3/4" Scale J1e

[NP317]

Pissy little work.
And rewarding results, rarely done.
RussN

[makinsmoke]

Spelling Russ?

I hate the auto correct feature on my phone.

Brian

[makinsmoke]

Jack you are a rare craftsman in a hobby of craftsmen.

Most of us wouldn’t even look at that detail,but do because of you. It makes us all better.

[NP317]

Spelling Russ?

I hate the auto correct feature on my phone.

Brian

Nope. Just as I wrote it.
When I need a magnifying glass to see what I'm doing, that's "pissy" work.
((-;
Jack B. has talent and patience. And good eyesight...
RussN

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
First thank you very much for your most generous compliments, they mean a great deal to me. I am just the lunatic to enjoy "pissy" work. Believe me I use my optivisior quite a bit more now that I am playing with 3/4" scale. But this scale is a real delight to work in. Notice the boiler upside down on the wood stands. I just picked it up and sat it there. That is something you just don't do in the larger scales. No shop time today. I spent the day running around taking care of business, the bank, the store, the post office....Tomorrow I hope to get the throat sheet and back head wrapper made.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

[FKreider]

But this scale is a real delight to work in. Notice the boiler upside down on the wood stands. I just picked it up and sat it there. That is something you just don't do in the larger scales.

One of the reasons I like 3/4" scale as well! and as always fantastic work!

[Asteamhead]

Happy about not being alone!
Scale 1 in 10 will be some 20 % bigger - just what our German locomotives lack in size to your US engines
All those superb gadgets make it worth to construct and build by one's own!
Carry on!
Asteamhead

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Having fun here with 3/4" scale. Here is a bit on making the throat sheet wrapper. Not a difficult piece to make but requires some forms to be made and a bit of patience. Very similar to the forms to make a copper boiler throat sheet. First we have the form tool. 3/4" MDF cut and glued together. It still has to be zoomed with a router and a 3/8" round over bit. I would liked to have this be a tighter radius, lets say 5/15" but this was as tight as I could bend the brass dummy mud ring corners. Go with what you got! Second photo you can see the edges have been rounded over and it is being measured with a cloth dressmakers rule, a handy item to have laying around. In photo number three the work piece, .030" copper has been clamped to the form tool and and it is being beat into submission with our old friend the rawhide mallet. Work from one end across to the other and back and forth. Hammering it a bit per pass and trying to keep the forming as even as possible so as not to form any wrinkles. It is tempting to get in a hurry, as soon as things start to work harden pull it off the die and anneal. The next two photos show it snuggled up against the former. As I started with half hard copper it was annealed before clamping to the die. It was persuaded with the mallet, removed, annealed again, pickled, and replaced on the die. Then is was gently worked over to get it looking as in the last photo. I may anneal it one more time as it still needs a little hammer and dolly work to refine some of the curves and smooth out lumps. This is really not difficult at all, you just have to go through the changes to make the die and such. Your work piece will come out as good as your die, and very precise parts can be made this way.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is a shot of the mostly finished throat sheet wrapper. The curves still need a bit of refinement and smoothing out. You can see the lip projecting forward that will fit up against the rear jacket spacer ring. The lower edge will fasten to the dummy mud ring with some #00-90 round head screws and the fire box side wrapper will fasten to the vertical edge, also with #00-90 screws. On most big modern steam the throat and side sheets of the fire box would be uncovered and would be festooned with hollow stays and flexible stay bolt covers. On all the J1's this was covered. I don't know why. It seems that it would make checking and servicing the stay bolts more trouble. I'm sure they had a good reason. Now here are some shots of the back head wrapper. Pretty much the same routine as the throat sheet although the former is much simpler as it is straight. Now its time to fine tune them both and then start fitting them to the mud ring. Then the wrapper over the top of the fire box. It will also fasten to the mud ring. Then to finish up the ash pan and grates, the fire door, and the sliding door on the bottom of the hopper. I will be making a casting set for an air operated fire door. The operating laver for the fire door will stick up through the roof, right next to the whistle valve. That's so you can operate the fire door with you left thumb, and shovel coal with your right hand. Too much fun! Also down in the smoke box the throttle valve, branch pipes, and branch pipe casings. No shortage of things to do.
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
It's been snowing here lately. We had about eight inches on the ground, good time to play in the shop. I have been having fun with the jacketing. The little clips that hold the half wrappers are all made and riveted to the jacket and half wrappers. The top photo shows the clips and #00-90 bolts and nuts. I was thinking of making these smaller, using #000-120 all thread and nuts. The #000-120 nuts I can get have the same size heads as the #00-90 nuts available. I was thinking of making some really tiny nuts but then I thought about it some more. You can split hairs to the point you never finish anything...#00-90 all thread and nuts will be just fine. On final assembly they will be chemically blackened, not painted. There are a lot more clips underneath the boiler than on top, as the auxiliary dome, steam dome , and sand dome take up most of the top of the boiler. 5344 is starting to look like a locomotive now with the jacketing in place. The fire box side sheets have not been fastened to the mud ring yet. The prototype had six separate small sheets on each side of the fire box below the running boards. I will make these of .010" steel. They will be fastened to the side sheets with tiny round head slotted screws as that's mostly what was used for these sheets. There are some really fun bits to make coming up. The steam and sand domes which I will make from steel sheet. There were also some very interesting running board supports that held the air reservoirs, many piping brackets, and also the Franklin power reverse. Then the most delightful little puzzle of all, the cab with its sliding windows, roof ventilators, and doors at the front with Prime ventilator windows. I think I'll make the cab out of brass.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

[Pappawolff11]

Just outstanding. I can only hope to accomplish half the quality of work that you’re capable of good sir! Keep at it!

[dnevil]

Bob Zawarski added some very nice detail to a 3/4 inch scale J1e Hudson. This page has photos I "rescued" from his abandoned website.

http://ibls.org/mediawiki/index.php?tit ... ale_Models

Regards,
Daris