Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive

[crueby]

Okay, back at the boiler fabrication - got the backplate

and front plate fitted (getting heavy - current boiler assembly is just under 10 pounds now).

With the end plates fitted, and the back plate held in with screws (am using steel socket heads for temporary holding now, since they will be put in and out a number of times before switching to brass screws for final soldering), next step is to fit the bottom plates. These plates fill the gap between the bottom edges of the firebox and the outer shell. They are made out of the same thicker 3mm copper as the firebox shell, and will be made in four sections, one per side, both for ease of making and to allow the firebox to be removed to solder the bottom plates to the outer shell first.
I started by making a cardboard template of the forward plate, then transfered that outline to the copper sheet to cut out the blank.

After a lot of finnicky fettling, forming, feeling, fastidious fitting, and fussy fine flipping filing, got it shaped down to a close fit. It will have a temporary screw to hold it in place while making the rest and soldering them in (needed since it is soldered to the outer shell with the firebox removed). Probably going to be a few days to make the rest - can only take so much time with that many F words!

When not working the metal side, have also gotten a start on the display base. I picked up some nice looking nickel rails, and started making a length of wooden trestle bridge for it to sit on (just sitting square on a flat base seemed too boring). The bridge section is curved to show off the articulation between the engine and the wheels, and is also tilted slightly into the curve - will show off the engine side nicely that way. Got it all glued and bolted together (since it will be holding about 55 pounds of train, I dont trust glue only - all the main joints in the uprights are also bolted). Will give it a thin wash coat of black to make it look like old creosoted timber, and mount it on a baseboard. Couple pictures of it so far below (dont have the last of the diagonal bracing in yet in these photos).

 

[crueby]

Quick update on the trestle display base - got the wash coat on the wood to make it look like old timber, and installed the rail plates and rail. Photos show the completed trestle with the loco so far sitting on it... Still whittling away at the firebox bottom plates - got the blanks for the rest of the pieces templated and cut out, will be file fitting them next. After they are all in and soldered, can start installing the side stay bolts.

 

[SilverSanJuan]

The trestle display base looks amazing. What a great idea. Where did you get the rail and tie plates? And what type of wood did you use?

Todd

 

[crueby]

The trestle display base looks amazing. What a great idea. Where did you get the rail and tie plates? And what type of wood did you use?

Todd

The wood is Sepele - it was off-cuts from making the wall unit that the model is sitting on. I gave it a wash coat of thinned black paint to give it the timber look. The rail, plates, and spikes I ordered from Switchcrafters.com - it is code 250 rail (1/4" tall). The trestle is curved (7' radius) and tilted a bit, which combine to show off the truck articulation - was originally going to be a flat base with rail, but that seemed too boring, having it in its outside state seemed more interesting.

 

[Swifty]

Great looking base, it's going to be an amazing display when it's all finished.

Paul.

 

[crueby]

Another major step done - got the backplate of the boiler soldered on, as well as the front/rear staybolts. As far as I could tell during pickling/washing it off after soldering there are no obvious leaks. I am going to make plugs for the bushing holes and fill it up with water to get a better look, make sure there are no seep spots before continuing.



Still to go on the boiler itself: drill/tap/install the staybolts on the sides of the firebox, then last is to solder in the front plate. After that, should be ready for a static pressure test! :hDe: So far so good - the new bigger torch is working out well - the smaller ones never could have done these last few steps. Got lucky on the weather to get out and solder this week - was sunny and warm last two days, tonight the big front of cold air is dropping down out of Canada, will be down below freezing for a while - perfect timing to spend a couple days indoors on the staybolts - been a while since they were made - here is a picture of what they look like:

 

[crueby]

I made up a set up threaded plugs for all the bushing holes, and filled up the boiler with water to check for leaks. Did find a few spots that did not get good solder penetration, and resoldered them. One spot left that is next to where I will be soldering the side staybolts next, so that one will wait and get done then. Got all that done just about the time this afternoon when the cold front moved in - temperature is dropping like a rock in thin water...

Moved indoors, and got a start drilling for the staybolts in the side of the firebox area - got out the handy-dandy mill table extension, and clamped the boiler down with a crossbar. The staybolt holes are drilled through both the inner and outer walls with the size for threading the bolts, and then before moving the table switch to the clearance size and open up the hole just in the outer wall. The head of the staybolt seats on the outside of the boiler, and the bolt threads through the inner wall, and there is also a nut that goes on the inner face of the firebox. After soldering up all the mating surfaces that will give a good belts-and-suspenders connection (not my design, that is how Kozo designed it in the book).

 

[crueby]

Got the rest of the holes drilled and tapped for the side staybolts today. All are screwed into the inner firebox sheet, ready for silver soldering the bolt heads on the outside. After that, the nuts are put on and the inside surfaces soldered. Not today - gonna wait for a slightly warmer day to go out and do that work...

Last two photos - could not resist setting the boiler in the frame and admiring it for a while....

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Sure does look nice sitting on the frame.

Todd

 

[crueby]

Got a start on the smokebox tube while waiting for the weather to improve enough to get back outside and finish the staybolt soldering. The smokebox bolts on the front of the boiler, collects the hot gasses from the firetubes, and sends them up the stack. It is made from brass sheet - turned a former cylinder and bent the sheet around it (took 2 annealing passes to shape it fully). Once the tube was rolled to shape, used a piece of wire to hold it on the former and drilled holes for rivets to hold a joint strip.

To rivet on the joint strip, took a scrap of brass block and carved in some half round dimples with a ball-end rotary tool (have a big selection of rotary burs that I use for carving). The holes were put next to the edge since there are two rivets side by side, that allowed one to hang off the side while its neighbor was hammered. Held that block in the vise, and

peened over the ends of the rivets on the inside.

With the rivets holding the shell,

I silver soldered the seam.

Then, put the tube back on the former and used the rotary table to drill 36 holes around each end to take the dummy rivets (my table does 5 degrees per turn of the handle, so it was easy to keep track - drill, 2 turns, drill, ...). These simulate the rivets that hold the firebox on (it is actually held with screws into the boiler front plate) and also the smokebox door (also will be on screws so it is all removeable). The rivets will be added later, after more of the fittings are on.

With the holes drilled, went back and trued up the ends of the tube with the mill.

Next up will be to start boring holes for things like the smokestack and exhaust tubes....

 

[crueby]

Next up on the smokebox assembly are the bushings that hold the smokestack. The inner ring is soldered on, and the outer ring will become part of the stack, and held on with a setscrew on the inside of the smokebox. Started by turning the rings to shape (the outer one gets a 1/4-round step),

and then boring the inside of each ring - a small step was left to form a seat to hold the ring to a milling bracket later.

The third photo shows both rings turned to shape, along with a threaded disk that fits inside on the step.

With the inner ring screwed to an angle bracket on the rotary table, the outer edge was milled to the radius matching the inside of the smokebox. This could also be done on the lathe, but I already had the rotary table and mill set up from doing the smokebox tube, so it was just as easy to do the work there.

Then, put the outer ring on the inside edge of the angle bracket and moved the bracket out to the right distance to mill the inner edge.

6th photo shows both rings test fitted to the smokebox. The inner ring was then silver soldered in place (held with brass screws which were then filed off).

After that, was time to install the dummy rivets on the outer ends of the smokebox tube. These are just for show, the smokebox and front cover are held in place with screws into the blocks that show in the photo.

Last photo shows the smokebox tube so far - ready to make the front cover.

 

[crueby]

Abotu half done with the front cover for the smokebox. The book calls for turning it from a large brass disc - I did not have any 3" bar, but have plenty of sheet stock, so I silver soldered up a small stack and turned it from that. There is a 1/2" round bar piece soldered onto the middle of the back side that I am using to chuck it in the lathe - will trim that off when it is done.

After turning the shape of the door into the disk, moved over to the rotary table to drill the bolt holes around the edge and the bolt holes by the first step that will take the door clamps.

Last step so far was to mill in slots for the hinge brackets - next up will be to make the hinges and door clamps....

 

[crueby]

Not sure why, but the pictures I am posting are showing up as thumbnail size rather than full size (700x525) in the last two posts - at least when I view it. Is it showing up that way for everyone else too?? That is same way I have been posting all the rest, not sure why the change...??

Update - poked around in the html, seems that the newer posts use 'lightbox' to display the images, whatever that is...?

 

[Swifty]

Something's been going on with the pictures the last few days, we've had links only, full pictures and now thumbnails.

Paul.

 

[crueby]

Well, while waiting for the html-writers-in-the-cloud to figure out what is going on with photos, here are a couple more:

I got the hinges made for the door in the front cover (this is a dummy door, to get into the smokebox two of the rim screws are the mounting screws). Still need to make the door clamps (they go on the 6 inner bolts).

Had to hold up the smokebox to the rest of the boiler too - after so long working on the boiler itself, this makes it look a lot larger - guess it will revert back in appearance after the cab gets made - it overlaps a bunch of the firebox area. I am not going to mount the smokebox to the rest just yet, going to wait till the front plate of the boiler is soldered in, to make sure that the stack winds up vertical.

After the clamps, going to make the headlight and the smokestack. Maybe by then it will be warm enough to work outside more and I can get the staybolts soldered up on the boiler. Was snowing all day today, tomorrow is going to be about 15F, rather be indoors than outside working with metal!

 

[crueby]

Looks like they got the photo uploads fixed - hope that holds!

This morning I made up the door clamps and the number plate for the smokebox front cover. The clamps started out as a length of square bar stock, drilled a series of equally space holes for the mounting bolts.

Then milled out a section by each hole to form the L shape of the clamp,

and sawed them apart, ready for bolting onto the front cover.

The number plate was turned out of round bar, with the back turned first and tapped for the mounting bolt, then turned around to turn in the recess in the front,

finishing up with the boring bar to give a nice square inside corner.

The number was printed up on a piece of self-stick transfer paper (spent quite a while looking through fonts on the computer to find one I liked). The number was stuck to a small piece of sheet brass, and cut out with a jewelers saw and filed to shape.

Photo 7 shows the number cut out and ready to silver solder in place,

the last photo shows the clamps and number plate all assembled onto the front cover. Ready for smokestack and headlight! Given how the rivets look on the smokebox, I think when I get to making the outer boiler jacket I am going to add some rows to that as well - will use some of the photos I took in Cass W.V. of the real locos as guides - think it will add a lot to the looks.

 

[SilverSanJuan]

WOW! Very impressive work. My jeweler's saw skills will need much more work to cut out numbers like that.

Todd

 

[crueby]

More work done on the outer flange base for the smokestack - in previous post, I had the 1/4-round detail just turned in, this time I have it blended down into the lower curve. First photo shows it after the blending - used a cylinder-shaped rotary tool with a rounded end to do most of the 'carving' on it, then smoothed with a round profile file and sandpaper.

Next up was to add the bosses that take the screws from the stack assembly. Put it on the rotary table, and milled in the holes for the bosses. Kozo did not use a rotary table in his book, he made a jig to align the mill for this step - I think the table made a much quicker job of it. The mill was a center-cutting end mill, so I could just plunge cut it in.

Third photo shows the bosses turned to size, drilled, and ready to silver solder in.

Fourth photo shows it after soldering, in the process of turning the tops of the bosses down flush with the top of the base.

After that was time to make the stack ring - this goes around the bottom of the stack, and bolts the stack down to the base. With the rotary table in the same exact place as from previous steps, where the holes would line up with the bosses, I drilled a set of matching holes in the end of a piece of brass bar that I had bored out to the same inner diameter as the base.

Sixth photo shows milling the outer edge of the ring down between the bosses - plunge cut next to a boss, rotated the table to the next boss, and raised cutter. Repeat four times....

Seventh photo shows the ring after parting it off the bar, and cleaning up the shape of the protrusions with a file.

Last photo shows it test fitted together, ready for the stack - to be made next...

 

[crueby]

Got on a roll in the shop this morning, and knocked out the smokestack. It is tapered at both ends, and only a couple millimeters thick, so it had some carefull setups. Started out with a length of 1-1/4" brass bar - set it up in the lathe with the steady rest holding up the outer end (rest ends were greased to keep them sliding easy). Then, drilled through the length of the stack.

Second photo shows boring the center hole out to the minimum size (16mm).

Third photo shows turning the base section down - moved the steady rest back to the middle, and straight-turned the bottom to size, then got out the compound slide and turned the next section to a 3 degree flare - this forms the step that the mount ring solders to.

Fourth photo shows test fitting the base ring - all good to go.

Then, turned the stack around in the chuck (put in a piece of bar stock in the end to make sure the chuck could not crush the tube), and reset the steady rest out near the end (photo 5). Then, I put the boring bar in the compound slide at 4 degrees and bored out the upper section of the stack to that taper (taper extends down to where it goes through the base ring).

Sixth photo shows the completed taper bore...

Seventh photo shows a plug that I turned to the same taper, and drilled the end to take the live center.

Eigth photo shows the stack with the plug in the end, live center in place, and steady rest removed. At this point it was ready to turn down the outside parallel to the inside taper (done in next post....)

 

[crueby]

Here is the rest of the work on the smokestack - first shot shows the outer surface turned down with the compound slide to a taper matching the inside bore - leaves about a 2mm wall thickness, plus there is a thicker flange at the very top.

Second shot looking down the bore from the top... taper runs from top down to the reverse flare above the base ring.

Third photo shows the stack ready to be soldered to the mount ring - ring is removed from the base first.

Fourth photo shows turning the tapered bore on the end of the flare ring - this ring fits over the base of the stack with the taper running up to the stack itself - a set screw holds this ring in place.

Fifth photo shows the flare ring in place.

Last two photos show the stack fitted to the smokebox - the setscrew in the flare ring holds it all together.


Amazing how much it changes the look of the boiler. The weather is supposed to break soon, by monday I'll be back outside finishing up the silver soldering of the staybolts and hopefully the front plate. The last few days have been bizarre weatherwise - been very cold, and we got lake effect snow coming off lake erie - just a little west of me they got over 5 FEET of snow! This is only mid November! Going to be back up near 60F by Monday, going to get out and take advantage of it and hope to finish up boiler soldering.