A Real Dirty Job

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Carrdo
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

The next operation involved machining slots in the top of each of the bronze axleboxes to hold captive the ends of each equalizer.

The slots were made 1/16" wide and 0.078" (5/64") deep.

First, carefully locate and mark where the end of each equalizer sits on the top surface of the axlebox when they are assembled together in the lead truck frame.

As it turns out, at some point in the distant past, the lead truck must have had equalizers, as wear grooves had already been formed on each axlebox upper surface. These wear marks turned out to be exactly in the right location for the ends of the new equalizers.

I was a little nervous about using such a small end mill, so the mill spindle was cranked up to the highest speed possible on my milling machine, table stops were employed to set each slot length and only a 0.002"-0.003" depth of cut per pass was used.

I fully expected to break something at some point but the operation went as smooth as silk. Where was Murphy?
Attachments
269 Slotting the Top of an Axlebox to Accept an Equalizer End.jpg
271 Two Slotted Axleboxes.jpg
273 Another Equalizer End Fitted into an Axlebox.jpg
Carrdo
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

Next job was to repaint the lead truck wheels prior to re-assembling them.

I admit it - I don't like painting - I don't have the proper painting/spraying equipment or the technique and I don't spend the necessary time on this aspect of the project.

So don't ask for any advice here; my painting looks like it was put on with a spoon.

Previously, I had removed all of the wheel protruding ridges, bumps and raised grooves by filing followed by fine emery paper to scarify the wheel surface a bit so that, hopefully, the paint had a bit of a rough surface to adhere to.

Then I just cleaned a couple of wheels with a solvent followed by some soap and water, then rinse and dry . Then I used whatever was at hand - this time it was some old high gloss high heat enamel. The instructions say let the enamel dry for at least 24 hours but it is more like a week to have it glass hard so I am trying to speed up the drying time with a Halogen desk lamp. We will see what that does, if anything.

To be continued.
Attachments
275 Two Brush Painted Wheels.jpg
276 Using a Halogen Lamp to Speed the Drying.jpg
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Bill Shields
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Bill Shields »

not sure that soap and water after solvent is the best order...never know what is in soap....all sorts of stuff to make feel slippery....

I tend to soak things in acetone then let air dry (actually under a heat lamp or in wife's oven a bit) before painting...

but then my painting tends to look like applied with 'rake' so maybe it is in came category as 'with spoon'....
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Regarding paint... there's a product called Metal Prep that passivates the surface. If you can't find it at a hardware store, try a automotive paint supplier.

Also, the late Cal Tinkham told me that when he worked in the SP shops in Sparks, Nevada, after an engine was overhauled, there was an old guy who'd repaint the whole locomotive by walking and climbing around it using a paint-filled Hudson weed sprayer. Seems like a show car finish was low on SP's priority list. So if you want a prototypical paint job, just gob it on!
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Carrdo
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

After slopping the paint everywhere on the front faces of the wheels and letting it dry (the Halogen hot bulb lamp did speed the high heat enamel paint to dry faster), a lot of paint now had to be removed where it was not wanted.

Where excess paint ended up on the wheel tread, it was removed by soaking a small rag in the enamel solvent (mineral spirits in this case) and carefully rubbing the tread down with it. Be sure not to get any solvent on the wheel face while doing this.

To remove the remaining excess paint on the face of the wheel (on the center hub and on the wheel rim), I used the method described by Kozo in the Sept/Oct 1992 issue of Live Steam. All credit for this goes to Kozo.

A 1/4" thick piece of plywood with a square of 220 grit wet and dry sandpaper glued to the face of the plywood hand held sanding disk was lightly pressed against the front of the wheel which was held to run true in the lathe three jaw and run at high speed. Be sure to protect the lathe bed when doing this as it is a very messy operation and abrasive grit will fly everywhere. See the first photo.

It takes a bit of time, but the results are well worth it. See the second photo.
Attachments
277 Employing the Sanding Disk to Remove Unwanted Paint from the Wheel Hub and Center.jpg
278 The Finished Polished Wheel and Hand Held Sanding Disk.jpg
Carrdo
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

Next, reassemble the painted wheels/axle boxes/axle assembly. Ensure that you have all of the component orientation marks set correctly to keep the assembly as it was originally.

Press a wheel back on an axle and check that the gauge is correct. For 3-1/2" scale, the inside wheel back to back distance (at the wheel rim) is 3-9/32" (+ 1/32" - 0.0 ") for the IBLS standard.

It really helps when doing the above to have a quite substantial (size) quality ratchet type arbor press to keep everything truly square when pressing so one can push or press the wheels only a few thou (in or out) when approaching gauge. Such equipment is not cheap but it makes this job so much easier.
Attachments
280 One Wheel-Axle Assembly Remaining.jpg
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PeterCraymer
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by PeterCraymer »

I have done similar to get nice clean faces on the wheels but used Scotchbrite to polish them. Then I have sprayed a clear coat over the now bare metal surfaces. This wont keep the rust away forever as it chips eventually and such, but it keeps the surface rust off and unless you leave it in the sun forever and ever, it stays clear and doesn't yellow.
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Bill Shields
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Bill Shields »

Never thought of the abrasive ping pong paddle.

Being the blacksmith that I am, I just wrap a piece of emery cloth around a 2 x 4 then push it up against the part with the tailstock or QCTP.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
Carrdo
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

To finally finish the re-building of the lead truck.

Slotted the top of the last two axleboxes and painted the remaining two wheels as described previously.

Only when I pressed the assembly back together, I noticed that, obviously, the original constructor had not bored the center hub axle holes square with the wheels and as a result there was significant and unacceptable wheel wobble. One axle was OK and one wasn't (the remaining one).

By this point I had had it!

Pressed off the wheels again and filed down the axle ends until there was 0.002 " clearance between the axle ends and the wheel bores. Set the axle in the 3 jaw in the lathe again and loctited the two remaining wheels to the axle ends, this time ensuring that the each wheel was dead square on the axle. Then rotated everything between centers to ensure that both wheels remained dead square to the axle (using a small true square to check this) and as well, the wheel rims remained parallel at all rotation points when the wheel rims were set to the final wheel gauge.

This worked out fine as it couldn't do anything else.

That ended the lead truck re-build. See the final photos.

Next, I am going to make all new parts; specifically, all of the brake parts shown on the Langworthy drawings. At the same time, I will be making an all new stainless ashpan. I want to make it as a two piece easily removable assembly. The existing steel ashpan, as originally constructed, was a very good all welded fabrication and I can use it to as a template for the new pan. I will also be taking advantage of what I have done previously when I constructed a stainless ashpan for the Hoffman Hudson that is here.
Attachments
281 The Remaining Two Wheels Painted.jpg
282 The Re-built Lead Truck.jpg
283 The Re-built Lead Truck.jpg
284 Starting the Construction of a New Ashpan .jpg
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Well done, Carddo. Regardless of the quality of the original workmanship it's always tough to come in on something built by someone else. Little things that the builder might remember aren't available to the rebuilder and there are always mysteries and surprises. Keep up the good work.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Asteamhead
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Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:59 pm
Location: Germany, Duesseldorf

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Asteamhead »

Hello friends,
Watching the atempt to refurbish an old and worn piece of locomotive with interest. I did a similar job during the last months. The only difference is, this locomotiive is well known to me for I built it myself some 30 years ago :lol:
For I didn't like the painting process :oops: (and this locomotive was made of stainless steel throughout 8), I never did bother with painting.
But the opportunity was obvious for the locomotive had to be dissasembled for repairs. Thus painting was an option before reasembling the 1.000 parts.
Today I took some photos of the 44's tender in the bright sun. Like it!
Bill:
Acetone as final cleaning works fine with me, too 8) . No touch by hand then!
For first cleaning I used so called 'grill - cleaner spray'. After first cleaning sand blasting (where possible) was a good choice.
Then alcohol and intensive use of an electric toothbrush (not that from my bathroom yet!) are working quite fine.
A friend of mine recommended 'DUPLICOLOR-Thermo spray paint'. No primer necessary! Two (ore more) thin sprays will do.
Exclusively available as 'Black' and 'Red' - sorry, but just fine to me and my German class 44! :)
All the best
Asteamhead
Attachments
Tender of my class 44 fuel in fresh paint.<br />Very thin coating without primer
Tender of my class 44 fuel in fresh paint.
Very thin coating without primer
Same tender from the backside
Same tender from the backside
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

While waiting for the paint to dry on the Josslin NYC lead truck, I started to make some of the small and fiddly brake parts on the Langworthy lead truck.

On the one brake part I started to work on, one end had a 3/16" dia. donut shape. I had never quite encountered this before so what to do?

After trying several things which didn't work, I came to the realization that one needed to make a form tool to produce the desired shape.

When conditions become pressing and what one doesn't have determines what one is going to be forced to do, I followed Bill Huxhold's methods which he has described many times at TSME. See the second photo. Even here one needs a fancy hand grinder that has a very high RPM to have the necessary grinding surface speed for the small tapered wheel (which is a standard tapered Dremel wheel). Use only light grinding pressure with the HSS tool bit and a steady hand is a must as heavy pressure will rapidly wear grooves in the pointed grinding wheel and destroy the shape of the cone.

Finally, after several trials and further shaping of the form tool on my bench and surface grinders, the final shape was arrived at. See the third photo. I won't go into all of the "fun" bits encountered on the way.

The form tool method did work exceptionally well in the end as seen in the last two photos. Even the Mrs. was impressed.

One has to be careful though when working so close to the chuck jaws to have everything clear. Also, if the tool bit has to be extended out any distance, our light lathes may chatter so one may have to rotate the spindle by hand as the final cuts are taken when the tool is cutting all around the curve or nearly so.

As many locomotive parts have these donut shaped ends, it is well worth it to build up one's collection of this (basic) form tool shape in different sizes.

There are much easier (and better) ways of doing the above on a T&C grinder if one has access to this equipment. One of the most difficult parts would be to to shape the grinding wheel to the contour(s) needed. But if one has access to any of those fancy precision radius dressers or rat's tail radius/tangent dressers - no problem but I don't.
Attachments
285 The Lead Truck New Brake Parts Material.jpg
286 Grinding a Three Sixteenth's Diameter Half Circle on a One Quarter Inch Lathe Tool Bit to Produce a Forming Tool for a Brake Part.jpg
290 The Final Form Tool After All Grinding Operations.jpg
291 Using the Finished Form Tool To Produce the Part Donut End.jpg
292 The Three Sixteenth's Dia. Formed Donut End on a Brake Part.jpg
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