3/4" Scale J1e

[Rwilliams]

Jack,

The pins for the combination lever/union link joint feature some nice little slotted washer nuts. Including the washer with the nut is a rather nice detail that is much appreciated in my shop. I am curious as to what angle was used to create the taper on the outer face of the washer. It would appear to be around 25 degrees, perhaps as much as 30 degrees. Can you share with us what angle was used in the Bodenmann Locomotive Works?

Robert

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
I have no idea what angle the little flange on the slotted nut is. I used Greg's time proven technique. Let's see... that looks about right.
Get er' done. Jack

[Greg_Lewis]

I call it "eyeball engineering."

Seriously, in what's left of my memory, I recall reading something about the engineering of the Parthenon and other ancient structures. Obviously they had no way to test the strength of materials beyond experience, but the author of the study claimed that if it looked right, it probably was.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is a bit on the ash pan for the Hudson. One problem with models, and full size wide fire box engines is that the outer slope sheets don't have enough slope to help the ashes find their way down into the hopper. I like to build an actual ash pan and then a dummy ash pan that projects around the outer edges of the fire box. The actual ash pan, that we see coming together here fits up into the inside of the fire box. This allows more slope to be built into the slope sheets. A simple sketch and card stock patterns were started with as we can see in the top photo. Several card stock ash pans were made before things looked good as can be seen in the second photo. Then they were used to mark out steel pieces. The steel used was .100" thick. I like to keep some of this material around, as for our purposes .125" often seems to heavy. The third photo shows a pile of patterns that didn't quite work out. Make one have a look, not quite right. Make another, closer but still to right. In this case third time was the charm. And then we have the steel ash pan. I have set up several 1-1/2" scale ash pans this way over the years and they work just fine. There will be a sliding door on the bottom of the hopper with an operating handle along side the trailing truck. To me an ash pan should be easy to dump when the engine is hot. One flip of a lever should do it. One point I would like to add is that full size engines with wide fire boxes often had blowers around the perimeter of the ash pan to blow the ashes down into the hopper. Even still they would often have to use a steam lance or rake when they stopped to help the ashes down into the hopper.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is a bit on fitting up a boiler jacket. The J1e's technically had straight boilers as each individual boiler course was straight. But starting at the smoke box and proceeding towards the fire box each successive course was fitted around the previous one making them considerably larger. So the jacket was tapered up to the steam dome course and from there it tapered down to the back head. In the top photo we have the boiler fitted up with some spacer rings. These are 1/8" x 1/2" hot rolled and were squirted through the slip roll to form them into rings. Then they were stuck to the boiler with some spacers. The second photo shows something very important. The spacer rings have had two wraps of making tape applied to them. This is to allow for the thickness of the paint. The boiler will be painted and also the jackets, both inside and out. After all fit up is done and before painting the tape will be removed to compensate. You would be surprised how much the paint will change things. The third photo shows a file folder pattern stuck to the boiler with masking tape. This pattern should be oversize in both length and width. Notice it is shifted towards the fire box a tiny bit. The next photo shows why. In photo 4 a compass is being used to mark the pattern, it is being guided by the rearmost edge of the smoke box. Mark it all around. Also make some witness marks on both the pattern and the boiler so you can make sure to re locate it accurately when placing it back on the boiler. And our last photo for now shows the pattern piece removed from the boiler and stretched out on the work bench. Notice how the mark we just made is curved. It will be trimmed to the line with scissors. Try to get this first curve as smooth and accurate as possible as this edge will be visible, the rest of the edges will be under the boiler bands so they are not so important. Next time we will will mark out the other edge of the jacket piece and proceed down the boiler toward the throat sheet. Jacketing is something all boilers have and can be a challenge. Also to come, boiler bands, and jacket half wrappers and clips as the full size engines had.
See you in the funny pages...
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is some more concerning jacketing. Last time we marked out and trimmed the front edge of the first pattern. Now it's been returned to the boiler and taped snugly around the spacer rings, making sure that the front edge is properly lined up with the smoke box. Now the first spacer ring will be used to guide a knife along the rear most edge to trim the pattern as in the top photo. After trimming with the knife we can use a compass set at 1/4" to mark the pattern. Remember the spacer rings are 1/2" wide. Remove the pattern and trim again with scissors. It will now look like the third photo. At some time the bottom centerline should be marked as with the red pen in photo #4. Then the pattern can be used to mark out the boiler jacket course as in the last photo here.

[JBodenmann]

Now here is the first jacket course marked out and trimmed. Then rolled into a cylinder, and then on the boiler. They should fit snugly and should only need a bit of masking tape to hold them in place. This is #26 gauge cold rolled but even if you use #16 gauge masking tape should work for now. Now just repeat this process for each boiler course. The next photo shows one of the half jackets. On full size engines the jacket courses did not go all the way around, it was usually at least two separate pieces split at the top and bottom centerline and overlapped a bit. On a model it's difficult to actually make the segments in two halves so I make one that wraps all the way around and then overlay half wrappers. There will be tiny angle clips riveted to the jacket at the top and bottom with #000-120 all thread and tiny nuts. The #000-120 nuts I can buy have the same outer dimensions as #00-90 nuts which is .080". These are too big for these boiler jacket clips so I am going to have a go at making some little square nuts. Probably .065" across the flats. Like I said I'm going to give it a try. They will still be overscale. Next time, the boiler bands and the simulated mud ring with it's double staggered rows of rivets. This will also be the lower mount for the throat sheet, back head, and fire box side wrappers. On the J1e's the wrapper came down to just above the mud ring rivets all around the fire box so there will be no hollow or flexible stay bolts to make. Ain't that a relief!
Happy Model Building
Jack

[Greg_Lewis]

Forgive me for butting into Jack's thread but here's a shot of V&T #27 in Carson City that shows the jacket clips he refers to. So many engine pix are taken from ground level and we can't see those clips but this shot shows them along the top c/l of the jacketing. You can also see that on this engine there are three sheets per side, riveted together. These are tiny details that are hard to see in most engine photos; I've got another photo of a different engine on which the clips are smaller than these and don't show until you magnify the image quite a bit.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Greg makes a great point concerning the boiler jacket clips. The clips are tiny, and barely noticeable on the prototype. And as he says, they are on top of the boiler where you are not likely to even see them. There are some under the boiler also, and these are even less likely to be seen. So even though I will be using #000-120 fasteners they will still be a bit oversize. But here is what has been happening. Last time we finished up the boiler jacket courses and now its time to make some boiler bands. 5344's full size sisters probably had bands that were four inches wide. That makes them 1/4" wide in 3/4" scale. So some #26 gauge was sheared to 1/4" and some little angle brackets were made for the ends. They are brass, .030" thick and .115 wide. the holes for the rivets are .050" and the hole for the bolt is #56. They were drilled and then match drilled to the end of the band. The back side of the band was countersunk and then the clip and band were riveted together.

[JBodenmann]

Here is the band and clip stuck together. After one and was stuck on, the band was wrapped around the boiler and marked where the end should be. The second end is riveted on and we now have the band wrapped around the boiler and cinched up with a #00-90 bolt and nut. Now that the bands are made it's time to start on the dummy mud ring with its gaggle O' rivets. This dummy mud ring will also act as the bottom mount for the throat sheet, side sheets, and back head wrapper.
See ya' later alligator.
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Been making some pretty good progress on the J1e. I wasn't sure about the rivet spacing on the dummy mud ring so several tests were made just to have a look. The top left copper rivets was the first shot. No good. I moved em' a little closer as you can see at the upper right. Still no good. So then some smaller brass rivets closer together as on the left...almost. Then some brass rivets as on the bottom right, really close together. Now there we go, just right. Mud ring rivets were very close together with little space between them. Second photo, laying them out using the mill with the digital read out. Next, slamming rivets. They are flush on the back side as this fits against the actual mud ring. Last photo here, the set up for bending the corners. No rivet holes were drilled near the bends, as the bending process would have deformed them badly. The brass was well annealed before bending and brutal force was required to make the brass pieces behave. A large hammer and a hardwood block was used to whomp it into submission..

[JBodenmann]

Here is some more. First the set up for silver soldering the four pieces together. Small strips of brass and #0-80 screws were used to hold things together during soldering, and set on a smooth fire brick. Then we have two shots of the dummy mud ring stuck to the boiler with some flat head machine screws. The back head wrapper along with the side sheets and throat sheet wrapper will stick to this. On the J1e's the wrapper and insulation stopped right above the mud ring rivets. I guess they wanted them exposed so they could see if they were leaking. At lest that's my guess. Not all the J's had this feature but Im glad the J1e's did because I just think it's a cool detail. Tomorrow the throat sheet and back head wrappers. Having fun here with this sheet metal. I'm looking forward to making the cab. I haven't decided if it will be steel or brass, probably brass. The domes will be fabricated from steel which is the ideal metal for them, as it can be welded, stretched and shrunk. Too much fun!
Jack