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ozzie46:

Thanks Graham.

Ron

madjackghengis:
Hi Ron, I was just looking in on your build, and I have to say, those are some of the best looking wheels I've seen, and you certainly succeeded in getting them looking like they were cast and cleaned up. Those tires went on a treat as well, and really offset the aluminum. How does the hydraulic ram steel turn? I would think it would be a bit hard, but it might be leaded, as lots of machine work goes into them before they get hardened. When you grind your tools for shaping the tire and getting all the angles and flange right, finish work on the tools with good stones will make cutting much easier, and a better chance of getting all of them machined without re-sharpening them. High speed steel really cuts sweet when it's finely honed. Those wheels will look just right, up against that frame you've got put together. I hope to see it rolling, soon. As far as your question regarding accuracy of axles and wheels, with your plates drilled and filed as one, and your bearing blocks made as you did, you should be within a couple of thousandths on wheel spacing, and shouldn't have any reason for concerns. If they are off significantly, you can expect lots of odd wear on the tires if you plan to run it a good bit. You might have some issues with pressure in opposite cylinders if you are way off, but I can't see that happening with the way you've mated up pieces initially. By the way, the counter weights on the wheels look just right, like they were cast in place, and not at all like they were machined out of solid. You should have a nice, clean looking engine when you've got her on the track. :beer: cheers, mad jack

ozzie46:

   Jack; Thanks for looking in. The steel turns well but creates stringer chips a mile long. I have to keep it cleared out or it gets really dangerous. Using HSS I can only take about .020 at the most or it gets so hot it ruins the cutting edge. I'm turning at 150 rpm as that is the slowest my lathe will turn and feeding at the slowest my lead screw will turn. I don't have flood coolant so I brush on, of all things, "crisco" for lube. I tried turning dry and had to resharpen very often but after using the crisco I think I had to sharpen once on the remaining 4 wheels.

  Had a bit of a disaster on my last operation on the wheel treads. (Wouldn't you know it!) I set my compound to cut a 3* taper on the tread and WHAAAT? It didn't look right at all. Got to checking and my protractor scale on my compound is marked off in 2 1/2* increments. So what I thought was 3* was actually 7 1/2* Cut the tire off and today will make another one to replace it.

   Thank you for the comments.

   Ron

DavidA:
Ron,

Back in July you wrote.

...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. ...

I've only just read your progress report, so this is a bit too late. But in the construction notes I have for my Fowler Don Young suggests that the axle box horns (riveted on this engine) are fitted and trued up parallel right after the slots are cut in the frames by fitting the Horns then clamping the frames back to back. You then machine across the horns together with an end mill to ensure that, even if the centres of the axles are not exactly in the right place, they will be equal for both sides.

It's all in ME 3504 (I think, don't have it to hand) from January 1975.

Hope this may come in useful for your next engine.

Dave

ozzie46:

Thanks Dave. Thats a good idea. I'll use that one for sure. Thanks for looking in.

Ron

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