Building Rudy's Steam Tractor

[4156df]

Thank you for the kind comments...they're appreciated.

cobra428....I've got an order in for some blue Dykem. I'm partial to the red because it hides the blood.

This must be the day for lubricators because Deanofid just posted his. Definitely worth looking at.

Here we go with mine:

Displacement Lubricator

The Displacement Lubricator is a device that supplies oil to the inner workings of the engine. It mounts on one side of the steam admission tee shown in my previous post.

Here’s a schematic of a typical lubricator:

There is a good explanation of how these work on this SITE which is where I got the above photo. Rudy’s Lubricator is a slight variation in that his is mounted on the end of the steam pipe.

The body is made from a piece of 5/16” brass rod, drilled to form the oil chamber. I drilled with a #1 drill so I could tap the top 1/4-28 for the filler cap.

The bottom end is drilled 3/32” for the drain line and a 3/32” hole is drilled on the side for the steam line.

The filler cap was made as an assembly. I knurled, drilled and tapped a piece of 5/16” rod 1/4-28, parted it off and screwed it on a piece of 1/4-28 rod.

Silver soldered the two pieces, screwed the assembly into a threaded piece of hex and put a decorative shape on the top end using a chain saw file.

The steam pipe assembly starts with a 1/2” piece of 3/32” solid rod. The plans then call for this rod to be drilled through with a #72 drill. That’s 0.025”. I figured there’s no way I could do that so I first drilled it 3/8” deep with a 1/16” drill and then peck drilled the last 1/8” with the 0.025 drill.

It worked and I didn’t break the drill!! Rudy was insistent that the hole be no bigger than 0.025” to prevent flooding the engine with oil. However, I’m hoping the length isn't critical (mine is 1/8" vs. his 1/2"). I guess I’ll find out.

Next I made a bolting flange from 1/16” x 1/4” stock and silver soldered the steam pipe into it to complete the steam pipe sub-assembly.

The drain tube is made from 3/32” tubing and a piece of 1/4” rod. No pictures, but it’s pretty straight forward.

The drain plug is also an assembly. It starts with a piece of 4-40 threaded rod, pointed to form a needle valve.

The handle part is made by knurling, tapping 4-40 and parting off a piece of 5/16” rod.

These two pieces are then screwed together and silver soldered. Then they're screwed into a piece of hex stock and faced smooth.

In lieu of a rotary table, I used the piece of hex stock to index the handle for decorative holes. I clamped a stop in the vise to keep the stock vertical, drilled a hole, rotated to the next flat and so on.

It worked out pretty well.

You’ve probably noticed that the knurling pattern changes as you go through the photos. That’s cause I was experimenting. Knurling is still somewhat of a black art for me.

That completes the sub-assemblies.

Next the sub-assemblies were silver soldered into the final assembly.

I kept the torch directed at the body and didn’t have any problem with the sub-assemblies re-flowing. Whew!

That completes the Displacement Lubricator

My grandsons called the NASA Inspector in on me. He didn’t like the pinkish color on some of the brass, but bought off on it anyway.

Regards,
Dennis

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Niiiiiice post Dennis.
Thanks for the link and the explanation on the displacement lubricator.
And nice handle too!

 

[cobra428]

"cobra428....I've got an order in for some blue Dykem. I'm partial to the red because it hides the blood."

Rof} Rof} Rof}

Not funny, But I know what you mean. But a little red on blue gives a good contrast. I was handling a part the other day and deburring. The next thing, I see is red all over. Holly smokes, I'm bleeding,. how..it looks like razor cuts on my fingers. Didn't even feel it. All I can say is..it's worth it! Dirty cut hands, heaven, we are doing something! Earning that feeling of accomplishment, does it get better than that?

Tony

 

[Deanofid]

My grandsons called the NASA Inspector in on me. He didn’t like the pinkish color on some of the brass, but bought off on it anyway.

Regards,
Dennis

Fess up, Dennis; You bribed 'em with donuts!

Funny how we would be making similar items on the exact same day! I'd been thinking about how to go about building the lubricator, and came across the same illustration you had in your post on that same website just last night. We must have been in parallel worlds.

Your example looks typical of your fine work. That is to say, it's another beautiful job on this superb build. It's a pleasure following your thread.

Dean

 

[arnoldb]

That's a fine piece of work Dennis :bow: - And good to see the new hearth put to work right away!

Regards, Arnold

 

[vlmarshall]

Excellent work. ;D Lubricators are one of the next steps for my project, too.

 

[SAM in LA]

I enjoy reading/seeing how you make the various parts for your projects. Several of the builds have silver soldered joints.

I see the setups and the results but have no clue ??? ??? what the actual procedure is.

It would be very helpful for me if a tutorial was done for silver soldering, including the fits, surface preparation, solder used, flux, amount of heat required, heating method, ect..

Thanks for the education.

 

[shred]

ooo.. the NASA Inspector guy...

Sam, if you poke around in Bogstandard's "Piston Valve Engine" book, there's a good writeup in there on silver soldering technique for beginners.

 

[4156df]

I second Shred's recommendation of Bogstandard's thread/book. Before reading it I hadn't done any silver soldering. It gave me the confidence to try and his description is right on. Definitely a skill worth developing based on the little I've done so far.

There's also a good tutorial in Kozo Hiraoka's The Pennsylvania A3 Switcher.

Dennis

 

[spuddevans]

And I third Shred's reccomendation of Bog's Paddleducks engine plans, I am in the middle of building it and have just started to silver solder. Following the instructions has given me the confidence to feel a little more comfortable with silver soldering.


Tim

 

[SAM in LA]

ooo.. the NASA Inspector guy...

Sam, if you poke around in Bogstandard's "Piston Valve Engine" book, there's a good writeup in there on silver soldering technique for beginners.

Thanks for pointing out Bogs book. I dug around and the correct link to it is

http://rs616.rapidshare.com/files/237708589/Piston_valve_engine_book.rar


I downloaded and extracted the PDF's and have added it to my must read list.

Thanks again.

 

[Twmaster]

Oooh more good reading...

Thanks for the link to that.

 

[JimN]

Dennis
Since you started this thread, I decided I could build the tractor. With your help and the thread it makes things much easier. Now for couple of questions, I am guessing that in your gear selection, the Idler has two gears on it, the 80 and 40 tooth ones that you showed how you soldered them together, and the Countershaft has two gears, but only on the right side, the left side only has the 16 tooth. Correct?

Since I will have to order from the states and pay UPS an extra 20% or so for the privilege of bring them across the border, want to make sure I order what I need only once.

Another question is did you change the location of any of the bearings?

Thanks
JimN

 

[joe d]

Jim

If you can, have your supplier send the parts to you by mail. You will wait a little longer, but you will be at worst assessed duty and taxes, the post office does not add the insane "brokerage fees" that most of the courier companies add on. The freight charges by mail are also usually considerably less.

Dennis; Still following along with great interest, you're doing really nice work here.

Joe

 

[4156df]

Hi Jim,

Your gear assumptions are correct: 80 and 40 are soldered together as the Idler. The countershaft has two gears on the right (108 tooth & 16 tooth), but only a 16 tooth on the left.

Don't know how tight your budget is, but I think this tractor would operate just fine with only single wheel drive and you could eliminate one 16 tooth pinion and one 120 tooth bull gear. As I recall the bull gear was fairly expensive.

I didn't change the location of Rudy's bearings, just found a location for the idler based on correct gear mesh.

Regards,
Dennis

 

[JimN]

Thanks Joe, but they will only ship UPS. Guess they figure if someone in Canada wants something they will just pay it. Now Online Metals is different, they figured out that there where customers in Canada, and went to UPS and explained either stop the insane brokerage fees to small customers or they would change shippers. Items shipped to Canada by standard mail most times has an extra $5.00 added to it, Online Metals sends it by UPS and its an extra $6.00. Any other thing UPS brings into Canada, they add something like 20%. I refer to UPS in Canada as Ultra Poor Service.

Thanks Dennis
I will add the bull gear on both sides, just for some reason I kept trying to figure out why I needed the extra 108 tooth gear. I don't, just was not looking at it right. Thanks Again.

JimN

 

[BAH101]

Have you looked for a border store in the States? You live in Buttsford so it is just a quick drive. I work in Thunder Bay, and there is Rydens Border store in Grand Marais MN, about 30 min drive away, they will accept parcels for Canadians and only charge 4 bucks for the pleasure. I order a lot of stuff and send it there, only have to pay tax's coming across. Nice thing is, a lot of stores in the states have free shipping if delivered in the lower 48 states.
Bryan

 

[JimN]

Hi Bah101
I live in BC,,but yes border is only 30 minutes, another 20 minutes to lynden, so 3 hours round trip to pick up a package. Not worth the time to me to save a few bucks once or twice a year. Plus the place in Lynden requires you have a PO Box there.

Its the first time I have ordered from someone that will not ship USPS, and don't think I will be building another tractor. LOL going to take a year to get this one done. So have ordered all the gears I need now.

LOL besides its all Dennis's fault, for making it look so easy to build the tractor......

JimN
Abbotsford

PS: All of us that are working on this tractor should start a seperate thread to keep track of how we are all doing.

 

[4156df]

Throttle Valve Assembly

The Throttle Valve on Rudy’s tractor is a disk-type that, according to Rudy, “cannot stick or jam” and will “give easy control over engine speed”. The Throttle Valve screws directly into the boiler and is made from two sub-assemblies; a throttle stand and a throttle disk.

The throttle stand starts with a 9/16” x 9/16” x 1/4” piece of brass. I used the mill for drilling because there are four stopped holes and the mill gives me better control.

Tapped holes are 2-56. The one on the right is tapped through and the other two are stop holes tapped with a bottoming tap. The fourth hole is 3/32” thru.

The vise stop holds reference points when the part is flipped over to drill a 3/32” stopped hole on the other side (the hole on the right).

The last operation on this piece is to drill a 3/16” hole on the edge for the stand pipe. This hole connects with the 3/32” hole drilled above. Again, the use of a vise stop pays off.

Now it’s confession time:

When I went to drill the above 3/16” hole I discovered that all my work up to that point had been done on a piece of 3/16 thick stock instead of the 1/4” it was supposed to be. You can see the problem on the part on the right.

It’s hard to drill a 3/16” hole into 3/16” stock and not have a steam leak! Still haven’t figured out how I could have missed this. Oh well, one more bit for the “maybe use some day” pile.

The other part of the throttle stand is a piece of 3/16” brass rod, center drilled 3/32” and threaded 10-32 on one end.

The above two parts are then silver soldered together. I used a pre-form made from 1/32” silver solder wire for soldering.

Some heat and citric acid pickle and the throttle stand is complete.

The throttle disk is a two part assembly made from a 3/16” thick piece of 1/2” brass rod and a 1/16” thick piece of flat stock.

The disk is faced and drilled #43 to clear a 2-56 screw. The lever is made from a piece of 1/8” x 1/16” stock, filed to shape.

The disk and lever are silver soldered together. I used a piece of stainless steel wire to hold the two pieces together during soldering.

After clean up, I screwed the disk to my rounding plate to mill the 3/32” wide by 3/32” deep steam cavity

and used a machinist clamp on the lever to rotate the disk through a 90 degree arc.

Note the two barely visible clamps used as stops. This operation would probably be better done on a rotary table, but you go with what you have. It worked pretty well as long as I took light cuts and kept the screw snug.

One thing I’d do differently…instead of drilling the center hole out to #43 right away, I’d first drill it to a very snug fit on a 2-56 screw. That would eliminate a little play during this operation. Then, after the steam passage is cut, drill it out to #43.

Here are the mating faces of the throttle,

and the completed Throttle Stand.

The spring tension will be adjusted under steam. It occurs to me that if this valve is adjusted just tight enough not to leak it will also serve as a secondary relief valve.

Thanks for following along,
Dennis

 

[vlmarshall]

Interesting throttle, I'm looking forward to seeing how/where that attaches.