Slowly casting up parts for a steam twin marine engine

[Dean W]

Looks like swarf porn to me, Artie.  ; )

Nice oilers you made there.

Dean

[Artie]

Hi Dean yep surely is 'porn' of a type. More to add tonight, been away for work again, this doesnt look like its going to end any time soon. Damn good money though, while the sun shines a hay I will make....

Theres probably not much casting left to do and I should probably start a new thread but.... Ill keep going in here unless someone has an objection  ......

Basically I am feeling my way forward as I go, Im hugely impressed with the pace of some of the builds carried out on this forum, and as I said on Kvoms thread im envious!

However, my pace is my pace and its the best I can do.....

So, tonights offerings.... part of my problem is my own need to 'prove' a part before I start production. Youve seen this with a set of ali cylinders cast up, that was worthwhile (imo) and tonight is no different. The mounts for the conrod/piston rods. Prototype and finished items (almost)





I tried something new (at least to me and silver soldered these 2 plates together and machined them as one unit. Worked a treat then sweated them apart.







Ill add more when its available.

Cheers

Rob

[Dean W]

Those crosshead slippers turned out great, Artie.  Good to see all the parts in one shot.

Dean

[Artie]

Hi Dean, Im happy with them and today had a good go at making more... conrods was the main focus and Im surprised that I got as far as I did. Im waiting for a 3mm ball nose end mll which should arive mid week and this will allow me to finish the rods off.

Pics, as per usual. Any questions.... please fire away..... THE OFF CUTS i MENTION IN A PREVIOUS POST ARE PUT TO GOOD USE....damn caps....



2 pieces 110 mm are freed from the length..... marked out and the cutting begins..















The rods arent finished, they have to be miled down to 6 mm in width etc but only a small amount of work required, really happy with them. My first set of conrods.. sort of a virgin... or was....

[Darren]

You're flying with this one now 

[Dean W]

My first set of conrods.. sort of a virgin... or was....

Well, you sure took care of that!  In good fashion, too. 
Looking good, Artie.

Dean

[Artie]

Yes Dean you could say that. Thanks for the feedback... I was just about to post when you beat me.

A question for you all.... due to the boiler size contraints under the Miniature Boiler Codes I am limited to a long thin boiler unit. Isnt large enough for this engine aesthetically so Im making a dummy cover for it which will mount the cross heads and the cylinders. I want this to have a scale-ish look and want lots of rivets.. BUT.. im lazy.....

Does anyone have method of reproducing hundreds of rivets without drilling holes and rivetting? In my old life in RC we used a hypodermic syringe and white glue to do th ejob. Im thinking the heat from the boiler would make this unsuitable. Perhaps drops of epoxy?

Any thoughts gentlemen?

Cheers

Rob

[Artie]

I thought you might like to see where this is all going. The engine is destined for an Aussie paddle steamer, a radio controlled model of a Steamer called the P.S. Pevensey which is still alive and operating today, in fact ive ridden her many times.

A local company offers scale boat plans and I found a set for her listed and ordered them. Cost was $65 and are huge. The model is 5' long which I have scaled up 50% to accept this engine, so its now 7'6" from bow to rudder. The plans (2 sheets) laid out on a 10 seat table..



 spoon for scale... sorry about the fuzzy pics..



and the grand old lady herself today....



Acording to the specs she was 'converted' in 1911 and capable of carrying 120 tons in giant holds, the Pevensey is powered by a 20 h.p. twin high pressure steam engine. After catching fire in 1932, she was rebuilt, but later fell on hard times and became a floating museum. Brought in for Port restoration in 1973, this great Clydesdale of the river was refloated in 1976 and began carrying passengers 3 years later.  
 
Tonnage: 136.

Length: 111'5".

Beam: 23'.

Draught: 2' (empty)

H.P.: 20 (2cyl)

Construction: Wood/Steel.

Fuel: 1 ton of wood per hour under steam fully loaded.

Speed: 4.5 - 5mph.
 

Here she is in 1912 towing a barge, incidentally she was originally built as a barge named the Mascot in 1909 and converted to a steamer in 1911. This wasnt an uncommon practise in those days. Unlike US steamers Aussie boats were built of steel frames and hard wood, (you guys mainly used soft woods) and this is primarily why so many of our boats a hundred years or older are still afloat today.


 
 
And a hull similar to hers under construction, you can see the steel girders and upper hull steel plates with 4" thick hardwood planking on the lower hull.



Cheers Artie
 
  
 
 

[Artie]

And in case you are wondering, this is what these things did, apart from supplying outlying sheep propertys with goods, they carried the wool clip to market (ar at least the railhead at Port Echuca)... the boat towed one or more barges which where exactly the same as her and had steering to negotiate the tight river bends....

The boat itself was loaded like this....




and towed one or more of these....



To these enormous wharfes..this is Port Echuca and in its hey day was over 1 kilometere long, here its pictured at high river and this is something like 30 metres above it normal height...Its a big river wharf! Also you can see the temporary steering wheel placed after the barge is loaded.... this pic is in reverse btw... writing gives it away..

[andyf]

Hi Artie,

Would it look OK if you indented little pips into strips of shim stock (brass or chopped up tin cans), then wrapped them round the boiler with the convex side of the pips outwards to imitate riveted boiler bands?

Andy

[Artie]

Andy, think you may be onto something there. A mate, Tel, from another site suggested the indenting the rivets from the inside to out, but I couldnt see how I could do then inside the boiler circle. This might be the goods..Ill have a play.... thanks mate.

[Bernd]

Andy,

Way back I made a riveter to do rivets for HO scale models. I made it at work. It may not be what you want to make right now but will give ideas. Below are pics with a bit of explination as to what is what.

First this is what I'm talking about. The main body is made from a chunk of cast iron about 6" long X 2" inches high and 1.5" wide. The table with the slot in it is 6" X 3"



The punch and die made from tool steel (silver steel). The spring is from a pen. The parts are heat treated for hardness.



Here are the punch and die assembled into the body.



The whole riveter assembled. The arm on the left is set so the hammer is dropped from the same height giving consistent rivets.



Here it is in action. Just slide along the back fence, drop hammer, move over to do next one, repeat as many times as necessary.



And here they are, a bit blurry, but nice consistent rivets.



Ok, time for questions. 

Bernd

[Artie]

Hi Bernd, thats real production line stuff.... dont suppose you want to rent it out for  afew day? Of course freight to Aus would be a killer..... I think the concept of the brass strip dented and then soldered in place is the way I will try...Ill do a write up if it works ok...

Just about finished the rods. Milled 2.5 mm off each side of the rod beams to bring them down to 6mm (from 11mm), the cheeks of the big ends are still 11mm. I used a jig made from a lump of aluminium left over from a casting experiment. Drilled and tapped it for the rod length, bolted a rod down and did the milling on one side, removed it did the other rod the same and then milled a 2.5mm deep pocket where the big end sits to allow the rod beam to sit flat on the plate and then did the other sides of both rods.




And the almost finished product, the gudgeon pins are a press fit into the slide mount and free within the rod, like normal car stuff. I am doing this because you can see how much clearance is avalable when the slider moves up to the oiler cups. I wont actually press anything, heating and freezing and loctite will allow hand assembally.



And while I love working with the mill and lathe, I also love handworking my bits. So I do a lot of filing and sanding in the final shaping stage. Dont think for a minute that the rod beams came off the tool that smooth!

Now working on the reversing linkage... seems like Kvom has answered a few questions I had by posting his pics over in HMEM...thanks mate! Im pretty much following Edgar T.'s plans to the letter here... its an area I dont have much (any?) experience in... so Ill play on something else at another time....

Cheers Rob

[Bernd]

Nice looking Artie. The sign of a true craftsman, hand finishing. It looks very nice.

On the rivets: that tool was just to give you an idea of how even rows of "simulated" rivets can be made fast. I'm sure for your scale it would need to be scaled up some.

Bernd

[andyf]

Artie,

More on the rivets. If their heads at full scale are (say) 20mm diameter, then working on the 111' length of Pevensey and the 7'6" length of your model, the heads scale down to about 1.5mm. I suspect that raising indentations of that size in narrow strips of thin brass might cause the strips to deform out to the edges unless you make up a jig to clamp them in a sandwich between two substantial strips of steel. The top one would need a hole for the punch to pass through and the one underneath would act as an anvil with an indentation for the brass to deform into. Further indentations in the anvil piece would accommodate the "rivets" already formed and also act to index the rivets at regular intervals.

Unclamping, moving along and re-clamping might make the procedure rather time-consuming.....

Andy

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Rob 

Lookin great , going to be one  fine engine 


Bernd

Thats a cool gizmo , thanks for showing ,nice one 


Cheers Rob

[Brass_Machine]

Very very nice Artie!

I admire you guys who do your casting. The project is very ambitious though I see you finishing it very well. 

Eric

[Bernd]

Thats a cool gizmo , thanks for showing ,nice one 

Cheers Rob

Not my design Rob. Got that out of a model railroad magazine article. Had to fake the rivets some how on those HO scale models. 

Bernd

[Artie]

Good morning guys, Sunday morning here on Anzac day, back from the service, bacon and eggs with mushroom and tomatoe with my kids, nice way to begin a special day.

A very sincere thank you to all the service men and women who have sacrificed for this country. Being the 'luckiest country in the world' doesnt come about by luck alone. "lest we forget".

For you 'overseas' types you can google Anzac day, its a very very special aussie day.

Thanks to all for the comments and encouragement, it truly helps with the motivation, time is so precious in my life that finding enough to spend on the tools is difficult and I am finding that ripping metal to shreds is very theraputic. I have even resorted to taking time off work to get my hands dirty.

Bernd, while I cant see myself recreating anything like your masterpiece I am in need of something like it just for a short while. I will work something out.

Eric, thanks, I sometimes think I am to ambitious for my own good, but I have learnt so much along the way, yes I will get this to a conclusion but Im not looking forward to that, Im really enjoying the journey.... Ive  also met (electronically at least) some truly nice people along the way. Ive had unsolicited PMs with resources attached on casting, plug making, boilers and general stuff. You guys know who you are... its my privilege to know you.

Cheers all

Rob

[Artie]

Logically, now that the conrods almost finished its time to start the crankshaft. Im starting with the cheeks and this is bigger than you would think. Two storys here one is the crank, the other is recommissioning an old friend. More in a moment.

Firstly some 60mm stock was dragged out. No idea what steel it is... just steel. Machines and cuts ok. Trimmed the oxy end off.



Have I mentioned that I love the old power hacksaw?

Trued up in the lathe and centre drilled, sized up and the drilled for full depth of 60mm using incrimental drill sizes 4 through to 12mm.



Marked up and drilled the big end journal and the radius of the cheeks as well.





By now the new table is covered in crap... as it should be...



Now the second story, the horizontal mill was put into storage about 15 years ago. The apprentice was using the pallet jack and ran it into the x axis feed handle completely smashing it off the machine. This was put aside for awhile until I got round to it. Eventually the broken parts were lost and then the machine was put into storage and pretty much considered to be scrap metal.

About a year ago I dragged an old box out from under a bench...bugger me the missing broken bits. Cept for the part which bolted to the table itself. I made a plate up, machined the gearbox to suit and had teh entire machine rewired... tonight was its first start up (the electrician finished as i was finishing drilling the holes)... away we went.... a momentus day for the old girl...





Slices into the steel like butter...





Rotate the shaft and cut the slight angles...





Cut across the shaft to free the slices and we have.....





Final sizing in the mill tomorrow and then slice the plates off in the power hacksaw...did I mention that I love this old machine?

This has saved an absolute heap of time and agro removing this metal with the mill. The mill is a big unit but still doesnt like cutting large chunks of steel.

More tomorrow..public holiday here...

Cheers

Rob

[Darren]

Very nice Rob, a good demonstration of using the horizontal mill .... I'd love to have one of those 

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Rob 

I like the way you used the H/Z mill to cut the crank webs , thanks for showing   


Cheers Rob .W

[Dean W]

You made nice work of that, Rob.  You and your out of date machines..  : )
Nice show with the horizontal miller.
A power hack saw would be just lovely.  I keep my eye out for one all the time.  Someday, I'll hit the jackpot.
Until then, my right arm will keep getting bigger than the left.   

That con rod looks great, too.  Thanks for all the pics.

Dean

[Buddpig]

Nice work looks cool.

Cheers

[Artie]

Tyanks guys, careful with the out of date stuff...im only a pup...still 20 years away from retiring (I hope)...thanks for the comments gusy I hope your enjoying watching as much as I am doing.....

Ive been blessed the last few days with fairly good time in the shop. As a result Ive actually got something done.... its nice to have something to show you guys. The crank cheeks are just about finished.... heres the rest of the journey...

Back into the mill after lunch and tidied up the horizontal mill cuts. Just blended them into the previously drilled holes really... then into the old power hacksaw and cut off the four segments....



Made a mandrel with a spgot the internal size of the cheeks, tapped a retaining bolt and away we go,



firstly in to the mill to do the reliefs...






Then changed to the big end hole to do the round off...



Its starting to look like its coming together....





Im in my regular work away from home period shortly so not much will happen for a couple of weeks.

Cheers  Rob