The Home Machinist!

Sorry for my absence. The project has been on hold for some other home projects the last couple years but do hope to return to in spring of 2022. Rob, the website was down due to a switch of webhosting. Not sure if you still need the erecting card but you can find it now at http://www.castlesimon.co...

I'm looking forward to updates myself. The last year and a half have been devoted mainly to house remodeling projects and I expect them to take the better part of this year. I do miss working on it and I'm hoping I'll be back on it when the Christmas holidays arrive.

Best,

Jerome

Anyone who has been through this process knows the truth in that statement!

The latest parts created were the equalizers. These were water cut when the frames were made and needed to be thinned down shaped and drilled. The equalizers rock back and forth against a round bearing surface which still need to be created. The prototype actually varied the pivot point a little off...

One of the more unpleasant jobs so far is the cleaning up of the castings and removing all the flashing and parting lines as best as possible. Its noisy, dirty and I've been putting it off until the weather warmed up and I could move this task outside. The trailing truck was in pretty poor shape and...

With the cradle frames completed I went ahead and machined the cradle casting. Ran into some really hard deposits in the cast iron. I took the cutting edge right off a pretty large high speed steel end mill. So out came the carbide. With the cradle somewhat complete I found the urge to great not to ...

With the frames almost done I've turned my attention to the cradle frames. For this build I had the cradle frames water cut at the same time as the frames. The trailing truck axle sits back an exra 1-1/2" compared to the Heavy Mikado so I couldn't use the cradle frames from Railroad Supply. Als...

I've been making more progress on the frames. After the pedestal binders were built and fitted to the frames I was then able to cut out the webs between the journal pockets and start milling out the pockets. I was also at this time that I drilled all the holes in the sides of the frames. The drillin...

That’s the only place that I know it can be accommodated as the bearings are pressed on the axel and there is minimal clearance between the journal box and axle (about a thou it two at most). 0.020” just sounded excessive but makes sense if shimming. The prints call for a slip fit between the bearin...

Was kindly PM'ed with information noting that the driver journals were made 0.020" undersize to allow for the use of shims to accurately center the axel in the pocket. It doesn't list what the final clearance should be, Just says things should move freely with no binding. Found the note on the ...

Thanks Dan! Appreciate the correction.

That was a name and address I pulled from an old post so glad to know it is still correct.

Best

Jerome

Another subproject underway is the modeling up of the Scullin Disk driver that I need to get cast. I modelled up the driver in Fusion 360 and I'm hoping to cut the pattern out with a CNC router kit I'm putting together. This will be my first venture into getting something custom cast. I allowed plen...