1” USRA Light Mikado

Where users can chronicle their builds. Start one thread and continue to add on to it.

Moderator: Harold_V

partime
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 8:12 pm
Location: Western Canada

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by partime »

Thank you for sharing Anthony, that's just great!
ccvstmr
Posts: 2230
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 10:37 am
Location: New Lenox, IL

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by ccvstmr »

Anthony...hats off to you. Doesn't seem to matter what scale you're working in, ALL your hardware is top notch. Certainly provides a benchmark for the rest of us to achieve...but most likely, we'll never attain. Still, it helps to set high goals and work towards that. When you set the bar high enough, there's still room to back off and simply do the best we can. Thanks for sharing and PLEASE...keep those notes and photos coming! Carl B.
Life is like a sewer...what you get out of it depends on what you put into it!
I don't walk on water...I just learned where some of the stepping stones are!
I love mankind...it's some of the people I can't stand!
Berkman
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by Berkman »

Curious what kind of mill and lathe you have ? If you don't mind.
jcbrock
Posts: 511
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 7:50 pm
Location: Oregon

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by jcbrock »

It'll be a nice loco Anthony, hope you can keep time allocated to it. Jesse Krebs has one (not USRA though) which has always looked and run well at our club. In 1" scale it's a nice size, it pulls a decent train but still easy to transport:
P7074664.jpg
John Brock
Andypullen
Posts: 2166
Joined: Thu May 22, 2003 8:17 am
Location: Bel Air, MD

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by Andypullen »

As usual, gorgeous work Anthony!

I’m looking forward to more in the future!

Andy Pullen
Clausing 10x24, Sheldon 12" shaper, ProtoTrak AGE-2 control cnc on a BP clone, Reed Prentice 14" x 30", Sanford MG 610 surface grinder, Kalamazoo 610 bandsaw, Hardinge HSL speed lathe, Hardinge HC chucker, Kearney and Trecker #2K plain horizontal mill, Haas TL-1 lathe.
User avatar
AnthonyDuarte
Posts: 491
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:46 am
Location: Orange, CA
Contact:

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by AnthonyDuarte »

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

By the way, the drawings I’m using were provided by the New York Central System Historical Society. The NYC H6 was a basic USRA mikado.

Here’s the latest progress on the journals:

I loaded 4 pieces of material in the machine at a time (2 blocks per vise) for just about every operation. Probably didn’t make it go faster, but with the mill running longer I was able to focus on other things while it was cutting.
3CF447EB-8CD7-42CF-9B61-93B09FF8A80C.jpeg

On the left is after the backside was cutoff and finished, and the right journal has had the pad cut out for the spring saddle. I also 3D milled a little tapered trough for oil.
33C7690E-5E6F-4076-90DB-75456D40DD8F.jpeg


All finished up.
D0568D2B-9DAF-4C45-951D-F862F8D824E0.jpeg

If you don’t have a set of these small hole deburring tools then you’re missing out! They’re a little pricey, but they can be an absolute live saver. They leave a nice finish and they do a decent job in hard to reach places like this:
E76CC1DC-0543-4687-89F2-DC32D3F3BDEE.jpeg

A search for “6 piece fine deburring set” will bring them up.

And here they are installed. I still have to make the grease cellars and the actual bearings, which will be held in place with countersunk 4-40 screws. That’ll be for another weekend.
893EEF32-57B4-4407-9227-F50E85492F9E.jpeg
FKreider
Posts: 338
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:44 pm
Location: Massachusetts

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by FKreider »

AnthonyDuarte wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:57 pm ...but with the mill running longer I was able to focus on other things while it was cutting.
That's the beauty of CNC!

Fantastic looking chassis, you certainly set a standard many of us aspire to achieve!
-Frank K.
my2cents
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2021 8:56 am

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by my2cents »

Anthony,
Outstanding workmanship! If you dont mind sharing. How do you get your material to look spotless? is it the material itself, the picture taking or the good old elbow grease to get everything to look so pretty? I know sharp tools and coolant make a big difference but yours are a step above (okay maybe 3 steps above).
User avatar
AnthonyDuarte
Posts: 491
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:46 am
Location: Orange, CA
Contact:

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by AnthonyDuarte »

my2cents,

I can't take too much credit there. The finishes are due primarily to the rigidity of the mill as well as the tooling selection. Of course using the right feeds and speeds for the material, tools, and machining strategy is critical too, but solid spindle bearings and ways make the hard work easy. The finish on the journal boxes are what I get straight off the mill. They were roughed with a 3/8" diameter 5 flute cutter and finished with a 1/2" diameter 5 flute variable helix cutter. 5 flutes are a lot more rigid than 3 or 4, and I use them as much as possible. I'll even use them in brass but only with flood coolant. They're not much use in aluminum except for maybe a light finishing pass.
Berkman
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by Berkman »

Ya agree the machine finish is really excellent. Machining these on a VMC ?
Sandiapaul
Posts: 567
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2004 8:04 am
Location: Princeton, NJ

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by Sandiapaul »

Thank you Anthony for the recommendation on those deburing tools. I bought a set after seeing your post and yesterday I was making some parts with internal o-ring grooves. It is always a task to deburr the sharp edges of them. I whipped out these tools, shifted the lathe to neutral and rotated the part by hand with the tool bearing on both edges of the groove, worked great!
User avatar
AnthonyDuarte
Posts: 491
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:46 am
Location: Orange, CA
Contact:

Re: 1” USRA Light Mikado

Post by AnthonyDuarte »

Short update. Hadn’t touched the mikado since April 2021, but I managed to find a couple days to work on it recently.

I finished the grease cellars for the journal boxes and made the pins that hold them together, as well as the bearings. Also turned the axles from 1” ground 12L14 which made it a very easy task. Still need key ways but that’ll have to wait for another day. I’d like to use the CNC rotary axis to do it and the mill has been tied up.

Would have liked to take more in-progress photos but I’m pretty bad at remembering to do it… it can add quite a bit of time to properly document the process and I had a pretty limited time window where I could work on the engine.

497EAAE8-64CD-4D6B-AAAA-041EBA0E87EB.jpeg
401D99CB-3B9A-448A-81AA-7B97870278F1.jpeg
61B4949F-5873-4E70-9B2D-7EDC4E932482.jpeg
83FC18D8-625A-4444-8F7E-F2B8D529C4A4.jpeg
Also going to try a different route for the cylinders. There’s nothing functionally wrong with the ones I started fabricating from steel, but since designing those I got better information on what the cylinders should look like. I redrew them and had patterns printed in a material marketed as “quickcast.” It’s a castable resin that is hollow with some internal supports so that it does not expand outward and crack the plaster during the burnout process. Will try having them investment cast in bronze, and of course will report the results here.
56A56374-21B7-43EE-B7D5-731F979F0ED2.jpeg
2C1DBCBF-FCFB-4561-874D-DE7BCADB5394.jpeg
Anthony Duarte
http://www.EccentricEngineer.com
Post Reply