The Home Machinist!

I spent a LOT of time in no man's....and found a friend who is a really good welder ..a true artist where I was at best a blacksmith

Hello My Friends
Even though It can be a challenge at times I enjoy welding. I grew up with an oxy acetylene set. My dear mom bought it for me when I was in the eighth grade. I built motorbikes and go carts with it. Like I have said before, I had some wonderful parents that always encouraged me. Too much fun. The first time I used a MIG welder I was forever changed. Man, I can make anything with one of these! I had one within a month. Then the TIG machine. Welding is cool! I pretty much have my dream shop now. The model shop, and next door the wood shop. Somebody up there likes me.
Jack

Geez Jack,
Not in a million years would I have thought of shooting the bottom of the sand dome with dividers like that.

What seems so every day for some is truly rocket science to others.

Thank you and the many others that document and explain.

Take care,
Brian

Hello My Friends
Haven't done much on the Hudson lately. I did manage a start on the full width turret casing. This is going to be an interesting piece to make. They went through several different configurations during the life of The New York Central Hudsons. Some, like we have here were somewhat flat sided and topped. With short curved sections. From what I can tell 5344 come with the flatter version. Some Hudsons had completely curved turret casings with no flat areas at all. The radius of the curves varied, but no flat areas. So far all I have is a sheet metal pattern for the front. It still needs a bit of finessing with the drum sander to get a really good fit around the boiler jacket as you can see in the photo. Then it will be used as a pattern to lay out the brass one. This sheet metal pattern started out with card stock just to get the rough shape. And then that was used to lay out the sheet metal one we have here. In the past I have made these from #20 and #26 gauge steel and TIG welded them together. These were all 1-1/2" scale. On the little Hudson I'll be making it of brass. It will be mostly soft soldered together.
More to come.
Jack

Hello Jack,
Not so bad regarding that critical welding of that tiny part !
A formed piece of copper or aluminium clamped to the backside of tose thin metal sheets will help a lot. Heat is taken of from the back side as well as burning (through) will be avoided . Please see photos. Thickness of the stainless sheet is 2 x 1 mm, diameter of the half round profile is 3 mm.
Just my two cents
Asteamhead

Hello My Friends
Thanks Asteamhead for the tips concerning welding. Copper is a great material to back up welds and prevent burn through. Here are some snappies of progress on the turret casing. A form die was made to flange the front sheet. .020" brass was used and flanged over for something to join the side sheets to. 1/4" aluminum was used for the former. The brass had to be annealed once to get it to snuggle up to the die nicely. The top will be easy with it's hinged door that hinges upward. The sides are not so simple. There are hinged doors towards the front of the casing but towards the rear it dives in toward the boiler to allow room for the front cab doors which will hinge outwards. I have made these before and they are a bit of a brain teaser. They also did this several different ways over the years. There are drawings and photos of this detail but none of the photos and drawings that I have seen seem to jive. I hate it when that happens . I tend to go with the drawings as they represent something that actually existed. Drawings more than likely, but not necessarily so. Physics, and what they probably would have done will usually direct you in the right direction.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

Hello My Friends
Here is something you may find useful. Steam locomotives had a wide variety of pipe fittings on them and some were union ells. These can come in really handy, especially when there isn't much room to work with. They are easy to make up from commercially available bits like regular ells and unions. Here, an ell ell from Patrick at California Locomotive, and a Superscale union is being used. The top photo shows an ell stuck to a threaded mandrel in the lathe. I didn't get a photo, but it had the raised bit around the end parted off. Next we have a union on the same mandrel. It had most of the hex on the threaded part that the union nut fits to cut away. The bottom photo shows the cut down ell, and the cut down part of the union, along with the rest of the parts.

Now here we have the ell sat on a fire brick and held with a frog. It has been fluxed and two tiny bits of silver solder have been placed on it. In the second photo you can see how much solder is used. Very little is needed. The only silver solder on hand is 1/16" dia. This is much too big so it is hammered flat to about 1/64" thick. Then it is snipped off and placed on the work piece. Always try to place the solder before applying heat. That way as soon as it comes up to the proper temperature the solder will melt and flow. If you heat the part and then go poking at it with the solder several things can happen that are not good. First you may overheat the part causing oxidization. Then the solder won't wet. You will probably use way too much solder, and you might not get the solder where you want it. So when you can, apply the solder before heating. In this application we have here it's the only way to get the results you want.

And here we have the results. Some pretty cool union ells. The Y fitting and the 45 degree union ell were made up. I have the Y fittings available as investment casings in three sizes, 3/16"- 1/4", and 5'/16". J. You can also make union tee's using this method. It's fun to make little baloney like this and stand back and see who notices it. The bottom photo is actually Jim's Berkshire. He provided all the drawing you could ever want for this engine. The piping drawings have been very useful. Quite often all there is available are some grainy old photos. Having the piping drawings makes it pretty easy to get things right. A union ell here, a pipe clamp there...Too much fun! As I have said before, a model is only as good as its weakest point.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

Hello My Friends
A box arrived today, a box from the foundry. It contained a gaggle of goodies, some for the little Hudson and some for Jim's Berk. Most of the castings for the throttle lever were in there. In the top photo the main casting is being lined up a small drill press vise. The hole that the drill bit is in was cored into the casting. This is the biggest drill that would slide into the cored hole. This drill was only used to align the casting. Then the vise was tightened and a number 32 drill was then used to drill out the hole. Then a .124" reamer was run through. A .125" reamer would have been a bit too big for the material on hand. But the .124" reamer was very slightly too small. I hate it when that happens! So in photo number 4 the steel round stock is being massaged with some wet or dry, #360, #400, #600 and then some Metal polish until it was a perfect sliding fit in the casting. It's often handy to have both undersize and oversize reamers.

Here is a little more. Now that the sliding rod is a good fit it was used to align the main casting for milling the slots for the pin that drives the links that will move the sliding shaft. You'll see what Im blabbing about later. This was held in the universal holding fixture that I've shown you before. Then the slots were machined with a brand new 1/16" four flute end mill. Then we have the lever that will drive the links. It's a tiny casting. The square hole is .096" across. At first I was thinking I would have to make a square broach for this hole. Then I realized it would be easier to just make a casting with a square hole...easy peasy. It will have a phosphor bronze bushing pressed in. The bottom photo is as far as progress progressed today. Tomorrow I'll make the long throttle lever with it's latch and latch handle. Along with that I'll be fitting up the ultra cool quadrant and latch that my friend Doug made with a wire EDM machine. See you in the funny pages...
Jack

Hello My Friends
Got more done on the throttle lever today. The top photo we have here is of the latch, latch guide, and spring. Note how tiny the spring is, and that it has a thread stuffed through it. Tiny springs like this have a way of going sproinnnggg, and launching themselves into oblivion. So a handy dodge is to run a leash on the little rascal. Once the latch and spring are fitted together and bolted lightly in place the thread can usually be slipped out and then the bolt (#00-90 x 3/16" can be tightened. The tiny latch along with the quadrants were made for me by my friend Doug. They fit together perfectly!
Then there are a couple snappies of the mostly completed throttle lever. I say mostly, as there is another casting that this mess bolts to, and then to the boiler back head. When I sent my waxes to the foundry last time I thought the waxes for this additional casting were included...well I thought they were I hate it when that happens!
See you in the funny pages...
Jack