Giles' misc. Work bench.

Giles

Giles

Western Thunderer
Connecting rods are machined out, ready for a later process, and I've made four pairs of slide bars. I make them in fixed pairs as it is so very much easier to get them square, parallel etc this way, than fiddling with individual bars. Once the bars are soldered (silver) to the motion bracket, the aft side will be cut away.



2022-07-02_07-29-20

Meanwhilst, I have been making the rear cylinder end covers from 1.6mm nickel silver, which then silver solder to the slide bars. There will be an extra little piece to form the gland and slide bar support.



2022-07-05_03-01-58
 
Giles

Giles

Western Thunderer
The extra piece of the end cover 'casting' fitted to form the gland and slide bar support. The tube obviously provides a nice enclosure for the piston rod, and helps achieve a square assemble to the cylinder.



2022-07-06_06-16-44 View attachment 166337


Two of the four front cylinder covers. These are machined from 1.6mm nickel silver.



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michael mott

michael mott

Western Thunderer
Thank you Giles for the photograph, that technology is something I have never ventured even close to getting involved with. But I am always amazed by what can be done.

Michael
 
Giles

Giles

Western Thunderer
2022-07-16_06-16-45

This shows the construction of the cylinders. A slotted backplate, and the two end plates - the rear ones with holes to locate the slide bars. These now need wrappers before mounting to the frames. Eventually they will get lubricators in the front end covers and drain-cocks
 
Hobbyhorse

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
Those are bringing back some fond memories of the loco we had at Bredgar a few years ago, sadly it was a bit heavy and didn't like some of our tighter curves so it was off to pastures new.
Your build is very impressive especially the 3D work, which I should explore at some point, although I'm more of a drawing board person than cad.
Harrogate is on my build list at some point.
Simon
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Giles

Giles

Western Thunderer
Thank you Simon! Lovely photo - the B&W did a very sympathetic rebuild of her cab. I think I could see in recent photos (at Statfold) that her centre drivers are now flangeless, but I can't be certain - the photo wasn't completely clear - but it would not be an unreasonable fix for a problem that has plagued her.
I needed to get into 2D CAD for work twenty years ago, which is just like drawing board stuff, but have only just started 3D, which is entirely different in its thought processes!
 
G

GrahamMc

Western Thunderer
Giles said:
To make the hex
Click to expand...
Hi Giles, thank you for all your posts, there's so much to learn from them. I had a need for quite a lot of hexagonal and square section of odd sizes in short lengths accurate to within a thou or so. In the end it was worth making a little jig for use in a lathe, photos below. It's just a piece of half inch square bar with three holes in it. One 3mm reamed hole right through (a good fit on 3mm stock rod), one tapped hole for the clamp screw that goes onto the setting section (left) and another tapped hole to clamp the workpiece in the guide hole.
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The two brass bits to the right slide on to the rod, hex or square as required and are tightened on to it. The clamp sections were sawn off the top of a 13 amp plug prong and then soldered to a nut and a piece of square section with a hole in it. The aluminium section then tightens on the nut or square part to set the angle. To change the angle just loosen off the aluminium clamp, rotate the workpiece and tighten again.

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I use it an ordinary toolpost and just screw down on to it.

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As you can imagine it takes a little time to make but all the holes are in the same plane and there are no critical measurements, just the workpiece hole to get parallel to the sides to make setting up easy, a rod in the chuck and square off that to the side of the jig. It's very quick and easy to set up and use and worth it if you have a lot of this sort of thing to do.

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I use it with a milling cutter in a collet. No doubt a more refined jig could be made but it suffices for my needs. Just as easily clamped in a vice on a milling machine. It's just so easy to insert a length of stock rod and shape as required.
EDIT. As well as making short lengths of hexagonal or square stock it can also be used for making tiny lathe tools out of 3mm silver steel, for example for creating the groove between the square sections of a clack valve. Once the tool is made the jig can be used as the toolholder.
I tend to use it more for toolmaking than anything else at the moment but it was originally intended for the sort of work Giles is doing on things such as injectors. The need was for longer lengths made to exact dimensions to be used in pattern making rather than for making representations of nuts or bolts.
 
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