Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

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Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

Completing the internal rectangle slots on the leaf spring centre hangers.

I have done this before utilizing the D-W bench mill as a slotting device on very small slots as it has a quick acting lever quill unlike the much heavier Millrite which only has a hand wheel quill on my machine. There are limitations though on what can be done as the D-W is a very light machine. I am probably at its limit here as the internal rectangle slot is 5/16" wide by 1/2" long. But it worked well. A small but necessary detail - one arm on the three arm quill lever has been extended about 2.5 times the length of the other two arms which gives much more positive lever control.

Success with this method depends completely on having the mill vise jaws set square with a sharp slotting tool having the necessary geometry. Only very light shaving cuts are taken but once setup, the operation to square the slot corners goes very quickly.

After first drilling out as much internal metal as possible, a 5/16" dia. regular end mil was used to produce a round ended slot up to the layout lines on the hanger blank.

Then set the blank up in the mill and square the round ends as shown in the photos.
Attachments
668 The D-W Bench Mill Set up for the Leaf Spring Centre  Hanger Internal Slotting.jpg
669 Setting the Slotting Toolbit Square to the Vise Jaws.jpg
670 The Slotting Toolbit.jpg
671 Internal End Slotting (squaring) a Corner.jpg
672 Internal End Slotting a Corner.jpg
673 The Center Leaf Spring Hangers Before and After End Slotting.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

A couple of extra points to note when undertaking the slotting operation.

The D-W has a well thought out and simple spindle lock. One needs to have a locked spindle on the mill to prevent any spindle rotation when slotting.

Also, the HSS cutting tool has to be kept razor sharp on its cutting edges at all times. It got a bit dull after slotting the ends of the first hanger bracket and I nearly came to grief because of this when slotting the second hanger blank. The SG made short work of restoring the cutter cutting edges perfectly. I just couldn't do it properly on a bench grinder even as sophisticated as the one I have.
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

A little further along.
Attachments
674 Drilling and Reaming a Leaf Spring End Hanger for the Hanger Pin.jpg
675 A Little Further Along.jpg
Sandiapaul
Posts: 567
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2004 8:04 am
Location: Princeton, NJ

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Sandiapaul »

You keep slugging away! Good work! When I get to my Hudson I know I will be referring back to all your info!

I'm curious to see some pics of your "sophisticated" grinder!
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

It is a Harig 6 by 18 hand operated surface grinder made in 1981. Came out of a technical high school. They had two of them and an automatic XLO surface grinder which everybody used and was beaten to death. I attended some night classes there so I knew about them. Nobody used the hand operated machines for whatever reason. They were so unused they even had the original shipping cosmoline everywhere.

Then there was a change in education policy - no technology anymore only math and science. The machine shops were shut down and the contents went for auction.

I was at the right place at the right time - an opportunity never to be repeated. Just walk in and put in a bid (if you knew how the process worked). I may have been the only bidder. It cost more to hire the boom lift truck than to purchase the machine. Only problem, it had 3 phase 220 volt motors/electrics and I didn't have a (rotary) phase converter at the time. Rotary phase converters (not static) are needed with a surface grinder to achieve the high surface finish a surface grinder can produce.

The machine has been a godsend with everything I do here. The only "issue" may be the automatic oiling system which is a total loss system - the needle valve on the oil pump is very sensitive and you can either have too little or too much oil - so I have it set for too much oil which throws oil around quite a bit. Also, it is best to use only original Harig surface grinder way oil which is expensive.

I have added dust collection and flood coolant systems which I should use but don't so am forever cleaning up.

I did have a major oil leak at one point and I thought I would have to tear the machine down to find out what the problem was as it wasn't apparent. Turns out it was a split in a cheap plastic oil line hidden under the grinder table. A 50 cent repair but it surprised me they would use such c _ _ p on a top quality expensive machine. The connection detail (of the oil line to the table fitting and other places) is not leak proof also which surprises me. Little details, which in my work here, I go on and on about but I guess that is my problem.

Other than that I do not know what I would do without it.
Attachments
97 Grinding a Compound Clearance Angle on a Half Inch Square Toolbit.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

The 4 cross drilled leaf spring end hanger pins.

The end hanger pins are 3/32" dia. drill rod and are all cross drilled with a #67 drill for the 1/32" dia. cotter pins. It is quite easy to do if you use a made up a drill bushing as seen in the photo. Over the decades I have used hundreds of different sizes of these made up drill bushings for cross drilling purposes. The 3/32" dia. one is the smallest I currently use.

Cross drilling of the leaf spring end hanger pins is necessary to prevent the ends of the leaf springs flipping off the end hanger pin on a bumpy track. This is not shown on the Josslin drawings.
Attachments
676 Cross Drilled Leaf Spring End Hanger Pins.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

Next was the drilling of the leaf spring end hangers to accept the bottom leaf spring 3/32" dia. locating pins.

This is a small but important operation as the pins have to be centred in two directions on the bottom of the leaf spring end hangers.

To ensure this was the case, a special drill bushing was machined to closely fit both the end hanger slot width and thickness. See the first photo.

The actual drilling operation with the special drill bushing is shown in the second photo.

If you ensure in the setup that you only get what you want... (as the parts can't do anything else or they will)
Attachments
677 Milling the Special Leaf Springs End Hangers Drill Bushing.jpg
678 The Special Drill Bushing in Use.jpg
679 A Leaf Spring End Hanger After Drilling.jpg
680 The Drilled Leaf Spring End Hangers.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

Pushing on with this never ending saga.

Next up was to machine the leaf spring top spring hangers which are closed rectangles for the hanger centre pins and set screws. Again, the centre pin for the hanger and the set screw need to be aligned in two directions i.e. on the hanger thickness and on the internal rectangle width.

Since you can't use a drill bushing here to keep things centred, one has to layout the location of the centre pin drill hole (of the internal hanger rectangle) externally which is not that difficult. Remember, the hanger blanks at this point are still oversize so the external and the internal rectangles of the hanger are not necessarily centred one with the other.

Ink the end of the hangers, scribe a horizontal centreline on the bottom end of a hanger based on the external hanger thickness then rotate the hanger 90 degrees. Use your vernier height gauge to measure a (one) hanger side wall thickness and then add to this reading 1/2 of the internal rectangle width to scribe the other intersecting centreline. After that it is a matter of picking up the intersection of the two scribed centrelines using good lighting and an eye loupe with the hanger set on its end square in the vise of the mill.

Make a test dimple with your smallest centre drill, inspect the location of the dimple and adjust the centre drill's position as necessary. From there it is straight forward to drill the bottom surface of the hanger for the hanger centre pin.

To keep the set screw end of the centre hanger totally aligned (on the centre of top surface of the hanger with the centre of the bottom surface), use the mill vise stop set against the hanger as shown in the photos and rotate the hanger 180 degrees. I also marked, with a sharpie pen, the side of the hanger which was set against the vise stop so I had a reference mark to prevent accidental back to front rotation of the hanger.

The centre hangers are then machined to their external finished dimensions. One can take more off one side than the other as necessary to keep everything centred since they have been left oversize externally. Just slow careful work.
Attachments
681 Setting Up the Centre Spring Hanger.jpg
682 Drilling the Centre Spring Hanger for the Centre Pin (bottom side up).jpg
683 Tapping the Centre Spring Hanger (top side up).jpg
684 The Centre Spring Hangers After Machining (for the centre post and set screw).jpg
685 The Completed Leaf Spring Hangers with Associated Bits and Pieces.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

The start to the machining of the four side drop equalizers.

They need to be made a full 1/16" (0.0625") thickness which is very difficult to find here as now one only finds metric sized materials which are either too thick or too thin or sheet metal gauge materials which also are either too thick or too thin. The Josslin Hudson design has very tight clearances in many places and this is one of them where one needs to have exactly what is shown on the drawings.

Anyway, the first job is to "rectangularize" the HR steel blank material as shown in the photos. I am starting to sound like a cracked record about this..

The finished side drop equalizer shown in the photos is being used as the template except that the new drop side equalizers are going to be the "stretched" version to fit the slightly stretched lead truck frame for reasons which I have explained previously. Also, you need to have a slightly longer flat equalizer blank to include the slight overall length shrinkage when the 1/16" offset bends, on both ends of the equalizers are pressed home.

I once did all of the calculations to know (theoretically) exactly what length was lost due to the 1/16" offsets but now I just make the equalizer blanks 1/8" longer on the end tabs and they end up more or less centred on the axle box/axle centre lines. Even if they don't, there is enough extra material left there to machine the end tabs so they do.
Attachments
686 Milling the Four Side Drop Equalizer Blanks.jpg
687 The Four Side Drop Equalizer Blanks Machined to Length and Width.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

As an aside, some interesting facts on the Josslin NYC Hudson design.

Alex Josslin never built a live steam locomotive in his entire life. He didn't even have a workshop as he always lived in rented premises here in Toronto. The locomotives which he had were all built by LBSC the most famous being Helen Long which was in 2.5" gauge. I wonder if this locomotive still exists today and if so where is it?

Alex Josslin was the second President of the Toronto Society of Model Engineers from 1934 to 1937.

Josslin was a structural draftsman by profession who worked for Dominion Bridge here in Toronto (Mount Dennis). The quality of his drawings reflects his profession - his live steam locomotive drawings are absolutely superb but sometimes he has left so little clearances and followed the prototype so closely that changes have to be made which I try to discuss as I go along.

I know of only one other Josslin NYC Hudson that was ever fully constructed and ran.

A. Josslin and his design partner P. E. Hunt. produced many other live steam locomotive designs mostly in 2.5" gauge (as this was in the 1930's-40's) as designed/influenced by LBSC and I believe that Josslin actually did some drafting work under contact for LBSC. Some of these locomotive designs were little more than concepts but others were fully detailed. They marketed their designs here in North America and in the UK at the time under the name Pedigreed Locomotive Designs.
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

Laying out of the drop equalizers. This is important to get this right as everything is profiling to the layout lines after this. I had to infer one dimension from the Josslin drawings as it was not given. Always a bit risky, as I have seen that the lines, as drawn, do not correspond exactly to the dimensions given. In such a case follow the dimensions (wherever possible).

After laying out the equalizer outline, the profiling work just consists of careful band sawing, belt and drum sanding. More slow careful work pays dividends here.
Attachments
688 The Equalizer Blanks Group Layout  .jpg
690 The Start of Bandsawing the Equalizer Outlines.jpg
691 After Bandsawing Belt Sanding and Drum Sanding.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing The Josslin NYC Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

Getting there.
Attachments
692 After Final Profiling.jpg
693 Drilling for the Leaf Spring End Hangers.jpg
694 Getting There.jpg
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