Building one of Rudy's steamers

[Deanofid]

Hello again;

Well, I got the whole lubricator done in one day. That's really moving, for me.
It's a simple type, but I think it looks okay, and it will "lubricate".

It starts with this piece of brass tube. This one is 3/8" diameter. You can get this stuff at
hobby stores that sell the K&S line. That would be most shops that carry model boats, RR,
or flying model planes.

The lubricator isn't part of the print's for this engine, but I want one on it, so this is a
"what-ever-looks-good-to-me" thing.

For the bottom end, a piece of brass round is faced and turned for a short bit to let it fit in
the tube. Then it's drilled and tapped through for 10-32. It's then flipped in the chuck, which
is what is shown in the picture above. I want a round bottom end on the lubricator, so I cut a
number of diameters to approximate the radius on the piece, and then finished it off with a file
while turning in the lathe.
There will be a shot of this finished piece later.

This piece will be the top of the lubricator, where the fill plug will go. I included this shot to
show the void in the piece of stock. It ran diagonally down the length of the piece for about
half an inch, and I kept facing the piece until I found the end of it. This is C260 brass, which
I don't like even a little. I've seen this type of void in other pieces of this type. Never in C360.
Don't know why that is.

Once the piece had been turned down to fit inside the tube, it was parted off. I left a short
oversized piece on one end, so the piece wouldn't push clear inside the tube. After it is
soldered into the tube, that end is faced down until the tool reaches the solder joint between
the tube and this plug.

Here are the three pieces that will form the body of the lubricator. The piece on the left is
the bottom and will provide the drain. The piece in the middle is the top, and after soldering
it into the tube, it's faced off, then drilled and tapped for the filler hole.

I forgot to take a picture of this after it had been soldered, but there are some shots of it
in pictures later on, doing other things.

This piece will be the filler cap. This threaded end goes into the top of the lubricator body.
The other end of the piece will be turned down to form a kind of spigot, so a cross bar can
be put through it to tighten it.

In the shot above, I'm taking out the last thread or so nearest the end of the piece that will
tighten against the lubricator. Using dies to cut threads always leaves a little at the very end
that is not quite fully threaded. Turning the die over and using the back side of it to go right
up next to the mating surface will thread it the rest of the way, but there is always just a little
thick spot in the threads there that will make the piece thread in too tight. So, I cut them out.

Here, just checking for fit with the lubricator body.

Once everything fits up nice, a file was used to finish the thing off. It looks fairly
smooth. It's four separate pieces of brass.

Now an oval is cut into the end near the top using the side of an end mill. The end mill
is 3/16", same as the piece of pipe that goes into this hole.

A piece of pipe also gets a hole at the location that it will meet with the lubricator body.

The lubricator body and the steam pipe are mated like so, and soldered. The machinists
clamp on the right is obviously holding the two pieces together, but I thought I'd mention
the second machinists clamp in the picture. The end pieces were soldered in earlier, and
that second clamp is to keep them from coming undone when the piece is heated for the
present solder job.

The drain plug is made from a piece of stainless hex rod, cut down and threaded on one end.

With everything cleaned up, it looks like this.

And a shot from the back side.

There's the progress shot for today.

That's it 'til tomorrow or Monday. I think a pulley for the crankshaft will be next.
A few of the nice folks here are sending me some wood for the lagging. A couple of things
to do after that, and it will be ready.

As always, thanks for having a look.

Dean

 

[Powder keg]

That is looking awesome!!! As soon as I finish a couple things I'm going to build a steamer.

 

[Maryak]

Dean,

Beautiful work. :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob

 

[joe d]

Dean

Looking dang good there! I really like the plumbing. I've bought some of those fittings, but haven't used any of them yet...

Looking forward to more,

Joe

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Looks great Dean.
And, as usual, a few gems of tips in there too.
Thanks.

 

[4156df]

Dean,
This must be lubricator day...I just finished mine and am working on the post. Yours looks terrific! Very machinist like.
Regards,
Dennis

 

[Twmaster]

That is simply magnificent. I hope someday I'm half as skilled as you are.

:bow: :bow: :bow:

I too got to play in the shop this evening. The more I play with the borrowed Taig the more I think I'll be getting one once I move.

Also finally got my Atlas running....

Looks like a few of us had a good day!

Thm: Thm:

 

[cobra428]

Dean,
Absolutely Awesome, She's coming along very nicely

Tony

 

[phlegmatic]

Fascinating, totally fascinating, how on earth do u keep yourself from eating the m&m!? Or do u get new ones every day?

 

[Deanofid]

Wes, Bob, Joe, Zee, Dennis, Mike, Tony, phlegmatic, thank you all for your kind words and encouragements.

Fascinating, totally fascinating, how on earth do u keep yourself from eating the m&m!? Or do u get new ones every day?

If you knew what was on that M&M.. Well, lets put it this way; There would be no temptation to eat it.
It's the "shop" M&M.

Thanks again, everyone!

Dean

 

[arnoldb]

Great going Dean :bow: - lovely job!

Regards, Arnold

You can't eat it; it's not an M&M its a W&W

 

[Deanofid]

Arnold, thank you, again!

Some more done on the misc. stuff.

This post will describe the belt pulley, or sheave. This is another piece that isn't included in
the original prints, but it seems like the engine needs some way to be belted to another piece
besides by using only the flywheels. Using one of the flywheels will be great for running
something that has to go fast, like a generator, but if I want to hook this up to that little oil
well in my back yard, it needs a pulley. ; )

A piece of CRS is chucked up, drilled/reamed through and a parting tool used to cut a groove
in the face of the work piece. This is usually referred to as "trepanning", but I'll just call it grooving.
Trepanning always makes me think of drilling a hole in someone's noggin. I'm grooving, baby.

I used the parting tool because I didn't have a grooving tool of the proper shape ground up.
My grinder is outside, under a cover, and it's a flat miserable day out. I didn't want to go out in
sideways rain and sleet to grind a tool, so I used what I already had. I didn't use a tool that was
entirely proper, though I know how to grind one. I'm sorry.

Lucky for me, the new Atlas will gear down to about 55 rpm, and it made this a pretty straight
forward cut. Using a tool like this begs for chatter if it's run too fast.I cranked the tool in until the
clearance on the bottom of the tool hit the side of the cut, then went to the next step.

When the first tool bottomed out, I put a sharp pointed cutter in the tool post, slewed the
compound to what looked good to me, and cut the bevel inside the rim of the piece.

When this end was done, the piece was reversed end for end, faced off to length, and that
end given the same treatment as the first end.

The piece is now put on an arbor to clean up the OD. The arbor is just a piece of drill rod,
the same diameter as the crankshaft on the engine. A tiny dab of blue Locktite is used to
hold the work piece fast to the arbor.

If you want to hold a piece in this manner, the two pieces need to be a close fit, but not hard
to push together. If the piece is too loose on the arbor, the Locktite bond will not hold, or may
not even set up. For this piece, the Locktite was allowed to setup for only about five minutes
before turning commenced.

I put a very light crown on the pulley after truing it up.

This shot shows half the crown done. The compound slide was set to cut a one deg taper,
the center of the length of the piece found, and the tool run up with the cross slide to just
touch the pulley. The dial setting on the cross is noted, then cranked back a few thou and
the lathe started up. Then the cross is returned to the noted setting and the compound
cranked toward the headstock to cut the one deg angle on one half of the pulley.

This first cut for the crown doesn't look so good, because it's not. I had changed to a dead
center in the tailstock from the live center I started with. The live one had just a little wobble.
When I cranked the dead center into the center hole in the arbor, I had set it a little too loose.
Anyway, I re-cut the piece after snugging up the dead center a touch, and got a better finish.

The second half of the crown was cut in the same way, but the compound was set to one deg
on the other side of zero.

To finish up a bit, a sanding stick was used. I buy these things by the dozen from a clockmakers'
supply, (Timesavers). They're made for polishing clock pivots, come in a bunch of different grits,
and run about $0.90 apiece. Pretty handy for the price. When the paper on one wears out, it can
sometimes be peeled off and replaced with wet or dry paper. Sometimes you just have to chuck
them out 'cause the old paper won't come off.

The sticks come in numbers that don't match up with what we normally know as sand paper grit.
The coarsest I use is #3 which is about like 120 grit paper. The finest is 3-0 which is about like 2400
grit. The numbers go from coarsest to finest, 3, 2, 1, 0, 2-0, 3-0, just in case anyone wants to know.

To get the pulley off the arbor, it was heated with a small propane torch and pulled off, (wearing
gloves!). Cleaned the left over Locktite from the bore, and it's ready to go. The heat required to
break the Locktite bond is not enough to change the color of the metal, so, a few hundred degrees,
I would guess.

So, there's the finished thingy. It could be drilled and tapped for a set screw, but there's little
room for it, so it will be held on with some type of easily removable adhesive.
A few tool marks can be seen in the bottom of the groove from using the flat tool.
Just thought that should be pointed out.

There it is in place, and one more little bit down and done.

Thanks for looking.

Dean

 

[Powder keg]

I'd eat that M&M. My fingers are dirtier than that Rof} Rof} Rof}

Nice Pulley! Thanks for the tip on the locktite. How do you get it apart?

 

[Deanofid]

Nice Pulley! Thanks for the tip on the locktite. How do you get it apart?

You heat it, Wes. It's in the paragraphs under the picture with the sanding stick.

Thanks for the comments!

Dean

 

[Twmaster]

That's another tip I'll file away in the old noggin for future use...

I also noticed something... It seems my 618 is missing the disk that sits under the rocker on the tool post....

Good thing I made a QC post fit my Atlas today....

Dude, you make this stuff look easy!

 

[Powder keg]

Note to self. Self. Duh. Read all the words. Don't just look at the pictures)

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Timely post Dean. Late. But timely. ;D

That's the third time in two days I've run across a reference to 'trepanning'. I think that's what I needed to do to make my flywheel to print. Very happy to get more information on the how and why.

Also liked the bit about putting a crown on the pulley.

 

[Deanofid]

Wow. Miss a week, and it's time for "demotion to page 2".
; )

It was kind of busy around here for a few days, so I missed getting to work on the engine
for about a week. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Santa brought me a new Shop Vac,
(and a cold). Win some, loose some.

The new cold has kept me in the house, but I really get bored, so went into the shop to work
on the cylinder lagging.

Mike (Twmaster) sent me a bunch of thin wooden coffee sticks just the right size, and Tony
(Cobra428) sent a couple of sheets of nice modeling wood. Very kind of both of you two fellows,
and I appreciate it a lot!

I tried both the hardwood sticks and the oak sheet, and after messing around for about four
hours, discovered a fatal flaw in my cunning plan..

First, I cut a number of the sticks to size and tried arranging them around the cylinder.
They are the right size, but something in the back of my fevered little brain was trying to
speak to me.

Next, I cut out a piece of the sheet, like in the shot above.

I used the trusty tea kettle to steam the piece into shape, which worked quite well, though
it took me a few tries to get a piece done without breaking it. While trying it for a fit on the
cylinder, I realized I was taking the wrong road.

There is no convenient way to attach either the sticks that had been made into staves, nor
the steamed solid piece, to the cylinder. There have to be a couple of brass bands around the
wood pieces, to actually hold them on. They could be mounted to the steam chest on the
top side, but on the bottom, there is nothing. Making up a test piece to check if I could wrap
a band all the way around the cylinder causes them to pinch on the wood, and it just doesn't
work out.

That's the way it goes. I had considered using wood for lagging from near the beginning of the
project, though the prints call for metal sheeting. I'm going to end up doing it Rudy's way, after all.

Time to get back to something I am a little more familiar with, (I'm terrible with wood, as
I've mentioned, and have now presented proof!). I grabbed a piece of brass .020" sheet
and marked it out.

The sheet is thin enough to rough to size with heavy shears, which is what was done. The
prints give a dimension for the lagging sheet, but don't tell how to form it. Just says, "roll it".

Then the piece is put between a couple of small wooden blocks and a file is used to finish the
size to the mark-out lines. Working carefully with a file in this manner gets you nice straight
sides, and a square work piece.

Once the piece is brought to size, the little bits are cut out with the jewelers saw, then the saw
cuts are finished with a file.

The piece has to be rolled to fit the cylinder head diameters. I don't have a slip roll, and it would
take one of those tiny toy sized ones to do this job, anyway. I just rolled it round and round
(carefully) over a piece of metal rod. You have to be careful to start this with the edges of the
work piece square to a mark made on length of the metal rod, or the piece will roll into a spiral.
A small plastic hammer to lightly tap kinks helps the process. If you do use a hammer, the piece
can't be hit very hard, or it will stretch where it's hit, causing it to buckle.

Anyway, after a day of failed carpentry and head that feels like an overinflated balloon, it was enough.
I rolled the piece up to fit fairly well, and will continue next shop session.

It still needs a little fitting, but I'll leave it for Monday.

Another progress shot.

Looking to finish this up in the coming week. Probably about 10-15 hours of work left.
Some of those are wood work, though.. Eh.

Thanks for looking in,

Dean

 

[Twmaster]

Sorry the sticks did not work out for ya. Although from what I see with that sheet I'd wager it will still be amazing.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

It looks great Dean.
It's just so neat to see it coming together.