# Stephenson's Rocket--Working Model



## Brian Rupnow (May 6, 2020)

I am not really a model train buff. I know that any number of people are, and get great joy from model trains, but they have never really interested me that much.  However---I have always been intrigued by Stephenson's Rocket, which was the first or second commercial train engine driven by steam. I was lucky enough to find a 3D model of this train, but it is made in a different software than mine. I can import it, and view it, even take dimensions from it, but I can not change the scale nor manipulate any of the part files. This model has steam cylinders 1.3" in diameter and the large front wheels are 9 3/8" diameter. I may rework the design to a much simpler configuration with 5/8" cylinders and 4 1/2" diameter wheels. I would start out by modeling and building the two engines.


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## Ken Brunskill (May 6, 2020)

Brian, if I may make a suggestion, 1st if you want a model that is going to operate make sure that there is a track near you where you can run it, the joy in these model is running them. 2nd determine what gage (Distance between inside of rails) you want the model to be when completed, then let this drive everthing else, so your model ends up proportionally sized.  Having researched the clubs around the USA several years ago when I was president of Golden Gate Live Steamers, the most popular gage track then was 7 1/2" gage, a lot of clubs on the East Coast have 7 1/4" gage.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 6, 2020)

Ken--This engine will end up being a "shelf queen", same as the other 34 engines I have built. I have no intention of running it at a track. This engine falls into the "Give Brian something to do" category. I will pick up a bit more machining experience, stretch the old grey matter a bit, and share my build with others who watch the forum.----Brian


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## rileyrm (May 7, 2020)

Ken,
I have fancied building a rocket in G scale or 16mm...So I am watching with interest.

Ian


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## L98fiero (May 7, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> I can import it, and view it, even take dimensions from it, but I can not change the scale nor manipulate any of the part files.


What CAD are you using and what kind of file is it? I'll try to help if I can.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 7, 2020)

L98fiero-I will be redesigning and simplifying the model, so I'm good with what I have, thank you. I use Solidworks.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (May 7, 2020)

This mornings work consisted of modeling the engine base. It doesn't look like a lot, but all of the math data is embedded in the solid models. This afternoon I will recreate the cylinder and valve body and fit it to the engine frame.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 7, 2020)

And as the day wears on, the components are beginning to get much simpler. More related to machining and silver soldering than a complex bunch of platework tig welded together.


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## minh-thanh (May 8, 2020)

*Brian !*
A really interesting project !
I'm waiting ....


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## Tomcat (May 8, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> I am not really a model train buff. I know that any number of people are, and get great joy from model trains, but they have never really interested me that much.  However---I have always been intrigued by Stephenson's Rocket, which was the first or second commercial train engine driven by steam. I was lucky enough to find a 3D model of this train, but it is made in a different software than mine. I can import it, and view it, even take dimensions from it, but I can not change the scale nor manipulate any of the part files. This model has steam cylinders 1.3" in diameter and the large front wheels are 9 3/8" diameter. I may rework the design to a much simpler configuration with 5/8" cylinders and 4 1/2" diameter wheels. I would start out by modeling and building the two engines.


Hello Brian,
Any chance I can get the solid models? I use Solidworks and it may be able to read the files. I am actually looking for a Mississippi Steamer to build, but this looks interesting. Minnie was a lot of fun (and work) to build but now getting bored...


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## L98fiero (May 8, 2020)

Tomcat said:


> Hello Brian,
> Any chance I can get the solid models? I use Solidworks and it may be able to read the files. I am actually looking for a Mississippi Steamer to build, but this looks interesting. Minnie was a lot of fun (and work) to build but now getting bored...


Don't know if it's the same one but it piqued my interest and I found a very detailed step model on Grabcad that includes the tender.


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## DickF (May 8, 2020)

Hi, I modelled this one in CAD from a set of PDF drawings I found. These I could make available if anyone is interested. Here’s a screenshot of my CAD model.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 8, 2020)

Tomcat--After I have completed my modeling and actually built this beast I will sell you a complete set of engineering drawings to  build it for $25 Canadian funds and give you the solid model.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (May 8, 2020)

Thank you so much to all who sent me information on Stephenson's Rocket.----Brian


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## rileyrm (May 8, 2020)

DickF said:


> Hi, I modelled this one in CAD from a set of PDF drawings I found. These I could make available if anyone is interested. Here’s a screenshot of my CAD model. View attachment 116092
> View attachment 116093


DickF,  I would be interested in te drawings please.
Ian


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## DickF (May 8, 2020)

rileyrm said:


> DickF,  I would be interested in te drawings please.
> Ian


Hi Ian, sure no problem. I’m new here so I don’t know if I can upload the drawings to the forum or whether they have to be mailed. Can you help. The pdf is about 20mb


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## Tomcat (May 8, 2020)

DickF said:


> Hi Ian, sure no problem. I’m new here so I don’t know if I can upload the drawings to the forum or whether they have to be mailed. Can you help. The pdf is about 20mb


maybe you can place the drawings on GoogleDrive and send the link?


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## DickF (May 8, 2020)

Sorry I don’t use GoogleDrive at all.
send your email address to me and I’ll return with attachment
[email protected]


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## Brian Rupnow (May 8, 2020)

With a bit more design work, all of the multiple plate welded up brackets and cross-head support stands become individual machined pieces. This isn't finished yet, because I have to add the valve body, and it may fall exactly in the same place as those two big round shouldered cylinder mounts. this is something i will know about a bit later today.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 8, 2020)

So, this is what we end up with. The cylinder is 5/8" bore x 1 1/2" stroke. The green base everything is mounted to is a direct "scale down" of the original Rocket base. I have mounted the steam chest in the same location as the original Rocket steam chest, but for now I have the control rod coming out the opposite end of the steam chest. Everything is symmetrical, so it can be easily reversed.


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## stanstocker (May 9, 2020)

Hi Folks,

Over the years I've noticed the angle of the cylinders appears to be at about 30 degrees to horizontal.  The cylinders are quite a bit lower in angle on the original as shown at the Science Museum in London.









						Stephenson's Rocket | Science Museum Group Collection
					

Steam locomotive, remains of Robert Stephenson's 0-2-2 locomotive 'Rocket', designed by Robert Stephenson and made by Robert Stephenson & Co., Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 1829




					collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk
				




It's a neat model either way, but I was wondering if the folks who put the pieces of the original together just got it wrong, or if all the replicas thereafter have it "wrong".  Could be Rev 1.1 of the engine increased the angle and all the versions built after the competition used the higher angle.  I've never found a definitive answer, probably looking in the wrong places.  Anyone know?


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## Brian Rupnow (May 9, 2020)

The Stephenson's Rocket went thru many design changes and updates after it first ran. You can find info about 4 or even 5 different configurations of it, and they are all right. My cylinders are 41.5 degrees off horizontal.---Brian


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## stanstocker (May 9, 2020)

Greetings again,

Sorry for the follow up, but I just found this.  According to the Scientific American supplement:



			The Project Gutenberg eBook of Scientific American Supplement, OCTOBER 25, 1884
		


The lower cylinder angle was, along with almost everything else, a change after the competition, and the ubiquitous steeper angle cylinder and wooden barrel tender are consistent with the very first Rocket as used to compete, just the production models were very different a year later...  All these years I'd wondered why the Science Museum display was so different, it seems that they display what was perhaps the first production model as found in 1830, but use the 1829 date.

Best to all, stay healthy!
Stan


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## Brian Rupnow (May 9, 2020)

This morning I designed the "opposite hand" engine and base, and about half of the simplified body. This afternoon I will probably finish the body design. My main interest of course is the engines.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 9, 2020)

That's enough fun for today. Even though I have "super simplified" the body, there is still a lot of pieces to it. I have to add some axles and stay rods yet.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 10, 2020)

So that's it. The model of the Stephenson's Rocket is greatly simplified from the original steam driven unit, but it certainly looks enough like the original that it won't be mistaken for anything else. Even in it's very simplified form it still represents an awesome amount of work. This has provided me with some nice design time, and the engine packages should be a lot of fun to make.


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## BaronJ (May 10, 2020)

Hi Guys,

There is a full size replica of the Rocket built from the original plans located in the Railway Museum at York.  I believe it was in steam not too long ago.  Unfortunately I missed that event.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 10, 2020)

And on the lighter side of things---it snowed 4" here yesterday. This is most unusual, but two of my grandkids took advantage and sent a picture of the "May Snowman".


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## Shopgeezer (May 11, 2020)

It’s all my fault. I put away the snow shovels. Had to dig them out again. Man that was wet heavy snow. Many very unhappy birds. No gardening this week.


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## William May (May 11, 2020)

You might want to look at the LBSC design for "Rainhill" which is a similar engine, or "Canterbury Lamb". Those are both of LBSC's versions of the "Rocket"  I know you mention the model just being a shelf display, but once you see them, you might want to just build one anyway, and then put it on the shelf. For one thing, all the castings are available through GLR Kennions, along with the drawings. It would be a very inexpensive model locomotive to build. 
I am in the middle of one now. They have been very popular, and have excellent reputations as "good runners" even as small as they are.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 11, 2020)

George asked me yesterday how I was going to operate the steam valve. I had it in my head but it took most of today to design it and lay it out. The eccentrics mounted on the drive axle operate levers attached to an intermediate cross shaft, which is supported below the boiler. That shaft has a second set of levers on it which connect to the linkage running up to the steam-chest. Again, this model will not have the sophisticated hand controls that the original Rocket had. I have removed the near side drive wheel in his model, so you can see what my plan is for operating the valve operating mechanisms. Note that I have not shown the support for the intermediate shaft in this model.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 12, 2020)

Other than the engine assemblies, this model is relatively simple. Mostly straightforward milling and turning---but---The wheels are going to be monsters. Since I won't be running my engine on a track, the wheels can be mostly made from aluminum---I think. Very much of the "character" of this model is the wheels with square spokes.  There is no easy way to make these wheels. They are going to have to be "built up" from components---an inner hub, an outer rim, and individual spokes. For the scale I am working with, 3/16" square spokes look about right. I've thought about this a fair bit, and this is my plan--so far. I know that I can buy 3/16" square steel keystock. (Not sure if I can get 3/16" square aluminum or not). If I cut all of the spokes to an exact length, and make a proper jig to hold them, I can turn one end of the spokes to be round. I can lathe turn the inner hub and using my rotary table on the mill, I can drill 12 blind 5/32" diameter holes equally spaced in the hub. I can turn the hub as shown, so that when the spokes are installed they have to all fit into the groove, which will keep them all parallel with the face of the wheel. I'm thinking that would be a Loctite job. It would be a wonderful thing if, when assembled, the outer ends of the spoke array would be perfectly concentric with the center of the hub, but in the real world that doesn't happen. Thus, the design of the outer rim which is most visible will have a "lip" that extends down over the end of the spokes to hide them. That way, I can design the outer end of the spokes to be about 0.010" short of contacting the inner rim surface, but they will rest against the lip. At his point I see a simple jig to maintain concentricity between the outer rim and the inner hub. IF I use steel keystock for the spokes, and a steel outer rim, then I can use my tig welder to attach the spokes to the outer rim and it won't show. I don't have the proper gas bottle to weld aluminum, and I have no experience with welding aluminum, but with steel spokes and rim, I could manage.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 13, 2020)

This valve gear layout on the Northumbrian is almost exactly what I will use on the Rocket . The Norhtumbrian has a third eccentric in the center that drives a pump or something, the Rocket won't have that one.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 13, 2020)

Due to the fact that there will be a lot of work in the model of the Rocket, I will first build the engines and bases and mount them to a Test Stand. The test stand will mimic all of the attachment points and axle positions that will be on the finished Rocket model, but will be a lot less work. After I have ran the engines to my satisfaction in the test jig, I will go ahead with the actual model of the Rocket.


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## awake (May 13, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> I don't have the proper gas bottle to weld aluminum, and I have no experience with welding aluminum, but with steel spokes and rim, I could manage.



Brian, though you can use helium or a helium-argon mix for welding aluminum, you can also use straight argon, same as for steel. As I understand it, helium in the mix will increase the heat & penetration, but decrease the cleaning action, so generally only used for welding thicker aluminum.

To weld aluminum, key #1 will be having AC capability - whereas steel is welded using DC, aluminum needs AC to clean the oxide layer.* Key #2 is the right type of electrode - if I recall correctly, you mentioned having thoriated tungsten electrodes, which are the "classic" choice for DC / steel, but not suitable for AC. The classic choice for AC / aluminum is pure tungsten. But there is a better choice: 2% lanthanated tungstens - they handle the AC better than pure tungsten, AND can handle DC equally well - one tungsten to rule them all! Key #3 is the experience factor - TIG welding aluminum is definitely harder than TIG welding steel, or at least I have found it so. I generally feel able to tackle most anything in steel, but I don't yet feel like I have even minimum competence with aluminum.

*Okay, supposedly you CAN weld aluminum using DC, or so I have read. The problem is you have to use DCEP, which puts 70% of the heat into the torch - so you have to use a lot of amps, a big electrode, and really need a water-cooled torch. I did try a time or two when I had a DC-only machine, but couldn't even get close to managing it with my air-cooled 200 amp rig. As I recall, helium in the mix may also be part of the equation for successfully welding it using DC. But for us average home shop folks, AC and argon are the way to go.

Here's a useful FAQ: Aluminum Welding FAQs | Lincoln Electric


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## JCSteam (May 14, 2020)

stanstocker said:


> Hi Folks,
> 
> Over the years I've noticed the angle of the cylinders appears to be at about 30 degrees to horizontal.  The cylinders are quite a bit lower in angle on the original as shown at the Science Museum in London.
> 
> ...





BaronJ said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> There is a full size replica of the Rocket built from the original plans located in the Railway Museum at York.  I believe it was in steam not too long ago.  Unfortunately I missed that event.


Actually there are three rockets, a sectioned one to show its internal workings, which is on permanent display at York NRM, and shows its advanced (revolutionary) tubular boiler design. Then there is the replica that runs and takes people on rides behind it on a short section of track, though from what I understand the boiler design is slightly different to meet todays regulations. Then there is of course the original, which competed in the Rainhill trials. The was recently on display at NRM in York as part of the fire and ice event around York. The Rocket as shown, is in its withdrawn state, there isn't ever going to be an attempt to restore it as it is significant as it stands, to restore it there would be so much history and knowledge lost. It is now quite a fragile old beast. its only moved occasionally, I believe it should be in London now or least was the plan it may still be York due to the lockdown. Rocket started with the steep angle of the cylinders, in an attempt to make sure the steam didn't condense in the pipes and cause hydrolock or loose its power. The cylinders where dropped to the angle you see on the original rocket to preserve the track from the hammer blows that come from the cylinders acting directly down towards the track. There were other "rockets" built by Stephenson, and then he got enthusiastic and did a 0-6-0 design, as so the evolution continued. Also Rocket was only ever yellow for the trials, the engine burned its chimney and boiler cladding paint to a dirty brown colour as the pigment wasn't up to such heat and broke down, the same with the yellow, it is reputed the engine looked quite a shabby affair when all was done at the trails, so rocket took on its livery of a deep green colour and black chimney, much like a GWR engine would be coloured but with less brass bits.

If there is anything specific that you'ld like to know I can field it to two of my friends, one the senior curator of the NRM, the other a historian of the railways, who's wrote several books on the subject of early railway development. 

Jon


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## goldstar31 (May 14, 2020)

Apologies Brian but I was also thinking about as a scholar in Newcastle going into the Exhibition Park and into the museum where there was 'another' steam engine as well as Turbinia.

Sorry Brian but this is part of my heritage and George Stephenson 's cottage was only a mile or so where I was born and even less from wwhere my father worked.

I suspect but never got any sensible information as to whether my Grandfather, Sam Atkinson worked as a blacksmith for Timothy Hackworth.


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## Peter Twissell (May 14, 2020)

An alternative to welding aluminium is a process known variously as 'Lumiweld', Technoweld' etc.
I've used it for a variety of applications, including modifications to a motorcycle gearbox cast casing and fabrication of a large primary drive case. Only a propane torch is required.


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## William May (May 14, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Due to the fact that there will be a lot of work in the model of the Rocket, I will first build the engines and bases and mount them to a Test Stand. The test stand will mimic all of the attachment points and axle positions that will be on the finished Rocket model, but will be a lot less work. After I have ran the engines to my satisfaction in the test jig, I will go ahead with the actual model of the Rocket.


 All the castings for LBSC's "Rainhill" or "Canterbury Lamb" will only set you back by $200. They are available from GLR Kennions in England. The reason LBSC didn't call either model "Rocket" was because he made some small changes to make it an operating locomotive, so therefore it was not a completely accurate model of "Rocket" He normally would use a similar but different name from the original engine if it was not an exact model, but where he kept the original name for the model, they are usually a close copy of the prototype. So, with LBSC, you can tell by the name whether it is a true scale model, or a simplified  locomotive designed to actually run under steam.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 16, 2020)

I'm getting close to making a start on the Stephenson's Rocket cylinders. I went to my metal suppliers this week and bought a 12" length of 1 1/4" square brass. This will give me enough material to make two cylinders and two steam chests.---and maybe 4 cylinder end caps but I'm not sure yet. There's going to be a bit of finagling, because this brass is 1 3/4" across the diagonals and the bore in my lathe spindle is only 1 1/2". I don't want to waste any of the brass, because that 12" length cost me $50. I will probably hold one end in my four jaw chuck and use a live center to support the outboard end. I can turn the outboard ends of both cylinders in one set up, but I can't bore the cylinders in the same set up, so I"ll have to think more about this.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 18, 2020)

Now---If I've done this right, there should be two identical cylinders in there. It is set up so that each cylinder, when sawed from the square stock should be the right diameter and have a 1" long "spigot" attached to one end of each cylinder, to mount it in the three jaw chuck for boring. After the cylinder has been bored, the 1" stub length will be cut off and turned to give me four cylinder end caps.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 18, 2020)

And now you know how I spent my Monday. Everything went very well, no drama. There is more machining yet to be done on the cylinder bodies, but not today.


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## Shopgeezer (May 18, 2020)

I am curious how you are going to take the square blocks down to round cylinders except for the flat on one side (for the steam valve housing). In the past I have soldered on (or used loctite) a flat piece after gouging out one side of the flat to match the curve of the cylinder.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 18, 2020)

Shopgeezer--Stay tuned. I have done this before.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 19, 2020)

The outside of the rectangular areas of the cylinder have been machined this morning, all except for the radiused area. This was simple stuff, with the cylinders held in my milling machine vise. The rest of the things I have to do are mostly all rotary table work, so I need shafts mounted in each of the cylinders for my 3 jaw chuck on the rotary table to hold onto.  I could have made an expanding arbor to mount the cylinders on, but this works just as well. I cut a couple of 5/8" cold rolled steel shafts, long enough to stick out each end about 1", and Loctited the shafts into place. After all my machining is finished, a bit of heat applied to the cylinders and the shafts slide right out. If any loctite residue remains in the cylinder it will easily come out by running a 5/8"reamer thru.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 20, 2020)

Shopgeezer was asking how I machined the radius on the cylinder. This is a picture of my set-up. I'm end-milling with a 1/4" diameter endmill. The endmill is cranked down until it contacts the part and is locked there. The travel stops on the front of the mill are set to keep me from running the endmill into the larger diameter bands at each end of the cylinder. The mill bed travels in the X axis to the extent of the travel stops, then cranked back, and the rotary table is indexed about three degrees, then repeat---and repeat---and repeat. Eventually you will have milled all the way around to the next "flat" surface on the cylinder. It will need a bit of file and sandpaper cleanup, but it works very well.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 21, 2020)

I always consider it a huge success when I have to drill and tap 20 holes, drill 20 clearance holes, and all the parts fit together!!  Tomorrow I will probably work on steam chests.


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## awake (May 21, 2020)

Love that feeling when everything lines up as it was supposed to. Naturally, I have no experience with any other outcome. Ahem.


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## Shopgeezer (May 21, 2020)

Sooooo, I now have an excuse to approach the financial officer with a proposal that I will cut down on the corn fries and energy drinks if I can buy the rotary table set I have been drooling over in the KBC catalog. I’ll just say its all Brian’s fault.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 21, 2020)

A rotary table with a set of bolt on divider plates is absolutely essential for making gears and so many other things. When I bought all my machine shop stuff about 12 or 13 years ago, I was told by the sales man that I absolutely needed one. I couldn't really see it then, but he was so right.


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## JCSteam (May 22, 2020)

Hi Brian,
Nice work. Was the first operation to skim off a lot of the waste before setup in the rotary table and milling the round section. I acquired a small rotary table, but it is just that a rotary table. There is no means as standard to attach any indexing gear to it, there is an angle scale around its circumference. but I was "informed" that this wouldn't be accurate enough for making any gears on. Its an old myford one. I do have a dividing head, I just ain't finished building it yet.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 22, 2020)

I never skimmed off any material first. Didn't need to.


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## JCSteam (May 22, 2020)

Sorry the picture above I thought you had skimmed the corner off where the radius was going to go. As well as machining the faces, my bad, need better glasses!

Edit that post was meant to show post #46 in this thread, but I cant get it to quote to insert the pic......never mind


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## Brian Rupnow (May 22, 2020)

The blue outline shows the material that was milled away to give the radius.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 23, 2020)

This morning I finished up the two steam chests. I had the outside machined yesterday, which involved 4 jaw set-up in my lathe to turn the round spigot. This morning I put the 4 holes in each corner and the cavity in the center. Once again the machining Gods smiled on me and everything bolts together!!


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## Brian Rupnow (May 24, 2020)

Today we have some steamchest covers and some pistons and piston rods. One noteworthy thing here---these small steam/air engines are not very forgiving of a non-concentric alignment between the pistons and piston rods. To get around that, I turn the pistons to 0.050" oversize, then screw the piston rod into the piston (they are both threaded #10-24) and coat the threads liberally with J.B. Weld.  After it sets up for 24 hours, I will grip the 3/16" diameter piston rod in my lathes 3 jaw chuck, and finish turning the pistons to the correct sliding fit into the cylinders.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 25, 2020)

Nothing real exciting today. I turned down the pistons to finished size and made up the two rod glands that prevent air escaping around the piston rod. While I had the cylinders disassembled I finished off the internal porting in each cylinder. I made up the two brass rod ends and screwed them onto the piston rods. I took a couple of 8-32 hex nuts and rethreaded them to 10-24 because they are a bit smaller and look better. That doesn't sound like much, but I used up most of my day doing it. I just got back from my "fat mans walk" and it is very warm outside.


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## stevehuckss396 (May 25, 2020)

I do a 4 mile fat mans walk every day and I don't get that much done. That's alot!


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## Brian Rupnow (May 25, 2020)

If I walked 4 miles it would probably kill me. I'm having a rough time with arthritis this year. I think my walk now is about a mile and a half.


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## Shopgeezer (May 26, 2020)

Brian what is your gland nut design?  Are you using packing or just a sliding fit?


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## Brian Rupnow (May 26, 2020)

I have a reamed hole in the cylinder end cap for rod guidance. The bore of the screw in gland is 0.015" larger--it doesn't really provide guidance, it just holds the packing in place around the shaft. I make the packing from teflon tape for plumbing work rolled into a small diameter, rope by twirling it between my thumb and finger.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 26, 2020)

I had the very best intentions today, of building the four brackets which support the cylinders.  However, "The best layed plans of mice and men Gang aft agley"---I did get the four pieces cut to size, and I actually did drill and tap four holes and add two counterbores and a bit of end profiling on one piece and got it mounted. That's not much to show for the day, but I promise---I'll get the other three finished tomorrow. Good wife and I were setting out on the back deck about 4:20 this afternoon having a vodka cooler, when suddenly it began to rain so hard we couldn't see the end of our yard and the wind was blowing so hard that my big oak trees were leaning almost horizontal. We quickly scurried inside and the wife wanted to know if we should head for the basement--She's been through a tornado before---I haven't. I said to wait for a minute and see what happens. Five minutes later the sun was shining again. Crazy, crazy day!!!


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## Brian Rupnow (May 27, 2020)

So, as promised yesterday, today the aluminum feet were finished and bolted in place. The main baseplates for the right and left hand cylinder assemblies were cut to size and drilled to allow mounting of the cylinder assemblies. Tomorrow I will probably make the A shaped pieces that support the cross-head guides. I haven't cut the windows into the baseplates yet. Initially everything will be assembled "for fit" before I cut the windows.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 28, 2020)

Today was the day for cross-head guides and brackets. I don't really know why, but I had a horrible time with these brackets. I kept taking off a little bit here, and a little bit there, and by the time they all matched and looked right, I had almost used up my entire day. The 1/8" cold rolled steel guides themselves were easy enough, but the brackets almost kicked my butt!!


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## Peter Twissell (May 29, 2020)

It's a hobby - the way I look at it, the longer it takes, the more effective it is at being a hobby.
When I occasionally spend £50 on a lump of aluminium and my wife raises an eyebrow, I need only refer her to golf club membership fees to demonstrate that this is a cheap hobby.
Some of the apparently simple parts can easily take up a disproportionate amount of time. I spent several hours yesterday cutting out stainless sheet parts which will become exhaust clamps - and I've only done half of them.

And Brian - your Loctite has fallen over...


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## Brian Rupnow (May 29, 2020)

Today was cross-head day. I would rather run in circles and bite myself than make pieces this small, but these are probably the smallest parts of this build, and they turned out alright. Don't let the size of these parts fool you. To get them to slide freely on the cross head guides and not jamb up the cylinder over the full extent of it's stroke is almost a magic act. As you can see from the picture, I changed the design of the cross-head a little bit from my original plan which both made it simpler to build and let me use a store-bought shoulder bolt as the pivot. The round cross-head guides are silver soldered to the bracket closest to the cylinder. At the end farthest away from the cylinder they are just setting in reamed holes, which positions them accurately but lets me disassemble them if I need to.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 30, 2020)

Today was mostly given over to the sliding valves for each cylinder. They are finished and look all right, but I won't really know until I get my gaskets cut and installed and some air pressure to work with. I have been wondering for the last week how I was going to get air pressure into the rectangular "steam chest" that the slide valves set in. I decided today to scrap the aluminum steamchest covers that I made and replace them with mild steel. This will let me silver solder an air inlet tube to the center of each cover. The pressure doesn't care how it gets into the steamchest, as long as it gets in.


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## Brian Rupnow (May 31, 2020)

Today was a minor milestone. I just finished making the gaskets for one of the two cylinders on this engine, and of course I wanted to see if /how it worked. I always get a little thrill out of reaching a point where the slide valve controls the movement of the cylinder.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 1, 2020)

Some days you eat the bear---Some days the bear eats you!! I spent an absolutely insane amount of time today freeing up the cross head to slide smoothly with the extension and retraction of the cylinder. I got one unit finished. I can extend or retract the cylinder by shifting the slide valve and watching it smoothly do it's business.The other cylinder though, is being a beast and binding like crazy---and the slide valve isn't seating correctly against the side of the cylinder. If I can hear air hissing, then the slide valve isn't seating properly. I will fix the second unit tomorrow---and ---guess what?--I can't really do any more until I build the test stand to mount the cylinders and cross heads and baseplate to. After I get the test stand built, I will move on to the eccentrics and connecting rods.


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## awake (Jun 1, 2020)

"move on to the eccentrics" - huh? I thought we who build model engines were the eccentrics, or at least that's what my wife calls me!


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 2, 2020)

I spent far too much of today getting the cylinder assemblies  to extend and retract when connected to the cross-head guides. In all honesty, I don't think I would recommend this style of cross head guide system. With the offset between the cylinder rod and the two cross-head guide rods, there is simply too much binding. I ended up having to o-ring one piston. My intent here was to use no o-rings, just a couple of oil retention grooves in the pistons. The best cross-head guide system I have seen is the one used on the Cretors Popcorn engine, where there is no offset involved. By the end of the day I had both cylinders extending and retracting while attached to the cross-head guides, but it was a hard fought battle.


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## Peter Twissell (Jun 3, 2020)

Brian, Congratulations on getting everything moving. The system is fandamentally over-constrained and I wouldn't be surprised if it were to give you more problems later on - I can imagine that any load or thermal expansion could cause a small misalignment and binding.
If I might make a suggestion... the purpose of the crosshead is to carry the bending load exerted by the connecting rod, so that it is not expressed at the piston rod. The piston rod end at the crosshead could afford to have some clearance, both along the shoulder bolt axis and perpendicular to the crosshead rails by opening up the shoulder bolt hole to a slot, with just a few thou clearance either side.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 3, 2020)

Both cylinder assemblies mounted to cross bar of test fixture. I can't do any more now until I go and buy some material.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 3, 2020)

Went across town to see my metal supplier and picked up a 1" thick offcut for $5.00 this afternoon. Brought it home and added it to the flat bar which supports the cylinders. I wear a mask my wife made from black cloth material, and every time I see myself in the mirror I think of the Lone Ranger. ---or some other masked desperado. Damn, I hate this covid stuff.


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## RonW (Jun 4, 2020)

More like the lone stranger. Every time I look in the mirror I want to know who this woolly individual is. Beginning to look like saskwatch or however you spell it. Isn't Ontario isolation wonderful. RonW


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 5, 2020)

The engine test stand is almost complete. About 95% of this stuff is "Pre-engineered" in my 3D cad work.--The other 5% is "make it up as I go along", then go back and update the model and drawings to reflect what I have really done. I have to make up a baseplate to add to the bottom of this stand, and then I'm about ready to begin all of the small pieces which are required to get power to that front "axle". You will notice that the front axle support has a weird shape. It is actually the drive axle support which goes on the train body itself, I just haven't cut the arc yet where it bolts to the underside of the boiler.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 6, 2020)

The hole that my front axle sets in was drilled and then reamed to 3/8". When I put the axle in the hole, it was a terribly sloppy fit. I couldn't figure out why my reamer had cut oversize---it never did before. A closer examination this morning showed that I've been METRICED---the 3/8" reamer I had used was a 10 mm reamer, which is 0.394". Don't know what fool put the  metric reamer into the 3/8" reamer stand!!! Then I went to make the eccentrics which attach to the axle, and totally buggered them up. At that point I shut things down and took my good wife out for lunch, then had a walk and an ice cream cone. Now I will take another run at those eccentrics.---


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## stevehuckss396 (Jun 6, 2020)

Thats what I do. I have had days when the lights were on for less than 5 minutes. Took less than that to screw up. Shut down and head to the house. Next day went great.

Funny


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## William May (Jun 6, 2020)

I will gauge my day by what happens in the first fifteen minutes.  I have had days where every single thing went as smooth as silk, and I spent 10 good hours getting a huge amount of work done.  And I have had  days where I broke a drill off in the first 5 minutes, mis-tapped a hole because the tap was in the wrong little plastic case, and then stopped and thought about it, and  just went off to go see a movie and have a nice lunch. (I take my project plans with me, and sit and peruse them (Sometimes I gaze at them, or even OGGLE them!) while I eat. 
No point in beating a dead horse.  Or propping him up with sticks and trying to keep him from falling over.  Just do something else.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 7, 2020)

Words alone can not express how much work went into these eccentrics. I still need to make the eccentric retainer plate that bolts to one side of each eccentric to keep the eccentric straps in place, but I will save that for tomorrow.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 8, 2020)

This morning I got up and made the eccentric strap retaining plates (for the second time) and bolted them to the eccentrics. All looks good---I am going to turn a few thou off the heads of the #4 shcs to clear the shaft better (they are mounted to a dummy shaft in the picture).I'm not certain that it shows in the picture, but there is a #5 set screw in the hub area of each eccentric, which fixes them to the shaft.


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## gbritnell (Jun 8, 2020)

Hi Brian,
I understand it just a representation of the Rocket locomotive but I think it will really enhance the engine to use hex head bolts rather than the socket head screws.
gbritnell


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 8, 2020)

This picture shows the eccentrics with the eccentric strap retaining plates bolted on, setting in place on the drive axle. You can see the cut away portion of the axle mounting plate that is clearance for the eccentric strap as the axle rotates.  I went by Princess Auto today to buy some oilite bronze bushings to press into place in the axle mounting plate, but the people were lined up all the way around the building, keeping their 6 foot distance apart for Covid. I didn't bother stopping--I'll either make my own bushings or figure something else out.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 8, 2020)

Hi George---I'm glad that you stopped by for a look. I like the look of socket head capscrews. You're right---it would look more "authentic" if I used hex head bolts. I'm not going for an authentic look---this is more a "something to do" job than anything.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 9, 2020)

And today, I whittled out eccentric straps. Not difficult, but time consuming. There are actually two or three  ways to do eccentrics. The way I have done with two piece bolt together eccentrics and one piece eccentric straps, or you can do one piece eccentrics and two piece eccentric straps. I don't know which is easiest. I've made them both ways, and it ends up being about the same amount of work.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 10, 2020)

This morning I put on my mask, stood in line, and bought four oilite bronze bushings that were 3/8" i.d. x 1/2" o.d. ---This afternoon I determined that there is no way in Hell that you can turn the outside diameter down to 7/16". Doesn't matter how sharp the cutting tool is, doesn't matter what speed you run the lathe at.--The bushings crumble before you can get them down to a 1/32" wall thickness. They were the only bushings available locally. Pooop!!!


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## Shopgeezer (Jun 10, 2020)

Yikes that is pretty thin. You might have to stick with a regular bronze and an oiler.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 10, 2020)

I have four little pivot arms for the eccentrics. They were laid out on a piece of brass plate, drilled, reamed, and rough cut on the bandsaw. On bigger pieces I generally go right from the bandsaw to my vertical belt sanding machine and finish them off "by eye". I can't do that on pieces this small, so they will be machine finished using my milling machine and rotary table. I will have to make up some simple fixturing to hold them, and will post pictures of "in process" work.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 11, 2020)

The pivot arms are completely finished (I think the wide ones get a slot added yet). These were too small for me to hand finish "by eye", so I made up a mandrel with a 7/16" diameter register on the end of it, over which the levers would fit (they are 7/16" reamed hole). The o.d. of the lever bodies is 11/16" diameter, the outside diameter of the fixture is 5/8". The flat head capscrew is 0.493" diameter, so it will not pass thru the bore on the brass bits. When the capscrew is cinched down tight, it captures the brass bit so it can not rotate. It is then a simple matter to hold the fixture in the 3 jaw chuck on my rotary table, set up the appropriate offsets, then turn the handle on the rotary table to spin the chuck around, while the endmill cuts with it's side to finish off the o.d. of the brass pieces.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 11, 2020)

Today we move a little farther towards a running engine. The eccentric pivot levers (for lack of a better thing to call them) are finished and in place on the engine. I still have to make up a few connecting links and rod ends, and figure out what to use for a flywheel, but it's getting close to "run time".


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 12, 2020)

I didn't work on the Rocket today. My "man chores" have been piling up for the last month while I played in my shop, so today was the day to --cut the lawn---fill in the hole that a groundhog tunneled under my patio stones and relay the stone---sweep up a terrible accumulation of swarf from my machine shop----clean up all of my outer garage---and put about a thousand tools away. I have been wondering just what I would use for a flywheel on these engines mounted on the test stand. When the engines are assembled to the train chassis, the big front wheels become the flywheels. However, I'm not ready to start making the wheels yet, and I didn't want to buy material to make a temporary flywheel from. Then I realized that I have been slowly pirating parts away from the original Rupnow Engine that I designed and built about 10 or 12 years ago, and that it had a pair of lovely brass flywheels that I can use.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 14, 2020)

The engine test stand has gained a footplate. It was getting top heavy and the foot plate gives me something I can attach to my desk-top to keep it from toppling over. All of the linkages have been completed and set roughly to the correct length. I have borrowed a flywheel from one of my early engines that is slowly being robbed of parts. I got tired of trying to source oilite bushings for the main drivewheel shaft, so machined some from brass and Loctited them in place. I have tested things to the point that when I turn the flywheel by hand the eccentrics operate the slide valves in the steam-chest which makes the cylinders extend and retract. They are still very stiff and "oinky", but I will chase down interferences and maybe put a 0.005" shim under one cylinder. Tomorrow I will machine the connecting rods and the piece they connect to at the drive axle.


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## Nikhil Bhale (Jun 15, 2020)

Hi,
Are you also going to fabricate a boiler?
Or this will be a dummy engine working on air.

Rgrds
Nikhil


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 15, 2020)

It will be a dummy engine running on air.---Brian


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## bigal2749 (Jun 15, 2020)

After  the time spent with a career in carpentry and then one as a dentist,  I wish I had the time and skill to make these things myself but I certainly love watching those who can.

If I did I'd make the ME and also Mary Beam engines for which I have casting sets.  I need to put them on ebay and start clearing out the basement.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 15, 2020)

Time to do my "Happy Dance"!!  First engine is up and running. The connecting rod is very crude and will be replaced by a much prettier one. Only the near side engine is hooked up at this point. I will now move forward and start setting up the far side engine.


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## awake (Jun 15, 2020)

Love the sound! How much pressure is it running on?


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 15, 2020)

I'm trying something I haven't done before. This is the connecting rod which goes to the flywheel on each engine. As designed (you can see it in the solid models) it is 0.350" diameter at the center with a 4 degree included taper out to each end, where it becomes flat. It is easy to do in CAD, considerably more difficult in real steel. The issue is that I am starting with cold rolled steel, and have never really found a way to machine cold rolled steel without leaving a lot of lines and ridges. I am machining with my top slide set over 2 degrees, so I can't use automatic feed, so it's hand crank all the way on both sides of center and use lots of cutting oil.That's okay, but there is a lot of sanding after the fact with #180 and #220 grit sanding strips. If I get the ends machined flat and cut to length, I think these rods will look quite elegant.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 15, 2020)

Andy---Due to the fact that the engines are brand new and there is still a lot of binding to be sorted thru, it's running on about 80 psi of air. I like to see them run on about 15 psi after all the tight spots have been eliminated.


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## awake (Jun 16, 2020)

Gotcha. On the connecting rods, don't forget the possibility of using a file - sometimes I reach for the emory paper, and only later realize a file would be a better choice.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 16, 2020)

So now my engine(s) have two of the fanciest connecting rods that I've ever made. They turned out very nice, although there seemed to be a ton of work in them. The con rods were the last two pieces needed to make my engine set-up run. Now I have to spend time working out all the "stiffness" so I can get things to run on about 15 to 20 psi of air.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 16, 2020)

This afternoon I hooked up air to the second engine and it ran quite nicely. I have to go to the hardware store tomorrow and buy some very small gear clamps. I will make up a tee in the morning so one feed line can supply air to both engines. When the engines are ran independently, they are running on the strength of one piston only. When I run the two engines together, they will have the power of two pistons, so should require only half the air pressure I am currently using. As soon as I have both engines running together, I will oil everything up well and let them run for an hour. This initial run will get rid of any "stickiness" in the system.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 17, 2020)

Today is a banner day, with air supplied to both engines and both engines running together. I have made a video---please tell me if it works okay. Next step will be to start work on the chassis.----Brian


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## awake (Jun 17, 2020)

Video works, and it looks and sounds great!


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## werowance (Jun 17, 2020)

yes pretty cool action.  i like it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 17, 2020)

I spent a couple of hours chasing down "tight spots" in the system this afternoon. That is done basically by process of elimination.--Keep taking parts off one at a time until the main shaft rotates freely--open up clearances on the offending part, put it back on, then repeat. Eventually you get to a point where the main shaft rotates without any binding.--The result?---An engine set that runs consistently at 20 psi. There will be no more posts now, until I start fabricating the chassis which the engines bolt to.--And, the cranks are offset 90 degrees to give self starting capability


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## DickF (Jun 18, 2020)

Fantastic work, loving every minute of your postings.


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## ShopShoe (Jun 18, 2020)

Brian,

Like all your engines, this one is running well and looks good. I'll be following the locomotive build and I have no doubt that it will come out well, too.

--ShopShoe


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 18, 2020)

And here we have the rest of the material to build the chassis with.---Except for the big drive-wheels. If you are wondering, that's $97 worth of aluminum setting on the chair. I enjoyed a machining free morning. When I designed the chassis, I just thru in all the shapes with no real attention paid to how they all go together. This morning I started "finessing" all of the parts to add in the threads, bolt holes, etcetera.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 18, 2020)

Where to begin, Where to begin??? I think the simplest part is going to be the smoke-stack.---And no, I haven't got the faintest idea of how to make that frilly part that fits on top of the stack. I think to look right, I'm really going to have to make it, but I haven't got a clue as to how.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 18, 2020)

And yes, my darlings--We have a smokestack!! Turned and drilled from 1 1/2" solid.  By the time I was finished the swarf in my tiny shop was knee deep.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 19, 2020)

This is where I am going now. An "exploded" view gives some pretty good insight of what lays ahead with the chassis build. the engine assemblies don't appear here.


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## werowance (Jun 19, 2020)

brian, the frilly cap on the smoke stack - here is how i made it on my little boiler,  i took piece of brass sheet i picked up in the hobby bits section at lowes and i measured and drilled little holes evenly spaced then cut it out with a exacto knife and soldered it to the top of the pipe.  the holes drilled were the bottom of each "V" cut i made wihth the knfie.  then i just bent the tips of it out a little. a crude hand drawing of what i mean in the last photo.

hope that helps some


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## werowance (Jun 19, 2020)

or, another thought on the topper,  if you export that drawing to an stl format i could 3d plastic print it for you.  since its air driven and not steam driven then heat wouldnt be a factor?  a little sanding, a little red bondo spot putty and some paint and 3d printed parts dont look printed any more,  gets rid of the lines in the part asocciated with 3d printed pieces


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## Shopgeezer (Jun 19, 2020)

Neat boiler. How did you make the bowel shaped end piece?  Hydro forming? Is it really all screwed together or is it silver soldered with fake screw heads?


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## werowance (Jun 19, 2020)

just an aluminum plate, using the feed dials I domed it and then file/sand paper to smoothe that out.  its just a cover plate screwed on it doesn't hold any preasure there.  on inside it is silver soldered.  all pressure connections are silver soldered.  non preasure is just soft soldered.  the brass is about 3/8 thick walled heavy.  I got it out of an oxygen concentrator machine that people with copd or breathing problems use.  the scrap yard had several that were scrapped so I picked up a couple.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 19, 2020)

Thanks Werowance--I had decided that I would make one similar to what you show.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 19, 2020)

Today's entertainment was end-plates for the boiler. There is nothing really special here, just a lot of machining. If you have a good eye you will see that one endplate only has two holes, as opposed to having three holes as shown in the exploded view. As I was about to drill the third hole in the second plate, I thought "Jeez, I'm not lifting elephants with this thing---2 holes will be enough." One endplate will support the smoke-stack and the other is bolted to the fire-box. The bolt heads will be on the inside where nobody will see them---so---clearance holes in the endplates, threads in the fire-box and smoke-stack support. You will also see that the design evolves as I make the parts. The end plates in the model were a lot of mass for no good reason. I relieved a lot of the center of each endplate, and then went in and modified the drawings.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 20, 2020)

This morning yielded a fire box. I decided to carve out most of the interior to make it a lot lighter, and I made it round so I can fit a nice fire box door. The only problem with buying off-cuts at my metal supplier is that sometimes trimming the off-cut down to the size needed to make the part is more work than making the part.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 20, 2020)

Does anyone know where I can buy this? I've seen them before but I can't remember where. They are basically a small diameter tube (or even solid would do) about 5/16" to 3/8" diameter formed into a continuous circle about 1 1/2" diameter. Model builders cut portions of them away from the circle to use as elbows in model piping.---Brian


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## Peter Twissell (Jun 20, 2020)

Brian, I've used hollow brass curtain rings, but if you search for "hollow copper ring" you'll find some options.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 22, 2020)

Today I finished the assembly of the front portion of the chassis , including the front plate itself, a 1/8" spacer, the crazy smokestack support and the smokestack. That smokestack support is a monster. It required three different fixtures to machine that part. I could have designed it simpler, but I wanted to attempt all of the fixturing. I will post the finished assembly and the three fixtures required to machine the support.---I got lucky with the third set-up and was able to use the front plate as the holding fixture for the third machining operation.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 23, 2020)

Today was a major lurch forward. I started with a 3 1/2" x 12" long piece of aluminum, turned half of it to 3 1/4" diameter, cut it in half, and counterbored both ends to receive the end caps. There is lots of exciting machining yet to come on that main cylindrical body. I had to quit half way thru the day and fabricate some brackets for a new flower box that my daughter was given, then jumped back into the shop to finish the main body so I could make a "mock-up".


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 24, 2020)

I just finished adding the "wood cladding" to my boiler. I used a small (3/16") center drill and set it up to interfere with the boiler o.d.x about 0.020". Set the table stops up on the mill x axis, and rotated the rotary table 19 degrees between each linear cut. It turned out nice.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 24, 2020)

This afternoon I put in locating counterbores and #10 threads in the "boiler" to accept the steam dome and the safety valve. I never knew until this afternoon how badly I sucked at freehanding a "dome". It turned out okay, but the finished result does not reflect the first two attempts. I am not tearing down the set-up on the mill, because the slots for the axles and pivot rods still have to be machined.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 25, 2020)

Today I finished the work on the milling machine, and was able to tear down my set-up. You will see in the picture the end of the motor-mount bar, which runs completely thru the boiler from side to side. I was able to drill and mill the slotted hole thru, but that of course left round ends on the slot. I drove across town and bought a 1/2" square file to make the ends of the slot rectangular. There was a HUGE amount of time required to make those rounded ends rectangular, and I have a new blister in the palm of my hand from filing. The main "boiler" is almost finished. The motor mount bar will be held in place by bolts which are hidden by the end cap on the boiler. My initial thought were to Loctite the boiler endplates in place, but I have figured out how to use a "thru-bolt" that is hidden inside the firebox and goes completely thru the boiler and is threaded into the endplate which sets at the front of the boiler. Tomorrow I will make the bracket which supports the rear axle and the pivot shaft for the eccentrics. Then it will be time to start transferring the engines from the test stand over to the actual chassis. The wheels will be left as the last thing to do.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 26, 2020)

I'm finished with the chassis of the Rocket, to the point where I have to start transferring engine parts from the test stand over to the Rocket. I ended up having to put rubber o-rings on both pistons. The machine is setting beside me as I type this, running on 10 psi. It still doesn't want to self start, and it should. May be a matter of how I have the timing set, or may be there is still some friction in the system that it has to work thru. It's getting rather exciting now. Tomorrow should see the engines moved, and then I have to start on those big drive wheels.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 26, 2020)

Okay, we're good now. After running the engine for half an hour, it self starts. A bit of explanation---I'm not using Viton rings, just plain old rubber Buna-N o-rings. These rings are fine because there are no high temperatures to contend with.--But---they have an amazing amount of "stiction" when first used in an engine. If you give the engine a few drops of oil in the cylinder and run it for half an hour, the "stiction" from the ring goes away. There was enough air getting past the un-ringed piston to prevent the engine from self starting. Now, with rings on both pistons and half an hour run time, there is no residual "stiction" and the engines self start fine. The crank throws are 90 degrees out of phase.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 26, 2020)

This is the threaded rod that holds all of the chassis together. It passes thru a clearance hole in the firebox and the rear "cap", thru a clearance hole in the "boiler" and threads into the front cap and smokestack mount. It will get shortened up and the nut will be hidden inside the fire-box. The next picture I post will be with all of the engine parts in place on the chassis.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 27, 2020)

Oh Wow---If I just had some wheels, I could almost go for a drive!! All of the engine parts bolted right up where they were supposed to go. I have a few simple cosmetic detail to figure out, but I'm happy with the way this is looking.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 27, 2020)

--I'm setting here with everything assembled, trying to decide what to do next. There is an assembly of flat-bars that run parallel to the boiler and out in front of the engine from the rear of the driver platform. I have the material so I probably will build them next. I'm also thinking about how I am going to anchor the stay rods that act as braces on the smokestack and drivers platform. I would like to make them from 1/8" diameter aluminum round rods, but that creates a problem at the ends where they transition from round to flat. I might make them from 1/8" diameter steel cold rolled, which would let me silver solder a very small flat bar to each end. I checked to see what size socket head capscrew would work to attach them, but the only size that has a head diameter less than 1/8" is a number "0". That is almost smaller than I can comfortably work with.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 28, 2020)

I've started taking applications for "Train Driver". This guy showed up last night just after dark!!!--I also have a five year old grandson visiting for a couple of days. He should have a card like Paledin---"Have Toys--Will Travel".


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## stevehuckss396 (Jun 28, 2020)

Where do we apply. I can drive it way! better than that dude!

Yes i have had a few.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 28, 2020)

I'm coming right down to the wire on this thing. All I have left to build before tackling the wheels are the bands which go around the boiler (Which will probably be cut from some aluminum tubing) and the piping below the boiler, and the fire-box door. Since the piping below the boiler is only for show and not for go, I think I can bend it up from round bar. I will make up a welding jig as shown in red, then heat the rod until it is cherry red and bend it around the posts in the jig.


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## awake (Jun 29, 2020)

That jig will allow you to avoid post processing.

Okay, terrible pun, but once it popped into my head, I couldn't resist!


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 29, 2020)

This is the piping that runs below the boiler in it's first stage of development. A simple jig was made from scrap 1/2" plate and four 1/4" dowels mounted in it in the correct position. The "pipe" is designed with 1/8" inside radius at the bends, and the easiest way to achieve that is to bends the "pipe" around the 1/4" dowels. Of course the "pipe" is really 5/16" diameter cold rolled steel solid. It is going to require some more "finessing" before it is installed in place. It was heated to bright red in the bend areas with my oxy-acetylene torch and bent by hand.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 29, 2020)

Hah!!!--even the old and ugly get lucky sometimes. I had to go by my metal supplier today, and he had a cut-off of aluminum tube just about exactly the side I needed for the rings on the outside of my boiler. A little boring on the inside, and a clean up pass on the outside, and I have a lovely set of rings for the outside of my boiler. They will eventually be loctited in position, and the one ring that sets between the engines is going to have to be cut, but I'm so much happier making the rings this way than trying to form them out of aluminum strips bent around a form.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 29, 2020)

---Now, jumping back onto the project I started much earlier today. The piece has been removed from the jig, ends sawed off to correspond with the fire-box width, and a vertical section silver soldered on. The vertical piece has a hole drilled and counterbored thru the center, and a #4 shcs will go thru it and screw into threads in the bottom of a hole in the boiler. Although I have never shown it in the solid models, I want the sawed off ends to have a flange where it meets the sides of the fire-box. I'll do that tomorrow morning.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 30, 2020)

Today I added the "flanges" to the piping which sets below the boiler, and I built what passes for a fire-box door. What a crazy lathe set-up to turn the 9 degree tapered face on that "door". The only way I could make it work was to reach across center with the cutting tool and run the lathe in reverse. It worked fine, but was a really strange set-up.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jun 30, 2020)

This afternoon, while I had everything disassembled, I decided to paint. I've been dithering for a month, trying to decide whether to paint this thing or not, but finally decided to go with more or less "traditional" colors. Semi gloss black on everything except the boiler and wheels, which will be "Knock your eyes out yellow". So I painted--cleaned up---found another part---painted--cleaned up--found another part. I went thru about 5 or 6 rounds of this before I had most of the black parts painted. Damn, there are a lot of parts!!! Haven't painted the boiler yet, because I haven't Loctited the boiler rings in place, but maybe tomorrow. The only thing left to fabricate are 6 "stay rods" of various lengths. I know the engines run, because they ran on the test stand.


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## Peter Twissell (Jul 1, 2020)

What do you have in mind for wheels? Fabricated spokes, castings, simplified discs?


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 1, 2020)

Peter Twissell said:


> What do you have in mind for wheels? Fabricated spokes, castings, simplified discs?


If you go back to near the beginning of this thread you will see what I intend. The wheels will be total fabrications from individual parts.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 1, 2020)

This morning I Loctited the boiler rings in place. This isn't really a big deal on three of the rings. The fourth ring may be a challenge. It is split around the engine mounts, and split again on the bottom half below the motor mounts to clear the pivot support bar. If the Loctite doesn't want to hold on this ring I may have to "pin" the individual ring sections in place with 0.039" diameter pins inserted thru the ring sections and into corresponding drilled holes in the boiler body.  I wanted to paint the boiler today, but may have to put that off until tomorrow depending on how rapidly the Loctite sets up.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 1, 2020)

While I was walking today---I was thinking about stay rods. The smallest size socket head capscrew I carry is a #4, which has a 0.182" diameter head. If I spent a little time making up rod ends from 1/16" mild steel, then I can silver solder them to the ends of the stay rods. I think this is the best solution I have came up with yet, and since the stay rods will be painted black, I think it will work quite well, and give a good solid attachment between the stay rods and the rest of the machine.


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## Peter Twissell (Jul 1, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> If you go back to near the beginning of this thread you will see what I intend. The wheels will be total fabrications from individual parts.


Got it, thanks.
I had seen that, but my memory failed me.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 1, 2020)

I think my bolted stay-rods are going to work out just great. They are (I think) the last parts to be fabricated, painted, and assembled before I start earning my living as a wheelright.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 2, 2020)

--The shape of things to come---


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 2, 2020)

The driver is the fellow I put into all my production machine layouts for custom built machinery. Customers always want to see an operator shown at the correct scale. He is five foot nine inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He is "North American Standard size." I didn't design him. Another engineer did, and I stole him from a set of engineering files years ago. My software package has the ability to scale him larger or smaller, but all the work I have ever done for customers is always done to "full scale". I had to calculate the scale I wanted to make my Stephenson's Rocket to and then scale Elvis to the correct size. He looks to be too small in relationship to the Rocket, but if you look at any You-tube videos of the rocket, the operators shoulders are about even with the top of the boiler. My cylinders are larger than "real scale" because this engine is going to run on air. Without the extra power gained from the "change of state from steam into liquid vapour" I was afraid that the cylinders running on air might not be strong enough, so I oversized them by about 30%.


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 2, 2020)

That's going to look really good. Nice job Rupnow!!!


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## werowance (Jul 3, 2020)

Brian, in the back of my head I kept questioning just how that simulated lagging on the boiler would look.   ill have to say it looks really nice.    good job.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 3, 2020)

Werowance--I've never done that before, but I am very happy with the results. 
I am a firm believer in welding fixtures. I find it impossible to hold things at a specific angle and rotation and expect them to stay in place while being silver soldered.  This shows  firstly, a two part welding fixture for attaching the stay rod to one of it's foot plates. The jig has to be two part so it can be disassembled to remove the part after it is silver soldered. The second fixture is a simple one piece jig for welding the second foot plate in place. There will be clean up after the welding is finished, and final shaping on the footplates to make them match the drawing.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 4, 2020)

Slowly I'm getting closer to the end of the end. The short stay rods are finished, fitted, and painted. The only outstanding things to build now are the two stay rods that stabilize the tall smoke-stack. Then I will reassemble everything and get started on the wheels. I tried to buy material for the outer rim of the drive-wheels on Friday afternoon, but the man at the metal suppliers was way behind schedule, having been shut down on Wednesday for Canada Day. He told me he would check it out Monday and let me know if they have any extremely heavy wall tube. This is kind of a sucky picture, but black doesn't photograph terribly well.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 5, 2020)

Today all of the painted pieces were reassembled, with thankfully no major "gores" in the paint. That always seems to be an issue for me. The longest stay rods that help steady the smoke stack will be done tomorrow. Then I will jump head and shoulders into the wheelright business. Each drive wheel will be built up from 15 individual pieces, which include 12 spokes, a two piece inner hub, and a rim.---And yes Sparky, I will be using my tig welder for that.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 6, 2020)

TA-DA!!!--The last two stay rods are painted and installed. I'm just waiting for a call back from my metal supplier to confirm that he has the material I need for the outer rim of the two big drive wheels.


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## DickF (Jul 7, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> TA-DA!!!--The last two stay rods are painted and installed. I'm just waiting for a call back from my metal supplier to confirm that he has the material I need for the outer rim of the two big drive wheels.


Good job . Is your chimney stack top staying as is or are you going to fabricate a castellated end as orig. Just wondering how to go about making something like that.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 7, 2020)

I thought about making a castellated top like the ones you see in Youtube videos of the Stephenson's, but I don't have the resources to make one from sheet metal. Somebody even offered to3D print one. I think I'm just going to leave it as it is.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 7, 2020)

Today I turned seventy four. Ringo Star and I share a birthday, but he is six years older than me. Happy birthday Ringo!! I spent the entire day setting up the engines to run in the newly painted chassis. One engine started up right away with no drama. The other engine was a stubborn pig all day, and I still don't have it running. I did pick up the material for the large drive wheels today, and I'm looking forward to starting on them as soon as I get the second engine to run.


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## RonW (Jul 7, 2020)

Happy Birthday Brian. May you see many more.
RonW


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 7, 2020)

Thanks Ron---
So, here we are kids!!! After what seemed to be an awful lot of frigging around, both engines are up and running on the model. To time these slide valve engines properly, the cylinder has to be either at full extend or full retract, and the valve control rod must be exactly at mid travel. That is not really as easy as it sounds.--A hint--put 3 setscrews at 120 degrees apart in each eccentric hub. Although that is not good practice on most hubs, if you don't do it, then when the engine is timed perfectly, the single set screw will be hidden behind something and you won't be able to access it. The engines are "lurching" a bit, but that is just a matter of timing, and can be corrected.


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## Cogsy (Jul 7, 2020)

Happy Birthday Brian!  +  =


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## Peter Twissell (Jul 8, 2020)

Belated happy Birthday Brian!
She's really looking the part and the engines run nicely. They appear to be running almost synchronised in the video. I assume they will be timed 90 degrees apart.


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## bigal2749 (Jul 8, 2020)

Happy Birthday

Looks like you made your own birthday present


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 8, 2020)

Peter---You are correct.  
 Now I get to see whether or not I'd make a wheelright. This piece is 5 1/2" outside diameter x 3 1/2" inside diameter x 1.8" long. It is the only piece that size in all of Barrie, and I got it for $21.50 there is sufficient material there to make two drive-wheels, and I will try and make a detailed post as the drive wheel fabrication progresses.


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## awake (Jul 8, 2020)

Happy birthday!


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 8, 2020)

I've looked at a few different ways of fabricating these large drive wheels. I really liked whats shown here, because the round holes in the hub locate the spokes radially, and the sides of the groove in which the spokes set keep the spokes all parallel.  The spokes could be loctited into the holes in the hub, and tig welded to the outer rim. The only problem is that every one of the 24 spokes would have to be set up in the 4 jaw chuck, indicated, and then turned down to 0.150" diameter in order to work. I don't mind a bit of 4 jaw set-up, but doing it repeatedly 24 times is a bit too much.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 8, 2020)

My current idea is a bit more exotic.--Has more parts, but is "easier?" to fabricate because I don't have to turn the ends of the square spokes to fit into round holes. I have reduced the number of spokes from 12 to 10, and they are all located by the machined red hub (the red hub is shown  both "in place" and copied to the right hand side of the assembly so you can see what it looks like by itself). The red hub, although it looks complex, is all just basic rotary table work using a 3/16" end-mill cutting 3/16" deep. The spokes can lay in their appropriate slots and be Loctited in place, and the outer ends of the spokes can be tig welded to the outer rim.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 8, 2020)

Regardless of what I do with the inner hub and spokes, the outer rim will not change. Next step will be to mount the material for the outer rim on my lathe and machine two outer rims from it. Because of the very real possibility of heat distortion from welding changing things a bit, I will make the rim about 1/16" greater than the drawing calls for, and about 1/16" wider than the drawing calls for. This will allow me to make clean up passes after all of the welding is completed.


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## awake (Jul 8, 2020)

Brian, the first approach would be the ideal use case for a square collet - if you happen to have a collet chuck. (I don't ... it is one of my wish-list items!)


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 9, 2020)

This hub seems to be the most complex part of the drive wheel assemblies. I was going to begin by machining the outer rims first, but I've had a change of heart, and this is what I will be making today.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 9, 2020)

Here we have the hub, reamed to a 0.75" bore, and stock 1.25" o.d. mounted in the rotary table, and a slot 0.188" deep cut with a 3/16" endmill. One picture shows the cut slot, the second picture shows a piece of the 3/16" square key material tapped into place for a trial fit. I have found out two things. #1---My 3/16" endmill is painfully dull, and #2 that my shoulder wants to quit about half way thru taking 0.005" depth of cut. Next trick will be to index the rotary table 36 degrees and do it over again.


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## awake (Jul 9, 2020)

Brian, are you saying that you can only take .005" DOC at a time? Ouch - that's definitely going to take a while.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 9, 2020)

Things got a lot easier when I switched to a carbide endmill and was able to take 0.010" depth of cut. This is the hub which has not been cut to finished length yet, but has one spoke setting in place to show how it's going to work.


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## awake (Jul 9, 2020)

.010" at a time still sounds painful, but glad you got it done!


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 9, 2020)

These shots show the two piece center hub and one spoke. I'm happy with it so far. It will require a bit of touch up with a file before final assembly, but so far--so good.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 10, 2020)

Things are going to stop for a while now. My lathe quit working last night about 6:00 o'clock.  I was half way thru a cut, turning at 400 rpm with a 0.015" depth of cut , in automatic feed mode. The lathe just stopped. No grind, no clunk, just stopped dead as if the power supply had died. I have checked the fuses and that is really all I can check. I'm afraid I may have to take my lathe to BusyBee in Toronto and have their technicians fix whatever went wrong.


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## Richard Hed (Jul 10, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Things are going to stop for a while now. My lathe quit working last night about 6:00 o'clock.  I was half way thru a cut, turning at 400 rpm with a 0.015" depth of cut , in automatic feed mode. The lathe just stopped. No grind, no clunk, just stopped dead as if the power supply had died. I have checked the fuses and that is really all I can check. I'm afraid I may have to take my lathe to BusyBee in Toronto and have their technicians fix whatever went wrong.


Certainly you could check a few more things before having someone else look at it.  Check the power outlet (socket)--some times they fry, along with the power cord and plug.  Also check the wire going into the motor to see if it is frayed or something and if you can, check inside the motor to see the wire connections--sometimes they wiggle loose.  Also check the power switch if it is checkable.


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## werowance (Jul 10, 2020)

ill just say my lathe got a chip inside the motors electric box on the side of the motor which had screw terminals to mount the wires (for 220 or 110 hookups).  no noise, did not trip the breaker but it did melt the screw terminal and the machine was dead.  3 wire nuts and some black tape and the screw terminal was eliminated and machine was back in business.

I can only hope its this simple for your machine.


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## awake (Jul 10, 2020)

Richard's comment reminded me of the time we lost a really nice hand mixer. It stopped working, according to my wife ... I took a quick look at it, but other than verifying that it didn't work, I didn't have time to dig into it to any great degree, so we threw out the old mixer and bought a new mixer - not as nice as the old one, which had been a gift. But then the new mixer didn't work ... at which point I realized that the GFCI that controlled all of the kitchen counter outlets had tripped!

It still makes me feel sick that I threw out what may have been a perfectly good mixer!


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## Richard Hed (Jul 10, 2020)

awake said:


> Richard's comment reminded me of the time we lost a really nice hand mixer. It stopped working, according to my wife ... I took a quick look at it, but other than verifying that it didn't work, I didn't have time to dig into it to any great degree, so we threw out the old mixer and bought a new mixer - not as nice as the old one, which had been a gift. But then the new mixer didn't work ... at which point I realized that the GFCI that controlled all of the kitchen counter outlets had tripped!
> 
> It still makes me feel sick that I threw out what may have been a perfectly good mixer!


OMG, LOL, been there, done that!


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 10, 2020)

Gees brian isn't there someone you can call that can fix it on site? Seems like alot of work to haul it somewhere.  I have a guy on speed dial.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 10, 2020)

It's amazing what one old guy can do when he has some plywood, some metal rollers, and a cherry-picker engine hoist. The lathe came out of my shop, thru my office, into the main garage and onto my truck. It is now in Concord where the Busy-Bee main Ontario center is. I just got home and eat supper.


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## olympic (Jul 11, 2020)

Oops! Just read that your lathe is in for repair. Let us know what went wrong.

Anyway::

Many motors have a reset button to protect against overheating and power surges. Look for that and press it.

My Busy Bee lathe's magnetic switch once gave out. A multimeter helped pinpoint the problem, and Busy Bee quickly mailed me a new switch. That beats hauling the lathe off to the Big Smoke....


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## dsage (Jul 11, 2020)

Check the thermal overload on the motor contactor / starter / relay. Mine quits occasionally in automatic feed with long medium depth cuts (heavy motor load). It's just a push button to reset it right on the contactor.  I think the thermals get weak over time. They can be replaced. Hopefully they don't take you for a ride at the repair place.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 12, 2020)

I don't do electrics. If a machine quits, I can #1-Check that the circuit breaker hasn't tripped and that I still have 110v at the outlet. #2 check the glass fuse on the front of the lathe and make sure it is okay, and #3--Press the thermal cutout switch on the motor in case the motor has overheated and tripped it. Anything beyond that is purely guess work for me. I can do almost anything mechanical, but I know my limitations when it comes to electrical stuff. The trip to Concord in the north end of Toronto took an hour. The big deal was getting the lathe from my machine shop out to my main garage, and that went very well. I like to play Superman once in a while.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 15, 2020)

Aarghhh Billy--I think there's a wheel in sight!!! Got my lathe troubles sorted and just finished the first outer rim. Lookin' good so far. Mighty scary stuff parting off at that diameter.


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## Richard Hed (Jul 15, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Aarghhh Billy--I think there's a wheel in sight!!! Got my lathe troubles sorted and just finished the first outer rim. Lookin' good so far. Mighty scary stuff parting off at that diameter.


So tell us what was the prob?  what was the solution?


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 15, 2020)

Richard---See this.  Lathe Moving Dolly


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## Richard Hed (Jul 15, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Richard---See this.  Lathe Moving Dolly


What was wrong with your lathe?  How did they fix it?


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## Triple_buzz (Jul 16, 2020)

Brian, wish I had known you have the same lathe as me, in UK it is branded as a Warco, I had same problem and luckily found it quickly as it had been working before I took  the side panel off. Micro-switch now by-passed. Nice 'Rocket' model, I am slowly designing and building  5" gauge of the 'Royal George'. Hope to have it in steam sometime next year.


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## Shopgeezer (Jul 16, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Aarghhh Billy--I think there's a wheel in sight!!! Got my lathe troubles sorted and just finished the first outer rim. Lookin' good so far. Mighty scary stuff parting off at that diameter.



Yikes that would be scary. Was this a piece of pipe or did you gnaw the centre out of a solid piece?


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 16, 2020)

This is what was wrong with my lathe One picture is of the gear cover that sets on the end of my lathe to protect my fingers from the gears. Notice the bent bracket at the lower right corner of it. That bent bracket pushes on a switch which disables the electrics on the lathe if the guard is removed. I haven't had that cover off the lathe in more than a year. Somehow---Perhaps metal fatigue? the bracket bent far enough that it no longer pushed on the button, and consequently the lathe stopped right in the middle of a cut. The switch it presses on is right below the gears and is virtually impossible to see unless you stand on your head to look for it. When I left the lathe in Concord at Busy Bee, I told them that my rpm indicator only worked intermittently and please either fix it or replace it, as well as please fix whatever is wrong that I have no power to the lathe. They replaced the rpm indicator, scratched their heads a bit and then found that bending the bracket by hand fixed things so it pushed the button and restored power to the lathe. I either didn't know, or else forgot that switch was even there.They charged two hours labor and the price of the new readout. My bill came to $129. So, they treated me quite honestly I think. They could have told me it needed a new motor and charged me another couple of hundred dollars but they didn't.


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 16, 2020)

I agree, I think they were very fair with you.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 16, 2020)

Now it's time to get into some complex stuff. To assemble all of the wheel parts and keep them all correctly positioned in relationship to each other, we have to use a "jig".--Also called a "fixture". In each wheel there will be 13 parts. An inner hub to align the spokes, a centering hub which fits inside the inner hub to adapt it to the axle, 10 spokes, and an outer rim. My plan is to use J.B. Weld to attach the spokes to the inner hub, and to tig weld the spokes to the outer rim. I started out the day by buying a 5" square piece of 3/4" thick aluminum plate which was scribed corner to corner to locate the center, and then a 5/16" center drill was used to put a center "divot" into the plate. The plate was then mounted in my lathe 4 jaw chuck, centered, and a boss was turned that is an exact fit into the inside diameter of the outer wheel rim. Then a 3/4" hole was drilled and reamed thru the center, and a countersunk pocket was put in the center to locate on the outer diameter of the inner hub. The two pictures I have loaded show the fixture after turning operations were completed, and with the inner hub, outer rim, and one spoke set in place. The depth of the turnings was calculated to give .062" of "air" below the spoke, so that it only is supported by the outer rim and the inner hub. There will be more posts as the wheel is developed, but this is my starting point.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 16, 2020)

Shopgeezer---See post #163


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## werowance (Jul 17, 2020)

i wondered how you would get everything centered up.  now I see- with a jig.  that's gonna look really cool when you are done I think.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 17, 2020)

Here we have the first wheel assembled in the jig.--all the spokes were covered with J.B. weld at the inner ends, then slid into the slots in the inner hub. They were all tapped down into the correct position in the outer rim, and then the outside of the centering hub was coated with J.B. Weld and then it was inserted thru the center. A very healthy 3/8" bolt and nut squeezes everything together, and will be allowed to set up for 24 hours. I will then tig weld the outer ends of the spokes to the outer rim. The welds will be on the side of the wheel which faces in towards the center of the Rocket, so will not be visible when all is assembled


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 17, 2020)

So, what do you do while you wait 24 hours for the J.B.Weld to set up on the wheel in the jig?--Well of course, you make the outer rims for the non driven wheels. Unlike their bigger brothers which were machined from a piece of very heavy wall tubing, these smaller wheels were made from a solid piece of 3" diameter steel. My largest metal drill is 1" diameter. The holes in these smaller rims are 1.943" diameter. Thats a lot of boring passes at 0.015" depth of cut. Tomorrow morning I will make the hubs for the smaller wheels.


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## deeferdog (Jul 17, 2020)

Nice wheels, Brian, sure beats cutting them out of solid on the mill. (Don't ask me how I know!). Cheers, Peter.


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## RonW (Jul 18, 2020)

werowance said:


> i wondered how you would get everything centered up.  now I see- with a jig.  that's gonna look really cool when you are done I think.





Brian Rupnow said:


> So, what do you do while you wait 24 hours for the J.B.Weld to set up on the wheel in the jig?--Well of course, you make the outer rims for the non driven wheels. Unlike their bigger brothers which were machined from a piece of very heavy wall tubing, these smaller wheels were made from a solid piece of 3" diameter steel. My largest metal drill is 1" diameter. The holes in these smaller rims are 1.943" diameter. Thats a lot of boring passes at 0.015" depth of cut. Tomorrow morning I will make the hubs for the smaller wheels.


Hi Brian, use a hole saw and save the slug for your next roundtoit?RonW


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 18, 2020)

This morning I completed the hubs for the two smaller non-driven wheels, and machined a fixture to hold everything in position for tig welding. I used up every inch of 1/8" square keystock I had to make spokes for the small wheel that is in the jig. If all goes well with the tig welding, I think these are going to be very nice wheels for the Rocket.


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## dsage (Jul 19, 2020)

Nice looking wheels. Hard to tell their condition from the photo - but you should probably take them all apart again and clean all the metal bright and shiny before attempting to tig weld them. TIG is VERY fussy about cleanliness.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 19, 2020)

So, here we are with one big wheel and one little wheel welded. The wheels haven't been removed from their jigs yet. They look nasty/ugly, but remember, all of the brown smoky stuff is going to disappear. The side with the welds on it is going to face inwards, so very little of these welds are going to be visible. I will post another shot of the same wheels later today after I get them cleaned up. I used my new tig welder for this job, because it is the only welder I have that can deposit a small controlled puddle of weld where I want it.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 19, 2020)

I have discovered something that is a problem, and I have a solution for how to solve it. No matter how much care is taken with the jigs and set-up, there will end up being visible "wobble" when the wheel is rotated on the center hole in the hub. This can be addressed by taking "truing cuts" from the outer edges and sides of the wheel as the wheel rotates if the wheel is supported on an "axle" which fits into the hole in the center of the hub.
 I was just in the process of doing that, when I had a thought. I would strongly recommend that anyone who sets out to build fabricated wheels like this, put a bore thru the hub center 1/16" less than what it will end up being. This lets you build a fixture which accommodates the smaller center hole. Then when the wheel is removed from the jig, set it up in the lathe so that the chuck is gripping the outer diameter of the wheel, and that it is rotating "true" with no visible wobble or run-out. Then re-bore the center hole in the hub to the correct size. That is much easier than trying to re-machine the outer diameter and sides of the wheel to make it run true.


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## Richard Hed (Jul 19, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> I have discovered something that is a problem, and I have a solution for how to solve it. No matter how much care is taken with the jigs and set-up, there will end up being visible "wobble" when the wheel is rotated on the center hole in the hub. This can be addressed by taking "truing cuts" from the outer edges and sides of the wheel as the wheel rotates if the wheel is supported on an "axle" which fits into the hole in the center of the hub.
> I was just in the process of doing that, when I had a thought. I would strongly recommend that anyone who sets out to build fabricated wheels like this, put a bore thru the hub center 1/16" less than what it will end up being. This lets you build a fixture which accommodates the smaller center hole. Then when the wheel is removed from the jig, set it up in the lathe so that the chuck is gripping the outer diameter of the wheel, and that it is rotating "true" with no visible wobble or run-out. Then re-bore the center hole in the hub to the correct size. That is much easier than trying to re-machine the outer diameter and sides of the wheel to make it run true.


Even doing that, however, might not be enough as welding generaly warps things in more than one dimension:  twists, warps, turns, so if you are planning to weld and needs high accuracy, leave a small amount of extra metal anywhere that you will be able to true up later.  The hole in the center being the most important as you will clean it up FIRST then true up the rest after, using a mandrel or whatever.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 19, 2020)

This is a "trial assembly" of the welded wheels fitted to the chassis. When I get some yellow paint on those wheels, it's going to look awesome!!!


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## Peter Twissell (Jul 20, 2020)

Looks really good, Brian.
I still think it really needs that brass chimney crown to top it off.


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## RonW (Jul 20, 2020)

Peter Twissell said:


> Looks really good, Brian.
> I still think it really needs that brass chimney crown to top it off.


Yep! And wheel spokes need to be red.
 Actually Brian, any colour you choose and to hek with the rest of us. Good job! 
RonW


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 20, 2020)

Three wheels done, one to do yet. The good side which faces out away from center looks fantastic. The inside of the wheels which face towards the center are ugly as Hell. This is one of the few times I wish I had a little sandblasting cabinet. After I finish the last wheel, I will have to make a decision whether to spend a bit more time on the inside faces of the wheels with a bit of body-fill, or maybe just clean them up with my Dremel tool and leave it at that. The tig welder is perfect for making tiny welds on the ends of the 1/8" square spokes where they connect to the hub and to the outer rim.


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## awake (Jul 20, 2020)

Richard Hed said:


> Even doing that, however, might not be enough as welding generaly warps things in more than one dimension:  twists, warps, turns, so if you are planning to weld and needs high accuracy, leave a small amount of extra metal anywhere that you will be able to true up later.  The hole in the center being the most important as you will clean it up FIRST then true up the rest after, using a mandrel or whatever.



Agreed. Even though TIG welding can create a smaller HAZ and induce less warping than other processes, I have learned the hard way that even just a skinch* of welding will take the precision out of a precision-machined piece.

*skinch: a term I learned from my parents' Missouri dialect, indicating just a little itty bit.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 20, 2020)

This is something I've wanted to check, but couldn't until I had the drive wheels machined and assembled. My computer shows me that I have about 1/16" clearance between the clevis on the center shaft and the outside of the wheels outer rim. The computer is like having an old friend who lies once in a while. You want to believe everything it says, but you feel a lot better after you've actually verified that it did tell the truth. Sure enough, there is clearance there. Not very much, but enough.  The lever is at its maximum travel here, and from where I show it, it only swings back in the other direction away from the wheel.


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## Badhippie (Jul 20, 2020)

Brian 
Is there a reason you didn’t machine the entire wheel and skipped most of the fab.work of corse the fab work would have turned into machine work. Which probably would have been the same amount of time and the same amount of pulling hair lol


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 20, 2020)

Yes, there is a good reason. I wanted to keep the same look as the original Stephenson's Rocket wheels, and that is very difficult to do with machining alone.--And---I spent many, many years of my life building hot-rods from the ground up, which included a lot of chassis fabrication. I know far more about fabrication than I do about machining.


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## Badhippie (Jul 20, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Yes, there is a good reason. I wanted to keep the same look as the original Stephenson's Rocket wheels, and that is very difficult to do with machining alone.--And---I spent many, many years of my life building hot-rods from the ground up, which included a lot of chassis fabrication. I know far more about fabrication than I do about machining.



I fully understand now and btw I forgot to say very nice job they look great.


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## RonW (Jul 21, 2020)

Hi Brian, 
I guess either you copied Hornby or they copied you. Sam's trains just put out a "road test" of Hornby's Stephenson rocket model. If I got the address correct its at 
They endorse your colour scheme except for the funnel.
RonW


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## RonW (Jul 21, 2020)

Th


RonW said:


> Hi Brian,
> I guess either you copied Hornby or they copied you. Sam's trains just put out a "road test" of Hornby's Stephenson rocket model. If I got the address correct its at
> They endorse your colour scheme except for the funnel.
> RonW



It says the video is unavailable but I just watched it. Fat thumb must have got in the way somewhere.
RonW


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 22, 2020)

This is a view of the "Belly of the Beast". I've spent the entire day reassembling, adjusting, adding a bit of clearance here and there. Right now one engine runs and one doesn't.  Tomorrow I will try and get the second engine set up to run correctly. I'm down to the point where I am just about ready to paint the wheels, but not until I have everything adjusted properly. After the wheels are painted and reinstalled, I have to fabricate a prettier air supply.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 22, 2020)

TA-DA!!!--It is alive and running on both engines. It is standing on end right now, which gives me much better access to the eccentrics so that I can adjust the valve timing.


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## werowance (Jul 22, 2020)

looks great Brian.  i really like the wheels.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 24, 2020)

Today was wheel painting day. Very nice yellow from Tremclad, same as the boiler. Now I have to figure out the pressure line plumbing for the cylinders. That is not going to be a simple thing. I have something in mind, but  have to do some cad work now to see if it's going to be possible.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 24, 2020)

Things are going to get really strange in order to get air pressure into the cylinders and still have everything "look right". There is a bit of work in this, but it is almost the last work I have to do before remounting the wheels.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 25, 2020)

This is what was wrong with my lathe One picture is of the gear cover that sets on the end of my lathe to protect my fingers from the gears. Notice the bent bracket at the lower right corner of it. That bent bracket pushes on a switch which disables the electrics on the lathe if the guard is removed. I haven't had that cover off the lathe in more than a year. Somehow---Perhaps metal fatigue? the bracket bent far enough that it no longer pushed on the button, and consequently the lathe stopped right in the middle of a cut. The switch it presses on is right below the gears and is virtually impossible to see unless you stand on your head to look for it. When I left the lathe in Concord at Busy Bee, I told them that my rpm indicator only worked intermittently and please either fix it or replace it, as well as please fix whatever is wrong that I have no power to the lathe. They replaced the rpm indicator, scratched their heads a bit and then found that bending the bracket by hand fixed things so it pushed the button and restored power to the lathe. I either didn't know, or else forgot that switch was even there.They charged two hours labor and the price of the new readout. My bill came to $129. So, they treated me quite honestly I think. They could have told me it needed a new motor and charged me another couple of hundred dollars but they didn't.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 26, 2020)

Today I worked on the series of manifolds necessary to get air into the cylinders. This was one of the areas that wasn't pre-engineered. I wanted the airline to be attached at the back of the Rocket, under the center of where the operator stands. Since this part of the build was a "make it up as you go along" operation, it required that the operators platform and fire-box and rear stay rods had to be removed from the model to be worked on.  First, I drilled and reamed a 7/8" hole completely thru the firebox. Then I made up a 7/8" length of aluminum which fit flush from side to side. A 3/16" diameter hole was drilled full length thru this piece, and each end was counterbored for an o-ring seal, and drilled/tapped for four #4-40 socket head cap screws. A hole was cross drilled half way thru the piece on center, and threaded 3/8"-16. The piece now obscured the 1/4"-20 thread for the bolt which holds the fire-box cover in place, but with some artful head scratching and measuring, a #10-24 hole was drilled and tapped in the appropriate position to accept a #10-24 shcs. While I had everything set up in the mill to cut the 7/8" diameter holes, I also drilled and tapped one side of the fire-box for a #8-32 set screw to anchor the 7/8" aluminum round bar in position. Also, I drilled a 13/32" clearance hole up thru the operators platform and thru the bottom of the fire-box. This allowed me to use a 3/8" diameter piece of steel, threaded on one end , to screw into the threaded hole in the 7/8" cross-piece. I also drilled a 1/4" clearance hole thru the rear axle bracket, which allowed me to install a piece of 1/4" diameter steel round bar thru the bracket and into a hole prepared in the 3/8" piece of steel. Some of these holes were much easier to drill in the manifolds from each end, so after I had made a trial assembly to be sure everything fit, I liberally coated all of the connections with J.B.Weld and screwed/pushed everything together and inserted steel plugs into the open ends where I didn't want air to escape. The metal tubes which extend downward from the valve boxes on the cylinders will have a flange on the bottoms which bolt to the ends of the 7/8' round aluminum. Damn, it takes almost as long to explain what I did as it did to do it. Last job of the day was to update the drawing package  and add these new parts to the assemblies and make detail drawings of them.


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## Iampappabear (Jul 28, 2020)

Barry, love looking at your work, you are so productive with such great results!!!  Not sure I will ever make a version of your Rocket, but would sure love to.

I would like to ask you where you obtain your brass and bronze, I find that difficult unless I am looking for fairly large amounts.

Colin, Burlington Ontario


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 28, 2020)

Colin--First of all, my name is Brian, not Barry.---Secondly, I buy all  of my material locally at A to Z Metals or at Metal Supermarket or at Barrie welding, all located here in Barrie.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 28, 2020)

Today, I have had my butt thoroughly and awesomely kicked by Mr. Stephenson. The goal was to get set up for fabricating the air pressure lines feeding the steam-chests. This picture shows where I am ultimately going. It has been a worrisome and eventful day, but I have one side set up. The bent copper tube gets silver soldered to the flange. It is a "slip fit" over the barb hanging down from the steam-chest cover, and will be sealed tight with J.B. Weld.---At least that is the plan at the moment. If I'm really forced to, I can use a flexible nylon line there, but I don't really want to. By the time I'm done here, I'm going to have to repaint the fire box.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 29, 2020)

Mr. Stephenson and I got on much better today. I'm not 100 percent sure right now, but I think I've almost ran out of parts to make.


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## Peter Twissell (Jul 29, 2020)

Very pretty she is too.
You have made and excellent characterisation of Rocket.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 29, 2020)

I really have to try and find a model "driver". I need a little man 5 1/2" to 6" tall to stand on the platform. I haven't got around to checking any of the toy stores yet.


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## Shopgeezer (Jul 29, 2020)

Looks like Lego has what you need.


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## stevehuckss396 (Jul 30, 2020)

How about this one!









						Plan B Action Figure Special Forces ReSaurus WW2 82nd Airborne Soldier 6" 1/12  | eBay
					

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Plan B Action Figure Special Forces ReSaurus WW2 82nd Airborne Soldier 6" 1/12 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!



					www.ebay.com


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## LorenOtto (Jul 30, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Mr. Stephenson and I got on much better today. I'm not 100 percent sure right now, but I think I've almost ran out of parts to make.


Very nice Brian.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 30, 2020)

Jigs and fixtures---Fixtures and jigs. Some of the jigs I make are based on pure mathematical calculations. Some are "best guess". This one is a combination of both. If I have lived right, this may be the last on this engine. This is one of the times where I have had to tell myself "Try it and see if it works".  You will see that the silver solder has joined the bent tube and the flange, but has also wandered over and attached the socket head cap-screws. I expected this. Thats why there are only two capscrews holding each flange in place on the fixture. I will mill the heads off of the capscrews and cut away the angle which forms the welding jig, to free up the parts.


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## werowance (Jul 31, 2020)

Brian, i have heard but not tried liquid paper or white out will prevent silver solder from sticking to parts you dont want stuck.  didnt know if you had ever tried that or not.  not much help now of course but just wanted to share what i had heard incase it might help in the future.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 31, 2020)

Werowance--I have been using that trick for many years.--It does work---sort of. Where there is lots of room, it will prevent solder from flowing where it is applied. When the entire weld area is almost the same size and there are a number of pieces involved,  the liquid paper burns away and doesn't work.


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## Brian Rupnow (Jul 31, 2020)

So--How did it work? it worked out perfect!!! Both welded pieces slid into place on the engine. I had used a bit of crazy glue to secure rubber o-rings into the ends of the 7/8" diameter manifold that ran thru the fire box. I coated the short tubes which were welded to the steamchest covers with J.B. Weld, and slid the welded pipes with flanges into place with no trouble. The flanges lined up, and the bolt holes in the flanges lined up. I tightened the flange bolts on one of the tubes, and felt it suck down into place as the rubber o-ring compressed. Went to tighten the bolts thru the other flange, and noticed that the flange wasn't setting as flush as I would have liked with the side of the fire box. I thought "Oh well, the copper tube will flex enough to let me tighten the bolts".---Hah!!!--The copper tube didn't flex at all. The silver soldered joint let go on one side. Ah Poop!!! To get really good secure joints with J.B. Weld, it shouldn't be disturbed for 24 hours after mixing.  That was okay. I had a small patent drawing to prepare for an inventor, so I spent this afternoon doing some honest design work while the one good silver soldered pipe was setting up. Tomorrow I will undo the broken/silver soldered tube and flange and  resolder it. After reassembly, assuming all goes well, I will hand paint the tubes to match the fire box.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 1, 2020)

So--How do you silver solder one end of a tube without melting  or burning out the J.B.Weld on the other end? You wrap the end with the J.B. Weld in a piece of cloth, tie it with some string to prevent it from sagging away from the tube, then soak the rag in water. As long as you don't spend too much time silver soldering the other end, the wet rag prevents any heat transfer into the other end of the tube.


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## Iampappabear (Aug 1, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> So--How do you silver solder one end of a tube without melting  or burning out the J.B.Weld on the other end? You wrap the end with the J.B. Weld in a piece of cloth, tie it with some string to prevent it from sagging away from the tube, then soak the rag in water. As long as you don't spend too much time silver soldering the other end, the wet rag prevents any heat transfer into the other end of the tube.


Brian, what is the track width of your model and how much work do you think it would be to modify to suit a 4-3/4" track?  What format are the drawings you are offering to sell, my SW is a 2006 version so if you are using a more recent version would be interested in  IGS or step.

Colin


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 1, 2020)

After some re-soldering, re-assembly, and some touch up painting, we arrive at time for the final? "Beauty Shot" and the video. I still hope to find a period dressed driver to mount on the drivers platform, and I hope I can make a video of it running on it's own power across my office floor.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 1, 2020)

Lampapabear--Measured inside the flanges on my wheels is 4.7". That would be the inside to inside dimension on rails for it to run on. It would actually take very little to change it to suit a 4 3/4" track. I will sell the drawings as .pdf files and include the solid models as .step files for $40 Canadian funds. I normally charge only $25 Canadian for my engine drawings, but this build is far more extensive than any engines I have designed and built.---Brian


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## Peter Twissell (Aug 1, 2020)

This supplier offers 3d printed figures in scales up to 1/12. Some look like they could be 'dressed' to look the part - Top Hat  and tails?





						3D Printed Figures | AndIan Models
					






					www.andianmodels.com


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## lathe nut (Aug 2, 2020)

Brian that is cute look like two rocket launchers coming down the tracks, I bet that was an experience for people to rid on from the horse and buggy ride to the next town, thanks for sharing with us, Joe


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 2, 2020)

Looking back to my first post, I see that I started this project around the 07 of May. WoW!!--I've spent almost three months on this build.---and I've worked on it almost every day. That is a long time for me to spend on one model. I haven't done a lot of completely new stuff here, but I have certainly sharpened up a lot of skills that I never use very much. I checked my cad files today, and there are 70 drawings involved with building this. That sounds like a lot, but when you make a detail drawing of each individual part, plus all the assemblies and sub assemblies, it adds up very quickly. I still hope to find an operator and show the engine moving under it's own power, but the build is essentially finished. Thanks for looking.---Brian


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 3, 2020)

I just sold my first plan set for this engine. Now comes the tedious part---Opening each of the 70 drawings in Solidworks, then resaving them as .pdf files which can be opened without any special software. I used to have a piece of software that would do this automatically, but it never worked very well. Now I have something to do for the next couple of days.


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## deeferdog (Aug 3, 2020)

That will look good with all your other engines, do you have any pictures of your entire collection? Must be quite something. Cheers, Peter.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 3, 2020)

Peter--I don't have pictures of all my engines together.  I have four book cases full of them in my office, and my wife has two or three of them in our main floor bookcases. I have to have new flooring put down in my office, and while I have everything torn apart and cleaned out to lay the new floor, I will build some more shelving units to hold more engines.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 3, 2020)

My local "Toys are us" store has pose-able wrestlers and soldiers in the scale I want for about $12 Canadian. They are very good, and I can pose the arms wherever I want to (He has to be able to hold onto a cross-bar that I will install so he doesn't fall off). I can turn a top hat from aluminum and paint it black. Only problem is that they are either naked from their wrestler trunks up, or they are wearing bulky armoured vests. Nobody in my house sews, so I can't just make a black waistcoat and dress the silly buggers. I might go up there tomorrow and have another look. I also made a discovery--the black paint I used on the Rocket is "low gloss" black. ---when it is applied from the spray can. If you spray some into a container and apply it with a small brush to "touch up" any areas, it dries with a glossy finish. I now have a shiny fire-box.


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## LorenOtto (Aug 3, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Looking back to my first post, I see that I started this project around the 07 of May. WoW!!--I've spent almost three months on this build.---and I've worked on it almost every day. That is a long time for me to spend on one model. I haven't done a lot of completely new stuff here, but I have certainly sharpened up a lot of skills that I never use very much. I checked my cad files today, and there are 70 drawings involved with building this. That sounds like a lot, but when you make a detail drawing of each individual part, plus all the assemblies and sub assemblies, it adds up very quickly. I still hope to find an operator and show the engine moving under it's own power, but the build is essentially finished. Thanks for looking.---Brian


Brian, I have enjoyed following along on this build.  A real pleasure.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 4, 2020)

I got a driver!! He's a little too tall, but he has positionable arms and a full beard. I'm probably going to section a bit out of his legs to shorten him up, build him a top hat, and paint his upper body to look like a frock coat. Should be fun.--It's been a long time since I played with dollies.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 4, 2020)

Whatever his name was, it's now "Shorty". He was 7" tall. I just did a 1" section job by removing his knees. He isn't going to need to bend them while he's standing on the Rocket's platform.


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## deeferdog (Aug 4, 2020)

That's the sort of body I'd like, but not at the cost of my knees! Nice one Brian. Cheers, Peter.


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## Richard Hed (Aug 5, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Whatever his name was, it's now "Shorty". He was 7" tall. I just did a 1" section job by removing his knees. He isn't going to need to bend them while he's standing on the Rocket's platform.


I recognize him.  That's James Longstreet.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 5, 2020)

It only took a little time to make a fairly decent top hat from aluminum. The issue is that shorty's head wasn't exactly round, which made it difficult to fit the top hat. The solution to that was to grind the top of Shorty's head off on my big belt sander, down to a point where the top hat fit quite dashingly. I will epoxy a #10 bolt into the top of Shorties head and put a blind #10-40 tapped hole into the underside of the top hat (it is actually solid), so that it doesn't blow off on any of his high-speed runs. I lay in bed last night thinking of clothing as opposed to a paint-job, and have decided that it would be very little work to make a cloth cloak. The fingers from a ladies cloth glove might be about the right size to provide coat sleeves for him.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 5, 2020)

Shorty got his legs back today. I drilled a 3/16" hole into his lower leg and his upper leg this morning, and used a 1" long metal dowel inserted into both sides with lots of 2 part epoxy. He is standing with a bit of a lean to one side right now, but I will fix that tomorrow with my belt sander. Shorty may get a "hot foot" out of the deal, but at least he will then be an "upright citizen"!!


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## awake (Aug 5, 2020)

The lean makes it more realistic if the train is going around a curve.


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## werowance (Aug 6, 2020)

how funny,  looks like hes going to throw that 123 block or bench press it or something.   good job on the top had.  now just machine him some iron britches.


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## Shopgeezer (Aug 6, 2020)

There are doll clothes online for various sizes of figurines. A bit of research should turn up a period coat with tails and ruffles.


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## lathe nut (Aug 6, 2020)

Brian is that really you, and fooling us with that other picture of you, we will be forced to ask you to remove your shirt so we can check it out, that died hair had us fooled.


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## Peter Twissell (Aug 7, 2020)

I hadn't noticed until now, but there is a certain resemblance. Perhaps the model should have it's hair and beard recoloured to match the builder.


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## stanstocker (Aug 7, 2020)

I think a cigar is needed, sort of a Brunel standing by the anchor chains classic pic!


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 7, 2020)

When I was 37, my chest was bigger than my belly. Sadly, at 74 my belly is bigger than my chest. Even at my best I didn't have the muscles that my driver does.


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## ddmckee54 (Aug 7, 2020)

Your driver looks kind of like the wrestler in the bad-guys support group from the original Wreck-it Ralph.  I think his name was Zamfir?


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 7, 2020)

One thing about my driver---He's "Devilishly handsome". I gave up on actual dolls clothing. Nobody in Barrie answered my add about sewing some clothes for him, so I decided to go with some Testers enamel which I bought at the hobby shop here in town. It looks like he will need a second coat to fully cover up his wrestlers trunks. I didn't want to go with black, because it simply doesn't show up on camera very well. I actually never thought of "devilish" until after I painted him. I bought a bit of black paint to redo his boots, and a bit of white paint to give him a white shirt. There is a fabric shop about 1/2 a mile from my place, and when I get all finished painting I'm going to buy a piece of matching red material and make him a cape.


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## lathe nut (Aug 7, 2020)

Brian are you saying that gravity go you, I still think you need to get dressed up like that and let us be the judges, boy when we were young thought we would never grow old and start to have breakdowns, well it's here and sure is not nice, but we keep moving, can have a great day and plan what will be done the nest morning only to wake and say I have crashed before i got out the door, crap.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 10, 2020)

So--We're done like dinner. The Stephenson's Rocket is finished, and the driver (who used to be a wrestler) has a top hat and cape, and a devilishly good paint job. My good wife sewed the cape for me this morning. A "grab bar" has been added to the engine to give my driver a place to hang onto, and you can't see it, but the bottom of his legs are drilled and tapped for #5 socket head capscrews that come up thru the platform----He's not going to fall off. This model will get the "Place of Honour" on one of my shelves.
After I make this post I'm going to (hopefully) make a video of the Rocket driving across my floor, and then I'm outa here!!!


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## Richard Hed (Aug 10, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> So--We're done like dinner. The Stephenson's Rocket is finished, and the driver (who used to be a wrestler) has a top hat and cape, and a devilishly good paint job. My good wife sewed the cape for me this morning. A "grab bar" has been added to the engine to give my driver a place to hang onto, and you can't see it, but the bottom of his legs are drilled and tapped for #5 socket head capscrews that come up thru the platform----He's not going to fall off. This model will get the "Place of Honour" on one of my shelves.
> After I make this post I'm going to (hopefully) make a video of the Rocket driving across my floor, and then I'm outa here!!!


I REALLY hate telling other people how nice their stuff is, as it might upstage myself.  But in this case it is so obviously a nice build, I can tell you so.  What's next?


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 10, 2020)

Final Video of Stephenson's Rocket--Watch closely--It happens quickly!!!


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 10, 2020)

Richard--Next will be a general cleanup of my office, new flooring, and more shelves.


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## stevehuckss396 (Aug 10, 2020)

That is just awesome! I'm an internal combustion guy at heart but how do you not love this project. Great job Rupnow!!!! Made me smile.


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## Richard Hed (Aug 10, 2020)

Brian Rupnow said:


> Richard--Next will be a general cleanup of my office, new flooring, and more shelves.


I have been making ER holders for the 1-1/2" spindle on my lathe.  I recieved ER32s just now in the mail.  Am making ER 32, 40, 50 and 11.  Already succeeded with the 25--complete and works.  I was surpized by the ER50, didn't know they made that but went to look for collets and they were 200+$!  finally found one place where they were 12$.

You should come to MY place and help me clean IT up.  Ugh.  Metal everywhere but I have to get it organized because I intend to get a new (possibly used) lathe and need the room well organized.  I have seen three nice lathes for sale on ebay, unfortunately for me, they are on the east coast.  Very well priced and too large for my shop.


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## Brian Rupnow (Aug 10, 2020)

I actually got to see something I hadn't experienced before with the Rocket. The crankshaft throws are 90 degrees apart. The engine will self start. The model is quite heavy. So---plug in the air, and start raising the pressure via the regulator until the engine starts. Then very rapidly turn the pressure back down. If you don't, the engine goes totally ape-$hit and starts spinning like crazy and slithering all over the floor. There is a huge difference between enough pressure to self start and the pressure for a rather leisurely speed as seen in the video.


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## Ghosty (Aug 11, 2020)

Brian, you just need some track in a circle and you will be set.


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## ShopShoe (Aug 11, 2020)

Brian,

Thank You for posting that. I enjoyed the build and  have been looking forward to the video.

--

From what I have been told and from what I have read, the performance of a locomotive powered by air is just about what you describe. (According to a tour guide in a mining museum, compressed air locomotives only had a brief use because they were hard to control accurately and kept needing to be recharged (2000 psi?). Electric power was then used to pull ore carts as soon as practical. I have seen the little locomotives and I think they are interesting to look at. (I would be interested if anyone has anything else to add about them...)

--ShopShoe


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## dsage (Aug 11, 2020)

Brian:
Make a little test stand with roller bearings to set the engine on. I'm sure you've seen them. Sort of nice to watch it run on the shelf. Would be a simple enough job.
Great job.


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## Peter Twissell (Aug 12, 2020)

The trick with regulating air engines is to place a simple restriction type regulator as close as possible to the cylinders. When the engine is stopped, pressure will build quickly as there is no flow through the restrictor. As soon as the engine starts, the air flow will create a pressure drop across the restrictor, limiting the engine speed.


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## minh-thanh (Aug 12, 2020)

Great project !
Congratulations and thanks for sharing .


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## retailer (Aug 12, 2020)

Excellent work - and done so quickly.


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