I'll Have Rods for Christmas...

Trying to get the side rods mostly complete by Christmas turned out to be a pipe dream but, I have come pretty close.  While I finished plowing out the middle of the rods, Ed started boring out the ends for the ball bearings. 

Of course the purist in me wants to use Timken roller bearings but the practical side wins on this one and we are installing sealed ball bearings.  At least the rod ends will have bearings like the real ones.  Now that we are almost done with the machining, it was time to relish the moment.  THEY FIT PERFECT AND LOOK GREAT!  So far we have 3 rods mounted in place and everything spins freely with no binding or kinks!  WOOHOO!

Merry Christmas everyone!

New Cutter to the Rescue!

The side rod tapering went fairly quickly and now its on to plowing out the middle of the side rods to make them look more like an I-beam.  After taking what seemed like an eternity to plow out the sides of the main rods with a ball-end mill, I was not looking forward to this operation on the other 8 side rods.  However, after relocating the spiders and knocking off the dust and cosmoline, the new cutter that Ed dug up out of the deep dark recesses of the shop saved the day!

It took a bit of time to get the bugs worked out of the CNC program, but the result was well worth the effort.  Using the new cutter, Ol' Betsy makes 5 passes to remove the entire width of the center material in the rod and leaves an almost mirror finish.   The program is run twice with .100 of material being taken the first time and .050 being taken on the final run.   Once again under the watchful eye of Ed, I make liberal applications of "rooster juice" to keep things cool and all lubed up and babysit the mill.  Here is a picture of the final passes being taken.  1 rod down, 7 to go.  Maybe I can still beat that Christmas deadline.

Taper for 2

The last couple of main rod pictures didn't turn out too well but I am happy to report that with the exception of boring the ends, all of the main rod machining is complete!  There is still quite a bit of work to be done in the finish and polishing department, but I think I'll pass that job on to my brother! :-) 

Now its on to the side rods.  Just a quick taper to the rods like this....

And then its time to start plowing out the middle of the rod.  Ed rooted around for a bit and came up with what will hopefully be the perfect slot cutter.  I wish he had found it to cut out the middle of the mains, but I guess it was not to be.

Rodding Along, But Not Very Fast

Work, family, and other obligations have conspired to cause progress on the 2900 to slow from turtle-speed to a more molasses-like pace.  Besides, the progress that is being made is enough to put me in the nut house. 

Work on the rods continues (where have I heard that before?).  Not a work session goes by that Ed doesn't muse about the rods wondering if they truly are made from 303 stainless or something a bit tougher.  I have finally finished machining in the groove around the main rod ends.  That primarily consisted of me standing at the CNC mill and pushing a button and watching the machine go s-l-o-w-l-y round and round while keeping things thoroughly lubed with "juice", adjusting the Z axis, punching the button and doing it over, and over, and over again.  I know, it could be worse so I just need to shut up and get on with it.  (If nothing else this does reinforce what a genius Kelly Johnson really was.  He and his team had to develop from scratch all kinds of new means and methods for fabricating and machining titanium [which I am told makes this stainless seem like aluminum!] in the making of the A-12/SR-71.)  I suppose that the picture below should be celebratory in nature as it is the final cut but it just means that we are moving on to the next step in rod building.  Cutting the same sort of groove in the 2 main rods are next followed by a side-profiling and slotting of all of the other rods.  Hope I'll be done with this part by Christmas.  Seriously.......

Rods Anyone?

I recollect that some time ago I figured I would be productive and instead of watching Ed weld little things into bigger things, I would "busy myself" by starting construction of the side rods.  This has turned out to be one of the larger understatements of my life.  Actually my troubles can be traced to the fact that I was seduced by the siren song of "stainless steel".   I dont really know why I thought stainless was a good idea other than it sounded cool, but my lack of knowledge and experience definitely played a part in the decision.  Where was it decided that aluminum wouldn't be a good idea?  I think that the rods will probably look great when completed, but getting there will take a TON of time and effort.

The rough cut rods shown here look like that were hacked out a block of steel with a hatchet. Although the CNC mill at the Palace of the Live Steam God (Ed's shop) is an antique and belongs in a museum by modern shop standards, I dont know think that I could live without it. This amazing machine has definitely transformed the plan into reality. Here it is in action as it contours the rod and then again as it cuts the relief into the rod face.  We have only wrecked a couple of end mills so far!  That stainless is tough stuff!

And voila! the rod magically appears.  Now we just have to repeat this step another 18 times and then it will be time to taper the ends of the rods and cut the relief into the face to make it look more like and "I" beam.

I think that I will go "busy" myself working on these rods for the forseeable future.  Wish me luck!

Paper Dolls

This is going to be a short post, but I was just so happy to be done with the bandsawing that I had to celebrate!  The picture shows the final cut in my tedious efforts to turn a piece of 5 1/2" round bar into usable flat stock.  Ed thought up the ingenious pipe clamp feed system which thankfully eliminated the pushing and shoving on my part.  Just stand there and turn the crank while giving the cut a squirt of "juice" from time to time.  Piece of cake!  No more aches and pains - Yeah!

I talked to Dave and he thinks I'm nuts for doing things this way.  He is probably right, but at least I am finished.  Ed was surfacing the planks and getting them close to their finish thickness while I finished up sawing.  After  I completed my planking operations, I was then able to play with my kind of "paper dolls". 

Ed had printed the rod design on heavy paper and I cut them out to make templates or "paper dolls".  We then placed the template on the finished planks and traced the rod outline - 2 per plank.  I then started whittling away again on the bandsaw and ended up the day with the 2 main rods and 2 front rods rough cut (really rough!) to shape.  I was on the bandsaw almost the entire session.  But, next time I will finish  roughing out the remaining rods and then we will get to throw them on the CNC mill and watch that magical piece of equipment transform my novice hack job into a thing of beauty and symmetry.

Yer Killin' Me!

Here is the missing picture from the previous post.  The black paint kind of hides some of the detail but at least keeps things from rusting.  The front and rear plates are now permanently welded onto the block.  The saddle and support (painted black) are not yet welded to the block and are still removable so that we can access the plumbing that is underneath it.  The steam passages between the valve chamber and cylinder are complete and the rear cylinder heads have been welded onto the cylinders.  In the next few weeks we are going to plug everything up and pressure test the whole assembly to check for leaks.

While Ed was busy welding all the pieces and parts together on the block, I thought that I would busy myself by preparing to make the side rods.  What an understatement that has turned out to be! 

Ed mentioned somewhere along the line that his cab forward had stainless steel rods.  Well, if they were good enough for Ed, then they are good enough for me!  So, stainless steel it is.  Unfortunately, in my quest to save a buck by not going out a buying an appropriately sized piece of bar stock, I really bit off almost more than I could chew (and I can chew an awful lot!). 

The only material in the shop that was large enough from which to fabricate the rods was a 3' piece of 5 1/2" round 303 stainless steel.  After chopping off an 18" piece (the longest rod length) it was then time to cut the round bar into flat slabs.  Having never before worked with stainless steel I was in for a rude awakening.  I set up a fence on the bandsaw and proceeded to cut the bar lengthwise down its 18" dimension.  That minor task only took 90 minutes to complete.  Huh?  "Hold up on that carwash there, genamen" as the great Sheriff Beaufort T. Justice would say.  The feed rate worked out to about 5 minutes per 1" of cut.  The cogs and gears started whirring in my head as the mental slide rule started grinding out out the answer - lets see, 18" of cutting at 5 minutes per inch makes 90 minutes per cut; 7 cuts at 90 minutes a cut makes 630 minutes of sawing which in turn is about 10 1/2 hours.  10 1/2 HOURS?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!  What a gigantic pain in the butt this has turned out to be.  If only I had known!  (Geez, how many times have I said those words before?!)

So, kind of having already passed beyond the point of no return (cutting a piece of material to length and then cutting it lengthwise in half), there was nothing left to do but plod ahead.  Boy, did I ever "busy myself" preparing to make the side rods.  Ed mused that maybe we could have made the rods out of aluminum which would have been a ton easier.  Aluminum?  What?  Haven't you heard that we are building the biggest and baddest 2900 class engine here?  Aluminum, huh! Santa Fe wouldnt be caught dead using aluminum.  That's like keeping the Blackbird out of afterburner, giving Dirty Harry a BB gun or having John Force run his funny car on gasoline!  Aluminum rods?  No sireeeee!

I started using the counterweight on the bandsaw in conjunction with Ed's soon-to-be-patented belly-pusher to feed the material and got the time down to 75 minutes per cut.  My chest and stomach are killing me from all the shoving, and I still have 2 more cuts to go.  That will have to wait till next time.  Maybe aluminum wouldn't have been so bad after all....  At least the good news is that Dave said we can rough cut out the rods on the plasma cutter.

Back in the Saddle Again

To the cheers of the mighty throngs gathered to witness the momentous event, the saddle was welded to its support, thus rendering the cylinder block substantially complete!  Well, actually it was just me watching Ed weld the pieces together but it still felt like a big event!

Yes, we are talking smokebox, boiler and all kinds of neat things like that.  But, it was only through some literal heavy lifting that we were able to get to this point.  Since it was time to weld the saddle onto the cylinder block, the smokebox needed to be constructed so that it could be mounted on the saddle and in turn, the saddle could be welded in place while keeping the smokebox in perfect position and alignment. 

The heavy lifting occured in trying to find the pipe from which to make the smokebox.  Although Ed's pipe supplies have dwindled due to his recycling efforts, there were still a bunch of pipes to sort through to find what was needed.  Ed decided that we would make the boiler out of 12" ID pipe and the smokebox out of 12" OD pipe.  Once I found a chunk of the correct sized pipe and after removing the old wasp nests and cobwebs, I had to muscle it over into the bandsaw to cut it to length.  After a lengthy period in the sandblaster, it came out looking respectible.

Since Vic then happened to wander by the shop (to continue work on his beautiful working figure-8 rotating headlight for his GS-4), we decided to use his additional man-power to cut out the boiler.  We wrestled a 7' long piece of pipe over to the bandsaw and chopped it to its 63" length.  Including the almost 2' length of the smokebox, the entire boiler assembly is going to be about 8' long.  What a monster!

After a bunch more welding, it was time to disassemble the block for probably (hopefully!) the final time.  The heads were temporarily installed on the cylinders and the rest of the holes were plugged and taped up.   I then bead blasted all the parts to remove all of the accumulated rust so we could put a coat of paint on the interior, hard-to-get-to places.  The camera was acting up (operator error, of course) so I didn't get any pictures of where we are at.

Back in the Saddle

As work s-l-o-w-l-y moves forward on the cylinder block, the saddle area has become the area of focus.  After modifying the front and rear cylinder plate, once again I wasn't quite up to speed in figuring out how everything went together.  (Of course Ed was light-years ahead of me and was already pondering smokebox issues.)

This called for a quick visit to 2925 as I already had a meeting near her haunting grounds.  Visually inspecting the area in question on the full-size engine cleared up any confusion so I could see what was going and in turn, re-arrange the mental jigsaw puzzle and  allow a few more pieces to fall into place. 

However, even though the sun was shining for what seemed like the first time in weeks, I couldnt keep down the lump that rose in my throat.  Although I know that the chances of her ever having a fire in her belly and steam coursing through her veins are practically non-existent it almost kills me to see 2925 in her current state.  Such a thing of majestic power just sitting on some out-of-the-way siding under a freeway rotting away.  Where she once ruled the rails second to none, now the wind, rain, and vandals rob her of her dignity and majesty.  I thought back to her heyday when 2925 and her sister locomotives ruled the rails as some of the biggest, baddest, and most technologically advanced engines that steam had to offer.  I guess that I should be thankful that she didnt meet her fate at the hand of the scrapyard so that at least I can see her.  But when you put a racehorse out to pasture they, at least get to stretch their legs and maintain some self respect.  (At least 2926 looks as if she will one day have her fires lit again!)

But I digress.......  The saddle area has been tack welded together to make sure that everything fits together and that nothing is sticking out into places it shouldn't.  The actual saddle piece has been cut and made (and can be partially seen laying behind the block in the picture) but is not yet attached as we need to make sure that it mates up perfectly with the smokebox.  Yes, it would be that smokebox that Ed is already figuring out while I bring up the rear still congratulaing myself in finally figuring out how the cylinder block sort of fits together.  Here is a picture of what we have so far.

The Draft and Inside Passage(s)

Taking the path of least resistance (that being the easiest thing to accomplish with a minimal amount of thinking), we began installing the inside steam passages from the valve chamber to the piston cylinder. We concentrated on completing the rear passage as the front cylinder plate forms one side of the front passage and we are not yet ready to permanently install the plate. I cut out the pieces and only burned my fingers a couple times as I sanded down the parts to fit. Here is a picture of the completed passage.

Further examination into what had to be finished to allow the front plate to be permanently installed only succeded in opening up a fresh can of worms. A moderate quantity of brain cells were burned up trying to figure out the exhaust nozzle assembly and how to make the inside area airtight. Of course the first thing that immediately popped into my head was "Why is it so important that the interior of the cylinder block is airtight"? Master Ed quickly explained "the draft" and that the process of expelling the steam and boiler exhaust would create a draft through the boiler and that air leaks had the potential to severly impact the draft efficiency and in turn the burner/boiler performance. OK, OK lets make it airtight!

Further analysis led us to the conclusion that we need to finish the work on the cylinder block and smokebox saddle. After another pondering/plan checking/picture looking session we realized that our plans had been incorrectly drawn. As a result, the front and rear plates that Dave and the plasma cutter had made for the cylinder block were incorrect with relation to the smokebox saddle area. Hey, nothing that a little bandsaw work and welding cant remedy! So, in conjunction with the re-work of the smokebox saddle and after a little brainstorming session (and a quick little peek into Fidel's 2-8-2 smokebox!), Ed came up with the idea to kind of box-in the area around the exhaust nozzle manifold. This "boxing-in" would separate the exhaust mainfold and nozzle from the lower portion of the cylinder block and thus drastically simplify the process of making things airtight. More on this later.....

Building Blocks 3

With the rear heads now completed, our efforts are refocusing on completing the cylinder block. The exhaust lines have been plumbed from the cylinders to a center collector ring where the exhaust nozzle will be bolted to the ring. I kind of like this setup as it allows the nozzle portion of the exhaust assembly to be easily removed to allow us to try different sized nozzles.

Two of the plumbing joints on one side of the cylinder have been left unsoldered to allow us to continue to dissasemble the block into the individual components. But, Ed will soon begin to weld more of the block together and it will eventually become one big permanent piece. I need to start cutting out all of the little pieces that will be used to fabricate the steam passages between the valve cylinder and the piston cylinder.