Llewellyn Loco Works #1

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Quick intro. Darrell Llewellyn McCulloch. Born and raised in Queensland. Left school at 15 yo. Raced bicycles for many years. (my sprint finish was barely detectable with modern scientific instruments)

Worked in bikes shops, worked as a national cycle team mechanic and washed bicycles in 23 countries. (lots of travel)

Making bespoke bicycles is my chosen path of professional expression. (Llewellyn Custom Bicycles) The bike making workshop is under the house.
I have been interested in model engineering since 1986 and have subscribed to Model Engineer since then. I have started a simple 5" gauge loco to a local design, but bikes, life etc have conspired to slow the progress on this. (Big Sigh) In 2012 Mary Ann Martin , known as MAM, my lovely dear and very talented wife (who emigrated from the USA to be entangled with me, yep I landed on my feet) and I started on a major house rebuild/extension which included a separate room for Model Engineering. This I call, the "Red Room" This was set up a couple of years ago.



The Myford I shipped from the UK. It sat in it's shipping crate for 5 years before I set it up.



New Taiwanese Mill Drill with DRO. ( I am now in love with DRO)



I got this little Cowells lathe, brand new, never used since it was signed off in 1985. A bit of an indulgence.



5" Loco, still under way since 1987, there are a lot of parts made that are not in the pic and the steel Briggs boiler material is to hand and waiting for me to bore the tube plates etc.



My new intended office became MAM's art room.



I am involved with a couple of Heritage railways. Me in the fire box of QR C17 class #720 at the Rosewood Railway



Every thing is self taught, I have no professional qualifications, I read, ask, listen to the skilled ones and attempt to lend a hand or have a go with those with the knowledge.
Onto the Dazza's little loco build that is now under way.

[Peter Butler]

Great intro... welcome. Your red room is more like an operating theatre but you don't mind getting your hands, and more, dirty!
Intrigued by the Welsh name, any connection?

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

MAM and I had planned a Garden Railway when we did the house and yard rebuild and MAM has a Lady Ann kit waiting for her attention.
In 2015 we had a holiday in the UK for five weeks (my first holiday longer than two weeks for over 30 years)
It was while we were in the UK that I picked up Brian Wilson's "Steam Trains In Your Garden. This book motivated to me start my own attempt at a 042 coal fired version of his Eric. For me it has to be coal fired, I feel like I would be cheating to use gas. A bit harsh eh ? ! The book is a good starter, I studied and the drawings. The drawings for coal fired boiler and loco leave some things to one's conjecture, so I think it was best for me to redo all the drawings in 3D CAD and do a full assembly. I have not sorted the final full assembly of my loco, it is still in progress. The procedure is to draw up the chassis and motion etc into a full working and moving assembly. I am self taught in "Solid Works' via the excellent book written by David Murray. I have a new appreciation of technical writing because MAM's profession is a "Technical Writer" which is translating Geek speak to monkey speak (ie: me).
Here is an early draft assembly of # 1. (#1 Llewellyn Loco works build)





Please note this loco is totally free lance and not trying to represent a real world loco.

It was during this process I discover some errors and some cryptic floating parts locations in the book. More on this as I bring this thread up to the current situation.

The beauty of 3D CAD is the assembly process of the 3D individual parts , to see the fouls, bad alignments etc. Then convert the single 3D part into a 2D drawing for the workshop floor. If some thing is missing, such as a dimension or mistake, this is easily added , or corrected or checked. One can update the part and all the 2D drawings and the assembly are updated as well. SWEET! But, not infallible, errors can creep in so one must still be diligent.
To many this is all so so and well known, but this is my thread so..........................................

This is my frame plate drawing. Notice I use the ordinate dimension, X and Y = 0 as I am using the digital read out (DRO) on the mill drill. It was my first time with DRO and I am in love with it !



This drawing ends up with notes scribbled on it and alterations and after making the part I edit or update the master set of 2D and 3D drawings. To remove as much as possible silly and lazy errors! Please note, this is not the traditional drafting style and might make many cringe but my excuse is I am self taught, so I let my self off the hook. The main things for me is, that the drawing is proven correct and updated as required. I know many locos have been made from many designers drawings but many mistakes and errors remain for many reasons, both practical and or the builder just moves on, not certain if it is them or the drawing that is the mistake. Just want to get the bloody thing finished .......

This is both frame plates bolted to a square section aluminum by the excess material on the outside. It is 1.55mm black steel that was bought by MAM at a closing down sale at "Masters". Good lass eh! Black or annealed is used to enure distortion is minimal.



Spot and drilling begins



Thread taping using a tool inspired by B.W's book.



I made this taping tool body from stainless steel that I had to hand, roughed out on the Blue lathe in the bike making room and then the final machining in the Red Room Myford. BW says make it 1/8" for the shanks but I find the tap shank sizes all vary and are all over the place so I make interchangeable sleeves from 1/4" steel to ensure a snug fit for the different size shanks. It all works a total treat. Very pleased and worth the effort and a tool I will end my earthly days using.





Frame plates completed.





I used a boring head for the first time to do the corners on the cutouts.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Great intro... welcome. Your red room is more like an operating theatre but you don't mind getting your hands, and more, dirty!
Intrigued by the Welsh name, any connection?

No Welsh connection. Just that my middle name is Llewellyn. However we visit Wales most times we are in the UK. We exhibited at "Bespoked" (Hand made bike show held in Brunel's Train Shed at Templemeads Bristol !) last year and this year and this year the bike show was on the same weekend as the Peterbrough show, errrrr! We visited Wales this year and of course a couple of the narrow gauge railways were included and some potteries for MAM. I like Wales. The rain is a change from the dry here, however my progress on the form work and concreting here is delayed as it has rained here for two days non stop. It seems I will not be visiting the UK next year for several reasons.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Chook scratchings on the drawings are updated on the PC post production of the part


whrrrrrrrrlll goes the mill around the outside of the buffer beams



I could just use a file, but eff it, I use files in my hands all day on the bikes, so in goes a boring head



I got some Round House buffer/coupler, the cast in bolt heads offended me so I removed and will fit 10 BA studs to look a wee bit sweeter (or was it 8BA, I forget now)



Check the fit



Done

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

I was a subscriber to Australian Model Engineer magazine since day one but I recently quit this mag as I was tired of club run day reports with large pictures of bums on trains filling the pages. Good Grief. For me this is not good value for my hard earned gold coin. I am not in a hospital bed yet so if I want to see bums on trains I can drive 10 minutes to my Model engineering club and watch bums go by. But not long after a mate of mine tells me there is an article in AME about a modification to the frames of Eric for removable wheel assembly. This appealed to me and he sent me scans of the article.



Split bush to hold the square section Brass





Then it was the frame erection



I bored the axle bush holes in situ in the frames and using the DRO for location. Fiddly and time consuming but my attempt to nail the accuracy. (or is it precision ?)

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Phosphor bronze axle bushes. Reamers etc etc. Brass bearings, errrrrrr yuk (errrrrr yuk = Dazza techincal term)
Silver steel axles



All boxes numbered and temporally bolted in place



The "Erection Crew" get up set if I am critical



Inserted the axle material, no fiddle required, the axle was a smooth sliding fit, as good as --X , all is sweet , YAY !
Have I mentioned lately how much I like DRO ?



Axles machined. The book text mentions centre drilling the ends in some places but not in others, however a #1 centre drill will go too deep if you intend to later cross drill for pinning the cranks. Little things like that can catch you out if you not aware and thinking it out . Go faster by going slower. So I measured and used a spot drill in the ends of the axles.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

There are some wheels in there



rough out the blanks on the Blue lathe



To the Myford, machine and onto the mandrel, then some contemplation of the attack



whrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr



Done. With tapers to the flange and paying attention to the back to back dimensions which are not mentioned in the book.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Cranks



Bringing the black material down to size



the cranks are done in a row, including a spare, just in case.



another mandrel and removal of the unwanted begins







made some suitable filing buttons from silver steel hardened and not tempered



file file file





Done but for the 1000 grit rub down

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Now before the wheels and axles meet each other, the pump eccentric must not be forgotten. Again there are missing dimensions in the book so some thought, advice and a calculated guess and away I go.

Eccentric tool with Crobalt bit meets free machining steel to become an eccentric







I think it is time well spent to grind up HSS to make tools that will be used often and last decades of use. This is a 45 degree chamfer tool that is sweet for nice finishing touches



I did fit a small grub screw

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Again inspired by BW's book, the die holder is made. Again in stainless steel. The M3 threads were done with care and new sharp taps.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

A quartering jig is required
Refer to B W's design. Ponder, I change a few dimensions and add lock nuts to the axle end screws to firm up the wheel assembly while the Loctite does its job.



Lock nuts





"MAM, come see what I have done"

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Crank pins





case harden process using Cherry Red



and some temporary pins for the quartering process



Cranks and pins polished



Now I made an error, I should have made a wee lead in for the blank pins so when pressed they went in very square and a simple press jig guide would have ensured a high degree of accuracy, the result is that later I find they are wee smidgen out, which annoys me. I contemplated scraping them but nah, if they are a problem later, deal with it then.

Pressed the cranks on and just for kicks and giggles I annoyted with loctite for what it is was worth (most likely a waste of time)



Cross drilled and fitted 1/16" silver steel pins, with a knurled surface (using an old mill file and hammer) and Loctite 638







For the Loctite side it to the 1/4 jig, or is it a fixture ?



Keeps the pin pressed home

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

To trim and finish off the BA screws to the correct length and to give a nice finish to the trimmed end with a small radius I fussed for a whole weekend Sunday morning making a special tool. This was inspired by recently seeing an article on clock making in an old Model Engineering mag in my library It has removable bushes for different size BA or small Metric screws.





I grind up and polish (1500 grit) a 1/4" HSS tool



The idea is it parts the screw to length and puts a neat chamfer on in one pass and you just repeat for as many screws or bolts required for the job.



Set up in the Cowells lathe



I had to go back and just do a little alteration to the tool shape
and then the result was as good as I could hope for. The 8BA nuts just go straight on, there is no need to clean up the thread start. YAY!
Another tool that will be used for the rest of earthly days.



Screws fitted to the frames



Time to give it a whirl along some Peco "Yah hooooooooooo Weeeeeeeeeeee"

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Coupling rods. Two blanks of 1.55 black bolted to the alloy section.













Double sided tape for holding to some 3/8" tool steel to rub over the sheets on the surface table , down to 1500 grit



On an Model Engineering forum a chap posted how he drills some small holes using carbide Printed Circuit Board drills. There were ordered via Ebay and very cheap, $20 for box of 10 ! For kicks and giggles I decided I wanted .5mm oil holes in the rods. I can hear the sighs out there, but heck for what it is worth it is fun. These drills work by making dust, not swarf. Drill held in 1/8" 3MT collet and draw bar. High speed , dry and using the air hose to blow the dust clear. Using the fine feed hand wheel and watching the dro.for the quill, it was 0.50mm with each peck and proceed very slowly, about 0.01mm about every second. I did a test piece, it worked. I broke one drill when I bumped it with the back of my hand.







I am yet to add some fake cotters for the split brasses. Later.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

This is not going to be a fine scale working model, I leave that to the incredible Cherry Hill. It is all a process to learn and arm myself with the knowledge and tools to make a super 5" gauge QR C17 loco in the years come.
However cheese head screws on buffer beams looks like a gooba dripping from one's nostrils in public. So it was again inspiration from a ME forum that I make a prototype rivet chopper.





Fake but I reckon the beams look a a wee bit better with 1/16" rivets

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Cylinders commenced
A think through the drawings and sort some details.
Gun metal stick



saw saw saw saw saw



"Listen up you silly Galahs, don't screw these up!"



Rough out to size which is a process that I most dislike with machining.





Drill, bore, ream. A cylinder drawing should have the bore diameter shown, eh! There is some conflict with sizes with text and drawings. I went for 12.7mm bore.

Rear covers. In hindsight I should have gone to 12 BA and made it for 6 screws rather than 4, just to look nicer. But next time. Again I think Cheese head cylinder cover screws are a bit errrrr. So easy to swap them out for hex head. Yeah, they should be studs but................................
I actually did mess up one cylinder early on, cursed my self and smoothly processed another one and this went quickly.





Setting up for drilling







Never coffee here, always tea, besides the wine and beer. I am a fan of many Pommey real ales!



Front covers. I made a special split holder from scrap laying about and it worked a treat.



I used the trepanning tool that I made for use on the wheels. Well worth the effort to spend some time resource on grinding tools and storing them correctly so they can pulled out in a moments notice and put to the task. YAY!

]





Drilling/taping the rear covers for the slide bars, in alignment etc.





I had to fit them to the frames for kicks and giggles.



Now this is when I find the driving crank pins are slightly out of alignment. Just a tad of bind. I confirmed it is not the quartering , but one of the pins. Annoyed but not a deal breaker. I have aimed for close fits and so far I have not needed to ease fits or file holes.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

I pondered over the gland nuts for piston and valve. Hex heads, nah. Dug about for scraps of PB.









I some times skip out of work/home and do some volunteer work related to the struggling Rosewood Railway and Mary Valley Rattler. A visit to the Ipswich Heritage workshops is also fairly regular in my monthly life.
#1089 in steam, soon to depart for a charter (BB 18 1/4 Class) The last steam loco built in Australia for a government railway.



DD17 tank loco's frames , await its new welded boiler.



Rosewood Railway are the custodian of RM64 "The Bug" and it is getting $35,000 worth of attention via a grant we won for the railway, YAY!

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

MAM's late father was a journey man machinist in Detroit, he make robots that machined engine blocks for the Ford plant etc.
He gave me a box of old bits and pieces and one of them was an old dial indicator.



Rummage about for some scraps, and hour later







Super fast and accurate tool centre height thingy for the QC tool holders. (Thingy = Dazza technical term)

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

For the steam chests, missing dimension for the off set cover hole for the admission passage. I nearly missed this and I would have been cursing if I did. If you look at BW's drawings you can see the off set hole lines, but no dimension or text. I am not going to use bolts, after only using 4 cover screws I thought I will have a go at 10 BA studs to hold the chest cover and chest to the cylinder. So again I make a prototype screw stud trimmer.





Then onto the valve cross head. Roughed out, machined but not finished. I could not find a mention of how the stainless rod is attached. I am going to silver braze.
Again some filing buttons were made and used and then stored away for possible use later on in life.



Piston. Gunmetal not brass for me.
Shaving tool to chase the 0.005mm. The bores measure 12.72mm post reaming. I machined the piston 12.71mm. I wonder if that is enough clearance ?





A suggestion was made to me to try Quad rings rather than O rings. They sold me the benefits so, heck why not ? However the depth of the groove needed to be deeper than what the the data sheets were telling me. I ended up spending a lot of time to sort this. Trail scrap pistons were made and many careful measurements made, Eventually I am satisfied with the smoothness and light pressure to move the piston. The ring has sealed from the bottom of the groove as required. We will see if in service it works OK. The worst is I have to remake the pistons with O rings. I am new to world of O rings and such like. I ground up a parting tool blade and tested the result so it is a one plunge cut. If you make sideways trim cuts the sides of the groove will not be straight as the tool will deflect. Is this worth bothering about, probably not but it takes only takes 30 minutes one evening to grind a tool up.