Start on a long term project

Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs

<< < (5/23) > >>

ozzie46:

Hi all, I got a little more done on my loco build.

Made the axles and axle boxes. The axle boxes are cast iron and the axles are made from a long bolt made by Caterpillar Machinery. Don't know what it was for but it sure turned nice on the lathe with a very nice finish.

I squared up stock for the axle boxes long enough to make 2 aout of 1 piece so that the hole would be concentric in both the left and right boxes. I drilled to 11/16 then bored to size.

I then marked out the boxes and cut in half.

Put them in the mill and trued up the saw cut ends and brought to size. Then marked out for and milled the grooves to slide on the horn plates.

Then a lot of filing to get the boxes to fit well.

Now a question, I know that the distance between the axles have to be really close as far as the distance between ,say, the leading axle and the drive axle. How big a variance is to much between,lets say, the distance from the leading axle to the drive axle on the right side as compared to the left side?
I hope I'm not confusing you with my description.

Thanks for looking in.

Ron

shoey51:
Im enjoying this build :thumbup:

madjackghengis:
Hi Ron, great start on the frames, in my book, you're not a machinist if you can't use a hacksaw and a file, and come out with good looking, accurate work. Yours is looking good, nice and square and substantial looking. I'd stick with the rivets, they will be at least double the strength of screws down the road, and vibration will eventually test the frame to its limits. Rivets are always a better bet when you're using sheet or plate for framework taking a good load. Once they've obdurated and filled the holes, there's no room for vibration to move sheets relative to each other, as screws leave, even if you locktite. I do a fair amount of riveting in some of my own work, and I use a set of crimpers designed for crimping rings on "quest" plumbing fittings, but have been modified to squeeze rivets instead. I had to weld up the ends, and then grind them down to fit rivets, but they reach in tight places and get full expansion of the rivet body (obduration), and if the head is a counter sunk one, and I countersink the hole, I have very little to file off. Even just using a hammer, I always counter sink rivets at least a little bit, just for extra room for swelling up. If you don't have much experience with them, you might want to try on some scrap, just to get the feel, and know the extra length is extra metal to fill in gaps. Just get your sheet or plates tight up together before you set the rivets. :bugeye: mad jack

ozzie46:

Thanks for looking in shoey51 and madjack.

Madjack, I've already drilled and tapped for screws at this point, I will probably use permanent locktite on the screws when I do the final assmbly Thats good info on rivets as I haven't used them before. Good to know.

I've learned several good things from your posts, as I do from alot of others on here.

Ron

ozzie46:

Been awhile since I posted and have done quite bit on the wheels.

I bought a cheapie 3 in rotary table at Horrible Fright and used it to mount the wheel blanks for milling. I also drew up full size wheels in Turbocad and glued them to the wheel blanks and basically milled to the lines.

I used a 3/16 Ball end mill to mill around the inside of the rim and the outside of the axle boss. Then I switched to regular end mill and milled out the spokes and such. Did this times 6.

I didn't fancy trying to round over all the spokes by filing so after a few days of pondering I settled on trying a HSS dremel round over router bit and it workrd but the finish was not very good. It doesn't take much filing to make them presentable though.

I then broke out my new riffer files and went work on the wheels. I have 2 done as far as the profiling goes to try to make them look like cast wheels. 4 more to go.

I've never seen cast wheels before other than pics on the computer so I hope they look sort of right.

Still along way to go before these wheels are done but the really hard part is done. I hope!!

As always comments,tips are welcome.

Ron

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version