Constructing the Josslin Hudson

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Carrdo
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing the Josslin Hudson Part 57

Post by Carrdo »

The first construction steps were to prepare and layout the side rod blanks. Hot rolled or structural steel will be used as the material for the side rods as it is cheap, easily available and machines relatively easily.

I wanted a truly flat blank surface to start with. I chose 3/8" thick raw strip to have a finished thickness of 5/16".

The side rod blanks were first "rectangularized", fly cut and then finish surface ground using the process of "grinding out the warps" to achieve what I wanted. Rods are long and thin and fully machined all over. They also have to end up straight when everything is said and done. Warping is an issue with these parts and must be controlled.

In the past I have used unhardened gauge stock as rod material. Gauge stock is truly flat, on size and fully stress relieved so warping is not an issue even if the material is heavily machined. However, it is very expensive and very hard on milling cutters even in the unhardened state.

Cold rolled steel and 303 stainless are also very acceptable alternative rod materials. All of the above materials will have their own particular advantages and drawbacks.

Grinding out the warps is a very tedious process which I have described before. So if you want to start with a truly flat surface, you pays your money and makes your choice.

Next was to layout the rod shape on the blank. On needs to have good eyes, patience and good lighting. It will go a lot slower than one hopes as on these rods there are many compound radii which have to be blended smoothly one into the other.

The fine point "Sharpie" pen doesn't care much for surface ground steel so one is continuously drawing out the ink on blotter paper to keep the pen "active". Using layout dye and a scriber is even worse if one makes an error (as I did).

The photos show all of the old mechanical drafting circle templates, set squares, regular machinist's square, graduated rules, eye loupe, etc. used in the layout work.

It is a lot of dog work just to get to this point.

From now on I will closely follow Jack Bodenmann's method as described in his 0-6-0 construction series (with some variations using my side rod fixture as I have no digital aids unless I throw in the towel and use Richard's machine!).

Machining all of those compound radii will be interesting as they have to blend precisely one into the other as the eye will see even the smallest imperfections. I have yet to fully resolve this but am thinking about using multiple stops both on the mill's table and rotary table so one will have the beginning of curve (BC) and end of curve (EC) exactly without any guesswork.
Attachments
359 Begining of Layout.jpg
360 Finished Layout.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing the Josslin Hudson Part 57

Post by Carrdo »

One further point on the side rod layout.

It is very easy to layout the side rods in an incorrect orientation as there is a RH and LH, an up and down and a front and back. The photo shows the side rods in the correct orientation as they will end up on the main drivers and for the rod fluting to be on the layout side of the blank. J. Bodenmann has a better photo showing the same thing on his April 19th 2009 thread with the 0-6-0.

It is very easy not be paying attention here. Ask the usual question and I will give the usual answer.
Attachments
362 Side Rod Layout Oriented Correctly.jpg
Carrdo
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing the Josslin Hudson Part 57

Post by Carrdo »

Why do I always keep getting all of the "fun" stuff to do?

It turns out the Hudson rear side rods have an offset from their center lines on one end and as well, the rods are not the same thickness from the rod center line front to back.

In practical terms this means one has to study the Josslin print very carefully to notice this and from the engineering drawing one has to make a machining sketch with the additional necessary dimensions. Otherwise, one can run out of metal very quickly. Also, when machining the rod as shown in the photo, it is necessary to keep track of the blank thickness closely when milling both sides of the rod. Table stops are being used to limit the length of the cutter path at all times.

Am trying out a new fine carbide rougher for the heavy passes and will finish machine with a much larger diameter HSS sharp end mill.
Attachments
363 Roughing Down Thickness of a Rear Side Rod.jpg
Carrdo
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Peek At The Josslin Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

Some unfinished business.

Today, as we were dancing around the Big Boy boiler job, with everything there, it was time to silver solder the brake lugs to the truck frame. This was an all propane job. The large weed eater torch plus the Turbotorch made short work of it all. However, it needed 4 hands, (even five), as the boiling flux would lift the brake lug parts and spacer from the truck side frames even when pinned. A combination of strip and small dia. silver wire was used.

Richard had a long, low heat conducting stainless rod to keep downward pressure on the parts to be soldered with one hand while additional flux and/or silver solder was applied with the other hand (while at the same time manipulating the large Turbotorch!).

The entire area was first preheated with the weedeater flame wash - my job.

The last two photos show the frame cooling down from its bright orange state after soldering and before any flux was removed. The dummy axle pieces are there to keep the frame axlebox openings aligned.
Attachments
524 Preparing to Silver Solder the Brake Lugs.jpg
525 After Silver Soldering.jpg
526 After Silver Soldering.jpg
Carrdo
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing the Josslin Hudson Part 57

Post by Carrdo »

A little further on.

Just make sure the vise jaws hold tight on the blank as an end mill like the one shown can exert a large yanking force if you need to do any climb milling if it is a little bit dull.

The pile of dull end mills is growing again.
Attachments
364 A Little Further On.jpg
Carrdo
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Re: Constructing the Josslin Hudson Part 57

Post by Carrdo »

Further on.

You can now see the slight offset on the rods front to back. The rods are oriented the way they will be applied to the drivers.

As discussed previously, there is a RH and LH rod as well as a front to back orientation. It is quite easy to reverse things when laying the rods out on a flat surface.
Attachments
365 Further on.jpg
Carrdo
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Re: A Peek At The Josslin Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

The first photo shows the lead truck frame after its initial cleanup. Eventually, I may bead or shot blast the frame to give it more of a casting look but it is good enough for now.

Strike while the iron is hot goes the saying so I decided to finish the second batch of 4 lead truck lugs as previously, enough lugs were nearly finished to do three lead trucks.

Earlier in the thread there are photos showing how the final shaped side of a lug was rough band sawed away utilizing an unusual holding/supporting piece.Things had become quite tricky to hold or position at that point as there were no parallel surfaces left which would allow the parts to be held conventionally while finish contouring them.

Sometimes, one just has to come up with something even more unusual. The second photo shows what worked in this case.

While the initial contouring was done with a high speed rotary grinder to carefully remove most of the remaining metal, the final work is all hand filing as shown in the last photo. Precision hand filing is a lost art to most of us, myself included, but sometimes there is no other option.
Attachments
527 After Initial Cleanup.jpg
529 Setup for Holding Another Nearly Completed Brake Lug.jpg
530 Hand Filing RH Side Contour.jpg
Carrdo
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Re: A Peek At The Josslin Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

More of the same. The second lead truck frame (which is the front frame in the photos) brake lugs pinned in place and then silver soldered. Everything done here is as previously described.

The silver soldering is definitely a two person operation so this was again undertaken at Richard's place.

The only new operation was to gently boil the entire frame assembly in water in a large metal pan on the stove for about 40 minutes to remove the residual flux. This operation was previously described by Dave Sclavi (Trainman) here on Chaski and his method worked very well.
Attachments
534 Second Lead Truck Frame Brake Lugs Pinned.jpg
535 And Silver Soldered.jpg
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JBodenmann
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Re: A Peek At The Josslin Hudson Lead Truck

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
What excellent workmanship Carrdo. It will be a shame to hide this beautiful lead truck under the cylinders.
Jack
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: A Peek At The Josslin Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Greg_Lewis »

JBodenmann wrote: It will be a shame to hide this beautiful lead truck under the cylinders.
Jack
Isn't that the way. We make this stuff, cover it over with other parts, paint it black, then put it down on the ground and stand back six feet and admire our work. At least we know it's there.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Carrdo
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Peek At The Josslin Hudson Lead Truck

Post by Carrdo »

With the second truck frame now complete one still has only managed to finish about 1/3 of the work needed to complete the lead truck. See the first photo which, in addition to the frame, shows the lead truck working parts. And then, there are all of the brake hangers, levers, brake shoes, brake cylinder, etc. which still have to be made. I will make them for show but will leave them off for running.

I actually need to finish 4 more brake hangers and silver solder them to the third lead truck frame but by now you get the idea of how this is done.

Since I have yet to describe the making of any of these parts, there is still a lot of uploading to be done.

The second photo shows the underside of an assembled truck. You can see how the swing links look which you may find interesting.

Everything needs to be marked RH front, LH rear, inside and outside on each and every working part if you want things to go together as intended. Once things are in a million pieces, its too late.
Attachments
536 Completed Truck Frame with Working Parts.jpg
537 Underside of Truck Showing Swing Links.jpg
538 Assembled Truck.jpg
539 Assembled Truck with Second Completed Frame.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Constructing the Josslin Hudson Part 54 (Update)

Post by Carrdo »

As a final exit to axlebox construction, all of the axleboxes were permanently marked as well as the associated leaf spring retainers and base blocks. I need to mark all close fitting parts as I make things without any digital aids. The parts, while very closely matching, are not interchangeable.

No matter how many tools one has there are always more needed so the electric engraver shown is borrowed.

I did not stamp these parts as experience has taught me that one can distort these somewhat delicate and precision pieces if mechanical stamping is attempted.

For axlebox marking, I generally use the system 1R, 1L, 2R, 2L, 3R, 3L, etc. irregardless of whether the axlebox is for a leading truck, trailing truck, tender trucks or main drivers.

The engraving marks don't have to be pretty, just visible.

All of the engraving marks were made on the inside faces of the parts so that when assembled they all faced inwards and towards one another from opposite sides.

For the 2 part axleboxes themselves, both the main body and the removable cellar piece as shown in the first photo were identically marked.

The parts to be engraved need to be held securely as it is surprising what the vibrating stylus will move.

That's it for now.
Attachments
357 Permanently Marked Axlebox.jpg
358 Permanently Marked Leaf Spring Retainer.jpg
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