Member postings for Stewart Hart

Hi Chris

Just send me a PM with your email address and I’ll send you the plans

Cheers

Stew

Well I’m tickled pink to see so many well made engines to my designs great job chaps: keep them coming

Stew

Blimeye just how many of these engines are out there

Yet another lovely build well done Jes

Stew

Wow another very nice build well done George.

If anyone would like a copy of the plans for this engine just drop me a private message with your email address and I'll mail them to you.

Stew

Sorro Eric for missing this when you first posted it. You’ve made a lovely job of the engine and the floor sets it off a treat excellent

Stew

Thanks for looking the vice out and posting the sizes John, I have drawn it up 3" long so 1 1/2 times its real size, I'll draw it up again closer to the actual size, but on the plus side being smaller will make them easier to make.

The only draw back with them is the fact that the jaw is not on a slide so they will tend to tip the work out of square especially if the part is thin. The illustrations of them in use show parts that are being gripped by the full length of the jaws so this won't be a problem, perhaps they should be called clamps rather than vices. But having said that I still think they would be a useful addition to the tool box.

Stew

Thanks Jim

Well I've just spent the afternoon finishing off the article it hasn't been easy to pull it together as all the pictures are spread around and its some time since I made it so its tasked my memory a lot. I'll email it off to the editors on Monday:- then its up to them.

Stew

Hi John

Could you tell me the overall size of your vice when I drew it up I was guessing the sizes and I've just started to cut the metal to make a couple and I'm thinking i'm making them too large.

Stew

Some time ago I had a fad of searching through old American Machinist magazine on line and spotted the starret clamp with some of the uses it can be put to. I also found a photo of similar giant set of clamp in use at the North British Loco Works clamping together three sets of loco frames whilst they were being drilled on two huge radial drills.

The bottom drawing is my take on the idea, these clamps are more useful if they come in matching sets, I never got round to making them though its just another job on a long list of jobs

Stew

Drew one of those last year never got round to maki one. Also found some interesting novel use of them I’ll have to dig my papers out

Stew

Thanks for all your interest chaps.

I wrote the article for this engine as a follow on from the other two engines and as a lot of the parts were common I referenced back to them. Now with the passage of time it really needs a stand alone article, that I did start to write but never finished, so I guess I need to get my act together and finish it off.

Cheers

Stew

There's is just one condition to you getting the plans and that is that you post a picture of the finished engine her on this Forum

Stew

Just send me a pm with your email address and I’ll send them

Stew

Hi George

I’ve sent you a pm with my email

To send a member a pm open there profile scroll down and you’ll find a tick box send me a message

Stew

Hi John

I did submit it but it was never published probably because I’d had a couyof similar engines published and things were getting repetitive. If you want a set of drawings just send me a pm with your email address I’ll send you them

cheers

stew

Hi Peter

Don't think I've seen your completed mill engine running like all of your engines its looks very good, i always have a big grin when I see one of my engines designs completed and running.

I noticed a few comments regarding the drawings and copyright issues, I designed the engine to encourage newcomers to the hobby and to that end I'm quite happy for the drawings to be passed around and shared, I gave permission for Jewels to draw the engine up in 3D cad and to make his drawing public. As a word of warning to anyone contemplating using Jewels' drawing to build an engine:- they were created as a drawing exercise not as working drawings Jewels has put his own interpretations into his drawings making some aspects of it confusing, so for any one contemplating making this engine I would suggest they get hold of a copy of my drawings they are far more user friendly.

Keep Modelling

Stew

Hi Julian

Thanks for your input, I've always found your insight on injectors very useful and informative. That,s a very good point about the combining cones not being accessible, it never occurred to me. I'm planning on using the vertical injector for this years running season so we'll see how it goes.

The horizontal injector I've used for 2 years on my tank engine was the best from the batch of five I made, it seems very tolerant of water temperature I don't need to keep the water on to keep it cool, I must have got the insert depth of the steam cone just right (by luck). Getting the cones in the correct position is probably the most difficult part as most home workshops just don't have the equipment to control and measure the critical features to any great accuracy, I've found the best way round this is to just make a number of different cones and test them and choose the best ones.

The injectors I've made, from DAG Brown's chart would have a delivery rate of about 22-25 oz/min which is a bit on the high side for a 5" loco, they soon drop the boiler pressure, but as I use the axle pump when on the move and only use the injector when stationary I don't find this to inconvenient. The Horwich Crab I'm building won't have an axle pump just two injectors so at some point in the future I'll try and make a couple of lower rated injectors for it.

Stew

Edited By Stewart Hart on 20/02/2019 07:23:09

Edited By Stewart Hart on 20/02/2019 07:29:44

Thanks for your interest gents

Some people say there is a black art in making injectors:- but all that is really needed is a good understanding of how they work this coupled with some careful machining and patience.

I was given a set of instruction by my friend that I followed and was amazed when the first one worked so made another 4 not one of which worked remade the cones being extra carful and they all worked.

There are plenty of good books out there the best for theory is probably D.A.G Brown's (Miniature Injectors Inside and out ISBN 1857611349) but with all respect to DAG his body design is far too complicated, so to his is method for making the cones. LBSC on the other hand is far to simplified relying on good luck more than anything.

This is the first injector I made

And some of the tools required

As for an article there have been lots of articles in the magazine on making injectors I don't know if the Ed would want any more.

The vertical injector body is made in two parts from hex or square bar and can be made in the lathe with the cross holes drilled the two parts can be silver soldered or soft soldered together. The cones:- which are the critical parts, need carful manufacture to get the critical features correct are made the same as any other injector. Our vertical design uses two over flows the top one (copper Pipe) takes the flow from the combination cones it shuts off when the clack valve closes due to the vacuum that's created, the bottom takes the surplus water from the delivery cone.

I think the main advantage of the vertical design is that you can simplify the pipe runs (less Bends) by moving the water feed onto the best suitable face:- I could have had a straight pipe from the water feed valve into the injector if I'd had its water coupling on the face, facing the valve, but I didn't twig onto this until I had the injector made.

Stew

Edited By Stewart Hart on 19/02/2019 07:56:36

I've noticed that most Injectors fitted to smaller gauge loco (5" and Below) are mainly the horizontal type. You can get vertical injectors for larger gauges and for full size locos vertical injectors seem to be widely used.

The possible reason for this is that the ball clack that shuts off with the vacuum, needs a little help from gravity so simply turning a horizontal injector on its side will not work. In larger sized vertical injectors it is possible engineer the clack so that this is not so much a problem, but its not so easy for smaller injectors.

Some time ago myself and a friend started to experimenting with smaller sized injectors our objective was to come up with a simple design for a vertical injector suitable for a 5" loco. After a few false starts we started to understand the issues involved and came up with this design.

On my friends test boiler it worked well, at this point I didn't want to fit it to my loco as I had an injector that was working well, but when its hydraulic certificate ran out and it needing a little maintenance , I decide to fit one of our vertical injectors.

I've now testing the injector on my loco and I'm really pleased how it works it picks up straight away even at low boiler pressure.

I was wondering if any one else has had experience with making vertical injectors for 5" gauge locos.

Stew

Edited By Stewart Hart on 18/02/2019 14:48:12