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Post by durhambuilder on Nov 18, 2012 15:19:12 GMT
If you have a wood burner or coal file toss it in there overnight to anneal the hard spots, I had to do that with a couple of my horn castings.
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Post by durhambuilder on Oct 25, 2012 20:59:00 GMT
Thanks guys, I bored my (cast iron) cylinders to 38.5mm as this appeared to be the most common size. I'll get a pair and see how they go.
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Post by durhambuilder on Oct 24, 2012 16:15:42 GMT
Time has come to make up a pair of CI piston rings, has anybody used moped ones as available here.http://www.mopedland.ukfsn.org/atozring/
They appear to be much cheaper than most ME suppliers at £8.00,.
Cheers
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Post by durhambuilder on Sept 28, 2012 16:56:35 GMT
Axminster power tools are cheapest for Vallorbe, still expensive though!
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Post by durhambuilder on Jul 10, 2012 16:31:20 GMT
not wishing to hijack the thread but I've just ordered all of the copper for my Superclaud boiler. prices for the kit of parts ranged from £325 to £612 but by cherry picking between the two cheapest I got the price down to £290 including two lots of carriage, admittedly I did already have a limited stock of sheet. Typical prices Live Steam Models 5 1/2" dia 10g boiler tube 13" long £56.32, Reeves 2000 same tube £162, 10swg copper sheet LSM £38.78 Reeves £105!!! Live Steam Models and PLHill for me this time.
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Post by durhambuilder on Jun 27, 2012 18:27:17 GMT
I've just checked my ex wiper blade stainless steel, 0.190" wide x 0.017" thick and 24" long, I'll have to store it somewhere safe for when I do my boiler bands. Are there similar problems getting paint to stick to stainless?
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Post by durhambuilder on Jun 20, 2012 21:01:15 GMT
I keep the thin stainless strip out of old car windscreen wiper blades, might come in handy one day.
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Post by durhambuilder on Apr 18, 2012 19:03:35 GMT
I'd be tempted to leave well alone, my original AJAX drwgs had a slanting sight glass on the cab layout but a modified boss on the outside of the shell on the boiler drwg. This pic from Station Rd Steam shows the slanting version www.stationroadsteam.com/stock%20pages/2771whereas this Achillies (same boiler) shows the altered 'external' boss for a vertical glass www.stationroadsteam.com/stock%20pages/5220You wouldn't necessarily know what grade silver solder was used in the original construction, probably lower melting point than the cadmium free stuff the pro builders are obliged to use nowadays so the getting the whole lot hot enough to solder on another boss may be fraught with trouble. Cheers
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Post by durhambuilder on Mar 6, 2012 17:41:17 GMT
Spent the last few weeks machining the coupling rods. Started with two 10" lengths of 1" x 3/8", put in the wood burner overnight to relieve any stresses. They were then drilled to take the bronze bushes and used in this state to set up the axle boxes for boring. Bolted down to the milling table to reduce the width, left over size at this stage these were then turned on edge to reduce the thickness in the centre section flute cut down the middle, slightly undersize to start with then a shave off top and bottom to centralise Ends rounded off on the rotary table then back on the mill to machine to final width and thickness A 10 thou thickness was left on the ends to protect the milling table and act as datums for squaring things up, this was simply removed in a few minutes with a file. final polish and bushes fitted with loctite. Incidentally the blanks weight 490gms each, finished rods were each 134gms.
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Post by durhambuilder on Feb 27, 2012 20:21:56 GMT
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Post by durhambuilder on Jan 20, 2012 17:44:48 GMT
wheels machined and temporarily slid onto axles, I can now roll it back and forth and make chuff chuff noises, woo hoo! had a bit of a eureka moment marking out the bogie frames I don't know why it never occurred to me before and I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned so I though I'd pass it on. Having marked all the vertical lines clamp a decent straight edge to the bottom datum, all of the horizontals can then be scribed by using different thickness of parallels with no fear of anything slipping..
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Post by durhambuilder on Jan 2, 2012 21:59:32 GMT
No photos today, wheels not finished yet. Axle boxes are as per plans, probably as superseven says to make more room for the crank axle, nevertheless it's good to know they're not really required anyway. The flanges were originally milled parallel and to thickness, the rotary table was set up by trial and error just to take the corners off.
Thanks for the encouragement.
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Post by durhambuilder on Dec 30, 2011 21:45:57 GMT
Correct, axle boxes are cast iron with brass keeps, the load is taken by the cast iron, keeps are brass for ease of manufacture, I hope they'll be ok. I had a look at the wheels tonight, I must admit I was a little apprehensive because the bosses on the casting stood 3/8" proud of the rim whereas the drawings call for 1/8". Machining did chop into the spokes somewhat but a quick trial tracing around the pear shaped lobe with the vertical mill and an hr with a thin file I think has produced an acceptable result. Bottom as cast, top left machined to thickness, top right lobe milled out and spokes filed, a touch of white paint shows the finished spoke profile better. . My castings are second hand so I can't be 100% sure that they are 'correct' super claud ones, the overall dims, number of spokes and balance weights (2 drivers, 2 coupled) are correct I just can't fathom why the bosses were so high to start with. Hopefully they will all be finished by the end of the weekend, night off tomorrow.
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Post by durhambuilder on Dec 29, 2011 21:47:06 GMT
deep breath........ Here goes the start of my 5" Super Claud build. Well actually I'm two months in so have the frames, horns and axle boxes done. So far so good but the drawings do lack some detail and I'm glad this is my second loco. For example nowhere on the drawings or ME series does it give any clue as to what goes across the bottom of the horns, I'm cribbing some detail from the Waverley series which followed shortly afterwards. First things first, I always like looking at other people's workshops, so here's mine. from left to right, ancient Brown and Sharpe horizontal mill, really should go to the scrap yard but the table makes a good level surface for marking out and setting up the frames etc. equally ancient qualters and smith power hacksaw, Dore Westbury Mill, Henry hoover, the most useful machine in there! Axminster pillar drill Boxford AUD. Didn't take any photos in the first month or so but hope to make up for that in the future. Here's one of the axle boxes having the radius milled on the flanges and finally progress to date. The rear axle boxes will be finish bored to suit the coupling rods once they are done. Cheers.
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Post by durhambuilder on Dec 27, 2011 20:29:34 GMT
Is this the same Cliff Almond doing the 7 1/4" William Spence series in ME at the moment, if so there may be some credibility in this?
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Post by durhambuilder on Dec 1, 2011 18:06:06 GMT
I've finally had enough of my fairly well worn 3 jaw chuck and rather than replace like for like I bought a 4 jaw instead. Holding power and accuracy on round stock up to fairly large diameters is far better and machining angle iron etc to length for buffer beams is a doddle. This is definitely going to be the chuck of choice for 95% of the time now. The three jaw will still be used for making the odd bolt and nut and I can live with the inaccuracy for these, rarely to the hexagon heads and shanks need to be truly concentric. Treat yourselves, christmas is coming
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Post by durhambuilder on Nov 18, 2011 18:59:19 GMT
You can buy squashy water carriers from any decent camping shop, depending on the size of your truck you may find something to fit.
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Post by durhambuilder on Nov 17, 2011 16:43:02 GMT
Thanks for the help guys much appreciated, I've had the castings for a fair while so will have to work with them whatever. I'll do as superseven suggested and give them all an initial skim, if any need annealing I'll worry about the pros and cons of woodburner vs proper kiln / oven at the time.
Cheers
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Post by durhambuilder on Nov 14, 2011 21:58:52 GMT
I'll start by saying not sure if this is the correct term or not! Three of my four cast iron horns machined beautifully the fourth had a several hard spots which destroyed a couple of my best milling cutters . Anyway a long afternoon and night in the woodburner had it glowing bright red for 8hrs and then it cooled down in the ashes overnight, machined good as gold after that. The question is should I give all the the iron castings the same treatment 'just in case' or would it be best to go ahead and machine them and only anneal if necessary? Cheers Julian
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Post by durhambuilder on Nov 9, 2011 21:04:07 GMT
I have just watched yesterdays Man Lab (BBC2 TV for those abroad) where James May et al build a small charcoal fired furnace and melt a couple of lbs of Aluminium. I guess it was drummed down a bit for Tv but is it really that straightforward, a metal drum, some sand and clay and a hairdrier?
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