2" Fowler progress

[drumkilbo]

Jason, I think it all looks superb, well done, and again as I've said before, beautifully illustrated, thanks for posting.

Ian.

[jasonb]

Can't believe its been so long since I posted an update on progress, must admit its been a bit slow as I've been sidetracked by a Hit & miss Engine. (see here for its build)

One of the major parts that have now been done are the gear guards, I don't much care for sheet metal work but was quite satisfied how they turned out. I made a former from MDF topped with Corian which is a very hard plastic and formed the outer edge around this.



Next the flat outer plates were cut to profile and drilled for the rivits.



This shows the outer shape being offered up to the engine to get the position for the various mounting brackets and cut outs. Anyone else building this engine should check the depth of the gaurds as mine came very close to teh final drive gear which required the backs of the rivits grinding down to clear everything.



And here they are complete with the two half round spinnings that are supplied by MJ.





The drawings show the exhaust pipe at 7/16" dia with a bent end to form the nozzel, in order to get this bend into the chimney base requires a 3/4" dia hole and some way has to be found to fill the gap. I deviated and turned a bronze elbow that screws onto the pipe and is a snug fit in the 3/4 hole, this also allows me to change blast nozzel sizes if need be. While at that end I walso did the blower pipe. The bends in teh actual pipe were formed following fellow A& builder Doug's method of multiple cuts almost all the way through the pipe then silversolder up teh gaps





The eccentric rods were drilled and reamed to length which allowed me to set the motion and determine the length of teh reversing rod which needed quite a bend to clear the injector clack that is not shown in the drawings



I also got the safety valves and whistle finished, does not make a lot of noise when I blow through it but it gets my dogs attention!



There are quite a few other bits and bobs done but nothing much worth taking pics of

Jason

[drumkilbo]

Another superbly illustrated bit of work Jason, thanks for sharing.

Ian

[johnbuyer2]

wow looks like it will win a few medals once completed...what lathe/mill have you used for this engine Jason

[jasonb]

The first half eg whole front end, shafts and some gearing, rear wheel hubs, drive ctr, brake and winding drum were all done on my old Emco Ecomat 8.6 (8" swing, 600mm between cts) I then changed to a Warco WM280V-F so that I could fit teh 9" dia flywheel and final drive gear onto the machine.

All milling has been done on a X3 type machine

You can see all the build pics here

Jason

[johnbuyer2]

Did you bend the gear guard cold or after annealing? Looks perfectly formed as though you used a press!

[jasonb]

First I bent the flat strip over a bit of 3" bar to get the basic radius at the top, I then hammered it at the ends to follow the edge of the former where the flat sides join the larger circle.

Next two MDF blocks were screwed against the straight edges to hold the strip in place and a clamp run top to bottom after which I used a hide hammer to flange over the edge. I stopped when the bend was 75-80 degrees and annealed the steel before puting it back in the former and completing the flange. It would probably have gone without annealing but I didn't want to take a chance with a kink.

Bottom half was done in the same way, both were done about 1" over length each end and then trimmed to the joint line, its easier to get the end to follow the curve that way.

J

[welshy]

Very nice work Jason
Mike

[russell]

Looks superb Jason.

Russell.

[jasonb]

Its been a while since I posted any progress so as the sun was shining I thought it about time to get the camera out.

As you can see the gear gaurds that had just been completed in my last update have now been fitted



The next job was to rivit the hornplates to the spec & motion plates and also the bearing brackets to the horns, I mostly used copper rivits for this to avoid damage to the gunmetal castings.



With the engine assembled I could get the lengths for the reach rod, drain cock linkage and the (out of sight) damper rod. As a change from metalworking a scrap of oak was machined up to make the footboard and some little coachscrews to hold them together, the hose bracket now had something to fix to as well



As you can see the boiler cladding and bands have also been done, these are supplied by MJEng as two rolled half circles and just need trimming to size and then lots of trial fits followed by cut/filing a bit more off until a snug fit is obtained around all the various fittings. I still have the trim around the manhole and drip tray to do



This shot from the other side shows the steel rubbing plate better



And a couple of pics from above showing the motion, etc




And a full frontal!!



I then pushed it out for a few overall shots






Plumbing it all up is the next job, this is the end

[fostergp6nhp]

Very nice indeed. I dare not let my wife see it as she would badger me to build a 4" scale one.
Just out of interest what DP are the different gears? as the final drive looks like its a bigger tooth form than the rest.

[jasonb]

Crank/2nd shaft are 10DP
2nd/3rd shaft are 8DP
3rd/final drive are 6DP

J

[Deleted]

It's the first time I've seen this Jason, I have to say what an absolutely fantastic piece of work. My hat off to you sir, very nice indeed...

Pete

[fostergp6nhp]

Thanks for the gear info.

[welshy]

Looks superb Jason, very well done.
Mike

[ettingtonliam]

When I see work like this, I look at my own, then go off into the corner and cry! A pity to cover it up with paint, but I suppose you will have to.

Congratulations
Richard

[russell]

Fantastic piece of work. Quick as well.

Russell.

[fostergp6nhp]

Jun 13, 2011 8:49:19 GMT ettingtonliam said:

When I see work like this, I look at my own, then go off into the corner and cry! A pity to cover it up with paint, but I suppose you will have to.

Congratulations
Richard

If you did not want the paint finish you could always clear laquer it.