afternoon, I bagged all the bits for the brake rigging
etc into several clip lock bags so I don't lose any of them, I don't know how many hundreds of hours have gone into that bag

anyway cheers Dennis

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #113 on: July 16, 2017, 06:42:50 PM »
Well, quite a few mornings here @ -3c & lower, during the day on a few daze it was 0c<>3c in the workshop, I must say here though even though I was born in the UK (Staff's 1949) I could not handle the winter there, anyway whinge over, it will soon be summer again LOL.
Pressing on with making small parts and emails sent to Imgur posing the question about 3rd party hosting, I was given the OK to do so, provided I don't break any of their rules, not likely from me, it took me some time to delete all 5,000+ images that I had shared using photostuffit, I have transferred quite a few into Imgur and I will set about changing my previous posts as time permits, but in another forum in Oz I have lost all the images I ever posted in several rebuilds of my Land Rovers, ah well s**t happens.
Since my last write up in here I haven't made a great deal of progress as parts are so small and very fiddly and only getting about 4 hours a day in the Wksp because of the low temp's, but progress has been made nonetheless and there will be images when I get time to replace them.
I made a start on 16 links from the Equaliser bar to the 8 leaf springs which I have yet to make (waiting on materials from Polly engineering in England ? somewhere LOL

that was the first of the longer types 1 .125" between centers

the others were 0.625" between centers and just as difficult to make LOL, I did make 2 buttons out of Silver steel
I heated them and quenched them in brine, these buttons helped me file the radius correctly, it didn't take long and I had a small production line going, but it was still slow

and after a few daze in the freezer (shed/workshop) I had all 16 made

and showing them against the drawing, they are close enough for my liking

Next task was to make the bushes for the Equaliser bar, the plans stated to use Nylon, I didn't have any
so I resorted to turning down a length of Bronze bar to the required OD 0.312" (5/16")

it's a push fit and will be Loctited in place, the X denotes the inside face of the bar, next step was to open it up to
15/64" then ream it at 0.250 (1/4") ID



The next task was to make the pivot pins x 4 that the Equaliser bar rests on, they had to be made from Silver Steel
which I had in stock, a few different sizes on the shaft requiring full concentration

task completed and this is where they sit on the bogie side frame rails

the next step was to machine all over the Bronze casting that supports the pivot pin and the Equaliser bar, it
had to be machined all over and using a 1/8" end mill I was expecting to snap it off at any time

this task is yet to be completed as the casting was thicker at one end than the other, so a bit of thought
has to go into how I'm going to rectify that.
The pivot pins had to be precise @ 0.250" OD as any slop would/could upset the suspension balance, so 0.250"
it was

and how they sit on the bogie frame

here is an imge that I took back around 1989 or so, it's of a full size tender for a 'P' class locomotive, I think
I'm on the right track

Anyway moving along in the freezer (shed) I started making the spring bracket that supports the links at
either ends of the springs, fiddly well yes you could say that and damn small as well LOL

5/8" in length or 0.625, that one is half a thousandth of an inch too long but I can live with that LOL
here is the finished pin, I had to make 8 of them, so I did them like a production line all turning operations
were done, before moving onto the next stage of the machining of the pins, until they were like this one

so many different dimensions and a 5BA thread on the ends.
The next 'small' task was to make the bracket

there are 8 of them, terrific LOL marking out using 0.500" x 0.125" mild steel flat bar (which I bought from
the UK some time back as Imperial steel N/A in Oz)

very fiddly and time consuming, but I had knocked up one which is a bit short on one end but I'm keeping it
it was 3c in the shed and my brain wasn't functioning properly

anyway I had that many tools set for differing measurements, so bewildering at times

I used a few small jigs that held things in place while drilling holes, here a short piece of 3/16OD bar and a cheap
vise grip hold things steady

when I made the 1st one I short changed the it on one end, so I got cunning and made a tool to help me with the end radius, I turned down a short lenth of S/steel to the same size as a No 43 drill (0.089")

with that inserted into the hole I was able to scribe around it and make a better job of it

and the general arrangement drawing showing how it all looks

and my effort at it

well that's where I was 1 week ago, cheers Dennis
ps I have moved along but haven't uploaded images as yet,.

« Last Edit: July 17, 2017, 08:12:41 AM by DennisM »

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #114 on: September 12, 2017, 07:37:06 PM »
I had just added a plethora of images n tet and the ******* nbn S**T itself *** I hate this bloody thing at times cheers bloody grumpy dennis

Offline STDDIVER

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #115 on: September 13, 2017, 11:04:46 AM »
 Dennis - I keep saying it - I love this thread and what you are doing - very inspirational! Please keep up the exceptional work!!!

Frank

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #116 on: September 14, 2017, 04:43:07 PM »
I have been busy in the shed working on my loco & tender, mostly tender chassis/axle assemblies, damn there is some work in the multitude of parts, and it's been sometime since I wrote anything about it I have probably forgotten the sequence of events LOL and I will apologise for that now.
The axles needed to be finished off so it was all ahead with machining the bronze Equaliser brackets

and the four pins that they pivot on

then mark and drill the casting for 2 x 8BA bolts to secure the to the bogie frame

The weather has been very unkind (well it is winter) but still damn cold in the shed

making early starts impossible, some days I didn't get in there until after midday, have I said I dislike winter LOL.
Next task was the rubbing blocks that attach to the sub chassis and rub on the bogie frames when the tender is leaning to one side going around a curve or some such situation, to re-attach the items I had to shorten a few 8BA bolts to a certain length, so I had to make a small jig to accomodate that task

and where they fit in the overall picture
and where they fit in the overall picture
Another task that (like most of it) waiting was to finish off the axleboxes with some machining to shape and size to accomodate the leaf springs, oil holes n dust covers etc

and where the leaf spring sits

Next milling operation was the bronze Horns x 16 crikey that took some time as I had to use a 1/8"dia end mill
and going through the rough casting with sand, well I broke one end mill, so off to Newcastle to get another
that was almost 2 hours out of my afternoon

I counted myself very lucky that they had 1 (1only) in stock, it took me almost 4 days of about 4 hours per day
to machine the bronze castings all over so as they would fit

hen the task of clamping them down and drilling through the casting with a 1/16"dia drill, then using 1/16"dia steel
rivets 8 per 2 bronze castings, and yes I ran out of rivets, I had to wait 5 days for them to come by post from less than 150 miles,

My birthday came n went, my daughter from Rockhampton sent this for me, I think it's a fitting tribute

all the G/kids call me 'grumpy Dinosuar' LOL, well I can handle that, anyway moving along as you have too, as no-one
else is going to do anything for you, whilst waiting for the rivets to arrive I made a start on the 2 buffers at the rear of the tender frame, I had some 40mm bright shaft so I set about machining it down to size n shape

and in no time at all (well I'm bulls**ting here) this was the first one I finished, it is very close

and the next day or so I had made the other along with some of the parts to make it complete,

along with another jig to hold it whilst it had a 4BA thread up it's rear end LOL


then I needed to set up in my older lathe using the 4 jaw chuck the casting was made to run fairly true
then I set about machining it to size

well that's has bought me up roughly to the end of July, when I get some spare time tomorrow
I will update what I have done during August, cheers & I hope it's not boring, Dennis
ps Here is an image of 'Max' our male Sheltie he visits me many times through the day, I dunno whether he is being friendly wanting attention or making sure I'm working LOL, or is he still working for "Digger" on AULRO trying to work out a way to nick my G/buggy LOL

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #117 on: September 25, 2017, 12:53:17 PM »
I like machining cast iron as it's easy once down through the skin, but I have to wear a mask as the fine dust plays havoc with my sinus problems, the 2 buffers minus their 4 holes to mount them to the rear drawbar

then as usual check the drawing and I haven't got 8BA bolts long enough, so find a suitable size in steel hex
and make 8 of them

small ain't they

next task was to mark out the buffers from the 2 holes either side (rivets had to be removed as I missed this point years ago LOL) then drill through the buffer into the drawbar for the remaining holes, and I didn't break a 1/16"dia drill in the process well I was using a hand drill, here they are all fitted up

The bogies were back in the picture again as I had to make 4 end frames

which support the brake hangers etc, and as usual there is no supply of Imperial sized angle iron here I had to make do with metric sizes, but that required quite a bit of milling, down from this size

to this size

I'm still working out in my head how to hold the end plates while I silver braze them, no hurry just plod along LOL.
Meanwhile in my head using my neighbours shed n carport as he is away again, so I moved 3 of my Land Rovers onto his property, and set about finding out why my S2A 109 Ambulance will not pull, my very good friend/mechanic told me he thought that the valve timing has to be out, so I thought this an opportune time with nothing in the driveway, to get it out turn it around on the street and reverse it back into the garage, to give me room to work at the front unhindered.
It didn't take too long to strip it down, and working through the radiator panel I soon had it down and with the piston at TDC off the timing marks and a visual sighting of said piston, the timing marks on the cam wheel were 180deg out

the 'P' is supposed to be up at the top opposite the highest bolt hole, so using my home made puller which I made years ago and for what purpose I can't recall, the cam wheel was removed and put in it's proper place, a new timing chain was fitted, and double checking the valve timing by turning the C/shaft x 2 full revolutions the timing marks came back to where they are supposed to be

anyway it all went back together and then my mind starts playing tricks on me, ? did you tighten that, is that in the right position, well this sort of B/s**t happens to me all the time I kept going and adjusted the firing order and hit the starter, it roared into life literally, I quickly moved the distributor in an anti clockwise motion and the engine settled into a nice idle, but it will need my mate to fiddle with it to get it right, that is still to happen and my neighbour could be home this coming Wednesday, damn.
Whilst I had the older lathe on the go, and a mask to catch the dust, I thought that I should machine the brake ring for the tender, it was set up initially in the 4 jaw, using a piece of cardboard marked with a center dot, this helped me get it to run fairly true, so the inside diameter was machined to the correct radius 1 41/64" LOL

once that was achieved I swapped chucks for a 3 jaw and machined the outside dimensions, some parts vere machined in back gear (slowly) as it was an intermittent cut and I didn't want it to move at all

Once that was done it was marked out and drilled No30, I haven't cut the brake ring into eight individual items as yet, as I'm toying with the idea of buying a steel cutting bandsaw, I do have a power hacksaw, but it's too industrial for small fine work, and with the bandsaw I can guide the blade, I hope.

I bought this semi universal dividing head about a year ago and I have a few small items that will need it's assistance and as usual you can buy washers of a decent thickness, so I made some using flat bar, they are 10mm & 6mm thick they won't bend under pressure

6mm washer in place

Back on the bogies it's time to make the springs, I had purchased 10 foot of 3/8" wide x 0.040" thick spring steel annealed  along with other Imperial sized materials from Polly & Chronos in the UK and had it sent via airmail as none of the materials I needed were available here. I had made the spring jig some time back but the slot I cut in it was only 0.020" wide, so when the order from Chronos arrived there was a 0.040" thick slitting saw in amongst it, I opened up the gap and we were in business, the jig with the Spring steel and the 1/4"OD bush No30 hole, bush has a flat on base

jig opened up slightly around where the bush meets the steel as it is going to be silver brazed and I needed some clearance for that, all set up n ready to mill the first slot, will it work well at the time I hoped it would, and it did

the first slotted main leaf, only another 7 to go, very nerve racking listening to it crunching/munching it's way through

That was enough excitement for Saturday arvo, this morning I was up early 0545hrs quick bite of breakfast move my 110 out of the way, get 113-372 out and head off to the Broke Village Fair, WRONG, 113-372 would not start no matter what I did, the battery was very low jump start did nothing, anyway after recharging the battery I did get it to run I took it for a drive but didn't go to the Fair, this was the scene at 0600hrs this morning

Ambulance still in the shed LOL awaiting my mate and the other that disgraced itself, damn that Fair only happens every 12 months, so it was back to milling another slot, and cutting some more spring steel to make another main leaf, I now have 2, so only 6 to go now LOL

this is how they connect to the links etc

and just when I thought I had made all the pins I find that I have not made any for the eyes of the 8 main leaves, so I guess that's a job for another day soon, cheers Dennis

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #118 on: September 25, 2017, 01:01:37 PM »
Very warm (and very welcome as well early September) 26c, I made the effort to file the spring eyes where they had been silver soldered so they would fit neatly into the jig, this did take some time, but was welcome relief from house work LOL ( I made an agreement with the wife when I retired I would help out around the house, well you know many hands make light work.
So after filing and checking that they would all fit the jig it was all ahead full

that was a before, here is the after hours of standing in the one spot, crikey my (nurse's lower back) was giving me some what for, anyway done n dusted

yesterday (Monday 11/9/17) we had an appt at a skin cancer clinic we both came through 100% which is a good result given that I' a Pom and have been sunburnt on many  a time in the past anyway fingers XXX'd but we were early for the appt, and there is a shop called 'cash convertors' in there I found a Locomotive marker lamp in perfect condition, it has been stamped NSWGR

this is the wick assembly.
The weather here at the moment is not what it is usually, yesterday Wednesday it was 34c bushfires everywhere, one started by a young punk who stole a car and torched it 34c with hot westerly winds blowing @ 45/50kph absolute lunacy, well it burnt through a lot of bushland and into the Richmond Vale Railway site and caused well over $1,000,000.00 damage, carriages destroyed a whole string of 12 ton wooden non airhoppers 3 passenger cars and a stack of wooden sleepers as well burnt sleepers along the length n breadth of the rail system that they have, anyway rant over.
It was nice n warm in the shed I must admit a real change from the cold weather, but it's back 15c today LOL, but some progress has been made on the tender springs,
here is the first of the second leaves just another 7 to make LOL

and some time later, all 8 sets now have 3 leaves each,

but to get that far, I had to modify my jig, the pressure of the cutter was pushing the spring steel away, even though I had to tap (using a small ball pein hammer) the spring material into the jig, it still wasn't enough to hold it whilst cutting, so I marked n drilled 2 holes No33 and tapped them 4BA, fitted 2 bolts problem solved

At some time ago I thought I had made all the eye pins for the springs but I was mistaken the pins I had made are for the brake rigging etc, so I have to make 16 eye pins to suit, cross drilled 1/16" to accept a split pin, here I have made 2, only 14 more to make

The 'keep' drawing specifys folding and brazing

well I'm going to use 1/2" square section the inside dimensions are perfect @ 3/8" ID, I'm using this scrap piece
to play with atm, the locating lug on the base is a fiddly item it's approx 3.5mm in length and 1/8" dia 6BA thread on the end

I dropped it and thought well you won't find that, but luck was on my side and I did find it LOL, here is the incomplete spring (needs another 9 leaves as yet) but I'm sure you will get the idea

well that was 5.5hours today whiled away in the shed, cheers Dennis
ps I'm now only about 8 daze behind with this yarn LOL ;)
« Last Edit: September 25, 2017, 01:04:26 PM by DennisM »

Offline DennisM

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Re: my stuff
« Reply #119 on: October 07, 2017, 08:37:18 AM »
Moving along as you do, I will endeavour to show what I have achieved, the spring keeps were made using 1/2" square section, the drawings had this complicated folded sections and braze the base in, I thought blow that LOL

so I set up my 4" 4 jaw chuck in my biggest 3 jaw and set about making these keeps after the holes were drilled and tapped where needed

it was slow going as I didn't need anything to go wrong as it sometimes does

the insides of the keeps had to be filed as they were a very tight squeeze at 3/8" wide, so using a square file I opened them up a whisker or two, this allowed me to easily get the steel spring through the opening as well as the next 9 leaves, here they all are with the steel leaves in place and as you can see a spring with the eye pins 16 in all needed

using 1/4" steel hexagon I made the 16 eye pins, cross drilled with a 1/16" hole first then machined to size

The remainder of the leaves were made from Tufnol, which I had to treat to make it work, so after much reading n checking I found an article that stated the best method was to tie it in a 5.5" circle or near enough

and boil it for 20 minutes which I did

and it looked like this which was near perfect, I fluked it LOL

I had to make a new jig to help set up the springs, it was just a bit of scrap steel with 2 holes drilled No 30 to accept 1/8" dia pins, anyway after much stuffing about I settled on these lengths for the Tufnol leaves

and by days end I had 2 completed, but not quite lined up

and I had to put them in place to see what I had done

I forgot to mention that I had to reheat the spring steel, it had to be heated cherry red then quenched in cooking oil, this did take some time and I did manage to scald my fingers with the cooking oil splattering, then I had to put a small amount of set into them, so I used this block of Lead Bronze

I used a small hammer and I think I have got it near enough correct, they do deflect etc but I suppose I will not know until the tender is completed and has water inside it, ah well fingers XXX'd.
The next afternoon I had all 8 springs completed

and I just had to sit them on a bogie to check it out LOL

well that's where I'm up to ATM, cheers Dennis :)