[bille1906]

Roger designed and had these tender wheels printed by Shapeways and I cleaned them up a bit and drilled the axle hole out to 1/8"

I got the reduction gears from Stock Drive Products. The large gear has a 1/4" bore and the small one has a 1/8" and no hub. I start by drilling it out to1/4"

I then turn a 1/8" hub

And solder them together

And check the fit

Dennis cut the frame and axle boxes out on the CNC mill
You can see the very small axle boxes on the right.

I then drill out the frame for the axle box caps.

There are four eccentrics which I cut out of 303 stainless and turn on the four jaw in the lathe. I am doing all four in one application.

Here is where I am so far. We haven't profiled the wheels yet as the final diameter is dependent on the rack sprocket size. the gap between the frame and wheels is where the eccentric rod will go.

 

[s-4]

Awesome work! Love those 3d printed wheels, they are spot on! When I was going to college in Manchester, NH, I used to park right near the Manchester Locomotive Works mill building where Waumbek was built in 1908! I had a friend around that time who was "cogger"...you can't believe how much coal dust he would accumulate on himself after a few runs of firing those engines! At the time, it was still 100% steam and even ran into the winter to provide ski lift service to Bretton Woods guests.

 

[bille1906]

The steam piping is going to be a bit tricky.
One Ruby reversing valve will control all four cylinders and each one needs two pipes.
To make this work, the piping will need several elbows and T's
Because it is all in brass, there will be little room for error
The elbows and T's are silver soldered together
The T's are made by soldering the two pieces of tubing together and then drilling through the short piece and into the long one.
Because of this , a joint needs to be made between it and the elbow
I am using 1/8" tubing and 5/32" joiners.

Once the pieces are made and trimmed to length, They are set in place in the chassis and the joiners are soldered on with StayBrite

The assembly is painted and set in place to check the fit.

 

[bille1906]

The Ruby reversing valve will be RC. A Spectrum 5 gram metal gear servo is mounted as close to the valve and far from the firebox as possible. I had to add a hole closer to the servo to limit the travel to 4 mm to match the valve.

The small boiler is made similar to prior projects. The smokebox receives a brass wrap with embossed rivets and a fancy front cover. I want the door to be hinged so it can be opened. One screw holds it in place and the plan is to light the burner through the stack.
The door has these fancy dogs which I milled out on a long strip and then cut to length on the slitting blade in the mill

Here is the boiler to date

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Bill, I just want to comment again, while I can turn on a lathe without cutting my fingers, clearly I cannot do what you do, and I don't do live steam, but I enjoy your build details and how you solve design and fabrication tremendously!


Regards, Greg Elmassian

 

[bille1906]

Thanks Greg
It is rewarding when I get compliments like that and it encourages me to continue posting.

 

[bille1906]

well, I guess they have changed the format again. it looks like they have added a lot of ad space and made it harder to move around so this may be my last post here
The stack has a conical top which I cut out of .032 sheet using my cone formula

OK maybe it is not so bad after all as you can now drop photos in from your hard drive

The pieces are annealed and silver soldered together

The stack is affixed with a round knurled nut which I drill 3/32" holes in to tighten and loosen it.

The boiler mounts were tricky because of the 8 degree angle. the rear was easy as the boiler rests on the frame here but the front where the boiler is suspended was a bit more difficult matching the smokebox curve and the frame. I didn't want to silver solder the bracket to the frame so I used 1/8" square stock as an intermediary

So here it is so far with the boiler mounted and the stack and cab attached.

 

[ferroequinologist]

Great work so far Bill and the angle of boiler done very well. Are you going to build a steep test track for it when finished?
Russell

 

[bille1906]

Thanks Russell
I am thinking of just testing it in place at the proper angle similar to testing a regular engine on rollers.
I am afraid of it going off the far end while testing on a short track as there a lot of things to watch for

 

[Belpaire]

Bill,

As with all of your projects, your speed at building is impressive.

It is looking really good. You made that difficult smokebox mount look easy as well as the stack with the screen. You are really fitting a lot into a tight space with the crosshead guides, crossheads, rocker arms, etc. I can't wait to see the whole mechanism come together.

Roger

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Are you going to make it fit the cog "track" from LGB?

 

[bille1906]

Yes

 

[ddrum31]

Very cool!

Jason

 

[Pete Thornton]

Are you going to make it fit the cog "track" from LGB?

Greg, there's a whole discussion of the track on page 1.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Ooops, sorry, missed the first page of the topic somehow....

 

[bille1906]

The dome is made from three sections a flat plate on the bottom and a piece of brass pipe which is formed on the bottom and soldered on with a aluminum dome top which is inserted into the brass pipe

The working dome supports the decorative one which is held in place with the 0-rings

Dennis cut some of the chassis parts out on the CNC mill

Some paint work was done this morning. The cab is just primed as I have some piping to attach and don't want to scratch the paint.

 

[fsts2k]

Really enjoying this build. Could you share what lathe and mill you use? I am starting to investigate going down the path of purchasing some machines primarily for live steam and model use?

 

[bille1906]

The lathe is a MicroMark 7 x 14 which is ok for most operations but if you have the room and cash, the bigger the better on lathes, as the bigger heavier ones are more rigid.
The Mill is the 7 x 28 one shown here
Weiss Mills
They are all made in China so there are other brands with the same specs The pricing is in limbo because of the trade problems

 

[fsts2k]

Thanks Bill! I have been considering the Precision Matthews machines, helps to know the size you are using. Trying not to go too large but would like to make sure I don't go too small (e.g. Sherline).

 

[bille1906]

Those look like high quality machines. Pretty large for a small shop but if you have the room go for it.