# Building Rudy's Steam Tractor



## 4156df

Ive started a build of Rudy Kouhoupts Model Steam Tractor. The tractor is 3/4 scale and is loosely based on the J.I. Case steam engines. To quote Rudy, it is not an exact scale replica. Some of the parts have been arranged to improve the ease of construction of the model or to insure its dependable operation. The part about ease of construction was strangely appealing. 

I purchased a set of plans that have been recently published by Village Press. This will be the first engine I intend to operate with steam, so having plans to work from should be a good thing. My plan is to build the rear wheels first (they look like the hardest part to me) and if that goes well then proceed with the rest of the engine. 

Interestingly, Rudys original engine, which he built for his Popular Mechanics article (Feb. 1971), is at the Craftsmanship Museum in Vista, CA. The museum is about 40 miles from me. I expect to make several trips there as this build goes along. Heres a photo I took of it.







The rear wheels are supposed to be brass, 4 1/2 OD & 4 1/4 ID, fabricated from a cast-brass pipe adapter.  Good luck finding one. The closest I could come in brass was a threaded specialty connector for $148 and I would need two!! Im barely started and I have to deviate from the plans. However, I guess being able to do that is part of the beauty of model engineering and of not building an exact replica. Anyway, I ended up selecting a 4 copper sweat fitting that is 4.350 OD and 4.136 ID. Close enough. Thirty-eight bucks, but I get two wheels from one fitting. The other raw materials are 1 brass rod for the hub and 3/32 rod for the spokes.






For the rims, I cut two 1 1/2" wide rings from the coupling.






Since Ive only got a 6 lathe, I had to get creative to face the edges (Rudy says this can be done with a file!?).






Next stepspoke holes. There are 24 spokes per wheel, twelve to a side, staggered so the two sides are off-set.  To drill the holes I layed out the spoke pattern and glued it to a wood fixture (Im a big fan of wood for one-time fixtures). The way this one works is the black lines represent one sides spokes and the red the other.  Line up the reference line on the inside of the rim with either a red or black line, drill, move the reference to the next line of the same color and so on. Then reverse the rim and drill the other side using the opposite color lines. I first spot drilled and then thru drilled.






Drilling the copper didnt go so well until I got some info from helpful people on this board (see thread on Drilling Copper). The trick is slower speed (1000 rpm or slower) and coolant (preferably tallow).

Each wheel has 24 grouters fastened with rivets. Theyre fastened such that two of them fall between each spoke. Rudys suggestion was to drill the holes on one side of the rim and then use the grouter as a guide to line drill the other side during assembly. 

The rivets will be 1/16, but I used a #51 drill which makes it just a little easier to get the rivets in. I used the same drill fixture as for the spoke holes, but used a new reference line set off the proper distance from the original reference. Then I aligned the new mark with each of the spoke lines, spot drilled and then thru drilled.






After the holes were all drilled, I deburred the inside using a 3 diameter scotchbrite wheel in the drill press.






Next thing to tackle are the hubs. So far so good.

Regards,
Dennis

P.S. I tried smaller photos for this post. Are these the right size or should I go back to larger ones??


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## rleete

Nice, informative post. I like the simple setups.

Pics are just fine.


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## steamer

Cool...always wanted to watch that build.

YES the pics are good! 

Keep them coming......

Dave


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## Maryak

Looking good. :bow: Now I know why the question on drilling copper. 

Best Regards
Bob


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## 4156df

The hubs are a basic turning operation. Theyre drilled 0.250 and theres a 6-32 set screw in the center of the hub for securing the wheel to the axle.






The spoke holes are drilled to match the holes in the rims with 12 spokes per side staggered so the two sides are offset. I used a locating method similar to the one used for drilling the rims. The fixture is positioned on the drill press for the first side. Twelve holes are drilled using the black lines for reference, then the fixture is re-positioned for the second side and the holes are drilled using the red lines for reference. Holes were spotted with a spotting drill and then drilled. The hub is 1.5 long and 1 diameter. Spoke holes are 3/32.






Wheel assembly tomorrow.

Dennis


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## ksouers

Dennis,
Following along.
Very creative indexing solution.  :bow:


Kevin


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## cfellows

Nice looking build, Dennis! I'll be watching the progress.

Chuck


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## DougLanum

http://Dennis,
Nice Job.
This tractor was my first project about 30 years ago.
Mine has a lot of miles on it. I'd take it to an engine show and the kids or "Crawling engineers" come out of the woodwork to steer.
I made my wheels from steel tube, the cross head design was made closer to what Case manufactured, and the gearing was reduced so the tractor moved at a more realistic speed.
Please keep sending updates and if I can answer any questions don't hesitate to ask.
I'll try to attach a photo.
Doug

[img]


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## DougLanum

My Message got lost, but the photos got sent ??

Nice job Dennis, please keep us updated. I built one of the tractors as my first project about 30 years ago. It has many miles on it.
I take it to an engine show and the kids "crawling engineers" come out of the woodwork to steer it.
I used steel pipe for my wheels, changed the cross head design to match the Case design more and reduced the gear ratio so the tractor moved at a more realistic speed.
Don't hesitate to ask question if you need help

Doug


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## 4156df

Doug,

Nice job on your engine. I've been hoping a few builders would pop up as I go along. I know I'm going to have questions, particlarly as I get closer to running it. The plans have absolutely no info on them about operation.

Regards,
Dennis


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## ghart3

Dennis, built one also from the magazine plans.  I agree with Doug on more gearing down needed.  Like Doug's crosshead and suggest you think about doing the same. I followed the plans and there is lots of flexing.  I made the start of an extra heat exchanger with raised CASE letters.  You or anyone else building one of these is welcome to it

Looks like you got good start

Gary


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## 4156df

Gary,

Thanks for the input. I liked the look of Doug's crosshead too...hadn't considered the operational benefit. I haven't ordered the gears yet (I'm not ready to make my own!) so I'm going to re-think them before I do. Any clues as to ratios will be appreciated. I've got some time before I need them. Also like the idea of a more to scale heat exchanger.

Regards,
Dennis


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## ghart3

Dennis, didn't keep notes on the gears. Eye balling it, it looks like added an 80 and 40 tooth gears for another 2 to 1 reduction.  Think even more reduction would be ok, but that would depend on how you want to use it. I'm old and slow so like slow.

You can have the start of heat exchanger and still have a Teflon pattern for making raised letters that someone else can have if they want.

If you have a way to print out dxf files let me know.  Got drawings that I made of the sheet metal.  What I did was print them out and used Elmer's wood glue and put on the sheetmetal. Which was from junked out freezer. Drilled all the holes, cut out and broke (bent up). Rudy's drawings were so good that all most everything lined up.


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## 4156df

Wheel Assembly

The 48 spokes are 3/32 rod cut to 2 and de-burred. Theyre ground to final length after assembly.  

I have a small hot plate that I plan to use as an auxiliary heat source during soldering, so I made a combination assembly/soldering fixture out of a 6 x 6 piece of steel.  It should be usable for the front wheels too. The wheels are soft soldered.






I slid the spokes into place and then added a soft solder pre-form at each connection. The pre-forms were made by winding 0.032 solder around a 3/32 drill bit.











After the pre-forms were applied, I brushed a drop of rosin flux on each joint and pre-heated the assembly on a small hot plate (dont think the hot plate was necessary). I used a simple Bernz-o-matic propane torch for final heat. The rosin flux washes off with alcohol. 






The pre-forms really help with solder control.






After cleaning, I clipped the protruding part of the spoke, filed it flush and buffed the outer rim with 3M maroon abrasive.

Next, the grouters.

Regards,
Dennis


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## joeby

Lookin' good!

 I will be following this along, as I have one of Rudy's books stashed away in the future projects file.

Kevin


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## joe d

Dennis

I really like how this is going so far. Since I'm another with this project on the 'round-to-it list, keep on posting, please!

Cheers, Joe


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## cfellows

Nice job on that wheel assembly! :bow:

Chuck


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## shred

Nice.. this one is on my to-do list soon.


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## Maryak

4156df,

Big Wheels keep on Turning - fantastic job :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## 4156df

Grouters

There are 48 Grouters (24 per wheel) set at a 67.5 degrees from the wheel edge. Theyre fabricated from 1/32 brass (Rudy calls for steel) and fastened with two 1/16 rivets. 

_As an aside, does anyone know why theyre called grouters? I grew up in the Midwest (Minnesota) and we always called them lugs. Also, is there anything magic about 67.5 degrees?_

I was lucky enough to borrow a small 12 shear for this project (not really necessary, but a real help).  I laid out the grouters on paper, taped the pattern to the shear and mounted a guide bar as shown. Then it was a simple matter of feeding in a 1 1/2" strip of brass, cutting, and advancing to the next line. If I didnt have the shear, I would have rubber cemented the layout to the brass strip and cut them by hand.






And here they are, less holes.






To drill the holes, I made a fixture by milling a 1/4 x 1/16 deep slot in a piece of aluminum and super-gluing a strip of brass to the end to serve as a stop. A 1/2" hole serves as a press point to pop the part up and out of the fixture. The fixture is clamped into position and you drill away. I spot drilled first, then through drilled with a #51 drill. Since I was planning on flush rivets, I ran them through one more time and put a small countersink on each hole (this also de-burred the exit hole). 






Ready to install:






Regards,
Dennis


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## itowbig

very nice . im in school everyday here. always want to see how these things were done. great work


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## RICHARDDV

Down here in Texas the terminology that I learned for the cleats on caterpillars was grouser. It is the type of cleat or lug used as a average trade off for traction on soil as well as hard surfaces The flat lug surface does not tear up the road surface as much as the deeper cleat or lug , Whatever the name --you did an excellent job replicating them . 
  Also the 67 1/2 degree angle allows the wheel to dig in and use side thrust of the wheel to maximize the available traction . That is why the current tire manufactures still use this concept on Ag cleat tires   richard


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## dwentz

This is on my build list. My moms father has a real 65 hp, I get to play with from time to time, as you can see by my avitar. My wife gave me the book for my birthday, and I have most of the material in the shop. Now if I could just find the time to get in the shop more often. Will probably have to wait until fall now, too much going on this summer. Thanks for taking the time to document your build, I am sure I will learn from it.

Dale


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## 4156df

Installing the Grouters

The grouters are riveted on with 1/16 round head rivets. I made a rivet back-up tool using a piece of mild steel and a 1/8 ball end mill. Mill only as deep as the thickness of the rivet head.







Insert a rivet into one of the predrilled holes in the rim and roughly position the grouter. Then flatten the rivet with a ball peen hammer. Note: The wheels are right and left handed (inside edge of the grouter leads the rotation), so be careful to change the direction of the grouters on the second wheel. 






Lay the wheel on a flat surface and final position the grouter with a gauge.






Clamp the grouter in position and line drill the second hole.






Install a rivet & set it (Note: At this point, Id started using a flat bottom rivet set because I found that the ball peen hammerer tended to leave small dings in the brass).






Protruding bits of the grouters were removed by fastening a piece of 320 grit paper to a flat surface and rubbing the wheel over it until the grouters were flush. The home made rivet tool preserved the round heads of the rivets pretty well.






The entire outside of the wheels was then buffed with maroon scotchbrite to complete them.






Regards,

Dennis


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## Paolo

..whaoooooooo nice work...
best regards
paolo


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## deere_x475guy

Very nice work and thanks for sharing.


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## bearcar1

I too have been working on one of these fine models recently and went one step further in the development of the rear wheels in that I threaded the hubs and spokes and then used jam nuts to secure the spokes to the hub. Solder was used on the rim end. The rims that I made were from a piece of cast iron water pipe that was being thrown out.


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## 4156df

Well, at the start of this thread I said that if I got through the rear wheels Id probably continue with the project. So here I am feeling pretty good and ready to continue. Disaster must lie just ahead

Thanks for the comments & responses. Its always nice to know someone is watching. I particularly appreciate the input from current and past builders of this model and hope theyll continue. Im a beginning builder with limited equipment, so most of my approaches and posts are pretty basic. However I hope that wont stop experienced builders from chiming in when they have a better, other, or more advanced way of building something. Also, if you know of upcoming potential pitfalls (like ghart3 and DougLanums input about reducing the gear ratio) please let us know.

Forgive me if I occasionally show the obvious. Its hard to know what might be of interest.  As a beginner I tend to want to see more rather than less. My hope is to at least show a picture of each part and to note any places where I deviate from the Village Press plans. 

Regarding the planssome time ago I read a Rudy Kouhoupt interview where he mentioned that the Popular Mechanics plans had errors in the steam chest/valve dimensions but that they had been subsequently corrected. Does anyone know anything about this?? Im wondering when they were corrected and if my Village Press plans have the correction. 

Thanks again for reading. More build shortly.

Regards,

Dennis


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## bearcar1

Dennis, I did not find any errors in that area and I just finished those pieces about a month or so ago. I fabricated the cylinder/valve face in two pieces and silver soldered them together. The hardest operation for me was milling the ports. I am interested seeing the mod that a builder presented here earlier pertaining to the cross head trunk guide. It seems to be a bit sturdier as well as appears more to scale than two plain square rods.


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## DougLanum

I will try to take some photos this weekend of the different cross head design and post them.
I'll also check to see if I have any sketches or dimensions stashed away.

There were questions about the tractor operation and I'll put some comments together on that too.

One thing a friend and I both did for our tractors was to make a small fan to fit on the smoke stack while building up steam pressure. It speeds the process up but also keeps the flames from the alcohol burner going in the right direction.



Doug.


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## bearcar1

Doug, that would be a great help if you could muster up some photos and dims. regarding the crosshead, and thanks for your help.

Jim


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## 4156df

bearcar1....Thanks for the info on the dimensions. That's one item I can quit worrying about.

DougLanum...Looking forward to more detail on your crosshead. It sure looks good. Thanks.

Dennis


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## 4156df

Front Wheels

The front wheels are a little simpler than the rear in that they only have 16 spokes per wheel and no grouters. I used a 3 copper sweat fitting for the rims. The fitting OD is 3.283 and the ID is 3.133. Rudys plans call for 3.250 and 3.125. The front wheels were built using the same fixtures and methods as the rear wheels so Ill only show the differences.

The hubs were drilled on the same fixture as the rear wheels except the 24 spoke pattern was replaced with a 16 spoke one. The hubs on the front wheels dont have a setscrew, so to hold them for drilling, I mounted them in the fixture and put a drop of superglue in the joint. Worked great. A sharp rap on the end of the shaft broke the joint for removal (superglue doesnt like shock loads). Heat would probably have worked too. 






The front wheels are wrapped with a 1/4" wide tire fastened with five rivets. I didnt pre-drill holes in either the rim or the tire. The rims were preformed from a strip of 1/4 0.032 brass. Use an extra long strip to get a smooth beginning and end. _Note: Any brand of Garbonzo beans will work ;-)._






Clamp one end of the tire in position, center punch, drill and install the rivets one position at a time 90 degrees apart. I didnt cut the tire to final length until I was ready to install the last rivet.






I found that after the first rivet, it helped to clamp the tire down on both sides of the rivet when drilling and riveting. Here are the finished front wheels.






Dennis


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## DougLanum

Here is some more information about Rudy's tractor that I built.
Mine was completed about 30 years ago, and has run lots and lots.
Some of the changes and suggestions were based off of information from a friend who had built one of these too.

The gear ratio was changed to slow down the speed of the tractor. This seems to be a more realistic speed and allows more power. It will easily pull itself though grass or along a gravel road at the local engine / tractor show. It always draws attention.

I found notes on the gears i used:

the crankshaft pinion is 20 teeth, 0.417 " Pitch dia. 1 required.
the idler gear is 72 teeth, 1.5" PD 1 required
the counter shaft gear is 100 teeth, 2.080" dia. 1 req.
the counter shaft pinions are 16 teeth, 0.335" PD. 2 required.
the bull gears are 120 teeth, 2.5" PD. 2 required.

The crosshead design was changed to match a more prototypical design.
It is close to what Case used and is a more sturdy design.
It is made of brass, and photos will follow soon.

We also made small fans to put on top of the stack while building pressire.
We found that the alcohol burners had flame going everywhere, so the fan keeps the fire going the right direction. It also allows the steam pressure to build much quicker.
once pressure is built8 up, and the engine is running, the engine exhaust provides sufficient draft.
This fan is made with a simple bent blade impeller and a small 1.5 volt. motor.

Since there is no water level gauge glass on the boiler, you can't tell how much water is there.
To Begin, I unhook the pressure gauge compression fitting and take a plastic squirt bottle and a short length of tubing to fill the boiler through the 2nd fitting and valve. I stop when the water comes out of the pressure gauge pipe fitting.
You will need to learn how much alcohol needs to be put in the burner to time it running out about the same time as the water. When pressure drops, after about 20 minutes, the boiler may be dry. Be sure to check to see if the fire is out too. You may need to pick the tractor up and flow the fire out from under the fire box.

I also put a "T" pipe fitting under the safety valve and made a small whistle to connect to that.
More fun.'

Photos to follow

Doug


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## bearcar1

Thank you very much Doug for that gearing information, I have made written corrections in my notes and am going to now look up the PNs in the Boston Gear catalog. I cannot wit to see the pictures and specs on your crosshead modification. 
Best regards
Jim B.


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## DougLanum

Crosshead photos


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## DougLanum

more photos


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## bearcar1

That should make a very robust mod to this engine, it makes better sense this wy and is more scale-like in appearance. Thanks again Doug.

Jim B.


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## DougLanum

Jim,
You are welcome.
I have more photos to send, but I've run into a snag sending them.

Doug


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## Tin Falcon

for those detailed oriented and history buffs that are building rudys engine here is an interesting reference a Case steam engine parts catalog many photos and sketches some with a few dimensions. 
Case Parts Book.pdf
tin


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## 4156df

Thanks for the gear info. "Ghart3" also modded his tractor to slow it down. He was kind enough to check the ratio on his (check his posts, lots of good info) and PM it to me. Here are some data points for you:

Overall Gear Ratios flywheel to wheel (if I've done the math right!)

23:1  Rudy's as built
37:1  DougLanum
43:1  ghart3

Gears are pricey, so it's good to have some flexibility when you go to order them. Check different combinations because the prices can vary a lot with only a slight change in pitch diameter. If you can design to use discontinued (but still in stock) gears they're really cheap.

Dennis


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## bearcar1

So, Ghart3, if you read this, could you supply us with the gear teeth and PD of the gear sets that you used in your build? As has been stated, gears are pricey and finding a better, read: more commonly used gear(s) is a much better alternative, not to mention the scaleness factor. ;D


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## ghart3

Bearcar1, sorry not much help.  Having gear cutters I just cut the gears according to Rudy's plans and just cut a couple more for more reduction. Mine was a change after built.  Think Dennis's plan of hunting around for the best deal on gears and then fitting them to the tractor might work for you also.

Still have short piece of tubing with case "cast" on it that could be used for fake heat exchanger.  Freebie to first person asking for it.       Gary


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## bearcar1

Say Gary, I would be interested in that faux heat exchanger tube. I read the thread and liked the way it was arrived at but like so many other things, would have had to procure several other items in order to fabricate the end results. I'll be more than happy to reimburse the postage and whatever else in order to compensate for your hard work.

Jim B.


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## 4156df

Flywheel

Finished the flywheel. Im pretty stoked because I was able to use this surplus fitting.







That I found here.






A buddy turned me on to a local marine salvage yard. All of the above fittings are either brass or bronze and are sold by the pound for not much over scrap prices. Sweet. If youre near water, itd be worth scouting out any boat salvage places.

Forgive the diversion, back to the build.

The scrap fitting yielded a flywheel OD of 2.460 and an ID of 2.200. Rudys plans call for 2.250 and 2.125.  Rudys plans also call for 1/8 diameter x 1/8 long tenons on the end of the spokes that fit into the hub. I eliminated those and inserted the 3/16 spokes into 3/16 holes in the hub. Worked fine. 

The flywheel uses the same build process and fixtures as the wheels only with the templates modified to reflect six spokes. After soldering and trimming the spokes, true the flywheel on the lathe. Rudy suggests doing this on a mandrel between centers, but I dont have a faceplate, so I turned a snug fitting 1/4" arbor and did all the truing operations without moving the arbor in the 3 jaw. The flywheel is held in place with the mounting set screw.






Sequence was: true the outside, then first edge and then inside. Remove flywheel from the arbor and reverse. True the second edge and inside.

Im less than thrilled with the appearance of the solder on the hub, but the balance is so good that I hate to mess with it. 






Dennis


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## DougLanum

Dennis,

Very nice Flywheel.

I too cut my own gears.
It became part of my learning process of working in a machine shop while in college.

More photos to follow soon.

Doug


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## 4156df

I'm jealous of you guys who can make your own gears. I'd like to see a thread on this sometime.

Here's where I'm at on the build.

Boiler Outer Casing

It feels like progress to finally be finished with wheel assemblies.

The boiler outer casing is the biggest part on the tractor and will push the limits of my equipment. Because of that I decided to use brass instead of Rudys suggestion of steel. The casing uses a 10 11/16 piece of 2 nominal pipe. Fortunately the local plumbing supply was willing to sell just a foot. 






The brass is 2.375 OD and 2.067 ID. The same as the specified steel pipe.

The pipe had to be cut to length and the ends faced off. As you can see, this was all my lathe could handle. Another 1/32 OD and the pipe wouldnt have fit in the steady rest. Slow and easy was the way to go.











Rudy suggests marking out four longitudinal, equally spaced lines on the outside of the casing to use as reference lines. I did this by mounting the casing in the lathe and using its indexing ring and the carriage to lay out the lines. I might have used a little more layout fluid than necessary.  






I then layed out all the holes and proceeded to the drill press. The openings for the smokestack and steam dome are 5/8. I modified the drill bit to drill brass (theres a thread on this, but I couldnt find it) and ran the drill at its lowest speed.  This is a big hole and brass likes to grab, so I clamped everything in place. No hands.  Drilling went fine.






The steam dome opening calls for two 5/8 overlapping holes. I drilled the first hole and then decided I wasnt comfortable trying to drill the second one.






So I mounted the casing in my Sherline mill. 






And milled the opening using a 3/16 bit and very light cuts. 






I ended up with a D shaped opening, but it looks okay and it will be covered by the steam dome. 

If I had it to do over, Id chain drill the opening and then finish the edges with the mill. That or find a buddy with a big mill.

Dennis


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## 4156df

Boiler Casing (Continued)

Rudys engine has a row of rivets running longitudinally on the right side and in a ring around the boiler. Theyre there for appearance and represent the boiler plate joints on a real engine. Rudy spaced his 0.250 apart.  To be a little closer to scale, I decided to use a double row of rivets and to position them at about 10 oclock. Ill be using 1/16 rivets, so the holes will be drilled with a #51 drill. Heres my rivet spacing:






In order to keep the rivets in a nice line, I drilled the longitudinal ones on my Sherline mill. I spot drilled first, then through drilled.











The front ring of rivets was done on the drill press. The wood fixture keeps them in a nice line. Again, I spot drilled and then through drilled.






The last step was to cut away the piece of the casing where the firebox goes. A little clean up and the boiler casing is complete and ready for rivets.






Dennis


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## rake60

Dennis I don't know anything about the plans you are working from.
Is the outer housing a pressure vessel? 
Brass may not be a good choice.

Rick


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## Maryak

Dennis,

That's an awful lot of very nice work, not to mention the cost of material.........but if that is the boiler pressure vessel then for your safety and the safety of your loved ones, please don't use brass.

May I suggest you get a copy of the model boiler code for your country and follow it religiously as to choice of materials and construction techniques/requirements.

Traction engine boilers are subject to additional loads and stresses due to their carrying the front axle and steering mechanism.

Please be very careful, model boilers can maim and kill as readily as their big brothers.

Sorry if I've spoiled your day.

Best Regards
Bob


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## bearcar1

Gentlemen, what Dennis is working on is merely a 'boiler casing' that is actually window dressing. The true pressure vessel will be fabricated from copper and will be housed inside this casing, it will not be subjected to steam pressure at any time. BTW, Dennis, I like the way you have created the double row of rivets as in full scale production.

Jim B.


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## rake60

bearcar1  said:
			
		

> Gentlemen, what Dennis is working on is merely a 'boiler casing' that is actually window dressing. The true pressure vessel will be fabricated from copper and will be housed inside this casing, it will not be subjected to steam pressure at any time. BTW, Dennis, I like the way you have created the double row of rivets as in full scale production.
> 
> Jim B.



That's the answer I was hoping for!
The work is date is far too nice to be scrapped.

Rick


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## 4156df

Guys,

I appreciate your concern, but as Jim (bearcar1) says, it's just a casing. The Village Press plans I'm using have detailed instructions for the boiler as well as numerous safety cautions. It's a proven design as many of these engines/boilers have been built to these plans since 1971. 

That said, when I get to the boiler fab I'll be showing lots of pictures so if you see anything that causes concern regarding safety, please let me know.

Best regards,
Dennis


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## Maryak

Dennis,

Phew ;D ;D ;D

I'm so glad that's cleared up. :bow: :bow:

On with the show.

Best Regards
Bob


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## 4156df

Earlier Doug Lanum posted photos of changes he made to his tractor. Recently he sent me some additional photos. I thought everyone should see them and got his permission to post them here. He says he'll be happy to answer any questions. The mods include an improved crosshead design, addition of a whistle and a nifty draft fan. 



> The crosshead design was changed to match a more prototypical design.
> It is close to what Case used and is a more sturdy design.
> It is made of brass, and photos will follow soon.
> 
> We also made small fans to put on top of the stack while building pressire.
> We found that the alcohol burners had flame going everywhere, so the fan keeps the fire going the right direction. It also allows the steam pressure to build much quicker.
> once pressure is built8 up, and the engine is running, the engine exhaust provides sufficient draft.
> This fan is made with a simple bent blade impeller and a small 1.5 volt. motor.































































Regards,
Dennis


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## 4156df

Continuing my build....

Boiler Casing Rivets

Im using 1/16 solid brass round head rivets. The rivet place had a 1/4 lb. minimum (about 600 rivets) so I just bought the longest (1/2) and will cut as needed. To cut, I drilled a hole in an appropriate thickness of material and snipped the rivets with a side cutter. The side cutter leaves a V shaped tip, but that flattens when the rivets are set. 






Setting the side rows of rivets requires a tool that can reach in about 4. To do this, I modified an old C clamp by cutting the handle and foot off and then mounting the screw in the lathe and drilling the end with an 1/8 ball mill.






To set the rivets, insert a rivet and screw the clamp down until the rivet is set.  It's very helpful to make a stand to hold the boiler casing in place during riveting. It helps on those many occasions where you need three hands.  






Firebox Wrapper

Rudys plans call for 1/32 steel for the wrapper. In fact, he used sheet steel throughout his build.  I plan to use brass because I happen to have a nice piece of .032 brass on hand and because I'd rather work with brass than steel.

I layed out the wrapper and rubber cemented a copy to a piece of brass sheet, sheared it to size, drilled the rivet holes and prick punched the reference lines.











This paper & glue method might be suspect for precise machining operations, but it seems to work well for sheet metal layout.

After forming the wrapper, I clamped it in place on the boiler casing (this is where the reference lines Rudy suggested really come into play, because its important that the center of the wrapper be at top center of the casing). Then I drilled and set two rivets, moved the clamps down, drilled and set another two rivets and so on until the wrapper was in place.






This operation was not without its problems. Thats a broken off drill bit.






I broke two before I figured out my fixture had just enough wiggle to stress the bit. No problems after I fixed it. Fortunately, I was able to get both bits out by grinding a little on the back side and punching them out. 

Firebox Throat Sheet

The firebox throat sheet encloses the front of the firebox and is contoured to hug the bottom of the boiler casing. I made it using a fly cutter in the drill press. Note that the pattern is glued to a larger sheet of brass that is in turn clamped to the drill press table. No hands anywhere near the fly cutter or the work for this operation.






One advantage of using the fly cutter is that you end up with an extra throat piece (and yes, I screwed up the first one and needed the second).






The throat sheet is riveted to the firebox wrapper. I clamped it in place and line drilled and installed several rivets, then removed the clamps and finished up. Theres an old woodworkers saying that you can never have too many clamps. Looks like it applies to model engineering, too.






Heres the finished boiler casing and firebox subassembly.






Dennis


----------



## Maryak

Dennis,

Beautiful work. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## cfellows

Wow, that's gonna be a FINE looking boiler. Great work.

Chuck


----------



## 4156df

I thought Id posted this earlier, but guess I hadnt. The original Popular Mechanics (1971) article on Rudys Steam Tractor is here. (_Kermit, thanks for your post earlier today...I've always wondered how to insert a URL and rename it!_)

The sketches do a good job of showing the copper boiler nestled inside the boiler casing.

Sheet Metal Fab

Sheet metal parts are of .032 brass. Here they are sheared to size but without the notches cut out.






The notches need to be sawed out or cut in a way that doesnt distort the metal. A hack saw, jewelers saw and file worked pretty well.






Forming the parts is a matter of finding the right pieces of steel and clamping them in a vise. Fortuneately none of the pieces are overly long and only the platform sides have bends in two directions.  This photo shows bending using a body hammer, but I found that a rawhide mallet is a much better tool. The body hammer tends to leave dings and the mallet doesnt.






Formed sheet metal parts.






And here they are assembled into two of the three major body assemblies (the boiler casing is the third).






The jewelers saw/file work pretty good for the fiddly sheet metal.











This Motion Support Plate is built per print but will be modified as required to implement Doug Lanums improved crosshead support.






Here the boiler casing is upside down to show the Perch Bracket (supports the front axle fork). Its a form and fit part thats riveted to the boiler casing. A long rod inserted through it and the hole in the boiler casing helps with alignment as you want the fork to be perfectly vertical once the tractor is on its wheels.






I think thats the last sheet metal for awhilefor a machining site, it seems like a long time since Ive machined anything. Thanks for bearing with me.

Dennis


----------



## 4156df

Front Axle Fork & Front Axle

The front axle fork and front axle are pretty much just straight machining jobs.






The front wheels are held on the axle with external circlips which require a 0.025 groove. I cut the grooves using a modified x-acto blade.






First grind off the blade, then shape the tip. The tool is used freehand using a ¼ tool bit as a T-rest.  Manipulate it like a parting tool on a wood lathe.  The technique came from a clockmakers video. It works great on brass and aluminum for parting off small bits.






The front axle fork is a cylindrical turning with flats machined on each side.






A 5/16 slot forms the fork. I cut the slot full width by taking lots of very light passes.






Once the front axle was complete, I couldnt resist putting it on its wheels.






Still a long ways to go, but Im feeling like I have a fighting chance of getting there. Cant wait to get it running.

Dennis


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## Paolo

One of my next project is a tractor...I'm learning a lot eyeing yours work progress....!! Thanks for sharing! Great job
Cheers 
Paolo


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## 4156df

First, Paolo thanks for the comment. It's good to know someone's following along.

Bearing Blocks

The horn plates are made from 0.042 brass. They bolt to the fire box wrapper and support the power train axles.







This cheapie punch from Harbor Freight worked very well for getting round precisely placed holes for the axle shafts. Its a handy tool to have around.






The axle shafts run through six bearing blocks that are mounted to the horn plates. The bearing blocks are 5/8 x 5/8 x 3/16. Rudy used aluminum blocks with small inset bronze bushings.  But life is short, so Im going with brass blocks with reamed holes for the bearing surface. The axles will be ¼ drill rod. Rudy suggests turning the axles between centers, but again, life is short. 

I milled the blocks as a group.











Since the blocks are identical and diagonally symmetrical, I decided to build this variation of a vise stop I saw on the Sherline site (http://www.sherline.com/tips.htm).






It worked great and was well worth making. Also note the packing peanut holding the parallels in place. I dont know where I read that tip, but it works very well. No worries about drilling into it.






The finished bearing blocks with a couple of spares.






The bearings eventually get fastened to the horn plates but before doing that, I did a trial fit. Turns out that was a good idea because I had to do a little trimming on one of the sheet metal parts.






After everything fit, I spotted the bearings using a piece of ¼ drill rod and line bored for two mounting rivets.






And here are the horn plates with mounted bearing blocks. The half width piece is a nut plate that the idler shaft bolts into.






Regards,
Dennis


----------



## 4156df

Gear Train

Other builders of Rudys Steam Tractor have mentioned that the speed of his tractor seemed too high.  To slow it down, I picked gears that give a crankshaft to wheel ratio of 50.6:1 which means my tractor should move at a little less than half the speed of Rudys. One set of gears was added to the train to get the lower speed.

All gears are 48 pitch, 14.5 degree pressure angle, brass with an 1/8 face. The source was SDP-SI Drive Components, www.sdp-si.com.

Even with all the choices of gears, it ended up that every gear with the exception of the countershaft pinion required some sort of modification.

Name              Teeth   Pitch Dia.       Required Modification:

Crankshaft Pinion		32	0.667		Add hub & enlarge hole
Idler
    (Compound)		80	1.667 		Remove hub
    (Compound)		40	0.813		Enlarge hole
Countershaft 
    (Compound)	      108	2.250		Shorten hub, add setscrews
    (Compound)	       16	0.333		No mod required
Bull Gear		      120	2.500		Reduce hole/hub dia. Setscrews

To add a hub to the crankshaft pinion, I made the hub, then turned an aluminum mandrel with a step to match the hub and pinion IDs.






Soft soldered the two together, removed the aluminum mandrel, then drilled and reamed to 1/4".











The idler compound gear was done using the same aluminum mandrel. I was concerned about getting solder in the smaller gears teeth, so I put the solder between the gears first. 






It was a good plan, but poorly executed. I used too much solder and was pushing down on the top gear as the joint heated. When the solder melted the gear dropped into place, squirting solder out the edge. Luckily it only got into a few of the smaller gears teeth, but it made a mess of the large gear face. Cleanup involved picking the solder out of the teeth with dental tools and chucking the gear in the lathe and refacing it.  Lesson learned: less solder, more patience.

The whole episode reminded me of a comment Rudy Kouhoupt makes in one of his videos about the best way of cleaning up a mess is to not make it in the first place. 

The gear cleaned up fairly well and is fully functional, but you can still see some of the solder residue. Fortunately it will be hidden by the horn plate. 






The larger gears came with a 5/16 bore that needed to be reduced to 1/4". This was done by turning a bushing, locktiting it into place and then trimming after the loctite cured..











Once modified, the gears meshed nicely and everything fit where its supposed to.






Dennis


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## bearcar1

Dennis, you are killing me here! Terrific looking work and I see why you are not a plumber :big:
If I may inquire, what was the cost (more or less) of that gear package from SDP? I had cost out a gearset from Boston Gears and am still cleaning up the mess I made in my drawers when I got the price quote th_confused0052 Thank you also for the marvelous camera work documenting your fantastic work.

BC1

**added note** 
Never mind about the cost, I did the research and SDP is cheaper than BG.

BC1


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## Maryak

Dennis,

Beautiful work. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## kustomkb

Very nice work, it looks great. 

Nice tooling too!


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## seagar

Nice work,thanks for shareing.

Ian (seagar) :bow: :bow: :bow:


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## 4156df

Thanks for the comments guys.

Jeez BearCar, here I'd just managed to get over the cost of the gears and you come along and re-open the wound! ;D

Yep they're pricey. I had figured out a set that was considerably cheaper, but I would have had to compromise on the gear ratio plus use a combination of pressed steel and plastic gears. When the time came to push the order button I just couldn't do it. You've got to admit these wide face brass gears look good.

You can bet that since I ordered these, no appliance, toy or tool gets thrown away without me eyeballing it for any gears!

Regards,
Dennis


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## Paolo

Nice job...please post more...!!! th_wwp
Paolo


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## bearcar1

Yeah Denny, they be good and pricey, that is a fact. I truly DO admire your style :bow: for not going the low road and cheaping out on such a fine looking project. Those gears are worth every pound. ;D 
Cheers

BC1
Jim


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## 4156df

Steering

The steering wheel is pretty much per Rudys plan.






The rim is formed from 3/32 brass rod. Its over bent around a mandrel, then cut with a jewelers saw.






The spokes are cut from 0.032 brass sheet with a jewelers saw. I used a machinist vise and a couple of 1/4" spacers to get the spokes dished evenly.






This was my first production silver solder part. I used silver solder because the hub and steering knob need to be soldered to the wheel too and I couldnt see how to do them all at once. Anyway, I needed to get over my fear of silver solder because the engine and boiler are coming up and they require a lot of it.

Heres my setup. Thanks to ghart3 for the holddown critter idea. It works great!






The center hub was then soft soldered to the spokes leaving the steering knob as the last item.






The nubbin is 1/32. This is the smallest part Ive ever fabricated. I now have a whole new appreciation for the miniature work some of you guys do.  Heres the soldering set-up. The white is water soaked rag to keep the center hub from de-soldering. (I should have mentioned that I drilled the 1/32 knob hole in the rim prior to soldering the spokes on.)






It all looks pretty calm in the photo, but I forgot about making sure that things cant move during soldering. Mid-way through, the flux pushed the knob up and out of the hole. Needless to say things are anything but calm when youve got a torch in one hand, a tweezers in the other and youre trying to put a nub into a 1/32 hole while your hands are shaking at 1/8 plus! Anyway, alls well that ends well.






Regards,

Dennis


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## itowbig

very nice work there . i like the hold down thingy. thank you for showing us a wonderful build.


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## rake60

Looking GREAT Dennis!

Working on that scale is far beyond my own skills.
That makes it even better to see it being done.

Keep the updates coming!

Rick


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## joe d

Dennis:

I'm still following with great interest, and it's looking damned fine! My copy of the book just arrived from Village Press... between the book and your thread, I'll be all set. Sadly (for me) you've set the bar rather high for fit and finish! Keep up the great work. :bow:

Cheers, Joe


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## 4156df

Guys,

Thanks for the comments. Joe, I hope you'll post your progress.

Steering (contd)

The steering pinion is a 20 tooth gear with a 0.417 pitch diameter. The steering worm pitch diameter is 0.333. Both were purchased from www.sdp-si.com. The worm gear ID is 3/16 so it needs to be sleeved to fit the 3/32 steering shaft. The sleeve also provides a place for a set screw so the steering wheel and shaft can be removed. I used loctite to hold the sleeve in the worm gear.






The right steering bracket uses a 1/4" square post to hold the steering shaft and worm in position. The post has to be mounted at just the right angle so the gears mesh smoothly. I clamped it in place, marked it, and then silver soldered it. I think it could just as well be soft soldered, but Im trying to build my silver solder confidence before I get to the engine and boiler.  The following pictures show the process. The four prick punch marks provide a small gap between the parts for solder flow.






Ive learned the hard way that with silver solder things need to be held in place or the boiling flux will surely move them.






Solder and flux in position. Im soldering with a basic hardware store propane torch (not the little butane one visible in the above photo).






Part after soldering. _(Im hoping experienced silver solderers will chime in here. Does the blackened flux mean I held the heat on too long and if so, is it detrimental to the joint?)_






This is the part after one hour in citric acid pickle and brushed with a toothbrush.






Part after 0000 steel wool buff. Im happy with it. My second silver soldered part!!






Here it is mounted on the tractor. The Phillips head screws are only temporary.






The last steering part is a sheet metal bracket to hold the upper steering post. Its positioned to match the angle of the 1/4 post on the lower bracket and then riveted to the horn plate. Ive just clamped and marked it for now and will rivet it the next time I take off the horn plate.






Heres the completed steering assembly showing the chain shaft & spacers. The steering chains will be fastened to the shaft using two 2-56 screws.






Dennis


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## ghart3

Dennis, looking real good. Your doing a nice job.

On the hold down your using for silver soldering, copper might not be the best choice. Not only does it conduct heat good but silver solder loves sticking to copper.  Stainless steel that has been heavily oxidized from over heating works good especially if it has to be real close to the joint being soldered (brazed)


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## 4156df

Gary,

You're right about the copper. Note I did neck it down to try and minimize heat conduction but i've got to admit I never even considered the possibility of soldering it to my part. It was a case of using what I had until I found the right thing. Your tip on using oxidized stainless is a good one. Also have been told to try broken titanium bike spokes. Hard to find though.

I've just got to say thank you again for posting photos of your hold down critters. They're a great idea and unbelievably handy. If you haven't seen Gary's, they'rehere. He's a little more imaginative than I am.

Dennis


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## jthulin

4156df  said:
			
		

> Part after soldering. _(Im hoping experienced silver solderers will chime in here. Does the blackened flux mean I held the heat on too long and if so, is it detrimental to the joint?)_



Dennis, firstly, what a beautiful job you are doing :bow: your "sheet metal" work is amazing!

In my silver soldering experience, I don't get blackening as in your photo. Here is a picture of a cylinder that I did recently:






The parts are brass and were actually still hot when the picture was taken. I too use citric acid for pickle with results just like yours. 

Did you use any abrasive paper on the parts before soldering? Inedequate cleaning of brass dust and abrasive particles can contaminate work. Sometimes I even wash parts with hand cleaner or soap first to be sure of no oil or grease. You should only need to heat the part long enough for the solder to flow, then maybe a few seconds more, but that is it, there is no need to make the parts any hotter.

I have heard of other people using punch marks to create a gap for the silver as well, but I don't. Unless you have a press fit, the silver will find its way into most seams.

I can't wait to watch the rest of your build ;D


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## Paolo

No words Dennis!! I'm admiring your nice job!! jthulin ,as I learned over my skin, We have to use citric acid for pickle before and after silver soldering for having great results...believe me!!
Cheers Paolo


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## 4156df

Jeff,
Thanks for the input. I've been doing some practicing and you're right about not getting the heat off quick enough. I thought I had to stay on the joint longer to insure the solder flowed everywhere. Not so. As you said, just a few seconds after first flow and it's done.

Paolo,
Your posts on soldering your boiler have really been helpful. You've saved me from a lot of problems. 

Regards,
Dennis


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## Paolo

Hi Dennis
Thanks..We are here mostly for exchange our experiences..bad :fan: or not.. Rof} experience anyway...!!
Paolo


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## 4156df

Smoke Box Door

The smoke box door is machined from a disc of 3/8 brass. The disc was trued up and a step cut in it (the step matches the ID of the boiler casing). I used double sided tape and pressure to hold the disc for this operation. 






The disc was then reversed, gripped by the step and a decorative profile was turned on the face. My door is a little more elaborate than Rudys and I think a little closer to the real tractors look except it doesnt have an eagle.





The fake hinges were machined from two pieces of 1/16 brass soft soldered together





and separated. Residual solder was easily sanded off.





Slots were milled for the hinges.





The hinges were positioned and soldered using soft solder.





The smoke box door is held on by a clip screwed to the back side. (This will probably have to be redesigned as Im not happy with the way it works.)





Returning to the face sidetwo modified rivets simulate latches and the holes in the outer rim will hold dummy brass hex screws or studs that will be installed after painting. Heres the finished smoke box door.





Regards,
Dennis


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## zeeprogrammer

When I saw those pics I gasped. Beautiful. I mean really. I gasped.


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## 4156df

First off, thanks Zee. You're going to give me a big head.

Smokestack

Rudys plans call for use of a 3/4" OD brass tube for the smokestack. I decided Id like one with a taper more in keeping with the full size engine. To make it, I started by turning a wood mandrel to a shape I liked.





Then I cut a piece of 0.010 copper and wrapped it around the mandrel with about a quarter inch overlap. Copper because I happened to have a piece.





Tied the copper in place using stainless steel wire and slid the stack off the mandrel.





Then soldered it using soft solder and a 100 watt electric iron. There are a few divots visible in the photo, but I went back and touched them up after Id taken the wires off.





After cleaning the flux off the stack it went back to the mandrel for clean up of the joint. I first filed most of the excess solder off, then turned on the lathe and used 320 sandpaper to clean the rest of it up. It cleaned up surprisingly well, with no sign of the lap joint left. After sanding, I used a fine jewelers saw to trim the top perpendicular to the axis of the stack. 





Once the top was trimmed, I measured the diameter and turned a brass ring to finish off the top of the stack. Sorry, no photos of this but its just a straight machining job.

I used a 1/2" to 1 copper reducer to fabricate the transition piece from the stack to the boiler casing and for once didn't have to use the spare.





Most of the 1 portion of the reducer was trimmed off on the lathe (Geez I hate turning copper!).





To get the boiler casing profile, I chucked a piece of 2 iron pipe (same diameter as the brass casing) in the lathe and wrapped it with a piece of 100 grit paper. Using a piece of copper pipe in the fitting for visual reference, I sanded till it fit the profile and looked like it was perpendicular to the pipe. 





_(This may look unsafe, but I dont feel that it was. I had the lathe running at slow and never felt like anything was even close to being out of control. Slow and steady is the answer.)_

After profiling, the sides were trimmed and four mounting holes drilled (another reason to hate working with copper). Then the brass ring and transition part were soft soldered to the stack. I used the propane torch for this and wrapped the stack with wet rags to keep the lap joint from unsoldering. First I soldered the brass ring, let everything cool and then soldered the transition fitting. There was a little bit of reflow of the joint, but it was easily cleaned up.






And heres the stack in place. The screws are only temporary.





Dennis


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## bearcar1

Brilliantly done Dennis! Bravo. :bow: You have given me exactly what I was looking for to fabricate the stack as you have it there. Well done and thanks for the idea.

BC1
Jim


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## PhillyVa

4156df ,

This is just an awesome build... :bow: very well done :bow:

Regards

Philly


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## jthulin

Simply amazing :bow: :bow:


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## Maryak

Dennis,

Absolutely brilliant, :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## Paolo

Nice useful idea...!! Thanks for sharing... :bow: :bow:
Cheers
Paolo


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## bronson

This has been a great build to watch. I think you will have a very nice steam tractor when you are done. Looking Great.


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## cfellows

Very nice work. Love the way you did the smoke stack!

Chuck


----------



## DavesWimshurst

Dennis,
You have done beautiful work on your tractor! Bravo! :bow: :bow:
Dave


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## 4156df

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to comment on my progress. It's very gratifying. Thank you. 

Cylinder Block

I wasnt sure how to approach fabricating the cylinder so I asked for help from HMEM members and as usual they came through (thread  here ). Lots of helpful ideas and approaches. Thanks, guys. Heres how I ended up doing it.

The cylinder is 1 1/16 long and 1 in diameter. Bore is 0.500 and stroke is 0.625. I used an overlong piece of 1 brass to give me something to hold onto (thanks bearcar1) and drilled and reamed to 0.500.





Then went to the mill and milled a flat for the valve plate (not sure what else to call it).





The valve plate is just a piece of 1/4" bar stock milled to 5/8 x 1 1/16. Here its in position and drilled and pinned with two 1/16 brass rods. The rods are to hold the plate in place during silver soldering.





I put a prick punch dimple in each of the four corners to provide clearance for the solder, cleaned everything with solvent and water and detergent, fluxed the joint and pre-positioned small flattened bits of silver solder, then heated the joint using two disposable tank propane torches. My wife (bless her) held one and I held the other.





_From what some of you have told me, the black indicates that I probably left the heat on a little longer than I should have. Still learning._

Heres the part after a half hour in citric acid pickle. 





Then it was back to the lathe to face the end.





After facing the part clamped square in the mill vise,





and the valve port face was milled flat. I was pleased to see how well the positioning pins disappeared.





At this point, the excess bar stock was sawed off and the other face of the cylinder block was milled flush.





_It turns out this step could have been done in the lathe. At the time, I didnt realize that the valve plate would fit nicely between two jaws of my three jaw and that the part could have been easily chucked up for facing._

With all the surfaces flat, the ports and holes were layed out,





and drilled an milled.  This is one of the steam passages (there are actually two holes, one is full of swarf).





The outer ends of the valve ports were drilled first and then the material between them was milled out using a 1/16 mill and lots of light cuts.





And heres the finished cylinder block.





This was a complicated part for me, thank you again for the good ideas shown in the thread I referenced earlier. The ideas really helped.

I'm going on vacation for a couple of weeks, so it'll be awhile before my next post. Thanks again for following along.

Dennis


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## bearcar1

Dennis, you make it look so easy! (It isn't) That is a great end product. Don't you just get a huge knot in your stomach milling those tiny, rather deep, ports? But then when it is all over, what a great feeling of accomplishment.


BC1
Jim


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## Speedy

your work is stunning!
and I enjoy seeing the sherlines working


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## vlmarshall

Beautiful work! :bow: 

Also like Speedy, I enjoy seeing other people using a Sherline mill.


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## zeeprogrammer

I went through the thread again.
Gasp (again).
Great stuff. Great thread.
Thanks.


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## JimM

Have to echo Zee's comment, truely breathtaking work

I've yet to start my first engine and I don't know whether to feel inspired or intimidated by the quality of some of the work on here. Can only hope that one day I'm at least as half as good 

Thanks

Jim


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## Paolo

Hi Dennis
Very nice cylinder..and nice idea to follows for doing that!!!
Thanks
Paolo


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## 4156df

I had forgotten how hard it is to get back in the groove after a vacation. Sorry to be so slow in acknowledging you guys comments. Thank you.

After my last post, I got an email from Doug Lanum with a helpful tip that I think should be shared. If you look at the picture of my completed cylinder you'll notice burrs where the threads start. Doug pointed out that these can easily be eliminated by using a countersink in the drill press or mill and making a shallow countersink about one thread deep before tapping. Good idea and I'm adding it to my process steps.

Steam Chest

I machined the steam chest and steam chest cover as a unit by sticking them together with double sided tape.










The mounting holes were also drilled as a unit. The double sided tape isnt very strong in tension so the pieces need to be supported during drilling.





After drilling, I separated the pieces and, before milling the steam chamber, I drilled and tapped the holes for the steam admission tee and the valve spindle. Doing it in this order eliminates problems with the drill bit grabbing as it breaks through what by then would be a fairly light part.

After laying out the steam chamber, I used a drill to remove most of the excess material. Then I used a 3/16 mill to cut the chamber to final size. The radius left in the corners by the mill was removed with a file.





A little cleanup and the steam chamber and cover are complete.










Regards,
Dennis


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## arnoldb

Very well done Dennis :bow:
Regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Steam Chest Gland

The gland nut gets tightened against stuffing to provide a sliding seal between the valve rod and the steam chest. Rudy doesnt say what to use for stuffing, so any suggestions from you live steamers will be appreciated.

I made the gland nut as an assembly of a nut and rod. The thread is 10-32, so I started by making a nut. A piece of 1/4" hex brass was drilled and tapped






and parted off.





Dont know if Ive mentioned this tip before, but the white rod in the above photo is a piece of wire clamped in the tailstock chuck. The item to be parted rotates around it and when the item is parted, it just hangs on the wire. Saves a lot of hunting time. For some reason on my lathe when a part falls, if almost always rolls way back under the mounting foot and is almost impossible to get out.

Next I threaded a piece of 3/16 brass rod and drilled and reamed it to 3/32 to fit the valve rod. Heres the rod and fabricated nut.





Then I silver soldered the nut to the shaft, sawed the excess material off and mounted the gland nut in the lathe by screwing it into a rod that had been tapped 10-32.  Then I faced the piece.





Here's the finished steam chest gland nut:





And on the steam chest. 





In the above photo there's no stuffing in place so the nut will stick out a bit more on the final assemble. As I mentioned at the start of this post, Im looking for suggestions as to what to use for stuffing.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## RobWilson

Hi Dennis
great build,love all the photos :bow:
I have used PTFE thread tape for small stuffing glands , holds up to steam OK , just rip it into thin strip.
Regards Rob


----------



## CrewCab

Hi Dennis, just catching up with your build, 8) great thread, thanks for taking the time to share everything with us, looking forward to the rest.

CC


----------



## vlmarshall

Steam, Sherline, and Lego... I'm really enjoying this thread.


----------



## zeeprogrammer

I don't know much about these things...

Why two pieces? Couldn't the gland nut be made out of one?

Is it because the threads need to come right up to the nut?

Thanks.


----------



## Jasonb

You can use plumbers PTFE tape twisted into a thin "rope" and then wound round the shaft.

Traditional material is Graphite yarn, this is like string impregnated with graphite which packs down well and is self lubricating. Most of the Model Eng' suppliers here carry it in various sizes, it can also be used in piston grooves

On larger glands a strip of "O" ring material wound round about three times will do, for smaller sizes an actual O ring can be used but they are better suited to glands that have plain sides and use a pair of nuts to pull them up.

Jason


----------



## bearcar1

The use of Teflon plumbers tape has one advantage over the 'old school' usage of graphite yarn and that is it does not produce any black residue from being exposed to heat and water. Personally I like the graphite yarn but it does produce a mess to clean up. 

BC1
Jim


----------



## DougLanum

Dennis,

Your work looks great!
I agree with using graphite yard packing.
If it is too large, you can use an Exacto knife to slit it into thinner strips to fit your packing gland.

Also, the current issue of Home Shop Machinist has an article about this same tractor.

Doug


----------



## Maryak

DougLanum  said:
			
		

> Dennis,
> 
> Your work looks great!
> I agree with using graphite yard packing.
> If it is too large, you can use an Exacto knife to slit it into thinner strips to fit your packing gland.
> 
> Also, the current issue of Home Shop Machinist has an article about this same tractor.
> 
> Doug



The packing I have is plaited and to get the size required, undo the plaiting and use as many strands as required twisted together, to get the right size.

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## 4156df

Guys,
Thanks for the info. I dug around in some old plumbing stuff I've got and found this. It's got kind of a slippery/soapy feel to it. Is this the graphite packing you're talking about? Hard to believe it is, since I already have some. Normally, I'd have to go out and buy what I need plus it would have a 50 yard minimum! :big:





Zee,
The gland nut could be made out of one piece. In fact, I suspect experienced builders wouldn't do it any other way. I still haven't tackled single point threading though so would have had to thread it with a die. I don't care for the look of the resulting space between the end of the thread and the nut.

Rob & CrewCab,
Thanks for the comments...It's always tough to decide how much detail to include. Generally I go with including a lot because I've learned so much from the photos you guys have posted. Plus, if someone's not interested they can just skip over it. 

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## bearcar1

Yes Dennis, that certainly appears to be graphite packing yarn. Nice work on the gland nut, I never thought about doing it that way but it sure worked out well. A small detail I have been thinking of doing to the valve chest cover is milling a shallow in it, leaving about 3/32" border, and then sweat soldering a metal linotype initial inside the 'frame'. Then the backround and letter could be painted for contrast. There is a lot one can do with these models and yours is going to be a fine example. :bow:

BC1
Jim


----------



## enginebob

This is a very interesting build! please keep the pictures flowin'! 
EB


----------



## 4156df

Jim...Neat idea of adding a letter to the steam chest cover. Another consideration might be to do it to the front cylinder cover. On this model, it's a lot more visible than the steam box cover. As you said, there's a lot that can be done with this and for me it's one of the plus' of building a representational model instead of an exact scale model.

This post is a continuation of building parts...as some of you have said, you keep building parts and one day you look up and you have an engine.

Cylinder Heads and Cylinder Gland

The engine has a front and a rear cylinder head. The front head is pretty straight forward. Turn to diameter and part off. The small depression is just for decoration.  Also, its hard to see, but before parting off I used the lathe index to mark the bolt circle for the four mounting bolts.





Flip the part over and re-chuck to turn a 1/32 high register for alignment with the cylinder.





The rear cylinder head is slightly more complicated because the piston rod goes through it and everything needs to be concentric with the cylinder bore. Turn to size, bore 1/8 for the piston rod and drill and tap 1/4-28 for the stuffing gland. Notice I forgot to chamfer the hole before I tapped it. I wouldnt have that burr if Id have remembered.





Next ream the 1/8 piston rod hole. This head has a 1/32 high register on the back side just like the front head's. Because alignment is critical, I turned this one to size before parting the head off. Also marked the bolt hole pattern before parting.





After parting, punch, spot and drill the mounting holes. I drilled them to 1/16 and used a piece of pointed 1/16 drill rod as a transfer punch to transfer the holes to the cylinder. After marking the cylinder, you can enlarge the cylinder head holes to final size. This completes the heads.





Unlike the steam chest gland, I made the cylinder gland from one piece. Thats because I intend to use Doug Lanams design for the cylinder guide and it requires a longer stuffing gland. The extra length you get from cutting the threads with a die will actually be an advantage. 

To make the gland, a piece of brass was turned to size, threaded 1/4-28 and bored to 1/8.





A single point thread would have gotten a lot closer to the shoulder, but in this case its not a problem. Because of the die design, the last few threads are not to full depth and were removed before parting.





Normally the gland nut would have a hex end or tommy bar holes for adjustment, but because of the design of the crosshead guide, this nut sits down in a tube and neither adjustment method will work. I decided to go with multiple screw slots that (hopefully) can be adjusted by reaching in with a probe or small screw driver. To make the slots, I made an indexer by tapping a piece of hex stock to 1/4-28, installed the gland nut, then cut the slots with a slitting saw. Worked great. Hope the adjustment scheme works as well.





Heres the finished gland nut,





And in the cylinder head.





That's it for now.
Dennis


----------



## NOI53Y

Wow.

This is some awesome stuff. Thanks for posting.


----------



## bearcar1

Nice work Den'. I like the gland adjuster slots, hope that they work out for you. You are also correct about the 'initial' being out of sight on the valve cover. The front cylinder cover would be a much better place for such an embellishment. I'm anxious to see you fabricate the tube trunk guide for the crosshead. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing with all of us.

BC1
Jim


----------



## 4156df

Jim,
I'm hoping to get to the crosshead guide next week...no promises though.

Crank

The crank is 1 3/8 OD, 3/16 thick brass. Its made in two pieces to make it easier to neatly remove two triangular sections. 

I started by turning a 1 3/8 OD x 3/16 disc.





then bored the center to 1 to make a ring.





and fit the ring to a piece of 1 stock. The two parts will be soldered together, so the fit is loose, but not sloppy. Hows that for really pinning the fit down? :big:





Fabricate the center section by drilling a D size center hole (later to be reamed to 1/4") and turning a 1/16 high boss on the face.





Part or saw off a 1/4" section and reverse in the chuck to face the back side.  I used a couple of parallels to help with alignment. Of course theyre removed before turning.  Alignment and concentricity arent critical here because everything will be trued up after solder, but close is better.





After facing the back side, lay out the crank. I rubber cemented a pattern on. Saw off the two triangles and drill and tap the hole for the crank pin.





Then assemble for solder. I used soft solder and aligned things so the two pieces are flush on the back side and the center piece is inset by 1/32 on the front.





After solder, drill and tap the rim for a 6-32 set screw.





Ream the center hole to 1/4" and turn a 1/4" snug fitting mandrel. Mount the crank on the mandrel using the set screw. From this point on, the mandrel shouldnt be removed from the lathe chuck. Turn the outer rim true, face the front side, reverse the crank on the mandrel and face the back side





to complete the crank.





I wanted the 1/32 inset because Im thinking Im going to paint the center of the crank and the inset will help define the line. Rudy did his flush.

Dennis


----------



## Hilmar

Dennis
  In the pix where You solder the cylinder between the two stones what is that screen 
material the cylinder lays on and the pins stick in?

By the way that old plumbing stuff You found the "graphite packing " some one told me 
it is worth like gold. Supposedly it is not made any more because of the asbestos. I still 
have a roll of it from the 1960s. I don't know if it true
Hilmar


----------



## bearcar1

Oh my Dennis, you are way out in front of the embellishment curve here. I am glad to see that I am not the only person that thinks the surfaces being flush appears horrible. The recess will indeed define those surfaces and give a more scale like appearance (but you know that already) ;D

Looking GREAT!!!


BC1
Jim


----------



## 4156df

Thanks, Jim.

Hilmar,
The solder surface you referred to is a honeycomb ceramic block. I picked mine up at a swap meet, but they're available on-line. Should be around $10. Their claim to fame is a flat, stable surface that you can stick positioning pins into. Also, supposed to have good heat reflectivity. I haven't used mine much yet, but like it so far.
Dennis


----------



## 4156df

Cross Slide Guide

For the cross slide mechanism, Im using Doug Lanums design as described here. Dougs design is more rigid and looks more like the prototype engine than the one in the Village Press plans.

I did all of the lathe work in one set up. The finished cross slide guide is 2.500 long. I started with a 1 piece of brass rod and drilled and bored it 5/8D x 2.125 deep.






I then added the live center for support and turned the outside details. I used the compound set at 45 degrees to do the angle detail.





Round the flange and decorative ring with a file and complete the center bore by drilling a 3/8 hole for the valve rod/packing gland to pass through. 





Part off and the lathe work is finished.





The rest of the guide is done on the mill. The first step is to saw off the excess material on the end (faster than milling).





Then clamp in the mill vise and mill the flat where the cross slide guide mounts to the horn plate.





Without moving the part in the vise, switch to a 1/2" mill and mill the end contour.





Rotate the part 90 degrees to drill the two 2-56 mounting holes and the side openings. I used an adjustable parallel to get the correct rotational setting.





Drill and tap the two 2-56 mounting holes.





Then cut the side openings with a 3/8 mill. I did this by taking light, full cutter-width passes through the top surface and then on through the bottom.





Using the cylinder head holes as a guide, drill the four mounting holes in the flange.

That finishes the machine work. The sharp edges on the sides and near the mount will be rounded and blended later. 





I had planned to use 2-56 brass hex head screws for assembly, but discovered that I didnt leave enough room to get them in the holes. Drat!

There are a couple of ways to work around the problem. One is to use studs. Thats what Ill do if I can find some decent scale 2-56 nuts. The other is to just enlarge the holes enough to get the hex head screws in. This should be an okay work around because the boss on the cylinder head provides the registration. 





Two other things to consider if you make this: one, make the flange flat where the bolts land (Mine has a slight slope. Itll be okay, but would be better flat.) and two, leave another quarter inch on the end where the cross slide guide screws to the hornplate. A little extra length there will allow for a nicer transition between the guide and the hornplate.

I think this is going to be a very noticeable enhancement to my tractor and just want to thank Doug Lanum again for sharing the idea. If youre out there DougThanks!

Dennis


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Beautiful piece of work Dennis.
It came at a good time for me. I was feeling a bit down with my lathe...seeing your work keeps me motivated.


----------



## shred

FWIW, I found some scale brass 2-56 nuts at a model train hobby shop a while back-- might want to look there if you go the studs-n-nuts routine.


----------



## PhiberOptix

What a wonderful thread, 
great pics and write up
top notch :bow:

regards
Andy


----------



## DougLanum

Dennis,

Your work looks great.
Keep the updates coming

Doug


----------



## vlmarshall

Excellent series of photos. Thanks for taking the time to shoot and post them.


----------



## 4156df

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments. Always encouraging to know you're following along. I'm continuing on with the power train components. Today it's the cross head.

Cross Head

The Cross Head is made from a 7/8 long, 5/8 diameter piece of brass rod. First turn a 1/4" dia. x 1/8 boss on one end, then drill and tap 5-40 to accept the piston rod (Note: Rudys plans call for a 1/8 dia. piston rod with a 4-40 thread, but I used 5-40 because its a perfect thread for a 1/8 rod).





Thats it for the lathe work. The rest of the cross head is done in the mill. 

The first step is to mill flats on each side of the guide. The flats are 3/8 wide 3/16 up from the center line. I used an aluminum vee to avoid marring the surface of the guide and a 3/8 mil to cut the flats. 





After the first side is milled, turn the part over and mill the other side. I used an adjustable parallel to help align the part so the two flats are parallel.





After the second flat was milled and before taking the guide out of the vise, I drilled and tapped a 4-40 hole for the cross head pin (Rudy calls this a gudgeon).  





The next step is to mill the cavity for the connecting rod. The cavity is 7/16 long x 3/16 wide and 9/16 deep. I located the center with a wiggler and then worked off of it to mill the slot.





Its a lot faster to drill than mill, so I used a 3/16 drill to remove most of the material before milling.





After drilling, I used a 3/16 end mill and lots of shallow passes to get to the final dimensions. 





I'm intimidated by deep, narrow slots but it turned out okay.









At this point the cross head is fully functional, but I decided to embellish it a little (and make it more like the prototype) by shaping the ends.





The finished cross head.





Regards,
Dennis


----------



## japcas

Great looking job Dennis! Also the writeup is phenomenal. When this is finished it would be neat if this thread could be put on cd and sold to others wanting to build this project. I'd definitely buy it. I have Rudy's plans for this but too many other projects going on right now to even try and start it but someday I want to build my own steam traction engine. I really like the gear reduction you did as there is nothing worse than seeing a really nice model that moves way to fast for the scale it is built in. I look forward to seeing a video of it running when it is finished. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.


----------



## Paolo

I have Rudy's plans for this but I think to start the project next year...I have to do more practice and change my lathe...!!! 
Great Job...really well done th_confused0052
Paolo


----------



## 4156df

japcas,

I can't think of a quicker way to turn a hobby into a job than to try and make money at it.  

You're right about scale model speeds...ghart and Doug Lanham gave me a "heads-up" early in the build or I never would have thought of adding the extra gears.

I appreciate your comments. I hope you'll post some of your projects.

Paolo,

I've seen your work...I don't think you need more practice or a new lathe! Maybe just the time to work on it. When you get started on your tractor, please share it with us.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

You sure are making a great job of it, Dennis. Fine work, and the write up is appreciated!
Watching your progress with interest.

Dean


----------



## arnoldb

Good job Dennis Thm: - not just OK like you said!

Regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Guys,
Thanks for the positive comments. They're much appreciated.

Cylinder Mounting Bracket

The cylinder mounting bracket is a two piece sheet metal assembly. Layout and cutting of the parts is the same as shown in previous posts. 





To get a smooth concave cut on the bracket, I rough trimmed it and then sanded it on an off-cut from the boiler casing.





The lower part of the bracket was bent on the off-cut and clamped to it to mark the locations of the rivet holes.





Connecting Rod

The connecting rod is made from 1/8 steel.





The connecting rod has a decorative inset. Since the edges of the inset are parallel to a line tangent to the two holes, I drilled the holes and then used drill bits pressed against the T slot to align the inset to the mill table. I milled one edge and then moved the plate to align the other edge and milled it. This alignment method is a variation on an approach Bogstandard showed in one of his early posts.





I had planned to use the same alignment method for the edges, but my mill vise is too short so I had to align the part using the layout lines.





The end was rounded on the rounding table using a rotary file instead of a mill. Using a rotary file is a tip from mklotz and it really helps to reduce the pucker factor on this operation.










After machining, the connecting rod was polished using 320, 400 and 600 grit paper on a flat plate.





The inset will be painted so I left it at 320. The engine parts of the tractor are almost all complete. I havent shown fabrication of the piston, but its a straight forward turning operation. The valve and eccentric are still to be done.





Here are the parts in a trial fit on the tractor.





You might notice I also added some rivets on the horn plates to represent cross stays. I think they add some interest to what was basically a flat piece of brass.

Dennis


----------



## vlmarshall

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! :bow:

I really like the sheet brass work, I'm working with the stuff this very minute... so you'll have at least ONE person who likes all those rivets. Once they're painted over, they'll stop being a 'feature" and fade into 'texture'.


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Nice nice work! Love the connecting rod. Thanks also for all the great build detail. Very helpful.


----------



## arnoldb

Very well done indeed Dennis ! Thm:
Regards, Arnold


----------



## CrewCab

Lovely work Dennis and a great write up, ........... thanks 8)

CC


----------



## kvom

I'm loving this thread. Great work.


----------



## 4156df

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. 

Vernon, I hope you're right re: 





> all those rivets. Once they're painted over, they'll stop being a 'feature" and fade into 'texture'.


 I'm hoping for a first reaction of "Wow, nice engine." rather than "hey, look at all the rivets."

Continuing with the build:

Valve & Linkage

The valve is made from a piece of 1/4" x 1/4" brass and is 1/2" long when finished. I laid it out on a 3 piece of stock and did all the machining before cutting it loose as a final step.





That included milling the 3/16 wide by 3/64 deep exhaust cavity on the bottom side.  





The exhaust cavity came out a little sloppier than Id like. I think because I milled the outline first and then cleaned up the center. Better practice would have been to clear the center, leave material around the edges and clean that up last.  A lesson learned. Heres the completed valve and the valve spindle.





The valve spindle is made from 3/32 brass rod. The spindle section is turned down to 1/16 and the other end is threaded 2-56. 

I had no luck turning the spindle (it kept bending). So instead of turning, I supported the free end in a piece of 3/32 ID tubing held in the tailstock and used a file to reduce the spindle to 1/16. I also found out that you cant thread 3/32 rod to 2-56. The rod is 0.0938 and a 2-56 thread wants 0.0860. In order to thread the spindle, I left a little extra length as a bearing and filed a section to 0.086, then cut the bearing part off and threaded the rod to 2-56.





The next item in the linkage is the spindle eye. Its cut from a piece of 1/4" square stock. Turn, drill and tap 2-56,





then cut off and clamp in the mill (the bits of paper protect the finish on the turned section).  Drill and tap 2-56 for the cross pin screw. After tapping, I counterbored half way through with a #43 drill to allow clearance for the screw.  Then I used a 1/16 slotting saw to cut the slot for the valve rocker.





Round the ends on the rounding table to complete the eye.





The eccentric eye is done the same way except the end is drilled 3/32 instead of being tapped. The bent rod in the photo is just a piece of scrap and not part of the engine.





Thats it for today. Next up is the eccentric.

Dennis

P.S. I'm hitting "Post" without benefit of the inoperative "Preview" feature, so bear with me.


----------



## cobra428

Denis,
I have the same problem....preview and ......wait and.....wait so I post and look.

But...Nice Parts...Project is coming along great

Tony


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Very nice Dennis.
Gee...your scrap parts look better than my 'good' parts.


----------



## Deanofid

Progress, progress, Dennis! Looking better all the time, and it's a very enjoyable thread you have here. Nice work!



			
				zeeprogrammer  said:
			
		

> Very nice Dennis.
> Gee...your scrap parts look better than my 'good' parts.



Ah, Zee. You're just a frustrated metal bender.

DW


----------



## sawyer massey

very nice build ,
the wheels are the worst ...lol i leave mine tell last ,makes want to get them done ha ha ha 
have a great day 
Todd


----------



## Kermit

4156df  said:
			
		

>




 Thm:

a neat approach my old brain would never have thought of. I really like it.

Kermit


----------



## arnoldb

You're doing a lovely job Dennis :bow:

Regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Once again guys, thanks for the comments. They're really appreciated.

Slip Eccentric

Rudys tractor uses a slip eccentric for valve motion. It allows the engine to rotate in either direction using just one eccentric. The major components are an eccentric strap, eccentric and eccentric drive collar. Heres an after picture to give you an idea of what the pieces are and where they go.





The eccentric strap is a 1 OD, 5/8 ID brass ring. The ID is a running fit with the eccentric so it should have a smooth finish. ID isnt overly critical because the eccentric will me made to fit the strap.





The following picture doesnt add any info, but its so rare for me to have something part off cleanly that theres no way this photo wasnt going into the post. Why cant it always be like this?? 





The eccentric is turned from steel and is a running fit with the eccentric strap. I used the strap as a gauge to get the correct eccentric diameter. Once the fit is good, cut a groove for the screw point that holds the ring on the eccentric and then part off.










The eccentric gets its eccentricity from a 1/4" hole reamed 1/8 off center. I used a wiggler to find the center of the eccentric using the parting lines for reference, and then the mill readout to move over 1/8. Compared to some of the eccentrics Ive seen on this site this is a pretty simple one.





To complete the eccentric, and before removing it from the mill, drill and tap a 2-56 hole 3/32 off the center point directly opposite the 1/4" hole. This hole is for the stop pin that will engage the eccentric drive collar.

The eccentric strap machining is finished off with a drilled 3/32 hole for the eccentric rod and a 2-56 tapped hole for the screw that engages the groove in the eccentric. The screw and groove keep the ring on the eccentric.





Heres the completed eccentric and eccentric strap.





The eccentric rod and eye are soft soldered to the eccentric ring. I used solder preforms to help control the solder.





The eccentric drive collar is 1/2" diameter and 1/4" wide with a 1/8 wide step milled in it. The step depth is initially cut to 15/64 and, per the plans, may have to be adjusted later to get correct valve movement. I milled the step first,





then reversed the collar on a sacraficial parallel to drill and tap a 6-32 hole for the setscrew that locks the collar to the drive shaft.





And heres the completed slip eccentric ready to install the linkage. Based on what the plans say, this will be coming apart a few times in a slow and tedious process of adjusting the drive collar step to get the right valve movement.





It took me a while to get my head around how this works, but I think Ive got it now. To reverse the engine, you stop it and manually turn the crankshaft about a half turn opposite the direction it was running. This will engage the other side of the drive collar step but will not move the valve. However, the crankpin will have moved to the other side of dead center. When the steam is turned on again the piston continues in the same direction it was, but because the crankpin is on the other side of dead center, the engine rotation will be reversed. Clear as mud, right?

Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

It sure is looking good, Dennis. Very good workmanship!
That's a pretty neat idea for a forward/reverse on the engine. It does take a little thinking to see why it would work, but I'll bet it's one of those things that once seen in action puts the ol' light bulb on upstairs. (It's always simple when someone else does it!)

Oh, by the way, nice rivets..

Dean


----------



## vlmarshall

Very nice work! :bow: I really enjoy reading updates on this project.


Yep, that's what's called a "slip eccentric", a really simple way of reversing model engines. Lots of small locomotives, and my old Wilesco, use the same idea with a pin sliding in a slot.


----------



## Paolo

Hi Dennis
I have just revised your entire post...I'm really fascinated from your working style!!!
Best regards
Paolo


----------



## ariz

how I missed this work in progress? ???

Dennis you're doing an excellent work and a very useful explanation of it! many thanks for showing it and many many compliments for your great work :bow:


----------



## tel

It's certainly coming along nicely


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Nice Nice Nice.
If you keep this up, I'm going to run out of things to say.


----------



## 4156df

Not to much to post today....

Linkage

Here are the linkage bits and pieces installed on the tractor.





The hardware is temporary and on final assembly, the screw in the center of the rocker link will be installed from this side with a jam nut on the far side.  

There are a couple of deviations from the plans visible in the photo. 

One is the threaded bushing thats silver soldered to the rocker mount. The plans call for just threading the 1/16 thick mount and running a screw through it. I wasnt comfortable with that thin of a thread, plus when I looked at Rudys actual prototype I noticed that his threads had stripped. 

The second deviation is that I decided to make the motion support plate removable by using 0-80 screws instead of rivets to fasten it to the horn plates. The reason is I plan on running the engine so I expect to be taking it apart a lot. Being able to remove just one horn plate or the support plate should help. 

If youve never used 0-80 screws, theyre tiny little devils. However, they fit in the 1/16 rivet holes Id already drilled.





I had a terrible time getting the linkage to work. It kept binding at one point in the cycle and I couldnt figure out why. I ended up taking the engine, linkage, piston, etc. apart three times before I spotted the problem. Can you?





Yep, I hadnt cut the groove deep enough in the valve spindle eye. A couple of hits with a file and every thing worked fine. Seems obvious now, but very frustrating at the time.

Anyway, once the linkage worked, I adjusted the valve centering and called it a day (the tractor is on its side in the next two photos).










Regards,
Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

Sure is beautiful, Dennis!
I looked at the pic before checking your answer about the binding. I saw the clevis touching on the pivoting bar. If that's what you meant, I caught it! I can't find my own mistakes though...

Dean


----------



## zeeprogrammer

You kept going! And like I said...I've run out of things to say.

Very good work. Very good thread.


----------



## shred

looking great. hopefully I'll be following along before too long. Just snagged 3' of 4.5" tube to make wheels from.


----------



## 4156df

Well, Shred, that should be enough! ;D How many tractors did you say your're making?
Dennis


----------



## shred

4156df  said:
			
		

> Well, Shred, that should be enough! ;D How many tractors did you say your're making?
> Dennis


 Yeah, I went to "The Pipe Ranch" and asked for a foot of 4".  They went to the short-end pile, picked up the shortest piece and handed it to me. I figure I'll have several feet of indestructible small-stock racking in a bit..


----------



## cfellows

Just went back through the entire thread. What an impressive project! Very nice work.

Chuck


----------



## 4156df

Thank you for the positive encouragement. I really appreciate it.

Short post today.

I started work on the exhaust/blast pipe. The exhaust pipe is 3/16 diameter brass tubing and is fastened to the valve box with a flange and two 2-56 screws. It runs from the valve box along the side of the engine, through the boiler casing and exhausts through a blast pipe into the smokestack.

Rudy made his flange by silver soldering the tubing through a hole in a flat piece of brass. Its a neat, compact way to do it, but Ive always admired the separate flanges Ive seen some of you do. This seemed like a good place for me to try making one. The method I used was shown by Bogstandard in one of his long ago posts.

The flange starts out as a turned nipple with a 3/16 ID that matches the mating tubing OD.





After parting off, clamp the part in the mill, center it, and use the X axis to locate and drill the two clearance holes for the mounting screws.





The two dimples in the above photo were due to me thinking I could eyeball the center of the part. Will I ever learn? Theyll be cut off later, so no matter.

Now, heres the neat part (Thank you, Bogs). Insert two drill bits the same diameter as the mounting holes and use them to orient the part in the vise so that the edge of the flange will be parallel to the center line of the mounting holes.





Mill the edge off to a depth you like and rotate the part to remove the other edge. This could be done using the drill bits for alignment, but for this particular flange, there wouldnt have been much for the vise to grab on to. Instead, I put a suitable parallel in the vise and use the just milled edge as a reference. 





Mill the second edge to the same depth as the first.





I liked the look of the flange at this point and almost left it. However, not being one to leave well enough alone, I decided to round the corners.





And this is the finished flange.





Hope this wasnt too basic. I thought Itd be worthwhile because this part has application on many engines. Its certainly one I expect to be making more of.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## zeeprogrammer

4156df  said:
			
		

> Hope this wasnt too basic.



No way Dennis. I'm learning great stuff here. Please keep it coming.


----------



## RonGinger

A great job, and a nice set of photos. Very useful to us all.

I notice several of the photos have parts shown on top of nice CAD drawings. Did you re-draw the entire engine in CAD before starting? 

I bought the book when it first came out, and have considered building it. Your photos are encouraging me to get started, even though Ive already built one traction engine. This one would be simple enough you could let grandkids operate it.


----------



## Deanofid

Nice looking flange, Dennis. Sometimes things that appear basic involve quite a bit of doing to actually get them to that "basic" look!

Keep on. This build is such a beauty!

Dean


----------



## 4156df

Dean, Zee...Thank you.



> Did you redraw the entire engine in CAD before starting?


Ron,
No, the plans are very good. However, lots of times I re-draw parts just to understand them better or, in the case of sheet metal, to use as a pattern. Also had to draw parts where I deviated from Rudy's plans.
Dennis


----------



## arnoldb

Lovely work Dennis :bow: - thank you for showing it!

Regards, Arnold


----------



## mnay

Is the book still available with the plans for Rudy's tractor??


----------



## Quickj

It is still available from Village Press.

https://secure.villagepress.com/store/items/detail/item/1811


----------



## 4156df

Thanks, Arnold.

Faux Case Heater

The original Case tractors ran the exhaust pipe through a heat exchanger that used the exhaust steam to pre-heat water going to the boiler. This heater was built around the exhaust pipe and is visible on the left side of Case tractors as a large diameter pipe parallel to the boiler. From the heater the exhaust steam passed though the smoke box housing and finally exhausted through a blast pipe into the smokestack. The idea was that the blast created draft for the fire.

The exhaust pipe on Rudys Tractor is just an 1/8 brass tube that looks kind of plain. Gary Hart (ghart) came up with a neat way to add some pizzazz to the exhaust on his tractor (see his post here) and he inspired me to try to do something similar.

_(By the way if anyone wants to try adding Garys raised CASE letters, I have his Teflon template and will mail it to the first one to ask. The only provision is that you agree to pass it on to another member when youre done. PM me if you want it.)_

I started at the forward end with the blast pipe assembly. The blast pipe assembly begins with a drilled out semi-decorative turning,






that is then cross-drilled





to accept a 1/4 pipe that will pass through the boiler housing.





Here are the fitting pieces less the blast pipe.





The blast pipe is formed from 1/8 brass tubing, necked down to 1/16 ID to form a nozzle. I broke out one of my metal spinning tools and used it to form the nozzle. The steel rod is my reference and is 1/16 Dia.





The brass has to be annealed for this to work. Also, its probably overkill as I think you could get the same blast effect by crimping the tube tightly around the 1/16 rod and then pulling out the rod. 

After forming the nozzle, bend the brass tube to form the blast pipe and silver solder the parts together.





After soldering, finish drilling the cross hole to complete the passage from the exhaust pipe to the blast pipe. 





Thats the fitting clamped vertically with a loose piece of 1/8 tubing used to center the 3/32 bit. The blue masking tape is my depth gauge.

Heres the completed fitting installed in the boiler housing.





I still need to make some kind of contoured spacer for where the nut meets the side of the housing.

The heater shell is made from a piece of 1/2" brass tubing with a notch cut in one end that straddles the 1/4" blast pipe tube and keeps the shell oriented. The back end is a turned fitting similar to the front end. The exhaust pipe is formed from 1/8 brass tube to complete the faux heater parts.





Here it is installed. 





It cries out for rivets doesnt it?! Maybe later. Definitely better than just running the 1/8 pipe.

Thanks again to ghart for a neat idea.

Regards,
Dennis


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## joe d

Dennis

This one just keeps on getting better and better :bow: :bow:

Still following happily along, thanks for posting more!

Joe


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## Deanofid

I'm still with you too, Dennis. Beautiful work, throughout. Just plain ol' excellent.

Dean


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## cobra428

Dennis, Dennis, Dennis

SAAAAAWWWEEEETTT Beautiful, Awsome, Any superlatives I left out.

All I can say is WOW. I'm an airplane engine guy but man-o-man that's is looking good :bow: :bow: :bow:

Tony


----------



## ozzie46

Looking Good! I'm in for the long run too. ;D ;D

 Ron


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Wow. Very inspiring.

[EDIT: It's a weak reply. I'm still at a loss of words when I look at the quality of work in this thread. I find myself just looking at the pics...like the fitting installed in the boiler housing.]


----------



## enginebob

Very cool. Good work ;D.
(I agree with Carl,I just can't find words.....)
EB


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## JimN

I agree with Zee,,the work is something. I look and know I have much to learn.

Anyway its nice.

JimN


----------



## 4156df

Once again, I want to say how gratifying (and inspiring) it is to know you guys are watching. Thank you.  

Steam Admission Tee

I really should be starting on the boiler at this point, but Im putting it off to build a few more pieces that use silver solder. Im fairly new to silver solder and frankly am intimidated by the amount of soldering required for the boiler. I figure the more practice, the better.

The Steam Admission Tee mounts on the steam chest and sends steam to the steam box and to the displacement oiler. It also serves as a mounting post for the oiler.

The Tee fabrication starts with a piece of 1/4" x 1/4 brass. I left it long to make it easier to handle. First I drilled the holes for the steam line and oiler flanges, then rotated it 90 degrees and used a 3/16 end mill to drill a flat bottom hole for the upright/steam pipe that runs to the steam box.





The pipe is a piece of 3/16 brass rod, drilled out to 3/32 and threaded 10-32.





After threading the pipe, I sawed it off, reversed it in the chuck and faced the end.





Silver soldered it.





Took it to the mill and drilled the tee passage using a 3/32 end mill.





Then sawed it off and milled it to length,





to complete the Steam Admission Tee.





Thanks for following along,
Dennis


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## Deanofid

You're very consistent, Dennis. Your work displays a constant attention to machining details and finish.
Still following along. Still enjoying the thread very much!

Dean


----------



## arnoldb

Dennis, like Dean said - very well done indeed :bow:

Regards, Arnold


----------



## cobra428

4156df
I hate red Dykem switch to blue please Rof}
Just kidding (not)
Beautiful work. I following all the way, That is one nice machine you have going there.

Tony


----------



## Twmaster

Gosh. I keep forgetting how small some of these parts and engines are. Dennis, like Zee and others I'm just awestruck and am just close to speechless.... Sorta.


----------



## 4156df

Thank you for the kind comments...they're appreciated.

cobra428....I've got an order in for some blue Dykem. I'm partial to the red because it hides the blood.

This must be the day for lubricators because Deanofid just posted his. Definitely worth looking at.

Here we go with mine:

Displacement Lubricator

The Displacement Lubricator is a device that supplies oil to the inner workings of the engine. It mounts on one side of the steam admission tee shown in my previous post.

Heres a schematic of a typical lubricator:







There is a good explanation of how these work on this SITE which is where I got the above photo. Rudys Lubricator is a slight variation in that his is mounted on the end of the steam pipe.

The body is made from a piece of 5/16 brass rod, drilled to form the oil chamber. I drilled with a #1 drill so I could tap the top 1/4-28 for the filler cap.





The bottom end is drilled 3/32 for the drain line and a 3/32 hole is drilled on the side for the steam line.

The filler cap was made as an assembly. I knurled, drilled and tapped a piece of 5/16 rod 1/4-28, parted it off and screwed it on a piece of 1/4-28 rod.





Silver soldered the two pieces, screwed the assembly into a threaded piece of hex and put a decorative shape on the top end using a chain saw file.





The steam pipe assembly starts with a 1/2 piece of 3/32 solid rod. The plans then call for this rod to be drilled through with a #72 drill. Thats 0.025. I figured theres no way I could do that so I first drilled it 3/8 deep with a 1/16 drill and then peck drilled the last 1/8 with the 0.025 drill.





It worked and I didnt break the drill!! Rudy was insistent that the hole be no bigger than 0.025 to prevent flooding the engine with oil. However, Im hoping the length isn't critical (mine is 1/8" vs. his 1/2"). I guess Ill find out.

Next I made a bolting flange from 1/16 x 1/4 stock and silver soldered the steam pipe into it to complete the steam pipe sub-assembly.





The drain tube is made from 3/32 tubing and a piece of 1/4 rod. No pictures, but its pretty straight forward.

The drain plug is also an assembly. It starts with a piece of 4-40 threaded rod, pointed to form a needle valve.





The handle part is made by knurling, tapping 4-40 and parting off a piece of 5/16 rod.





These two pieces are then screwed together and silver soldered. Then they're screwed into a piece of hex stock and faced smooth.





In lieu of a rotary table, I used the piece of hex stock to index the handle for decorative holes. I clamped a stop in the vise to keep the stock vertical, drilled a hole, rotated to the next flat and so on.





It worked out pretty well.





Youve probably noticed that the knurling pattern changes as you go through the photos. Thats cause I was experimenting. Knurling is still somewhat of a black art for me.

That completes the sub-assemblies.





Next the sub-assemblies were silver soldered into the final assembly.





I kept the torch directed at the body and didnt have any problem with the sub-assemblies re-flowing. Whew!

That completes the Displacement Lubricator





My grandsons called the NASA Inspector in on me. He didnt like the pinkish color on some of the brass, but bought off on it anyway. 

Regards,
Dennis


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## zeeprogrammer

Niiiiiice post Dennis.
Thanks for the link and the explanation on the displacement lubricator.
And nice handle too!


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## cobra428

"cobra428....I've got an order in for some blue Dykem. I'm partial to the red because it hides the blood."

 Rof} Rof} Rof}

Not funny, But I know what you mean. But a little red on blue gives a good contrast. I was handling a part the other day and deburring. The next thing, I see is red all over. Holly smokes, I'm bleeding,. how..it looks like razor cuts on my fingers. Didn't even feel it. All I can say is..it's worth it! Dirty cut hands, heaven, we are doing something! Earning that feeling of accomplishment, does it get better than that?

Tony


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## Deanofid

4156df  said:
			
		

> My grandsons called the NASA Inspector in on me. He didnt like the pinkish color on some of the brass, but bought off on it anyway.
> 
> Regards,
> Dennis



Fess up, Dennis; You bribed 'em with donuts!

Funny how we would be making similar items on the exact same day! I'd been thinking about how to go about building the lubricator, and came across the same illustration you had in your post on that same website just last night. We must have been in parallel worlds.

Your example looks typical of your fine work. That is to say, it's another beautiful job on this superb build. It's a pleasure following your thread.

Dean


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## arnoldb

That's a fine piece of work Dennis :bow: - And good to see the new hearth put to work right away!

Regards, Arnold


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## vlmarshall

Excellent work. ;D Lubricators are one of the next steps for my project, too.


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## SAM in LA

I enjoy reading/seeing how you make the various parts for your projects. Several of the builds have silver soldered joints.

I see the setups and the results but have no clue ??? ??? what the actual procedure is.

It would be very helpful for me if a tutorial was done for silver soldering, including the fits, surface preparation, solder used, flux, amount of heat required, heating method, ect..

Thanks for the education.


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## shred

ooo.. the NASA Inspector guy... 

Sam, if you poke around in Bogstandard's "Piston Valve Engine" book, there's a good writeup in there on silver soldering technique for beginners.


----------



## 4156df

I second Shred's recommendation of Bogstandard's thread/book. Before reading it I hadn't done any silver soldering. It gave me the confidence to try and his description is right on. Definitely a skill worth developing based on the little I've done so far.

There's also a good tutorial in Kozo Hiraoka's The Pennsylvania A3 Switcher.

Dennis


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## spuddevans

And I third Shred's reccomendation of Bog's Paddleducks engine plans, I am in the middle of building it and have just started to silver solder. Following the instructions has given me the confidence to feel a little more comfortable with silver soldering.


Tim


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## SAM in LA

shred  said:
			
		

> ooo.. the NASA Inspector guy...
> 
> Sam, if you poke around in Bogstandard's "Piston Valve Engine" book, there's a good writeup in there on silver soldering technique for beginners.



Thanks for pointing out Bogs book. I dug around and the correct link to it is

http://rs616.rapidshare.com/files/237708589/Piston_valve_engine_book.rar


I downloaded and extracted the PDF's and have added it to my must read list.

Thanks again.


----------



## Twmaster

Oooh more good reading... 

Thanks for the link to that.


----------



## JimN

Dennis
Since you started this thread, I decided I could build the tractor. With your help and the thread it makes things much easier. Now for couple of questions, I am guessing that in your gear selection, the Idler has two gears on it, the 80 and 40 tooth ones that you showed how you soldered them together, and the Countershaft has two gears, but only on the right side, the left side only has the 16 tooth. Correct?

Since I will have to order from the states and pay UPS an extra 20% or so for the privilege of bring them across the border, want to make sure I order what I need only once.

Another question is did you change the location of any of the bearings? 

Thanks
JimN


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## joe d

Jim

If you can, have your supplier send the parts to you by mail. You will wait a little longer, but you will be at worst assessed duty and taxes, the post office does not add the insane "brokerage fees" that most of the courier companies add on. The freight charges by mail are also usually considerably less. 

Dennis; Still following along with great interest, you're doing really nice work here.

Joe


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## 4156df

Hi Jim,

Your gear assumptions are correct: 80 and 40 are soldered together as the Idler. The countershaft has two gears on the right (108 tooth & 16 tooth), but only a 16 tooth on the left. 

Don't know how tight your budget is, but I think this tractor would operate just fine with only single wheel drive and you could eliminate one 16 tooth pinion and one 120 tooth bull gear. As I recall the bull gear was fairly expensive.

I didn't change the location of Rudy's bearings, just found a location for the idler based on correct gear mesh.

Regards,
Dennis


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## JimN

Thanks Joe, but they will only ship UPS. Guess they figure if someone in Canada wants something they will just pay it. Now Online Metals is different, they figured out that there where customers in Canada, and went to UPS and explained either stop the insane brokerage fees to small customers or they would change shippers. Items shipped to Canada by standard mail most times has an extra $5.00 added to it, Online Metals sends it by UPS and its an extra $6.00. Any other thing UPS brings into Canada, they add something like 20%. I refer to UPS in Canada as Ultra Poor Service. 

Thanks Dennis
I will add the bull gear on both sides, just for some reason I kept trying to figure out why I needed the extra 108 tooth gear. I don't, just was not looking at it right. Thanks Again.

JimN


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## BAH101

Have you looked for a border store in the States? You live in Buttsford so it is just a quick drive. I work in Thunder Bay, and there is Rydens Border store in Grand Marais MN, about 30 min drive away, they will accept parcels for Canadians and only charge 4 bucks for the pleasure. I order a lot of stuff and send it there, only have to pay tax's coming across. Nice thing is, a lot of stores in the states have free shipping if delivered in the lower 48 states.
Bryan


----------



## JimN

Hi Bah101
I live in BC,,but yes border is only 30 minutes, another 20 minutes to lynden, so 3 hours round trip to pick up a package. Not worth the time to me to save a few bucks once or twice a year. Plus the place in Lynden requires you have a PO Box there.

Its the first time I have ordered from someone that will not ship USPS, and don't think I will be building another tractor. LOL going to take a year to get this one done. So have ordered all the gears I need now.

LOL besides its all Dennis's fault, for making it look so easy to build the tractor......

JimN
Abbotsford

PS: All of us that are working on this tractor should start a seperate thread to keep track of how we are all doing.


----------



## 4156df

Throttle Valve Assembly

The Throttle Valve on Rudys tractor is a disk-type that, according to Rudy, cannot stick or jam and will give easy control over engine speed. The Throttle Valve screws directly into the boiler and is made from two sub-assemblies; a throttle stand and a throttle disk.

The throttle stand starts with a 9/16 x 9/16 x 1/4 piece of brass. I used the mill for drilling because there are four stopped holes and the mill gives me better control. 





Tapped holes are 2-56. The one on the right is tapped through and the other two are stop holes tapped with a bottoming tap. The fourth hole is 3/32 thru.

The vise stop holds reference points when the part is flipped over to drill a 3/32 stopped hole on the other side (the hole on the right).





The last operation on this piece is to drill a 3/16 hole on the edge for the stand pipe. This hole connects with the 3/32 hole drilled above. Again, the use of a vise stop pays off.





Now its confession time: 

When I went to drill the above 3/16 hole I discovered that all my work up to that point had been done on a piece of 3/16 thick stock instead of the 1/4 it was supposed to be. You can see the problem on the part on the right.





Its hard to drill a 3/16 hole into 3/16 stock and not have a steam leak!  Still havent figured out how I could have missed this. Oh well, one more bit for the maybe use some day pile.

The other part of the throttle stand is a piece of 3/16 brass rod, center drilled 3/32 and threaded 10-32 on one end.





The above two parts are then silver soldered together. I used a pre-form made from 1/32 silver solder wire for soldering.





Some heat and citric acid pickle and the throttle stand is complete.





The throttle disk is a two part assembly made from a 3/16 thick piece of 1/2 brass rod and a 1/16 thick piece of flat stock.





The disk is faced and drilled #43 to clear a 2-56 screw. The lever is made from a piece of 1/8 x 1/16 stock, filed to shape.

The disk and lever are silver soldered together. I used a piece of stainless steel wire to hold the two pieces together during soldering.





After clean up, I screwed the disk to my rounding plate to mill the 3/32 wide by 3/32 deep steam cavity





and used a machinist clamp on the lever to rotate the disk through a 90 degree arc.





Note the two barely visible clamps used as stops. This operation would probably be better done on a rotary table, but you go with what you have. It worked pretty well as long as I took light cuts and kept the screw snug. 

One thing Id do differentlyinstead of drilling the center hole out to #43 right away, Id first drill it to a very snug fit on a 2-56 screw. That would eliminate a little play during this operation. Then, after the steam passage is cut, drill it out to #43.





Here are the mating faces of the throttle,





and the completed Throttle Stand.





The spring tension will be adjusted under steam. It occurs to me that if this valve is adjusted just tight enough not to leak it will also serve as a secondary relief valve.

Thanks for following along,
Dennis


----------



## vlmarshall

Interesting throttle, I'm looking forward to seeing how/where that attaches.


----------



## JimN

Amazing work Dennis, your thread is better than any instructions for building the Tractor.

I looked at the throttle plate and decided it would be less work (less burned fingers) to just make it one pieace.






Few other parts I have made waiting for some metal to arrive. I also made the cylinder one pieace, just seemed the easier way to go. I still want to try your way (and Tels) for cylinders but on this one just did it the way I have always done.


----------



## cobra428

JimN,
Simply AUSOME. Nice clean crisp workmanship. Luvin it!

Tony


----------



## zeeprogrammer

That's just beautiful work.


----------



## Deanofid

I watch every part you make, Dennis. Lovely work!

Dean


----------



## arnoldb

Some more very good going there Dennis :bow:

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## Powder keg

This is making me want to work on a tractor ;D You guys are doing a nice job!!!


----------



## 4156df

Vernon...as soon as I work up the nerve to build the boiler I'll show you where the throttle goes. 
Dean, Carl, Arnold et.al...Thanks for the kind words. You keep me motivated.

Post 35. _(I like Metal Butchers idea of numbering his build posts for future reference and I plan to do the same. Not sure Im ambitious enough to go back and add it to my earlier posts though.)_

Fuel Tank & Burners

This post is a change of pacesheet metal instead of machining.

Like everything else metal related, I saw this way of making a tank on an internet board (not this one). It was quite a few years ago and Id give credit to the originator if I could remember who it was or where. If youre out there, thank you.

Rudys plans call for a simple alcohol-fired heater consisting of a tank with two 1/4 feed tubes feeding fuel forward to the bottom of two 3/4 dia. wick type burners. When the tank is filled, the alcohol flows. There are no control valves.

I used 0.010 sheet brass for my tank. I made it in two pieces, although it could be folded from one piece.

For the tank, lay out the bottom including allowing for tabs to overlap the corners.





Cut out the corners.





The above tool was a recent swap meet find. Its a hand-held notcher used in the heating and sheet metal business. Only good for light gauge, but very handy. If I didnt have it, I would use a jewelers saw to cut out the corners. As it is, I still needed he jewelers saw to cut out the angled notches for the tabs.





The sheet metal was bent using bending rods held in a vise. The bending rods are two pieces of 3/4 steel dowel pinned to keep them in alignment. They are supposed to have countersunk allen head cap screws next to each dowel pin for clamps, but I never got around to adding them and have just used clamps and the vise to hold the rods.





A rawhide mallet works good for bending because its softer than the brass and so wont put dings in the metal. The first bend should just be the center piece. Leave the tabs for later.





Before bending the tabs, loosen the clamps and slide the part up by a little more than the thickness of the material (I used a steel rule as a spacer). This will allow you to fold the tab behind the side wall and toward the inside of the box. Re-clamp the part and bend the tabs. 





Heres the tank ready for the final folds.





To fold the ends, get a piece of material close to the interior size of the tank and at least as thick as the tank is high. Metal would probably be best, but I had a piece of oak so used it. It worked fine. Clamp in the vise and bend the ends. Note how the tabs slip inside the box.





And heres the folded tank.





The marked location in the center is for an overflow pipe that will be added later.





The feed tubes to the burners are two 1/4 pipes that need to exit the tank on the front side as near to the bottom as possible. I drilled them using a 1/4 wood workers spur bit.





The spur bit worked great and I actually ended up with round holes.





Thats all Ill do to the tank for now. I plan to soft solder the seams and silver solder the feed pipes. I need to build the pipes and silver solder them in place before soft soldering the seams.

The cover is done very much like the tank but since the sides are only 1/4 high, there is no need for tabs. I laid it out and then cut a piece of wood to the outside dimensions of the tank (The cover fits over the tank).





Then clamped the part in the vise and hammered over the four edges





to complete the lid. The tube in the photo is the filler pipe. It will be soft soldered in later.










Thats it for today. Next up will be the burners.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## cobra428

4156df
Very nice sheetmetal work. The wood bit is a great idea. Got to get one of those notchers!
(see you went to blue Dykem....thanks :big
Tony


----------



## Powder keg

Neat job on the sheet metal!!! Mine would look like it was built in a physical therapy class for the mentally challenged.LOL ;D


----------



## Deanofid

Nicely done metal work, Dennis. 
I'm curious about why you will hard solder the pipes in, but soft solder the rest of the tank. I would have thought soft solder for the whole thing. 
I find when hard soldering thin sheet, like this piece, that it wants to warp quite a bit from the high heat needed. Maybe being close to a corner will prevent that problem.

I like your gum ball machine! I see my shop is not complete. I do have a WD-40 can like the one shown in the same pic, though, but mine is a radio.  : )

Thanks again for the write up and pictures!

Dean


----------



## Maryak

Dean,

If you hard solder the pipes and use soft solder on the rest, the pipes will not fall out because the soft solder has a lower melting point, (a trick I learned here when making my 3cc diesel cylinder).

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## Deanofid

Hi Bob;
I use different melting temp solders for that reason, too. I was thinking about all that .010" brass sheet and the heat it takes for hard solder. I expect your reason may be the answer.


----------



## arnoldb

Lovely sheetmetal work Dennis :bow:
Regards, Arnold


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Please keep the details up on the sheetmetal work. Very educational for me.


----------



## vlmarshall

Nice folds! Ever built any cardstock models? ;D


----------



## 4156df

You guys are right on, on the reason for different temp solders. Rudy specifies Silver Solder for the burners because they definitely get hot. I think soft solder would be okay where the feed tubes enter the tank, but I figure why take a chance. I'll be reporting on how all the soldering goes later this week... ;D or :'(.

Vernon,
As a matter of fact, I have done cardstock models. Great fun particularly with the grandsons when they were younger. Not to hijack my own thread, but take a look at www.fiddlersgreen.net. Lots of neat models and many freebies.

Dean,
Re: The gumball machine. Very popular with the grandkids. I keep it filled with peanut M&M's. Carl is probably salivating already. Definitely not a money maker though because I supply the pennies too.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

Dennis, I noticed those peanut M&M's when I was looking at the post last night. I'm a fan. Now it's turned me into a thief. 
My sister lives just down the road from me. She's out of town for a day or two, and asked me to get the mail. While taking it into her house, I noticed there was a bowl of peanut M&M's on the counter. Nobody home.

I put her mail over the top of the bowl...

Ashamed but satisfied,
Dean


----------



## 1hand

Dennis; I think in the beginning of your thread here you said your from midwest MN. Where? I grew up around Benson. 

Matt


----------



## 4156df

Matt...I grew up in Southeastern MN. Near Austin.

Dean...Leaving a bowl of unattended M&M's is considered entrapment. You're free to go.

Post #36. 

Fuel Tank & Burners (Contd.)

Rudys plans dont specify the material thickness for the burners but by scaling the drawings, it looks like he used 0.062 wall tube.  However, in K.N. Harris Model Boilers and Boilermaking he says: _Wick burners and their spirit supply tubes should always be made from the lightest gauge tube available_ I have no idea why that is, but based on his statement (and on the fact that I had some in stock) I used 0.014 wall tubing for the sides of the burners and 0.010 sheet for the bottoms.

I fabricated the burners much like jewelers make bezels for mounting stones. 

Cut the tube to length. Then cut a base slightly larger than the tube OD. Silver solder the two together. I used Medium solder for this to minimize the chance of the bottom unsoldering later when the feed pipe is soldered in.





I forgot to take a pre-solder picture, but my method was to flux the seam, lay small pieces of solder on the inside of the tube, and then heat the joint from the outside.

After soldering, use a pair of snips to trim the base as close to the tube as possible





and grind the remaining part of the base flush with the tube. I used a 3M gray wheel. Note I also inserted a dowel as a handle for grinding. Highly recommended as the soft brass gets pretty deformed after flying across the room. DAMHIKT.










A woodworking spur bit works great for drilling the feed pipe hole. Drill the hole as close as possible to the bottom. I used a dowel to provide support for the soft brass.





The feed pipe is then silver soldered to the burner using Easy temp solder. The solder I have is 0.032 wire so I made a solder pre-form and put it around the feed tube on the inside of the burner and heated from the outside. With the thin material it takes relatively little heat and it solders quickly. In hindsight, I think the bottom could also have been soldered on with Easy silver solder.





Youll need one more pipe just like this. When both are completed, theyre silver soldered to the tank. Again using a pre-form on the inside.





Thats it for silver solder on the burners. From here on its all 63/37 tin/lead solder. 

To solder up the sides of the tank I used stainless steel wire as a binding clamp to hold the tabs and ends together.





The binding wire is a twisted pair of 0.020 stainless wire. The partial loops on each side provide stress relief so the wire can give slightly and not deform the sides as the brass heats up.

As an aside, a jeweler told me how to make the binding wire. Double it, clamp the two ends in a vise and use a drill to twist it. Keep pressure on the wires as they twist and the pair comes out straight as an arrow. When you cut it or bend it, it stays just where you put it.

The tank was soldered with a 200W electric iron applied on the outside of the seam. Solder was fed into the seam edge from the outside.





There was no deformation of the brass, but solder on the iron made a mess of the exterior of the box that will have to be cleaned off later. If I had it to do again, Id use a small propane torch and apply the solder from the inside.

The vent/overflow tube is soldered in next.





A few notes on the above picture1) The hole in the lower right is for a drain plug. Its not on the plans but I think it will be useful. 2) I extended the feed pipes into the tank because I thought they would need to be soldered to the bottom to get enough rigidity. Once the side seams were soldered it was clear that that wouldnt be necessary. Next time Id leave just enough pipe to hold a solder pre-form. 3) I left the binding wire on in case the side seam solder re-melts when the cover is soldered on.

Make sure the vent/overflow pipe is a little lower than the upper edge of the burners to prevent alcohol from flowing over the top of the burners when the tank is filled.





Several things have been done in the next picture; the cover is soldered on, the filler pipe is installed and mounting tabs are soldered to the base of the tank. All this soldering was done with an electric iron, but this time just 100 watts. Also, most of the excess solder has been cleaned off.

Here's the completed tank and burners.





The burners have been stuffed with cotton yarn in the above photo. There seem to be a lot of different ideas for type, length and packing of wicking. Im going to try a few variations and see what works best for me. Ill post the results. Playing with fire!! I can hardly wait.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Fantastic post Dennis. Wonderful stuff. Thanks.


----------



## Deanofid

Boy, some sanitary looking work there, Dennis. All my fears of warped brass sheet have been allayed!
Good tips on wiring up the piece. I've just used a plain single wire strand, and always have to fight it to get it to stay put.

Thanks for the pardon, too..

Dean


----------



## cobra428

4156df,
Looks great, I used some rolled up alum screen door material in my stirling for a wick. Works good but needs cleaning/replacement after awhile. But what doesn't

Tony


----------



## arnoldb

Very well done indeed Dennis Thm:

Regards, Arnold


----------



## JimN

Really nice work Dennis.
I am still working on sheet metal parts, again thanks for making this,,,,how to for the tractor, I refer to this more than I do the plans.

JimN


----------



## 4156df

Thanks again for your encouraging comments.

Tony...I'll give the screen a try.

Post #37. 

Fuel Tank & Burners (Contd.)

As I said in my last post, there are a lot of different ideas out there on type, packing and placement of wicking. I played with a few variations and thought Id share them.

By the way, I assume the bluer the flame the better (more complete combustion). If this is wrong, please set me straight.

The first test was to just use alcohol with no wicking at all. The fuel burned with a nice blue flame, but not very high, especially as the tank emptied. Also, its not practical because itll spill as the tractor is handled.






Next I tried vermiculite (you can get it at the garden store as a soil conditioner) as a wick. It burned with a very nice flame, but its also loose and will spill when the tractor is handled.





The third test was with cotton yarn snugly packed and extending about 1/8 above the top of the burner. If sheer flame volume is the answer this one wins, but I think the yellow flame means most of the fuel isnt burning completely. 





The last variation was to use cotton yarn, loosely packed and cut off flush to slightly below the top of the burner.





It gave a nice flame with lots of blue. Almost as good as the vermiculite but has the advantage that it wont spill.

Heres a short video showing the four tests. 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ZMeT2zmK8[/ame]

I had decided to go with the flush cotton yarn, but the more I looked at the video, the more I liked the vermiculite flame, so I tried containing the vermiculite with a screen. I cut a square of #30 mesh brass screen, formed it over a dowel, trimmed it and pressed it into the burner.





The screen works good for holding the vermiculite and, if anything, it enhanced the vermiculite flame.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icnK8icS_ms[/ame]

This is the set up Im going with (until I change my mind).

While I was at it I checked burn time. The tank holds 3 fluid ounces. With a full tank it burned an hour and 45 minutes. Thats much longer than I expected and much longer than Id run the tractor. Itll be interesting to see how long it takes to get the boiler up to pressure. If it takes too long, the first thing I would do would be to add another burner to each feed pipe for a total of four. Theres room for them in the fire box and it seems like more fire would be better. Id also add a way to shut off the fuel. For now though, Im sticking with the Rudys plans, otherwise Ill never get this thing running.

Im interested in hearing other builders comments on how their burners worked.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## DougLanum

Dennis,

Everything looks great!

My tractor has some wicking material that was available years ago that my contain asbestos. It was put in and run for hours and I've not had to disturb it any at all. The wicking sticks about 1/8" above the burners. I don't recall the size of the flame but I'm guessing it is similar to your wicking material.
I don't think you would need to have 4 burners as two seem to be enough flame and heat to produce adequate steam pressure.

More thoughts, the fuel tank seems to hold much more fuel than you will need to use for the amount of water in the boiler. You will need to determine the correct amount of alcohol to put into the fuel tank to have it run out about the time you are out of water. Often I need to pick up the tractor, with rags or gloves and hold it above me so I can blow out the last of the flames so the engine does not keep "cooking". I have a small plastic squeeze bottle marked with the correct fill amount that I use each time to fill the fuel tank.

I think I had mentioned in the past that I made a small fan that I place on top of the stack when starting the engine. This keeps the flames and fire going the right direction until the engine has enough steam pressure to run the engine and the exhaust draft takes over. The fan draft also seems to speed up the fire up process greatly.


Keep up the great work.

Doug


----------



## 4156df

Doug,

This will be useful information for me and for the other guys building this tractor. There is no operating advice what so ever in the plan set. 

Your post has triggered a memory that somewhere on this board there's a post about running tests to time the fuel running out before the water does. I'll have to search for it and see if there were any numbers given.

Thanks for giving me comfort about the two burners. Also, the draft fan is on my list.

Regards,
Dennis


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## Deanofid

It sure works well, Dennis. That really is a long run time on the burner. You could roast a pig!

Dean


----------



## JimN

Nice work Dennis. In regards to wick material, I know someone on here gave a place where you could buy ceramic material to be used in burners. For the life of me, can't find that again, now that I want to check it out.

Considering your burn time Dennis, if you could put a water tank behind the tractor, might get as good a mileage as most new cars per gallon.....

JimN
Abbotsford, BC


----------



## 4156df

Post #38

Boiler

The time has come to build the boiler. Ive been putting the boiler off because I wanted to get more silver soldering/brazing experience but Ive reached the point where it has to be in place in order to continue with the build. So here goes.

First off, Im going to follow Rudys plans exactly. I figure there have been lots and lots of these boilers built and operated successfully, so if its built in a craftsmanlike way it should be a safe boiler. According to other builders, their tractors operate at 15-20 psi and with a 30psi safety valve this is a relatively low pressure boiler.

Quoting Rudy: Before starting the boiler, it must be pointed out once again that the boiler must be built entirely of copper with all its joints either threaded or silver soldered. Mine will be.

The boiler is fabricated from an 8 piece of 1 1/2 ID copper water pipe. The end caps are made from 3/32 copper sheet. The safety valve comes from Coles Power Models (www.colespowermodels.com) and is their part number 29M3-2. It has a 5/16-27 MTP thread and pops off at 30 psi.

The 5/16-27 MTP is an unusual thread (at least in the US) and the tap is expensive, however, it turns out that, for this size only, a 1/16 NPT pipe thread is the same. The 1/16 NPT is somewhat standard and considerably cheaper. If youre not as anal as me and dont feel like you have to make every piece yourself, an even less expensive answer is to just buy pre-threaded bushings from Coles Power Models. Theyre about a $1.50 a piece.

I started by cutting the pipe to length and facing the edges.





The boiler heads, or end caps, are made from 3/32 copper plate. I drilled the bushing holes before cutting the round because it was easier to hold. Copper is a bear to drill. After rough sawing the round, I took it to the lathe and faced the edges.





The live center applies enough pressure to the disk to hold it against the chuck jaws for turning. (A tip of the hat to Bogs for showing this in his flywheel post.) I forgot to mention earlier that theres an 1/8 longitudinal stay running through the boiler. Thats the stay hole the live center is in in the above photo. Also, its hard to see, but theres a slight chamfer on the edge of the cap. Thats to aid silver solder penetration. Silver solder doesnt like to flow over sharp edges. The cap is turned to a light press fit in the pipe.

The bushings are turned from copper rod. I left them un-threaded because I couldnt come up with an easy way to hold them.





The above bushings are for the test valve and the pressure gauge. Bushings are also required for the safety valve and for the throttle valve.

The end bushings were soldered with Medium solder.





I used medium because I didnt want to have to worry about the bushings unsoldering while I was soldering the cap in.

I should mention that Im doing the soldering in multiple heats. An experienced solderer could probably do multiple connections per heat, but I wanted to be able to check things out as I went.

Anyway, the bushing joints turned out great and I was feeling pretty good.





However as we go along, youll see pride goeth before a fall.

Next the bushings were tapped 1/8-27 NPT. Thats the head, held in a clamp, held in the vise.





Id never tapped tapered pipe threads before, so I had no idea how far in to run the tap. From looking on the web, it sounded like accepted practice is to run the tap in 12 threads or about three fourths of the tap length. If any of you can shed more light on this, please do. As it turns out, I could only get the tap in a little over half way anyway, but the fitting seems to go in okay.

The boiler has three water tubes on the underside. These are formed from 3/16 copper tube. I formed them using a piece of aluminum with a 3/16 x 3/16 groove in it. 





The aluminum is 1 OD, so the groove bottom is 5/8 OD. The groove keeps the tube from collapsing.

Make three tubes, all shaped the same. They'll be cut to final length when they're fitted to the boiler.





The six holes for the water tubes were drilled on the mill using a 3/16 end mill





I chose to do it on the mill, because the water tubes extend parallel to each other rather than radially. That requires drilling off the center line of the boiler which is almost impossible with a drill bit. The end mill holds its position better. (With this set-up, I also drilled the holes for the two bushings that go on the other of the boiler.)

The water tubes enter the boiler at about a six degree angle, so the vertical holes had to be deformed to allow for this. First I annealed the boiler pipe. Then I inserted three pieces of 3/16 drill rod into the holes. The rods are vertical at this point (sorry, no photo). Then I pushed all three rods down at the same time to the required angle. Youll want to over bend slightly because the drill rods bend a little.





These are the resulting holes.





I need to stop here for nowmore later.

Regards,
Dennis


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## vlmarshall

What an interesting-looking boiler... this is great. ;D




			
				4156df  said:
			
		

> ...the bushing joints turned out great and I was feeling pretty good.
> However as we go along, youll see pride goeth before a fall.
> I need to stop here for nowmore later.


AAAHH! The suspense! No fair, man.


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## Deanofid

Oh.. Dennis, I wish you didn't have to stop. I really enjoy boiler builds. 
Arnold has his about done for "Fred", so, yours is my only boiler "fix" for the day.

Dean


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## Powder keg

Top shelf work so far ;D Thanks for posting!!!


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## arnoldb

Good going Dennis 



> pride goeth before a fall


Are you referencing the bit where the solder didn't completely form a fillet in the photo where you are tapping the bushing ?

Kind regards, Arnold


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## zeeprogrammer

Great post. Glad to see the stuff about the burners. Very nice.
Good tips from Doug too. Thanks.


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## bearcar1

Denny, you're knockin' me out here man! Great work and I have truly been enjoying this ride, I'm sure there have been some bumps encountered along the way that we may never know about but so far this has been fantastic to follow. I am GREEN with envy here. And once again thanks for sharing your adventure with us. :bow:

Cheers
BC1
Jim


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## phlegmatic

First class job! And you get many bonus points for using Sherline machinery!


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## 4156df

Thanks for the comments. I didn't really mean to build any suspense, or imply that there's a major disaster upcoming (although there probably is). Just the normal run-of-the-mill screw-ups. I'll get off my duff shortly and get another post going but I wanted to answer Arnold regarding the void he spotted.

When I made the bushings, my tool had a slight radius on it so the bushing flange doesn't seat tightly against the boiler head. However, there is a good, snug fit between the head and the part of the bushing that runs through the head. The solder joint around that part has a complete fillet on both the top and the bottom. I was actually surprised that the solder filled as much of the gap as it did, because it's ususally not very good at gap filling.

Arnold, thanks for mentioning this. I should have commented on it in my post.

Regards,
Dennis


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## arnoldb

Thanks for the clarification Dennis  No worries then; the little "run-of-the-mill" oopses happen. 

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Post #39

Boiler (Contd.)

At this point all of the boiler pieces are fabricated, so all thats left is silver soldering and testing.

Up until now I have been using a propane torch for silver soldering, but recently found a used Prestolite air/acetylene torch similar to those used by air conditioning and refrigeration people. It burns hotter than the propane and has a much softer flame so it doesnt seem to move the solder bits around as much. So far I like it and its what I used to silver solder my boiler. Id say its nice to have, but the propane torch would have done the job too.





I did the boiler in multiple heats with a pickle step between each heat. 

For the first heat I soldered the throttle valve and safety valve bushings to the top of the boiler. They were done just like the bushings on the end cap, so no photos.

The second heat was to solder the exit end of the water tubes. 





The tubes are held in position for soldering with stainless steel binding wires (the wires are shown in a later photo). The boiler is nestled in the hearth and insulated with heat reflective bricks and tiles. The joints are fluxed and bits of solder are in place. 





I fooled around quite a bit trying to decide how much of the boiler to cover and how much to leave exposed to the flame. I ended up as shown above. I left the top tiles off and pre-heated the boiler, then put them back as shown, and concentrated on the exposed area. It worked okay and the boiler got up to solder temp reasonably quickly.






You can see that the flux really did its job. The binding wire (one per tube) that holds the tubes in position for soldering is visible on the left side of the above photo.

The joints after pickle (citric acid). 





I probably erred on the too much solder side, but the joints look good on both the inside and outside so Im happy.

The entrance end of the tubes are soldered in pretty much the same way except I used a silver solder pre-form around each tube.





Notice the binding wires are still in place. Theyre stainless, so theres no problem with putting them in the pickle.

The joints came out nice, with a good fillet on the inside. 





Still some problems with solder control. Is it because Im fluxing too wide an area??

The next heat was to do the end cap. For some dumb reason, I decided to try applying the solder in wire form after the boiler was up to temp. Not a good idea. Between being up tight about soldering in the first place and worrying about the cap dropping down into the tube I was shaking so badly I ended up with solder everywhere. Im not proud of this one.





Fortunately theres a nice fillet all the way around on the outside and the inside so mechanically the joint is good even if its not pretty. If the price of silver keeps going up, I may have to melt this down for the silver content! 

On the other end cap I went back to pre-placed solder bits.





And ended up with a neater joint.





This joint cant be examined from both sides but the fillet on the top looks good all the way around so I should be okay.

The last part is to add the longitudinal stay. Its an 1/8 copper rod, threaded 5-40 on each end with a brass nut bearing on the end caps. The threads extend about 1/4 beyond the nut and are used to hold the boiler in place in the boiler housing. This is the one place soft solder is used and its done at Rudys instruction: _run a brass nut up on each end. The threads will do all the holding so you can run soft solder all over the ends of the stay to seal it in. In this case, the soft solder is used only as a caulking compound._

After getting the stays in place and sealed, things turned a little sour. I had forgotten to tap the bushing that holds the safety valve. It should have been done before the end cap so the swarf could fall out, but worse than that, when I went to tap it, I managed to mangle the threads. The upshot is that the bushing had to be unsoldered and replaced. I didnt have any more copper rod, so I ordered a tapped bushing from Coles. Luckily, the old bushing came out fairly easily and after a re-pickle, the new one soldered in nicely. The only snag was that in the pickle the soft solder used to seal the stay turned an ugly black. It cleaned up fairly well, but you can still see some discoloration.

Anyway, heres the boiler ready for testing.





Thanks for following along.
Regards,
Dennis


----------



## DougLanum

Your boiler looks great Dennis.
I knew you would do a good job on it. 
Can't wait to see the hydro test results amd see it steaming.

Doug


----------



## gbritnell

The boiler looks great Dennis. If you run into the situation again where you're concerned about the end cap moving when you start to solder it, just put a few punch marks around the O.D. of the cap and tap it in place. It won't go anywhere. 
gbritnell


----------



## Deanofid

Good job on the boiler, Dennis. As I've mentioned, I do enjoy boiler builds, and appreciate the detailed write up and the very good photography that accompanies it.

Dean


----------



## arnoldb

Good job on the boiler build Dennis, and very nicely shown as well Thm:

Regards, Arnold


----------



## ariz

you have done a very good job there
the silver soldering part of the boiler seems very good to me, many here would be more than satisfied indeed

I must browse all the thread, surely it is as interesting as these last pages :bow:

--------------------------------

well, I looked the whole thread and I feel a bit of shame now, I had forgotten your wonderful build on this steam tractor...
at about half of the thread I replied too, but I never came back after that, so I miss your progress...
congrats for this great work and thanks for sharing it

and yes, you can teach to everybody how to silver solder :bow:


----------



## 4156df

George, Your tip about using the center punch marks for holding position is a good one and one that I will be using. Thank you.

Arnold, Dean, Doug & Ariz...Thanks for the comments. 

Post #40

Boiler (Contd.)

With all the soldering complete, its time to pressure test the boiler. 

The safety valve pops at 30 psi and, according to other builders, the tractor operates at 15-20 psi. Ill test to 60 psi or twice the pop-off pressure. The pressure will be brought up to 60 psi slowly and then held there for 30 minutes. Then the pressure will be released and the test will be repeated. If there are no leaks after the second run up, the boiler will be considered good.

Since Im not sure if Ill be doing more live steam projects, I didnt want to get involved in the time and expense of building a dedicated test pressure pump. Instead, Im going to use city water pressure to test my boiler. Water pressure at my house runs a pretty consistent mid-day pressure of 72-75 psi, so theres enough pressure for my test.

Heres my test rig:






Pretty much everything came out of Home Depot. The end fitting connects to a garden hose. The petcock on the lower left is used as a manual pressure regulator. As its opened or closed, the pressure in the line drops and rises. The gauge is a common water pressure test gauge available at Home Depot. I was concerned about accuracy, so I compared this one to another I have, plus one I borrowed from my neighbor. All three read remarkably close. The clear tubing is braid reinforced PVC water line. 

The boiler must be completely filled with water (no air) before starting the test. To do that, I clamped the gauge end to the top of a step ladder and let the boiler and tubing hang vertically. I then loosened one of the boiler end plugs and filled the boiler and tubing with water using a turkey baster. Once the boiler was full, I tightened the plug and continued filling the tube until there were no more air bubbles. With the clear PVC tubing, its pretty easy to see when all the air is out of the boiler and the line. With the petcock open, I attached my garden hose and turned on the water.





I left the petcock open to allow the last bit of air at the top of the tubing to bleed out, then slowly closed the petcock until the gauge read 60 psi.





The pressure was remarkably stable throughout the test. I thought Id have to keep fiddling with the petcock adjustment to hold at 60 psi but I didnt have to move it at all.

At about 20 minutes under pressure. I noticed a drop of water on the lower tube.





After making sure there were no other leaks, I stopped the test and re-soldered the joint. That required removing all the plugs, drying everything out, fluxing the joint and re-flowing the solder. It went very smoothly, but it was time consuming.

With the joint re-soldered, I started the test over. After 30 minutes at 60 psi there were no leaks. I released the pressure and re-ran the test for another 30 minutes. Again no leaks, so Im declaring the boiler good-to-go. Oh Happy Day!

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

Yes, Happy Day! Congrats on your successful test, Dennis. Looks like you got an "A".

Dean


----------



## Maryak

Dennis,

Fantastic boiler build. Congratulations on a successful test result. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## gbritnell

Hi Dennis, congratulations on the boiler build. For what it's worth you'll probably have a tough time getting more that 30 lbs. with a wick heat source. I built Rudy's tractor many years ago and the only time I could get over 30 was with a draft assist in the smoke stack. My 1" Case with a propane burner will make about 60-65 lbs. You won't need more than 20 lbs for the engine to run well anyway. 
George


----------



## arnoldb

Well done Dennis, and congratulations !

I'm looking forward to the rest!

Kind Regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

George...I thought I saw Rudy's tractor up in the corner when you did your shop video. I appreciate the operating information. As you know, the plans don't say anything about running the tractor.

Arnold, Bob, Dean...Thank you.

Post #41

Steam Dome

Now that the boiler is complete, I can install it and determine the exact location of the throttle stand and safety valve. Theyre enclosed by the steam dome. Its a pretty snug fit, so its important to know their exact location before making the steam dome.

Rudy made his steam dome in two pieces, but I want to add a few rivets, so Im going with a three part one: a dome, a cylindrical vertical section, and a mounting flange. Im also making mine slightly larger in diameter.

Im going to form the dome section by spinning it. For a one-off part like this, thats probably the least efficient way to do it, but its been several years since Ive done any spinning and this was a good excuse to give it another try. 

Let me say right off, I am a rank amateur at this, so how I do it likely isnt the right way. Also, this wont be a tutorial because I dont have the ability to explain the spinning movements. You almost have to see it done. The quickest way to do that is go to YouTube and search for metal spinning. Its a lot of fun and something anyone can do if theyve got a lathe (either metal or wood). All the tools are homemade.

First step is to turn a form tool. I used maple, drilled, tapped and screwed directly to the headstock of my wood lathe. The follower block is also maple attached to a live center.





Fortunately, the dome has a dummy pressure gauge on the top, so theres a reason to put a hole in the center. You can spin without a center pin, relying on friction to hold the disc in place until its formed, but doing it that way involves a very high pucker factor.

Heres the set-up with a brass blank in place. I used 0.016 annealed brass.





The disc needs to be lubricated. I use this waxy compound. Its cheap and works good. Ive also heard of using tallow, Ivory soap, oil, etc.





With the lathe running about 700-800 rpm, the tool is pressed against the bottom of the block and moved toward the headstock. Again, I dont have the ability to explain the tool movementyou need to see it. YouTube has a lot of metal spinning videos that should help.

By the time Id formed it this far, the brass had work hardened and needed to be re-annealed.





After annealing I was able to lay the metal the rest of the way down (a skilled spinner would have been able to do this without the intermediate annealing).





Looking at the back wall, you can see you wouldnt want to wear your best white shirt for this.

Once you get in the groove of spinning its amazing how the metal moves, particularly on larger pieces.

Most times the part is trimmed to final length on the tool just before laying down the last bit. I didnt because I wasnt sure how tall the finished part needed to be. Instead I trimmed it to final length later with a jewelers saw.





It seems to work best to saw all the way around the piece a time or two, gradually letting the saw break through.






The dome will slip inside the cylindrical upright which is the next part I'll build.

If you decide to give spinning a try, this video is worth renting. http://smartflix.com/store/video/480/Metal-Spinning-Workshop Its a two DVD set, the first tells you how to make your tools from drill rod and the second shows how to spin. Also, get some O temper aluminum to practice with. It spins beautifully without needing to stop for annealing.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## rake60

Beautiful result from a metal spinning operation Dennis! :bow: :bow: :bow:
Metal spinning is a craft is dying off faster than the machining craft.
It's great to see a tutorial of it being applied to a hobby project.

Rick


----------



## Deanofid

Wow, that dome looks really nice, Dennis. Beautiful, really.

I sure like that jewelers saw. Mine is modern, about 20 years old, and has none of the pleasing lines that yours exhibits.

Thanks for the show 'n tell on your spinning job. Something I've never done, and seldom seen.
Great post.

Dean


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Excellent post Dennis.
I'd bet it caused a number of people to go off in search of learning more about spinning. I know I did.


----------



## arnoldb

Very nice job on the spinning Dennis Thm: - would you mind posting a picture of the tools you use for the job ? I'm very interested !

Thanks & Regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Arnold,
Here's the set I made....










The tools are made from 1/2" and 5/8" drill rod and are about 28" long. The two in the back with the darker handles are trimming tools and are made from 1/2" square drill rod. From left to right the tools are: small combination, large combination, small round, large round and beading tool.

For trying spinning, you probably only need one of the small round nose tools. The rest can come later. I've seen a lot of tools made using a piece of shovel handle. The tools should be at least 28" long overall though because of the way you hold them. You also will need to make a steady rest with movable pins (see photo in my previous post). 

I hope you'll try it...it's a lot of fun.
Dennis


----------



## Quickj

Kind of off topic but,

I got a tour of the Pelco factory in Clovis CA. a couple of years ago. They are a US manufacturer of Security CCTV systems, and actually make 90% of their products in the U.S. The factory tour included the machine shop areas, the die cast areas, etc. One of the things that they demoed for us was a CNC metal spinning lathe. they use this to make the aluminum dome for exterior security cameras. Starting with a roughly 2' diameter circle of aluminum chucked between the formers the machine could spin a dome in about 45 seconds using several different tools.

Coolest thing I ever seen.


----------



## arnoldb

Thanks very much Dennis  - I appreciate the extra photos; as I'm sure some other people do.

And yes, I have an odd-ball little project in mind where I'll practice some spinning  

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## Harold Lee

As I said in my last post, there are a lot of different ideas out there on type, packing and placement of wicking. I played with a few variations and thought Id share them.

...
Im interested in hearing other builders comments on how their burners worked.

Regards,
Dennis

Dennis,

Please forgive me for hijacking your wonderful post but you had asked about wicking used in the tractor burner. I used the Tiki Torch wick available from Lowes or Home Depot. I cut three pieces and put them in each burner tube. 










The one thing I added to his design was the heat baffle that I believe will help with containing the heat and prevent heating the rear of the tractor. All of this is conjecture of course but it does look good when viewing the tractor from the bottom.




Thank you again for sharing your work, I have been working on mine for over a year and have gotten many ideas and inspiration from you.

Harold


----------



## 4156df

Rick, Dean, Zee/Carl, Arnold...Thanks for the comments.

Harold...I like your idea of the heat baffle and plan to incorporate it in my tractor. Thanks. 


Post #42

Steam Dome (Contd.)

The dome needed to be complete in order to know what ID to make the vertical section (the dome slips inside the vertical section). The first step was to turn a mandrel to the OD of the dome.





I used wood, but aluminum might be better. The mandrel was wrapped with a piece of 0.016 brass long enough so there was a 1/4 overlap. The brass was then tied in place with binding wire.





The piece of wire running parallel to the seam keeps the binding wires up and out of the solder joint. You cant see it, but before wrapping the brass, I coated the overlap area with paste solder. With everything tied snugly, I heated the seam with a small butane torch to complete the joint. The solder is just to hold things together until rivets are in place.

Before taking the part off the lathe, I used the lathe index to mark four 90 degree reference lines for later use.





Ill have a horizontal row of rivets around the top of the dome and a vertical row along the seam. I used a paper pattern rubber cemented to the part to locate the rivet holes for drilling.





After the holes were drilled, the part was reversed on the mandrel so the base could be contoured. The contour is formed by wrapping a piece of pipe (same diameter as the boiler casing) with emery paper. For contouring, I used a fixture to hold the center line of the dome perpendicular to the center line of the lathe. The fixture is nothing but a piece of properly sized angle bolted to the cross slide.





Once I was happy with the contour, I installed the rivets (forgot to take a picture)
and moved on to the mounting flange.

Rudy used a narrow mounting flange soldered to the base of the vertical. I wanted to put a ring of rivets around mine like the real tractor, so I made mine wider. Also, I wanted to be able to remove the dome without having to unscrew two 2-56 screws located at the bottom of a tall tube so I used a ring of vertical fingers to hold the upright.

The flange starts with a piece of 0.032 brass and a paper pattern.





All the holes and shaping are done in the flat. I cut the radial slots for the fingers with a jewelers saw.





The fingers were then bent and the flange was formed over a piece of scrap boiler casing. I annealed the part before bending and forming.





The next operation was installation of rivets.





The rivets need to be flush on the bottom so the holes need to be slightly countersunk. If the rivets aren't flush, the flange won't lay flat against the boiler casing.





The two pieces of tape are to remind me not to put rivets in those two holes. Theyre my reference points for locating the flange when drilling the mounting holes in the boiler casing.

I had a terrible time getting the short rivets in the holes, even with a tweezers , until I hit upon using double sided tape to hold them.





Heres what the finished steam dome looks like less the slot for the throttle control.





Regards,
Dennis


----------



## DougLanum

Very nice Dennis.

Another thought about my tractor, I placed a double wall inside my firebox area.
This has maybe 1/8" insulation between the inside and outside wrappers. This also helped control the heat and helps keep paint on the firebox side sections.

Doug


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Fantastic! Awesome post. Man I like your work.

I let out an audible 'augh' when you said you hadn't taken a pic of the rivets...wife thought I'd hurt myself...glad you had some more.

Neat tip on the double-sided tape...I'd never used double-sided tape in my life until a few months ago.


----------



## Deanofid

I'm with Zee. I like your work too, Dennis.
You do a darn good job of things.

Dean


----------



## JimN

You make it look so easy Dennis,,,just amazing work.


----------



## T70MkIII

Dennis, I'm learning so much from your thread - thanks for posting all the detail. Fabulous looking tractor so far.


----------



## gbritnell

Hi Dennis, great metal fabrication on your build. It looks like you've been doing this all your life. The rivets sure add a nice finishing touch to the engine. When I built mine I didn't go to that extent but that was when I was just starting out didn't see the overall look of the engine.
George


----------



## 4156df

T70MkIII, Dean, Zee, JimN...Thank you.

Doug...I like that double wall idea. There's room and with the relatively low heat burners it makes sense to keep as much heat going into the boiler as possible.

George...I don't know what to say other than: Thank you, you made my day. Your builds have been a real inspiration. 

This is probably a good time to say thank you again for the people posting on this board. I was a woodworker and have only been doing metal since I started lurking here. Everything I've learned (and it's a lot) came from you guys.

On with today's post which should dispell all this talk of "experience".

Post #43

Steam Dome (Contd)

When I went to mount the flange on the boiler casing, I made this revolting discovery. The flange and cylinder mounting bracket had a serious interference problem.






It was a case of making a change to the plans (bigger flange) without checking the impact on other parts. Both the flange and the mounting bracket needed to be modified, but to get the bracket off, all the engine components had to be removed. It wasnt a major disaster, just a time consuming one.

A little judicious trimming and I was back in business. This is one of those screw-ups that will pretty much disappear as more parts are attached.





Since the engine was apart, I decided to do a final assembly when I put it back together (I'm really not naive enough to believe this will be the final assembly ). This required gaskets. I used a piece of kraft paper shopping bag (Thank you, Doug Lanum) run through my printer to make mine. Here are my tools of choice.





I got lucky in that the two small hole sizes exactly match two of the leather punch sizes. 

The gaskets are about 0.007 thick and will be soaked with oil before installation.





Also, slots needed to be cut in the steam dome for the throttle and the steam pipe. I used a jewelers saw with 4/0 blade and held the dome over a piece of dowel.





Re-assembly was tedious, but went fairly well. I used hex head screws this time just to make sure everything fit and that the screws were the right length.















There isnt much access to the steam pipe input attachment screws. A hex head is no-go and I can barely get them snug with a Phillips. Ill try a socket head cap screw with a ball-end allen wrench but need to pick up some screws first.

If I would have stopped here, it would have been a good day. Unfortunately I didnt. 

I assembled the rest of the engine (crosshead, connecting rod, crank, etc.) and decided to try installing the flywheel to see how everything turned. The flywheel was a very snug fit on the crankshaft, so I wrung it on. Rookie mistake. It went on about 3/8 and then would not budge not matter how hard I twisted on it. I then tried a puller, but had no luck either.





Finally, I ended up removing the wheel and crankshaft together by taking off the connecting rod, crank, eccentric, etc. and pulling it out. I then literally had to beat the shaft out of the flywheel.

The end of the shaft had a one to one and half thousandths layer of brass welded to the end.





I believe Ive just had my first encounter with Galling.

Thankfully the flywheel survived intact and the crankshaft is just a piece of drill rod so, other than the experience, no real harm done. When I reassemble, Ill ream the flywheel to a nice sliding fit and put a film of oil on before assembly. Experienced Hands:Is there more I should do?

This experience also showed me that I needed flats on all the shafts where a set screw lands. I had a tough time getting the crank and eccentric off too because of small burrs the set screws raised.

Thats what Im doing now: Reaming the flywheel and milling flats on all the shafts and axles.

Hopefully the next post will show a little more progress.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## Maryak

Dennis,

I have not commented much but I have been quietly following along. This is going to be one hell of a model when it's finished. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## Deanofid

Well, we all learn about galling sooner or later, Dennis. A light push fit will cause it, especially when we have the almost irresistible urge to "screw it on" or wring it. Even a close running (rotating) fit can cause trouble if it is fairly long on the shaft.

You recovered from the boo-boos well, though, and it looks great in the trial fit ups.

To keep set screws from raising a burr on shafting, put a lead shot in the screw hole ahead of the set screw. I've used that method for a long time, and have never had one get stuck. 

Thanks again for all the great pictures!

Dean


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Nice! Nice! Nice!
And very happy the 'oh no!' turned out to be more of a 'drat'.


----------



## arnoldb

Great going Dennis !

I'll echo Bob:


> This is going to be one hell of a model when it's finished.



Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## vlmarshall

WOW, that thing is amazing! :bow: :bow:


----------



## 4156df

Vernon, Arnold, Zee...Thank you. You guys keep me motivated.

Bob...glad you're following along.

Dean...The lead shot tip is a good one. I had already milled flats before I read your posts. However, I didn't mill one on the eccentric collar because I figured I'd need flexibility for adjusting timing. I figured I'd just have to live with a burr. The lead shot will eliminate the problem.

Post #44

Plumbing the Boiler

The boiler slips into the boiler housing from the back.





Its held in place in the front by an L bracket screwed to the boiler stay stud and to the boiler housing.





The plans put the boiler housing screw at the very front edge of the boiler housing. That causes the screw to interfere with the smoke box door, so a recess has to be milled in the door (also noted in the plans). All of that can be avoided by moving the hole back 1/2 which I recommend.

There looks like plenty of room around the boiler, so I plan to add a layer of 1/8 insulation before final assembly.

Heres a view from the back showing the relationship between the boiler and the top of the burners.





The rear of the boiler is bolted it to the firebox back sheet by the rear boiler stay stud. Nothing is tightened down in this shot, so final alignment will be better than it looks here.





Boiler plumbing uses 1/8 copper tubing and compression fittings. The upper boiler fitting goes to the pressure gauge and the lower to the water inlet/test valve. The center piece that looks like a small fitting is the nut on the boiler stay stud. It had to be made extra long because there isnt enough clearance around the fittings to get a wrench on a standard height nut.

The test valve and the pressure gauge are mounted in the right and left coal bunkers respectively.

The test valve is a standard humidifier valve available at any hardware store. Its made to use with 1/4 tubing. There isnt room for a reducing coupler on the outlet side so an adapter (two pieces of nesting tubing) has to be made to connect it to 1/8 tubing.





In addition, a mounting bracket has to be made and silver soldered to the valve body. Here's mine wired in place and ready for solder.





And heres the completed test valve assembly.





The copper tubing extends out the bottom back of the tractor and is used to attach a syringe or pump for filling the boiler.

The pressure gauge Im using is a Live Steam Miniature Pressure Gauge that I got from AK Enterprises (www.livesteamsupplies.com). About $10 as I recall. Its 0-60psi and has a 1dia. face instead of the usual 1 1/2. Theres room for a 1 1/2 dial, but its a tight fit. The elbow is 1/8-NPT to 1/8 compression.





I made one modification to the plumbing that I hope will simplify operation. The tractor is designed to have a pre-measured amount of water pumped into the boiler via the test valve fitting. It seems like thats less than ideal because youre trying to push water into a sealed vessel. Some guys loosen the pressure gauge fitting at the boiler to vent it and then pump water in until it comes out of the pressure gauge fitting. Im taking this a step further and adding a vent valve at the end of the pressure gauge line. It's made by drilling a hole in the elbow and silver soldering in a piece of tubing.





The tubing will have a screw-in plug attached to it and will extend out under the right coal bunker. In operation, Ill remove the plug and pump water in the test valve side until it comes out of this tube, then close the test valve and replace the vent plug. (It should be noted none of this happens with the boiler hot or under pressure!)

The pressure gauge assembly also needs a mounting bracket. It's silver soldered to the side of the elbow. The bracket and the tube were soldered in the same heat.





Here are the two finished assemblies less the outlet plug on the pressure gauge assembly.





The outlet plug sleeve is a piece of 3/16 brass drilled 1/8" dia. halfway through with the other half tapped 4-40 to accept a threaded plug. The plug is made from an electrical terminal nut with the bottom cut off





and a pointed piece of 4-40 threaded rod. The rod is silver soldered in place, the top is faced in the lathe and six decorative holes added.  I used a piece of threaded hex stock in lieu of a rotary table to drill the holes. The point of the plug seats in the end of the piece of copper tube.





The test valve and pressure gauge assemblies were then mounted in the coal bunkers. I used 1/8 soft solder to lay out the pipe locations.





The solder is a lot easier to manipulate than the tubing and its easier to bend the copper against a pattern.





I used the groove in a round piece of stock method to bend the tubes, but the first thing Im going to do once this tractor is finished is make one of George Britnells tubing benders.

Heres a view showing everything snugged up and in place.





Ill need to add some wooden dowel sleeves to the handle of the test fitting to avoid burnt fingers.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## joe d

Dennis:

Your build just keeps on getting better and better. I'm running out of superlatives! :bow: :bow:

Still happily following along,

Joe


----------



## gbritnell

Dennis, your work is clean and meticulous. I would venture to say that this will be the nicest version of Rudy's steam tractor. Excellent!!
George


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Gorgeous. I'm really enjoying this.


----------



## Deanofid

It sure is looking nice, Dennis. Your work is consistently impressive. No short cuts, no hacking, 
inspirational, and a genuine pleasure every time you add a new post to your thread.
On top of all that, your photography is first rate, too.

I remember a post not to long ago, and I think it was one of yours, where you told what kind of material you used for your soldering hearth. Would you mind repeating it, and where you bought it?

Thanks,

Dean


----------



## slick95

Dennis,

Just Beautiful Workmanship.  :bow:

Following your build closely...

Jeff


----------



## ariz

I can only associate myself to the others Dennis, you're showing great craftsmanship and following this thread is a real pleasure

thanks for sharing


----------



## 4156df

Joe, George, Zee, Jeff and Ariz, Thanks for the comments.



> you told what kind of material you used for your soldering hearth. Would you mind repeating it, and where you bought it?



Dean,
I used something called "Solderite" pads. I got mine from a guy at a swap meet, but they're available online.  They come in 6x6, 12x12 and 6x12. I made my hearth 12x12 with 4" sides so I used one for the base and sliced one into 4x12 pieces for the sides. I've been very happy with them.
Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

Thank you, Dennis!

Dean


----------



## 4156df

Post #45

Ladder

The ladder is purely decorative and is made from 3/16 brass pieces silver soldered and riveted together. Theres really not much machining. The tricky part is holding the parts for soldering. I silver soldered mine, but soft solder would work equally well.

I positioned the steps at the correct angle and used a machinist vise to hold them in place while I tied on binding wire. The binding wire needs to be pulled pretty tight.






With the binding wired on, the part can be moved to the soldering hearth where its held in a third hand. The third hand lets you position the ladder for good access for soldering. I positioned mine so the solder bits would be on the underside of the finished ladder.





Heres the completed ladder sub-assembly.





The ladder is soldered at 60 degrees to the running board. I found the easiest way to hold it in position was to use binding wire and form a tripod.










The ladder assembly also has two brackets that are riveted to the running board and bolt to the engine. Theyre made from .032 brass and fabricated using paper patterns glued to the brass.





Heres the completed ladder assembly with the brackets riveted in place. 





The notch on the upright is to clear a rivet on the cylinder mounting bracket. Smaller rivets or countersunk rivets might be in order. If these were scaled up to full size theyd be a definite tripping hazard. 

And heres the ladder mounted on the tractor.





The mounting hole on the cylinder bracket is not shown on the plans. It was tricky to drill with the cylinder in place so you may want to make the ladder earlier in your build so the hole can be located and drilled with the bracket off.

Sorry about the short post, but Im at the stage where whats left is a lot of fiddly fitting and fabricating. Lots of time consumed, not much to show.

As of this week, Ive been working on this project for one year.  Im ready to be finished, but still have a lot of little bits and pieces, not to mention painting, to go. Im hoping the 80/20 rule doesnt apply here (80% of the effort in the last 20% of the project).

On the bright side, Ive learned a lot over the year, both from you guys and from experience.

Has anyone else taken over a year to build this tractor?

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## DougLanum

Dennis,
More great work.
My tractor was a two + year project.

Doug


----------



## Harold Lee

4156df  said:
			
		

> Post #45
> 
> On the bright side, Ive learned a lot over the year, both from you guys and from experience.
> 
> Has anyone else taken over a year to build this tractor?
> 
> Regards,
> Dennis



Dennis,

I have been in awe of your workmanship and progress. I am also in the process of building Rudy's tractor and have been working on it for almost 18 months. I am currently working on the wooden roof and after that will tackle the steps, and last few fiddly parts. If it wasn't for your posts, I do not think I would have ever finished the steering mechanism or some of the other parts. Thank you for sharing your work and your thoughts. 

Harold


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Beautiful work. I know I've said it before. Can't add much more. Just beautiful work.
Worth how ever much time is spent on it when it comes out looking so good.


----------



## compressor man

I am sure you are just sick and tired of hearing this  but your work is just wow! The difference between this and the stuff that I am turning out (I'm just learning) is sort of the difference between Mt Rushmore and a small piece of gravel!!!

I have a process question for you if you do not mind. The shot of the ladder after soldering is all blah looking with discoloration and solder/flux yuk everywhere and then the next shot it appears to be a piece of gleaming jewelry. I would not mind to find out a little about your clean-up/polishing process if you would be so kind.


----------



## shred

Sweet, another Lego guy!

Rudy's Tractor is on my to-do list and you're making a really nice one for lots of inspiration.


----------



## georgeseal

Cheer up guys,
Mine has been on the back burner since 1975. That was when Rudy first published is plans in Poplar Mechanics

Maybe one day

The time spent building is just as important as finishing


----------



## arnoldb

Dennis, :bow: :bow: ;D

A year seems to me to be a short time for your progress; from the little experience I have I know how much time it takes to try and get each little part as well-finished off as you make yours. As to the 80/20 rule... It seems that that is unfortunately true , but it will be oh-so-worthwhile in the end!

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Doug, Harold, Zee & georgeseal...You guys have made me feel a whole lot better. Always nice to have company. 



> I have a process question for you if you do not mind. The shot of the ladder after soldering is all blah looking with discoloration and solder/flux yuk everywhere and then the next shot it appears to be a piece of gleaming jewelry. I would not mind to find out a little about your clean-up/polishing process if you would be so kind.



compressor man
The only thing done to the ladder from the after solder shot to the following one is about a half hour in citric acid pickle and then a good brushing with a brass bristle brush dipped in water and dish washing detergent. This is the brush I use.





It's a fine bristle and is available on line from jewelry supply houses. 

HOWEVER, the ladder is not a representative example of my parts after pickle. Because I wasn't sure if I was going to paint it or not and I knew I wouldn't be able to get to the parts after they were soldered together, I sanded them to the final stage before soldering. All edges were sanded smooth using wet-or-dry paper lying flat on my table saw. I use it dry and went from 320 to 400 and finished with 600.

Normally I wouldn't finish a part this early. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see little nicks and dings from the binding wire and riveting. These will all have to be taken out somehow before painting.

If you search this board for "bling" and "polishing" you can find all kinds of good info from guys who really know what they're doing. Bogstandard's posts were particularly helpful to me.

Dennis


----------



## compressor man

> If you search this board for "bling" and "polishing" you can find all kinds of good info from guys who really know what they're doing. Bogstandard's posts were particularly helpful to me.
> 
> Dennis



From guys who really know what they are doing?! I believe that you are in that lofty group yourself you humble fellow. 

Thanks for the reply. Citric acid pickle...is the stuff found in the canning section of the grocery store?


----------



## 4156df

Yep, the stuff you get in the canning department, although I get mine online at Bulk Foods. They've got the best prices I've found.

There's a good thread on pickle here.

Dennis


----------



## 4156df

Control Levers

Real engines had three motion control levers: reverse, throttle and clutch. This model only has a throttle. However, Im adding dummy levers to represent reverse and clutch.

They mount on a 1/8 shaft that runs between the horn plates. The levers are made from 1/16 brass.





The upper hole is for a 1/16D control rod. At this stage I drilled both holes 1/16 so I could use them as locating points when milling the lever sides.





When one side is finished, its a simple matter to flip the part over and mill the other side using the same depth setting.

There are two lever types.





The top of the lower lever will be cut off. I left it long so Id have more widely spaced holes to use as locators in the mill.

The next step is to round the lower end.





and drill it out to 5/32.





The upper end of the lever is rounded with a file to accept a handle.





The handle is a piece of 1/8 rod with the end drilled 1/16 and tapered with a file.





The top of the handle is rounded by inserting a slightly knurled piece of 1/16 rod into the handle and mounting it on a Dremel. The spinning part is then held against a 3-M deburring wheel to round it.





The handle slips onto the lever and is soldered in place.





The movement of two of the levers is limited by what on a real tractor is a latching mechanism. I dont know what their correct name is. I simulated them from a piece of .016 brass.










The levers and latches were soldered to a piece of 5/32 tube (1/8 ID) so they could be mounted on the shaft between the horn plates and have some stability.





One additional piece was necessitated by poor planning on my part. The reverse lever needs to be held in position on the 1/8 shaft. If Id have thought this through earlier in my build I would have drilled some holes in the horn plate to do that. As it is, the only way I could come up with to hold the left (reverse) lever upright was the odd piece shown below.





It and the simulated latch are soldered to the tube. The odd shaped piece then locks on one of the bearing blocks.

Here are the lever parts the way theyll be mounted.





The reverse (left) lever moves freely but doesnt do anything. Its movement is restrained by the latch mechanism which is anchored to the bearing block. The throttle (center) lever actually controls the throttle and is restrained by the latching mechanism which is soldered to the clutch (right) lever which will be restrained by a rod attached to the lower end. Whew!!

Here they are in place.





Thanks for following along.

Dennis


----------



## gbritnell

Hi Dennis,
Once again I must say how nice and clean your work is. Is the right lever stationary so that it holds the quadrant for the middle lever?
George


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Aw gee Dennis...that last photo is a winner. That should be seen in a book.
Wonderful stuff. I hope someday to produce that kind of work. Just awesome.


----------



## Deanofid

You are such a good modeler, Dennis. Very fine work!

Dean


----------



## 4156df

Zee & Dean...Thanks.



> Is the right lever stationary so that it holds the quadrant for the middle lever?



George,
Quadrant!! Thank you. It was really bugging me that I couldn't remember the name of that part. And yes, the right lever and quadrant are stationary so they limit the movement of the throttle control.
Dennis


----------



## bearcar1

THAT. is extremely beautiful work on display, Dennis. It seems that there HAS to be a way to incorporate engine reversing and a clutch mechanism to those dummy levers but I am too mentally challenged to come up with any ideas. :'( Whenever I see this title in the new posts section it is the very first one that I go to just to see get a glimpse of what you have done. VERY nicely done.

BC1
Jim


----------



## slick95

Beautiful work Dennis :bow: :bow: :bow:

Jeff


----------



## Jack B

Hi Dennis
I have been looking through the thread at your build. It is excellent.
                           Jack B


----------



## arnoldb

Excellent work Dennis :bow:

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Jeff, Jack & Arnold...Thank you.



> there HAS to be a way to incorporate engine reversing and a clutch mechanism to those dummy levers


Jim,
I'm with you. It's a shame to have those levers there not doing anything. 

Post #47

Throttle Linkage

The throttle lever and throttle are connected by a 1/16 rod. The plans are silent about how the ends are attached, but from the photos it looks like Rudy used L bends on his. Im going to use a light clevis on each end.

I made the clevises by starting with a piece of 1/8 x 3/16 0.014 wall tubing and then drilling 1/16 holes for a clevis pin and the throttle rod.






After drilling the pieces are cut off 3/16 long.





The hole for the throttle rod wasnt actually necessary, but it helped locate the piece for soldering.





I used silver solder paste and a third hand for holding. Note the top end is already soldered on.

After soldering, the end of the rectangular tube was ground off and rounded to form the clevis.

The clevis pins are made from 1/16 rivets drilled #60 (0.040) for a cotter pin.










The cotter pins are made using 0.020 copper wire formed around a piece of 0.041 wire.





They didnt all turn out. Heres a shot of some good, bad, and ugly ones.





I also discovered that its tough to get two 0.020 wires through a 0.040 hole, so I ended up flattening one side of the wire by drawing it under a file held on a hardened steel plate and then forming the pin. Same as real cotter pins.

Anyway, heres the rod in place.





For now, the pins are just held with a piece of wire. Now that I look at this picture, I can see that the heads of the pins are way out of scale. Ill have to grind them smaller. Thats one Ill add to the list of things to do later while Im waiting for the paint to dry.

Thats it for today. Sorry about the short post, but not much shop time this week.

Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

It's great, Dennis. Thanks for showing how you made the cotters.
What a sweet machine it's becoming.

Dean


----------



## JimN

Very neat idea on how you made the clevis's Dennis.

And to say the least, its looking really fine.

JimN


----------



## Speedy

coming along nicely.
 ;D working models are great!


----------



## 4156df

Dean, Jim, Speedy...Thanks for watching.

Post #48

Dummy Pressure Gauge

Rudys model has a purely decorative dummy pressure gauge mounted on the steam dome. Its made from 7/16 diameter brass and mounted on a 3/32 standard.

I turned the OD first and then cut a 3/8 diameter recess to represent the dial.





Then cross drilled it 3/32 for the standard,





parted it off and silver soldered in the standard which is a piece of 3/32 rod drilled and tapped 0-80.





Rudy stopped at this point, but I thought Id kick it up a notch using this photo.





I cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop to get this.





The Photoshopped picture was then printed so the dial face diameter, as printed, was 3/8.





The dial was then cut out using a punch made from a piece of 3/8 ID steel tube. I printed multiple copies of the dial because I assumed (correctly) that it would be tough to get the punch exactly centered.

I had left a slight burr when I cut the recess for the dial, so I just popped the dial in and it seems to be secure.






If anyone wants a higher resolution copy of the dial jpeg, PM me and Ill send you one.

Happy Easter everyone!

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## bearcar1

Beautifully done Dennis. And here I thought sure you would have put a stop valve plumbed over to a faux governor at the steam chest in that spot. :big: That is one of THE nicest TEs I have seen in a long while.

BC1
Jim


----------



## Deanofid

That looks perfect, Dennis! 
You have such a great eye for detail.

Dean


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## zeeprogrammer

Neat idea and beautiful work.
I sure enjoy looking at your pictures.


----------



## GailInNM

Beautiful work, Dennis. Thm: Thm:
All the detail work you do really sets it off.
Gail in NM


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## Tad Wicks

I love the gauge, actually I am impressed with everything, the rivets look great also. well done. Tad


----------



## Bernd

Nicely done Dennis. Makes it look very realistic. 

To bad the gauge didn't read about 250Lbs. :big:

Bernd


----------



## thayer

Do you mean like this?

Thayer


----------



## cfellows

Really nice job you're doing here Dennis. This is going to be a lovely steam tractor when finished.

Chuck


----------



## arnoldb

Great work Dennis - your attention to detail is amazing!

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## putputman

WOW!!!! Dennis.

Your work is just beautiful. I especially like the detail on the levers and then to top it off with the gage.

You are at the top of your class in model building.


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## 4156df

Dean, Zee, Gail, Bernd, Chuck, Arnold & putputman...Thank you for your kind comments.

Thayer...I'm going to you for future Photoshop work.

Jim,
A "stop valve plumbed over to faux governor" crossed my mind, but this is a representational model AND I'd like to finish it in my lifetime! 

_Post 49_

Steering

I made the front axle much earlier in this build, but hadnt provided for a way to attach the steering chains.

The first step is to cut two 1/4 long pieces of 3/8 tubing (5/16 ID) to use as attaching collars. These slip over the axle. Next bend two small rings to serve as chain attachment points and silver solder the rings to the collars.





It took two Third Hand devices to hold things in place.

Then position the collars on the axle and Locktite them in place. 





The drill bit helps get the orientation right. As you probably know, any Loctite not in the joint wipes off cleanly after the joint cures.

Finding steering chain I was happy with was a real ordeal. I dont know how many samples I bought from various craft, beading and jewelry supply stores. They were all either; too shiny, too small, too large or too weak. About the time I was ready to compromise, I noticed that Gary Hart (ghart) had what looked like exactly the right chain on his tractor. I PMed him and he said he used clock weight chain. Bingo! Dont know why I didnt think of that.

So, off to the nearest clock repair store. I told the guy what I was looking for and he brought out his junk drawer and let me dig through it. I found exactly what I needed. He said if I wanted more to ask for No. 1 Cuckoo Clock Chain. Link dimensions are 0.145 wide, 0.290 long and its made from 0.033 wire. Six feet for $3 bucks, plus he let me take whatever I wanted from the junk drawer. He was an older gentleman and said mechanical clock repair is a dying business and he would never use up the pieces. Depressing.

In Garys email he also pointed out that he had added a guide spring to the steering chain roller to keep the chain from tangling. Its a nifty enhancement. Thanks, Gary.

I made my guide out of a piece of 12AWG copper wire. Probably should have been brass, but I didnt have any.





_(Note: The spring shown is a right hand one. To steer properly it needs to be left hand. All of the following photos except the last one show right hand springs. Sorry, but by the time I figured this out and how to wind a left hand one, I was too frustrated to retake the photos.)_

The spring is wound around a 3/16 mandrel. I turned the lathe by handno power (although it could be powered if you know what youre doing).





The tool Im using is a Hojarth Perfection Spring Winder patented in 1907. Ive had this for years (I collect old tools) and never had occasion to use it before. It seems to work very well.

The tool consists of a handle, a tension adjusting nut, clamp (brass) and a spacing guide (brass). The spacing guide has various thickness lands and it controls the spacing between turns. I picked a land that matched the link width on my chain. 

In use, the wire is threaded through guide holes in the handle and between the two brass plates. Feed enough wire through to hook on the chuck and turn the chuck to wind the spring. The amount of tension you put on the star nut determines how tight the spring gets.

Heres an overall shot of the winder.





This one is about 9 long. They came in several sizes. If youd like to know more, Google patent 861,283.

To wind a spring without a Hojarth, check out Deanofids excellent thread, Springs and Things" here

But I digress

It took me numerous tries to figure out that I needed a left hand spring and that turning the lathe backwards doesnt get you one. To get a left hand one, you have to wind from the tailstock chuck toward the headstock. If theres another way, please tell me. At this point, I get a headache just thinking about it.

Anyway, after winding the spring/guide, grind the ends perpendicular to the axis.





and install it on the steering chain roller and wind on the chain.





This is the first photo with a correctly wound guide. Also note that the chains cross. The guide and the crossed chains are similar to the real Case tractor.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## JimN

As always Dennis, really nice looking work.

JimN


----------



## Deanofid

Another great write up and nice clear pics from you, Dennis. I'm starting to sound like a parrot;
"looking good, looking good", but, you know... Looking good!

That's a neat old winder. I wouldn't have known what it was at first sight, but would have bought it, just because of the shapely handle.

Dean


----------



## Maryak

Deanofid  said:
			
		

> That's a neat old winder. I wouldn't have known what it was at first sight
> Dean



Me neither. 

Great work Dennis :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## arnoldb

Parrot fashion... Great job Dennis.
and thanks for showing the spring winder tool; I didn't even know they existed!

Regards, Arnold


----------



## 4156df

Post #50

Sorry about the long time between posts. The day after my last post I had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in my knee. All went well and Im getting back to the tractor on a limited basis.

I did an assessment of where I am on the tractor and discovered that Im pretty much done with machined parts! How did that happen?






It seems like that pile of finished parts should be larger.

My pile of screw ups is almost as big, if not bigger.





There are still a few bits and pieces left to make, but everything that gets painted is done. Im going to begin painting and finish making any remaining bits while Im waiting for paint to cure.

Its a truism that a good finish cant fix a bad project, but a bad finish can ruin a good one. With that in mind Im going to take my time painting. Maybe even get a little anal about it. So, the next few posts wont be about machining, but painting. If thats not appropriate I hope someone (Moderator?) will let me know.

Sometime back I got a copy of Christopher Vines HOW (not) TO PAINT A LOCOMOTIVE. Its a book worth having even if youre not going for an award winning paint job. Lots of good tips and ideas. 

Mr. Vine spends quite a bit of time on spray guns and paint types, most of which I hope wont apply here because I plan to use spray cans. Fortunately Dupli-Color (www.duplicolor.com) sells a self-etching primer in a spray can. Some kind of etching primer is almost a must on brass. Dupli-Color also has high heat engine enamel in quite a few colors. Also, the local auto paint store will custom mix colors (not High Heat) and put them in a spray can for $26/can. Not cheap, but not bad considering time wasted with spray gun hassles and clean up.

At the same time I cut out a bunch of 2 x 3 brass coupons for test panels, I made up a couple of samples to see if paint would obscure the rivets or wick under the lap joints. Looks like it wont be a problem.





These parts were processed the same as I plan to do the model. That is: 1) a run through the dishwasher with detergent (wife not home) to remove any oil, 2) a wipe down with wax & grease remover, and 3) a final wipe with a tack cloth just before painting.

Mr. Vine doesnt like the use of detergent because he says it may leave a residue. However, Dupli-Color recommends it as well as the wax & grease remover and tack cloth. I did a tape test on the above samples and paint adhesion was good, so Im going with the paint manufacturers suggestion.

If I only have one or two things to paint, I usually just hang them on a piece of wire and step out of the garage door to spray them. However, there are enough parts on the tractor that I decided to improvise a spray booth.





You can stop laughing now. It actually works pretty well.

Its made from a cardboard box, a window fan, two cheap under counter lights and a 20x20 furnace filter. In use the fan is set on low and the back is pointed out the door. It does an excellent job of capturing overspray and venting fumes.

As part of the prep, I fastened all of the tractor parts to holders so they can be handled while painting. Some are taped to dowels and some have special mounting blocks. Most of the parts have some kind of mounting hole, so one method that worked really well was to use a piece of brass tube with an ID slightly larger than the mounting screw size. I put a screw through the part and into the tube and then flattened the tube in several places with a wire cutter. The tube grips the screw threads and the screw can be tightened to securely hold the part. Heres an example.





I also made up some mounting blocks with randomly space holes and hole sizes to hold the various pieces after theyre prepped and painted.





Heres everything in the drying cabinet ready for primer.





The drying cabinet is another tip from Mr. Vines book. He points out that most dust problems are the result of dust settling during the drying stage rather than during application. His answer is to put everything in a clean cabinet to cure.

My cabinet is an old kitchen cabinet I found at the swap meet, but one could easily be improvised from a cardboard box.

Thats it for today. Thanks for reading.

Regards,
Dennis


----------



## Troutsqueezer

I sure am learning a lot from this build! I appreciate all the extra work documenting as you go, it really helps us newbies. 

-Trout


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## georgeseal

Dennis,
I use a counter top oven (Wiffie wanted a new so she said old one was broke. It repaired itself between the house and the shop) I set temp about 250 F. and bake for about a hour. Then turn off oven and let cool. Paint comes out hard and dry.
Just a thought

George Seal Conyers Ga.


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## Deanofid

Gee, Dennis, I can't believe you're almost done already. That's no joke. You made a great number
of parts, and it didn't seem to take very long. The spokes alone must be 150 pieces.. Guess I was really enjoying your thread! Still am.

Dean


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Great post. Some neat ideas in there.
Can't wait for more pics!


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## arnoldb

Dennis, that collection of parts is awesome :bow:

And a "K" to you for sharing the the pile of parts that did not make the grade - that puts in perspective on how meticulous your work is and how high your standards are :bow:

Rudi Kouhoupt's book was already on my shopping list (One of many from Rudi!), and now you "forced" another on there; I'll be ordering "HOW (not) TO PAINT A LOCOMOTIVE" as well when I can, as it has been tempting me from the Camden catalog for a while ;D

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## kvom

That's a lot of parts!  :bow:

Some of the scrap looks pretty useful for future projects too.


----------



## 4156df

Trout, Dean, Zee, George, Arnold & Kvom...Thank you.

My Post #51

Not a lot of shop time the last couple of weeks, however Ive made some progress with the painting.

Im going with a black, green and burgundy color scheme. The black definitely needs to be high heat, but from what other builders have told me, the green can be plain enamel. I found two greens I like in spray cans. One is a conventional enamel and the other is a high heat engine enamel. I liked the conventional enamel color a little better, but decided to test its heat resistance before putting it on the engine.

I made up two test coupons, one with the high heat enamel and its primer and the other with the conventional enamel and self etching primer. I put them in my toaster oven set at 350º F. Heres what happened.





The one on the right is the self-etch primer with conventional enamel. At about 200 degrees, the paint/primer started rolling up, leaving bare metal. Apparently the self-etch doesnt like heat at all, or it could be the enamel shrinks more than the primer and pulls it off as it contracts. Whatever, Im glad I checked.

The engine enamel (left sample) was un-affected. After an hour at 350º F, I let it cool and did a tape test. Adhesion was still good. With that, the second choice green looked a whole lot more attractive and I started painting. The green likely won't see 300 degree temps, but I figure why chance it.

Everything is now primed and painted except for the gray on the wheel rims. I plan to let everything sit and cure for a while before starting assembly.





Note the sample coupons on the top shelf. They'll come in handy if I need to test repairs and for pinstriping.

Painting the wheels is a little tricky because its hard to get paint around all the spokes and on the inside of the rims without runs. For spraying, I made a rack that let me rotate and turn the wheel as I sprayed (the base is a turntable). Then I sprayed light coats from all directions until I had a full wet coat.





Once I had the coverage I wanted, I moved the wheel to this fixture and let it slowly rotate (about 25 rpm) for 10 minutes. At that point enough of the solvents had flashed off and the paint was stable enough not to run. 





The hose clamp around the trigger is tightened to control and hold the speed. The wheels turned out great, with no runs and a nice coat of paint everywhere. _(Note: The color looks different in these photos because of lighting.)_

The boiler housing was painted on a similar rack.





The drill fixture was designed to rotate this part too (it has an outboard support), but I decided not to use it because of the weight. After spraying, I just rotated it by hand using the same fixture it was painted on. 





Again, no runs with a nice wet coat. 

This idea of rotating the parts came from HOW (not) TO PAINT A LOCOMOTIVE. Mr. Vine rotated his parts by hand, but the drill let me prep and spray the next part while the first was drying.

I was even able to rotate the bunker assembly with the drill.





Now its a matter of letting the paint cure thoroughly so I can start assembly.

Dennis


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## arnoldb

;D That looks GREAT Dennis :bow:

I'm in "hurry up and wait" mode now; I can't wait to see your engine coming together, but it would be wrong for me to expect you to hurry up - so don't and take your time 

Kind regards, Arnold


----------



## Maryak

Dennis,

From one for whom bling and paint are an anathema, I thank you for some great how to's on painting. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## Deanofid

Nice paint work, Dennis. I thought you might leave it in that beautiful brass, but this looks great.

Dean


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## 4156df

Dean,
Believe me, I was really tempted to leave it in brass. Painting was not an easy decision. What made me finally decide to paint was the varying tarnish rates of some of the parts (different alloys I guess). Also, the wheels and piping are copper which also tarnishes differently. Anyway, I think I've got a paint scheme that will leave enough brass visible to keep it interesting. We'll see.
Dennis


----------



## 4156df

My Post #52

Draft Fan

While waiting for the paint to cure, I decided to make a draft fan. The fan is used to induce a draft when first firing up the engine. 

The idea comes from Doug Lanum, who wrote this about his and his friends engine: We made small fans to put on top of the stack while building pressure. We found that the alcohol burners had flame going everywhere, so the fan keeps the fire going in the right direction. It also allows the steam pressure to build much quicker. Once pressure is built up, and the engine is running, the engine exhaust provides sufficient draft.

A picture of Dougs fan is  here in Reply #54.

So you have an idea of where I'm going in this post, heres a shot of my finished fan.





The fan just slips onto the smokestack. Its self-contained and uses a 1.5V motor from Radio Shack. The basic dimensions are 2.5 x 2.5. The length of the AA batteries pretty much set the overall dimensions.

The impeller is 0.016 brass and started with a paper pattern glued to the brass. Black lines are cut lines (except for that one black radial that shouldnt be there) and blue are bend lines.





Bends were made by hand using smooth jaw pliers.










The center post (I cant think of the correct term) is soldered to the impeller and it secures the blade to the motor shaft with a set screw.

The motor is mounted in a flange bored to the OD of the motor. 





_As an asidethis bore has one of the smoothest finishes Ive ever gotten. I have no idea why. Wouldnt you know that, in this application, finish doesnt matter. Go figure._

The motor gets secured in the flange with a couple of set screws (one would do) and the flange gets soldered to the cover plate.

In use, the blower assembly is held in place by a tube that slides inside the smokestack. I made the tube using the same mandrel and technique I used to make the smoke stack.

Here are the pieces ready for assembly.





and here they are soldered.





After balancing and aligning the impeller, the fan was assembled. This is how it mounts in the smokestack.





Originally I had planned to use a remote battery pack connected with jumpers but decided I liked the idea of a self contained unit better. That meant mounting two AA batteries and a switch.

The motor is rated 3.0-1.5 Volts so I mounted two batteries. Im running it at 1.5 volts, but if that doesnt provide enough draft, Ill re-wire it for 3 volts.

Heres the underside in mid-assembly. 





The battery holders are held on with E-6000 adhesive. I would have preferred screws, but because of the way the batteries fit in the holders I couldnt see a simple way to do it.

Heres another view of the final unit.





I think this is going to be a nice accessory and should really speed up initial steam build up. Thanks again to Doug Lanum for passing on the idea.

PM me if you want a copy of the impeller pattern.

Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

That is just plain nifty, Dennis. I like nifty.
You make things so well. Always neat and clean. Nice.

Dean


----------



## gbritnell

Very nice fan Dennis. I had built something similar years ago when I used to fire my 1" Case. With all the litigation these days I only run it on air at shows. 
 Now for my next question: is that paint dry yet? I can't wait to see this thing in it's full glory. 
George


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## bearcar1

Now, now, patience Gearge, ;D 

C'MON Dennis, the suspense is killing me us! 
 th_wwp


("are we there yet?")
remembrances of a much younger time (getting antsy)


BC1
Jim


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## DougLanum

Dennis,
Your fan looks great.
If you find that it is too aggressive, it may pull the flames out and the burners wont stay lit.
You many need to adjust the voltage or damper it down a bit.
The idea of the fan for this tractor does not take much draft to keep the flames going in the right direction.

Doug


----------



## 4156df

George, Jim and Dean,
Sorry about the delay in posting. I've been away from the shop for awhile. I'm almost afraid to do another post about paint, but I wanted to show one more thing that I hope will be of interest. Please bear with me.

My Post #53

Pin Striping

Now that the paint is fully cured, theres one more detail to add before final assembly and thats some decorative pin striping. Ive striped old machines and tools before, but nothing as small as the tractor.

Im going to use old fashioned inking pens. I saw this done quite some time ago in an old Rudy Kouhoupt video. Theres also a brief mention in Christopher Vines How (not) To Paint A Locomotive. The inking pens can still be found at swap meets and garage sales in old drafting sets. Theyre usually pretty cheap. In case youre too young to know what they are, examples can be seen in this photo. Youll need both a compass and a pen.





The first step is to pick the paint. In the above photo Im trying acrylic craft paint. 

Craft paint works pretty well, but requires some thinning, after which some colors dont cover well. It has a flat lustre that I didnt like against the gloss base. Water clean-up is a plus though. 

Sign Painters enamel like 1-Shot is great for flow and coverage and it comes in vivid, glossy colors. It works great in roller type stripers like Beuglers and is the paint of choice for most applications. However, for very narrow lines like Ill use on the tractor it tends to dry as a noticeably high (thick?) line.

Another option is drafting ink. The ink comes in lots of colors and is great for narrow lines. However, the inks arent very durable on glossy surfaces, so not a good choice for a model that will be handled.

The paint I ended up using (and usually do) is Model Master enamel. Its available in most US hobby shops and comes in small jars of either enamel or acrylic. Im using enamel for the tractor because I think the adhesion will be a little better.

Once I pick the paint I do lots of practice lines and designs. 





The paint jars are Model Master enamel and the large test piece is just white paper sprayed with a heavy coat of the green Im using. The smaller piece is a 2 x 3 piece of brass painted at the same time and in the same way as the production parts. I made up several of these test panels to use for practicing final lines and designs.

I like to stripe on a Workmate bench. Its a nice height (I can sit at it), its stable, and the split vise top offers a lot of versatility for holding parts to be striped. Plus you can move around it to stripe from the best angle.





The process starts with a 1:1 layout of the pattern printed on card stock.





As a show and tell, following is a trial run on one of the test pieces.

Before the first line, I coat the part with a very light dusting of talc. This isnt absolutely necessary, but it seems to help the paint to start flowing. I use Johnsons Baby Powder. Read the label before buying it though. They make a talc powder and also a cornstarch powder. You want talc.





Next, cut out the pattern and trim out the curve sections just wide enough to clear the pen, but leave the center point marks. This gives a spot to hold the compass point stable without damaging the base coat. 

Tape the pattern to the part. Put just a drop or two (too much and you get blobs) of paint in your compass and run several arcs on a test piece to make sure youre happy with the width. If you are, then draw in the curves. Eyeball the start and stop points based on the straight line positions on the pattern.










Normally Id stop here and let the paint on the curves dry thoroughly before moving the pattern. Since its a demo part, I went ahead and removed the pattern leaving just the corner curves.





_(Note the trial piece to the left in the above photo. It was used to set final line widths. Once the line width is set, draw a series of sample curves with it. Youll need these when it comes to setting a matching line width for the straight sections.)_

The edges of the curves are now the reference points for the straight line sections. Switch from the compass to the straight pen and set the line width to match the sample curves on your test piece. Then draw in the lines using a straight edge. I use a drawing triangle made for inking (Art Supply stores usually have them). They have a small recess along the edge that keeps paint from wicking under the triangle if you get too close to the line. Again, not essential, but handy.





The photo shows about the maximum amount of paint to put in the pen. Too much and you get blobs at the beginning of the line. Its surprising how long a line can be drawn with just a few drops of paint. 

If you screw up,





just wipe the line off.





and re-draw it.





A mistake like this is where having a fully cured base coat really pays off. I was able to wipe the enamel line off using mineral spirits without affecting the base paint. That probably couldnt have been done if the base was still soft. Also, had I been doing a production part, the curve paint would have been cured too, so I could have wiped off the entire line instead of just the screwed up part. That would make a neater repair.

The other screw-up I normally make is overshooting a line. Examples can be seen on the lower left corner curve and on the two short crossing lines at left center.





These are fixed with a small touch-up brush and matching paint. Just paint over the overshot line using some base coat paint sprayed in a container.





The spray paint is pretty thin, so touch-up needs to be done in several coats to get coverage, but avoid build-up as much as you can.

Here are the lines repaired. 





If you hold the part just right, you can still see the repairs as a small paint bump, but for the most part they disappear, particularly when looking at the overall piece.

Once Im happy with the sample pattern and line widths, I move to the production parts.

My tractor striping is on the fuel bunker assembly. The bunker is an odd shaped piece, but the Workmate center vice lets me clamp and position it so that the surface Im working on is as close to writing paper position as possible. The Workmate isnt essential, but very handy.





The bunker was done using the same process as the sample. I did each surface in turn, letting paint dry at each step before messing with it. Waiting for paint to dry can be a real test of your patience.

Heres the completed fuel bunker assembly.










And that completes the paint! Believe it or not, Im finally going to start assembly. Thanks for hanging with me.

Dennis


----------



## Deanofid

My gosh, that's beautiful, Dennis!
I've never tried this. I think I have a couple of pens from my drafting classes years ago. I have to dig them up.  You make me want to paint!

Thanks much for the tutorial. Very welcome, from my point of view.
I couldn't imagine this tractor being more beautiful with paint than in brass, but I'm sure seeing it now!
Won't have to hunt much for a POM nominee next month, that's for sure.

Dean


----------



## zeeprogrammer

Fantastic post Dennis.
Thank you.
I was scrolling up from the bottom and knew it was you (I mean 'that' Dennis) as soon as I saw the pic.


----------



## bearcar1

Thank you Dennis for that tutorial on pin striping. I have had several drafting classes over the years but have never been required to do inked prints. I've always wanted to experience the technique and now I have actually got an idea of the process, using paint of course. In thinking forward in my build I plan to utilize your example when it comes time to 'decorate'. You do some of the very finest detail work. Thm: yes sir, top shelf.

BC1
Jim


----------



## SAM in LA

Dennis,

Thanks for the education. I have wondered how pinstripping was done. Somewhere I have my Dads old drafting set that he used in college back in the 1950's. The set has the inking tools. Perhaps someday I will give pinstripping a try.

Thanks,

SAM


----------



## Tad Wicks

I have seen those pens in different drafting sets and did not know what they were, now I do. Great job, I really do love all the riveting, the striping just adds to the whole project, well done, thanks for the tutorial. I wonder if fine line Sharpies or felt tip pens would work also? ink might fade?  Thanks; Tad


----------



## thayer

Sharpies will rub off over time from handling. I would invest the effort to duplicate these results. A small price to pay after all the time invested getting it ready for paint.

Thayer


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## 4156df

Dean, Zee, Jim, SAM & Tad...Thanks for the compliments and for following along. 
Thayer...I agree with you. The pens are easy to use and can be picked up at swap meets and garage sales for very little money.

My Post #54

Final Assembly

Final assembly wasnt without the usual trials of dropped parts and forgotten assembly sequences, but I finally got there.

Heres the result:































And a final one with a Coke can for scale:





Ive tested it with air, so I know it runs. I plan to steam it up early next week and will post a video then. That will be my first try at live steam, so it should be interesting!

I know theres no way I could have built this without the support and knowledge of this board, so Thank You! Its risky to name names because Ill leave somebody out, but Ive got to say a special thank you to Doug Lanum and Gary Hart. Their advice and design ideas (which I shamelessly borrowed) really helped make the tractor special.

Regards,
Dennis


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## gbritnell

Dennis, what can I say? It's absolutely stunning. Your finished pictures are much more than the sum of the parts. Your attention to detail throughout this build has been meticulous and it shows in the final assembly. 
 Everyone has to make their own decisions about running an engine but let me give you a little bit of information in regard to mine. I had it polished and painted much like yours when I finished it and I certainly wanted to fire it because that was the purpose of building it. After several firings with water and oil spattering all over everthing it lost it's glamorous look. I have no regrets because I really enjoy steaming it but I'm just giving you a heads up on what's going to happen. 
 I will definitely be nominating your engine for the MOM. 
George


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## Deanofid

Wow, wow wow. It's stunningly beautiful!!
You've done a fine job all the way through the thread, Dennis, and every single
step, every extra effort, shows up here.

Wow, wow wow.

Dean


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## substandard

Amazing. Great build. :bow:


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## mklotz

Absolutely stunning! The detail, the precision, the color scheme - everything.

You need to be very, very proud.


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## zeeprogrammer

What everyone has said plus awesome, beautiful, wonderful....I don't care if I'm repeating. That is a piece of work...of art. Inspirational.


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## ozzie46

th_confused0052 th_confused0052 th_confused0052 woohoo1 woohoo1 woohoo1 woohoo1 th_wav th_wav th_wav th_wav th_wav th_wav th_wav

  Is all I can say.

   Ron


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## ChooChooMike

Oh WOW !!! Gorgeous !!! :bow: :bow: and ditto on the previous message !!

Mike


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## bearcar1

Denny, that is truly awesome. I am without words and am still drooling like a kid in a candy store and stunned all at the same time. Your work is an inspiration to say the very least, I've certainly enjoyed every minute of the ride and can't wait to see this one in action. Just, plain phenomenal it is, and that's a fact. th_confused0052


BC1
Jim


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## Maryak

Dennis,

The guys have said the superlatives I would have said....................so

Wot they said in Hearts......................Congratulations.

 :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## kvom

Top class job. I see that this thread started in March of 09, so 15 months to build it. I wish I had both the skill and the patience.  :bow:


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## SAM in LA

Dennis,

Man!

I go to Scout camp for a week and you finish your tractor.

Absolutely beautiful.

SAM


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## BAH101

Thm:


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## rake60

Beautiful build Dennis! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Rick


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## IronHorse

Superb Build :bow:


IronHorse


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## joe d

Dennis

I've been following along right from the start, and have thoroughly enjoyed every bit of your project. Everybody has already used up all the superlatives, so just consider this a big "What they said!" as I am in complete agreement with the opinions expressed above :big: :big: :big:

Really really great work there, Sir :bow: :bow:

Joe


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## arnoldb

Dennis, simply stunning job :bow: :bow: :bow: - at one point you commented that going was slow, but man-oh-man the result is so much worth it!
And thank you for sharing your build log; I have learned a lot from it. 
I second George on the POM nomination Thm:

Regards, Arnold


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## Harold Lee

Dennis

What an incredible job you have done! It looks flawless and I know you must be pleased with your work. I am about 80% done with my tractor and have gotten much inspiration, techniques, and ideas from watching you build yours. I know it would have been easier for you to just build yours and not spend the time on documentation, narration and posting but I'm sure many others have learned a great deal from taking this journey with you. Thank you for sharing your project with us and giving us a front row seat on this 15 month odyssey. I look forward to your next project.

Thank You Again,
Harold Lee


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## Xlmyford

What an outstanding build :bow:
Beautiful!!!!!
Ralph


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## Groomengineering

Amazing work Dennis! 15 months well spent I'd say. Thm:

Jeff


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## Paolo

Hi Dennis
...simply put....EXCELLENT!!!!
Best regards
Paolo


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## kustomkb

Outstanding!!

That is one fine piece of model engineering you have created there.

Beautiful.


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## 4156df

My Post #55

Wow! I dont know what to say other than: THANK YOU!! Your comments really make me feel good. Its great to know that people whose work I admire and respect also like my work. 

Ill say it again, there is NO way I could have completed this project without the people on this board. Ive never been involved in a hobby, or with a work group, where people were so willing to share their knowledge and advice. 

As promised, a video of the tractor under steam follows.

First steaming went well, but I had trouble building up much steam pressure. It never got over 6-7 psi and most of the video is at 3 psi or less. I guess thats good in a way because the tractor should run really well with more pressure. 
I think the low pressure is due to leaks and a low flame. One of the leaks is at the throttle valve. A stronger spring should fix that. Another is a leaky gasket on the steam inlet flange which a thicker gasket should fix. The low flame was because I tamped the vermiculite in the burners to low. There just wasnt enough flame (didnt want to burn the paint). Ill fix that by moving the wicking higher in the tube. All of the fixes are pretty straight forward.

I also ran the traction part of the engine, but didnt take it off the run-in stand to let it travel. Two reasons: (1) I didnt think it was making enough steam to pull itself and (2) its hard to be an engineer and videographer at the same time! However from seeing it run on the stand it looks like the addition of the extra set of gears will give a nice scale speed (Thanks, Gary & Doug). 

Heres the video.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8iT6mdB2VQ[/ame]

You can hear it laboring with the traction engaged. Not bad though for only 3-4 psi. Cant wait to see what it does with decent pressure.

One last thing. In his comment, George cautioned that steaming will affect the glamorous look of the engine. Im here to say that hes absolutely right. After only one steaming, I noted a few chips from handling and steam, water and oil in all kinds of places you wouldnt expect. But, and its a big but, what a thrill to see it run under its own power with steam hissing and hot water squirting! Very exciting. I guess Ill have to decide pretty soon whether its for show or for steam.

Reminds me of my first supervisory job when I was about to hire a pretty young thing. A crusty old Supervisor leaned over and said; Son, there are work horses and there are show horses. We hire work horses.

Once again, thank you all for your kind comments and for just following along during the build.

Warmest regards,
Dennis


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## SAM in LA

Dennis,

Absolutely stunning. The tractor looks fantastic. What impresses me the most is that it runs and the controls work. It would be great to see it moving across a field. You have raised the bar.

Regards,

SAM


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## Deanofid

That's so neat, Dennis! All the controls working, throttle, forward, reverse, traction, just makes me want to come over to your house for a day to play. I know it's silly for a grown-up to get all giddy like a boy, but this tractor does it for me!

Thanks a lot for the video. Outstanding!

Dean


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## arnoldb

Once again great work Dennis :bow: ; lovely video!

It's a difficult call between mounting that masterpiece on a static display stand and steaming her up regularly... Somehow I'm inclined to agree with your "crusty old supervisor" - though it is somewhat sad to see the pristine paintwork get spoiled. Like you said though; that big BUT of running something on live steam can make it entirely acceptable to let a masterpiece develop "character" through use ;D

I don't recall you running the engine and drivetrain on compressed air for a while... If you do that she'll run in nicely and get over the stiff bits; and work much better on steam. And fixing the last leaks will also help; I think you are on to a very good live-steam runner Thm:

Regards, Arnold


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## bearcar1

Such a marvelous as well as beautiful example, of this hobby, in motion. MMMMmmm, mighty fine! I can see where one would be torn between actually 'playing' with or solemnly displaying such a magnificent piece of work, that is a tough one but I think that if care were taken the best of both worlds could be achieved thereby satisfying both needs. What's next Denny? How about a scale water tank/tender combo to drag behind. OR... (easy for me to say) a functional threshing rig. :hDe: 

My hat is off to you sir for a job well done and a huge thank you for allowing me the pleasures of watching it all unfold. :bow:

BC1
Jim


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## 1Kenny

Dennis, that is so cool. Thank you for posting the build. I have enjoyed every thing you have shown.

Kenny


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## slick95

Dennis,
In a word STUNNING. :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Thank you for sharing

Jeff


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## zeeprogrammer

Two notable gasps...the first came when I saw the hand come into the shot. It's so hard to understand the scale. Awesome.

The second was the detail shot in the cab? control area? I don't know what to call it...but wow...just really awesome work.

That is beautiful.

Thank you.


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## Chazz

I haven't been a member too long, but if there is a "Project of the Year" category, you have my vote. An excellent example of meticulous artistry and craftsmenship.  :bow: 

Awe inspired newbie,
Chazz


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## 4156df

Chazz. Zee, Jeff, Kenny...Thank you.



> It would be great to see it moving across a field.


Sam, I'm with you. As soon as I get the steam level fixed, that 's the first thing I want to try.



> I know it's silly for a grown-up to get all giddy like a boy


Dean, I think "giddy" is exactly right. Did you notice the shake in my fingers in the video? 



> running something on live steam can make it entirely acceptable to let a masterpiece develop "character" through use


Arnold, I like the way you think. I'm kind of coming to this same conclusion. Regarding your comment on running it in on air...I only ran it enough to get the timing right. I was concerned about there not being enough oil in the valve and piston. How do you guys that run these on air get oil into them?



> What's next Denny? How about a scale water tank/tender combo to drag behind.


Jim, funny you should mention that. This is no commitment, but I've given serious thought to the water tank because of this:






It's a photo of my grandfather and his Case engine with water tank. He's the third from the left. The four guys to his left were his neighbors and partners with him on the engine and threshing rig. They're threshing buckwheat in southern MN in 1935.

Dennis


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## putputman

Just a magnificent job on that tractor Dennis. I marveled at it when you were making those tiny levers etc. 

Wouldn't your tractor be something for your grandfather to see!!!


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## Deanofid

Dennis, thanks for the old days shot of your grandfather's crew! I live where the prairie turns into the 
mountains here in ID. There are still many of the old steamers around, but few of them run. Most
familys that have farms have many pictures like the one you've shown, even back to the time when 
people still used livestock for pulling cutters and threshers. 



> I was concerned about there not being enough oil in the valve and piston. How do you guys that run these on air get oil into them?



I have many stationary steam models. When you run them on air, you don't have to worry about oil
so much. A few drops in the steam chest inlet and the air will carry it into the cylinder and it will stay 
stay there for quite a long time, the same way it stays in the bearings. Just a drop now and then.
Unlike steam, air won't wash away the oil.

Dean


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## Maryak

Dennis,

Sorry for my tardy response. Today is the first time I've had sufficient bandwidth to run the video, (kids are back at school, mum & dad are back at work).

Wonderful, superb, brilliant. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## arnoldb

Dennis, on my steam loco (like Dean mentioned) I put a drop of oil into the exhaust and push the loco in reverse to suck the oil into the cylinders. Having said that, my loco runs on wobblers so the oil goes straight where its intended. I'm not sure if this method will get enough oil into the valve chest to lubricate a D-valve like on your model - also, with the slip-eccentric it might be tricky to reverse it far enough to get the oil into the cylinder and valve before the engine reverses and just blows it out again.

A simple suggestion I can make, that is if you decide you want to regularly steam up the tractor, is to add a small "access plug" close to the cylinder on the main steam line that you can unscrew to put a drop of oil into between steam-ups. The main thing is you don't want oil going back into the boiler.

So, apologies; I don't think there's a "non-modification" solution in your case which is a real pity. Having said that though, I don't think you need to be overly concerned; the wear on your engine will be relatively slow, as the steam itself will actually act as lubrication to a lesser extent on models with low pressure (i.e. "wetter steam") boilers.

Regards, Arnold


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## ghart3

Dennis, very nice, an excellent well done project.  Your sharing is a great plus in helping others out and encouraging them and is an inspiration for me to do better. gary


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## BrianS

Sorry for digging up old posts but I just read through this thread and it's an awesome reference. You've done an awesome job and I've learned a bunch just reading through it. Thanks!

Some people might object, but I was wondering do you think it would be possible to run this tractor by radio control without ruining the look and feel of it? Thanks in advance.

Brian


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## srp

Hello, can anyone help me to find where i can purchase the gear set for the Rudy traction build? I have the plans and a address for Chicago Gear Works and have  e-mail them? I live in New Zealand and would really like to build this steam engine. Will be gratefull for any help, thanks.


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## Tin Falcon

> Sorry for digging up old posts but I just read through this thread and it's an awesome reference. You've done an awesome job and I've learned a bunch just reading through it. Thanks!
> 
> Some people might object, but I was wondering do you think it would be possible to run this tractor by radio control without ruining the look and feel of it? Thanks in advance.
> 
> Brian


I encourage resurrection of  old post as long as it is relevant. 

RC conversions are common on steam boats . Cool idea as long as you can conceal the rc gear and keep the original look.


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## kwoodhands

rake60 said:


> That's the answer I was hoping for!
> The work is date is far too nice to be scrapped.
> 
> Rick


Rudy calls for a steel pipe 2" ID for the outer casing. This makes installing threaded parts easier. Blast pipe bracket, wheel pivot bracket etc are bolted to the casing. Brass is fine as long as it is thick enough to drill and thread. Otherwise, brass brackets and soft solder will also work. Though I have not tried this method.
I bought a 2" ID steel pipe like suggested. This turned out to be a problem when I tried to install the copper boiler. Would not fit with the height dimensions of the water tubes. My steel pipe was 2" ID. The copper was 1-1/2" OD. This left 1/2" room for the water tubes on Rudy's plans. I do not recall what he called for but it was more than 1/2". 
I since found out that amount of slope is not critical as long as there is some upward slope. Apparently, my pipe has thicker walls than what Rudy used.
My boiler had leaks on all three water tubes where the tubes are installed into elongated holes. No fixing this as the gaps were to large.
I did some experimenting with this boiler as I will build another. I bored the holes 5/32" , then bored with the same drill on a steep angle. I reamed the holes with a .188 reamer.
The tube did not fit . I installed the tube in a three-jaw chuck with 1" or so protruding. I tapered the tube slightly with a sanding stick with 180 grit sandpaper. 
This works well, tube went into the hole easily. I then hard soldered the piece of tube . Experiment went well.
Have not had a chance to work in the shop lately , will try another boiler build in the near future.
I built the rear and front wheels from 1/8" thick brass. Made formers and annealed about 6 or 7 times. The butt joint was slightly beveled, scrap of aluminum screwed underneath temporarily , then hard soldered. Grouters ( I call them cleats) were 1/16" thick x 1/4" brass strips screwed to the wheels as I did not have rivets yet. I will replace the screws with rivets later. I also used 1/72 x 1/8" screws for the rest of the rivets on the casing. These I will leave as they look like rivets to me.


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