Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive

[crueby]

First up, got the panel that goes at the cab end of the engine cover made - simple sheet metal plate with some slots and holes in it.

Then started on the handrails for the cab - drilled a set of holes in a rectangle of sheet brass,

and silver soldered in the bent brass rod. Keeping them as a pair made them stand up, so it was easier to solder up.

Then, cut them apart and filed the plates down to shape with rounded corners.

Installed on the cab, gives it a nice finished look.

Next to the rails, in the inset panel, will be another place where the loco number will go (to match the one on the front end of the boiler). I have not cut them out yet, but have the numbers inkjet-printed on some transfer film and stuck on the brass sheet.

Got a start on the ladders that lead into the cab. Dug around in the scrap box again and found some brass the right thicknesses (the cab is using up a bunch of the offcuts). Hacksawed (hacksawned? hacksaweded? whatever...) them to rough size, then milled them straight and square to size.

Last photo shows the steps and risers ready to go. They will be screwed together and silver soldered up next time....

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Splendid idea on the handrails. That worked out well.

 

[crueby]

Splendid idea on the handrails. That worked out well.

Anytime I can gang up small parts in one bigger chunk I do, works out a lot easier to hold in the vise. A couple times I did not, and when soldering the flame from the torch kept knocking them over! :wall:

 

[crueby]

Last time I posted the photo of the ladder parts cut out - got them drilled/tapped/soldered up, ready to hang on the back of the cab doorway. The last photo shows one of the ladders in place, it is just on one screw for now since the back rail hangs from the tenders' floor plate, which is not made yet.



Next up, I am going back a chapter in the book to do the valves/gauge parts - I had skipped ahead to the cab to get a break from the boiler parts - needed to work on something where I could see big progress quickly and keep my interest up (it worked). Too long working on twigs, need to make a whole tree again! With so many interconnected parts with nested threads, I went and got myself some of the metric taps/dies for these parts - would have been too complicated switching to nearest imperial sizes, turned out fairly cheap to pick up the few sizes needed. For things like the valves, he has smaller threads internally for stems, and slightly larger ones outside for gland nuts and such.

After the valves/etc, next chapter in the book is the steam/sand domes, throttle assembly, and handrails - another place where it will change the whole look of the project.

 

[crueby]

Almost forgot the numbers on the side of the cab. As with the number on the front of the boiler, they were inkjet printed from the computer on a piece of self-adhesive film and stuck to a piece of thin brass sheet. The sequence below shows cutting a number out from start to finish with a jewelers saw. Since it is tricky to back the blade out from a long curvy cut without breaking it, as is moving the piece in the vice without breaking the blade, it is important to make short cuts, and to make a stop cut first. Pick which section to cut out next, make a stop cut up to the line, and cut along the line to that stop cut to remove a section. Then reposition the work in the vice for the next section. When all the cuts are done the remaining piece of the adhesive film is peeled off and the number is ready to solder onto the cab plate. These numbers are only about 5/8" tall....

Oh, and anyone who suggests that I cut all the letters for the railroad name on the tender out this way will be shot out of a steam caliope!!

 

[Henry]

Next time you should try to cut with the saw vertical and the piece horizontal. Think about the saw like a file with only a line of teeth, you can use the saw pushing it gentle a little bit against the side of the cut, that way it will open it, doing easier to change the direction , a little bit of wax helps a lot..

I will never suggest to cut all the letters like a good practice:hDe:.

I enjoy riding the Shay in West Virginia and I am enjoying along with your great work on that jewel.

 

[BAH101]

For the railroad name, you could try acid etching of the brass. Been a while since I researched it, but it didn't look too difficult.
And I must say, very nice job you are doing, like others have said, it makes me want to build one, but my wife says no, as I have way too many other projects on the go right now.

 

[crueby]

Hi Henry,

I have tried using the vertical-cut method in the past, with a platform like the jewelers use. For me it was more awkward to hold the saw and piece to be cut that way - had better results holding the saw horizontal. Just a personal preference, I know the vertical cut way is standard practice in the jewelers world. Either way, a good quality blade under tension and lots of good light plus patience in letting the blade do the work are key. I do not have any problem in changing the direction of the cut on curves - it is backing the saw out of a tight curve or corner change cut that is tough with these thin blades.

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Outstanding work on the numbers. Thanks for details on how you do it. These fiddly cuts worry me. I'm going to need much practice to get to that point. what is the thickness of the material in your numbers?

Todd

 

[Bob Bailey]

First thanks so much for an amazing job of posting.
IMHO your shop work is at the level of art.
The only reason I say Drats is because I just bought the plans book plus two more books from Village Press. (I can never buy only one book from them.)

 

[crueby]

Outstanding work on the numbers. Thanks for details on how you do it. These fiddly cuts worry me. I'm going to need much practice to get to that point. what is the thickness of the material in your numbers?

Todd

The sheet I used was 1/32" thick. If you are not too accurate with the saw, cut a little outside the line and finish with a file. For me, being nearsighted, I take off my glasses to get a good close view. Otherwise, use a magnifying headset, makes everything big, then its not a tiny fiddly cut! Spunds silly but it works. I am so used to small ship model parts that these numbers are big. A project on my future wish list is the tiny vertical that george britnell posted.

 

[crueby]

First thanks so much for an amazing job of posting.
IMHO your shop work is at the level of art.
The only reason I say Drats is because I just bought the plans book plus two more books from Village Press. (I can never buy only one book from them.)

They have some great books, lots of fun to come for you then!

 

[Swifty]

It's been interesting following your progress, but now I have the book with plans, it's moved up another level. I can read the book section and follow your methods at the same time. Keep up the great work.

Paul.

 

[crueby]

It's been interesting following your progress, but now I have the book with plans, it's moved up another level. I can read the book section and follow your methods at the same time. Keep up the great work.

Paul.

Get out the book, and build along - then we can race them....!

 

[Swifty]

Get out the book, and build along - then we can race them....!

I'm not ready to start yet, sometime later next year maybe. I will just sit back and enjoy your build.

Paul.

 

[crueby]

Got a start on the steam manifold that sits on top of the boiler and feeds the water gauge, whistle valve, and pressure gauge (as well as holding up the end of the throttle lever.

The manifold starts out as a block of rectangular brass bar, hacksawed to rough length then trimmed square to size in the mill. Then, drilled a narrow hole down the length of it, most of the way through but not all. This will become the passageway for the steam to the different ports. A second hole from the front left side intersects with the first one to lead to the steam gauge.

Drilled a shallow larger hole at the ends of these first two, giving an opening to silver solder the fittings to. In the book, both fittings are threaded on the outside to attach pipes to. In my case, the one for the steam gauge was internally threaded, to match the fitting on the gauge I had bought from PMResearch.

Next up was to drill/bore the large center hole, which the bolt that holds the manifold to the boiler passes through.

After boring it to match the bolt, another 'ring' area is bored in the center of the length of the hole - this gives a passage for the steam from the hole in the side of the bolt into the manifold, no matter what orientation the bolt stops at. It was hard to get a good picture of this - in the fourth photo you can see the shoulder that the far end of this ring makes - the near end is hard to see, it is at the edge of where those chips are in the bore. Both the top and bottom of the manifold will have a gasket, tightened by the large center bolt.

Last to bore out was the hole for the steam whistle valve in the right end of the manifold. This hole was drilled through, then the first 3/4's of it bored out to a larger size - the valve will have a step in it to match, and will go all the way through this opening, tightening down around the manifold with a nut on the end. This valve is not made till much later in the book, guess I'll make a plug for the opening to test the rest in the meantime.

Next photo shows the manifold at this stage. Did not get a seperate photo of this, but the hole at the left front corner of the top is for mounting the throttle lever.

Last two photos show the little fitting for the steam gauge port - it is threaded on the inside 3/16-40 to match the gauge siphon, and the other end necked down to match the hole in the manifold. It was silver soldered into the opening later (next post).

 

[crueby]

For the manifold mounting bolt, a piece of brass bar stock was turned down to diameter and threaded on the end to match the boiler fitting. There is also a hole drilled up the length of this section from the end, which will meet up with the cross hole drilled later.

Then, parted off the bar and moved it over to the rotary table to mill in the flats to make it a hex-head bolt (quick look online found the formula to get what diameter bar is needed for a given width hex - internet can be handy sometimes!)

Turned the bolt sideways in the vise, and drilled the cross hole. This, along with the hole from the end, lets steam flow up the inside of the bolt, outside to the ring bored in the manifold, and then into the series of ports out of the manifold. Simple but clever the way Kozo designed this.

Next photo shows the manifold with the bolt, along with the gauge fitting ready to silver solder in place.

Last photo shows them all together. Still need to make the fitting for the port in the left end, which will lead to the top of the water gauge assembly. I have some metric taps/dies coming Monday that I need for that, so will probably go to one of the other parts and come back to that fitting...

 

[crueby]

Got a start on the water gauge assembly today. Began with the tube fittings to connect it to the manifold. Drilled and turned the union nut from a length of hex bar stock,

and the tubing nipple from a bit of round bar. It is just two holes drilled in the end (small one through, larger one sized to solder onto the tubing at the outer end), then neck it down and part it off.

Third photo shows them on the tubing.

Next up is the water gauge itself, which is made up of a whole bunch of tubes and union nuts. Given how confusing it would be to describe making up a pile of very simaler simple pipe sections, I will leave that to the diagrams in the book and just give the highlights. The main column, which supports the glass tube, was drilled down the length from one end (not through), and then holes crossbored for the end supports. Next few photos show that, plus the assembly so far. Still need to make up upper and lower supports and the flange to attach to the boiler - those come next time...

 

[crueby]

Made some more of the parts for the water gauge assembly, namely the parts that hold the glass tube. Started with the upper one, turned some brass to right diameter and threaded the end.

Then, drilled through just larger than the glass tube, and drilled/tapped the outer end for the plug. Actually, did all this twice, since I botched the first part (misread and grabbed wrong drill - boy did the tap go in REAL easy that time... :wall.

Cross drilled for the post that holds this part, and the upper holder was done.

Next photo shows the pieces so far test fitted (nothing soldered up yet).

On the the lower holder - again threaded the end,

and drilled for the glass tube (only partway through on this one - the tube slides down through the top holder, rests on the bottom one in an o-ring).

Then, drilled for the passage to connect into the crossbar post, and parted it off to length.

Drilled the crossbar hole, and test fitted everything. Looks good, ready to solder it all up (an oiled rod will be used to hold the upper/lower holders in alignment).

Other thing going on is that the weather here is in a warm cycle - nice and calm, no wind, getting up into upper 40s and 50s next couple days, so have started work again on fixing the leaks in the boiler. I got a session in on it this morning, will do a pressure test on it later today - think that this week will decide whether this is a nice display model run on air only, or will be fully capable of running on track under steam! When I started this project, I figured on a 50% chance of getting the boiler fully functional, seeing how I had never done any copper forming or silver soldering before. The way its going I think those odds are higher now - will see how well it does soon (either way I am happy with the engine!).

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Great work on the turret and water glass.

I've had a similar numbskull moment with threading. I wasn't reading the tap drill size chart close enough to notice there was a difference in drill size depending on whether you were tapping steel or non-ferrous material. I broke a couple small taps in steel before I realized that one. :wall:

Todd