# Building Fred



## arnoldb (Nov 7, 2009)

Hi All

As some of you already know, my next project is a live steam locomotive based on plans Dave Watkins drew up based the de Winton "Idris".
It's taken quite a lot of searching to get together suitable materials for the build to start, but I think I have enough together now.

My loco will be called Fred - after my grandfather, who provided me with a nice piece of copper plate and other odds & ends.

First up, I'll do the loco frame. Please excuse the quality of the photographs; there is something wrong with my camera....

Thursday evening after work I managed to get into the shop for an hour and a half. I started with a piece of 1.6mm plate I got off an old UPS cover:






I marked and bandsawed 2 x 24mm wide strips off it - this is oversize so that I can file the sides straight and to the required 22mm width:





Then I clamped the plates and a guide plate together, mounted the whole assembly in the big vise and settled down to an extended period of filing:





One of the things I have not been able to find is suitable 6mm angle for the frame supports and corner pieces, so some improvisation is needed. At noon today on I started in the shop by sawing some square tubing I got out of an old printer in half to get angles. I did this on the bandsaw, using the table blade groove as a guide. It's blade does not run in the exact center of the groove, but I used this to my advantage to get one "good" piece of angle iron from the cut; the other side warped away:




Some more sweat and filing was then applied to the angle to trim it up.

Part of the reason for my late start today was that I needed to go and get paint stripper from town to get the old paint off the plates. What a waste of time. I don't know what kind of paint was on these plates, but the paint stripper did absolutely nothing to it. So I took the lot outside, and used a blow torch to burn off the paint. Then an extended session with a wire wheel in the drill press to get rid of all the last bits still sticking. A bit of a safety note: On many drill presses (like mine) that use a morse taper shank and jacobs taper on the chuck, one of the two tapers is liable to come loose when trying to use loose running toolbits like a wire wheel. To make sure the jacobs part on my setup does not come loose, I fit the chuck to the shank by heating the chuck in the oven and freezing the shank in the deep freeze, then tapping them together. This pretty much a permanent solution; one is very unlikely to get them apart again. To make sure the morse taper does not come apart, I made a ring with 2 rows of grub screws that secures the shank to the spindle after it is inserted. If anybody wants a picture of this, just shout 

After the plates were clean, I superglued them together, and swiped permanent marker ink over the one face to do the layout:





Some quality time with the measuring instruments followed, and then a lot of hole-drilling. Part way through chain drilling for the cut-outs, the heat generated started to melt the superglue and the one end of the plates wanted to come apart, so I had to clamp the plates on that side. I let things cool down and drilled the last couple if holes. More filing still required:





Next up was a lot more filing. It was 34 degrees here today, so it was hot job to do the filing, and once done, I called it a day. End of day's work - not much for all the time spent! - Frame sides done, and some 6mm angle:





Regards, Arnold


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## bearcar1 (Nov 7, 2009)

I'm liking it so far 'A', I've looked at that model several times and then have gotten side tracked with other doings. This is going to be a good thread to follow. Best of luck

BC1
Jim


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## RobWilson (Nov 7, 2009)

Hi Arnold 

great start  :bow:,,,,,this will be one to watch Thm:

Regards Rob


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## zeeprogrammer (Nov 7, 2009)

This is great Arnold. This is going to be very enjoyable. I hope to build a loco some day so this is going to be very interesting. Great detail on the build process. Thanks!


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## Deanofid (Nov 7, 2009)

You're making a good start of it, Arnold. It's good to see a young feller getting along with a file.
I'm glad to catch this project on its "opening day", too. Some how I seem to always come in on the middle of these things...

Do you have a local railroad club where you will eventually run this loco?


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## bearcar1 (Nov 7, 2009)

You are sooooo right Dean, about seeing the file put to good use. I gave up on a young fellow that had asked for my help getting started in the hobby and he would never listen or want to use a file. Everything had to be machine cut with him. I couldn't take it anymore and finally told him to ask elsewhere if he was not going to listen. He did not progress much after and is still schlepping. It is an easy art to master but a file takes a bit of patience and a good eye also helps.

BC1
Jim


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## vlmarshall (Nov 7, 2009)

:bow: Excellent build so far, I'm really interested in watching this one, as there's an Idris on my to-do list. :bow:

The nice thing about building in this scale, easy-to-get O-gauge track!


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## arnoldb (Nov 7, 2009)

Thank you Jim, Rob, Zee, Dean & Vernon

Dean & Jim, as to the filing - thank you. It may be hard work doing all the filing, but it is also very rewarding. I also feel it is good to use basic tools to get a "feel" for working with metal (or any other material for that matter) - if/when one then progresses to power tools, you can do so much better in many instances. I could have used my dremel, but have found that in some cases, manual filing is just as fast (or even faster) and gives better results.

Dean, no, there is no local club. As far as I am aware, I am the only person in Namibia doing live steam / compressed air model engineering. I have some O gauge track on order from EBay, and will set up a nice layout on my front veranda to run the loco. I will also build a Cracker loco and wagons at a later stage. There are RC clubs for aeroplanes and cars here; after finishing some more projects, I intend to display my models at these clubs, as well as our "old wheelers" open days, to see if there are any more Namibians interested in our hobby.

Vernon, I was not able to get ANY O gauge track here in Namibia, and only one South African hobby supplier could get - everything here in Southern Africa is HO  - So I've ordered track from overseas. 

Regards, Arnold


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## bentprop (Nov 7, 2009)

Arnold,I realize you've made your own angle stock now,but K&B makes 1/4" brass angle,which may/may not be available in SA.
I'll be watching this thread closely,as I intend to make a gauge 1 Idris sometime.(5 year plan :big: :big.
I admire people who can use a file properly.When I'm on the end of one,the workpiece takes on the appearance of a washboard.Guess I need to do it more often,so as to get in some practice.


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## arnoldb (Nov 8, 2009)

Thanks bentprop  I might be able to find some in RSA; I'm going there in February, and will look around for some hard-to-come-by stock. I hope your five year plan is better than mine that just change every day . Know what you mean about the washboard... more practice definitely makes it better 

Didn't get too much done today; just drilling and riveting - and sorted out the camera.

First up, cut the angle to the needed lengths, and clamped to the "inside" surface of the side plates to drill for the rivets. I marked both side plates on the inside with a couple of punch marks so that I would not get them mixed up and end up riveting the angle to the wrong side. All drilled through:





I have never in my life done riveting, except for pop-rivets. Searching around locally, I could not find suitable ones for the project, so some improvisation was needed.
After some testing, I came up with a method that seems to work OK. A piece of 1.5mm copper wire, a pin with a hole drilled in for a short length, and a pin with one end turned down to get in the tight areas, and the point dimpled with a drill to help form rivet heads (sorry for out of focus):





First off, I insert the wire through the plates and into the hole in the pin clamped level with the top of the vise:





Then clip the wire off a short length above the plate:





Hammer it down with the dimpled pin:





The half-formed rivet already stays in place and holds the plates together, but pulls easily out of the bottom pin, so I just did all the rivets on one side (the inside where the "mess" I made will not be as visible :hDe: :





Then turned the whole assembly around - here you can see the other sides of the rivets showing:





I then clipped all the rivets evenly to about 1mm length with a side-cutter and used the dimpled pin to form the rivet heads. By having the excess to an even length, a fairly uniform row of rivet heads were formed on the "presentation" side. End of work today showing one side plate's "inside", the other the presentation side:





The plans calls for "curved" angle and side plates, but I'm not making that. My boiler will be a couple of mm less in diameter than the plans calls for, and will have adequate clearance. Dave Watkins mentions this possibility in his "build log" - with the caveat that an alternate means of securing the boiler will have to be found.

Regards, Arnold


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## joe d (Nov 8, 2009)

Hi Arnold

you're off to a good start there. I will be following along with great interest.

Cheers, Joe


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## eskimobob (Nov 8, 2009)

Looking forward to watching this one 8)


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## zeeprogrammer (Nov 8, 2009)

To me you're making great progress Arnold. I managed 4 holes today. ;D


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## RobWilson (Nov 8, 2009)

Riveting stuff Arnold Rof} :hDe:


For never had riveted before and having to make your own rivets :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: great job Thm:

Regards Rob


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## Deanofid (Nov 8, 2009)

Good going, Arnold.
In the past I've spent hours forming rivets with a ball pein and flat punch. You sure have a better way of doing it!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Nov 9, 2009)

Thank you for your kind responses everyone 

Zee, EVERY hole counts! (especially if you have only one 1.5mm drill, and have to drill lots of holes with it, and it's Sunday, so you can't pop out for a new one if it breaks ;D)

Rob, now why was I sort of expecting a response like that ??? Rof} Rof} - Thank you very much ;D

Dean, thank you; I'm not sure if it's necessarily a "better" way, but it worked for me 

Kind regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Nov 14, 2009)

Wow - what a week...

After a month's wait, I finally received the railroad track I ordered, but the people at trainz.com sent me the wrong tracks... When I placed a complaint, their inventory manager responded that I need not send the wrong track back because of the international shipping costs, and that the correct track would be dispatched immediately. If they come through on this, I would qualify it as GREAT service; If not, I'm out of pocket a lot of money - I'll see which in 4-5 weeks...

My old faithful camera has finally given up the ghost after many thousands of photos, so this morning I splurged on a new one. I'm still learning it's ins & outs, so the photos below might not be quite up to standard... (though mine has never really been )

On to work.
Yesterday evening, I finished the front and rear frame plates. Just more sawing & filing & paint removal & hole drilling, so not a lot missed without having a camera.

I made one build "error" so far; I didn't drill & thread the angle pieces that would make the front & rear frame plates bolt to the side plates before riveting the angles to the side plates... Drilling & tapping the holes were now pretty difficult. To do this, I used some threaded rod through the holes for the wheel bearings to set the side frames to the correct width apart. A strongish magnet helped to keep the end plates in place so that I could clamp them up:





As I had to manage the entire frame, and had to drill on the ends, I decided that it might be easier to just clamp the whole assembly in the bench vice, and drill the 1.6mm holes with the Dremel. BIG mistake. My 20 year old Dremel does not have speed control and runs at 15000 rpm (I think), and on the second hole, I didn't dive in positively enough, and this happened to the 1.6mm drill bit because of friction:




This also work-hardened the hole in question a LOT!

After that, I "fudged up" a way to hold the assembly in the drill press. I couldn't properly clamp it, so held it by hand with the toolmaker's clamps resting and providing some support in the ring normally used to secure the drill table. Forgot to take a photo of that setup; if anyone's interested I can take a "staged" one at some point. Fortunately, I had a couple more 1.6mm drill bits to finish the job. The work-hardened hole blunted another one...

Tapping the holes was fun. All went well, except for the work-hardened hole... I broke a tap for the first time in my life; so destiny has finally caught up with me; it was bound to happen at some point:




Fortunately the hole was nearly done and the broken bit came out easily with the automatic center punch. I just _very_ carefully used the plug tap to finish the hole; lots of to-ing and fro-ing, and lots of lube.

I haven't been able to find any 2mm screws locally. Ordering from RSA/Overseas takes weeks, so for now, I'll just make up my own ones. One partly made from excess I cut off 5mm bolts from the scrap bin:





When parting off the screws-in-making, they want to disappear in the swarf, so I just used a spray can bottle cap to catch them:





End of work today; not a lot to show, but a most interesting experience so far. The frame taking shape; bolted together with screws-in-making, and a countersink screw-in-making bottom right. I stopped, as my concentration was going haywire. I think I need to experiment with an angled-tip parting tool as well, as the parting excess on the screws are going to be a pain to remove:





Regards, Arnold
PS - is anybody else still having problems with the post preview, or is it just me?


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## nkalbrr (Nov 15, 2009)

What kind of o scale rail are you looking for tubular or solid?. Were did you purchase the plans from? I run O in 3 rail but it would be fun to have an outside RR


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## zeeprogrammer (Nov 15, 2009)

Hey Arnold,

I have to tell you that your post on filing your frames was an inspiration to me. I was working on a piston rod guide (crosshead) yesterday that involved a lot of filing and sanding. I thought about you and your work and it helped me believe I could do a decent job on mine. Thanks.

As for the preview...there's a work-around for it. There was a recent post on it from Kevin...sorry I don't remember the details.

Nice work. Very interested in watching this.


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## Deanofid (Nov 15, 2009)

It's coming along, Arnold. You have a lot of work invested in the frame already!

To clean up the head of the screw where the parting tool leaves a bur you can tap a piece of round or square stock that is a convenient size to handle, and thread the little screw into it finger tight. Then hold it in a vise for filing. You're good at that filing stuff!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Nov 16, 2009)

nkalbrr, Zee & Dean - Thank you for checking in guys 

nkalbrr - I wasn't very particular with the rail - just as cheap as I could get ;D. I downloaded the plans from the john-tom site; it's the Dave Watkins DeWinton. If you're interested in building it, I would seriously recommend Dave's build "log" document as well; you can find it on his home site Here as "Idris Story". I'll be building a sort of "outside" RR on my front porch 

Zee, thank you; it is an enormous bonus to know that some of my work can actually inspire someone - and to be told so is great honour. 

Dean, my thoughts exactly; I anyway have to make a jig to hold the screws for slotting for the countersink ones and making hex heads on the visible ones.

Kind Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Nov 21, 2009)

Some more work done on Fred.

I cleaned up the screws pretty much like Dean suggested with a jig with a tapped hole. While tapping to depth I felt a little "kgr" - when I took the tap out, a couple of teeth were missing. So that's the end of my set of 2mm taps. I slotted the countersink screws with the Dremel with a thin cutting disk. The bottom ones in the photo still need their hex heads finished. Made a booboo on the one countersink hole in the end plate; it is too deep. Fortunately this will be hidden when done:






Then I turned up the axle bushes:





Started turning the first wheel from HRS; that's all I have in this size:





First wheel done:





Then I finished another wheel. While parting it off, I went a bit quick and snapped the tip on the parting tool. So I just took the chuck off the lathe, and clamped it in the bandsaw to finish the cut. Would have put in effort with the hacksaw on the lathe, but clean out of hacksaw blades... I'll re-grind the parting tool tomorrow.

Then I pressed the bushes into the frame, and cut the plain axle from piano wire. Made a mock-up assembly & stopped for the day:




Both wheels still needs a final facing on the back side. I'll do that once all the wheels are complete.

Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (Nov 21, 2009)

Neat! Wheels. Wheels are always a good sign, Arnold. Kind of like a little stepping-up point where the bare frame gets to go mobile!

I remember from your earlier posts on this project that you used some mongrel iron. And then you are having trouble breaking taps. I wonder if the iron was a little hard.
Here in the states, once in a while I'd come across an old bed frame, which looks like it's just made of angle iron. It was something other than a common mild steel, though. It was quite hard, and I could barely drill through it, and the drill bit really didn't like it.

Sounds like what you have here for your loco frame.

Dean


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## zeeprogrammer (Nov 21, 2009)

Nice Arnold. Are you going to be doing any kind of finishing on the wheels? Like blackening or something?


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## RobWilson (Nov 22, 2009)

Nice one Arnold Thm:

Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Nov 22, 2009)

Dean, Zee, Rob - Thanks for looking in 

Dean, I _think_ what I have for the angle in the frames is some kind of stainless; it work hardens very quickly if you work slow; it wants to be worked aggressively, then it actually machines quite well. The irony of it all is I found some brass angle last week; was looking for some tile grout, and the tile supplier have brass angle for edging for tiles oh:

Zee - trick question; to be honest, I haven't even thought that far... Most likely I'll just paint them with the same high temperature black paint that I bought for the loco.

Today I finished the other wheels. The plans call for two separate crank webs from steel and a spacer to go between them; I just made that lot as one part out of brass. I still need to drill the web and 2 wheels for the crank pins:





Quickly cut another piece of piano wire axle & assembled everything. I just had to see what it looks like on a piece of track ;D:





Regards, Arnold


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## SBWHART (Nov 22, 2009)

Hi Arnold

Good work Arnold 


Its a good idea to get the tread on the wheels all exactly the same size so that you get good traction, this is easy done just turn yourself a mandrell, with a thread on the end, that a neat fit on the wheels don't take the mandrell out of the chuck, slip a wheel on the mandrell tighten the bolt take a small skim off the wheel, clamp cross slide up, they just take the same cut across each wheel in turn, they will all be exactly the same. This is what I did on my loco build.

Cheers

Stew


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## zeeprogrammer (Nov 22, 2009)

Careful Arnold. Don't make the same mistake I did. (As Marv said...if you rush, the Jabberwockie will get you.) ;D


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## NickG (Nov 22, 2009)

Hi Arnold, love your loco project. it's looking really good.

Nick


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## Powder keg (Nov 22, 2009)

Looking good!!!


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## nkalbrr (Nov 22, 2009)

Thanks for the links. You are making great progress on the locomotive.My question is what kind of cars is she gonna tow?


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## Deanofid (Nov 22, 2009)

You make good progress each time you get to work on it, Arnold. 
I looked this loco up using google, and see that there are a couple of different versions. One has the steam cylinders up front, and inside the sides of the frame, and one had the cylinders outside the frame, toward the rear. From your crankshaft, I'm guessing this is the first type? (Like I say, guessing.)

One site I came across noted that the Idris was a real loco in the mid 19th century. Didn't know that.

I've worked with a bit of stainless, but don't find it very pleasurable working it with my small machines. It wants a good feed rate for almost any kind of tooling, and that's something that can't always be achieved with a light lathe. It can be ornery stuff.

Anyway, it's still coming along nicely. The ones I saw on the web had a lot of charm, especially under steam, going 'round the track. This will be a fun one to see steaming down the line!

Keep up your good work!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Nov 24, 2009)

Thank you everyone for the responses 

Stew, that's a good tip on the wheels - thank you VERY much :bow:. That will be a definite when I build an 060 or 260 loco in future. Frankly, I think the lack of accuracy I already have with the frame on this build negates the accuracy needed from the wheels; they are all within less than 0.01mm in diameter. I need some more practice on frame-making though 

Nick & Powder keg - thank you 

Zee, I'm not scared of any "Jabberwockie" - he caught me a couple of times already, and I know a BFH does not work to keep him away or at bay. But he is actually quite considerate; before arriving, he makes you feel sort of tired and "unconcentrated", and sometimes he puts a funny feeling in your stomach - sort of a subdued version of the feeling that I used to get many years ago when I was about to do something that I just _knew_ would end up with my dad taking a couple of firm whacks at my backside with a leather belt  If you stop when you feel any of the Jabberwockie symptoms, he usually stays away, but he can and will arrive unexpectedly as well - in which case it's just another brickpart in the Wall ;D

nkalbrr, my pleasure . I just want the live steam loco for now, and as it is based on a twin double-acting wobbling steam engine, it is relevant to HMEM. I'll build "mining" cars for it (see below) - but very likely won't post building those on HMEM, as it's not on-topic 

Dean - Thank you & you're right; steam cylinders vertical & up front. And yes/no - Idris is, as far as I could establish, Dave Watkins' own name for the loco - I might be wrong though - but from my own research this loco is a variation on many real ones that was built by the De Winton company, and most of them used to carry slate trains from quarries. As to stainless, I don't have much experience with it; so far, turning was no problem. But that one "slow" hole I drilled was a bust!.

Kind Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Nov 28, 2009)

I made some progress on Fred again today:

First up, I drilled the crank holes in the driving wheels & crank web. For this, I turned an arbor on the 3-jaw to hold the web / wheels, and set up the vertical slide & dividing head to drill the holes. I transferred the 3-jaw to the dividing head without removing the arbor to keep concentricity. Back when I made the web, I already punched it for the locations of the crank pins before dilling it through center. Here is the setup I used to drill the holes in the web; when this was done, I just clamped both driving wheels on the arbor and did them the same way:





Then I loctited the shaft & crank pins to the web, left it to set up a bit and then added the wheels to the assembly. I just used a piece of 6mm rod to get the correct spacing between the wheels & the web:





I also assembled the rear axle & wheels with loctite; it was easier to first put one wheel on in it's correct position, leave things to tighten up, and then add the second.

While waiting for the axles to cure a bit, I gave the frame a coat of paint, and when the axles were OK, the wheels as well. I used the black high temperature paint that I bought for the boiler on it, so I shoved everything in the kitchen oven at 120deg C to cure a bit. Fortunately, it appears that the "loctite" substitute I have held up to this temperature. When I reassembled everything, the axles were just a tad stiff in the bushes, so I made a 3.05 mm d-bit reamer and gave all the bushes a run-through with it. Now the axles are nice & free running without any play. Assembled, & the reamer:





Next up, some work on the flycranks; I sawed 4 pieces from some flat brass I have. One I laid out to dimensions, clamped the whole lot together as a bunch & drilled the 3mm hole for the axles:





Then I just bolted them together through the drilled hole with a 3mm bolt before removing the clamp, and drilled for the flycrank pins. I pressed a piece of rod through the new hole, and took the assembly to the vice, where I filed the whole lot to shape & size. Once done, I just had to see what they looked like on the loco:





Regards, Arnold


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## zeeprogrammer (Nov 28, 2009)

Very nice Arnold.
This is going to be great.


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## bearcar1 (Nov 28, 2009)

Oh I am enjoying this tremendously. Well done A', and BRAVO! Thm: :bow: :bow: :bow:

BC1
Jim


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## shred (Nov 28, 2009)

Cool. You can't have too many live steam trains.


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## Deanofid (Nov 29, 2009)

This is really an enjoyable thread, Arnold. You're coming along great.
The assembly so far looks nice all painted up, with its shiny brass flycranks. I can almost picture it steaming down the track!

Dean


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## RobWilson (Nov 29, 2009)

Nice one Arnold :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
keep up the great work and post 


Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Nov 29, 2009)

Zee, Jim, Shred, Dean & Rob - thank you all very much for looking in and all your positive comments ;D I't is really nice to have such support, as locally, I'm the only person I'm aware of doing this kind of thing, so there's no-one to share with here in Namibia.

Today I made the crank pins for the flycranks. Once again I deviated from the original design - mostly to accommodate my tooling, but while doing this, I added a little shoulder that would prevent the coupling rods directly touching the flycranks while running. I think Dave added little washers between the coupling rods and the flycranks when he put his Idris together. So I made the crankpins with a section of 2mm thread for retaining nuts, a 2.5mm bearing section for the coupling rod link, a shoulder, and a 2mm section to press into the flycrank. In the next photo, I'm parting off one of the pins: 





Next up, I made some nuts and filing buttons for filing the coupling rods - I didn't take photos while making these.
Then I marked out the top of two pieces of plate superglued together for the coupling rods, drilled & reamed the holes, and trimmed the assembly to approximate size on the bandsaw. I installed the filing buttons through the holes, and clamped my milling vice in the big vice, with the coupling rod assembly clamped in the milling vice, for filing down:





The results of today's work: flycranks with pins pressed & loctited in, nuts screwed on, a pair of coupling rods, and what's left of the filing buttons:





And mounted on the loco frame:





I was still wondering what I'm going to do about the flycranks' appearance, I quite like the contrast of the brass with the black, and after Dean's comment, I'm just going to leave them as-is, with a clear laquer coating for protection.

Regards, Arnold


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## vlmarshall (Nov 29, 2009)

This thread is a LOT of fun to watch. Thanks for sharing it. :bow:


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## Deanofid (Nov 29, 2009)

Looks better every time I check in, Arnold. I think when she's in motion, the shiny bits going 'round and 'round will really set it off.

I see your filing buttons took a bit of a beating. 
I made some filing buttons some years back. Cut from drill rod, mainly to form a disc with a centering bore in the middle. Then hardened them and left them dead hard. They are so smooth and hard that when you get the work piece filed down to them, the file just slips across the buttons, as if it were sliding on glass. Makes a nice job of radii, and the buttons are so smooth that they don't hurt the file.
One of those kind of projects for when you don't have anything else in the works.

I'm kind of in the same boat with you, here in N. Idaho, (not having someone near who does this stuff). I live in a small town, (3500), and I've never run across another modeler. I do have an old friend who is a watch and clock maker here, though. Someone to talk to about metal, at least! Or I can go hang around the John Deere place. Like being in a really, really big model shop!

Keep up the good show!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Dec 5, 2009)

Thanks Vernon & Dean 

Dean, yes - brass was not ideal for the filing buttons, but I couldn't make them from drill rod, as my 2mm tap set was shot - got a new set in the meantime. And I'm glad I'm not the only one cut off; this site is great for guys like us ;D

Work interfered with my normal Saturday shop time this morning, but this afternoon I got some more done.

First up, I started hacking up a piece of 25mm square brass:






Ended up with blocks for the cylinders, port block and big ends:





Then on to the cylinders blocks; faced both blocks to size and bored the cylinders in the 4-jaw - 2 action shots; if you look carefully, you'll see some bright dots of swarf caught in suspended animation below & right to the workpiece:









The results of today's work - 2 cylinder blocks; one already marked out for port & pivot holes. I got a really nice finish in the bores, so no need for lapping  - the spots in the bore is some "dust" from running the blocks over some 300 grit emery to get rid of machining marks:





Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Dec 5, 2009)

Hi Arnold


You really did get a good finish on the bores :bow: :bow: :bow: great job Thm: i like the mod you have done to your saw so you can cut short ends 


Regards Rob


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## 4156df (Dec 5, 2009)

Arnold,
Really enjoying this thread. Keep it coming,please.
Dennis


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## vlmarshall (Dec 5, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> I just want the live steam loco for now... I'll build "mining" cars for it (see below) - but very likely won't post building those on HMEM, as it's not on-topic



SURE it is! Rollingstock is as "on topic" as the flipping, slinking, rolling, blinking, and pumping attachments for the OTHER engines on here. ;D


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## 4156df (Dec 5, 2009)

Arnold,
Amen! to what Vernon said.
Dennis


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## ozzie46 (Dec 5, 2009)

You said it Vern!!  Thm: Thm: Thm:

  Ron


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## Deanofid (Dec 5, 2009)

Glad you got some more shop time, Arnold. I look for "Fred" in the topic lines everyday, and am always glad to see a new post about him.
The bores really do look good in the cylinders. Nice job!

Dean


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## SBWHART (Dec 6, 2009)

Great work Arnold

Enjoying the thread keep them coming.

Have fun

Stew


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## arnoldb (Dec 6, 2009)

Rob, Dennis, Vernon, Dean & Stew - thank you very much for checking in 

Rob, thanks very much mate - the finish in the cylinders is from the same boring bar I made that originally gave you a crick in the neck ;D - and thank you for the comment on my band saw mod, I'm very glad I made it; with material being scarce here in Windhoek, I need to use every bit I can ;D

Dennis, Vern & Ron - thanks for your support guys; your request for the rolling stock build is noted and on the tuit list  - but that will remain a future project for now. I just want _need_ the loco to satisfy a little boy in myself that's been dreaming of it for 30-odd years ;D

Dean, thank you; I wish I was further along though, but every bit helps 

Stew, thanks, and oh yes, I'm having fun 

On to today's itty bitty bit - some domestic issues interfered...

Finished off the cylinder blocks; I nearly got caught by an error on the plans. I'm basically building to the metric sizes. Dave specified the metric hole in the cylinder block for the trunnion pin as 2.5mm, but the pin itself as 2mm - that's a big difference. The imperial measurements are both specified as 3/32" - so I just settled on 2mm for both the holes and the pin. Conveniently, my 2mm center drill goes to exactly the right depth before starting to cut for a 60 degree center, so it made getting the correct depth easy. Here a photo of work on one of the cylinder faces - trunnion hole drilled 2mm, and the undercut faced off:





After finishing the other cylinder the same way, I moved to the drill press & drilled the port holes:





Then I set up the lathe with the vertical slide and flycut & milled the piece of brass for the port block to size:









With slightly un-square (is that a word?) top and bottom on the port block from the bandsawing, this is the method I used to set up to mill them square - the drill sticking out at the other end of the vice is to keep spacing correct across the jaws:





I stopped work on Fred today with the finished cylinder blocks, and the port block ready for layout and some very deep drilling... :





Regards, Arnold


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## vlmarshall (Dec 6, 2009)

Thanks for pointing out the trunnion pin error, I've made a note on my printed copy of the plans, so it doesn't catch me in the future. 

I know what you mean about the locomotive _need_... there's a Cracker loco that's filling the same need here. ;D


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## Deanofid (Dec 6, 2009)

The cylinders look great, Arnold.
You make _nice_ stuff!

Dean


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## NickG (Dec 7, 2009)

Great work arnold. Your loco is going to be fantastic. You certainly know how to get the best out of your myford too. I'm not the biggest fan of them (having said that, I haven't used a new or one in really good condition) but you can't deny with all the kit that you can get, they are versatile.

nick


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## arnoldb (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks for checking in guys 

Pleasure Vernon - I think everyone on this forum has a similar "need" deep inside ;D
Dean, thank you for the compliment - I still have a lot to learn though!
Thanks Nick - I don't think I'd change my myford for any other lathe, and I have a very good range of accessories for it. I might get additional lathes in future - a smaller one for the small jobs and a bigger one for bigger jobs, but this one will remain my pride and joy.

A little update and a very special Thank You - I received a parcel in the post today; inside was a Christmas card and a neatly wrapped present. I was expecting the parcel and some of it's contents, but not all the extras it contained... *Rob - Thank you very, very much indeed mate!* :bow: :









Regards, Arnold


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## JimM (Dec 7, 2009)

Arnold, this is looking great. I love these detailled build threads, it gives us newbies the confidence to have a go ourselves.

Going back to your orgininal post, could you post the details of your adapter ring that holds the morse taper in place on your drill press. My chuck has an inclination to separate itself from the quill on my drill and your gizmo sounds just the job

Thanks

Jim


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 7, 2009)

Wow Arnold, you've been moving along too.
Like all have said..this is a fantastic thread. I'm learning a lot.
I can not wait to see this run.


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## Deanofid (Dec 7, 2009)

Those are dandy "Fred" plates. Nice care package, too. Much better than the boozy smellin' fruit cake I got!


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## bearcar1 (Dec 7, 2009)

Rob, way to go man! Those plates are the coolest! 8) Arnold, that is going to be a sweet loco when done. Keep it up.

BC1
Jim


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## ariz (Dec 8, 2009)

arnold, may I add my compliments to the others for your work and for this friendly, explanatory thread?

fred will be a great live steam loco :bow:

I noticed that you don't own a mill (at least, you don't use it in this build). I have great respect and admiration for model engineers that build their engines with a lathe & a drill press. I admit that without a mill I'll be in serious difficulty :-\


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## arnoldb (Dec 9, 2009)

Thanks for checking in everyone 

Jim (M) - I'll take some photos of the adapter ring & post for you tomorrow evening
Zee, thanks ;D - No pressure to finish it then :big:
Dean, oh yes - million times better; I hate fruitcake ;D
Jim (BC1) - you should hold those little plates on your own finger to appreciate them - Rob did a stunning job!
Ariz - thank you. No I don't own a mill yet. Fortunately, the old Myford is a very versatile machine. If things go to plan though, I'll have a mill by May next year.

I should have some more progress to post on the loco tomorrow evening as well, as its a public holiday here in Namibia tomorrow ;D

Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Dec 10, 2009)

Some more progress on Fred today ;D - I love public holidays!

First up, JimM, as requested - some shots of the drill spindle adapter - the top ring of grub screws tightens up on the drill spindle, and the bottom ring on the reduced diameter just below where the morse taper ends and the jacobs taper for the chuck starts. Remember, I put the chuck on the jacobs taper using heat. I should really put shorter grub screws in the section that connects to the spindle... :














On to Fred...
Started off with marking out the port block:





Dave says to cross drill the port holes first, then stick brass pins in the holes, then drill the passages in the block - the brass pins are to prevent deflection/bite-in when the passages reaches the port holes. I did it the other way around; I don't have suitable brass pins, but I do have a lot of 2mm bronze brazing rod. This is tougher than brass, so could still cause deflection on the deep passage holes, so I drilled the passage holes first, and then the port holes. Some deep drilling on the lathe - my cheep 'n cheerful drill press is not accurate enough... :









Next up the port holes & pivot hole - for this the drill press is good enough, as these holes are not so deep. Notice the brazing rod pieces sticking out of the passage holes:





Bottom section of port block done; notice the half-drilled notches in the pins where the ports meet up (the one on one end just barely :-[) I wasn't overly concerned about getting the pins out after drilling, as the brazing rod is pretty tough - they came out with a couple of to-and-fro wiggles with a pair of pliers to loosen them:





Next up, flattened the cylinder faces on some 1200 grit W&D on a glass plate (the tapping chart is below the glass plate):





The top part of the port block was just turned to size in the lathe & parted off. Then marked out for the inlet & exhaust ports as well as the "through" ports that meet up with the reversing valve. - Drilling the ports:





After that, I started on the threaded steam inlet on the side, and promptly made a mess-up of that by over-threading and thus stripping out the threads. Fortunately the exhaust side was not done yet, so I switched around and re-did it - successfully this time. The exhaust needs (in my case) a 3.3mm hole, so I turned, drilled & soldered a brass bush in the misthreaded side for the exhaust - see red circle in picture. It came out OK, so next up, I used a 2mm center drill to "stretch" the passage connections (they don't align up - according to the plans); Dave mentions filing some fillets to do this, but the needle files I have is a bunch of junk, so I used the center drill; crude yes, but effective. Also, there are some machining grooves left from parting off - I left them, as in my opinion they would help wick the solder through and isolate the ports when soldering. The other face is as smooth and flat as I can get it.





Next up, I turned & threaded the stud that works to keep the reversing valve seated, screwed it into the block, and put the top of the block on; the stud helps with alignment of the top part of the block to the bottom. As the stud was in place, i used some spacers and basically locked the top part of the port block to the bottom; then clamped the whole lot by the spacers in the vice, and soldered it together:





Final result after getting rid of excess solder - some tricky finger-manipulation to close and open holes, and blowing by mouth into the port block makes me think that everything that must be sealed is, and that the passages were not blocked by solder.:









So that's progress on Fred until the weekend 

In case some of you were wondering what the story is with the bunches of small drills lying around... I recently spent a bit of money on several each of the different small sizes, but they are all in one plastic bag currently, so I had to sort them around to get what I needed. Earlier this week, I caught our accountants emptying a safe & chucking boxes full of old 3 1/4" floppy disks in the garbage. First off, they got a firm reprimand from me about just chucking "data" in the trash (I'm responsible for IT security :) - so they promptly handed the whole lot to me to dispose of "responsibly". My young assistant was in a foul mood and grumbling about wanting to break something, so I gave him the floppies, which he happily destroyed (picture a young lad jumping up and down on a pile of disks - then with a pair of scissors and a vengeful grin - you got it ;D)
I kept the containers; nobody wants them as floppy disks are now brothers of the dodo. Tomorrow I'll go and "rob" my bank of a roll of the free zip-log bags they give out for coins - these bags fits nicely in the old floppy containers, and I can get the small drills et al sorted :big: :





Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Dec 10, 2009)

Nice one Arnold Thm:

Great thread :bow: :bow: :bow:


Regards Rob


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## JimM (Dec 10, 2009)

Thanks Arnold, I'll be knocking one of those locking rings up at the weekend - it even looks simple enogh to be within my skill range 

Cheers

Jim


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## Twmaster (Dec 10, 2009)

Great work thus far Arnold! Fred is going to be a grand old man some day!


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 10, 2009)

Loving it Arnold.

Yeah...now I look at everything being tossed.


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## Deanofid (Dec 10, 2009)

It's coming along well, Arnold. I'll be glad when the weekend gets here, so we can see more of your build.

Dean


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## SBWHART (Dec 11, 2009)

Progessing well Arnold :bow: enjoying the thread 

Have fun

Stew


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## arnoldb (Dec 12, 2009)

Rob, Jim, Mike, Zee, Dean & Stew - Thank you for checking in and your kind responses 

Jim, go ahead & make it - there is nothing like practice to build confidence, and, while the adapter is simple to make and need not be all that precise, I'm sure you will learn from the process  - and don't put yourself or your skills down - we ALL had to start somewhere, and continue learning as we go along. Just work at it and take what I'll call the "Zee Test" once in a while and compare your current skills with what you did 6 months ago, and you will be surprised  (Thanks Zee; it works for me!)

Some more work on Fred's bits & bobs....

First up, cut a piece of brass flat bar and marked out the top section of the reversing spool valve:





Hacksawing to rough shape - a lot of filing followed, but I did not take a photo of the end result:





Some brass turned to diameter & laid out for the bottom section of the spool valve. I used a 1mm center drill to just dimple the front of the stock to get the center point, then compasses to mark out the radius. A light scribe with the cutting tool tip (has to be dead on center) by cranking the cross slide marks the first cross line, then, taking advantage of the myford's flat ways and a square, rotate the chuck with the line vertically square and mark again with the cross slide:





Then drill the 2mm center hole, and part off using the shank of a broken 1.6mm drill bit in the tail stock to catch the workpiece:





Made a little jig for the drill press; just some offcut mild steel slightly wider than my toolmaker's clamp; drilled a 2mm hole part-way through it & stuck a bit of 2mm brazing rod in the hole & clamped in the drill vice. The spool bottom's center goes over the pin, and I clamp it with the toolmaker's clamp. A 2mm center drill is put to use to drill curve approximations in the workpiece:





In use:





And done; a little filing required still... at the top of the photo is a partial piece of the top of the valve after filing that I forgot to photograph earlier:





Next up, I turned the end of a bit of ~5mm aluminium down to 2mm for a tight fit for the spool valve's top and bottom parts. This is for alignment while soldering them together, without getting everything stuck too much to the pin. A trial check before soldering:





Some 0.5mm solder rings & pieces put on the top part - if you look carefully, you might also see 6 light punch marks around the perimeter to keep "just" a little clearance for the solder to flow between the 2 parts:





Other part was put back on top, and I just heated the whole lot with a butane torch. When the solder started flowing, I pressed the parts together with a heavy piece of mild steel placed on top, and let the lot cool. End result (too much solder :-[ ):




I then spent some time with a scribe & drilling bits in a hand-held chuck to clean out the excess solder manually.

Next up, it was on to the big ends. Some brass bar - long enough to make both big ends centered in the 4-jaw and turned down on one side; I then drilled & tapped the end M3 for the 3mm stainless steel connecting rod.





Lazy rotter that I am, I then just fit the collet chuck & reversed the part for doing the other end. This could easily spell disaster, but my cutting tool is nice and sharp, so no problems. Best would have been to use the 4-jaw again and just spend the time to center everything... :





Next up was drilling 1.4mm holes for threading for the big end bolts. The myford's a bit slow for drilling these holes, and the pedestal drill, while capable of reaching the speed needed, just not accurate enough. What to do? I have drilled a couple of thousand of holes in PCBs with my Dremel and it's small press; not entirely accurate either, but might just do the job. So I mounted the parts in the myford's milling vice and gave things a go with the Dremel in it's stand:




Worked a charm 

Today was a real sizzler here; at 15:00 it was 36 deg C in the shade - got a shot of Zorro the swarf magnet trying to cool down a bit  - just checking if anybody reading this is still following :big: :





I used a slitting saw to slice off the end caps of the big ends; much less work than trying to saw & file to size:




I had to spend a couple of minutes searching for the first one slit off through the swarf behind the lathe :-[... - the second one was prevented getting flung away by stopping _just_ short of it coming off, manually breaking it off & filing away the left-overs.

Rob (Thanks Mate!!! :bow sent me some 10BA taps. These are worth more than gold to me, so I first (crudely, but effectively) made a tapping guide and tap holder to tap the big ends from HRS I have lying around. Clamped the workpieces in the Myford's milling vice and went for it, with very nice results. First photo shows the setup, guide & holder. Next is a close-up of the result:









Finally, the results of today's work... Not much to show, but most satisfying 






Regards, Arnold


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## Powder keg (Dec 12, 2009)

Looks great!!! My pouches aren't allowed in the shop(


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## RobWilson (Dec 12, 2009)

Hi Arnold 

Great job :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: i like the way you made the reversing valve Thm:

Regards Rob


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 12, 2009)

The 'Zee Test' eh? Cool.

I thought the use of the machinist clamp was interesting. I made one early this year when I was starting out. I've never used it and have wondered on more than one occasion how I would. I appreciate the idea.

The 'reversing spool valve'...why did you make it as two pieces and solder it together?


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## bearcar1 (Dec 12, 2009)

Arnold, yet another splendid display of metal working. :bow: Very nicely done indeed. I can appreciate the method of which you produced that valve, ingenious it is now.

BC1
Jim


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## 4156df (Dec 12, 2009)

Looking good, Arnold. Keep it coming!
Dennis


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## Deanofid (Dec 13, 2009)

Another good day in the shop, Arnold, and it looks like you're having some fun.
The punch marks in the valve.. never thought of that. Everyone has a trick to 
share here. When I saw all that solder though, uh-oh. It looked like quite a bit!
I'm glad you were able to manage the clean up in those little slots.

Thanks for the snap of your pooch. I have one about that size. She's the reason
I vacuum the shop floor every day. My shop is in the spare bedroom, and she
wanders around at night. 

Thanks for keeping us up to speed on this neat loco.
Full steam ahead!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Dec 13, 2009)

Thank you for checking in guys 

Zee, I could have made the valve as one part, but it is fiddly for me, as I have to set up the lathe for milling, and then have to battle with the dividing head and a lack of rigidity on my setup. I don't have a rotary table; If I had one, I would most likely have made it as one part.

Everyone else who commented on the valve construction - thank you, but I cannot take the credit for thinking of doing it this way; the original plans actually shows this method for making it 

Dean, as to the punch marks, quite a few HMEM members have made reference to the method in their posts in the past; so I'm just using a trick learned from the forum as well . The pooch is quite good in the shop; doesn't even complain about getting swarf brushed out. He's just one of three I have; the other dog is good in the shop too, but the ***** is banned; she steals tools and hides it out in the yard - that is if it can't be chewed up.

On to Fred; didn't do a lot today; just finished the top cylinder covers and the 2 pistons:





Regards, Arnold


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## steamboatmodel (Dec 14, 2009)

Hi Arnold,
Completely off topic, but what breed is you pictured dog?
Regards,
Gerald.


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## arnoldb (Dec 14, 2009)

Hi Gerald - don't mind OT 
He's a salt & pepper miniature schnauzer.
Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Dec 20, 2009)

Some more progress; I wanted to have the loco running on air by tonight, but a tool for tightening hexagonal fasteners was carelessly projected into the mechanical processing plant...

On Thursday evening I made the 2 con rods from stainless steel - threading one end (to get rid of the last bit that wasn't threaded properly, I just used the edge of a small half-round file to make the undercut after doing this thread):





Saturday I made the bottom cylinder heads. Here I deviated significantly from the original plans. The originals show a simpler solution, but would be more difficult to disassemble for maintenance later on. I opted for cylinder heads that could bolt on - after checking that adequate clearance was available for these, and traditional stuffing glands. Digging around available stock, I decided to make each head out of 2 parts to minimise stock wastage

First up, machine the "inside" face of one, with a register to accurately locate on the cylinder head:





Grabbed the register part in the collet chuck after both were done in the 4-jaw, and faced to thickness with light cuts; there's not a lot getting held in the chuck! :





A bit of a lapse in photos followed; I drilled & reamed the some brass threaded rod I have to 4mm for the inside of the stuffing glands. Then drilled part-way to 5mm & threaded to M6. A "modified" m6 cap screw was used to cut the thread to final depth, as I don't have an M6 plug tap. The outside of the rod was then turned to a tight fit for the 8mm holes I made in the cylinder heads earlier. Parted off, pressed into the cylinder head, and repeated for the other one.

I decided to go the studs 'n nuts route to bolt the heads to the cylinders; the studs to be loctited into the cylinder, so instead of faffing around with a 1.4mm tapping drill for the 10BA studs, I went with 1.5mm; my drill press chuck can clamp 1.5, but not 1.4. Toolmakers' clamps keep the cylinder heads in place while drilling:





All bolted up; the side of the cylinder head on the port face side is intentionally shorter; I don't want it running against the port block.





I wanted to carry on past this on Saturday, but social life made a call & off to a BBQ I went; that's also why I didn't update last night...

This morning, after recovering from a very late night out, I started on the engine mounting. 2 weeks ago, I found some brass plate offcuts at the place I get stainless steel from; I put a corner of a triangular piece of 2mm plate to use:





After some free-hand bandsawing:





And some time & sweat with a file:





This piece of plate was nice and soft, so I marked out the mounting feet on a flat piece, and used a hammer and the big vice to make it into an angle:





Once again using the toolmakers clamp for drilling an awkward-to-hold piece:





Now comes a bit of a booboo...
Having made the engine mounting & it's feet, they needed to get soldered together. No soft solder for this one, silver solder is needed for a high-strength joint.
With the back edges of the feet a bit round from bending and difficult to keep square, I decided to use a piece of aluminium angle to keep everything together and nice and square, and to let the silver solder flow onto the "round" part to make the mounting nice and flat. It looked so good all set up and fluxed, ready for soldering:





Used my oxy-butane kit to heat up one side; flux bubbled, flowed & I needed "just" a bit more heat for the solder.... then the ally called it quits:




Sorry; poor photo; I was just a tad annoyed. Might have worked with thicker aluminium, might not...

So I left everything, including myself, to cool down, cleaned the parts up again, and used bits & bobs to hold things in place and re-did the job:





Dumped the mounting in citric acid for 1/2 hour - came out OK; I overdid the silver solder on the one foot, as it moved while doing it. I'll clean the excess off later and neaten up the mounting:





Next up, marked out the mounting holes on the loco frame for the engine mounting; lots of calculations needed off different sheets of the plans to get correct measurements, but finally got it. Used a square to make sure things stay in alignment, and the 2mm drill bit finger-twirled through the mounting holes to mark the spots through the paint.





Drilling 1.6mm holes for M2 tapping on the marks after punching. I supported the frame on the vice jaws, and held on firmly. Drill press set to 1500 rpm, and a good positive feed used, as I don't want a repeat of the stainless angle work-hardening like I had earlier in the project:





The tapping guide I made for the 10BA taps works well for the 2mm taps as well, so just tapped the holes after drilling; using all three taps in sequence.

Next up, I calculated & measured the correct end of the port block for drilling & tapping the mounting holes. I stuck some masking tape on the port faces to protect them in the vice while drilling the holes; with the drill press depth stop set so I would not break into the steam passages on the inside. Tapped these holes as well, and to get to depth, I ground the tip with the broken teeth off the 3rd tap in my old M2 set, and used it to thread to bottom on the holes  - never throw away "abused" taps! - Sorry no photos again...

Mounted everything up for a look-see & to see where problems might (DID) arise. Lots of screws to shorten/make, and parts to give a final finish to still left here, but tests first:









Now the problems started...
When turning the engine over by the wheels, it was still very stiff; I felt the pistons were stiff in the cylinders earlier; primarily because of the o rings, and I hope that will wear in properly. Couldn't go full-throw to the bottom of the cylinder stroke; checking, I found that I must have made a mistake somewhere, and that the port block is mounted about 1.5mm too high. Top of the cylinder stroke with the big ends disconnected has adequate clearance, so I'll make new con rods, 1.5 mm longer; easier than to re-do all the mounting holes!.

And then the real spanner in the works hit... After dismantling the engine, I just gave the main drive wheels a spin, and they were stiff and wobbled! - never did that; was running very smooth up till now. Closer inspection, and the loctite had come loose on the crank pins, and the assembly warped. So, I need to disassemble the crank assembly and drive wheels and re-do it. This time, I'll silver solder it. Oh well, more practice 

Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Dec 20, 2009)

Hi Arnold

Fred is coming along great :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Regards Rob


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 20, 2009)

Nice Arnold.
I can understand wheels getting stiff from loctite...but the assembly warped? What would cause that?


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## bearcar1 (Dec 20, 2009)

Ah man Arnold, you do have the patience of a saint (and I'm not saying which one : ) to overcome all of the tribulations such as these. Well done and I do so enjoy watching as you progress through this build. I have confidence that this will turn out to be a real winner. BRAVO!

BC1
Jim


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## Deanofid (Dec 20, 2009)

Hi Arnold. Glad to see another episode on ol' Fred!
We all have a hard day of it now and then. I know you'll get it sorted out.

On using aluminum for the rigging of parts to be soldered; 
Aluminum conducts heat like mad, and will draw the heat out of your work piece until it's saturated. You know what happens next. 
Steel will not absorb heat as fast, and will make a better jig in that respect. But, then you have to be careful not to solder the work piece to the jig.
You may already know that stuff, but someone may find it useful.

It's a great thread. Arnold and Fred.

Dean


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## arnoldb (Dec 21, 2009)

Rob, Zee, Jim, Dean - thank you for checking in 

Rob, thanks very much mate ;D; I'm getting used to those 10BAs now; anything smaller I can try :big:? 

Zee thanks! The assembly was made weeks ago already and loctited; it was running very smoothly in the frame. Attached is a C-O-C :hDe: of the assembly; might help to picture it. When making it originally, the center shaft ran all the way through, and was cut out from between the wheels and webs after everything had set. The loctite came loose where indicated with my fiddling yesterday, and as a result the "center" shafts that go out from the wheels through the bushes in the frame is out of alignment. I'll just completely disassemble and re-do it.

Jim, thank you for your confidence. One thing I have learned over the years is that it does not help to toss toys when things go wrong; just pick up and carry on and learn from the process  I think I'd be bored dead if unexpected things didn't happen.

Dean, thank you  ; yes, I didn't want the parts to stick to the jig and I wanted the solder to flow in and fill the back edge between where the bend is in the angle and the bottom of the upright. In this case, there was definitely too much aluminium, and I think I was over-eager with the torch heat as well  I also forgot I was using the higher temperature silver solder I have; If I went for the lower temp solder, I wouldn't have had the problem - I think! 

Regards, Arnold


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## mklotz (Dec 21, 2009)

Arnold,

Whenever I make a built-up crank like that I only depend on the Loctite to hold everything in position while I drill through and install pins, either solid or roll pins.
(I learned to do this when my Poppin crank disassembled itself after a lengthy run at an exhibition.)

If your soldering jig is something the solder will stick to (e.g., steel), try smoking the relevant area. An acetelyne flame is often used but I've used a candle flame or an oil lamp with too much wick exposed.

I've read, though never tried, typewriter correction fluid will also prevent solder from attaching. However, who still has a typewriter?

BTW, congratulations on being one of the ten English speaking people on the planet who use 'loose' and 'lose' properly. It's a very select group.


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## Deanofid (Dec 21, 2009)

Ha! 

My dog got loose, but I didn't lose it.

That makes 11. 

Dean


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## tel (Dec 21, 2009)

That's a loose interpretation if ever I saw one, much more of that and I'll lose the plot completely!


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## arnoldb (Dec 21, 2009)

mklotz  said:
			
		

> Whenever I make a built-up crank like that I only depend on the Loctite to hold everything in position while I drill through and install pins, either solid or roll pins.


Thank you Marv. Yes, from Dave's build log, that's exactly what he did - after his assembly was dropped and came apart. I considered it. I could not find 3mm drill rod for the shafts locally, so all the shafting is from piano/music wire. I didn't want to try and drill it for pins, as I am not sure whether a normal HSS drill bit would do the job. Another concern would be the drill wandering and breaking in the brass middle section once the piano wire is encountered. 

If anybody knows if it is possible to drill the music wire for the pins, that would be a great help.

Annealing the piano wire is also an option, but I don't know how likely it is to warp. On the other hand, silver soldering the assembly might also cause warping...

I do have some 4mm silver steel; turning a sufficient length of it down to 3mm is a bit daunting still. But maybe it's time I tried my traveling steady ? 

I REALLY need to set up a computer in the workshop for quick reference back to the tips. Dean also suggested the candle smoking on his thread; I even quizzed him about it... :-[ I have tried the error correction fluid; that worked to an extent, but started coming off at heat, and the flux seemed to still neutralise it a bit. Some experimentation is definitely in order!

And one for the loose cannons  - after I had a good laugh!: First there was 10 (some translation), then Dean made it 11, so that means Tel made it 100 ? (I'm a bit binary minded - only 2 brain cells)

Regards, Arnold


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## tel (Dec 21, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> :-[ I have tried the error correction fluid; that worked to an extent, but started coming off at heat, and the flux seemed to still neutralise it a bit. Some experimentation is definitely in order!
> 
> 
> Regards, Arnold



You were probably using today's politically correct water based stuff - Wite Out works a treat, but it has to be the old spirit based stuff


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## vlmarshall (Dec 21, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> (I'm a bit binary minded - only 10 brain cells)



Corrected.


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## arnoldb (Dec 22, 2009)

Thanks Tel, yes, I was using the latest shop bought stuff - "they" just don't make it like "their parents" used to, do they ?

Dang, and the compiler picked up a syntax error - Thanks Vernon

Regards, Arnold


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## NickG (Dec 23, 2009)

Really nice set of cylinders there arnold. I had one of those cross vices once but it broke. I didn't think much off it at the time, probably because I thought I could mill with it (I was young and stupid) but now it looks quite useful for drilling.

Nick


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## arnoldb (Dec 25, 2009)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks Nick  - Yes, that cross-vice would be useless for milling, but in the drill press it is a really handy tool. In fact, I very rarely remove it; only if I need to drill something bigger than what it can handle, or that is awkward to clamp in it.

On to Fred ;D
This morning, I disassembled and cleaned the cranks/wheel assembly and cut a new piece of piano wire for the main shaft. Then cleaned everything very well, and assembled with flux on all the shafts. I took some time to clean off excess flux from where I didn't want it - on the shafts where the big ends connect and outside the wheels . Then using the oxy-butane welding set, with the flame set to an orange smoky flame, I gave everything a quick once-over - left a black deposit on most everything. Then I turned the gas up to a nice blue flame, and silver soldered it with tiny dabs of the rod, using the flame heat to draw the solder. Worked a treat  - had very little excess to clean off, but everything soldered up really well. I can kick my own butt - I didn't take photos.

Then dumped the assembly in citric acid to pickle. While waiting for that, I made the new 2mm longer con rods.

This afternoon I cleaned up the wheel assembly. The pistons were a bit tight in the cylinders as well, so I removed the O-rings for now.
Then reassembled the whole lot and did a trial run on 5 psi compressed air.

[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D_2njB1ykxE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D_2njB1ykxE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

Looks like it'll work ;D - has good torque at 5 psi, and with increased pressure, I can barely stop the wheels.

Next up, some boiler making....

Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (Dec 25, 2009)

It certainly does look like it will work!
Good work, Arnold. Runs very nice, and the reverse valve works great.

Merry Christmas!

Dean


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## bearcar1 (Dec 25, 2009)

Ooh! Ooh! Now doesn't that look great! It seems to run extremely well without the O-rings. Should go a treat on the track under steam pressure.

BC1
Jim


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## GailInNM (Dec 25, 2009)

Merry Christmas, Arnold.
A run like that makes a nice Christmas present. Thm:
Gail in NM


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## Maryak (Dec 25, 2009)

GailInNM  said:
			
		

> Merry Christmas, Arnold.
> A run like that makes a nice Christmas present. Thm:
> Gail in NM



And Happy New Year. Looking good. :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 25, 2009)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> I can kick my own butt - I didn't take photos.



Please take pictures next time. ;D I have my own technique but am willing to learn new.

Looks great Arnold. Can't wait to see the build pics on the boiler.


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## arnoldb (Dec 26, 2009)

Dean, Jim, Gail, Bob and Zee - thank you so much for checking in, and your kind comments 

I was actually surprised the engine ran that well; It's still leaking air a bit from the bottom cylinder heads, so I'll have to make gaskets for them, and I didn't even use packing nuts and packing on the con rods - still have to make those as well... The spring on the reverse valve is a bit soft; I had a bit of leakage there as well, so that will need a slightly stiffer spring  - but all-in all, a good result, and a good Christmas present!

Zee, today I took more photos ;D

This morning I started with bits of copper. I have never really worked with this metal, so this is pretty much an all new experience for me. A piece of 42mm tube 1.5mm thick for boiler shell, a piece of 15mm tube for inner tube, and two pieces of 2mm thick copper plate for the boiler end caps; roughly sawed to shape:





I drilled 6mm holes into the centers of each bit of plate, and screwed them on a rough mandrel using available bits & bobs in the lathe to machine to shape:





The copper was all gummy to machine dry, even though I sharpened up the cutting bit pretty well for the job. So I tried a couple of drops of my favourite cutting/drilling/reaming fluid for each pass; that helped a LOT and made the chips come off nicely, with a decent finish:





Then I annealed the discs again, ready for forming:





All clamped up for forming; I knew I'd find a use for those cheap sockets I have laying around ;D - this one is the exact size required for the ID of the end cap; saved me the hassle to turn a form tool from good stock!:





Formed - I used a smallish hammer to get it to around 45 degrees formed on the side, then used a 4lb (sorry ~ 2kg!) hammer to just bash it down while revolving the lot the whole time. I thought I'd have to stop and anneal the cap again, but didn't need to.





Same process followed for the other end cap. I then drilled the center holes out to 13mm on the drill press and drilled holes as needed for the hedgehog spikes in the bottom end cap and for the bush mounting holes in the top cap. All the holes came out "triangular" instead of round - horrible stuff to drill - even with cutting fluid. To get the 8mm holes for the flanges to shape (i.e. round), I just used a hand reamer. I don't have a 15mm drill or reamer, so just chucked the end caps and bored the center holes to size:





End caps done; can anybody spot the "deliberate" mistake ? :




While drilling the holes for the hedgehog pins, I drilled one in the wrong place oh:... resulting in uneven distribution. I'll just call it a "Design Feature" for now :

Then I turned up and threaded the required bushes from phosphor bronze (what a pleasure after working with the copper!) and was basically ready to clean everything and start soldering together.

There was something wrong though; that "funny" feeling in my tummy was telling me to hold up a bit. So I sat, thought, went through the plans, thought a bit more, and remembered Rich's (Firebird) boiler build -Thanks Rich!. I forgot about the alignment for the water level gauge. (And while typing this up, and having re-read Rich's build part way to get the link, I also realize I didn't leave the parts in the pickle for tomorrow!)

So I started on the bits & pieces for the guage glass; simple turning & threading of bits of brass rod - I'm really glad I made those tailstock die holders!, though I wish I had invested in M5 and M6 Fine taps and dies as well; would be much better suited to this purpose. Next two photos shows the parts fluxed up (maybe too much!) and ready to be silver soldered:









All soldered up; still too much solder applied though! :





After about 30 minutes pickle in some citric acid:





The net results of today's work on Fred:





Regards, Arnold


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## Groewrs (Dec 26, 2009)

Not bad for a day's work, Arnold! I wish I could achieve that much in a day ;D

Keep those pictures coming! I'm enjoying the ride ;D

Gordon


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## NickG (Dec 26, 2009)

Arnold,

Bet you're proud as punch with the engine unit. It's running superbly there and looks really torquey! Wow, nice start on the boiler too!

Nick


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 26, 2009)

Awesome Arnold. Just awesome. A very productive day.


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## ozzie46 (Dec 26, 2009)

Very good Arnold.


 Following alomg with great eagerness.

 Ron


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## Deanofid (Dec 26, 2009)

Really good, Arnold! 
I wondered how you would make out with the copper. Looks like you have it knocked!
Just point of interest, or, maybe not. I've used whole milk on copper in the past on advise of a old machinist friend. Worked pretty well, but needs a good clean up or you'll have a smelly shop in warm weather.

So, here's a question from a guy who's never built this type of boiler; What are hedgehog pins, and their purpose?

Keep up the good work. Fred is really taking shape!

Dean


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## RobWilson (Dec 27, 2009)

WOW Arnold 

Great job Thm: you are really going for it :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Regards Rob


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## gbritnell (Dec 27, 2009)

Great progress on your build. The engine runs great so on steam it should even run better.
gbritnell


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## SBWHART (Dec 27, 2009)

Hi Arnold

Great bit of work :bow:.

I've got to gird my lyons and make a start of the boiler for my loco some time, so I'll be watching closely.

Have fun

Stew


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## ToniTD1490 (Dec 27, 2009)

Hi Arnold

My apology with my English. Very good work. I have learnt a lot of with this thread, the idea of making your own rivets , did you anneal before to put them? I should like to see the jig to extend the jaws in your hack saw, any pictures and details please? I have the same problem with mine and your jig is very ingenious. As say here FANTASTICO!

Regards
ToniTD1490


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## ariz (Dec 27, 2009)

arnold that engine runs very well (and strong!) and the progresses on the build are great
many compliments!!!


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## arnoldb (Dec 27, 2009)

Gordon, Nick, Zee, Ron, Dean, Rob, GBritnell, Stew, ToniTD1490 and Ariz - thank you very much for your positive reponses 

Dean, I've also heard about the milk from various sources, but like you said, I'm not about to try that - with the last couple of days giving me 35 deg C and above in the shop, the milk would be liable to curdle while applying .
The hedgehog pins effectively raise the effective heating surface area for the boiler and are also more effective for heat transfer to the water in the boiler. I saw in Firebird's build that he called them thermal conduction pins.

GBritnell - thank you; and a question from my side - if you don't mind. Would the engine run better on steam because of steam expansion in the cylinders?

ToniTD1490, no worries about your English . I didn't anneal the copper wire for the rivets; as it comes out of the cabling that I used, it is already soft. Annealing it before use wouldn't do any harm though. I added the modifications to my saw at the end of this post 

On to today's work. One thing I have learned from my limited silver soldering endeavors is that I'm inclined to use too much solder, so one goal for today was to hold back a bit.

A lot of pickling would be needed, so I made up a citric acid pickle bath from an empty 5L plastic mineral water bottle:






Most parts dumped in the pickle - the small yellow container has the bushes and copper rivets I intend to use for the conduction pins:





While those were in the bath, I laid out the boiler shell for the water gauge holes, and the air ventilation holes - here I'm getting the gauge holes nicely in line with a new "backed" square I bought a couple of weeks ago:





After drilling the needed holes in the shell, I added that to the pickle as well. The bottom cap and copper rivets looked good, so I assembled the lot with flux:





Soldered - I used a smallish butane torch, not the Oxy-Butane set, and just quick light touches of the solder rod to the joints - got better while working:




I only took time to take the photo, and then dumped the cap stright back into the pickle; a bit of steam and bubbling, but most of the black stuff & flux came off straight away.

Same treatment followed for the top cap and bushes - I drew pencil lines about one mm away around the bushes as a test. Worked OK except for the spot where I accidentally touched the rod on the cab between the bushes... :









The bottom cap was lying in the pickle while I did the above; when I touched it, some of the black that was left came off, so I fetched a retired clean toothbrush, and just scrubbed at it a bit and it was nice & clean in no time. On closer inspection, there was just one pin that was not soldered properly, so I just added flux to it on both sides, re-heated the lot and gave it a quick dab again. Photo of the "dry joint":





Next up, it was the bushes for the gauge glass on the boiler shell - the pin keeping alignment is a length of stainless steel rod:




The butane torch had a really hard time of getting everything to temperature for this, even though I tried to get as much heat containment as possible... At one point - just as everything started reaching solder temperature, the torch went out. So I let things cool a bit, added more flux and started again. Eventually got the job done adequately, but not good looking.

I also soldered the center flue to the bottom end cap; it is easier to do this before final assembly, as I had the opportunity to check it and the end cap for a good seal. Tonight the parts will spend in the pickle; hopefully I can get a couple of minutes of shop time tomorrow after work to finish off. I'll definitely use the butane torch in combination with the oxy-butane set - butane torch for as much global heat as possible, and the oxy set to add spot heat for the final soldering; there is a lot of parts that will require heat...

The pickle got a good work-out today - not nice & clean any more!:





And the boiler parts so far:





Regards, Arnold

Bandsaw modifications for ToniTD1490:

The "extended jaws" are just made up from 60mmx10mm flat bar. The hooks that clip on to the existing vice jaws are short bits of 25mm angle iron shortened on one end to fit the existing vice jaws - I welded these on to the flat bar while mounted and clamped on the saw with pieces of thin plate in between to give a bit of spacing for a "loose" fit. 
The vice bed extension is built from a piece of 6mm plate, with 2 pieces of flat bar welded to the bottom to give the exact same height as the vice bed above the saw table. The piece of round bar welded to this assembly goes into the hole in the saw that is used for the distance piece - to keep it fixed in place. 
The bolt for setting spacing is an ordinary M14 bolt I had laying around, with a clearance hole and the nut welded to the back jaw.
To cut the blade groove, I just set the switch cut-off stop for the saw switch lower, as well as adjusted the head stop lower. Then I let the machine saw it's own groove in the bottom plate, which I then slightly widened it with an angle grinder. If you don't do this, the saw might break blades when it finishes cuts. After done, the cut-off switch and head stop was put back to "normal".






I also used an angle grinder to grind away bits of the saw to be able to use it in (nearly!) upright position




 :-[ - "verical" in the above picture must be "vertical"!

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask 

In use:









WOW - this post took me 2 hours to do! - Had to revise it twice because of new posts while I was typing up  - Thanks Everyone! ;D


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 27, 2009)

Another awesome post Arnold. This is great stuff.


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## gbritnell (Dec 27, 2009)

Arnold, that's exactly the reason. Steam is expansive therefore it's still working when the valve is closed, or port is shut off.
gbritnell


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## ToniTD1490 (Dec 27, 2009)

Arnold thanks for your prompt response, and quite very well explained, even the trick of widening the own groove the saw. I will try to adapt it to my band saw. I hope that 2 hours had been fun, I estimate very much the effort and the photos very explanatories. Regards,
ToniTD1490


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## Deanofid (Dec 27, 2009)

More good progress, Arnold! I like this little boiler. 
I've only made horizontal types, and plan on making a flue type pretty soon. This thread and Firebird's are a good source. (There's another flue build going on elsewhere on the forum too, but I can't remember where it is.)

Thanks for the porcupine, er.. hedgehog explanation.
; )

Dean


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## arnoldb (Dec 28, 2009)

Zee, Thank you 
gbritnell, thank you very much for the clarification.
ToniTD1490, it's a pleasure. And I consider the time well spent 
Thanks Dean  - and sorry about the hedgehog/porcupine confusion; the hedgehog is the cute little one; the porcupine is the big one with attitude that you don't want to run into with a car... DAMHIKT 

I finished soldering the boiler this afternoon after work. It came out OK with using the 2 torches. A photo of the set-up I used - the 2 torches, with the butane torch positioned to provide background heat, and mixed flux readily located should more be needed (which it was):





I assembled everything with flux paste in all the joints, and started heating to do the top first. Quite a bit of flux bubbled away from the joints while heating, so I added more. Then I fired up the other torch to a higher heat, and added it's heat; the flux flowed in short order. Running a circle with the high temp torch around the perimeter, I followed it with the solder rod; worked a treat. To solder the flue to the cap, I just pointed the hot torch flame down the flue, and the solder flowed easily around the joint.

Then I turned everything upside-down, added more flux to the bottom cap joint, brought to heat again, and once again ran a hot ring around the outside following with the solder.
Two photos; top and bottom of boiler after soldering & quick dip in pickle - all the joints looks sound to me:









The parts can lay in the pickle now until tomorrow evening; then I'll just do a clean-up.

Next up will be a pump to do the hydraulic pressure test - I don't think that will happen this week or coming weekend though; shop time is limited in the evenings after work and I'll be out of town for some new year's celebrations for most of the weekend.

Regards, Arnold


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 28, 2009)

Congratulations Arnold. I bet you're feeling pretty good. I certainly would be.

I know virtually nothing about boilers...is the purpose of the rivets to provide more surface area for heat conduction? I have to admit I've been expecting to see a ball-peen. ;D


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## NickG (Dec 28, 2009)

Nice work Arnold, good looking boiler and very neat soldering.

Nick


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## joe d (Dec 28, 2009)

Arnold

Looking fine! I'm especially enjoying the recent bits about making the boiler, I've never done one yet, but there is one in my future...

Cheers, Joe


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## Deanofid (Dec 28, 2009)

You're moving along well, Arnold. Add me to the list of "boiler build watchers". I enjoy watching one come together.

You have porcupines in your neck of the woods, too? That's something we have here, along with opossum, badgers, wolverines, wolves, and other ornery critters. No hedgehogs, though. No hedges... 

Dean


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## firebird (Dec 29, 2009)

Hi Arnold

I've just read your boiler build and think you are doing a great job. Copper is difficult to work with and takes some getting used to but practice makes perfect I'm told. After the build of my 2 boilers I feel confident enough now to tackle something bigger. If you will allow me offer one tip, get yourself a set of step drills, they drill perfect round holes in all types of thin plate. On boiler work drill the hole first then turn the bushes to fit. Keep up the good work. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Cheers

Rich


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## arnoldb (Dec 29, 2009)

Zee, Nick, Joe, Dean & Rich, thank you for checking in 



> I know virtually nothing about boilers...is the purpose of the rivets to provide more surface area for heat conduction? I have to admit I've been expecting to see a ball-peen.


 Join the club Zee; this is new territory for me as well. I used the rivets instead of straight copper pins the plans call for - because that's what I had on hand, and yes, it is to provide for better heat conduction. I could have cut the heads off, but with my, admitted limited, thinking, the heads on the rivets provides even more surface area, while the heat that bypasses the heads get caught in the bottom cap of the boiler and heats there. I don't know how the rivet heads will impact on the airflow through the assembly though; so this is all VERY experimental.

Nick, thank you, but there's still a lot of room for improvement for me!.

Thank you Joe - Much appreciated. This is my first attempt as well, so things are not up to a good standard.

Dean, thanks - yes, we do have porcupines and very scarce hedgehogs. No woods or hedges, or any wolv... stuff though - just semi dessert. A lot of other critters - I like them all; have a certain species of spider that I actively encourage to live in my house; completely harmless to Homo Sapiens, but catches & eats all kinds of ornery insects, and no spider webs to clean off ;D

Rich, thank you very much, and you are most welcome to any tips or critique . I've been ogling those step drills; they are pretty rare here in Namibia, and a bit pricey, but certainly on my wish list. And thank you for the tip on holes first, then bushes. This will most definitely not be my last boiler if I can help it!. Once again, thank YOU for your build examples!

Probably the last update for the week:
I took the boiler out of the pickle this evening after work, and checked all the solder joints. They all visually look sound, so only the hydraulic test will show up if there are defects... I couldn't resist having a quick go at the boiler with some needle files, emery and brasso - nothing fancy & really quick, as most will be covered either in lagging or painted. Far from perfect, but will do for me for now:






Regards, Arnold


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## cfellows (Dec 30, 2009)

Lookin real good, Arnold. I'm kind of fascinated with boiler builds. 

Chuck


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## arnoldb (Jan 2, 2010)

Chuck, Thank you 

Happy New Year everyone ;D (though a bit late !)

I didn't do any actual work on Fred today, but started on a hydraulic pump for the pressure test of the boiler. The build is based on Rich's design - with some bits modified to suit material and tools I have available. I happen to have a set of M10x1.25 taps and a die, I used these instead of normal M10x1.5 for the slightly finer threads; Rich's plans call for 3/8x32 which would be even better. For the stand, I'm using a block of stainless steel. I can just as well do a good job on the pump, as it will be needed in future again.

I didn't take many photos while building, as it is all simple turning and threading operations. Here is a bunch of bits already completed:





After the above photo, I silver soldered the pump cylinder & body together. While that was in the pickle, I did a bit of work on the stand - turning down the top a bit in the lathe went surprisingly easy, but the stainless nearly bit me when I drilled the hole for the pump cylinder. While drilling the 3.5mm pilot hole, at a reduced speed from normal already, it nearly work hardened; fortunately I stopped in time & finished the pilot hole with copious amounts of cutting fluid. To drill the hole to final 12mm size, I set the drill to it's lowest speed - 220rpm, and used firm pressure while flooding with cutting fluid; that, surprisingly, went better than the pilot hole - albeit with lots of smoke from the cutting fluid.

Once done, I cleaned up the pump a bit, and made a mock assembly:





Tomorrow I have to finish the valves and handle and linkages. 

During the early hours of New Years' morning, we started getting rain - a rare occurrence here, and that has continued through today. So this morning, I collected a couple of liters of rainwater for later for running the pressure tests & the first steam-up 

Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (Jan 2, 2010)

The pump is looking good, Arnold. 



> I can just as well do a good job on the pump, as it will be needed in future again.



It's nice to try to make even the incidental bits well finished. I have a few tools in my shop that had to be made in a rush, but I find that I don't enjoy using them as much as the ones that have had a little more time put into them.
You can't always take the time for that, but it's nice when you can, for both you, and the tool.

Good work!

Dean


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## firebird (Jan 3, 2010)

Hi

Its a great honour when someone uses one of your designs, thanks Arnold. As an experiment I hooked the pump up to a larger gauge and easily achieved 100 psi.

Cheers

Rich


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## kvom (Jan 4, 2010)

I had missed following this thread for a while, so got caught up today. Great progress. I'm wondering if the engine might be *too* good. If it runs that fast at 5 PSI it might not stay on the tracks with steam power.


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## arnoldb (Jan 4, 2010)

Dean, thank you  - And you are so right. I also have a couple of quick-made things around, and use them all the time - without thinking, but it gets the job done. Some of the (to me) nicer things I made - like my collet chuck - really is a pleasure and pride to use, so I understand very well what you mean. Make no mistake though; some of the plug-ugly bits I made does the same, because I made some of those with as much dedication, but a lot less experience. Those are just as satisfactory to use; every time I see and use it now, I KNOW I can now do better, but those bits are part of my learning, and each have a bit of nostalgia associated 

Rich, thank you ;D. You've done a sterling job by providing the plans and showing how to do it, so the honour is deservedly yours  :bow:. I still have to break the bank this week and buy a good quality gauge to test with; I'm following your build and testing procedures very closely.

Thank you kvom  - That video was with the engine free-running. I in fact did try to run the loco on the half-circle of track I have, and it was too fast - hence no video of that! The loco will still get a good amount of weight from the boiler, as well as all the other accessories and panel work to be done, which should slow it down. GBritnell also explained it will perform better under true steam. I must admit I have absolutely no idea how much of a difference live steam will make, but I am really looking forward to the first steam-up! 

Kind regards, Arnold


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## NickG (Jan 4, 2010)

Arnold,
That's brilliant, could you remind me how big the loco is? What gauge is it? The pump looks pretty big, buit I guess it is a hand pump so you want it to pump quite quickly.

I can't wait to see it in steam. I've never actually steamed any of my engines, they are different and much more satisfying under steam, I know that from running commercial ones and I have steamed / driven various locos made b members at our club. I have also had a couple of my own in the past but not built by me. it's magical!

Nick


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## steamboatmodel (Jan 5, 2010)

NickG  said:
			
		

> Arnold,
> That's brilliant, could you remind me how big the loco is? What gauge is it? The pump looks pretty big, buit I guess it is a hand pump so you want it to pump quite quickly.
> 
> I can't wait to see it in steam. I've never actually steamed any of my engines, they are different and much more satisfying under steam, I know that from running commercial ones and I have steamed / driven various locos made b members at our club. I have also had a couple of my own in the past but not built by me. it's magical!
> ...


If you haven't steamed any of your engines, you are just playing with air toys. Engines need to be steamed.
Regards,
Gerald.


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## Deanofid (Jan 5, 2010)

steamboatmodel  said:
			
		

> If you haven't steamed any of your engines, you are just playing with air toys. Engines need to be steamed.
> Regards,
> Gerald.



That's just your opinion, and kind of condescending, to boot. Using air to run your engine doesn't make it any less of an engine. Using steam doesn't make it any more of an engine, either.

Dean


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## arnoldb (Jan 6, 2010)

Nick, thank you  - the engine will be about 180mm / 7" long when done, and is for O gauge track. The pump is purely to do do the hydraulic pressure test on the boiler; the loco will not be fitted with a water pump.

As to running on air vs steam - I have not run any of the models I built on steam, simply because I have not gotten around to build a boiler to use safely for that purpose. I'm sure, like me, everybody would like to run their models on steam - at least once in a while - but we all have diverse other considerations around this.

I keep my models on display in my living room and in my office; many people here in Windhoek have never seen these types of machines. Most of mine runs easily on breath power; in fact most of them has done more running on breath than on compressed air. It's a hoot to see people's faces when they see these things for the first time, and are then allowed to pick it up and feel it and blow it to see it run. No time needed for steam-ups & safety checks or anything, and it is entertaining and informative. In fact, the Tiny in my office gets taken apart and reassembled at least once a week to show visitors the internal workings as well. So my "toys" add a little extra variety, not only to my life, but also to that of others.

Kind regards, Arnold


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## NickG (Jan 6, 2010)

Gerald,

I know what you're getting at and there is something about live steam, but I'd agree with Dean, there's nothing wrong with playing with air toys. A lot of the engines you see these days are designed to run on air, since that is what you do at exhibitions and the like. Not everybody has the skills, equipment, knowhow or desire to make boilers.

Arnold, apologies, I got the wrong end of the stick there! Enjoying your build.

Nick


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## steamboatmodel (Jan 6, 2010)

My apologies if I have offended anyone. I did not intend to be condescending. As this build is obviously going to be steamed my post had been intended as tongue in check. 
Regards,
Gerald.


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## arnoldb (Jan 6, 2010)

Gerald, Nick - no worries ;D - misunderstandings happen. And absolutely no offense taken - the world would be a very boring place if people did not have different opinions ;D

Other things happen as well...

I got 2 hours shop time after work today. Started milling flats on the pump base for the handle linkage - first side went great, on the other the base pulled from the vice and got ruined. Should have stopped there, but no. Started on the link for the handle to the piston. Went well; looked good, and then I drilled the back for tapping. It was supposed to be for M5 to match the thread I made on the piston. So I drilled the hole, IGNORING the feeling that something was wrong, and started to tap. Tap went in waay to easy; I ended up drilling for M6 thread, so that bit of work is lost as well.
Some ruined parts - maybe I must rather stay out of the shop after a hard day at work; Zee's Jabberwockie got me today...:





Also damaged my bank account; bought a good quality pressure gauge that reads up to 1000kPa - that's very near to 150psi - and an adapter for it that I can modify to suit my fittings; the thread on the gauge's own connector looks to be about M10x1 for which I have no taps/die:





Regards, Arnold


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## ariz (Jan 6, 2010)

arnold, I'm sorry for the incidents that have occurred

when I make the same error as your in threading, I pass to the next thread (from M5 to M6) instead to rebuild the piece ;D
but I know that this isn't always possible

and for the M10x1 thread of the gauge, may be that you can attempt to thread the female in the lathe?
uhmmm, perhaps better to buy the correct tap... :

anyway, compliments for your work till now, the boiler is very very well done :bow:


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 6, 2010)

Hi Arnold. Sorry about the boo-boo...that will soon be forgotten!

Rich's pumps was one of the first things I saw when I joined the forum. I have it in my list of things to do too.

Oh...and not my Jabberwockie...that was Marv's.


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## Deanofid (Jan 6, 2010)

Must be a bad day for machinists. Just got done reading Tony's (Cobra428) post on his Whittle, and now see your pump troubles. 

It all seems to hit at once. Had my own shop doofus pop his head up today while single pointing some threads on the lathe. Threads were looking just pretty as you please. Stopped for a minute to check them with a nut and.. what the heck? I'd cut a perfect length of thread for 3/4"-16. But I put them on a .775 diameter shaft. How does that stuff happen?

Everything will be better tomorrow, Arnold. For both of us!

Dean


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## NickG (Jan 7, 2010)

Gerald,

No offense taken! 

Arnold, sorry to hear about the mishap - but I bet it happen even to the experts!

Nick


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## firebird (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi Arnold

Sorry to see your mishap but if its any consolation do you remember I melted the first pump I made when silver soldering it together. Sometimes its hard to remember this is a hobby and we do it for fun. Just have another go and it will come right in the end.

Cheers

Rich


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## arnoldb (Jan 8, 2010)

Ariz, Zee, Dean, Nick & Rich - thank you for checking in and your comments and commiserations.

Ariz, thank you; I'll use the link on another project ;D and for now I don't need to do threading yet; there is an adapter screwed on the guage in the photo; I bought the adapter to match the guage threads and I'll just machine & thread the outside to my own requirements  I'll still buy a set of taps and a die for the M10x1 for future use though; Rob has given me some very good reasons to do so for future use.

Zee, it's just more parts for my personal wall ;D - and I'll try and persuade Mr. Jabberwockie to depart back to his original haunt... Marv's going to hate me for this 

Dean, it sure looks like it was a bad day for a lot of us  - I think I'll chalk up 6 January on next year's calendar as a "no machining" day!

Nick, I won't take you on at your bet; I'm darn sure mishaps happen to experts as well. I think the difference is that on the occasion an expert makes a mishap, it's a lot bigger 

Rich, thank you; and yes, I do remember your mishap as well. In fact, I was not going to post my booboo, but that just would not have been right, as it's part of the build experience. I actually went back to the workshop to take the photo of the ruined parts just for the post. Tomorrow I'll just re-make the parts  - the second time round is usually easier!

Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Jan 10, 2010)

Well, Saturday turned into a no-shop day for me, so I got an early start this morning.

First up was a new stand for the pump. This stainless steel is a bit of a challenge to work; I found that wit LOTS of synthetic oil/water coolant and aggressive feed it works well. First I drilled a 5mm pilot hole, then the plunged the 12mm drill bit through at lowest speed on my drill press (220RPM). A photo after I finished drilling the 12mm hole for the pump body in the new block; the white puddles is the coolant:






I also drilled out holes for the top link mounting, and a 5mm hole on the side for threading M6 for a grub screw to hold the pump cylinder in place. My bandsaw didn't like the stainless very much either; normally it cuts pretty square, but at the top and bottom of the piece you can see how the cut ran off at an angle when I cut the block from bar:





After that I hacksawed most of the excess metal off around the link connection, and milled away the rest; slowest high-range speed on the Myford, once again with lots of coolant. This time things worked out ;D. I turned the base of the stand square with the 4-jaw - and the stand was finished. Some brass plate and bar was sawn and filed to shape for the handle and linkages, stainless steel pins turned up and threaded, and a new brass fork for the piston-handle connection made. No photos; I got too busy and was working at a good clip.

Next up was the 2 valves, also from stainless rod; simple turning job with the collet chuck, and then using 3 marks in the collet nut as "basic indexing" and some filing with a small flat file; three flats on each valve. Parted off, and clamped in toolmaker's clamp then in big vice, and used a hacksaw to cut 2 grooves on the top of each valve; then some more filing for additional clearance on the valve top. A photo of one of the finished valves:





A quick assembly of the lot and a test in a bowl of water and it pumps ;D - I don't know to what pressure yet, as I still have to do some plumbing work for that, but was out of time for today:





I'll most likely be quiet until next Saturday, as I'm flying to Johannesburg tomorrow for a week-long course, with very limited - if any - Internet connectivity.

Regards, Arnold


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 10, 2010)

Just look at that last picture....man oh man...

train tracks...a boiler...a pump...part of a loco...

Have a good trip.


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## Deanofid (Jan 10, 2010)

Good job on the pump, Arnold. It looks good, and appears to be a sturdy unit. 
Hopefully, you'll get lots of use from it. : )

Dean


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## arnoldb (Jan 10, 2010)

Zee, Dean, thank you 

Thanks Zee , I just wish the track I had was the full "deluxe" track set I ordered & not the "figure 8 expansion pack" I was sent... In that photo, you can see ALL of the track I have, except for a crossing piece. If I did have the lot, I'd have horrified everybody with a loop around the track with the loco body running on compressed air ;D - for now, it looks like it's first runs will have to happen on a straight line made from wooden 1/4 rounds... (I am - to put it EXTREMELY politely - "Annoyed" with the people from trainz.com...)
And thanks, I'll try and have a good trip 

Dean, thank you; I hope so too; it does not look as good as I wanted, but for now it's function over looks 

Kind regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Jan 16, 2010)

A bit more progress on Fred.

This afternoon I silver soldered a piece of copper pipe to the adapter I have for the pressure gauge, turned up an olive and nut to match the pump connection, and tested the lot. Had to do that in the kitchen, as there is no open flat space available in the workshop :hDe: - I'll have to tidy up a bit...

The pump works well; easily (and nearly too quickly!) went up to 150psi:





An hour later, a very small loss of pressure, but I think this is OK:




I played around with the setup a bit; releasing and re-pressurizing a couple of times, and will now leave it under pressure overnight to see what happens...

I also made up some plugs for the connections on the boiler, as well as a t-piece to connect the pump and gauge to it. Tomorrow I just need to make two nuts and olives, and fit that to a piece of pipe to give the boiler a pressure test:





Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Jan 16, 2010)

Hi Arnold

Great job Thm: 

Regards Rob


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## firebird (Jan 16, 2010)

Hi Arnold.

The pump looks great and works well. I have used mine to test 2 boilers so far and I'm sure it will test many more. Well done.

Cheers

Rich


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## Jared (Jan 16, 2010)

Been following this build all along and it's looking good, Arnold. If you don't like the pressure loss and you think it might be the check valves, you can always put a valve after the pump to close after you pump it up. I worked for an excavation contractor and we would put in water and sewer pipes that had to be pressure tested to 100 or 150 psi for 30-45 minutes. The pump was basically the same as yours only scaled up about 4X. We always closed that extra valve just to make sure any loss wasn't through the check valves. It was faster and cheaper that way.


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## shred (Jan 16, 2010)

Yeah, what Jared says.. my plunger pump leaks pretty badly so I have a valve to shut it off once I'm up to pressure. It's amazing how quick it comes up, isn't it.

I've considered inserting a Goodall-style check valve made from a bit of silicone tubing-- that should be pretty leak resistant at 100 PSI.


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## vlmarshall (Jan 16, 2010)

shred  said:
			
		

> I've considered inserting a Goodall-style check valve made from a bit of silicone tubing-- that should be pretty leak resistant at 100 PSI.


No kidding! I tested my Cracker boilers with the Goodalls in place and didn't get squirted at 150PSI like I was expecting. Good idea for a quick check valve! :bow:


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## Deanofid (Jan 17, 2010)

Looks like you're all ready to test the boiler, Arnold. Good going!

What's an olive in this application? Same thing as a ferrule, like a small compression fitting?

And.. I know what the eating kind of olive is, for all you wise owls just about to pounce on your keyboards!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Jan 17, 2010)

Rob, Thanks very much Mate ;D

Rich, thank you very much  - and thank you for the design - works a treat!

Jared, Shred, Vernon, thank you for your input  - I nearly made an extra valve but things worked out OK for now. Never heard of a Goodall valve; a search brought up that it is basically just a valve made using a bit of silicone tubing to block two cross-drilled holes connected to a center hole ? - sort of like a "round" Reed valve ? - filed away for future reference as it can be very useful!

Dean, thank you  - I'm not sure if the two are the same. In my application, the olive is soldered to the pipe, whereas I think ferrules are commonly used in plumbing to use connectors to crimp them down around the pipes. Could be the same thing though, and I might have the cat by the tail :big:. Hmmmm Olives.... I feel like something Mediterranean tonight 

I had a very good day bar one DUH moment today; rain this morning to keep things cool, my team won the Dakar, and progress on Fred ;D

First thing this morning I made some olives and nuts for more plumbing:





Silver soldered the olives to a length of copper pipe (AFTER I put the nuts on the pipe and made sure everything was right way around). I just looped the pipe around the back of the vertical fire brick to get the ends close together for soldering:





Then back to the kitchen for the tests; all filled up with water and plugged to test:





First up, slowly brought the pressure up to 550 kPa; that's close enough to 80 psi:





Then I loosened the connection nut on the top of the pump to relieve the pressure, tightened the nut, and brought things back up to pressure again. This was for a bit of a stress-test. I overshot the pressure a bit - went to about 610kPa (~90psi), but that's OK:





An hour later, a very slight drop in pressure, but that was about the same as I had with the guage only. And no leaks at all on the boiler ;D:





I consider the boiler safe to use now; the pressure tests were slightly more than double the designed maximum pressure of 40 psi, and from the engine tests, it might have to normally run at at only 20 psi or so. So the boiler needs a way to mount on the locomotive. As I deviated from the original plans, I had to figure out a new way of mounting it. I decided on a circular flange that can be bolted to the frame with four 2mm screws, so next up, I started on the flange.

I marked up a piece of brass plate, and then puzzled on how to cut the hole for the boiler in it. I don't have a trepanning tool or a suitable hole saw. So I settled on a block of wood for a mounting surface, and nailed the plate to it through the mounting holes (which I had already drilled). Nails, because I don't have suitable small screws in stock. Mounted the lot in the 4-jaw and centered everything. I would have liked tailstock support to keep the center cut-out in place, but could not get the tailstock center past the top slide... So I went without, and VERY carefully cut the hole - Slow speed and very fine feed indeed; as that center disk was going to come out running, with sharp edges... While reviewing the photos for this post I had the DUH oh: oh: moment; I could just have screwed the center part to the wood block as well!! - so a photo on how NOT to do it:





Things turned out OK though:





The flange was a press-fit over the boiler; I needed to use a hammer and a bearing outer shell for support to tap it into place on the boiler. Not wanting to bring the boiler to silver soldering temperature again, I soft-soldered the flange in place; there is no pressure involved, and the boiler should never reach the melting point of the soft solder; this is just a precaution, as the flange is already a press fit and should not move.

After soldering on the flange, I scrubbed the boiler with some scotch-brite and gave it a rub-down with acetone, then sprayed it with high temperature black paint - after covering all the mounting flanges again:





I couldn't resist a mock-up assembly of the parts so far ;D :





Some more plumbing required... The regulator and oiler (as well as the missing water gauge glass nuts) up next. Darn... The weekend's over...

Regards, Arnold


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## RobWilson (Jan 17, 2010)

Hi Arnold 

Fred is looking stunning Thm: , i am pleased the boiler test went OK , :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:


Great job ,regards Rob


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## ariz (Jan 17, 2010)

great progress in this week end arnold!
the boiler is very nice, and your test has proved that it is very strong too 

Fred is proceeding fast and well, carry on arnold


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## vlmarshall (Jan 17, 2010)

Mannnnnnnnnnnnn that's looking good. :bow:


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## SBWHART (Jan 17, 2010)

Hi Arnold

Thats looking superb, 


I bet you couldn't resist giving it a little push and going choo choo.

 woohoo1 woohoo1

I know I couldn't:- :big: :big: :big: :big: :big: :big:

Great work enjoying your build.

Have fun

Stew


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## Maryak (Jan 17, 2010)

Arnold,

Great work man. :bow:

In Oz Olives come in Copper and Nylon and are used mostly by plumbers. They are not soldered to the pipe. Nylon for cold and lower pressures, Copper for hot and higher pressures. Ferrules are a slightly different system and are used on such things as condenser tube plates where the ferrule is screwed into the tube plate, using a slotted T spanner, with fibrous packing behind it, allowing for expansion and contraction of the tube(s). The 3rd way was originally to upset the end of the copper pipe to form a bulge against which the the mating male and female fittings locked to form a seal. This was later superseded by a bronze ring soldered to the pipe about one pipe diameter from the end and works in exactly the same way as the upsetting of the pipe.

This information is contained in "Bob's Glossary of Useless Knowledge," (has restricted access coz it's easy to get lost in there ;D)

Best Regards
Bob


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## Deanofid (Jan 17, 2010)

I like your assembly shots, Arnold. It keeps us on the hook.
Good results on the boiler test. It's ready when you are!

Thanks for pictures of the olives. 
The compression fitting I mentioned that we use here (US) looks somewhat similar, but has the same bevel on each end, and is swaged onto the copper tubing when the two mating surfaces are squeezed together by opposing nuts, (fittings). 
The other thing Bob mentioned is used here too, we call flaring, or a flare fitting. The end of the tube is formed by a mandrel, resulting in a flare shape that matches the surface of another pipe fitting. 
I guess we use the same stuff, but different.

Dean


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## Maryak (Jan 17, 2010)

Deanofid  said:
			
		

> The other thing Bob mentioned is used here too, called flaring, or a flare fitting. The end of the tube is formed by a mandrel, resulting in a flare shape that matches the surface of another pipe fitting.
> I guess we use the same stuff, but different.
> 
> Dean



Actually that's No4. and I had forgotten to mention it - another senior moment, as I said you can get lost in there. :

Best Regards
Bob


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## arnoldb (Jan 18, 2010)

Rob, Ariz, Vernon, Stew, Bob& Dean, thank you very much 

Stew, yes, I was going Choo Choo - how did you guess ? :big:

Bob, thank you; technical information is never useless  - 

Dean, thanks for the reminder on the flaring; I actually have two pipe flaring tools - metric and imperial - never used them though... Hmmm... Chimney will need a flare...

Kind regards, Arnold


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## GailInNM (Jan 18, 2010)

Coming along nicely Arnold.
It sure is fun when you have a rolling chassis to play with.
Gail in NM


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## arnoldb (Jan 19, 2010)

Thank you Gail . It's a lot of fun; I can't wait to finish the loco!

I managed to grab an hour and a half shop time this evening. Made the regulator-to-boiler fitting from some brass rod bits soldered together. At least I remembered to check where the side that screws onto the boiler bottomed out on its thread, and drilled the hole for the angle piece in the right position so that the regulator would be nice and square. Some more finishing required though; I think I need to take fuzzy photos!:






Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (Jan 19, 2010)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> Thank you Gail .  I think I need to take fuzzy photos!:



No, no, Arnold. That kind of stuff happens enough without trying. 
Show us warts and all. We all have a wart or two in the shop, you know.

Dean


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## arnoldb (Jan 20, 2010)

Thank you Dean ;D


> We all have a wart or two in the shop, you know.


I think I'm building up a bullfrog colony 

Some work on the regulator this evening...

First up some more bits of brass turned & threaded to make the regulator body. Ready to solder on the pipe connection piece on the body; I just filed the bit of threaded brass to fit the contour of the main body. The toolmaker's clamp is showing what frequent use on the firebrick, combined with regular rainy days is doing to it...





And done... I think my silver soldering is slowly improving:





Next up, the valve spindle; some 4mm stainless rod in the collet chuck, turned down to a taper point:





Then it needed to get turned down length-wise for 3mm thread and clearance at the back. I improvised tailstock support using a scrap brass part-off piece with a centered hole (I think this was from my rocking engine's crank!) in the tailstock chuck on the taper on the workpiece; worked a treat:





Results of this evening's work; the piece of threaded brass rod on the lower left is the source for nearly all the brass pieces I've been machining up the last couple of days...





Regards, Arnold


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## seagar (Jan 20, 2010)

Thank you Arnold for showing us this build.I am finding it most interesring and Fred is begining to look like a real thoroughbred.

Ian(seagar)
Coffs Harbour,
Australia.


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## arnoldb (Jan 22, 2010)

Thank you very much Ian 

A bit more done on the regulator this afternoon after work.

First up, I made the "inner" part of the regulator that the spindle operates in; nothing major; just a convenient piece of 5mm brass threaded rod drilled & tapped part-way for M3 to fit the spindle.

Next up was the packing nut to fit on the outside of the spindle; I don't have suitable hex stock, so the nut had to be made from scratch. Drilled more of my bigger threaded brass rod through at 2.4 mm to complete nut depth, then 4.2mm part-way through that and tapped M5 for the spindle inner mentioned earlier. The outside was then turned down, and then I filed six flats on it to make it into a nut. I couldn't be bothered to set up the lathe for milling the hexagonal flats; I just used the collet chuck nut's tightening grooves and an inside turning tool as both the index marker and basic filing guide:





I've been pondering on whether to use a crank arm (like the original plans show) or a wheel to operate the regulator. Made my final choice, and it will be a wheel, so the valve spindle needs a way to mount the wheel and a retaining nut. I'm not about to go about making flats and a square hole with 2mm sides yet, so the wheel will be threaded and a lock-nut used. This meant I need a section of M2 thread on the end of the valve. No problem; just shove it in the 3-2mm ER collet and add the thread... Unfortunately not that easy; the ER collet's grip depth was too deep, so I'd have to grip on the spindle threads... - no go. I made a quick and dirty split collet from 5mm aluminium rod; first used a junior hacksaw to saw it down length-wise, then in the collet chuck and drilled for a close fit in the spindle shaft. Sawed off just behind the longitudinal split and with spindle shoved in, it came to this:




(Sorry; photo's a bit darkish)

Then mounted the lot back in the collet chuck, with the aluminium split collet's non-split part sticking out slightly, so that the ER collet can clamp down on the split only:





That worked a treat; I just turned down the end of the spindle to 2mm and used the tailstock die holder to thread it M2.

A trial assembly; starting to look more like a regulator :





At this point, a pink "glow" invaded my workshop; an indication of a beautiful Namibian sunset outside, as well as time for a drink and making dinner, so I closed shop and started on the rest  :





More tomorrow....

Regards, Arnold


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## cfellows (Jan 22, 2010)

Lovely work, Arnold. I may be convinced to build a boiler yet!

Chuck


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## Deanofid (Jan 22, 2010)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> Thank you Dean ;DI think I'm building up a bullfrog colony



No worries, Arnold. I hear croaking noises every time I walk past the door of the shop. Pretty sure it's normal. 
At least you know we're all brothers in this stuff.

Nice shots of your continuing work. I use a similar way of making a split collet for holding off sized work or tiny bits. A handy work holding solution.

Keep up the good work!

Ribbitt..

Dean


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## arnoldb (Jan 23, 2010)

Chuck, Thank you  - So far it's not that difficult for me; plus I'm learning a lot in the process. Just plain Fun!

Thank you Dean :big: - Ribbit! *beer*

My morning shop time was interrupted by a recalcitrant server at work  - took a good bite out of my fun.

Some done though - including another minor booboo.

A quick visit to a tire fitment center produced a bag full of tire valves that would normally just be thrown away. Goodie; a freebie!. The staff there were so helpful, that they actually started unscrewing the valves from the stems, but I asked them for stems & all; the stems are nice little brass pipes hidden inside a lot of rubber. It appears that tire valve technology is changing; the type with the long spring favoured by modelers are disappearing. 
Here is a collection with three different types I found; the one on the left is the one I wanted a lot of, but only a couple surfaced. The one in the middle appears to be the standard used now, with the one on the right another different design, with a very small spring fit to the top of the pin. I'd like a couple more of those as well; those small springs can be handy. 




Oh yes, in case you're wondering why I wanted the valves; it's for bits to make the safety valve for the boiler. The valve cap also came in handy!

I marked, drilled, tapped and loctited in the 2mm boiler mounting studs on the frames:





Then I improvised a water filler adapter and cap from some of the tire valves; removed the rubber from one and turned & threaded it to fit the boiler. I got some "shiny" metal valve caps as part of the haul; a bit of emery and the shiny coating (most likely nickel plating) was gone, and the cap is brass. Didn't take a photo of this though.

Next up was the safety valve; I proceeded to build a booboo on the bottom bit for it; I first turned & threaded the one side M5 with a 2mm through-hole, then, using a bit of rod with an M5 threaded hole in the chuck, screwed it in to do the other side. That had to be threaded M6. Too much torque, and it broke on the M5 side. oh: Lesson learnt; try and do the big threads first on a piece like this:





So I restarted the safety valve bottom, big threads first, and took a bit of practice at using the lathe like a shaper to cut gripping grooves on it:




I was surprised how easy this was; back& forth with the carriage with a 2 thou infeed for each pass until each groove was 0.5mm deep.

Today's bits were all fit to the boiler, with some ptfe tape to seal the threads; I also assembled the regulator completely ; just the handwheel need to be made & installed on it. I'm not too happy with the tire cap filler; it does not "look" right, so I'll most likely re-make the filler to look like the safety valve:





Hopefully I'll have a better day tomorrow!

Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (Jan 23, 2010)

You "built a booboo". Gee, I don't think I've ever done that. They seem to turn up without even trying to "build" it. : )

Good post, Arnold. All your posts are good!

Dean


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 24, 2010)

This is a great thread. I am really enjoying this build and learning much.
And the sunset pic was a great bonus. Beautiful.


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## bearcar1 (Jan 24, 2010)

Hiya Arnold, what a beautiful sunset. And your work on Fred has been impeccable for lack of a better word. Nicely done! BRAVO! :bow:

best regards

BC1
Jim


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## arnoldb (Jan 24, 2010)

Thank you very much Dean ;D - You're lucky, all my booboos take time, material and effort to "engineer" :big:

Zee, thank you ;D - I hope you're learning something useful though; the booboos are not good to replicate; but I'm sure you are aware of that . And the "bonus" pic was a pleasure; that's the kind of thing that makes me put up with some difficulties in obtaining tools & materials rather than emigrating  

Thanks very much for the compliment Jim ;D ; you caught me while busy posting the next update 

Fred's build is now at an awkward stage; lots of fiddly bits that just plain takes a lot of time to do. Spent a lot of time today filing hex pieces on nuts; wish I had a milling machine!. I completed the safety valve, water gauge, regulator handwheel and chimney. Didn't take a lot of photos though.

Completed the water gauge first; made two nuts, and used some ptfe plumber's tape rubbed into strings to make the seals around the glass. for the top plug, I used a bit of 5mm brass threaded rod off-cut that had a 3mm hole in the end. A cheap 3mm allen socket, with the end touched to the bench grinder to leave sharp edges, threaded rod screwed into an M5 nut, and a whack with a hammer; made an instant hex-drive plug  - no photo of the part, but visible in last photo of this post.

Hand wheel rim knurled:




I didn't apply an oil coating to the knurling tool after I made it, so it rusted like mad with our recent good rains. Tooling clean-up for later!
I also faced the one side of the wheel a bit hollow, then threaded it M2 before parting off. Screwed it on the regulator spindle, with some loctite, and an m2 retaining nut.

Getting ready to solder the chimney; I used a piece of copper pipe the same size as the boiler flue for the body, with another piece of the same pipe that I just snipped a longitudinal strip out of with tin snips for the adapter piece; leaving a wide-enough gap for passing over the exhaust tube. The top (which is in the bottom on the photo, is a crimp-on brass ferrule like was mentioned earlier in the thread; in this case used for looks rather than function:




Some cleaning, and painting followed, then some time in the oven; I used the same high temp black paint on it as on the rest of the loco.

Finally, the loco as it stands this evening. The wire is to get an idea of the length, and curves needed for the steam supply pipe to the engine; I might have to build a pipe bender, as some curves are a bit tight:





I hope to get enough done through the week and next weekend to try a steam test by next Sunday!

Regards, Arnold


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2010)

Hi Arnold, she looks like a loco now. Very nice job. 
gbritnell


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## arnoldb (Jan 25, 2010)

Thank you very much indeed gbritnel 

I nipped in a bit of shop time after work and started on the lubricator.

The body is from a bit of "chromed" copper pipe like used from water pipes in walls to wash basins and so on. I removed the shiny coating down to bare copper with sandpaper. Then I turned up a brass bush threaded M8 for the filler cap, as well as the bottom piece - which I forgot to thread M5 before removing from the lathe. An experiment with bending the copper pipe I have, and no sign of collapse or flattening while bending ;D. The bits and bobs made today:





And soldered together:





That lot is spending the night in the pickle; hopefully I can finish off the lubricator tomorrow evening; it needs a filler cap, and the bottom drain valve, and cosmetic work.

Regards, Arnold


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## bentprop (Jan 25, 2010)

Fred sure looks good,Arnold.Do you have a track around the garden,or is he just for display?
Either or,nice work. Thm:


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## NickG (Jan 25, 2010)

It really is looking fantastic Arnold. :bow:

Nick


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## cfellows (Jan 25, 2010)

Dang it, between you and Shred, I'm beginning to think a small engine & boiler mounted on wheels going around on a track would be a pretty neat accomplishment. Where am I going to find the time?  :-\

Chuck


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## arnoldb (Jan 26, 2010)

Thank You Hans ;D - The loco will be run regularly. I have a biggish built-up planter on my porch/entertainment area where I want to put up a railway; a garden layout here in Namibia is a no-go, as the sun would burn the tracks to bits in no time. I will hopefully have the first tracks to lay by end February.

Nick, Thank you! ;D

Chuck, you're a dab hand at machining already; you'll have it done in a flash. I wonder how far your Henry Ford engine can scale down - put that on a chassis with wheels; it would be a hoot to see running! 

Some more after-work shop time ;D - Cleaned up the lubricator-to-be a bit, and made more nuts. I think I'm nearly done filing round bits into hex shape on this build!. As it is, I made a very good looking nut first time, and when I tested it oh: - made it M5 and not M6! So a spare bit for a future build.

Today's shot; lubricator in position, and main steam pipe bent to near-final shape and shortened to length, with the fitting nuts in place:




The lubricator just needs a cap and the bottom part of it's drain valve, as well as the actual oil hole drilled in the piece of main pipe running through it. I actually started on the rest of the valve, but when cross-drilling for the operating handle, "SNAP" - my only 2mm drill bit is a goner. So I stopped there for tonight; need a couple of new 2mm drills!
The steam pipe also need to have olives silver soldered to either end.

Regards, Arnold


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## CrewCab (Jan 26, 2010)

Coming along nicely Arnold ............ not too long till the inaugural video now ;D

I know you've said before that tooling is a bit awkward to get in your part of the world, how do you go on for things like drill bits, can you get those pretty easily 

Good luck, looking forward to the rest ;D

CC


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## bearcar1 (Jan 26, 2010)

Terrific looking craftsmanship Arnold, it is always enjoyable to see your progress on Fred ;D. BTW, have you given any thought to perhaps doing a wooden deck as opposed to metal scratch.gif. The very early estate engines featured them. They appeared to be cargo wagons that had been fitted with a boiler, small engine and flanged wheels. In looking at your current build, I could see that feature being used and being able to have 'the look'. I'm certainly not wanting to dictate *knuppel2*, merely make an observation. Keep up the marvelous work Thm: and thanks for sharing the ride.

Bc1
Jim


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## kvom (Jan 26, 2010)

Looking good!


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## Deanofid (Jan 26, 2010)

It seems that "we" can't be too far from a test run, Arnold. It sure looks like a steam loco to me.
Thanks for keeping us up to date!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Jan 27, 2010)

CC, Thank you ;D - fortunately "consumables" like drill bits are easy to get here; it's just more specialised tooling and things like very small taps that's difficult. The tooling is expensive though because of high import duties, transport costs and taxes. Internet based ordering is possible, but I am hesitant to do it; I've lost a lot of money because of incorrect deliveries and things going missing in the post.

Thank you Jim; for now I'll stick to metal, but wood definitely is not ruled out for future builds. I can do some half-decent woodwork, but don't enjoy it as much as metalwork 

kvom, Thank you 

Thanks Dean; there is still quite a bit of cosmetic work to do, but the steam-up is close!

Bob (Maryak) sent me a most helpful PM with advice regarding the lubricator. As it turns out, having the lubricator in the main steam line could be a source of headaches caused by too much condensation and interference with steam flow. I was concerned about engine wear, but it will not be that fast, and, having built the parts once, re-making worn parts in future will be a doddle, as the engine is actually quite simple. So I shelved the lubricator; I'll see how the loco holds up with running with a good manual oiling before steam-ups ;D Thank you Bob ;D

This evening I made up a new pipe for the steam supply, made the olives for the connections and set about soldering them on:






The exhaust pipe must go back from the engine to the chimney; It is just pressed & loctited into the exhaust port of the engine, asit does not run under pressure. To make the pipe a closer fit to the port on the engine block, I used my center punch to just flare out the end of the pipe a bit and filed it down for the press fit:





A photo of the loco with the pipe work done; the exhaust pipe will be painted black as well, and the main steam pipe cladded with cotton rope later:





Chimney removed to show how the exhaust pipe is located and bent:





With all the pipe connections made, I pressurised the loco to 20psi with the compressor, and used soap water to test for leaks around al the fittings. Happily, I saw no bubbles appearing ;D

I couldn't resist taking a video of the loco running on air ;D This was the first opportunity I had to see if the regulator actually works properly.
[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wra2eveWfns&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wra2eveWfns&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

First steam-up is not far away now!


Regards, Arnold


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## vlmarshall (Jan 27, 2010)

Most excellent. I'm envious.


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## 4156df (Jan 27, 2010)

Arnold,
That's just too cool for words! Must be a great feeling to see it run.
Regards,
Dennis


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## CrewCab (Jan 27, 2010)

Look to the North .......... and then just a little left and you'll see a glow in the sky ........ that'll be me beaming ............... ;D

Cracking work Arnold, and I love the way it runs ever so slooooooooowwwwlllllyyyyy 8)

CC


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## Maryak (Jan 27, 2010)

4156df  said:
			
		

> Arnold,
> That's just too cool for words! Must be a great feeling to see it run.
> Regards,
> Dennis



I'm with Dennis. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 27, 2010)

Woo hoo! Much anticipation here.


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## Deanofid (Jan 27, 2010)

Oh yeah! It does run nice and smooth, and down to a nice slow tick, too. 
A fat man in Idaho is smiling.

Dean


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## cobra428 (Jan 27, 2010)

arnoldb,
Very Nice, You had me waiting for the white smoke out the stack when you showed how the exhaust was set up.

When are the steam trials?

Tony


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## joe d (Jan 27, 2010)

That's looking really good, Arnold. Sounds good, too!

Another one looking forward to the steam trials....

Joe


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## kustomkb (Jan 28, 2010)

Super job Arnold!

can't wait to see it chugging down the tracks.


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## arnoldb (Jan 30, 2010)

Vernon, Dennis, CC, Bob, Zee, Dean, Tony, Joe and Kevin, Thank you all for your positive support and feedback ;D

Some good news, and some bad news... Good news, Fred Runs ;D - bad news; You'll have to wait for a lot of pictures to load :big:

I've been quiet the last couple of days; first up, a major thunder storm and high winds kept me away from the shop on 28/01 - No use; as a power outage is nearly certain:





Yesterday evening's work:

Brass plate laid out for a burner reservoir; after layout, and scoring out deepish marking lines, I annealed the plates:





And bent the lot to size using my big vise and a hammer:





Then I made some more bits for the burner; wick tubes & bottoms:





Drilling the wick tubes for the feed pipe:





The feed pipe with a V-notch filed in it for the first wick tube. I made a booboo on the end wick tube; instead of drilling just one side, I drilled it through, so I used a bit of "scrap" that happened to be threaded M2 in the extra hole. The booboo in this case turned out to be useful for mounting the burner to the loco!:





Filler pipe for the burner; from some 5mm brass tube; Filed down to bend it to about 80 degrees and then solder up:





Burner assembly ready to silver solder:





For a change, something cheap came my way ;D With a lot of people here in Namibia with a very low income, many don't have electricity, and paraffin lamps are still widely used, so wicks are available everywhere. A pop in to my closest grocer, and I have 3 pieces of wicking at N$ 1.25 each; that's US$ 0.17:





While the burner was laying in the pickle, I got to work on a "track" to test Fred - no thanks to trainz.com  . I used a bit of "wheatbix" (Chip Board) left over from kitchen renovations last year:





Brown Stuff: (Wood :big
My dad kindly gave me his router that he wasn't using anymore last year, and it's been sitting in a box since then. I've never used a router in my life; so this was a first for me today. I bought two 6x12 aluminium angle lengths of 2.5m each, and calculated how to lay out a track using these on the above chip board to "make" tracks and minimise wastage. So I used the router to cut grooves in the board to fit the aliminium angle for a layout:





I miscalculated a bit :hDe:; forgot to halve the lengths of the straight run tracks for each piece, so ended up short on the tracks, so had to improvise a bit. 





First fire-up! Glow from below boiler.





View down the chimney; Flames are a bit orange, this is caused by the wicks used for the first time:




Apologies for the crude burner mounting; a strip of soda can to hold it in place...

[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gtQBUO_hOTE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gtQBUO_hOTE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

Sorry, no "finesse" this was Fred's first run on steam! - and my first steam run besides from using a pressure cooker!. Some leaks to sort out, and a LOT of hissing and sputtering. Now I'm really glad I don't have the lubricator in line - thanks Bob! - there is a LOT of condensation; maybe I have a bit of a foaming problem as well. I'll play some more tomorrow!

Regards, Arnold


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## SAM in LA (Jan 30, 2010)

That's really neat.

Great work.


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## Maryak (Jan 30, 2010)

Arnold,

 Thm: woohoo1 th_confused0052


Fanbloodytastic. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## mklotz (Jan 30, 2010)

Wonderbaarlik. Ausgezeichnet. Fantastic. Bravo.


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## vlmarshall (Jan 30, 2010)

Congrats Arnold! :bow: I bet that first run was a lot of fun. Wow, I'm envious... I've gotta get back to working on my Crackers. ;D


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## slick95 (Jan 30, 2010)

Congrats Arnold, nicely done :bow: :bow: :bow:


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 30, 2010)

Wow Wow and Wow. Even better...Marv's "Ausgezeichnet". Now that's what I mean. (I hadn't heard that in years)

Wow Arnold. Someday I hope to feel that thrill. Gee.

That's just awesome. I am really happy for you.

Thanks so much for sharing.


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## shred (Jan 30, 2010)

Great! It runs!



Of course now progress will slow down dramatically as you spend an inordinate amount of time playing with the thing...


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## joe d (Jan 30, 2010)

Yea! Congrats to Fred. Congrats to Arnold too :big: :big:

Looking good, sounding good, and I can see your grin up here in North America!

Cheers, Joe


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## Deanofid (Jan 30, 2010)

Woo-hoo! Way to go, Arnold!

I'll just bet you were wearing your engineer's cap and bib overalls.
: ) 
I probably would have..

Dean


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## ozzie46 (Jan 30, 2010)

Yeah Arnold. Way to go. Thm: Thm: Thm: Thm:

 Ron


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## 4156df (Jan 30, 2010)

Way to go, Arnold.  That's got to be a thrill!
Dennis


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## rake60 (Jan 30, 2010)

Congratulations Arnold! Thm:

Rick


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## RobWilson (Jan 31, 2010)

Hi Arnold

 :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: nice one mate Thm:

Regards Rob


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## SBWHART (Jan 31, 2010)

Way to go Arnold Great Job 

 :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:



Have fun

Stew


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## firebird (Jan 31, 2010)

Well done Arnold. :bow: :bow: :bow:

If you you could bottle the feeling you get when your engine first runs you could make a fortune selling it

Rich


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## bearcar1 (Jan 31, 2010)

BRAVO!!!! Arnold, that is making me grin. Man, I have to tell you I am very impressed with how you are able to 'get around' potential obstacles like making your own track system. I'm not sure I would have thought of that. :-\ Well done indeed. Fred seems to be willing to do your bidding but seems a tad shy.  What a great thread this one is, I truly enjoy reading about and seeing your experiences. Thank you :bow: Marvelous build. More to come, and I know it will be just as enjoyable to see the next chapter unfold. HOORAH for FRED!!!

BC1
Jim


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## dsquire (Jan 31, 2010)

Arnold

Congratulations. I can just about feel that great big grin over here that you must have had on your face as it made the first circuit of the track. th_wav

Cheers 

Don


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## arnoldb (Jan 31, 2010)

THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH for the overwhelming response and enthusiasm! ;D - Baie Dankie ! :bow:
There's a lot of special thanks to be said as well; I'll wait with that till the build is finished.

I didn't do much today; made a new safety valve, as the first one was leaking, fixed a leak on the regulator shaft, stripped the engine and cleaned it to make sure there are no "bits" in there from running so far, and fixed a leak that appeared where the burner feed pipe went into the reservoir. I also temporarily fit the fly-cranks and coupling rods. At some future point, I'll have to re-make the bottom cylinder heads; I've been running the engine without packing nuts on the rods, and when I tried to make some nuts, I discovered I left too tight a tolerance for the nuts; their sides collapse or undercut when making...

The bottle I used for the fill-up water must have had some kind of a residue in it that caused foaming; I thoroughly cleaned it, and on some more trial runs had less problems with water going to the engine.

Fred's running a lot better now, but the burner appears inadequate; it still runs out of steam after a lap of the "track" - or even free-running on top of the vise like I've shown it on air. I'll play around with different wick settings to see if I can't get it to maintain steam pressure while running - a gas burner is definitely on the cards.

I'd like to have Fred finished by next Sunday, so this week I have to fit in quite a bit of plate work and cosmetics: the reverser stand and coupling, buffers, foot plate, dummy water tank, coal bunker and a complete paint-job overhaul, clean-up and detailing. Still lots to do!

Another short clip of Fred running the circuit; not much different from yesterday's, but a bit less sputtering and with the coupling rods in place:
[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yNfRXj0TDDo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yNfRXj0TDDo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

Once again, thank you everyone for your positive responses!
Regards, Arnold


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## CrewCab (Jan 31, 2010)

Just brilliant Arnold 8)

CC


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## NickG (Jan 31, 2010)

Brilliant stuff Arnold. It's running really well there :bow: ;D


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## ariz (Jan 31, 2010)

Arnold I miss the forum for a couple of day and what I found then?

*a Fred running on steam!!!*   

wowww, that is really amazing, fantastic
congrats Arnold, you did a great job there, and the thread is very interesting too, well documented etc. :bow:


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## Paolo (Jan 31, 2010)

Great!!!! :big:


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## eskimobob (Feb 1, 2010)

Excellent work 8)


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## cfellows (Feb 1, 2010)

Great job, Arnold. Congratulations on your POM nomination.

Chuck


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## wm460 (Feb 1, 2010)

Well done.


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## charlesfitton (Feb 1, 2010)

...All that ( and beautiful,too ) in 3 months!

It's gonna be a hard act to follow!


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## arnoldb (Feb 2, 2010)

Once again, thank you all for your inspiring and positive responses 

Yesterday evening I made the dummy water tank for Fred - here all soldered up with normal "flux core electronics" solder. As I didn't use any additional flux, I just cleaned all the surfaces that needed soldering well with a scouring pad. A gentle flame with the gas torch to heat things up, and the solder "takes" and wicks easily into the joints. Overheating would cause the solder's own flux to just burn off:





The extension on the bottom is actually the new burner reservoir mounting.

Water tank installed on the loco frames; nearly everything is disassembled for making the final bits and a good clean-up and repaint where needed:





Today after work, I spent some more time on plate work making the "buffer plates" and "end plates"- and more filing. The buffer plates needed cosmetic rounding in the corners - here showing the curve needed, and the buffer plates clamped back-to-back for the job; I'd already done one side:





I just filed the corner off flat to close to the curve's end points:





Then with a half-round file with a slightly smaller radius than the curve, started to file towards the line:





And done:





Then I made the end plates; just two pieces of rectangular brass plate, sawn & filed to shape, and soldered these to the buffer plates:





The plans are a bit vague on the buffer and end plate mounting. After having had a careful look at things, I'll mount the buffer plates using turned "buffers" rather than making a wooden buffer block like in the plans; the turned buffers will look more train-like anyway.
I stopped here for the evening, as I felt my concentration beginning to wander; that will just result in bodged parts.

Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (Feb 2, 2010)

Yea Arnold. More filing!

Dean


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## 4156df (Feb 2, 2010)

Arnold,
I admire your ability to control the flow of the soft solder. Your method of flux core solder with a gentle flame is one I'm going to remember.
Dennis


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## ChooChooMike (Feb 3, 2010)

VERY VERY INSPIRATIONAL ARNOLD !! :bow: :bow:

Love all the ongoing pictures and descriptions !!

Mike


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## arnoldb (Feb 3, 2010)

Thanks Dean  - Yes, more filing : ;D - I barely used any electrical tools for the last couple of days; only the band saw up to this evening. I'm glad I have the band saw though, otherwise it would have been the hacksaw for the plate work :big:

Dennis, thank you ;D - Though my "control" isn't always spot on, as tonight's photos will demonstrate :hDe:

Thank you Mike; it's a pleasure ;D

This afternoon I started on the coal bunker. I'm trying to finish off all the bits that need painting as soon as possible.

The shovel hole in the face of the coal bunker is a rectangular cut-out. The brass plate I have is very hard, and I made use of this fact before annealing the plate to bend over the edges as required. I just sawed along the two sides where the cut-out was needed, and made a deepish score-line with the scriber between the two where the break was needed:





Then used a pair of pliers to snap out the bit:





The result; minimum clean-up needed; a couple of light touches with a smal file was all that was needed:





Next up, I made the main body of the bunker, with mounting holes pre-drilled in the tabs to bend over, as well as cut-outs so that everything would fit together when bending. Then I annealed both plates for bending:





All soldered up; and clearly showing where "control" failed a bit; I forgot the bench support plate I put in on the back didn't have bent-over tabs and needed very little solder; so I applied too much...:





This was the point where I wished I had old fashioned "solder wick" ; haven't seen that in many years; would have made clean-up a breeze. Fortunately, the solder is soft, so I settled on modifying an old saw blade to scrape out the excess - with a nice sharp point to get into the corners:





Final result of this evening's work:





Regards, Arnold


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## arnoldb (Feb 4, 2010)

Today's update

I finished the kick-plate and reversing stand. The two tabs on the bottom of the kick-plate locates under the boiler mounting flange to hold down the kick plate on that side, and the other end fits in below the coal bunker, so the coal bunker's mounting screws holds that side in place.
Kick plate and reversing stand mounted on it:





And a quick mock-up of all the parts on the loco, so that I can get an idea about the final finishes needed:





Regards, Arnold


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## 4156df (Feb 4, 2010)

Arnold,
I'm still watching and learning. Keep it up.
Dennis


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## BillH (Feb 4, 2010)

Radioshack and any electronic house worth its salt sells "solder wick".

Good job so far!


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## RobWilson (Feb 4, 2010)

Hi Arnold 

 :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: There is no stopping you , looking mighty fine  :bow: :bow: :bow:

Regards Rob


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## Deanofid (Feb 4, 2010)

It's really looking the part, Arnold. Thanks for the new assembly pic!

Dean


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## arnoldb (Feb 6, 2010)

Dennis, thank you very much for watching 

Thanks Bill  - in my "corner" of the world there's no Radio Shack though; some things are a bit hard to come by. I must admit though; I didn't really go out and look for the wick; I just put it on my "to-get" list and carried on 

Rob, thank you very much Mate ;D

Thank you Dean ;D - I sometimes forget that the assembly pics are nice to have for other people to get a better idea of progress!

Now Fred's update...

I didn't post anything last night, as my Internet connection was down. Had a date with solvents and a spray can though :big::





While watching the paint dry, I insulated the main steam pipe; I raided my kitchen and used cotton rope that I normally use for binding up rib-rolls and such when I feel adventurous in culinary exploits:





This morning, I had to waste some shop time sorting out the Internet connection and attending to some domestic issues. Once finished with that lot, I started on the reverser arm. Sawed a strip of brass plate to rough shape, then filed down, drilled, tapped and installed M2 pivot pin and reversing arm connection:





Next up was the reversing linkage; I could not make this to the original plan, as quite a bit of the dimensions on my loco is now different from original. So I had to do some measuring and calculations to come up withe a linkage of usable shape and proportions. Fussing around with building it from brass plate seemed too much of a chore, so I opted for 2mm bronze brazing rod. I bent it to shape, and hammered the ends flat to make the links:





Some drilling and filing, and a serviceable linkage; not the most pretty, but it is effective:





I don't particularly like the wooden buffers from the original plans, so I opted for more train-like buffers for the loco. I just eyeballed the first one and wrote down the readings from the cross-slide so I could make the rest the same; that's the list of readings on the buffers in the photo. The 1.9 reading is for the 2mm threads; I found it is easier to cut the threads with the tailstock die holder for my M2 die if the blank is just under-size:





With things coming together, I took this photo of the underside of the loco:





Having to comply with "HSE" standards :big: - I was "forced" to provide the engineer with a seat. Miser that I am, he's not getting a padded leather seat; a bit of meranti wood shaped to size would do:





I also made wagon couplings from "brass" chain - it turned out to be steel with a brass coating , and a dummy water tank filler cap; screwed to the "water tank" with a 2mm screw.

Having made and installed all of the above, the loco was pretty much done, so I gave it a once-over to see if I missed anything...

I didn't miss anything (except for better finishes, polishing and so on!), from what I could see, so I the last bit. Earlier this week, I used a syringe needle to "fill" the paint in on the name tags. I wiped excess paint off with some kitchen paper wrapped around a rule, and when the paint was tacky, I rubbed the name plates over paper (you might have noticed red streaks on paper in earlier shots!) to clean them up:





When I made the water tank, I pre-marked and punched the hole locations for the name tags. As a last operation, I drilled these for a press-fit for some brass nails I have, and very very carefully hammered the nails in through the name tags through the holes in the tank. 

I left the name tags till very last... Fred is now Officially FRED ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

More photos below, but first:

A very SPECIAL THANK YOU to the following people:

Rob (RobWilson) Thanks Mate :bow: - I don't know how I can make up for how much you helped me :bow: - I'll have to make a plan though ;D

Dave Watkins (Not a member of HMEM as far as I'm aware) - for sharing the plans of this locomotive for everyone to build; I hope I did a worthy job.

Rich (firebird) - Thank you for sharing your builds; It left myself as a novice a clear guideline on how to build and test a boiler in a safe fashion!

Bob (Maryak) - Bob, you sent me a simple PM, but an oh-so-important one; Thank you, besides for influencing how the loco runs, you also got my grey matter working as to the "why's" of it, and that is a very important lesson!

Marv (mklotz) - You introduced me to HMEM, and I have some unfinished programming business left that you hinted at in Zee's DRO thread; I haven't forgotten! Aside from that - thank you for the POM nomination, and the positive way you introduced it.

Then thank you to all the other responders to this build thread: Dean, Zee, Jim (BC1), Dennis, Nick, Vernon, Stew, Ariz, Chuck, Joe, gbritnell, Wesley, Shred, Ron (ozzie64), CC, Hans (BentProp), Martin(eskimobob), nkalbrr, Jim (JimM), Gerald, Tel, Gail, kvom, tonitd1490, twmaster, groewrs, jared, Ian (Seagar), Tony (cobra428), Kevin (kustomkb), SaminLA, Jeff (Slick95), Rick (Rake60), Don (Dsquire), Paolo, wm460, charlesfitton, Mike (choochoomike), Billh ;D

As far as I'm concerned, Fred's build is now complete. I'm waiting till tomorrow for a full steam run, as there is a lot of loctite that has to set overnight, and then I'll also make a video ( :big: maybe even do a dance :big. This build was a LOT of fun, and I think I learned an enormous amount from it.

Best of all, I now have 4 weeks of leave, and during that time will be able to go and show the real Fred (my grandfather) the loco I built named after him!

Kind regards, Arnold

More photos - though the blue towel under fluorescent lighting makes the colours go a bit wrong...:


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## zeeprogrammer (Feb 6, 2010)

Beautiful build Arnold. And nice photos.
I'm looking forward to the run.

Thank you for the ride. I hope to build a loco someday and your thread has meant a lot to me.


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## SAM in LA (Feb 6, 2010)

Arnold,

Fred is something else!

I have enjoyed following your build and I hope Fred's namesake is equally impressed.

Does Fred have any plans for a family?

SAM


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## Maryak (Feb 6, 2010)

Arnold,

Thanks for the honourable mention. :bow:

A wonderful project successfully completed - again CONGRATULATIONS. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob


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## vlmarshall (Feb 6, 2010)

Congrats, Arnold... Fred is amazing. :bow: :bow:


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## Deanofid (Feb 6, 2010)

It's great seeing Fred in full running trim, Arnold. 
He's simply grand!

It was really a fine thing watching your build from start to finish, too.
Bravo!

Dean


----------



## bearcar1 (Feb 6, 2010)

Oh bloody well done Arnold! BRAVO!! What a handsome looking end result, your grandfather will be proud as well as tickled to no end seeing such a masterpiece built in his honor and carrying his name. BRAVO! Practice up on your dance steps tonight :big: :big:


BC1
Jim


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## vascon2196 (Feb 6, 2010)

Unbelievable....simply amazing.


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## putputman (Feb 6, 2010)

Great looking engine Arnold. Just a tremendous amount of fine detailed work on it. :bow: :bow: :bow:


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## joe d (Feb 6, 2010)

Arnold

Following along was a pleasure, seeing the fine end result even more so!

Bravo

Joe


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## 4156df (Feb 6, 2010)

Arnold,
Great job! Fred is really something to be proud of. Thank you, too, for taking the time to document and post your build.
Dennis


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## ozzie46 (Feb 7, 2010)

Arnold, Enjoyed the ride. grandpa will be proud.


 Ron


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## GailInNM (Feb 7, 2010)

Arnold,
It's been a fun ride. Well worth the ticket price. Thank you.
Gail in NM


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## PhillyVa (Feb 7, 2010)

Arnold,

Very nice...I enjoyed the journey with you. ;D

Philly


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## arnoldb (Feb 7, 2010)

Zee, Sam, Bob, Vernon, Dean, Jim, vascon2196, putputman, Joe, Dennis, Ron Gail & Philly, once again thank you ;D

Today's steam-up wasn't without problems... 
Initially, I couldn't get Fred to even do a full lap of the track...
I finally tracked the problem down to the one big end rubbing against the wheel side, and that I'd set the clip retaining the pistons against the engine block waay too tight. Swapped over the pistons, and the rubbing disappeared while free-running. I also slacked off the retaining spring, and that had things going a lot better. 
Too well in fact; at one point I got a bit reckless with opening the regulator, and that engine took of at such a rate of knots that the one coupling rod mounting pin came loose off the flycrank :-[

So I settled for a run without the coupling rods; no time to repair it today - here's the video:
[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZN9riV4q3SM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZN9riV4q3SM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

During subsequent runs, I noticed that I get a lot of blow-by on the one cylinder when the loco is rounding bends; more rubbing of the big-end against the wheel because of the shaft shifting. So Fred's done for now, but not yet DONE. At a later point I'll sort out the little niggles; That's part of the fun ;D

I also took a couple of better photos with natural lighting before starting todays runs; those are below. I knew the first steam trials would take a toll on the finish of the loco; heat & water & oil drippings go everywhere ;D.

 :big: - I was already asked "What's next ?" - so to preempt more of the same - a holiday, and then tidy up the shop; that will keep me busy for a while . After that, I don't know yet; there's a couple of builds on my list; some depend on getting suitable materials, and others on some tooling updates.

Regards, Arnold
(Who cannot dance and had better stick to his day job!)


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## zeeprogrammer (Feb 7, 2010)

Most excellent Arnold.
That's a great looking locomotive. I have enjoyed your thread immensely.
Be sure to show your grandfather the video too! I'm sure he'll enjoy the dance!


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## 4156df (Feb 7, 2010)

Arnold, 

Fred looks great and as you said, it's fun to sort out the little problems. They always seem obvious after you find them, don't they.  

You mentioned the possible effects of the steam up on your finishes. How bad was it, particularly as regards heat? Any permanent negative effects? I'm asking because I want to start thinking about finishes for my model and can't decide on what paint to use. 

Regards,
Dennis


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## Deanofid (Feb 7, 2010)

The grin on your mug says it all, Arnold.
Again, well done!

Dean


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## tel (Feb 7, 2010)

Very impressive build Arnold. This is one project I'm been thinking about for a while and you've convinced me (or shamed me into it). Of course, I will have to modify mine to suit 45mm track, any thoughts on that?


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## arnoldb (Feb 7, 2010)

Zee, thank you ;D - and Gramp Fred will definitely see the video ! - as well as a live steam-up ;D

Dennis, thanks  I used "very high temperature" black paint; suitable for fireplaces and so on; the heat did nothing to the paint, but condensation in the cylinders causes quite a bit of hot water and oil mixture (I over-oiled the pistons) to spew out, especially if the engine is still cold. The only adverse effect on the paintwork is scratches when I was over-eager to refill & re-fire the boiler; other than that, nothing major. I did overfill the meths tank at one point, and that caused quite an amount of flames overshooting the boiler bottom; the paint held up 100%, but the overshoot caused some scorching on the insulation on the main steam line... I also think the damage to the paintwork would be a lot less if I left the paint to dry out properly for a while, and fully treated it in the oven as suggested by the manufacturer; it became sort of tacky and easy to scratch. Proper treatment would most definitely be better-wearing.

 ;D Thanks Dean - now people have seen my ugly mug, I think I should keep it safely away from cameras :big:

Tel, thank you  I can't shame YOU into anything; perish that thought immediately! You've done a hell of a lot better than I have :bow:.
As to my VERY INEXPERIENCED thoughts for 45mm: Scale the loco up suitably, *especially* the boiler. Fred's boiler is smaller than on the original plans, and just does not deliver continuous "oomph". For the wider track, you would get a lot more clearance on the big ends as well. In retrospect, I should have used smaller diameter con-rods; that would give a lot more steam volume for the "up-strokes" in the engine.

Kind regards, Arnold


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## Paolo (Feb 8, 2010)

Hi arnoldb
..Bravo!!!! That's a great looking locomotive. I have enjoyed to see your thread . My compliments!!
Paolo :bow: :bow: :bow:


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## gbritnell (Feb 8, 2010)

Hi Arnold, the mini loco came out just great. I don't think anyone has ever built anything that didn't have teething problems. Little tweaks here and there are all part of the building process.
George


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## kvom (Feb 8, 2010)

Love it! Great build and well documented.


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## ariz (Feb 8, 2010)

very very very nice loco, as the final happy dance 

thank you Arnold!!!


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## rake60 (Feb 8, 2010)

Great build Arnold! :bow:
Congratulations of a fantastic runner.

Rick


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## firebird (Feb 8, 2010)

Hi Arnold

Just brilliant :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Good luck with POTM.

Cheers

Rich


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## seagar (Feb 8, 2010)

th_wav th_wav woohoo1 Thm:Just great.

Ian(seagar)

Coffs Harbour.
Australia


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## arnoldb (Feb 8, 2010)

Paolo, Thanks very much  ;D

Thank you George  - you provide a prime example for beginners like me to strive toward :bow:, and it is good to know that teething troubles are to be expected. From the few engines I have completed, this one presents the most little problems, but it is also quite a bit more complex than the previous ones. I'm actually looking forward to ironing out the problems; I consider that part of the challenge!

Thanks a load kvom ;D

Ariz, thank you  - as you can see I'm not very good at dancing! - Hopefully I'm slightly better at engineering ;D

A Double Thank You Rick ;D - For the compliment, and for starting HMEM; you've mentioned before that you were surprised at how the site took off; I believe it is the spirit which you instilled when you started HMEM. I hope to learn a lot more here, but I'll also try and invest back on what I learned. A year ago I still had a little 6-year-old in me wanting a steam loco; today, 31 years later, I'm a 6-year-old at heart with that loco and a big grin to match, and a major part of that inspiration came here from HMEM.

Thank you Rich ;D - I don't think its brilliant, but I am happy with the result  As to POTM; that was a completely unexpected side effect; I've had my fun and reached a personal goal - that is reward enough for me. And while receiving POTM would be an honour, as far as I'm concerned anybody who starts and finishes a build is a winner.

Ian, Thank you! ;D

Kind regards, Arnold


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## NickG (Feb 8, 2010)

Arnold, superb job all around, build and write up. 

Annoyingly my computer is so slow I can't run any videos without it stopping and starting damn thing. As I'm typing this I have to wait for the words to appear on the screen, it's using 100% CPU doing nothing! Probably got some virus or something, it's going to get formatted!

Anyway, Fred looks splendid, I only hope I can produce something of that quality one day.

Nick


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## arnoldb (Feb 9, 2010)

Thank you Nick ;D


> I only hope I can produce something of that quality one day.


Of course you can! Thm:

I'll be a bit quiet on the forum for a while; I'm getting packed up for my visit to South Africa ;D Lots of driving; 2000km each way!
Kind Regards, Arnold


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## bearcar1 (Feb 9, 2010)

Here is hoping for a safe passage and do inform us upon your return from this far reaching journey. Fred will miss you while you are away on your walkabout. 

The very best regards

BC1
Jim


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## arnoldb (Feb 9, 2010)

;D Thank you Jim. Fred's going along on the ride to meet Grandpa Fred ;D 

Kind regards, Arnold


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## kustomkb (Feb 25, 2010)

Great job Arnold!!

Congratulations.


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## arnoldb (Feb 25, 2010)

Thanks Kevin ;D

Grandpa Fred was very approving of Fred, and I finally got some track - 10 x 3' lengths, so at a later stage I'll set up my "veranda railway" ;D

My dad found some Hornby wagons in an antiques shop in his town; they need some TLC, but look great with Fred. I just wonder what happened to the loco that was supposed to have that tender...






Regards, Arnold


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## Deanofid (Feb 25, 2010)

Arnold, those cars look perfect for Fred. 
I hope you will remember us when you get the track all set up! More videos would be great.

Dean


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## SBWHART (Feb 26, 2010)

Nice runner Arnold great job, and those wagons look the business.

Have fun

Stew


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## swarfmaker (Feb 28, 2010)

I just wonder what happened to the loco that was supposed to have that tender...

Thats where you and your workshop comes in !!!


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## bearcar1 (Feb 28, 2010)

Oh! Such a treat! That train set looks great Arnold. Am glad to see that you were able to acquire some lengths of track and like the rest of those here, can not wait to see it set up and Fred proudly leading the way. Next it will be faux trees, buildings, trestles, people, a bigger veranda, larger shop.......... you do realize that is what is coming don't you? ;D ;D 

Man that is one fine looking model.

BC1
Jim


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## arnoldb (Mar 1, 2010)

Thanks Dean - track layout will have to wait a bit though; I've got a new toy to play with first ;D - I will post pictures once the layout is complete.

Thank you Stew ;D

Dad (swarfmaker) is egging me on. I guess the gauntlet's been thrown down then ;D Does any other members of HMEM have this "problem" ? :big: :big:

Thanks Jim ;D - 





> you do realize that is what is coming don't you?


 oh: What have I gotten myself into ? ;D Hmmm - has anyone seen a "dessert" scenery garden railway ? 

Kind regards, Arnold


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