Romulus build

Where users can chronicle their builds. Start one thread and continue to add on to it.

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Fred_V
Posts: 4370
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2003 3:26 pm

Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

I turned the stem and made new nuts with the smaller hole but the outer end of the bonnet had a short clearance hole that the packing could push into so I made little collars that fit there and all is well in Steamville.
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valve fix.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Builder01
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Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 5:26 am
Location: Erie, PA

Re: Romulus build

Post by Builder01 »

Okay, cool!
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Fred_V
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Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2003 3:26 pm

Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

Today was smokebox door day. This is an Allen Models Mogul door casting. I grabbed it by the outer edge with the back side facing out and machined the step to fit the ID of the smokebox. Easy then to turn it around and turn down the OD of the flange. The 2 photos show step two, turning the flange to the OD of the SBox. The nice thing here was that the chuck jaws caught the OD of the door just right with the jaw step just contacting the front face of the door. This made it all locate nicely and easy to turn the shoulder.

Later in the day I drilled the 8 holes for mounting. The ones at 3,6,9 and 12:00 were drilled to 1/8" the ones in between were drilled and tapped for 5-40 screws. Transfer punch the first holes to the edge of the smokebox and tap those holes. The tricky part is laying out those 8 holes. Not critical but needs to be reasonably close.
Attachments
smoke door.JPG
smoke door2.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

Lots done in the last 2 days. I got the bottom of the smokebox sealed up, the door fitted and the stack mounted. Net was the plumbing. The manifold is now made and valves installed; blower and water gauge plumbed up as well as the piping for the injector steam valve.
Getting to the short list now.
Attachments
plumbing.JPG
SBox sealed.JPG
SBox sealed2.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

Now for the axle pump. I came up with an idea to use 3/8" brass pipe Tee and tube. This will save a lot of time to machine. The valves will be made from a 3/8" pipe plug for the inlet and the same for the outlet with a shop made outlet part for the check valve. I'll silver solder a plate to the back for mounting or use U-bolts to mount it.
Attachments
axel pump.png
axle pump bits.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

Another productive day. I made all the pump parts; still need to solder a mount on the Tee fitting. Three hours of work so it really went quickly.

The second pic shows the parts. The ball seats are the two pointed up. The left hand one is the outlet seat and is made from a 1/8" pipe plug. That screws into the bottom of the 3/8" plug which is tapped to accept it. To the left of that is the outlet cap that screws into the top of the 3/8 plug and finally the the outlet copper tube fitting screws in.

The bottom inlet fitting is much simpler having only the tube fitting screwed into the 3/8" plug. The eccentric is already in place so hooking it up should be fairly simple.

Lastly the ram had to be turned just a bit to fit the .490" ID of the tube. I think I'll just make a packing gland for the end of the tube.
Attachments
pump mockup.JPG
pump parts.JPG
pump ram turned.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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gamh44
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:03 pm
Location: Australia

Re: Romulus build

Post by gamh44 »

Fred_V

Quick work, I must say. And all looks fantastic.

What sizes are you using for the plumbing? And how does that relate back to the boiler size?

Cheers


Geof
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

The ram is 1/2" dia./3/4" stroke. With 1/4" copper tube the velocity is way below the max allowable of 150 '/sec. The pump size should relate to the sweep volume of the cylinders at max speed.

I got the pump installed today and put in the steam feed to the throttle valve. Dome is back on too. On to cylinder drains next.
Attachments
pump installed2.JPG
dome closing.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

Cylinder drains finished today. The 3/16" ball is down in the threaded part with the pin to contain it.
I need to make the ramp bar and linkage to operate them.
Attachments
cyl drains.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

More cyl. drain work today. Made the actuator slides and operating levers. Just need to tie it all together.
Attachments
cyl drain linkage.JPG
cyl drain linkage2.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

Cylinder drains all connected up now. Still have to make a handle for the back end of the rod.
Attachments
cyl drain done.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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Fred_V
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Re: Romulus build

Post by Fred_V »

The Johnson bar quadrant did not get it's notches so that was another task today.
To set this up I put the bar in full fwd and in 2 notched up positions and scribed lines on the plate. this gave me a reference line to make parallel with the vice jaw and then align the cutter with the line. Same for reverse. Worked great.
Attachments
quad scribe lines.JPG
quad notches.JPG
quad done.JPG
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
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