The Home Machinist!

And one for Mr. Massee....

Keep the light shining!



Until Next time.....

engine looks great. what's going on with the duce roadster?

Hey Fred,

That's my '32 that I started building about 10 years ago.... I dabble on it now and then... Pretty sweet car that will be done sometime in the future. I will most likely jump on that after this new locomotive. I like to bounce around a bit on projects so it will serve as a nice break from Choo Choo's when the time is right. After the last locomotive, "CHU" I actually restored that big lathe in the back of the shop and then completely rebuilt a '56 chevy truck for my new Daily Driver. Gotta change it up now and then.

Here's my new Choo Choo Hauler...

Sorry Rob, but that's not going to fit on the highline at the Small Scales Meet. It looks too wide.....

BTW: I saw Chu last month at the LALS meet and it looks great still. He ran the wheels off that during the weekend.

3 things,

I like your shop!

Why do the frames get ground down to true size?

Whats the steamer behind your project there on the bench?

Kevo

Oh and your project looks real good too!

The other engine is a Chloe. Came up to see it a few years ago when we were building ours.

http://www.mikemassee.com/gallery/v/liv ... rris_shop/

Chu is still under construction there and Max is smaller! Time fries when you're cookin' with oil!

Hey Kevo,

Thanks! It's a great shop and I have been much more productive since Dad and I built it.... You can really crank out some work in there! I do apologize for the general dirtiness as I haven't done a BIG cleaning since finishing the truck this last month... I just had to start machining parts!

The frames are slightly warped at this point and a little love with a hammer or a press and then a trip along the Grinder will make them nice a perfect. You could go without but it's nice to have certain things be right on the number.

Harlock covered the Chloe, but there are a few more loco's in the pic. The little Black one directly behind this engine is a Ultra Neat 3.5" gauge 2-8-0 built by Jim Vail. Jim is the fella that continues to provide outstanding modeling tips in each issue of Narrow Gauge Gazzette magazine. The engine is a exact copy of the slick little outside frame 2-8-0's that ran down in Mexico. It will be for sale here shortly......

Cheers,

Robert M.

That 2-8-0 really caught my eye! I haven't seen very much narrow gauge stuff for 3.5" gauge track and its got those Rio Grande K series looking front proportions. Neato! I found your thread on it.

I didn't know it was that important to get the frames perfectly straight. Still a newb here. I guess if your gonna do it, do it right from the start.

Kevo

Back at it Boys.....

So the wheel arbor needed to be reassembled then machined to fit the bore on the wheels. To get these parts together as one I opted for the Shrink method.... My favorite....

Erin is not much of a fan when it comes to using the Household Oven so I'm stuck with using the BBQ.... Here we are right alongside the Chicken for the evening.


Here is the end result:


This thing was hotter that hades all the way into the evening... Yikes!! I went out at 10:00PM to take it inside the shop and it was still simmering quite nice.

After it came back to earth I chucked it back up and put some love on it... The center pin is a nice ring fit into the axle hole. I drilled and tapped the end for a big 3/8" bolt as a retainer and we were off to the races!


1. Tread/Flange OD's were done along with getting the flange to the correct thickness.
2. Tread taper was put on next.
3. Finally here we are putting the tapers on the flange and cleaning up the radius' around the top.


More news soon....

Robbie

To Grind the frames one needs to find a small grinder available, slightly larger than needed,
first file and stone off all burs and place the bowed side up. shim and pack if needed. nice to have a varible mag on a grinder to control how much you pull down on the part. by using the varible and flipping the part over and back you can get rid of bows and warps pretty easily, if you have enough material.

GRANT!!!!

Nice! No we're cook'n with gas.... That Grinder is Super Sweet! Dead flat after a trip thru that monster. Thanks for posting the pics!

More news later....

Grant:

I'm curious....

Out in your neck of the woods, what would the cost be to get your frames ground with a surface grinder?

What would the cost have been if you had them ground on a Blanchard grinder or a Mattison vertical spindle grinder?

LL

Grant,

When using the slightly over-sized surface grinder, are the cotton gloves required as part of the procedure?

I have never seen anyone wear cotton gloves at the grinder. Is there something to be learned here?

Did Robert specify the cotton glove treatment?

Robert

Robert... I always request the White Glove test on my parts...

I actually sent imported Red Velvet up as well to wrap them after the grinding job was done.

:):)

LL,

Kinda hard to say what the cost would be on this as Grant and I have a steady stream of stuff flowing back n forth between us but $$$$ never seems to be one of them...

Most grinding jobs for frames that I know of are Blanchard. We have had many folks in GGLS get frames flame cut then Ground in that fashion but I'm not sure what the cost was.

I know that I can't wait to see these things!!!

Grant's work is king of the hill.... Period Paragraph..

Cheers,

Robert