Minnie TE Long term project

[RobWilson]

  Good to see you back one with this build Joe .

Cracking job as per 


Rob


,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, sea cadets ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,way too much salt water   

[Joe d]

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, sea cadets ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,way too much salt water   

Well, about what I'd expect from a pongo.....

Glad to see you looking in, this whole thing really is mostly your fault....

Joe

[RobWilson]

 



Rob 

[Joe d]

moving along, turned the cylinder covers, the front one is rather simple


The rear one is a bit more complex, as it has a stand-off flange for the piston-rod gland:  got carried away machining, so only a final
"as done" photo


Turned blanks for the valve and regulator glands


Spent some time fly-cutting some brass to dimension for the valve chest and regulator chest, started machining the valve chest
by doing some layout, drilling the holes for the studs tapping size to use as a template for drilling them in the block, and
milled out the centre


Turned the outside dimension of the gland boss, and then drilled and tapped  the gland in the mill


installed the gland, chucked the whole thing off-set in the 4 jaw to finish turning the boss and the gland as one, did one side, flipped it over to do the other side


Spotted the tapping holes through the chest, drilled and tapped them in the mill


And here it is mocked up with some bolts I had handy, studs and nuts will be fitted....


And here's where it's sitting in a little pot of alum solution to rot out the tap I broke off in the last hole....


Decided that it was time to quit for the day at this point!

[Joe d]

Well, the alum thing worked, so no big drama to deal with...

Carried on with the regulator chest, just the steam chest all over again with minor dimension differences...
set it up in the 4 jaw to turn the boss for the gland


flipped it end for end to do a boss that will capture the end of the regulator rod


Once the middle was milled out, used the tap-drill size holes I had drilled in it to locate the holes in the casting, spot, drill, de-burr, tap, open up
the hole in the chest, install, repeat for the next hole...


Worked out fine, managed to not break any taps this time... and here's the family photo.. with the flashy recess milled
into the valve chest cover just for the look of it....


Cheers, Joe

[Joe d]

Some fairly slow progress, making studs for all the stuff that hangs on the cylinder....

Small stuff, so went to the Taig lathe.  My version has the original Taig collets, a very small selection of sizes...
but, blanks are available so drilled one through the size of the studs, cut it by eye with a jeweler's saw...


Then a lot of threading, flip, thread some more and all done:  both steam chests, and enough + a couple spare
for the cylinder covers...


They are all faintly over long, I'll trim them down to final size once i have the nuts (I've ordered some commercial ones, if I don't like how they look
then I'll have to make some...)

Joe

[vtsteam]

Joe, that's lookin mighty fine! 

[Joe d]

Thanks, Steve.

Weather's cooling off, you might be able to get back in your shop soon!

Joe

[vtsteam]

I've been a bad boy, Joe, doing more woodwork (bows)  .

[Joe d]

Nothing wrong with woodwork, Steve.

I've been spending the morning running some cherry through the planer...
got a pair of bookshelves to build.

Joe

[Joe d]

Well, still making some progress, albeit slowly...(been busy drooling over my birthday present to myself, a nice set of castings for a 1/8 Rider Ericsson are now hiding under my workbench)

milling out the piece that forms the pocket of the valve


And then saw it off of the parent stock


a bit of round stock gets silver soldered to that, with a little lug that the valve rod screws into


And in it's place:


Then more fasteners, need some bronze capscrews to fasten the cylinder to the boiler, so to work: turn down the end and thread with a die


turn some more to just over the overall size of the hex head, move the chuck to the indexing head on the mill and cut the hex head


move it back to the lathe and part off


and then in the collet I used for the studs, locked the carriage, and faced them all to the same size


Only needed to make 20, sure seemed to take a lot of time for such a small amount...

Cheers, Joe

[Joe d]

well, still beavering away...

some straight-forward turning, drilling, and filing to make up the bits for the safety valve


Silver soldered it all together


here's the rest of the bits, I'll need to replace the spring, the current one out of the junk box is just a place-holder


and sitting where it belongs


Happily, had an off-cut of steel just the right diameter to use as a work-holder for drilling the mounting holes at the correct angles


bolted into place all the various bits, and trimmed the studs (still a little over long, final trimming will depend on the thickness of the gaskets)


And after a bunch of dis-assembly of the bits that will be in the way while installing the cylinder, here it is just sitting where it will go


Really starting to feel like the end is getting near now...

Joe

[tom osselton]

Looking good I'm watching with interest.

[Joe d]

Hi Tom

Thanks for looking in.

[RobWilson]

  Nice going Joe 


There sure is allot of work goes into making that cylinder block assembly 


Rob

[Joe d]

Aye, you're right about that, Rob!

Carved the motion plate saddle out of a bit of brass from the "come in handy" pile...

Nearly all rotary table work: this is ready for the final pass with a ball-end cutter to make a nice fillet, then flipped it over and did the same thing to the other side


Used the wood cradle to hold the boiler for drilling the mounting holes for both the saddle and the cylinder in the drill press


and here they are bolted down in place.


Joe

[Joe d]

got going on the connecting rod and it's various bits...

Turned the rod, put a purely eye-ball taper on it:


cut out the strap for the big end


Turned and threaded  some brass for the oiler, then drilled it through


Turned, drilled and tapped the oiler cap, then knurled it and parted it off


Here's all the bits, neglected to take any photos of building up the cross-head, it's 2 plates of steel soldered onto a central bit that has a relief for the small end of the con rod, with a turned, threaded, and hardened pin of drill rod, and straight-forward turning for the bearing bronzes


and here we are:


Joe

[Joe d]

Started working on the bits for the reversing gear...

Mounted a bit of O1 steel on the rotary table to mill all the arcs


once done that, just hack-sawed them out, and cleaned them up with some filing, using the ancient hand vice to hold the
die block for clean up before hardening it


pre-drilled a number of stubs of round stock and then silver soldered them into strips of  flat stuff to make the various links,
turned the clevis for the valve rod, milled the slot in it and used some filing buttons to round over the end, and turned & drilled a bronze
bushing for it, and here's the family shot:


and here is the test installation


dug out a stub of CI from the left-overs pile, and turned the eccentric sheaves, here is clocking in for the off centre hole for the shaft


parted off, cleaned up, and drilled & tapped for the set screw


and a start on the eccentric straps:  sliced a bit of steel, drilled for bolts on each side, then in the lathe to bore the hole,


and starting to file off all the material that doesn't look like an eccentric strap


Neither of my boys was here for the holidays this year, so I'm getting a useful amount of shop time instead...

[DMIOM]

Joe,

Just to say thanks for posting, I'm silently watching and admiring the drama-free way you're cracking-on with this.

Dave

[kayzed1]

i love it, just wish i was able to make some thing so nice..
Lyn.

[Joe d]

Thanks, Dave.  Hope you aren't getting the floods that the mainland is getting.

Lyn:  Thanks, my advice:  just build something, each project you will find that you get better,
sadly that makes you raise your standards so it's still work to get to the level of fit & finish
that seems appropriate

Cheers, Joe

[Joe d]

In-between bouts of snow shoveling, got the eccentric stuff finished...

silver soldered a lump on the end to make the clevis
some filing and rounding over, and one of them riveted in place


after a little cleaning up, here we are:


and from  another angle


Things are moving along at a pretty good clip just now!

Joe

[tom osselton]

Progressing very nicely!

[RobWilson]

Looking good Joe 


those parts are friggin small mate    ,you must have the  patiences of a saint   


Rob

[Joe d]

Tom, Rob... thanks guys.

working on the reverse/forward lever. Pretty much all cut and file from thin gauge steel...
with a little bit of soldering to stick some of the parts together


some more of the bits


and where it goes


Joe