3/4" Scale J1e

[Asteamhead]

Hello Jack,
Lots of nice fine scale details - and methods of making, thanks for posting!
My favourites are those casted running board supports and your rivet tool with a backset
Carry on!
Asteamhead

[Howard Gorin]

What is your source for small brass rivets.
I have used brass escutchion pins that I anneal before driving them.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
To answer Howard's question, they are from a stash of very old escutchtion pins. These particular pins are .036" in diameter. Unfortunately most of the escutchion pins you can get today are garbage. The heads are not concentric with the body. You end up with really crooked looking lines of rivets. There is a supplier in England that has tiny little .030" rivets, I think it's Blackgates Engineering. Well, here is where some tiny little rivets went, in the ends of these air tanks that are now fitted up to the engine. To get here is a happy milestone. It seems ages ago that I was making the masters for the air tank supports, I think only back in April or May though. Anyway, it's good to see them in place. Now it's to a point when I can go back and finish up a lot of loose ends such as drilling and tapping all the holes in the fire box jacket. These side sheets were probably held together with 1/4-20, or 5/16-18 slotted round head screws. I will be using #00-90 slotted round heads. When I built John's 1-1/2" scale J1e the first photos of these side sheets just didn't look right. They were too straight and smooth. The real ones were often removed for inspection and maintenence, and tossed on the shop floor. Other parts probably got piled on, and the jackets got pretty beat up. So I took the jackets off and worked them over lightly with a couple different hammers. I put a few mild creases in them too. Then they were put back on and photographed again....much better. I may do that to the little Hudson too. But that will wait until final paint and assembly. So here are a couple photos for now.
Happy Model Building
Jack

[jeffsmith]

Hello Jack, always impressed with your work. I too am enraged with the inability to find items that where available in the past and if available the quality isn't what it used to be. We always have the choice to make it ourselves but that takes pressiouse time, trade-offs to be made. I have always been forced to make the parts I needed because nobody was offering what I wanted. But that has forced me to learn new skills and methods. One thing I would like to share with the readers is a method of making accurate parts repeatedly without the use of CNC equipment. Many years ago I bought a 2D pantograph which I call my poormans CNC. You need to make a mastern pattern, I usually make it 4 times the size I want. Once that is made and the pantograph is set up you can turn out the same part accurately over and over. Intricate parts can be made using a combination of different setups to achieve what you desire. I have made hundreds of master patterns to use in the lost wax casting process. 2D pantographs are outdated technology and can be picked up at used machinery shops quite cheaply. Here are some photos of items I've made this way. Thank you for your time. Jeff Smith
https://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/do ... w&id=78622

3 bolt door trolly.jpg (7.21 KiB) Viewed 5285 times

4 bolt door trolly.jpg (7.38 KiB) Viewed 5285 times

[Howard Gorin]

Jeff, you do make some very fine parts. From the master pattern can you change the reduction ratios and cutter diameter and produce the same part in other scales?

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Jeff certainly makes some mighty fine parts does't he. It looks like a pantograph can be a very handy gadget. Jeff you should post some more photos of your work. Here is something you might find useful. There are different ways of sticking things to a boiler. One is by welding or silver soldering pads to the boiler itself. This is undoubtedly the most substantial way of doing it. I tend to mount things to the boiler jacket. On larger scales I will use threaded inserts. These are like a pop rivet with threads. The mounting studs for the running boards on the J1e are all #1-72 studs and model bolts. There are no threaded insets that small. So backing plates were made of .040" steel and stuck to the inside of the jacket, then drilled and threaded. First some steel strips were sheared up and then run through the slip roll to match the curvature of the boiler jacket as seen in the first photo. Then little pieces were cut off and glued to the inside of the jacket. They were located over pre drilled holes. Marks were made with a Sharpie to help locate them and they were held in place with some masking tape. After the JB weld set up the holes were drilled through the jacket into the reinforcement strips and tapped #1-72. After painting upon final assembly the studs will threaded in with Loctite. Paint prep is much easier without a bunch of studs sticking out. And last for now we have a snappy of the cab. I will be starting the cab floor soon and want to thank Kieth and Makinsmoke for the tip about the wood cab floor. Most of the floor will be wood, probably maple. At the edges of the cab under the seats, and under the brake valves will be diamond tread. It makes perfect sense to have a wood floor and I would not have thought of it without your input. Thanks again.
Jack

[makinsmoke]

That’s beautiful Jack.

And yes, a visit to Jeff Smith’s website is well worth your time to drool over his products.

Here is a link to RrPuctures.net website and a cab photo of Santa Fe 5011. I know I have good photos of the interior of the 940 but can’t find them at this moment.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4881125

The photo shows the wood construction built on the steel cab, with wood planks covering the steam radiator manifolds under the engineer’s seat as well as the head brakie’s seat. Santa Fe began lengthening their cabs at some point to provide seating for him. Gaps in the planking allowed the heat from the steam tubes to rise up and warm the engineer and fireman (and brakeman). There is a handy valve to control the amount of steam that goes through the manifold. You sure don’t need all that in a hot Texas August!

I’ll keep looking for the other pics if you like. Take care,
Brian

[FKreider]

That’s beautiful Jack.

And yes, a visit to Jeff Smith’s website is well worth your time to drool over his products.

Here is a link to RrPuctures.net website and a cab photo of Santa Fe 5011. I know I have good photos of the interior of the 940 but can’t find them at this moment.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4881125

The photo shows the wood construction built on the steel cab, with wood planks covering the steam radiator manifolds under the engineer’s seat as well as the head brakie’s seat. Santa Fe began lengthening their cabs at some point to provide seating for him. Gaps in the planking allowed the heat from the steam tubes to rise up and warm the engineer and fireman (and brakeman). There is a handy valve to control the amount of steam that goes through the manifold. You sure don’t need all that in a hot Texas August!

I’ll keep looking for the other pics if you like. Take care,
Brian

What is the site address for Jeff Smith's website?

[jeffsmith]

Here is my web site for Branchline Products www.branchlineprod@msn.com
My detail parts are mostly for wooden constructed rolling stock. I have detail for 1.5" and 2.5" scales.
Thanks for your interest. Sorry for interrupting your post Jack.
Jeff Smith

[BAdams]

Jeff, I think you popped your email address in instead of your web address: https://branchlineproducts.com/index.html

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Very nice website Jeff. Here is the start of the cab floor. As suggested by Kieth and Makinsmoke part of the floor will be wood. The rectangular cut out is where the wood will be. When fitting the edge angle start at one end a work your way around. To. make the bends place a mark where the bend will begin. Another mark was then made 5/16" further on as that is how much material is needed for the bend. Then it was cut out and filed to shape as seen here.

[JBodenmann]

The portion to be bent is then annealed. Only anneal where the bend will be. It's a good idea to darken the shop when annealing so it's easier to see when it comes up to dull red heat. Clean up the part and then form the corner. This is done with the angle on the cab floor. I usually roll the angle around the corner on a hard flat surface. Sometimes small adjustments are made with a small rawhide or plastic mallet. This same routine is used to put the edging on the running boards as the ends often were rounded. Most running boards had Tee section edging riveted on. Next up, the rear cab supports, and some Zee section brass to support the wood flooring.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack