The Home Machinist!

Fred_V wrote:Great info but almost impossible to read. Any way to make it upload more clearly?

Click on each of them, which will yield a larger view.

Harold

Harold_V wrote:

Fred_V wrote:Great info but almost impossible to read. Any way to make it upload more clearly?

Click on each of them, which will yield a larger view.

Harold

I did that and then clicked to download it but it was not readable.

Thanks Rich. I figured out how to get good copies from the archive.

Rich_Carlstedt wrote:Thank you David !
What an awesome find.
I am working on the text right now and will report back.

Fred, I also had a difficult time reading it because its a gif file according to my photo reader
So I set out to find the original article
It is available free at the "ARCHIVE.ORG" website
https://archive.org/details/railwaymechanica91newy
Its on page 71 if you want the direct link
https://archive.org/stream/railwaymecha ... 1/mode/1up

To see the lineup of available reprints go here
https://archive.org/search.php?query=ra ... 20engineer
If you can save them as jpg's and reset the contrast in a photo publisher , the text appears much better

Thanks again Dave !

Rich

Dick_Morris wrote:Charlie's program is a simulator, not a design tool. It will allow you to put in your own dimensions to see how your gear performs.

I'm afraid he is right...

I'm afraid VGC is right . . .

VGC Translator does not work.

If you have access to Live Steam magazine from the early/mid 80's, Stephen Vitkovits Jr ran an extensive series on valve gears. There was 4 installments on Walschaerts design. I worked out some designs and tested them in Charlie's simulator. They worked well in the simulator. If you look into the series, be prepared for a LOT of math. Stephen's series started in Dec 82.

RCW wrote:VGC Translator does not work.

When you have clicked on the en-us flag and are on the site with the translation bookmark, you must go back to the main website by clicking "Go back this way to the main page", this leads you to the inner frame of the main site. Google can only translate the outer sites.

I saw that the buttons on the main site do not work when they are translated... so you can additionally open the main site (in German) and there click the buttons that are translated on the translated inner frame of the main site...

It is a little bit complicated, as Google does not support the translation bookmark perfectly (any more?).

But if you once had made Google translate the buttons and so on, I hope you will find the right buttons also on the original site.
You then can click the translation bookmark when visiting the manual pages.

The program itself changes its language to EN if your Firefox is set up as EN, which should be the case regularly at English speaking countries.
If not, you can change the program language manually by select menu on top right on this program site. But this only on the program site itself, not on the main website and others.

Hello,
I've tried a little bit with the URLs on the previous page of the discussion.
Here is my result:


"Walschaert Valve Gear Design" pages:

https://ia800304.us.archive.org/BookRea ... nica91newy

https://ia800304.us.archive.org/BookRea ... nica91newy

https://ia800304.us.archive.org/BookRea ... nica91newy

https://ia800304.us.archive.org/BookRea ... nica91newy

https://ia800304.us.archive.org/BookRea ... nica91newy


Full document (collection) (probably ) - (Attention: 347 MB !!!):
https://ia800304.us.archive.org/2/items ... wy_jp2.zip


Good luck and best regards
VGC

(By the way: VGC is fully available in English now: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=98490&start=48#p438346 )

How did the old timers, design valve gear....we need something simpler than all this fancy programming stuff

They did it with pencil paper and an understanding of geometry (which includes the math)

Not too many people did it and got it right.

The optimization rules within the program are the same as always before. So they are just as simple as always before.
The difference is that after changing a main dimension (e.g. the cylinder position), you do not have to calculate or design for hours or more to get the same diagram quality again.
The difference also is that you can check deviations to the basic optimization rules within seconds, not within hours or more, and that so you can recognize dependencies between such changes and the according diagram results which you would rather not find with conventional means within a limited amount of time.