Ok so maybe things don't always turn out

Best laid plans and all that jazz......

Well by now I was hoping to have a large post put together with lots of pictures, writing and all the rest of it. News on pug, the Fowler and the Burrell but as happens so often, S**t went sideways and there ain't much I can do about it, pugs frames appeared and then disappeared, back for some more modifications, which is a bit of a bummer in most ways. I was lined up to get stuck in and get it back together and tested over Xmas, but with only a few weeks to go it looks like that's out of the window.

In some ways I can take solice in the fact at least the work side of things are going well, it's taken a week to rough out the job ive been playing with and now I'm into the finishing ops. Running around all the profiles with a a 20mm ball nose cutter will surely keep the neighbours awake! The only problem I have is without some frames to work on today's going to be a bit slow. With any luck I shall be dropping some front wheels for the Burrell off an then picking up the "next kit" as it were. Something to keep me amused at work!

The Fowler on the other hand is also taking a leap forward, it's been just over a year now and finally it's back on it's wheels,..... Ok so half of them are missing but 2 is better than none right?!? I'll have some more pictures and bits of that soon, the smokebox, chimney, and other bits have been cleaned, painted and sorted so that's a bonus!,  now onto the hard work of getting the boiler cleaned out and sorted,

So without giving too much away I'll end there , there is some exciting developments in the wings but as yet they aret ready yet! 

So watch this space! ..... --->                     <------/ just here, ...... That exact space! 

Where does the time go?

Tuesday, sometime in the morning.

I wrote out a lot if this in the morning with views on the days activities, so instead of re-wording the whole thing i'm just gonna split it into 2 parts, before n' after kinda deal,

I try not to look at things like calendars, they only show me how much time has passed and what little I've got done since I last looked at one! Pug it seems has been pushed back again, This time its all about eccentric issues, I doubt they have ever been "right" from the start but it's giving me and MR F headaches!  The frames are still at his workshop and will probily be there for a while yet. So close yet so far!! The manifold needs some work and the valves need setting but that's about it, the rest is over to me me to make cylinder drain linkages and pipe work, and get it all bolted back together.

One of the main issues with not getting much done is the work factor, spending up to 10 hrs a day in a machine shop means less time for my own projects in my workshop, the latest job to be lobbed my way is 2.5 tonne of stainless that's all profiled in an peculiar way. 30 mm deep profiles will take some time and took best part of a day to program, so now that's running I've turned my attention I the next kit of Burrell bits,

Will has supplied me with 2 complete front wheel assemblies. Steam Traction World say use araldite to get all the wheels together as a "filler/locking agent" type deal ... So I spent a few hours cutting off large lumps of the stuff,  now looking certainly cleaner,  I'll throw em' in the sand blaster to clean it all, remove the sharp bits and get them looking lovely,

Next on the agenda is the pesky firebox door for the pug, so watch this space!

well that was my morning out of the way,

Now i'm safely home with a cup of tea in the quiet i can sort out the rest and get some  pictures out and fill in the blanks,

This is what the wheels looked like at the time i wrote the first half of this thing, bit messy!. well i used a angle grinder to take the studs off the back of the nuts so it was all flush and nice and then sand basted it.

After blasting the overall look was much better, I do like the finish i get from the sand blaster, its fine but gives a good key for paint and used in the right way can give you a nice cast look 

Next on the Agenda was the pug firebox issue, well i thought about it a lot before coming to the conclusion.. "Hell ram summat together".. so i did. A few hours produced a working "prototype" ... something to have a play with to see if the idea works, 

As you may be able to tell, its a bit ... Thrown together .. but that's kind of the idea. Its simple and effective, the end result will be more tidy and nice to look at but for the time being its functional as a firebox door, so as soon as the engine is in 1 piece again we can have a play and see if the door is still in the way and if so what changed need to be made. this way i wont spend all of next year building firebox doors all the time to get 1 that's the right shape and size and does the job we want, 

As i mentioned before about the "work side of things" i thought i would chuck in a couple of pictures of that, 

If there is any engineers out there reading this you will appreciate the amount of work involved, the block is some 2 meters long, .7 meters high and about half a meter thick, made from 1.5 mm stainless steel plate all bonded together to form a "block" of sorts. After a day of machining I've roughed out less than half the material. (for general scaling the round cutter marks are 100mm dia). there is a lot of machining to go! The machined face I've produced is around 13mm deep ... it will end up 30mm deep!!! so this job will keep me busy well into next week.. and then i have an identical one to do .... which is a mirror image so back to programming !

Thats ya lot for now, time i was letting the brain rest a while!

Randomness has landed!

Well.. Kinda!

Just another random update for ya'll, Work on pug has been a little slow recently, too many small fiddly time consuming jobs! but the frames should be coming back together soon! there is only a few bits to do before it can have a test run on air!! once its back at my place i shall probily make up a rolling road for it, and then take it into work and plug it into the air line and let it "run in" for a few hours whilst i cover it in oil every 10 mins. Hopefully it will be lovely and free when it comes to steaming. The boiler has its original gauge glass back, be it with a few minor mods, moving the gauge glass is much more of a technical issue than i first thought, in theory its simple! When you look at it in 3 dimensions .. it aint!.. ahh well, so it looks like i shall have to have a massive go at working the firebox door around the gauge glass, but this can be achieved .... i think!

Other things that have been on and off the project bench.

There is a few things that have come through the workshop recently, the Burrell smoke box and perch bracket assembly has gone back to Will. and swapped for a set of complete front wheels to be cleaned/ tidy'd and shot blasted.




Also the smoke box and perch bracket assembly for the Fowler has been in and is now in the paint shop (yup you guessed it ... the kitchen!!) so thats now starting to look a little more loved than it has for a while!











Here is a few random pictures before / after blasting,

OOOOHHH!! lookie at the shiny!

Ok ok ... so we got a little excited and started putting things together the other night and it looks kinda like a Burrell! 

Well that will do for this week, with any luck next week you can have some pictures of something resembling a pug!!!!

On a side note it turns out Will is keeping a blog too on the progress of the Burrell, had a read through earlier and it sounded a little familiure... but its worth having a look at! hopefully it will spur him onto getting some more work done!!

http://burrellbuilder.blogspot.co.uk/

Laters all!

Tuesday ...... i think ?

Well here we are again

I wasn't planning on doing much on here for a few days, too much else to do and all that, but i got a few nice shiny pictures in the e-mail today of some more pug related stuff.

now pistons with new rings, Manufactured by Mr F and what a stunning job he has made

Also a sneaky shot of the frames thrown in there to show how the frames are getting on,  I have been told that the front axle has been put back together and will be installed tomorow, as well as a few other "missing" bits 

As for me, ive been working hard on boiler bits, the new steam T is complete, with the new valves, needs some work to fit it all, and get it all set up.  also there is 2 boiler test plugs in 2 of steam feeds so they will be replaced with some nicer ones to send steam to the pressure gauge and whistle valve, they are just thrown in for aesthetics.

Next on the agenda is gauge glass, which i shall start to tackle sometime soon!

In other news

The old man had seen the Burrell.... This lead him to the idea.. "well as your all tooled up for it you may as well do the Fowler at the same time.. so here is a few before and after pictures of the smokebox door being sand blasted and prepped for a new coat of paint

Masked up and ready 

After some high pressure sand!

Well thats all for now, tomorow ill try and dig out the smokebox and line it up next to the Burrell's smokebox for a size comparison 

Laters 

Well! This seems awfully familure!

Well it's been a while since the last update, so I wanted to drop in and put something up at least. Between, work bands and social life, it's all getting a bit intense! So what's new? .... Well not a lot really! Things are still moving along, but time being on the slim side not as much has happened as I would like! Pug however has had some more love and new bits!





Seen's as Mr F has the frames still I've been working on the boiler as the paint work is mostly Done, There is a new steam T that needs finish tapping, and the gauge glass is being looked into, I've decide to scrap the original idea so sent the gauge glass and fittings back, more design work is needed to get it right but the basic principle is to make a new block that screws into the bottom glass fitting on the boiler. Pushing the bottom fitting out to the left, meaning we get an angled glass which is more proto-typical, also we gain glass length and gain more space for the firebox door mods. So that's my side of the work recently, doesn't sound a lot i know but it's all I've had time for and trying to work out all the ins an outs of moving fittings an planning the back head is no easy task.

Elsewhere in the world,

The frames show a bit more progress. There is wheels, Ok only 3 of them but still that's a step forward, valves are machined and rods bored, pistons are on their way with rings to suit, so it's all starting to look like an engine again, and from what I hear it's all looking rather promising! With any luck and a bit of work, I'm expecting the frames back my way in a few weeks, by that point we should be running on air so I'll try and get a video done of that and post a link.

Well now that's pug news out the way I'll move on.

For the last few weeks it's all been about pug, as much as I want to see it back in steam and doing a bit of heavy haulage I'm also aware too much of a pug thing is never a good idea! So I thought i would share with you something a tad different,

On one of the "social" visits, I saw a friend of mine ... So what you ask? Well...
Ever heard of "Steam Traction World"?
Well I'm assuming you have but for those who haven't, basically it's the aftermath of Modelworks, they realized that railway engines were hard to make and changed into more ....... Simple items, like traction engines! Well my friend has got (be it still in kit form) a 2"Burrell. As I went for a social, I dropped in to see the beast under way, and well found a lot less than I expected by now!
I think all the bodging was far more than he expected and "lost steam" (all the bad puns here!). I had a dig around in the boxes of parts and pulled out all sorts of bits, Eventually I left after discussions over the "best way to get things done"... Taking with me a box of parts. Willing to lend a hand, I took the smoke box and perch bracket assembly to sort out, leaving him with the front and back wheels and various other bits to get a move on with.

Later on that evening

I got home and sat down a the table, being fairly late there was no time for workshop antics for pug so I decided to get stuck in, I opened up the box, spread all the bits out an looked at the instructions, "well this has winsons written all over it!" was my first reaction! First I waded thought the half-assed instructions complete with bad grammar and spelling mistakes (for a dyslexic it must have been bad if i picked up on it!) and duly found all the bits, after a few "test fits" I came to the conclusion, "I need a workshop!" so I boxed it all up and took it to work.

In between setting and programming and running my machine I spent my day armed with files, sanding disks and the like. It took almost half a day in a full workshop to get the parts de-burred and cleaned and then a lunchtime in a sand blaster to finish them off. The first bit was the front axle, which I had to take an angle grinder to, to get the machining miss-match out, then moved onto the smoke box  All the holes and every part needed de-burring and sorting. Having got that done and fitted the door ring, i re-drilled the holes so they line up, and bolted them together. First major error I came up against was one of the door ring bolts cross the hinge bolt counter bore  but not much can be done without a large amount of machining, so I made the best I could with what i had. I progressed onto the door, the riveting went well and so, quickly the door was put together and added to the assembly. The next few hours was spent bulls***ing the chimney base casting, aparenty its too difficult for them to center the casting before machining! It was all over the place and a weird shape, so back to the sanding machine and then sand blaster to make it look more like the right shape. After that I bolted it all together and cleaned the name plates to check it all went together correctly. It was fairly straight forward till I went home. At home I unbolted it all and went for the "foliac paste" they send with the kit, a weird substance that works as a "sealant". So I put some around the door ring and bolted that back in, and then move to the chimney base.
"the bolts will de-form slightly and will require a bit of a tap to get them in"
Says the instructions...... Not a chance!!! Try "beat the living hell out of them" would be more accurate!!! Being copper bolts no easy feat! But 10 mins giving them some tender but firm clouts they went in, but I'm not happy with them, as the casting isn't straight to the bolt hole they looks slightly wonky, but I'm sure some paint and a touch of  filler will make it all better!
I probily should have taken some More Pictures as I was doing the work but I was too "head in what I was doing" so I only have some of the complete unit. Maby next time I'll be a little more on the ball!!!

Well I shall stop taking up your precious time with my inane scribbling and let you get back to your own lives and dramas!























Rock n' roll!!!!

One Step Forward

 

Well.... Maybe!

So today seemed fairly un- productive, I went up to my friends workshop this morning with the notion that i would be spending the entire day working hard on machineing new bits and getting things finshed. Not quite how it turned out im afraid, most of the day was spent playing around with eccentric rod lengths and such, trying to centralise the swings and movements of the valve gear and motion, That done now the vavles can be machined and sorted.

To-Do

So the to do list now looks something like this,

1) finsh machineing valves to correct dimentions
2) Turn new pistons and rings,
3) bore all the rods where they have all been re-bushed
4) set valve timeing and re-attach wheels to axles,
5) re-machine the steam manifold for cylinders,

After all thats been done and sorted, we are almost on track (bad pun i know!) for a birthing chuff, or be it, on life support ( an air line) so we can see if it... well..... goes!

In other news

Paint has come on a long way, small detals have been done, so just some tidying up around the edges to do and we are all done that end of things. The new gauge glass set arrived but it a tad bigger than i hoped, so thats gunna need some thinking about. The origanal needs to be moved so the firebox door can be moved, but the new fittings are a bit larger than i anticipated so more thought needed to make that work. At some point i shall make a new steam T for it as well, a more .... scale version thats more astheticly pleaseing! and finnasly i have a rather cute half inch pressure gauge to go on, wich well .. will be a little hard to see but to be fair, its a lot more scale than the origanal.

Thats about the lot for tonight, after spending 3 odd hours diving to and from the workshop at my mates, and then doing band practice its all been a little hectic so i think its about time for a cup of tea and bed!

laters!

TGIF!

Another week done, time for play!

Well, its been a few days and finally pictures of the work done are staring to filter through, ill start off with the frames as that shows some progress you might all be interested in, 

Its nice to see things going back together , the first pictures are of the brand new cross heads in their place in the new edited guide bars, 

Starting to look like an engine again!! .. well kind of! 

Next we have some pictures of the frames in general, first a picture of the back axle back in its rightful place, with the all new shiny eccentric straps and rods in place

So as you can see there is some definite progress! the valves should be on the machine now, so hopefully by the time i get to Mr F's place Sunday we should be ready for playing with the timing of the beast!

The "to-do" list is still a fair old size, there is loads of tinkering to be done and more things to be made but its nice to stand back and see progress! Most of this has all been achieved by Mr F, he has put a few long days into it so far, the cross heads were machined up by me, but the final assembly was done by him, likewise the eccentric straps were machined by me but assembled by him, 

I on the other hand have been busy with other bits, painting is going well, of sorts and causing me many migraines! so ill chuck a few pictures up of the progress, I've done the bulk of the work now once its dry ill get on with the fiddly bits and tying up, well that's more than enough for now! has been a looong old week and i feel a nap coming on!