Hello and good morning ;-)
@Bob : they are doing a great job. But meanwhile, they need fork lifts and cranes to handle the growing truck. But step by step....
My girlfriend was working this weekend (she's working as nurse), so I had a lot of time for my second girly Abby *hihi*
First I build the bolster stands (I don't know if this name will be correct) from chanel, flatbar and threaded rod. On the rear, I mounted some 10mm square bar as guide for the spring plank.
Next I screwed the lower bolster together and milled it to final shape. The bolster for the rear truck got also a special grove to hold the axle pump. After milling the spring pockets, the bolster ist neraly complete. I also added the pivot points for the break rigging. Remember, that the Shay will get a working steam break.
Finally, I cut the spring planks from heavy flat bar and installed them on top of the springs. When the Shay will be finished one day, I've to adjust all the spring work to the final weight of the locomotive.
But these was only the work from Saturday... On Sunday, I started with the next chapter, the archbars. I raw cut all bars and started to bend them by using a chisel and hammer on top of an old vice. This works very well even on 4mm thick steel flat bar.
I stared with the lower frame with only a few bends to test this method.
Then I've gone ahead with the upper arch bars. I printed a 1:1 side view of the trucks to control each bend .
To get a feeling of the growing trucks, I started assembling of the front truck by adding the lower frame and upper archbars. That looks pretty good for the moment.
Still missing are the middle archbars. While this bends are very sharp (approx. 70° ) I used 15x3mm flatbar for this. The first two have been bend in the same way as shown above.
Now stay tuned => the first truck rolls out yesterday in the very late evening !!! But no photos yet and the truck was hold together by clamps. But it rolls and that was a very great feeling. Unnecessarily to tell, but I sleeped very well last night.
Some more pictures of several other steps can be seen on my website.
That's all for now but will be conitnued...
Cheers, Gerd