Way To Start The New Year!

Happy New Year to me!  We finished machining the side rods right after New Year's and then needed to make the spacers and caps.  After a bunch of measurement checking and mocking up, and parts modifying, Ed cranked out the rod pin caps and spacers while I ground/sanded on the side rods.  Then we mounted everything to see how well it all mated together.  Kudos to the Live Steam God as it was AWESOME!  We needed to perform a few slight modifications but it all fit great.  No binds or kinks when all of the rods were mounted and it rolls smooth as silk with very little effort.  Happy New Year to me indeed......!

Visit to 2925

Ed started working on the drawings for the brake rigging and came up with a bunch of questions.  Unfortunately he does not have any brake rigging drawings and had to improvise using the erection prints.  So, to try and fill in all the missing details, it was off to 2925's haunting grounds to pay a visit to the real thing.

I will freely admit that I am a bit spoiled to have the full-size engine that I am trying to model only a half hour away.  Heck, there is another engine #2921 (in much better looking condtion I am told)  only 1 1/2 hrs. away.  Speaking of 2921, that is the first steam engine that I can ever remember seeing (not counting Knotts Berry Farm) up close in person.  (I think that I will number my engine 2921.)  I was probably about 11 years old and my dad took his train buddy and I to go see 2921.  Turns out that "train buddy" was none other than Ed of "Live Steam God" fame whose path I would later cross in life. Kinda one of those "small world" things....

2925 had been moved since my last visit.  She is stored on some tracks owned by the California State Railroad Museum next to a bike trail and the Sacramento River.  It looks like they shuffled around some other freight cars and 2925 was moved a bit in the process.  It still is a sad thing to see her there all stripped of her boiler jacketing and just rusting away.  At least she is not all yet covered in graffiti like all of the other freight cars that were around her.  Climbing over her running gear,laying on the ballast and sort of wriggling in under her between the massive drivers revealed all of the missing information.  (The driving wheels dont look ALL that big until you are standing next to them and have to look UP to see the top of them.  They are huge!  Another one of those "amazing facts" for me is that this giant platter of cast iron would rotate fast enough to propel this monster to over 100mph!)  For those so inclined, one to the solved mysteries was to determine exactly how the vertical brake cylinders were mounted to the frame.  Here is what we found.

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!