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Location: Blogs Howard Maculsay Builder's Logs
Posted by: Howard Maculsay	1/20/2008 11:33 PM
Research, plans, and working details converting a Ruby kit to a 0-4-2 tank engine used in the Hawiaan Cane fields. (This original builder's log, along with all comments, can be found here in the old MLS Forum Archives.) Being a late-comer to the steam class project, I have plenty of good examples on which to go-to-school, thanks to all who participated ahead of me. And besides, I’m new to this type of modeling (bashing), so I need all the shortcuts & help I can get. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it. So, here’s where I am in the process that I started upon receiving the Ruby Kit in Oct 2005: I’ve decided to follow Vance Bass’ lead and convert my Ruby kit to the plantation engine “Kahuku”, the 1890 Baldwin 0-4-2T. The latest incarnation of this engine resides in operating condition as #3 at the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad in Felton, CA. See thread on Trainorders.com Since Vance no longer produces his Forney laser-cut cab kit, I can’t use that as a starting point for the cab as he did, but I will be recreating Kahuku cab drawings from the samples graciously provided by Vance. Even though I can’t use his cab drawings directly, I am using them to convert takeoff dimensions to scale dimensions as described in Chapter 2 of Tom Farin’s “Introduction to the Modeling Process” article http://www.mylargescale.com/articles/articles/modeling/ch2_1.asp Between using Vance’s cab drawings and the plans by Al Armitage in the Nov/Dec 1985 Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette as my prototype drawings, I should be in good shape to get started. I’m considering a list of mechanical changes that I’ve been reading about here on MLS. Air damper & sleeve to cover 3 rear burner slots (the jury is not in on this one yet?) 9/16” bore cylinders (ordered) Inside Admission (will do this one as I assemble the Ruby) Goodall Valve (got one inhand) Steam Gauge & an adjustable Safety valve (got this also) Insulated boiler (wrapper designed & insulation back-ordered) Radio Control (ordering in process) Tuned smokestack, resonator pipe (materials ordered) Weighted Saddle Tank (26oz. of lead to be shaped for optional insertion into saddle tank) I started to use TurboCAD some years ago and haven’t used it for 10 years, but I remember it to be way too complex to relearn for this task. I found free, rudimentary and easy to use CAD software at eMachineShop.com; an internet machine shop where you can design, price, and order your custom parts online. Even though I’m not going to order any parts from them now, I’m using their free software. The first thing I tried with the new software was to make a scaled template for cutting the metal to make Dwight Ennis’ Servo Bracket. I used his dimensioned drawing found here. http://www.mylargescale.com/articles/articles/ruby/ruby01.asp Before cutting any metal for the servo bracket, I’ll have to find the Cirrus CS-26BB sub-micro servos to fit the drawing, otherwise I’ll have to redo the bracket drawing. I’ve decided on getting a Futaba Attack SR Radio & receiver so I can use Sulphur Springs’ joy stick ratchet modification. I’ll probably use 1/8” or 3/32” aluminum to make the servo bracket. Luckily, I already have a brake to do the 90 degree bending (notation points to the bend lines). In regards to the insulated boiler modification….I’m really after duplicating the bolt and rivet pattern shown on the prototype’s smokebox. To do this, I’m assuming a .010 thick brass boiler wrapper could be extended to cover the smokebox. Thus allowing a bolt & rivet pattern to be punched/embossed. And while I’m at it, insulate the boiler with an appropriate material. With some advice from Vance, I forged on to design a full wrapper encompassing both the boiler and smokebox assuming the use of 1/16” thick X ¼” wide brass spacer rings. I’m in the process of doing the fit check for the wrapper design below: Now I’ve got an excuse to buy a nibbler. I don’t want to pay the price for an electric motor driven nibbler, but the air driven one looks reasonable (I have compressed air available). Or is a manual one all that’s needed? Any recommendations? Here’s the floor boards that extend & attach to the Ruby’s deck plate and a bunker structure drawing. The drilled hole pattern yet to be added. And the Cab side layers (ala the Vance Bass approach). This is going to be cut from 1/16” thick Aircraft grade Birch plywood and glued together to make a 1/8’ thick cab wall. The end cab walls are yet to be drawn. The pilot prototype picture & drawing are shown below (another Vance Bass picture, thank you very much!). The structure will be 1/8“ Birch plywood and the spokes will be 1/8” x 1/4” basswood. An Ozark Miniatures’ Link/Pin Coupler will be mounted. The spokes will be glued & pinned to the base plate & vertical structure. The vertical structure will be bolted to the Ruby’s front end beam. I’ve started gathering the raw materials…wood, brass, many detailed parts and some tools. Still haven’t cut part one or assembled any of the Ruby kit……but that’s coming up shortly. I was able to locate and buy the brass tubing needed to construct the smokestack today and I’m using Trackside Detail’s Stack base, part# TD-168. This link shows the drawing on how I plan to make the smokestack assy. The 17/32” dia. smokestack tube will pass through the Stack Base and extend to the bottom of the smokebox but will have a slightly larger tube surrounding it inside the smokebox. This larger tube (19/32”) will be shaped to the curve of the smokebox top and snugged up against the inside top of the smokebox, then secured by set screws clamping the outer tube to the inside smokestack tube. The outside tube will have a thicker bar soldered to it to give the tapped threads some heft. The larger diameter tube will have some 1/16” half-round brass beading soldered in the shape matching the top of the tube. The same 1/16” half-round brass beading will be also soldered to the smokestack’s top to give it a finished look, like the prototype. Any critique before I cut metal will be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Input from Vance Bass: >The bar soldered to the inside tube is a good idea. My stack has started wobbling, which I attribute to the set screw not really grabbing the tubes and holding them tight enough. I may try your approach -- it looks like a simple and effective solution. I didn't use anything to stabilize it from the inside, so your half-round inside the smokebox may be another solution to that issue.< By-the-way Vance, did you ever steam-up Machita to see how the smokestack resonates? Any noticable difference? Also, I read somewhere that you had crimped the exhaust pipe and then filed openings on the sides of the pipe to cut down on the water sputter out the stack. How has that worked? It seems to me it might cut down the speed of the exhaust out the stack and consequently reduce the draw of air into the burner. Input from Vance Bass: >The stack talk is good, though not spectacular. I tried Dave Hottman's method on this one: top of the threaded exhaust tube is open and I cut a slot at the base of it with a Dremel cut-off wheel. By contrast, the chuff on my Accucraft Mogul is just awesome. The smokebox arrangement on that one is odd, though. My particular loco was poorly assembled, it seems, because the exhaust nozzle is so far off center that you can't even screw the threaded tube into it (forget about lining it up with the center of stack!). This was clearly a problem, not only for the lack of chuff, because the condensate during startup splashed against the underside of the smokebox roof, flashed to steam and put out the fire. So, I found a piece of 3/32" (I think) brass tubing and jammed it down around the exhaust nozzle. It stayed in place because of the angle it was at, binding on the front of the stack base and the back of the stack body. And it sounds fabulous. It is the best-sounding gauge 1 steamer I have ever heard. If I pull the tube out, it goes silent, so the great sound is clearly and solely due to this piece of tubing and its resonance with the exhaust nozzle. So, my recommendation would be to unscrew the wimpy little copper tube and throw it in your toolbox. Then, find a piece of brass that will fit closely around the nozzle, cut it to length (mine comes about half-way up the stack, around 4 inches long) and find some convenient way to crimp or pin it to the nozzle. I must remember to do this to Machita when I solder that set screw pad on the stack. You're right about the reduced draft with a crimped exhaust tube top, but this doesn't make a difference on a gas-fired boiler, since the pressure from the gas keeps the flow going down the flue and out the stack. It would kill an alcohol- or coal-fired boiler's performance, however.< I've updated my smokestack drawing to show what you've recommended. Is this what you had in mind? I think I can split the bottom of the exhaust pipe and crimp it slightly to make it secure. Made some progress this weekend by getting my saddle tank drawing, updated 11/19/05 finished. Going to a local Graingers for brass sheet on Monday. The circumference of this tank is a little larger than the version Vance built, since my boiler and smokebox will have 1/16" spacers/insulation covered by a brass wrapper. I picked up a piece of 7/32" brass tubing to fit over the steam exhuast port. The tubing's inside diameter was smaller the the outside diameter of the port. So I used a slightly tapered punch to flair the tubing slightly. I happened to have a Phillips driver bit that's shank was exactly the diameter of the steam exhaust port. So with some heat and some firm twisting pressure, the tube was enlarged just enough to firmly slip over the port. At this point I don't think I'll need any additonal clamping for it to stay in place...we'll see!! I started cutting stuff today...a milestone I’d say This week I’ve been refurbishing/cleaning up 4 of my woodworking shop tools to make the saddle tank structure. So I was able to fire up my drill press, band saw, jig saw and belt sander/8 inch disk sander combo. I started with three pieces of ¼” aircraft grade Birch plywood appropriately-sized to fit the arch structure and also 2 like pieces of 3/16 inch scrap plywood. I stacked the ¼” plywood pieces and sandwiched them between the two scrap pieces. I cut out the full-sized paper pattern of the arch structure. I sprayed the top scrap piece with 3M’s Spray Mount adhesive and let dry, onto which I placed the pattern and clamped the whole affair together. I then drilled the 2 - ¼” holes per the pattern with the drill press. On the bottom piece of scrap plywood I countersunk the hole to receive a ¼” flathead bolt. I ended up with a sandwiched stack of plywood all bolted together that I cut and sanded per the pattern insuring identical pieces. I then cut the ¼” dowels and ¼’ square basswood stringers (a little long)in order to do a fit check on the assembled structure. The cutting/sanding jig is shown in the upper right-hand corner. The last step was to validate the sizing of the brass wrapper. After cutting out the full-sized paper pattern and placing it on the assembled tank structure, I found I made a mathematical error in calculating the circumference. So I corrected the drawing and tried again. Update Saddle Tank Drawing. Next for the saddle tank assembly, I will be making the tooling (punch & die) to emboss the rivet heads into the brass wrapper and figuring out how to attach the brass wrapper to the wood structure. Input on this would be helpful, thanks!! Reply from Vance Bass: >I simply nailed mine to the bottom stringers with brass escutcheon pins. I found that it's best to bend one flange, then clamp it to the stringer, then mark out the other flange or just bend it over the other stringer. It's too easy to get a few thou off using the paper template, and that little differences can leave a visible gap between the former and the wrapper. Doesn't really show when the tank is painted and mounted, but you know it.< It's this type of invaluably help that'll keep me from having to do everything more than once. Thanks Vance. Did you nail thru the dimpled rivets or on the underside of the stringer? Response from Vance Bass: >I went on the underside. The escutcheon pins I have happen to be almost exactly the same size as my rivet punch, so I did use them to secure the bunker wrapper to a wood cleat glued to the back of the cab. They are in a line of rivets and, once painted, invisible unless you're looking for them. So, either way will work, but I went for the underside so I didn't have to worry about having them in exactly the right spot.< Vance…learning from your wobbling smokestack comments, I’ve decided to further secure the larger tube to the bottom of the smokebox. As you have done on Machita, a 17/32” dia. smokestack tube extends to the bottom of the smokebox and has a slightly larger tube surrounding it. In addition to shaping the larger 19/32” tube to the curve of the smokebox top and its soldered half-round bead, I’m extending the thick bar to the bottom of the smokebox and making a foot that can be drilled and tapped to receive a screw up through the bottom of the smokebox. Between the 2 set screws pushing against the actual smokestack tube and snugging the outside tube up against the inside top of the smokebox, I think this’ll do the trick. This link shows an updated smokestack assy drawing. Updated drawing showing sideview of smokestack assy. Again thanks for all of your comments and suggestions. I'm now into the assembly of the Ruby and have gotten to the point where I am ready to make adjustments in prep for setting the valve timing for Inside Admission per Dave Hottmann's method. I ran into the build up of tolerances due to paint right out of the box. Starting with the wheelset bearings fitting into the frame and the latest being with fitting the valve rods into the rocker arm assemblies. Even after the needed paint scraping, the fit of the wheel bearings into the frame was still very, very tight. The valve assembly was also misaligned causing the screws that go into the cylinders to bind. A little finessing of the cylinder mounting allowed the valve assembly to be attached easily. Thanks to everything I have read here on MLS about the Ruby assembly, it went pretty fast considering these old eyes. I'm preparing to cut the extended deck pieces but first did a proper fit-check. I used the assembled Ruby chassis and the cut-out deck pattern. Consequently added another 1/8" to the rear of the deck extension to accomodate L brackets shown in the prototype drawing at the foot of the rear bunker. Here's the updated deck drawing. Still waiting for the silver solder/flux and 1/16" half-round wire bead to finish the modified smokestack assy. Also gathering the materials to fabricate the rivet punch & die for the saddle tank wrapper. Starting to think about what fittings I need for my shop air compressor to run the air tuning step in the Ruby assembly process. Lots of things going on now!! I made some more progress on cab drawings. Here's the cab's front and cab's rear walls. I've also decided to shorten the planned boiler jacket to stop just short of the cab's front wall instead of covering the entire boiler. Here's the updated drawing. I've made alterations to the rear cab wall and deck/bunker drawings to accomodate the R/C battery pack sizing. This increased the height of the Bunker which turned out to be more in scale with the prototype and added stringer across the floor in the rear wall to restrict the battery pack when slid into the bunker from within the cab. Also showed the placement of the R/C Receiver up against the ceiling. I've had 1/16" half-round beading(wire) on order for a month & a half now with no delivery in sight. So I decided to figure out how to make it myself. I took an old/rusty machinist's square, the kind with a clamping slot down the center of the ruler. Turns out that the slot is exactly 1/16" wide and 1/32" deep. What luck!!! So I removed the square portion, got a clamp and a piece of wood to work on, a file and my piece of 1/16" round brass wire. I then placed the round wire into the slot and clamped the whole affair to the wood. Then with the file removed the top half of the wire with only a few strokes. Way easier than I thought. Where there's a will, there's a .......... Finished the burner mods that I plan to do. Started with 5/16" brass tube cut to 9/16" long for the burner shield(right side). For the burner damper(left side), 7/16" brass tube cut to 11/32" long. Both pieces were split lenghtwise with my Dremel tool's cutting wheel. No annealing was done so that the natural brass springiness could be preserved and hold tight to the burner assy. After cleaning up the edges with a flat file, I simply slipped the cut tubing over the burner. The burner shield can be slid to cover only 2 and up to 5 slots on the burner. The burner damper can be slid to cover any portion of the air holes from none to all of the air holes. Testing will tell if this will help with burner noise and lengthening of the Ruby's run time. Happy New Year (2005) everyone…… The holidays have really put a crimp in my time to work on the Ruby bash, but I was able to acquire a couple R/C servos locally. And, I found a Futaba Attack SR R/C transmitter and receiver on eBay for $27....but still waiting for it to show up at my front door. I couldn’t get the servos I originally planned, so I choose 2 servos that were even smaller in size. (HiTec HS-65HB, 0.92” x 0.45” x 0.94”, 31 oz/in of torque @ 6.0v) This allowed me to redesign the servo bracket to get better alignment between the control horns. Note the reference lines extending from the bend pictures to where I’ll be making 90 degree bends. New design. After cutting out a printout of the servo bracket design, I used 3M Spray Mount adhesive to stick it to a piece of K&S Aluminum (.064” thick) and then used my nibbler to make the cuts. This resulted in: After using the file to clean up the edges and steel wool to clean up the surfaces, I drilled all of the mounting holes for the servos. Then I rolled out my sheet metal Brake and made the bends To be sure, I did a fit check on the partially assembled Ruby, before painting: Even though you can’t see them in this picture, I'ved used the same 2 screw holes for securing the servo bracket that is used to attach the deck plate to the rear frame spacer. With the Butane tank in place and the bracket clamped in place, I marked the 2 holes through the rear deck spacer holes from the bottom to insure alignment. Next is cleaning the aluminum, priming it and doing the final paint. Request from Vance Bass: >Your servo design is really ingenious. Can you give us the dimensions, in case we'd like to give it a try?< Thanks Vance, but as I mentioned in my original message starting this thread, the designcredit goes to Dwight Ennis....I just modified it to fit my servo sizes. Anyway, here's some dimensions: Bracket Dimensions I've been assessing where I am in the project against my original plan and the original list of planned mechanical changes that I posted in my initial messgae. Air damper & sleeve to cover 3 rear burner slots....this one is completed. 9/16” bore cylinders....Ordered from John Page & being fabricated. John is changing the sequence of his machining and silver brazing steps to eliminate some warpage he's been experiencing in the process. Inside Admission...this I will do when I receive the new cylinders. Goodall Valve....got this in hand. Steam Gauge & an adjustable Safety valve....also got this, but need to make a tool to adjust it. Insulated boiler....Wrapper designed. I'm giving up on the back-ordered insulation. Picked up some 1/32" thick, asbestos free, high temp gasket material. I will use 2 layers. I started to fabricate the brass spacers, here's the first one fashioned without a slip roll machine: Radio Control....Servos, Transmitter & Receiver acquired. Servo bracket finished. Tuned smokestack, resonator pipe....parts completed. Weighted Saddle Tank....Wood structure cut and fit-checked, Wrapper brass acquired. Need to find 26oz. of lead and shaped to fit into saddle tank. Cab floor, walls and bunker have been designed. The roof structure is yet to be designed. The cutting of the plywood for the cab floor has started. All the necessary wood products are inhand. Anyway, some progress is being made, even with the busy holiday time. My original plans called for a cowcatcher all made of wood and attached to the existing Ruby front beam. After reading about someone on MLS getting all metal side-rods for their Big Hauler on eBay, I went looking and found that the same eBay seller also had Big Hauler cowcatchers. I decided that I could probably do some creative cutting and get close to a proper-sized catcher without starting from scratch. I also decided to fashion a new end beam more prototypical of the Baldwin Kahuku drawing: So I re-did the Design After dismanteling the cowcatcher from its end beam assembly, I cut the plastic down to be pretty close to the prototype dimensions. As you can see in the picture, I narrowed it by the 2 side spokes and used only ½ of its height. I decided to use the upper portion of the catcher since it had be built-in frame for the coupler: And it already had 2 screw connection points built in on the back. I next fabricated the aluminum frame: And test fitted it to the “bashed” catcher: WOW!!! that's blurry....sorry. I mounted an Ozark Miniatures #0023 “Link & Pin Coupler” on a ¾” square piece of plywood and mounted it to the center of the aluminum frame’s top rail (still have to square up the plywood piece). With the exception of some final fitting adjustments, filing and painting, I think it’s almost done. Oh yeah, I have to cut the Oak end beam. And finally, I got the Futaba Radio delivered yesterday….gonna fire it up this afternoon. Still have to find some E-Z Connectors for the servo linkage. After reading all about rivet punching/rivet head embossing, or whatever you call it, I’ve decided to fabricate some tooling. Using this tool in conjunction with my drill press should help me make perfectly aligned and repeatable rivet punches, and adjustable for the specifics of most any rivet pattern I can anticipate for the 20.3 scale in which I’m modeling. The punch & die portion of the tool is patterned after the Vance Bass treatise “The Basics of Working with Brass”, sub-section titled “Rivet-punching” found in Chapter 2 of the Steam Class. See Vances’ article for the punch & die fabrication. The tool’s base is hard wood, red oak in my case, with the tool’s steel female die attached, but removable. The die is recessed in a routed slot in order for its top surface to be flush with the wood base top. The die is wide enough to include multiple die patterns and rivet sizes. One of the real advantages of having a tool is to get an adjustable guide fence for proper alignment of a row of rivet punches in relation to the edge of your material. Drawing All of the elements of the tool are easily acquired from you local hardware or building supply store. The cost is under $15 bucks, but could be more if the minimum order length/quantity/size is more than you need….usually always the case. I also substituted different material sizes based on availability. Some steps along the way: Wood base with die plate mount in routed slot. Fence slots marked: Fence & clamping knobs Fence clamping slots routed & fence mounted: From the bottom showing wide slot for clamping nut: I will be using a set of brass ripping gauges to get precise alignment between the fence and the die’s rivet holes. Next I’m off to fabricate the punch & die using my drill press. Wish me luck!! For fabrication of the rivet punching die: I started by drilling couple of test 1/16” holes in my die material (hardware store steel).....I couldn’t get more than 2 holes drilled with each drill bit before it broke. I bought the titanium drill bits by Bosch, which claim to “last 6X longer”. I expect that I’m applying too much pressure too fast with my drill press. Bought some cobalt drill bits today and was much more successful. Anyway, I clamped a fence on my drill press table to get an aligned set of die holes. I used an “Incra Ruler” and a scriber to get an accurate, repeatable distance between the holes. I'll be needing rivets on 1/8" and 1/4" centers and I threw a 1/2" spacing set of die holes while I was at it...here's the resulting die: You will notice one hole some 3 inches down the die to the right end of the die. This will be used to assist in accurately lining up the fence. In my specific Ruby modification, I’ll be needing 1/16” rivet heads for my saddle tank, boiler jacket and bunker spaced on 1/8” centers. The bunker also needs 5/64” rivet heads spaced at ¼” centers where it attaches to the cab frame. I’m using .005 brass shim material. So, following Vance’s calculation…rivet head dia. – (2 times the thickness of the metal you’ll be punching) = diameter and height of the punch. .0625” – (2 x .005”) = .0525 for the 1/16” rivets and .0781” – (2 x .005”) = .0681” for the 5/64” rivets. In thinking about how to cut down the end of the ¼” brass rod leaving a .0525 dia. cylinder protruding from the end, I decided to mount my Craftsman Rotary Tool with its right angle attachment into my drill press vise with the cutter facing straight up. Luckily, the right angle attachment itself has parallel sides so that a firm grip can be achieved in the vise. I didn't secure the vise to the drill press table as I would do normally. The trick is to get a proper vertical positioning of the cutter tool. I had to try the vertical positioning a couple of times to get a cylinder with parallel sides. I used a 5/16” dia. high speed straight sided cutter. It also has a cutting surface on its end so that it achieved a very smooth cut at the end of the rod. I chucked up a 3” long piece of ¼” dia. brass rod in my drill press for the punch. I turned on the drill press and the rotary tool and slowly slid the vise into the spinning rod….WOW!!...the cutting went really fast to my surprise!! As advised in Vance’s write-up on rivet punching, I used the file to shape the resulting cylinder into a hemispherical protrusion. As mentioned earlier, setting up the rivet tool requires the fixing of the tool's fence a consistent distance from the die holes all along the die. I placed a 1/16" drill bit (I have plenty of broken bits) into the first die hole and then in the one on right end of the die. Then by using a spacer, in this case I used a leftover piece of the 1/2" wide steel. I will be using a set of ripping gauges I have on order. The protrusion at the end of the punch turned out to be too long and not actually cylindrical, so the punch went right through the brass. After some more filing, I got acceptable rivet heads. So here's some of the results, including some of the punched thru rivets: Besides breaking drill bits, I found that the scale on my dial caliper was not precise enough, so this looked like a good excuse to get a new digital direct reading caliper, which I did today. I'm thinking about getting a Pitsburgh cross slide vise from Harbor Freight. Securing vise to the drill press table and then using the feed cranks to move the cutter into the rod should produce a smoother cut and require less filing. Except for a coat or two of clear gloss polyurethane on the wood base, I think this rivet tooling is done. All comments and suggestions will be appreciated. Reply from Vance Bass: >Your machining setup looks pretty scary, but obviously it works, so congratulations on a low-tech solution! As you noted, it usually takes a little tweaking to get the head of the punch just right, but once you do, your rivets will look like someone just finished clenching them down on the surface of the metal. That sharp delineation at the base of the rivet head can't be formed any better than with this tool, unless you want to drill hundreds of holes and solder in brass pins. Enjoy!< Vance, thanks for the input, as always. I too was a little wary of putting 2 spinning solid objects together and I did this with some trepidation. But it turned out to be a pretty stable setup. Placing a 25lb. vise with a machined bottom surface on the drill press table top provided "zero wobble". As I said in my last paragraph, getting a cross slide vise bolted to the drill press table will make it much more secure. I'm also ordering a micro cut-off tool holder and blade to take the rotary tool out of the picture. The mechanical feeding of the cut-off tool into the work piece should take the scariness of out the equation.....I hope!! Any other suggestions, short of buying a lathe, would be appreciated. Reply from Chas Ronolder: >Very nice and great inspiration too! I really like the metal die strip idea! I'm not sure I would have chucked my Dremel into a vise and then ran it's spinning cutter into the spinning stock on the drill press though? For centuries men have been turning items on lathes with a stationary tooling. I think the Dremel was overkill! Still nice application and something I might have done too as I tend to forget the KISS principle at times. Very nicely finished die base too! Since I got a new Router and table for Christmas I'll be following your footsteps on this one! I think I will add to it though. I will add a way to fasten it to the drill press table without the use of clamps? And I will probably bring the edge of the steel die strip out to the edge of the wood giving me a "hard" edge to measure the fence from with my digital calipers. Thanks for sharing your drawing and the photos. Again great inspiration!< Reply from Vance Bass: >By the way, Tom Farin came up with a brilliant solution to the problem of making the punch. He simply found a stick of brass rod of the diameter needed for the punch, then built up a body around it with telescoping brass tubing. When he got up to 1/4" or so, he soldered them all together and viola!< Vance.....I had found Tom's writeup early on, but I wanted to try the 1/16" diameter rivets you described first. Tom's very clever punch yields a rivet head about 5/64" in diameter. Although I'm not sure if I could really discern a 1/64th of an inch difference. But as you have stated somewhere, I would know it. Chas....I got the idea from seeing a grinder attachment for a mini lathe. Since it had 2 spinning surfaces being moved into each other, I thought I'd give it a try, since I already had all the parts. As you can see in my response to Vance, I will be getting the necessary items together to feed a stationary cut-off tool into the workpiece using a cross slide vise. quote: Originally posted by wchasr I will add a way to fasten it to the drill press table without the use of clamps. I have another drill press table with mounting slots cut into its surface. I'll try adding some T-bolts to the rivet tool's base and see how easily it attaches. Nice idea!! quote: Originally posted by wchasr And I will probably bring the edge of the steel die strip out to the edge of the wood giving me a "hard" edge to measure the fence from with my digital calipers. I considered doing this originally, but the edge of the die strip is not the critical measurement, it's from the fence to the die hole. That's why I put a reference hole 3 inches down the die strip. placing a drill bit in each end of the die strip's die holes makes it a quick & accurate setup. I found that having to measure the distance between the fence and the die hole at one end of the die strip, securing that end, then do the same on the other end....almost always changed the first setting. So I thought I'd just use a $14 set of ripping gauges. After all, I can also using them for cutting narrow stripwood. They measure 1/16", 3/32", 1/8", 5/32", 3/16", 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" & 1/2". Since you can stack these together, you can get a max of 1 15/32". I'll have to make some wider guages, but I'll do this as needed. Chas, thanks for the valuable inputs and good luck on building yours. I made the Dave Hottman' modification to allow more air into the smokebox tonight. I used the nibbler to do the cutting and had no problem with slightly curved surfaces. I noticed in Dave's original thread (now locked) that Mike Reilley had asked whether the nibbler would work for this mod, it does...and it does it with a minimum amount of filing required. Thanks, Dave Hottman, for the modification writeup. OKAY, made some progress on my bashed cowcatcher. Made the final fit check adjustments, filing, priming and painting. And mounted it all on a new end beam. Well here goes another attempt at a low-tech solution to solve the mismatch between dome tops and dome bases diameters. I wanted to use the brass dome base and dome top in conjunction with a copper spacer to get the desired height. I like the look of unpainted copper & brass together. I’ve been looking for dome materials, specifically copper pipe and/or copper fittings. I have all but 1 item to obtain. For the sand dome, I found 2 off-the-shelf copper pipe fittings that will work with a minimum of metal work. For the dome top (TD-186)....I found that the outside dia. for a copper coupling used for a ¾” copper pipe snuggly fits inside the dome top. But, as Vance Bass mentions in his Steam builders’ log, “the offset is so large that it looks ridiculous. It's nowhere close to a prototypical appearance. Now, if you use the next pipe size larger, you have a cylinder almost exactly the same diameter as the head casting and much more prototypical”. Vance further points out that “stacking them together and soldering them is not a real secure”. So, why not use two fittings one inside the other to get a good mechanical connection, as Tom Farin questioned, “Would two concentric tubes work ... a longer tube on the inside and a shorter tube on the outside”? It turns out that a copper “repair coupling” snuggly fits over the smaller coupling mentioned above and luckily its outside dia. closely matches the dome top. This will solve the mechanical connection problem. The dome base (TD-169) presents a different problem. The inside diameter of the base is .0295” larger than the smaller copper coupling, so the mechanical connection is not there. So the larger copper pipe coupling’s end will have to be machined to reduce its dia. by .0485” so that it fits into the base. Now to the steam dome...the same copper “repair coupling” used as the outside spacer in the sand dome will fit as the inside spacer on the steam dome. It slips into the dome base (TD-174) just right, but needs a little machining to fit inside the dome top (TD-183). Standard 1” copper pipe works as the outside spacer, but I still haven’t found a plumber that has any scrap available. I’m not buying a 20’ piece at $34 to get the 3 & 27/63rd" piece I need (3 inches is my chucking length). So, Tom Farin’s question on using two concentric tubes does definitely work. Thanks for the idea Tom. The materials & parts for the sand dome: Left to right…Trackside Details Sand Dome Lid, Dome Top, Dome Base, ¾” copper pipe coupler, & copper pipe “repair coupling” The setup: I’ve added a 4” cross slide vise for more control & safety since my last try at using my drill press as a lathe. I chucked the copper pipe from the inside using the expandable rubber drum from one of my drill presses’ drum sanders that just fit inside. Centering the copper pipe was a challenge….I got close. **Please note!!!! be very careful when attempting this unorthodox method of machining!! Here's the resulting outside(left) & inside(right) spacers: The results: and finally all fit together: Close enough, I hope!! Not being successful in obtaining a scrap piece of 1" copper pipe, I continued my search for an alternative. I found a copper fitting that had the same outside diameter as a 1" copper pipe, so I've finished the fabrication of the steam dome, short of doing the soldering. Next task is to fit the saddle tank structure with added weight, i.e 26oz. Then I'll skin the tank with its brass wrapper, upon which the domes will be attached. I decided to go forward and do the Reversing Valve &, Steam Cylinder Valve travel adjustments and the setting of the eccentrics... instead of waiting for the 9/16" bore cylinders ordered from John Page. Right off, I ran into a bind the kept the wheels from turning past one specific point (right-side, rear dead center) without a lot of hand force. It turned out that the inside drive rod (part#34) on the right side of the engine was a very slight bit shorter than the one on the left. With a very small amount of filing to elongate the drive rod's holes the problem was solved. I followed Dave Hottmann's instruction on setting up the eccentrics for inside admission. I acquired a new 1 gallon sprayer and jury-rigged a hook up to the exhaust port on the reversing valve assembly: First try after fixing the bind, the Ruby took off...WOW!! what a neat feeling to see her run......well, it's only on air and on the blocks, but what the heck!! I didn't adjust my exposure when taking this picture in order to catch the blur of the wheels and rods in action, but this picture show her running. Now for the air tuning, Dave Hottmann style. More on the saddle tank progress. I was finally able to find weights that will fit within the tanks wooden skeleton. I found 1/4 oz. lead weights that are used for adding weight to pinewood derby racecars and that are of the right dimensions for my saddle tank. I will be able to fit 96 of these 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/8" lead pieces into my saddle tank's structure without interferring with either the brass wrapper, the boiler or the water filler and safety valve, giving me an added 24oz. of weight. With a little Krazy Glue in the right places the weights should be kept in place. Three deep x two rows high in each of the 4 openings..... and one on each side of the structures dowels. Slow progress, but it's progress I fit & glued the rest of the lead weights into the saddle tank structure this evening. Did a fit check...got a little sanding to do on the inside of the saddle tank's ribs. It's a little tight when fit checking it over the boiler jacket ring spacers. All-in-all I pretty satisfied with how this is going together. I also noticed a mismatch between the diameters of the dome bases and the saddle tank. The dome bases are a little small to fit nicely on the saddle tanks. I've noted the 1/16" mismatch in the following picture: Anyone got any suggested fixes to enlargen the dome bases' diameter?? Reply from Ken (East Broad Top): >My first thought would be to anneal the brass, then hammer it to shape with a ball peen hammer. (Or just hammer it into shape without annealing it; it'll just take longer.) I'd personally hammer down the middle part at the centerline of the tank, as opposed to hammering up the bottom edges.< Ken, thanks for your input. I suppose if I get a PVC pipe fitting that approximates the diameter of the tank I could pound the annealed dome base down over that. I had read somewhere that the dome bases were adjustible to a small extent, but the how-to was not described. Your idea falls right inline for what I read. Again thanks Ken. I cut the insulation material for the boiler lagging and did a fit check. After some minor alterations, I placed the 4 brass spacer rings over the boiler and placed the 2 layers of insulation, tempoarilly holding it in place with rubber bands. (note: the crooked ring at the top of the stack has not been soldered yet) I'll probably use some of that furnace heat duct tape to hold it all in place until I get the brass wrapper cut and rolled. Input from Bass Vance: >Still looking good, Howard! You can just use masking tape to hold the insulation on. Once the cladding is over it, it won't go anywhere. One thing to pay extra attention to is the centerline on the top of the tank. Once you get the metal on, put the tank on the loco and set the centerline again. The Accucraft appliances may be slightly off-center, and your tank skeleton may have some irregularities, which can set your domes at an angle. Don't ask how I know!< I did pick up some of that foil tape used on heating ducts....it has great adhesive and good up to 800 degrees. Thank for the tip, Vance. I did notice that during my fit checks. I left plenty of leeway at the top of the saddle tank structure to accomodate for off-center fittings on top of he boiler. Now I know why no one takes a direct front picture of their engines, hehehe By-the-way....how did you attach the domes to the saddle tank? Solder? I have to be careful since I have lead weights just under the brass tank cover. It's probably a lower melting temp than the solder I will be using. Reply from Mike McCormack: >I have used J-B Weld with great results. The slow set stuff (not the new 5 minute). It is good to 400+ degrees and fills in minor gaps very nicely. Have had nothing fall off yet.< Reply from Vance Bass: >I went for mechanical joints - I trust them more. I cut brass plates to the size of the inside of the dome base, then soldered them in. They're drilled and tapped and held in place from below with 2-56 hex bolts. Probably J-B Weld would have worked fine, too.< Reply from Paul Hagglund: >I would go along with Vance and suggest using a mechanical fastener or soldering if the materials allow for it. I have recently don some experimenting and have finally been able to successfully solder 2 pieces of scrap brass together. Now, where was that nice little endless supply of money for that drill press, lathe and bandsaw. Yeah, I wish.< Once I get the dome bases hammered into the right diameter and get the brass wrapper made, I thought I might be able to use a Resistance Soldering Outfit to attach the handrails and light parts like that. So I built one. See my thread in the Tools Forum. At the Queen Mary Show, I saw a Ruby 1 running on Bob Starr’s portable track with a stock cab modified by adding a brass rear wall quite like the one I was going to fashion out of plywood for my Ruby bash. I decided to give-it-a-go. Besides, this gives me a chance to do some more work with brass. This would require a rear cab wall, a longer roof, and the oil bunker all made from brass. An added piece of superstructure would also be needed to connect the rear cab wall to the original Ruby Cab. And while I was at it, I thought I would make the roof hinged ala the Larry “olfart” Herget modification: http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=34880 Here’s my stock cab with superstructure attached: The superstructure plus the roof hinge. The hinge’s cross tube is held in place using the stock cab’s upper most screw, only longer: The curved roof was the first use of my new slip roll. Also shows the roof with hinge rails attached. The hinge rails are 90 degree brass angle, but re-bent to approximately 20 degrees. The roof attached to the hinge: The Cab’s rear wall and oil bunker attached. I’ll probably use both a mechanical connection and soft solder the rear wall to the superstructure: The openings in the rear cab wall and the bottom of the oil bunker is sized to accept the R/C rechargable battery pack. Cab assembled with oil bunker structure sans the brass wrapper: And finally, the cab fit check showing the oil bunker's brass wrapper temporarily just sitting in place. The brass wrapper’s embossed rivet heads were made by the tooling described in the Tools Forum: http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36536: Are we having fun now? Reply from Winn Erdmann: > I did a plywood rear wall on mine but really like the brass wall and bunker you have done. You mention a battery, are you installing RC? I need to do that on mine as it keeps running away from me!!< Thanks Winn. Since I had no experience working with brass, I thought I'd give it a try. It was really fun. As for the R/C, go back to page 2 of this message thread and see the details for the bracket I made, etc. Today, I finished installing the receiver and antenna array under the cab's roof: It installed nicely and is out-of-the-way. Input from Vance Bass: >Winn make a modification to his Ruby's cab that I think bears repeated recognition. He found some wood veneer binding strips (used on countertops and the like to cover pressed board or plywood edges) and used them to overlay wood paneling on his metal cab. It's a great combination of strength and authentic materials. You apply the stuff with heat - iron it on, I guess. By the way, I actually got to walk all around the original "Kahuku" last week at the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad. It is not running - it's too small to pull anything on the grades at the Roaring Camp - but I was able to check on a few details that were not visible in the other photos and drawings I have seen. The main one is that there is in fact a lip, about 3-4", around the fuel bunker. I don't know why they would want to contain fuel spills so they would foul the cab instead of running off the back, but I guess it kept the rear of the engine cleaner. Anyway, it's a sweet little loco and your model of it will be a joy to you.< Vance...I did see Winn's cab with the iron-on wood veneer, in fact, I bought some to try out. Very clever on his part. Glad you got to see Kahuku live....too bad it isn't running. I used this picture and others to get some more details, like the window sills, frame around the rear cab wall's windows, the rear hanging lantern, etc. http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL92/797386/8934777/167282200.jpg Here are some of those details added to my cab: Interesting about the 3-4 inch lip around the fuel bunker....I assume you are not talking about the half-round lip around the top of the bunker. As you can see in the pictures, I haven't done that yet. My pictures show that my soldering skills leave a lot to be desired....practice...practice...practice. What do you use to solder white metal detail parts, soldering iron, resistance solderer or what?....my mini torch is way too hot. Reply from Vance Bass: >Yes, the lip extends above the top of the fuel tank, where the half-round wire will go. I don't solder white-metal. As you discovered, it melts at about the same temp as solder. You'll have to use epoxy or CA. Your soldering skills are fine, from what I can tell. Once painted, all those irregular "stains" disappear, and every expensive brass loco I've seen had similar joints. You're going well. If you really want to get the solder joints invisible, get a resistance solderer, use 1/32" solder and practice, practice, practice.< One of the last major items I have to fabricate is the trailing pony truck and the firebox. Right off, I found I had the wrong diameter wheels for the trailing truck. After re-ordering the correct set of wheels, I went on to the firebox. I pretty much followed Vance Bass’s write-up on the basic design for the firebox, with a few variations. Here’s my drawing: http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL92/797386/8934777/169009653.jpg I decided to try using escutcheon pins to simulate the larger rivets of the firebox. I really like the way they turned out. Here’s where it’s mounted using the screw that holds the boiler to the footplate and two M2 screws in the threaded holes in the rear frame spacer. The only possible problem I see is that I’ve made the firebox too deep; it might be hanging down too close to the track. Hopefully there’s ample space to attach the trailing truck frame to the yet to be fabricated pivot point (.250” square brass bar ). I’m getting down to putting together some of the detail parts necessary to complete my Ruby bash. I was looking at what to do for a reflector for the headlight (TD-153), instead of polishing the casting’s reflector. I found that I had, over the years, collected a number of freebee miniature flashlights, among other seemingly useless stuff….shoved it all in a drawer and never gave it all another thought. Lo-and-behold, I had a little flashlight that had a mirrored reflector that fit exactly into the headlight. Now if I could only find a lense that fits. What do you use for lense material? It seems that it pays not to throw any stuff away. Reply from Noel: Noel, the insulation is 2 layers of 1/32" thick, asbestos free, high temp gasket material. I picked it up at a local auto supply store; very cheap. Earlier in this log, I go into the detail of making & attaching the lagging with a lot of help from other MLS members. Reply from Vance Bass: >I wish I could find something, too. All of the plastics I've tried have failed. I cut one from mica on another engine and that held up fine, but it was so thin that a careless bump broke it in two. Polycarbonate might work, if you can find it in the right thickness. It's supposed to be good up to 280 deg. F. Our own MLS sponsor TAP Plastics carries polycarbonate, which you can buy a sample of (4x4 inches) for a couple of dollars. Alas, it's 1/8 inch thick, which isn't going to do us any good. They list many other thicknesses, down to .015", which should be dandy for us, but I can't tell whether you can order a 4x4" piece of that....< Reply from Steve C.: >Why don't you try picture frame glass? It's cheap and you can get quite a few lenses out of a 5 x 7" piece. Glass isn't all that difficult to work with. One simple method is to cut the glass into squares very close to the size required for the round lens. Then using an indelible marker (i.e. Sharpie – fine point) draw the final circular size of the lens on the square blank. Next use a pair of needle nose pliers (or if maybe you’re into stained glass the proper tool is grozing pliers) to slowly chip away the unwanted portions until you get close to the circle. Next use a fine-grained grindstone to finish removing the glass to the line. Another more sophisticated method is to find a metal tube that has the same I.D. as the O.D. of the lens you require. If you can’t find an exact match, then find one that is as close as you can get but larger than the end product. Next you’ll need the following. Some modeling clay. Some grinding abrasive, about 120 grit. And something to spin either the tube or the glass itself (i.e. drill press or a motor driven lazy-susan) If using a drill press to spin the tube, then fashion a fixture to hold the sheet of glass to keep it from spinning and allow you to clamp it to the drill press table. Next with the clay build a circular dam around the area where you’re going to cut the disk from. Make a grinding slurry with the grinding abrasive. You can use water as the fluid, but turpentine is better, it allows the abrasive to cut faster and stay sharper longer. You are now ready to start cutting. If your drill press has various speeds use the slowest one. Fill the inside of the clay dam with a small amount of the slurry, just enough to cover the surface of the glass about 1/16” deep. Turn on the drill press and lower the tube to the surface of the glass. Maintain a light downward pressure on the tube. Occasionally lifting the tube slightly off the surface of the grind to allow additional abrasive between the glass and the tube. Continue the above process until you’ve cut out your disk. Remember that as you get close to cutting through you’ll need to lighten the downward pressure or run the risk of shattering the glass.< Reply from Noel: >This site is thanks to Mike Chaney. Go to http://www.ofrei.com/index.html Look for their Regular Flat Mineral Glass. All sizes etc and very reasonable in price. Thanks for the tip on the insulation material.< Thanks for the ideas on lenses. Even though I would like to make a lense myself....I went to the Otto Frei website and found a right-sized flat mineral glass crystal at the right price. 3 for $2.50... Thanks to Noel. Vance.... OKAY, got my correctly-sized trailing wheels (.830" dia., 17 scale inches--a Sierra Wheelset). I did a layout of the truck with my leaf-spring journals and wheelset. Right-off it all looks too-wide...the wheelset axle, tip to tip, is 2.750". Your truck is only 2.377" wide, based on your builder's log. My question for you....did you shorten the ends of the wheelset's axles an appropriate amount or did you deepen the axle holes in the journals? As you can see in the mock-up picture, it really is too wide...giving very little trailing truck swing room. Reply from Vance Bass: >Yep, you have to order the wheels with "short axle ends". I don't know why you couldn't just cut the axles down with a cut-off disk in a Dremel tool, though. No one is going to see them when they're in the journals, so they just need to be smooth, not beautiful.< I made great progress on my trailing pony truck ( drawing ) over the weekend. The Sierra Valley wheelset is 17 scale inches/.837 inches. The truck itself is made from 3 main brass subassembly pieces, a one-piece yolk of .015” brass sheet which connects the truck to the fireboxes’ pivot point, the lower frames (one for each side) which screws to the bottom of each leaf spring journal (Ozark Miniatures part# OM-05-LS), and a top frame made from 4 pieces of 3/16” brass angle, silver-soldered to form a rectangle, which screws to the top of the journals, just above the leaf springs. The lower frame is ¼” brass angle, intricately cut to fit the journal's profile and mechanically connected/soldered to the yolk. Here’s 2 picture of the assembled truck. The 2 frame pieces are screwed to each journal at 2 points to facilitate wheel removal. Here I'm showing the completed truck connected to the firebox pivot point, viewed from the underside of the loco. The blowdown muffler is also shown attached to the floorboard: The side views show some added firebox details and the wheelset behind the cab’s step. The wheels have been blackened, leaving the tire shiny. Used a black “Sharpie” as suggested by the folks at Ozark Miniatures. The headlight is shown attached to it’s mounting. I used the headlight’s sprue, drilled & flaired for a mechanical connection to the headlight mount, as recommended by Vance Bass’ builder’s log, but I also used some J-B Weld to finish the connection. The headlight mount is screwed to the smokebox by drilling and tapped into the smokebox. Last night I finished the smokestack assembly...more pictures later of how I secured it all from inside the smokebox. That worked out well. By now it was midnight, but I just couldn't resist seeing what everything was going to look like put together, so here's a picture of the first overall fitcheck. Before soldering the domes, I think I'm going to shorten them by about 1/8+". The smokestack has to be straightened, as the picture shows. Then the boiler cladding has to be finished and installed, along with the smokebox braces and builder's plates and, of course, painting along the way. It's getting close now. More on the Smokestack assembly and installation. Here’s the drawing that I followed. This picture shows the 2 main pieces of the smokestack assembly. The smokestack itself (on the left) made up of the 17/32” dia. brass tubing, to which the stack base (Trackside Details part# TD-168) is soldered and the 1/16” half-round brass beading soldered to the top. Next to it is the clamping piece the fits inside the smokebox. This is made up of a piece of 19/32” dia. brass tubing to which I’ve soldered a ¼” x 1/16” brass bar with a foot and a 1/16” half round beading to form a saddle that will fit up against the inside of the smokebox. Brass bar is drilled and tapped to take a 2-56 screw. The brass bar’s foot is drilled to take a 2-56 screw to hold the foot to a tapped hole at the bottom of the smokebox. Here is the smokestack slipped into the clamping tube: And a close-up of the saddle beading soldered to the top of the clamping tube. Here I’ve placed the clamping tube inside the smokebox: Then slipped the smoke stack down into the smokebox and the clamping tube. After aligning everything, I cinched up the 2 screws to clamp one tube against the other and screwed the footer to the smokebox floor. And we are done with that!! Question from Vance Bass: >May I assume that there is some kind of opening opposite the set screws, where we can't see them? If not, how is the hot gas from the burner going to escape the smokebox? I suppose it would all go out the vent holes in the bottom, but I would be leery of putting that heat down on the frame of the loco and on the track. You can drill holes, or whatever, in the assembly you have there, and the total area should equal the cross-section of the flue, more or less. If less, then you'll have hot gas going down those vent holes.< Vance, not-to-worry.....the bottom of the clamping tube is cut at the same 45 degree angle like the smokestack tube. I think I'll reduce the height of each dome a little. Besides, that'll give an opportunity to try out a new cutoof tool and tool holder I bought. I've also made a custom sanding drum for my drill press that duplicates the diameter of the inside curve of my saddle tank. So, in effect, I can get another 1/8" lowering of the domes in relation to the cab's roof by lowering the saddle tank over the boiler. I'm pointing toward completion in time for Sonny Weiselman's steam up in Sept. I now think I'll make it. Ever since I decided to use the Ruby’s cab with an added brass back wall and bunker, I’ve been contemplating how to further customize the cab. Something I found here in MLS to which Vance recently recalled my attention was what Winn had done with his Ruby cab. He had added a wood veneer edging to his entire cab. So I started to consider how I could take advantage of Winn’s experience. I decided to add wood panels to the cab sides. The current cab sides have a slightly recessed area, where the word RUBY is printed which will serve well to be filled with wood veneer and framed with Basswood. I laid out the panels using my CAD software in order to get a template. I also included scoring lines evenly spaced across the panels so that I could simulate individual vertical boards. I sprayed the printed copy of the layout with 3M Spray Mount artist’s adhesive to hold the veneer pieces in place while I’m doing the scoring and trimming. I then cut three short lengths of the Mahogany Iron-on “Woodtape” Veneer Edging, enough to fill in the length of the panel. The veneer edging is only 13/16” wide. The Artist’s Spray mount is sticky enough to hold the 3 veneer pieces in place for scoring and trimming. Along with my straight-edge, I show that I used a glass cutter for scoring and a roller knife to trim the overall panel to size. The result shown here shows the veneer scored and trimmed, ready to Iron-on to the Ruby cab sides. Next is the Basswood frame when I get my strip wood order delivered. The Cab’s outside will be sprayed engine black, but the wood panels and their frames will remain mahogany color. I also finished the brass boiler/smokebox cladding today. The brass cladding over the smokebox was painted with Floquill’s “old silver” color along with the smokestack. That portion of the cladding covering the boiler was chemical blackened. I used the product called “Blacken-it”. It is a mixture of selenous acid & dilute copper chloride/copper carbonate suspended in denatured alcohol. I had previously fit-checked the cladding, so the installation step only required fashioning three .010” thick brass strips as clamping in order to hold the cladding in place. Update 16 hours later:** Just as a note of caution when using "Blacken-It". This stuff continues to work on the brass, even when rinsed well with clear water. As the following pictures show, rust colored patches showed up....starting my weathering process automatically Even holes I had cut through the brass were enlarged. So after removing the smokestack, the headlight, and all of the other things I had just attached to the cladding, off it came to get it's saturday night bath in warm soapy water. This part of the instruction I apparently missed, OH WELL. When you got a good thing going…exploit it!!! I added the Mahogany “Woodtape” Veneer Edging to cover the tops of my brass running boards, yesterday, to match the cab's wood side panels. I used the same techniques as I used with the cab. 1. Laid out the panels using my CAD software. I also included trim lines & scoring lines evenly spaced across the panels so that I could simulate individual wood boards. 2. Sprayed the printed copy of the layout with 3M Spray Mount artist’s adhesive to hold the veneer pieces in place while doing the scoring & trimming. 3. Cut two long lengths of the Mahogany “Woodtape” Veneer Edging, enough to fill the length & width of the running boards. 4. Used the glass cutter for scoring and the roller knife to trim the overall veneer strips to size. 5. Ironed the veneer strips onto the brass running boards (400 degreesF, Cotton Setting) using the wife’s iron. 6. Used a lead pencil to deepen the color of the scoring. 7. Applied two coats of walnut stain to match the wood end beams. 8. Applied an overcoat spray of clear flat lacquer. Running board shown in-place. Also added the boiler support braces. Ready for final paint: Question from Winn Erdman: >Howard, I'm glad my method of of wood clading on metal worked for you. I used several layers of iron on veneer to make the framing, but I like your use of a thicker layer of basswood better. What did use to glue it to the metal? Your little loco is really looking good, very nice detailing. Thanks for posting your log.< Winn….thanks for your comments, your use of the Iron-on veneer was ingenious and a real inspiration. I started by planning and designing a fully wood cab, ala the Vance Bass cab. Got clear thru the CAD drawing stage, but decided to save some time by staying with the Ruby cab, with add-ons. This allowed me to work with brass for the back wall (my first time doing this). Then as I stated in an earlier message I wanted to spiffy-up the drab Ruby cab with some wood. Then Vance reminded me of what you did, thanks Vance. So here we are…thanks to you Winn. Interestingly, as I was reading your comments, my basswood order arrived by mail and I proceeded to cut the pieces. My plan was to remove enough of the brass’ black powder-coat finish to get JB Weld epoxy to hold the frame wood pieces to the brass. So that’s what I did as you can see in the picture. I’ll let the JB Weld setup overnight and then apply some stain to match the veneer color. Once I had the cladding on the boiler and the brass retaining strips to hold it all in place....the saddle tank fit was way too tight. I hadn't allowed enough for the build-up of all the layers on the boiler. I had previously created a custom-sized sanding drum for my drill press which I used to get the saddle tank to sit lower on the boiler. I never documented the method I used to create the sanding drum....so here goes: I found a steel tube that was exactly the size of the boiler to which I glued a 2 inch wide sand paper strip. I slipped the largest rubber drum mandrel that would fit into the tube. I had to wrap the drum with some thick rubber gasket material to get it large enough to tighten it up securely. Once the drum's rubber mandrel was tightened up against the inside of the tube, I was ready to go: It all worked very well. Well the painting is done and I'll be boiling water for the first time in the next day or 2. It's been nearly a year to give birth to this Ruby bash....boiling water and giving birth takes on a whole new meaning. Another first for me...using my new Badger Model 360 airbrush, which I got at the last QM show. Anyway here's what I used for paint: Priming---Dupli-Color Self-etching primer. Smokestack and smoke box---Floquil Old Silver, Krylon Acrylic overcoat. Boiler Cladding---Blaken-it. Cab Interior---Floquil Burlington Northern Green, Krylon Acrylic overcoat. Cab Roof---Dupli-Color Textured Metallic Coating, Dull Cote overcoat. Cab Exterior---Badger ModelFlex Engine Black, Krylon Acrylic overcoat. Saddle Tank, Bunker, Headlight...Plaid Acrylic Craft Paint Wild Iris, Krylon Acrylic overcoat. Running boards & Cab side wood accents...walnut stain, Dull Cote overcoat. And thanks to Gail, my wife for letting me build it in the living room Another very satisfying milestone last night...first steam. Even though it was up on blocks and after fixing a number of steam leaks, I got 2 good runs. It took some time to learn how to get the flame to pop back into the flue...I never did get the reported pop sound The throttle valve leaked at the main connection to the boiler. Took me awhile to get enough guts to tighten it down enough without stipping the threads. The after-market Goodall valve leaked, after all, it's been sitting around for 1 year...waiting. To the credit of the good folks at Sulpher Springs they thought enough to include extra blue tubing that is used to seal off the steam escape. Cut a new piece and that was solved. I was way too excited to take any pictures. Now, I'm off to the September's Southern California Live Steam--Steam Up. I will definitely get pictures. I got all the way to the Saturday's steam up and found that I forgot my camera. NUTS!!! Met many great folks attended and I oogled over their wonderful engines. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my Ruby's burner to stay lit without opening the gas vslve way too far. Actually, so much the I started to melt some of the white metal parts. Anyway, after numerous tries and with some great help from those that were there, I gave up and just enjoyed watching the running of the many fine live steamers. After returning home, I disassembled the burner, removed the gas jet and the supply line. I found lots of teflon tape fragments in the butane pathway. Today, I gave it another try. I was able to get it stay lit, enough to get a few good runs(on blocks), but the flame continued to flash into the smokebox. I've tried adjusting the air flow sleeve and the burner sleeve, ala the Dave Hottman's modification found here on MLS. Even though I'm getting a real clear blue flame out of the burner, some lazy-wandering blue flame still reaches into the smokebox, even with the gas valve turned way down. Again, generating enough heat to melt my headlight. I'm wondering if I'm getting unburned butane flowing into the smokebox and burning there?? Nothing has helped so far. Tomorrow's another day. For a complete "play-by-play" procedure/modifications made to solve the burner problems click here. I've documented my combination carrying case, loco carrier and tool box in a Live Steam forum message thread. I think this will be my last Ruby bash update to this thread. Except for getting the burner kinks worked out and maybe some decals designed and ordered, I'm done. Oh yeah, I acquired or made adapters for all the different type of butane cannisters that I can get locally. Thanks to all of you who gave me ideas & encouragement along the way, it was really appreciated. And finally, Gail, my wife, has named the little engine "Plum Loco"...that's what led to the plum colored paint job. Thanks to her for the support, interest and the many ideas along the way & for suggesting that I take over a corner of our living room to do this project. -30

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Comments (2)

Re: Bashing a Ruby Kit	By placitassteam on 2/11/2008 5:14 PM
Howard, I just finished looking over your completed log. Great job on the log and that beautiful Ruby bash. I printed out the part on the servo instalation and hope to do mine sometime soon. Thanks, Winn

Re: Bashing a Ruby Kit

By Comeng on 4/27/2008 3:17 AM

Interesting, if you want to make clear lenses for headlights get a drill the same size as the opening in the headlight, and drill a hole through a piece of either brass or steel, then machine a piece of round rod to the same size so it will just fit neatly done into the hole, and on the end of the rod use a round file to file a concave surface, this will be the die with 2 cutting edges, bolt the piece of steel or brass to the work table on the drill press and align it with the rod in the chuck, once you have it set-up so the rod slides into the hole place a piece of clear plastic simular to what you get on packaging and punch as many lenses as you want. Use the tiniest bit of clear silicon to bond the lenses into you headlight.

(This original builder's log, along with all comments, can be found here in the old MLS Forum Archives.)