3/4" Scale J1e

[Asteamhead]

Hello Jack,
Watching your progress . Now I'm locking forward to see your method of making the sand domes!
These beasts I am still to make on the way to complete my A, too
Thank you for posting all those details!
Carry on!
Asteamhead

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Thank you Asteamhead, hopefully some of these techniques will be of use when you make the domes for your class A. After marking out with a card stock pattern the aluminum block was roughed out using the horizontal band saw. Then it was over to the milling machine. The part was cut to the line and then re positioned for the next cut. Just cut to the line. The more cuts you make the smoother the curve will be. I made enough cuts that the flats were about 3/16". Then the disc sander was used to blend the cuts to a smooth curve. Once again, working to the Sharpie line. Having good drawings helps a lot. Then a card stock pattern was made showing the top profile left to right.

[JBodenmann]

The same basic routine is used to cut the top profiles, except a piece of aluminum sheet is used as a guide. Here you can see the guide has been fastened to the work piece with some small flat head machine screws. The screws should be countersunk below the level of the aluminum sheet. Then the whole mess was stuck in the mill vise and a succession of cuts made. The cutter is touched off on the guide pattern and then raised .002" before cutting across the dome form. Then things are re positioned, touched off again and another cut made. Repeat until you have worked your way across. When you get to the vertical edge of the work piece the side of the cutter is used instead of the end. Once again, after you work your way across the disc sander and belt sander are used to blend the cuts into a smooth curve. Now a guide pattern will be made for the front to back top profile and the process will be repeated. This touch off, pattern method is sort of an Alley Oop way of doing this, but it's effective for those of us with the average home shop. The main point is to go with the materials and techniques you are comfortable with. Get R' Done.
Jack

[FKreider]

Very nice! Love the mini workshop shot- had to do a double take!

[Steam Engine Dan]

Hi Jack, question what is that B&W photograph? looks neat, can you blow that up or zoom in? it's got my attention

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Dan asked about the photo in the background. It's a photo of a Nickel Plate Berkshire, mostly the trailing truck and fire box. The reason this photo is out on the work table right now is that I am currently making the lube lines for both the lead, and trailing truck for Jim's loco. I have put these lube lines on all the Nickel Plate Berks. that I have finished. Most engines didn't have these lube lines and relied on the time honored tradition of the engineer with his long necked oil can. A part of steam locomotive lore, and the subject of many paintings and photos. I really wanted to put these oil lines on the New York Central Hudson streamliner but they didn't have them. After seeing lead and trailing trucks with all this little baloney they just look naked to me without them. Only very modern steam had this, and then not all of them. So no engineer oiling around. I imagine he had plenty to keep him busy anyway. I'll be posting some photos over on the Nickel Plate Berkshire thread when I get a bit more done.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is a bit more on the sand dome former. The mill work was pretty much finished up using the guide pattern as before. Then using the surface gauge and the Sharpie some guide lines were made. As the rest of the shaping will be with the angle grinder and flap wheel, and then files the lines are just guides. They will get ground off and then more guide lines will be made. This is dome mainly by eye. Grind a bit have a look, grind a bit more. I may make some radius gauges to check things as I go. This is all hand work so care and patience, or in my case stubbornness pay off. Go with what you got. Once I am satisfied with the former then the fun part begins, bending and shaping the #20 gauge cold rolled. Heat, a big wooden mallet, the TIG welder, and stubbornness. More to come.
Jack

[NP317]

Jack:
You just illustrated what I tell people when they ask what i do post-retirement:
Sculpture! Kinetic sculptures.
Says it all.
RussN

[Steam Engine Dan]

Hello My Friends
Dan asked about the photo in the background. It's a photo of a Nickel Plate Berkshire, mostly the trailing truck and fire box. The reason this photo is out on the work table right now is that I am currently making the lube lines for both the lead, and trailing truck for Jim's loco. I have put these lube lines on all the Nickel Plate Berks. that I have finished. Most engines didn't have these lube lines and relied on the time honored tradition of the engineer with his long necked oil can. A part of steam locomotive lore, and the subject of many paintings and photos. I really wanted to put these oil lines on the New York Central Hudson streamliner but they didn't have them. After seeing lead and trailing trucks with all this little baloney they just look naked to me without them. Only very modern steam had this, and then not all of them. So no engineer oiling around. I imagine he had plenty to keep him busy anyway. I'll be posting some photos over on the Nickel Plate Berkshire thread when I get a bit more done.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

very cool jack, thanks for blowing it up. from a distance you would of never seen those lube lines. really cool photograph!!

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is something very cool my friend Doug made using a wire EDM machine. Now I might be old school but I know a good thing when I see it. Parts made with this process are truly amazing. I have seen valve gear links made this way and they were pretty much perfect. So here is a quadrant and latch, I have ten of them. Now I have to make the rest of the throttle assembly. It will all be investment cast. Too much fun.
Jack

[ccvstmr]

So here is a quadrant and latch, I have ten of them. Now I have to make the rest of the throttle assembly. Jack

...and make the rest of the loco(s) to go WITH the quadrant! Agree with you, it's amazing what modern tech can produce for the hobby. Carl B.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Having too much fun here fiddling around with the throttle lever for the J1e. This is a tiny little fellow. I have made them in 1-1/2" scale before and there is an 1-1/2" scale one here in the photos. One thing I hadn't thought about was the return spring for the latch. It has to fit in the tiny slot in the latch along with the #0-80 retainer bolt. I checked my spring stash, and I have some tiny, fairly heavy wire springs, cool! They are .065" OD. just perfect. Sometimes you just get lucky. So the master for the main casting is coming along nicely. It has the two mounting points for the quadrant, the pivot point for the throttle lever. And the tube that the throttle shaft slides in, and holes for the four mounting bolts, also #0-80. The main casting master is mostly silver soldered, and has some parts that are just held on for now with crazy glue just to have a look, and for fitting up. Once all is looking good they will be soft soldered in place. This is definitely what I call a delightful little puzzle, and I can't wait to get back in the shop tomorrow and get this piece finished up. Then there will be another casting that fits to the boiler, and then the bits we saw here today get bolted to that.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack