Anne and me in 7mm from the D.A. kit.

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

are you not feed up with these casing yet because I am and I'm making the things, this should be one of the last posts on them (I hope). The starting point was to get the main steam pipe cover to look something like, the top edge is still a bit thick in this photo, but it will get reduced a bit more.


Starting on the curves for the front and rear edges of the main steam pipe cover, there is still a bit of work to do to it at this time.


Just about done. My god the photo does show up all of the scratches that a file can leave. I'd better get out the wet'n'dry latter.


Trying the smokebox in place in the casing, not to bad a fit! A lot of the gap is due to a row of rivets that should be above the steam pipe casing being below it in this photo so some or all of them will have to come off and be replaced with transfers (I will only use the transfers if the spacing is about correct and the size about right to the rivets that are on the smokebox now) or I will leave them off.


The same when the casing was placed on the running plate, but you can now see the rivets, if I'm correct these rivets will need to be moved up by one row of rivets at both the front ring and the rear ring to make them look correct.


From the front, the smokebox is to far forward in this photo, but I think that it shows a better looking front end?


Starting to look at the work on the flange plates for the casings, as some of my drawing did not have all of the sizes on them I have had to estimate some of them. Looking at the bolt chart for the casing these were held down using 1/4" Whit. bolts, so that would be a flange of approx 1 1/2" . For a nut size of approx 1/2".


The casing flange plates cut out and at the bottom the plot for the bolts (rivets) and at the top the bolt heads (rivets) this will be the side that you can see.


I've now got them in place but I'm not to sure about how I'm holding them in place as I'm only using Loctite to do the job. I'd have liked to use solder but I have a lot of soldered joints that could have failed if I had applied a lot of heat, and it would have taken a good bit of heat to get this lump in place.

OzzyO.

 

[Dog Star]

I've now got them in place but I'm not to sure about how I'm holding them in place as I'm only using Loctite to do the job. I'd have liked to use solder but I have a lot of soldered joints that could have failed if I had applied a lot of heat, and it would have taken a good bit of heat to get this lump in place.

CSK screws from underneath?

Or maybe Cheeshead from underneath with clearance in the running plate?

Whilst this fitting is just a small part of the whole I have enjoyed reading about the work involved.

 

[mickoo]

Could you not use low melt solder? The flange plate is going to be trapped between the casing and footplate anyway, so you only need something lightweight to hold it in place whilst the casing (I'm presuming will be attached to the boiler) is off for repairs or strip downs.

Another option which I'd probably do, is to drill four 1 or 2 mm holes in the flange plate nearish to each corner, then 'spot' solder through the holes to the footplate with 188° or 150°, a quick in and out with a very hot iron and flood fill the hole will easily see the solder wick around under the holes and secure to the footplate with little risk to other local soldered joints. Maybe tin the footplate and underside of the flange plate around the holes first to speed things up.

That way your not trying to heat up such a large area, if you then wanted to run a bead around the flange / footplate seam you can use low melt of say 80° to seal any gaps and clean back nice and neat.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

after milling up the steam pipe casings for Princess Anne I'm finding the limitations of using the fly cutter for doing curved cut-outs for smoke-box's Etc. and could realy do with one of these.


I'd have had this one in five minutes if it had been a bit smaller say about 1 1/2" and with a 1MT. arbor.

Now for the question does anybody know where I could get one that has a 1MT arbor?

TFAH

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Thanks all for the replies,

I did screw the casing to the running plate but also used Loctite 290 to fix all of it down. I tend to fix both the boiler, smokebox Etc. to the running plate so that it's all one piece, the only part that will come away is the full set of frames.

Re. the boring head I've had a pointer and I am now in the process of buying one that's another £75.00 that has been spent in less than 5 mins. but I do like my tools.

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

as I mentioned in my last post I did screw the casing to the running plate. I did intend to use four screws for this, but I've not had much luck with the two front screw holes the one on the left when checking it after I'd tapped it I managed to snap a screw in it, the hole was moved back a small amount as you can see. The one on the right, I was using my scriber to help aline the holes when snap (Id forgot that it was tungsten carbide). I may drill and tap a new hole a bit to the rear. I would have liked to have had the rear screws closer to the rear edge but with the rear tapering down it could have been fun.

The casings with the flange plate in place from the front and rear.


When you have done something like this you just have to do this don't you? I did have to modify some of the frame spacers after I first did this. I'll have a bit of fitting to do to get the boiler to sit right but all of that will come later.

I think that she is starting to look a bit like this loco now. Photo copyright.


OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

now F-i-L is back home from hospital I should be able to get a bit more work done.

For this post it's the inside valve chest cover, the basic starting point.


Marking out for the rivets / bolt heads and the valve tail rod cover holes drilled.


The valve tail rod covers in place along with the rivets / bolt heads. The seven on the right are pure conjecture (as I don't have a photo showing the top of the valve chest cover, and it's not shown on my drawings). Now watch the photos roll in!


In place, just the two small holes to fill in.


I think that it look pretty close to this photo.


As it was,


The down side to all of this work is that the rivets on the out-side of the front frame extensions could now be out of place. Where do I stop with all this?

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

so what do you get for 70 odd quid?

Boring head and arbor, eight boring tools (that could also be used on the lathe) and a block to keep them in (hole are a bit big about 10mm).


Some close ups of the boring head. You get three mounting holes for the tools, two in the bottom and one across the body. To use the one across the body you would have to grind you own tools,as the boring tools are meant to be used in the bottom two holes.






A close up of the indexing wheel, I've not worked out what the scale is yet, but I think that 1 rev will be 0.5mm (so 1mm off the bore), so per each index 0.02mm (0.0008") off the bore.


In place on the mill.


Summery,

Good points,

well made and finished, good clear indexes (I may fill them with some black latter on), looks like it will have a good range using the three holes, tools look very good and well ground.

Down side,

arbor could have done with two flats on it to help with tightening the head on, M14X1mm thread was a bit tight (but better than lose), the screw above the index wheel caught on the M14X1mm thread on the arbor, you have to use two Allan keys, one for the slide lock and one for the index, the wooden block could have been a bit better (very minor).

Boring head good value, tools sound a bit dear but not really at £3.07 each.

All in all a nice bit of kit so 8.5 / 10.

OzzyO.

PS. I'm going to start a new thread on here about Lathes and M/C tools.

PS. please feel free to ask any questions.

 

[mickoo]

PS. I'm going to start a new thread on here about Lathes and M/C tools.

Bravo

 

[BrushType4]

3d printing blah..... OzzyO you've got true skill.

 

[OzzyO]

3d printing blah..... OzzyO you've got true skill.

I would like to just say thanks, but all the button says is like.

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

the two small holes filled in before cleaning up,


The rivet pattern on the front frames, it looks like the top row will have to come off, the second row may be OK but I'll have to find out if I have any turned rivets that will match them!


Back onto the frames for a while, when I came to fit the cylinder former in to place there was a large gap between the front and the strengthening plate.


This turned out to be 15 thou, this was due to me just fitting the plate to the slot that was cut into the frames. So it would have to come off.


and replaced, there is a small gap between the small bracket at the bottom it looks very large in this photo but in real life you can hardly see it.


The N/S castings for the valve gear, as supplied at the top and after grit blasting at the bottom.


I decided to fit a tube between the front and rear valve chests to add a bit of support to the valve rod, as I did not think that it would be that good to have it just running in the W/M casting due to it having the rocking lever just out side of the rear valve chest.


More to follow.

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all part 2

the valve chests from the side, D.As. says in the instructions that you may (will have to) remove a small part from the "square" section to the rear of the round section of the valve rod.



Having a look with the motion bracket in place, I did have to pack this up a bit at both front and rear fixing points.


Some of the brass casting after grit-blasting on the right.


From the side showing the rocking lever bracket and the sniffting valves in place, note that the one for the outside cylinder fit on the front steam pipe cover.


In the instructions D.As. shows the steam pipe cover fitted with the sniffting valve at the bottom, in all of the photos that I can make out the valve it looks to be very close to the under side of the running plate, so all I did was fit the L/H one on the R/H side and vice versa. At the extreme right you can just see the small cut out that I had to make on the main frame when I made the new steam pipe covers for the running plate.


On to the wheels and brake gear next.

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

starting on the wheels, first borrow Stan's knife and cut off any big bits of sprue L/H wheel. Then I use a length of wet'n'dry that is stuck to a length of flat wood (or a diamond sharpening block) R/H wheel.



Then using a 3mm drill I add a small counter sink to the back of the crank-pin holes L/H. Then its finer grit on the diamond block until I'm down at the finest.



After that its a wash in cellulose thinners then adding the balance weights, followed by cleaning the front of the steel rim using a Geryflex block and the brass wheel centre using a brass pencil brush in the Dremmel followed by with a wash in meths. Then trying not to touch any of the metal parts it's applying the Birchwood Casey, for this I use cotton wool buds (the ones on a stick that we poke down our ears), I then just let it dry and then give it a polish with some wire wool. Then a quick wash in some meths and in to the spray booth. I then drill and tap the crank-pin hole 10BA and fit the crank-pin screws in place using Loctite 290 (I do not want the screws coming lose).


Back to the number of spokes in the wheels.It looks like David has drawn the angle of the balance weights to suit the correct number of spokes (20) so when you fit them to the Slater's wheels this is what you get. I did think about filing the ends off. But IF Slater's do make the wheels with the correct number of spokes I'd end up having to make six new balance weights. QED.


Starting work on the brake gear, the first job was to make three pairs of brake shoes and hangers, for the shoe pivots I'm using some 1/32" X1/4" round headed rivets, I think on the real thing that these would have been flat headed. Before I started to fit them I ran a sanding drum around the brake shoe tread at approx the angle of the wheel tread.


The kit has you mounting them on some lengths of 1mm wire this I thought would look a bit under strength for the loco so I made some spacing tubes out of some 1.5mm and 2mm tube to beef them up a bit. This is one of them next to the filing jig to give me 2.5mm lengths.


Two of them in place on the frames, Maybe the outer one could have been better in square brass tube?


Starting work on the pull rods Etc.


The front pull rods, these are a bit odd in that the front end has been half etched (the forked end), so when I soldered them together I squeezed them together (it did not work that well) but it should pass muster.


Starting on the assemble of the brake gear on the loco frames.


More to follow.

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

Part two for today. The rear end of the brake gear, I did have a bit of fun at this end as the steam brake cylinder was to far back and I could not get the arm in the correct position but with a bit of bending and "force" it worked, you can also see the blackening on the rear of the driving wheels in this photo.


The brakes and hangers from the outside showing the tubes that I have used.



I then decided that the pull rod ends looked a bit bare so I drilled out some 14BA nuts (only lost one doing this).


Then it was onto cleaning up all of the wire ends.


Then it was onto starting on the rods, at first I only screwed the top hats on to the wheels but I found the the rods hit the wheel bosses so I had to pack them out with some 10BA washers, as you can just see in both of these photos.



Trying the coupling rods in place with some temporary nuts in place just to see how it runs. A very small tight spot on one rod between the centre and front driver, only had to do a quick twist with a broach. The top hats in this photo may have to be turned around to give me some clearance for the connecting rods. This could also involve counter sinking the coupling rods at this point.


The next time I'll be starting on the valve gear proper.

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

Now onto the fun part the valve gear. Starting with the die blocks for the piston valves. These are not the best of casting in the kit. On the left the casting that will be used on the R/H side of the loco, you can see that L/H side of the upright is a bit iffy and that the R/H back plate has a hole in it near the top. The R/H one is a bit better in that it only has a couple of bubbles on it. Looking at the sprue's that these came off it looks like David knew about the problems with the L/H one and tried to correct it, but with no luck.


To try and sort out the L/H one in the photo I added a bit of 5 or 6 thou. N/S behind the top support and added a good bit of 180Deg. solder to it. After that it was drill a hole in the N/S and get the burrs in to try and clean it up, I think this will now pass muster as a lot of the top part will be hidden behind the valance.
The R/H one was a bit more of a bu99er as the casting was very hard (or my burrs are about ready to be replace) but it looks a bit better.


After adding them to the front of the motion bracket, this side is not that bad when you look at the run of how the valve spindle will run.


But on this side it was a different case. The casting had very nose down attitude and looked sh1t. So more work to do on it. Looking it these problems it could have two causes,
1] I got two of the same casting.
2] David only used one casting for both sides.


After a lot of work on it I got it to look like this, better but the top is still not right, so more work to do.


So the top had to be worked on to get it to be parallel with the top of the motion bracket, this was the result not perfect but a lot better and as I have mentioned before some of this will be hidden behind the valance.


Starting work on the slide-bars and cross-heads, drilling out the piston rod holes I managed to bust a drill you can see the bit that was stuck in the hole (this was a bit of a bu99er to get out). After a lot of fine work I did get a nice running set of slide-bars and cross-heads.


Then its adding the bits to the cross-heads starting with the drop? links and then the gudgeon pins, it looks like I've a bit of work to do on the top one.



Looking from the back, it looks like I have a lot of play on the gudgeon pin and the little end so I think that I'm going to have to sort that out. I have a plan for that, but more on that latter.


OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,



just to keep most of the cross-head photos together I'm putting this one in that shows the gudgeon pin and the small end, this looks to have a lot of play in it so I'm going to do some modifications to it. These are going to follow.





The starting point was to open out the small end holes to 1/16" . I started out with to much play and then made the holes bigger (I must be mad?), then I applied some metal black (sorry about the photo).





Then it was back to the cross-heads, adding some 10Thou. fibre Peco washers to the inside face.





Then it was to cut two lengths of 1.5mm dia. brass tube to approx 1.6mm and fit in place (I'm sure that it looked cleaner than that when I took the photo).





With the con. rods in place make sure that you make one L handed and one R handed.





Then it's two more 10Thou. fibre washers. You maybe thinking why am I using fibre washers? I'm thinking that these could be an oil retaining pad for the small end bearing, and also to help stop the solder gluing up the works.





Then it's two Romford coupling rod washers to hold it all together.





Both of them soldered in place, with the bottom one cleaned up and flush with the rear face of the cross-head. Yes they both move, so some success.





After all of that work I'm not sure if I have what I wanted to do. I wanted a bearing that would stop two like metals rubbing (done). I also wanted a fixed bearing that had a larger Dia. That I'm not sure about.

It should work that I'm pretty sure about, but time will tell.



OzzyO.

 

[mickoo]

I think that'll all work just fine

The fibre washer might degrade over time, I'm talking 20 odd years but by then realistically, will the model still be running? Some oils attack other materials so it might pay to check if any attack these fibre washers.

I look at some of my close up photos and wonder why they look nothing like the real thing in my hand LOL

 

[OzzyO]

What is the real thing in your hand sir?

OzzyO.

 

[OzzyO]

Hello all,

back onto the rods Etc. as I only have temporary nuts on the front connecting rod pin I did know that I'd have problems with the clearances. But it looks like I should have a nice straight running con. rod.



Looking at the large ends of the con. rods I decided to add an 8BA washer to the insides as I was going to use the top hat bearing with the rim to the outside. Adding the washer compensates for the lack of the top hat rim.


With the newly turned up top hat in place, this only has about 5 thou. of extra length but that is plenty.


From the rim side you can see that I've drilled a small recess in the tapped part of the bush, this should help with aligning the return cranks (I hope) and that I filed two flats on to it for tightening it up. After the return crank is soldered on this will do the same job.


In the big end, sorry about the photo but I'm getting to the end of the range of my macro lens.


The front crank pin nut has also been modified, in that it has been turned around and had two flats filed on it to tighten it up. Later on in the build I'll give it a wipe over with some solder to make it look a bit more like steel.


The middle one in place, but not fixed in place. As I still have to fix the return crank in place and shorten the crank pin screw. As I want to be able to drop some of the valve gear down I'll only fix these in place using nail varnish.


Well I have the clearance behind the con. rod that I wanted and a bit more!


OzzyO.