|
Post by Brian H on Aug 19, 2005 7:21:27 GMT -5
Hello Andy,
My father took most of the pictures at Railfest. I was too busy running the G5. I love that engine!
I was going to turn my tires exactly how you described. Its good to know that I'm on the right track. I would love to see some pictures of how you turned the flanges. You can email them to me at bhilgert@uecorp.com I really appreciate the help.
I have heard that you can use a propane grill to heat the tires when shrinking them on the wheels. Do you think that will work?
I'll be broaching the key ways this weekend, I'll have to take some updated pics.
Thanks, Brian
|
|
|
Post by pkastagehand on Aug 19, 2005 8:30:34 GMT -5
If you can post pictures or give a website address for them I'd also be interested in seeing your wheel fixture and flange/tire turning tools.
Paul
|
|
|
Post by liamlocomotive on Aug 19, 2005 8:43:29 GMT -5
Hi Brian,
I've never tried a propane grill because I'm not sure if there's enough heat. The first tire job I did; I used a heat treating furnace. The steel was cold rolled. They were the prettiest blue you have ever seen when they had shrunk on. I used an O/A torch to do my A-5 tires.
Make yourself a gauge that will just fall through the tire (maybe .003"-.005" bigger than the wheel diameter) to make sure it won't get stuck on the wheel when you assemble them. They shrink pretty quick once you get them off the heat. You'll need to work fast. You can heat them all at once, though.
Joe's G-5 is a real sweetie. It looks as good as it runs.
How do you plan on broaching the wheels? I like to do drivers back to back with a close fitting pin in the crankpin hole. I machine the axles in one setting each to get the quartering. I use an endmill to mill one keyway and a woodruff cutter to mill the other without removing the axle from the vise. It's a little slower that way, but it works well for me.
I also press the crankpins in the wheels before I assemble the wheels on the axles. Saves bending things...
Andy
|
|
|
Post by Brian H on Aug 19, 2005 10:51:54 GMT -5
Making that gauge is a good idea, thanks for the tip. I'll have to do that.
I bored the centers of the wheels on the lathe, then I made pin that had a nice sliding fit into the wheels. I mounted this pin on to my milling table. The pin has a hole in the middle so I used a T-nut and bolt to mount it onto the table. I indexed the spindle of the mill to the center of the pin and then offset the spindle the correct distance in the X axis for the crank pin hole. I placed each driver onto the pin and rotated it until the spindle lined up with the centerline of the crank pin boss. I clamped the driver down on parallels so that I don't drill into the table then I drilled and reamed the crank pin holes.
I now that I have all the axle hole and crank pin holes exactly the same, I'm making a fixture that will reference both of those hole and locates the broach in the correct location. Everything should come out exact.....I hope! I really like the idea of doing machining drivers back to back. Good idea!
I have a couple of pics of the crank pin drilling operation that I'll post on Monday. I'll take a couple of pics of the broaching fixture as well. I think the pictures will help explain thing a lot better.
I was going to machine the key ways in the axles with a square block fixture. This fixture is described in the book "So you want to build a live steam locomotive". Your way sound very interesting, I'll have to think about how I'm going to do this.
Thanks for the help, Brian
|
|
|
Post by liamlocomotive on Aug 19, 2005 11:16:19 GMT -5
Hi Brian,
I'm lazy, so, I just mounted the axle in the vise with the woodruff keyway end sticking out. There's no reason why Joe Nelson's keyway fixture wouldn't work. It would make it a simple matter to just swap ends and cut the next keyway. If I was doing alot of axles all the same size; I'd make one. It would save all the tool changes.
Just seems like extra work to me for a few axles. I've worked in many machine shops and we always would put the shafts directly in the vise for cutting the keyways. Most of the time; there is only one or 2 keyways in a shaft and how they are oriented doesn't really matter. Sometimes for balancing considerations it does. Large fans are made with the keys inline. I've cut quite a few here at work.
And, the toolchanges only take a few minutes. A digital readout on the mill helps immensly here, too. Just record your numbers and you're good to go.
I'll try to take a few pics of my wheel finishing operation and get them scanned since our computer won't accept the digital camera's programming cd. I've got about a dozen more wheels to finish up.
Andy
|
|
|
Post by prrf3c on Aug 19, 2005 14:10:20 GMT -5
Hi Brian, If I was doing alot of axles all the same size; I'd make one. It would save all the tool changes. I'll just make sure that every steam engine that I make from now on has 1.25" axles....lol Brian H
|
|