Bouch's workshop - 1.5 x 3.5 horizontal steam engine

[kvom]

Turned out well. When I had to do a similar eccentric I made the strap first and turned the eccentric to match. But my strap wasn't a casting so it was easier to do it that way.

 

[bouch]

And the last major piece is now finished, the connecting rod.

I wanted to have a rod that was functionally simple, but looked like it had “marine style” bearing ends, with oil cups, gabs and keys. Turned into more work than I expected, I should have just split the bearings. If these ever wear out, I'll probably do just that. But, I do like how it looks.

First, I made the rod shaft out of a hunk of 1/2” square steel. I mounted an over-length piece between centers and tapered the round portion. I drilled/reamed two holes for the bearings. Then I milled the ends to size. When the end was milled to the proper height, the excess length (beyond the center point of the bearing holes) just fell off. This left a nice "half-round indentation" on each end. Then I milled to width.

The bearings are simple turnings, drilled and reamed to size.

The end caps were made from an over-length piece of stock. I drilled two holes a good distance apart, the length of both caps, plus about 1/2" allowance. I mounted an arbor in the lathe and manually rotated the piece 180 degrees to cut the ends round (that’s a lot of work… ) Back to the milling machine, and removed all the material between the two holes. Cut the piece in half, and mill each half to length

I then cheated, and assembled the ends using 5 minute epoxy. More on why in a sec…

The reason I glued things together is to do two things.
1) drill/tap holes thru the end caps and also the bearings for the oil cups. The oil cups are simple turnings. Not much to say there.
2) mill a 1/16” wide by 3/16” long slot in each end for the gibs/keys.

Seemed much easier to do this with the pieces all together solidly. Although milling a 1/16” slot thru a 1/2” thick piece of steel was an exercise in patience and light cuts. First, I drilled three holes with a .055” drill. I then took a “short” 1/16” end mill (cutting surface about 1/8” long) and milled out the slot until I couldn’t go any deeper, using .015” deep cuts and slow feed. I then switched to a longer end mill (about 5/16” long) and milled as deep as I could again. I then flipped the piece and repeated the milling process from the “bottom” until the slot was cut thru. Repeat on the other side.

Next up, gibs and keys out of 1/16” thick stock. These took deceptively long to make. I got the dimensions from the plans for the beam engine “Mary” (from Reeves), and adjusted them as needed for my size connecting rod. 5 degree taper.

And here’s a close up of one end. (still need to clean some of the red dykem off the key there

And the entire rod…

Now, just to make a few studs and do a little work on the display base, and I’ll be able to start assembly. Unless things go seriously wrong, it should be assembled and running (but not finished) for the NEMES show in a few weeks.

 

[bouch]

ITS ALIVE!!!



Now that its done, time to take it apart and get it finished

 

[johnmcc69]

Very nice! It's been very enjoyable watching your engine come together. Looking forward to seeing how you finish it out.

Real nice work!

John

 

[Kenny Broomfield]

Wonderful read. I really enjoyed your write up and glad you kept going with this and not stopped this thread early on.

What is the story with the Boston and Maine O scale car? Do you have a layout? I build HO trains but do Lionel at Christmas.

 

[bouch]

Hi Kenny,

I also do a lot of model railroading. I have 3.5" gauge live steam, N scale, and "2 rail O scale". My son does HO. I have both US and British prototype in the electric trains.

The "2 rail o scale" is closer to HO and N than Lionel in terms of the electronics. There's only 2 rails, the center rail isn't there like on Lionel. So it runs on DC/DCC. The wheel flanges are much closer to scale, and the size of the cars are scale sized as well, not "selectively compressed" like Lionel. It also needs much larger radius curves, 4 foot radius is tight.

I don't have a layout, but I'm a member of a club which has a 45'x20' modular layout we set up at train shows in our area.

Mike

 

[Kenny Broomfield]

Oh nice. Besides trying to build live steam, eventual goal 7.5 inch. I do HO based on South East PA. Reading and Pennsylvania Railroad. This is a 12x32 layout. I f u had more folding money and room i would love to do Proto 48 O scale. I think that is so neat and full of detail.

Kenny

 

[RonGinger]

I am very sorry to report that Mike "Bouch" Boucher lost his fight with leukemia last week. This was a 6 year ordeal for Mike.

Mike was involved in the early days of the New England Model Engineering Society where he took care of all the paper work so we were legally organized. He continued to be very active, at least as far as his medical condition allowed. He was at the last show in February, but told me there he was headed to a new round of treatment the next day.

We will miss Mike at the club and his posts here.