Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

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GlennW
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by GlennW »

Even with a DRO you will need to learn to load the leadscrew in the proper direction before cutting, so that the cutter does not draw the part in, or push it away when cutting.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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kenrinc
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by kenrinc »

Thanks for the info on the burner. I'd concur that a mock up would be in order for experimentation. I like everything about it except the running pressure: 12psi is a bit much. I think I know the reason why just because I have experience running them in foundry burners. Probably a drawback to this design but I won't know until I experiment. I don't like high pressures because of noise and typically, a larger fuel consumption. The vast majority of engines I've come across run at sub 5psi. What may be a problem with that design is that shoving gas through a small orifice with an open end creates noise. The higher the pressure the more noise. Typically jet engine like noise. Now, I haven't heard it so It's just conjecture on my part but in a foundry burner, noise is part of the design. Even the smallest, quietest foundry burners are well beyond anything a Live Steamer could put up with in terms of noise.

Good stuff to think about though! I'm like you as I'm not quite there yet but I will be soon so I want have all my eggs in the basket.....

Ken-
kvom
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by kvom »

Glenn Wegman wrote:Even with a DRO you will need to learn to load the leadscrew in the proper direction before cutting, so that the cutter does not draw the part in, or push it away when cutting.
Good point Glenn. I make it a point to to always mill right to left conventional, which pushes the swarf to the rear. By going consistently in you direction and "rewinding" past the start point, the lead screw always will be loaded.

Make that PS-4 a coal burner and the propane pressure will be a moot point. :P
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Pipescs
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by Pipescs »

Long day at work

Thanks for all the input on the cutting with a DRO

As to the issue of the burner making too much noise, I will see if I can find the Locomotive running and listen to it. Like you I would not want the high pressure gas jet noise.
Charlie Pipes
Mid-South Live Steamers


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Scratch Built 3 3/4 scale 0-4-4 Forney
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Fender
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by Fender »

Pipescs wrote: I worked on taking the backlash out of the x axis lead screw only to find I have more wear in the center than the ends. To be expected with an older machine.
I wouldn't worry too much about the uneven backlash wear. With the DRO, you will be using the readout, not the dials, in moving the table.
Dan Watson
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Pipescs
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by Pipescs »

Im Back

The DRO is installed and I am working out the adjustments on the slides.

I used to start sizing the plates fo the fulcrum assembly I am working on. It has many positioning functions that I did not realize were available and I am planning on using them on the non critical lightning holes on the first two crossmembers.
DSC_0196.jpg
Charlie Pipes
Mid-South Live Steamers


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Scratch Built 3 3/4 scale 0-4-4 Forney
Little Engines American
20 Ton Shay (Castings and Plans Purchased for future)
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Pipescs
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by Pipescs »

As this is a beginner writing to other dreamers who are out there thinking about jumping in I will continue to write to that level. Of course hoping that you old timers (Ones who have accomplished this process in the past) will jump in and save me if I start down a bad path.

Having hooked up the DRO by DRO PROS I started on one of the easer parts for the Frame Brake Fulcrum.

Right off the bat I find it easer to follow the large well lit up numbers to following the lines on the dials. It also eliminated my backlash issues.

The DRO PRO has a feature discribed as Sub Datum Memory (SDM). It is a input method where you can put in up to 199 points using X and Y points referenced to 0,0.

The cross members have two rectangular lightning holes that are non critical for measurements so I chose them as a start. to try out the SDM feature. I went back to the drawings and figure the center of each corner with a .125 radius and punched in the coordinates for the four corners using the upper left edge of the vise for 0,0.

I first milled out the blank to the outside size and then placed it in the vise with the upper left corner at 0,0.

It was then a simple matter to recall each of the four SDM points and drill out the four corners. After that I simply pulled up each corner and cut back and forth until I had the part sawed out with a .250 end mill



Next I will flip the part over and do the cut out on the other side
Attachments
SDM.JPG
Charlie Pipes
Mid-South Live Steamers


Current Projects:

Scratch Built 3 3/4 scale 0-4-4 Forney
Little Engines American
20 Ton Shay (Castings and Plans Purchased for future)
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Pipescs
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by Pipescs »

I have no clue how I double posted the photos. It will not let me remove it.

The idiot moderator (me) deleted what he thought was the duplicate, but ended up deleting the wrong file. Sorry about that! Please feel free to add the proper photo, and if you can't, please forward it to me and I will.

Harold
Charlie Pipes
Mid-South Live Steamers


Current Projects:

Scratch Built 3 3/4 scale 0-4-4 Forney
Little Engines American
20 Ton Shay (Castings and Plans Purchased for future)
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Fender
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by Fender »

I think I've had the same problem with double posting a photo. Try renaming the file on your system. Then delete both old photos, and re-attached the renamed file.
Dan Watson
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Pipescs
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by Pipescs »

I'll try again with the photos and make the discription clearer.

The SDM feature is to punch in the x-y coordinates for up to 199 points using 0,0 as a reference

The when you recall SDM No. 1 the display shows x and y error. You then turn the x and y handles till the read out show 0.0000 for both axis. This places you over the first SDM point After drilling that point I moved on to the next.

I took the fifteen minutes it required to print out a drawing with the points numbered with the x and y distances layed out from the upper left corner and indexed it to my vice corner as 0,0
SDM5 (2).jpg
After punching in the points for the .125 radius and double checking the placement I center drilled them and then drilled with a .25 bit.
SDM5.jpg

Then I used a .250 mill and worked back and forth from SDM No. 1 and No. 2 etc untl I had it sawed out.
SDM (4).JPG
Charlie Pipes
Mid-South Live Steamers


Current Projects:

Scratch Built 3 3/4 scale 0-4-4 Forney
Little Engines American
20 Ton Shay (Castings and Plans Purchased for future)
mjahn
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by mjahn »

Interesting. Similar logic to a bolt hole pattern mode except you're dictating the position of the bolt holes instead of the computer placing them around a circle... wonder if my DRO has that function... :?
Mattaniah Jahn

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operating on the Manatee Central RR
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kvom
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Re: Building the Southern Railway PS-4 Frame

Post by kvom »

I'm guessing that feature is mostly useful when there are a lot of holes or multiple parts. It seems to me that the time spent entering the coords would be about the same as just using the print and going to the X/Y directly. YMMY.

With my DRO, the only extra function I use is the "divide by 2" button for finding the center of a part using an edge finder.
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