A Real Dirty Job

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

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Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

Two additional photos.

Everything looks good but I am not out of the woods yet.
Attachments
254 The First Set of Swaged Equalizers.jpg
255 The Swaged Equalizer Leaf Spring Assembly Set in the Lead Truck Frame.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

Making another fixture I really didn't want to make but....

Every time I turn around there is something new to do.

I wanted to press off the existing wheels on the lead truck axles to machine the top of the axleboxes for the ends of the equalizers.

I have an arbor press for this and for many other things but not the special holding fixture so... I had to do it this way as the opening in the base of the arbor press is not large enough to allow a wheel to pass through it.

The holding fixture is very simple. I found at the local metal supplier a very heavy 10" long piece of 6" x 4" x 3/8" thick hot rolled rectangular DOM tubing which just needed to be slotted to hold the wheel/axlebox/axle assembly for pressing.

The slot was first roughed out with the 1/2" undersize two flute end mill seen in the first photo using a 0.015" depth of cut and a slow speed/feed with lots of cutting oil. It was then finished with the 9/16" 4 flute end mill seen also in the first photo. Just slow careful work.

I have everything marked (axle ends, wheels, axleboxes, lead truck frame) so all parts can be reassembled exactly as they were before pressing/ machining.
Attachments
256 Machining the Lead Truck Wheels (press off) Fixture.jpg
257 The Completed Fixture.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

To continue where I left off three months ago.

The Langworthy equalizers and lead truck frame having the cast brake lugs results in exactly the same problem as with the Josslin Hudson; that is, the sloping inner face on the brake lugs completely fouls the outer side equalizer so that when the equalizer/leaf spring assembly is placed in the truck frame nothing can move - it is locked solid. This does not make for a rideable locomotive so something(s) has (have) to be modified.

The first thing I did was to modify the profile of an outside side equalizer as much as I could. See the first photo. The lower equalizer is the modified outside equalizer. I removed as much metal as I dared in the area near the hole where the end spring hanger pins pass through the equalizer.

Not good enough as it turned out.

Next, was the very tedious process of hand filing the inner brake lug surfaces on the frame to give more clearance to the outer side equalizer. See the second photo. It doesn't look much from the photo but it took hours of very careful filing with riffler, small tapered round and needle files until I was blue in the face just to do one side. That old iron skin is tough! File and test, file and test, file and check....

The end result is what is seen in the third photo, the outer equalizer ends now sit very close to the top of the frame axlebox openings; one can compare this to the unmodified side (the last photo). Once the top of the axleboxes are slotted so the ends of the equalizers are held captive, an axlebox will have full vertical travel in the frame > 1/4". Now, on the modified side, everything moves vertically and as well it can rock back and forth. The unmodified side is locked up solid. Fun and games.
Attachments
258 A Modified Outside Equalizer.jpg
259 Filed Inner Brake Lugs Sloping Surfaces.jpg
260 Modified Equalizer Set in Filed Side of Lead Truck Frame.jpg
261 Unmodified Side.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

Some additional photos which speak for themselves.

In the last photo, the ends of 1/8" dia. leaf spring hanger pins are cross drilled with a # 60 drill hole for the 1/32" dia. cotter pins. How to do this quickly and accurately could be a workshop topic in itself.
Attachments
262 Belt Sanding the Remaining Outside Equalizer.jpg
263 Final Contour Milling the Remaining Outside Equalizer After Belt Sanding.jpg
264 The Remaining Leaf Spring Assembly with Modified Outside Equalizer .jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

Further work with the lead truck frame.

I needed to make a slotted threaded bronze insert at the two locations on the frame which had been previously drilled and tapped with a 10-32 NF threaded hole for the rather crude coil spring plate which had been used previously in place of the leaf spring assembly. The inside of the insert had to be tapped 5-40 NC (to adapt to the new leaf spring center posts were threaded 5-40 NC on their ends and threaded 10-32 on the outside to match the existing threaded holes in the frame.

Just another endless fiddly job with such small parts.

The first photo shows the items needed to do the job, the special internally threaded part holder (for length trimming) and the special insert driver. If one uses a normal type (tapered end) screwdriver to drive the insert having a rectangular driving slot, the two don't match and there is an increased risk of butchering the slot when driving in the insert. A miniscule point but an important one. Hence the custom made rectangular slot driver tool, the end of which exactly fits the bronze insert slot. This is where hours go by just in the making of these special holders and drivers.
Attachments
265 A Threaded Bronze Frame Insert, Special Insert Tool and Insert Holder.jpg
266 Threaded Insert Ready to Be Installed in Lead Truck Frame.jpg
267 The Remaining Leaf Spring Assembly and Modified Outside Equalizer Assembled Into Lead Truck Frame.jpg
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

Pushing on.

Finally finished with all of the lead truck suspension innards. It doesn't look much different than before but now it moves as it should.

Don't forget your best friend, the anti seize compound for all of the fasteners.

The tray in the photo holds all of the holding bits and pieces made to hold small threaded parts (from 0-80 to 10-32) which need to be machined to a specific length. You will end up with boxes of this stuff if you get into locomotive building.

Cleaned up a set of wheels and machined new centers in each axle end. Compare that to mushed up mess on the end of an original axle.
Attachments
268 Completed Final Assembly with Anti Seize Compond on All Fasteners.jpg
269 Further Work to Clean Up Lead Truck Wheels and Axle Ends to Re-establish the Axle Centers.jpg
Last edited by Carrdo on Sun Apr 07, 2019 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Bill Shields
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Bill Shields »

all this time and work on parts that will never be seen once the loco is assembled!

Been there - > done that -> doing it again.

It's a neurotic obsession for us steamers!
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
Carrdo
Posts: 1444
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:20 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Carrdo »

The Mrs. agrees totally with you on this Bill.
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Bill Shields
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Bill Shields »

She's a STEAM WIDOW also?

I put 150+ pieces in the loco brakes for my Langworthy Hudson, knowing full well that they never would be used.

Is that neurotic or what??
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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NP317
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Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by NP317 »

Yes.
~RN
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Bill Shields
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Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by Bill Shields »

in my old age, I have decided that brakes on little locos (and tenders) are like teats on a bore hog....
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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NP317
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Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: A Real Dirty Job

Post by NP317 »

Yea. The older we get, the more our value systems skew toward what really matters.
~RN
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