Garden Railway Forum

KNO3 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 07, 2018 10:43 pm I'm following your build thread with great interest. Very nice work Dave!
How do you manage those nice straight straight cuts in thick sheet metal?

Thank you!

I mark out the edges with a permanent marker pen and hacksaw/padsaw close to the line. Then reapply more marker pen ink, and more often than not "scribe" a line
<purists look away now>
using the tips of the jaws of my electronic calipers, and file to the line

I try to use an existing straight edge on the blank sheet as a reference, or else I have to create one with the 12" rule and a scribed line.

dewintondave wrote: ↑Thu Mar 08, 2018 7:52 am using the tips of the jaws of my electronic calipers,

Don't worry mate, an engineering friend once told me he reckoned vernier calipers made good sliding clamps for fine work
Grant.

Drain cocks and cylinder covers.

Setting the cylinder up for drilling for the drains


Both cylinders drilled and tapped


Steel cylinder cover in place. Stainless steel drain cocks in position. By rotating the brass rod drilled holes align with those in the cocks, a lever will be placed in the hole in the middle of the rod. The rod is retained by E-clips


Baking the black spray painted cylinder covers at 120 degC. I bought the oven especially for paint baking https://youtu.be/WZ7mhZKYUBo It's a little ripper


Assembled for effect, I think it will look like a milking cow in operation. Now I've got to do the other cylinder...

Be interested to see your lever method for the draincocks, as it would appear that the mid position will be going backwards and forwards with the cylinders oscillating. Beautiful work as always.
Grant.

Hi Grant, the lever is just a short rod passed through the cross drilled brass rod to turn it through 90degs to open or close both cocks at the same time. I will be turning each lever by hand on each side

Ah, thanks for the explanation. That makes sense, levers back to the cab could have proved interesting.
Grant.

Very nice work Dave, it’s coming along nicely, be running it soon will you.

Impressive work. I do like to see a master engineer at work and am deeply envious of your skills - and your perseverence. I imagine with this type of hands-on project it's likely to be 50% inspiration and 50% perspiraton rather than Einstein's - 10% : 90% mix.

Rik

FWLR wrote: ↑Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:05 am Very nice work Dave, it’s coming along nicely, be running it soon will you.

Thank you Rod. At the rate I'm going it'll still be ages away.

You have done a tremendous amount of work on it so far Dave. Good engineers will take his or her time and not bodge it, and you are a great engineer Dave, wish you lived closer, then I could see a master at work.

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sun Mar 18, 2018 1:05 pm Impressive work. I do like to see a master engineer at work and am deeply envious of your skills - and your perseverence. I imagine with this type of hands-on project it's likely to be 50% inspiration and 50% perspiraton rather than Einstein's - 10% : 90% mix.

Rik

Thank you Rik. A lot of time is spent wondering what to do next, and how to do something the easiest way. I want to fit the water pump but in order to I decided to finish the cylinders to see what room I've got available for the pump rod and its travel.

FWLR wrote: ↑Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:08 am You have done a tremendous amount of work on it so far Dave. Good engineers will take his or her time and not bodge it, and you are a great engineer Dave, wish you lived closer, then I could see a master at work.

Thank you Rod! This time last year I was finishing the boiler

I tried the Eclipse saw out for the first time on my 0.6mm steel sheet. It cut really well with a new 32tpi blade.

Cutting out a piece for the RH cylinder cover

Just gone through this whole thread from the beginning (having joined recently, I am still catching up )
Definitely added to my favourites
Full of useful ideas - thank you!
I particularly like your boiler - exactly what I have in mind for my loco.

Chassis upside down, cylinders with drain cocks removed ready to "set the timing"


Setting equal piston travel across the cylinder cock openings. La-la-la, ignoring the paint finish...



Water pump support brackets


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I make mistakes too!

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The bracket drawing. But, when I made the brackets I put the hole in the wrong place! Discovered when the pump didn't line up with fixing hole in the buffer beam.


I salvaged the brass angle and remade the bracket


Ready to think about the pump connecting rod

It's good to know you are human and make mistakes Dave!

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Wed Apr 25, 2018 6:53 am It's good to know you are human and make mistakes Dave!

I really am Tom

My image hosting service Postimage seem to have changed their URL from postimg.org to postimg.cc so all my previous posted images are no longer showing. I could edit each post to correct it. I might wait to see if they fix it from their end first.

Well if they don't change it let me know as I can help without you having to go through every post.

We all make mistakes Dave, that’s what makes life interesting …..

I've got the pump hooked up and driven off the motion. It's one in the eye for LBSC, as the pump was inspired by his archenemy's work! It's got a lovely long stroke on a small bore pump. The idea is to have two of these pumps on either side of the loco. I'd imagine one will be pumping continuously, and the other will be pumping when needed. They'll both need bypass valves and plumbing back up to the water tank.