3/4" Scale J1e

[Greg_Lewis]

I'm with Jack. I don't care if I finish the engine — it's the journey. The most fun for me is making little doodads out of brass. I just spent an entire day making some pipe couplings because the size I wanted wasn't available. Got to use some of my special-thread taps and dies, the spin index, the smallest ball cutter for my Proxxon tool, and the Optivisor. I was sort of disappointed when I finished the running gear because all that fun machining, measuring, and head scratching was over.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
I guess I'm just lucky. I like building, I like running, I like talking about building and running I hope to finish the Hudson and then run it. I want my friends to run it. And then we can sit around and talk about it, Too much fun!
Jack

[Love4Steam]

Hello My Friends
The hobby is different things for different people. Like Harold, I like doing it all myself. There is a great sense of satisfaction in that for me. Now that being said I will not make everything, such as nuts and bolts, many pipe fittings etc. I had my friend Doug wire EDM the throttle quadrants for the tiny throttle lever. What a cool process. I am a bit of a lunatic and sometimes get hung up on details. But I am having fun, and that's what it's all about. Merry Christmas and
See You In The Funny Pages...
Jack

Merry Christmas Jack. If you or anyone else out there need any EDM work done, let me know!

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Well this booster engine baloney has gone on long enough . So here is just a bit more. First a couple shots of the main body, both top and bottom. You can see the little dags where there are vents. Venting is always a double edged sword. The more you vent, the easier the mold will fill. But more vents means more clean up. There is still talcum powder visible. Talc helps the wax roll into the mold. The waxes all must be cleaned. Trimming, and cleaning up parting lines. The second photo down shows the underside. The rectangular recess is where the cylinder head for the actuating piston to engage the idler gear will be. Although this is just a dummy booster engine I like to include all this little detail. Then we have a snappy of the waxes for two booster engines. I will often make one extra of all the tiny parts. Lastly the molds for the booster. There are thirteen molds for the booster. This was a really fun little puzzle, but I'm glad to be moving on to something else. The masters for the booster took 62.25 hours and the molds required 21 hours. As usual it took longer than I would have guessed. Most things do.
See You In The Funny Pages...
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Now that the booster molds are finished and the waxes are going to the foundry it's time for something else. Something else will be the piping to and from the booster engine. The piping to the booster travels down the fireman's side of the engine from the cylinders where it picks up steam, to the air throttle, and then to the booster. This piping will be 1/4" tube. And then from the booster down the engineers side back towards the cylinders where it enters the feed water heater system. This piping will be 5/16" tube. These pipes had insulation covered with sheet metal with bands holding the sheet metal on. This covering and the metal bands will be simulated. The flexible connectors will have ball and socket joints so they can flex and wiggle with the trailing truck just like the prototype. I have modeled these steam lines before in 1-1/2" scale, and have casting sets available if anyone is interested. Here are a couple drawings. The first is one of a flexible connector. There are two varieties, straight and 90 degree. There will be a ball inside and it will move on teflon washers. The second drawing shows the general arrangement of the piping and the air throttle. More fun little baloney that will contribute to the clutter that makes modern steam so interesting. When building a locomotive we work on and on, it seems like the end is nowhere in sight. Especially when building something like 5344 here. But also when building a simple little tea kettle. We work away, and work away more. This is where desire, determination, or in my case stubbornness comes into play. It also helps if you just enjoy time in the shop like I do. I pretty much have my dream shop. It took many years of saving, and dreaming. I would plan on making (inset part here) and would suddenly realize that I needed this doobis or that. Maybe a fifteen dollar reamer or cutter. Maybe a seven hundred dollar this or that. Buy it, or save my money and wait. I started out with basically junk machinery. Some of Enco's first offerings. A really bad mill drill and a boat anchor of a lathe. It was cheap. Guys said "Oh you can't do that with your machinery". Well..I did, and I learned a lot. I built quite a few engines with that junk. Sometimes it was discouraging. Now, like I said earlier, I pretty much have my dream shop, nice machinery, and a well stocked shop full of materials and parts.. Somebody up there likes me . So if you are just starting out don't be discouraged. Hang in there and keep at it. You can learn a lot with a hack saw and a file. And one day you will look around and your masterpiece will be finished. There is nothing like running and engine YOU built.
See You In The Funny Pages...
Jack.

[Steam Engine Dan]

wow it's amazing how you get all these old drawings and ad's of all the real appliances. how do you do it jack?

[Greg_Lewis]

While I don't know Jack's secret, there are many patent drawings available on the net. Google patents, Google books and freepatentsonline are a few places to check. One of the tricks is trying various combinations of key words. Fewer words returns more results. Some of the loco cyclopedias are also available for downloading on the net.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
I have quite a library of books. Loco cyclopedias, and old manuals. Also a couple file cabinets full of drawings. As Greg mentions, the internet is also a wonderful source. Now that the booster waxes are on their way to the foundry it's time to start the masters for the flexible piping with it's ball joints and such. Here is a photo of some 1-1/2" scale parts. The top photo is a housing for a ball joint. This requires a 7/8" ball. The 3/4" scale joint will use a 7/16" ball. The second photo shows left to right, the packing ring, the ball section, the spacer ring, and then the housing. The bottom snappy shows the packing ring and ball. Notice the circular recess in the ring. This is for a Teflon or Delrin washer that the whole mess will hang on. I set them up loose so they can wiggle around and move freely. The spacer and packing ring are drawn up with #3-48 T bolts. Remember now these parts are 1-1/2" scale, 5344 is 3/4" scale, half this size. For this the bolts will be #0-80. The full size Hudsons had castellated nuts with cotter pins...Lets see now, there are six ball joints, each has six T bolts with castellated nuts and cotter pins... Heavens to Betsy, just put the straight jacket on me now. Ha ha. too much fun.
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Here are a few more snappies. This is the 1-1/2" scale booster piping set. This was originally made For John's J1e. This set was also used on the streamliner. Next, the full casting set, partially assembled, and stuck to a trailing truck. If you look close you will see that there's no stoker engine. Just the cylinder head. #5344 will have the whole enchilada, stoker engine and all. Just because it's small there's no excuse to take short cuts. It will be fun just to see who notices.
Jack

[NP317]

Sweet!
When I saw the first pic of the top conical housing my instant reaction was:
Mercury space capsule!!
((-;
Happy New Year.
RussN

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Russ is right, it sure does look like a Mercury space capsule. Well, here's how to make a 3/4" scale Mercury Capsule. This particular part is definitely what I often describe as, "a delightful little puzzle". Basically a simple little part, but has some interesting shapes going on. First off it's tapered. Then there are six recesses for the T bolts. The recesses have a curved inner vertical surface. The sides of the recesses are angled so that they are wider at the outer edge. In the first photo a bit of 3/4" brass is having a recess cut with a 9/16" end mill. Then over to the mill to cut slots using the rotary table. A 3/32" end mill was used for this. Then a center drill was used to mark the positions of the T bolts.

[JBodenmann]

Now it's back to the lathe for parting off. Second photo, isn't that a pretty little part. Third photo, things starting to go together. In the fourth photo the parts have been set on a flat piece of fire brick. This fire brick is on a lazy Susan so it can be rotated when heating up. The parts have been fluxed and tweezers are used to put tiny pieces of silver solder in place. Each piece of solder has been dipped in flux to sort of stick them in place. When you start heating things up go slowly, as if you heat the parts too quickly the water in the flux will flash into steam and blow off the little pieces of silver solder. I hate it when that happens I use an oxy acetylene torch for this. Last photo, the part silver soldered ready to go for a swim in the acid pot. I use sparex solution in a cheap crock pot. Works great.