Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

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Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Brought home a shiny, new, blue, push button, Miller Millermatic 255 Pulse MIG welder. Man, Now I’ve got AMPS!

Super happy with this machine. Change out the wire to .045 flux core dual shield, and this machine will handle everything from 20 gauge sheet metal and super light .080” thin wall tubing to 1/2” plate. Wow.

Just made some beautiful, vertical-down, corner welds on a bunch of frame extension pieces of 3” channel iron. Can’t believe it!

Hope to have the frame extension done and the vertical cab supports in place by end of day tomorrow. Pics to follow.
Attachments
D893F988-FBB5-48F0-A7D5-A0AB14E0D21C.jpeg
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Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
rkcarguy
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by rkcarguy »

Very nice machine Glenn!
.045" Dual shield works great for 1/4" on up, when you get it set right you'll get this smooth "hiss", nearly no spatter, and it lays down this smooth bevel of weld that almost looks like caulking. I actually like tacking and spot welding with dual shield because it gets a nice hot deep tack instead of leaving a bump you have to grind down. 060" Duel Shield on higher settings, on the other hand will blow right through a seam on 1/4" steel, ask how I know lol!
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Lots of work in the “basement” and “floors”. Not much to show for it, pictorially. In the RV world, ‘basement’ is the storage space below the frame. In marine design and wood boat construction ‘Floors’ are the lateral timbers that sit on the keel and anchor at right angles to the frames, on the hull.

For lack of a better term, I finally finished adding 5 ‘floors’ or bulkheads, across the center of the frame. These floors provide rigidity and support for the widened frame and lengthened cab area - adding a generous amount of space to the cab, and three new battery box compartments. One battery box for each hood end. A third, under the seat, to expand voltage to 60vlatter, if needed.

Most all the framing is 3” channel. I used some 3”x1” rectangular tube in places where the 3” channel flanges were to wide to fit in the available space.
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The boxes are prefabbed with 3/16 x5” flat bar and some short bits of angle, to position the bottom pieces. Overkill, but easier to drop in and align the bottom pieces.
D7BD831C-0C68-4339-BA7F-1991917EB491.jpeg

Then, turned the assembly upside down and doubled up the (steel) floor timbers underneath the frames. This extends the battery boxes and engineer compartment down below the frame 8”. Also lowers the overall cab height, hopefully to give the loco a more proportional look.
C8353491-21EF-4A48-BB15-DDFA5EBCEC9B.jpeg
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Below, in the foreground, #1 hood end battery box. Wider battery box under the seat in the middle. #2 hood end battery box in the rear.
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Finally, went out and purchased a big rem of 1/8” (48x96) sheet to weld in the floor (not floors) for the engineer compartment. (Somewhere, There must be a more consistent set of terms for all this structure...)
D91E6732-CC25-435E-BAD2-B4F31B892E82.jpeg
Soon as I weld in the bottom of the front and rear battery boxes, and add the coupler gear and end plates, I can declare the end of Phase 2: Frame Extension. hooah!
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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Steggy
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Steggy »

Glenn Brooks wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 12:48 pm Lots of work in the “basement” and “floors”. Not much to show for it, pictorially...
Hmm...I see eight photos in your post. The most I've been able to attach in my posts is six. :?: :?: :?:
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Music isn’t at all difficult.  All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!  :D
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Harold_V
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Harold_V »

BigDumbDinosaur wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:09 pm Hmm...I see eight photos in your post. The most I've been able to attach in my posts is six. :?: :?: :?:
File size.

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Yes, these uploaded as small to medium size jpegs. Very small file size.
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Quite by accident, discovered an interesting method to align all the mounting holes and plates that will bolt onto the front and rear pilots, coupler pockets, and the frame extensions that hold them.

Spot weld them altogether.

Here is a long pilot beam, center frame extension backing plate, and coupler plate, center aligned and stacked like pancakes.
I spot welded each to the one below, then carted the whole thing over to the drill press and drilled all the matching holes, thru and thru. perfect! Break the welds, and off to the races.
C63A7D3A-9CA6-4F85-9F27-13DF4DC00719.jpeg


This led me to use the same method to align all three frame plate extensions, and the dozen or so bolt holes that will hold the pilot on. Worked perfectly.
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This really solved the vexing problem of how to layout and perfectly align 16 or so holes, across the pilot.

Now the trick is to bolt up all the weldments for the pilot, and tie everything together with a cross piece, and weld the whole kit and kabootle up to the frame.

This replicates the method Whitcomb originally used to mount the pilots on their 1942 era 44 toners.
CC745161-113E-47BA-9896-463B0ABB4309.jpeg

Nothing to it!

Glenn
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Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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rmac
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by rmac »

Welding: super glue for Real Men.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Glenn Brooks »

rmac wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 11:35 pm Welding: super glue for Real Men.
Hahahhaha
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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NP317
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by NP317 »

Glenn:
It would have been far simpler for you to put those pieces in your big a$$ Hass CNC mill and program the holes to drill where desired!
Yea, right.

Nice to see your progress.
RussN
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
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Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Pontiacguy1 wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 7:36 am
we've gone through a lot of machines of various brands. The ones that perform and outlast by far are the Millers.


I would ask how old your 'Tombstone' Lincoln welder is. The older ones were built heavier and had more copper in them. If everything else on it is good, might be worth making the repair. If it's a newer one (past 20 years or so), they weren't built as heavy-duty, so I might would let it go.
Gave the old Tombstone to the young man across the street- as a project. He and his dad pulled it apart and found the transformer was burnt out also. So all the internals overheated and were basically toast... anyway he ended up with a very nice shop made welding cart for his little MIG, and a spare bunch of rod.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Great Northern GE 44 ton Center Cab Electric restoration

Post by Glenn Brooks »

NP317 wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:56 am Glenn:
It would have been far simpler for you to put those pieces in your big a$$ Hass CNC mill and program the holes to drill where desired!
Yea, right.

Nice to see your progress.
RussN
Haha. Russ, my numerical control, basically begins and ends with my little red tape measure and a sharpie. Prick punch and big hammer for extra precision work.

BTW, Bill H. Said you were back up in Portland. Are you home now? Hope your wife is doing better...

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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