Wrong Color

After taking a year, the model Bucyrus steam shovel finally took it's display place in the showroom this weekend. I'm almost certain it is the wrong color, but at least it is photogenic. I would suspect that the originals were dull black or something like that, but I'm not worried because there are not too many people around that can remember that far back.
Several days ago my little friend, Max, "Kactiguy's" 5 year old son, was here visiting. He told me that I should put pieces of candy and brass in the bucket, so when he came I could pull the trip rope and dump them out for him. Even at his age he knows that brass is good material to build neat things out of. Who said that the younger generation is not taking an interest in our hobby?



And yes I do have some candy and brass in the bucket for the next time Max comes to visit!
Birk

Corrugated Roofing

The steam shovel model has progressed to a point where it could have its corrugated roofing installed. But where do you find "scale" roofing?
Make it of course.

Forming roll dies were machined for a hand cranked Chinese built beading machine with an 18" throat. At first it would not work very well because it was not rigid enough and flexed. However machining some of the ridges off the rolls it works much better, as can be seen by the sample tested.

The metal being formed was salvaged from the side of a discarded clothes drier. That is a good source of material. I use it all the time. Now I can proceed and form the roof, and the machine has enough throat that I believe I can do it in one piece if I start at the center and work both ways.
After I showed the sample piece to a friend, he suggested that I could start manufacturing scrubbing boards. That is real good advice, except 100 years too late.
Birk

Everyday a Little More Progress

I'm still chipping away at the model steam shovel. I sure don't do much at a time, but every little thing, no matter how trivial is progress.



Some of the piping and a couple control levers are suspended from the roof, so I have started building a cab framework to hold them. Also some of the boiler fittings need to be coordinated with the roof line, so I'm working on the two together, so everything will fit when completed.


Yesterday My entire efforts in the workshop barely made a teaspoonful. The valve bodies for the try cocks for the boiler.


And they are not much more than half finished. They still need stems and valve handles. Oh well, my hobby is my "pass time" and it sure does!

And here they are.

Birk

Steam shovel castings

There are several castings in this little model. Rather than explain, just look at a couple more pictures. I've been making castings for models for about 40 years now, so it is nothing so special, just part of the job.
By the way I been at this model since last June (About 9 months so far)
Birk

Steam shovel close-ups

Ok, here are some more close up pictures. You will note that it is missing some bolts, pins, etc., because it all has to come apart someday for painting.
A question was asked about sealing riveted boilers. Yes, they needed to be sealed with solder.
I should have mentioned that I shear rivets to length, if they are small ones, say 1/8" and under with one of those electrician's crimping tools that have holes to shear threaded screws off. I drilled a couple more holes in it with a carbide drill. For larger rivets I made a shear out of a automobile leaf spring that works the same way as the electrician's tool. Sawing is so slow, and clipping them with diagonal clippers leaves a wedge shape end.

More Rivets

I better bring you up to date on the model steam shovel. As of today I have the bucket complete and operational. I put lots of rivets in it. Hopefully the same number as in the original. Oh!, and it has teeth too. It is always exciting when babies get teeth.


That almost finishes the "shovel" end of the machine, Now I need to move back towards the rear and work on the "Steaming" end.


Rivets really set a model off, and I install a lot of them. There are dozens in that bucket alone. Rarely do I ever set one with a hammer. I always use a rivet press. It is so much faster, and easier, and I end up with a nice looking head on both ends. Shown below is my assortment of rivet presses.


The red one is a commercially built one that my dad once used on the farm on his mowing machines. It will easily squeeze a 3/16" rivet. The gray one is one that I made out of 3/4" plate steel to install 1/8" rivets in the frame of a model steam roller, and I also used it to rivet the frame for the Steam Shovel shown above. The tiny little press was used to install hundreds of rivets in that Hay Press and a model Manure Spreader. For those rivets, snipped off 19 gage wire brads were used. They are about .035" diameter. They have heads that look like finishing nails, until after they are pressed and then they look like rivet heads. The press with the deep throat was made just last Friday, specifically to rivet the bucket together. For that I used 3/32" rivets.
All the presses have cups in the anvil and screw the shape of the head. If it is desired to change the shape of the head, just change the shape of the cup. For screws I use square head set screws or socket head screws because they are a little harder than a regular bolt. The last two presses I used a piece of tool steel for the anvil. That makes changing the shape very simple.
If pressing rivets seems a little strange, dig out your century old history books and see how they did it. Yes, they used jack hammers sometimes, but where ever it was feasible they used a press, big ones!
Birk

Shovel Update Photos

Spoked Wheels

Today I'm in the process of machining some spokes cable sheaves for the steam shovel. The operations are similar whether your making a sheave, a gear, or a flywheel. I thought that those new to the hobby might be interested in the process. These are fairly small being 2 1/2" diameter and 3/8" thick. First rough blanks were sawed from some plate steel, then blued and laid out. Under size pilot holes were drilled at what would end up being corners. A hole was drilled and reamed in the center. It will eventually be fitted with a brass bushing. Then the blank was put on a mandrel where the O.D. and sides were turned in the lathe. On this particular job I drilled a 3/8" hole in the center of each space after turning, just to hog out some metal. I don't always do that. Then the part is moved to a three jaw chuck on a homemade rotary table on the milling machine. The circular arcs are milled by simply turning the table and leap frogging over the spokes. The sides of the spokes are milled by traversing the mill table, and indexing the table the proper number of degrees for each spoke. Spokes are nearly always tapered from the hub out to the rim. These sheaves have a 6 degree included taper. That needs to be taken into consideration when setting up, but is easy enough to do with the rotary table.


The first picture shows a sheave in the process of milling the spokes, and the second picture shows two sheaves. One after turning, but before milling, and the other one after the spokes have been milled. The spokes come out rectangular in shape, and the could be rounded of with a radius cutting mill, but it is hard to find a cutter the right size to fit those tiny spaces. So I just use a file, and within a couple minutes can have the corners rounded enough to look ok. The rounding is cosmetic anyway, so it does not matter if it is not perfect.
Try it you might like it.
Birk

more progress

Here are the latest photos.

Steam shovel Platform

Birk just sent me this photo and says, "The past couple days I've been extending the platform on the steam shovel. It now has three times the area of the casting that supports the machinery. It is starting to look pretty big, and I have concluded that if the digger does not work I can remove the hoisting machinery and use the thing to haul hay. An image taken day before yesterday is attached. Since then I almost have the deck plates fitted and installed, but their installation has to be worked in with cutting holes for control rods, etc, so it goes slow."

Steam Shovel

This is the project that is currently taking all of my time in it's many stages.