2-1/2" NG class A shay.

[hwboivin3]

Excellent work! I especially like the way you did the cross head guides.
Keep up the good work and posts!


Harry

[Brian Hilgert]

Excellent work! I especially like the way you did the cross head guides.
Keep up the good work and posts!

Thank you!

Here's a picture of the valve guide block.

I didn't like the way that the bolt recess came out so I milled out a square to make it look more like a casting.

[Brian Hilgert]

Machining the bearing blocks: I started with a large round bar (660) that my father happened to have in the garage. The bar was sliced in the horizontal band saw and then the four sides where sawed away. Because the slices were too small to fit into the band saw vice, I used "C" clamps to hold the piece while the saw did its job. Once the pieces were roughed out, I machined all of the surfaces for a tight, sliding fit into the engine base.

Mounting the engine base on the mill, I used it as a drilling fixture to make sure all of the holes came out in line with each other.

Test fit all the bearing with a straight piece of drill rod.

It spins! woo hoo!

[Soot n' Cinders]

Looking good Brian! I wish I had bars of bearing bronze laying around, the stuff is expensive... I priced out the cost of all of the bronze in the engine, and its a lot more than I thought it would be.

[Brian Hilgert]

Thanks! Lucky for me, my father saves everything. The piece that I used was actually mushroomed on one end from someone beating on it with a hammer. Oh well, you got to use what you have.

[Soot n' Cinders]

Lucky, I just bought the 660 bronze to make the drive shaft bearings on the trucks and it was over $60
Oh well, I new this wasn't going to be cheap when we got into this. Now both me and my dad are near the point where we have to buy the gears, which are over $700.

[Brian Hilgert]

I new this wasn't going to be cheap when we got into this. Now both me and my dad are near the point where we have to buy the gears, which are over $700

If you are going to buy them from Amazon, don't forget to go to your local super market and buy amazon gift cards. That way you can get points/money off of gas for your car. We have Shop-n-save up here in PA, not sure what you have down in GA.

I have to buy one more pinion.
B

[Brian Hilgert]

Below are some pictures of the crank. I ended up making it twice, the first time I machined everything as a slip fit and tried to silver solder it all together. Since I haven't silver soldered in a while, my skills weren't up to the task. I ended up overheating it and warping it beyond repair. The second time, I used a press fit with keyways.

[Brian Hilgert]

Here is a pic of the first go around before silver soldering

The following is a picture of the final crank in its new home.

[Lovesthedrive]

I agree with you, that is a far easier way to make the crankshaft.

[Brian Hilgert]

Moving on to the cross heads.
Sometimes, I get on a roll and forget to take some pictures.

Milling the slot.

Oops, live and learn. If I had it to do over again, I would have milled the area from the side and then soldered a plate on to make a slot.

Milling some detail work.

Finished except for some detail nuts and bolts.

[Brian Hilgert]

Moving on to the connecting rods.

This is the first time I've ever soft soldered split bearings to machine them. Its not hard, I just had a little 'fear of the unknown'.
I machined the block to the correct height but the width and thickness were slightly oversize.

The blocks were then machined to final size.

Boring the hole and machining the end profile.

Milling the slots.