Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive

[crueby]

Quick update - got the steam pipe cover faired down and installed (photo below). Naturally had to check for leaks in the connection, so gave it a little pressure from the compressor. So far so good. Then, backed it up to the end of the display track, ran the pressure up some more, and very carefully pulled back some on the throttle bar.... Got first revs of the loco as it moved forward the 6 inches available on the track under its own power (well okay, an assist from the compressor) !

So, now gonna move forward with the jacking blocks to raise the wheels a smidge (lets see - two pinches to the smidge, three smidges to the little bit...) off the track so I can run it on the trestle - the mod to the reverse gear link can wait!

 

[crueby]

Big step today - got some riser blocks figured out (experimented with scissor jacks and such, just not enough room under the trucks for them - went with some shaped wood supports) so I could lift the wheels off the track a bit to run the engine without the train leaving the station on me. Took some fiddling to carve out recesses for the brakes, pumps, etc that hang down from the bottom of the truck frames. Here is a video of it all running on air, forward and reverse.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ORN9c9NtE&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

Also, got a start on the tender. In the book, at this point Kozo works on all the plumbing still to be done (oil feeds, check valves, water feeds, etc). Right now I need a break from that stuff, and have decided to skip a few pages and work on the tender parts for a while. So far, I have the base plate made - does not look like much, just a rectangular plate with a whole swarf-load of holes to be laid out, drilled, tapped, countersunk. Most of these holes will be used to hold the supports for the tank sides, some will hold pumps and plumbing.




Next up will be to form the support bars that will run on the inside edges of the water tank.

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Dang, that's just awesome! Sounds like you have her running really nice.

Todd

 

[barnesrickw]

That is real cool. I wonder if the real ones ever got stuff caught in the moving parts that are exposed. Looks like it could transfer a lot of torque.

 

[crueby]

That is real cool. I wonder if the real ones ever got stuff caught in the moving parts that are exposed. Looks like it could transfer a lot of torque.

Given the size of those gears, would be REAL bad to get a sleeve caught in the real thing! Wonder if thats how they invented the wood chipper....

On the full size ones I saw at Cass, they at least had a sheet metal cover over the gears. Still are lots of dangerous places to be caught in. Sort of like farms - very productive, but a dangerous place to work. I know a cattle farmer who had an arm removed by a tractor power take off to the silo. Fortunately these days they can reattach with some success. Still....

 

[crueby]

Dang, that's just awesome! Sounds like you have her running really nice.

Todd

Running nice and smooth, even with it pushing the axle pumps - very happy!!

 

[barnesrickw]

I used to run an old sawmill. Open belts, 60" blade and a hand crank pony motor that started the huge marine diesel that ran the whole thing. Seems years ago they built things with the expectation that you didn't put your body parts in bad places.

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Yes, those were the days when common sense was a common virtue. These days it seems people just don't have any.

 

[BAH101]

Yes, those were the days when common sense was a common virtue. These days it seems people just don't have any.

Didn't you know that common-sense has been legislated out of existence? It's now illegal.

 

[crueby]

Didn't you know that common-sense has been legislated out of existence? It's now illegal.

With shipping and taxes, common cents are now a dollar....

 

[mwooten]

Wow! Great job!

 

[crueby]

Time to get caught up a bit - not too much time in the shop this week due to some minor family medical issues. Given the ongoing needs there, I will not be making it to Cabin Fever or Names this year , but am planning on bringing the engine next year.

I did get the tender frame parts made - these bars line the upper and lower edges of the outer skin of the tender, holding them to the baseplate and providing a support for the tank lid. The book/plans give locations and sizes for cutouts at the corner areas where the bars are taken down thin enough to bend to a tight radius. After laying them out on the bars, and end mill was used to eat away the notches...

Second photo shows the bars for the lower edge of the coal bunker recess in the water tank. The upper one has been bent to shape, the lower is ready to go.

Third photo shows the two bars bent to shape.

After this, the same was done for the longer bars that go around the water tank sides/back, plus the other bars that go around the top of the tank.

Next step was to make the tank side plates. They are cut from brass sheet stock (book calls for 1mm, I used nearest inch size). The tank also gets rectangular plates on the sides and back that double up the thickness. The corner areas plus the flat plates get embossed with dummy rivet heads. To make the rivet heads, the sheet is embossed from the back side with a center punch held in the drill press (NOT running, just pressing down), going into a recess in a backer block. To make the backer, I cut a row of hemispherical holes into the block with a small ball head bur. The holes were the same distance apart as the finished rivets will be, and the right distance from a fence block.

To form the rivets, the tank side was held up against the fence, and the drill press quill pulled down to push the punch into the metal, deforming it into the hole in the backer block. Then the sheet was moved over so the newly formed head dropped into the next hole, and the process repeated. By having the holes act as an indexer, a row of evenly spaced rivet heads can be formed very quickly.

Next photo shows a closeup of a row of the rivet heads embossed into the sheet.

Last photo shows the side plates with rivets formed around the edges, plus another pair of rows down the midlle (same process, fence farther from the holes). After all the rivet heads were done, the side sheets were ready to bend to match the frame pieces....

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Nice looking rivets. Did you bother to anneal the brass bars before bending? Did you use a curved surface to bend them over?

Todd

 

[crueby]

Nice looking rivets. Did you bother to anneal the brass bars before bending? Did you use a curved surface to bend them over?

Todd

No - just clamped the end below the thin part in a vise, and used pliers to hold the other end just above the thin part and bent it over. By torquing the pliers you can control where the bend goes, either even along the length or more at one end. I did tweak the bends a bit with needlenose pliers to get the overall length to work out to plan. The thin part was narrow enough that annealing was not needed, but I could feel that it work hardened it a lot during the bend - would not try much adjustment without re-annealing it. I have the plates bent now too (pictures to follow next time I am home), for those I clamped heavy strips across the bend lines at either side of the area to be curved, clamped one side in the bench vise, and used the clamps as handles to bend the plates cold - also a little tweaking needed to make them match the supports, but the curved sections are short so it was not bad.

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Thanks. I've finally managed to gather up the next batch of material I need for the A3 tender tank. Hoping to get back to that this weekend.

Todd

 

[crueby]

Thanks. I've finally managed to gather up the next batch of material I need for the A3 tender tank. Hoping to get back to that this weekend.

Todd

Aha! THATS where that other bar stock went...!

Its amazing how much the look of the engine changes, just propping up some of the parts for the tender - so used to seeing it with bare frame on the back.

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Aha! THATS where that other bar stock went...!

Its amazing how much the look of the engine changes, just propping up some of the parts for the tender - so used to seeing it with bare frame on the back.

Ratz! You caught me.

I can't believe how much you've done in a year.

Todd

 

[fuzzymuff]

Crueby.
I have ordered some of the materials for the Shay. Should start construction within the next few weeks.
Graham.

 

[crueby]

Crueby.
I have ordered some of the materials for the Shay. Should start construction within the next few weeks.
Graham.

Great! Hope you post a build thread as you go.

 

[crueby]

Got some more time in the shop for some tender work. The panels for the tender water tank were bent to match the shapes of the supports, and holes were drilled for screws to hold it all together for soft soldering the seams. Photos below show the tank shell plus the extra side panels. The red line near the top shows where another trim piece will be applied and the shell trimmed down to....



Fourth photo shows the start on fitting/screwing on the upper tank supports. These will stiffen the sides, plus form a shelf for the tank lid to sit on.

With the upper supports all screwed in place, the trim piece around the outside of the upper edge was made from some sheet stock, and everything was soldered up. At that point, the top edge of the tank was sawn/filed down to the top of the trim piece.

Last two photos show the tank with the screw heads filed off, and after a prime coat of paint. Really changes the appearance of the whole locomotive a lot!