Member postings for Dave Wootton

Pat

Absolutely excellent post, found it fascinating. Great to see your perseverance paid off in the end, thanks for posting I learned a lot from this.

Dave

It's a long way for me, from Folkestone right on the south east coast, but after not visiting any kind of show for coming on three years I can't wait! Silly fuel prices or not I'll be there, used to take these things for granted at one time, but I agree with Noel , It's use it or lose it. Worth a little effort to get there and support our traders and the organisers.

Dave

The cylinders are different to the Josslin designs which use separate cylinder castings ( It's three cylinder) not the combined cylinder/ saddle American style castings of this model. For comparison there is a Josslin Ursa Maximus chassis and boiler for sale on the Station road Steam website.

Dave

Just thought of another designer active at the time this would appear to have been built, P Eldon Hunt, there are examples of his switcher about, but I believe he designed other larger engines too, he may have been from Canada, worth a google.

Having seen the pictures above which seem clearer than the ones in the album, there's a lot less of it than I thought initially, that is one heck of a jigsaw puzzle. I'd hate to seem discouraging but my reaction would be to run away. But good luck if you do decide to take it on.

Dave

Hi Derek

Being an American outline locomotive it is quite normal for the bogie or leading/trailing wheels to be unspoked disc wheels. Not as pretty as spokes!

Dave

Hi

I'm guessing it may be 2 1/2" gauge scaling from the clothes peg! If it is it's not one of the more common designs, the cylinders follow the common pattern of castings used by Henry Coventry and other American designers in the 1920's and 30's. I've got a " President Washington" pacific in 2 1/2" gauge under slow restoration, there are pictures in my album, with very similar cylinder castings. I would say that working on these things is not for the faint hearted ,obviously dependent on the original standard of work. I think it might have been easier in my case to start from scratch. My progress is slow on it as each problem is identified theres some time out to think of a solution, enjoyable but frustrating.

As a suggestion internet searches for Friends Models, Victor Shattock, Timken Four Aces locomotive and Little Engines may turn something up, I would think it's an American design so some dedicated searching of the links on these sites may bear fruit. Sorry I can't be more helpful but not a design I recognise.

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 25/06/2022 07:08:15

Just an idea, and I must stress never tried it, but if the washers split could you use a short length of brass rod with an o/d larger than the finished washer drill and punch the square hole then turn down to the required o/d and part off as many washers as required. Sounds like the washers are too fragile for the biff required, might be better to make a simple broach, which could be filed by hand.

Just seen Roy's post above, didn't realise you could buy needle files that small, they would probably be the thing.

Edited By Dave Wootton on 15/06/2022 15:53:33

What a good idea, well thought out, I'm about to make some batches of 8 ba PB screws for boiler construction I'll definitely give this a go.

Dave

I think Howard is correct about industrial green, the probable reason for the RAL number on my paint tin is that I ordered Warco green and Lorch lathe green at the same time online from SEP, The lady there kindly rang me and asked if I needed a lot of paint as the two colours were identical RAL numbers, and I would end up with 2 litres of green paint, enough to paint quite a lot! . So in the end I just got the one tin, which did match both very well. I also found out from the manuals of two other machines at work that green Boxfords and Condor mills also were Reseda green, so it seems to be quite a standard colour for machinery, shade variations excepted.

Dave

I did buy a Rustoleum hard hat aerosol of RAL 6011 Reseda green to paint my home built power feed and it was far darker and more blue than the machine paint, but I must admit I used it anyway. As it chips like mad it will be re-done properly one day.

And before anyone comments, yes I am an old tart when it comes to machines, I can't help it!

Edited By Dave Wootton on 14/06/2022 18:30:44

Job to tell from a photo, but the touched up bit looks very dark for Reseda green, the tin I have would be a match for the panel just visible in the background. Mine is from Paragon bought when they were Stationary engine parts and is labelled Warco green and underneath Ral 6011 Reseda green, and is a good match to a Warco mill of about 2004 vintage. Apologies if I led you astray obviously there must be different Warco greens!

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 14/06/2022 14:34:59

Hi Luke

The shim is just folded over at 90deg and is flush with the drill table. I just ran a screwdriver around it to fold over a little and tapped it down with a piece of brass as a punch.As the shim is so thin it was easy to tap any crinkle's out, the lip is only about 1/8" wide. I just tried to photograph it but the shim is so thin and painted over it doesn't show in the picture. I originally intended to use a wicking grade Loctite between the shim and the bore of the clamp, but I'm fairly sure I never bothered due to concern it may have wicked into the wrong place! . It's been there since 2004 and been in very regular use and hasn't shifted yet, which is I know tempting fate to say.

Dave

It just occured to me that a little epoxy glue under the lip before tapping down would hold it in place without any getting in the wrong place. JB weld would give plenty of time to work and if the column was given a smear of grease to prevent any excess sticking things up should prove a belt and braces approach.

Edited By Dave Wootton on 12/06/2022 11:13:09

My Fobco had exactly the same problem, the table would move under the pressure of drilling unless the clamp was really tight, a little too tight for my liking. I used a piece of shim , I believe only about .003" which wraps about 90% around the column and is about 1/4" longer than the height of the table clamping bore, it is then folded over and tapped flat to form a little flange either end of the table bore much as hopper suggested. So it is held captive as the table slides up and down, been like that for years and works fine, small touch up with satin black and you wouldn't know it was there.

My machine was hardly used when Ibought it so don't think it's wear, looks like Fobco's tolerances were a bit wide, otherwise it's been a great machine.

Dave

Just remembered there is a tag on the end of the shim that goes into the clamping slot so the shim turns with the table if it's swiveled. Just looked and the shim is thinner than I remembered , can't meausure it without removing it, but it appears less than .002" We did have some very thin shimstock where I worked at the time so it's probably theirs!

Edited By Dave Wootton on 11/06/2022 18:17:24

Edited By Dave Wootton on 11/06/2022 18:22:01

If the machine is in reasonable condition, not too much wear, then I think you will find they are a well made accurate machine. I've never used one but a friend had one for many years and built several locomotives, a Dore Westbury mill and a Quorn on it. Portass built machines for many other distributors and had a reputation for no frills but sound machines.

If it's in reasonable condition, tooled up and suited to the type of work you plan to use it for , I'd rip their arm off, can't see you losing on it even if you decide to change it at a later date. I had a Drummond M of a similar vintage and it was a great lathe that I liked using, still regret selling it as I thought I should upgrade to a newer machine, wrong again!

Dave

This is going to add confusion, but... In the training dep't of the firm where I worked years ago we had Fortis vices that as the firm was almost obsessive with the care of tools and machinery I'm sure they had never been repainted.

Some were dark green, others were blue/ grey, I'm sure if they had been repainted they would have been in one colour. Interestingly there were a couple that had a split moving jaw that could be set to act like a V block for holding round bar vertically in the jaws ( these were green). I was kept on for a while to help clear the place after it closed and I found the original sales pamphlets and order letters in a file, believe they were made in Coventry, but this was late 70's so might have that wrong!. The place was set up just after WW2 but can't remember the dates on the orders.

Edited By Dave Wootton on 06/06/2022 17:29:58

Hi Andrew

Whereabouts are you,as it seems you wish to run the loco, the ideal would be to find either a local club or experienced loco runner to guide you through the process of recomissioning the engine and safely steaming it.

Not an overly complex process but it does require some care and awareness of the basic needs as regards boiler safety. I know some clubs do run driver training programmes which would seem ideal. There are some fairly good instructions on driving in LBSC's book on Tich, and I think Martin Evans Rob Roy book. But really no substitute for an experienced helper to guide you, things seem to happen very quickly with little steam engines.

Worth a call for help on these pages, there are some very helpful people here. I'm right on the Kent coast near Folkestone and would be happy to help if you are fairly close.

good luck

Dave

I haven't mentioned boiler certification and testing , if the engine does not have a certificate this is another thing a club can help with.

Edited By Dave Wootton on 06/06/2022 07:09:12

If it's the same shade they used a few years ago the RAL number is 6011 and it's called Reseda green , the same colour was used on quite a few makes of machine including Boxford lathes, Condor mills, quite easily available.

I've always used semi gloss for repainting and touching in machinery, seems easier to blend in, gloss seems to stand out too much. The Paragon I bought was a very good match, but obviously there may be slight colour differences between machine batches.

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 05/06/2022 13:26:20

As Oldiron says 1/2 hp would be overkill, I used to have a little Lorch screwcutting lathe of the same centre height, this had it's original factory fitted motor which was 1/4 hp three phase. I believe single phase machines came with a 1/3rd hp motor. That never seemed lacking in power and could run up to quite high spindle speeds.

Interesting little lathe you have there, well worth getting up and running.

Dave

This should be a picture of the ER25 collet holder I made to fit my Kennet, all fabricated from odds and ends because as you say there is not much room with the existing casting. The collet holder is an ER25 straight shank one, unfortunately I bought mine from a well known UK tool supplier that also sells on ebay, and the chuck was .005" out, and was not as shown in the pictures drilled through. Couldn't send it back as it had languished in a drawer for a year or so before i looked at it closely, fortunately managed to remachine it and drill it through.

Have not tried sharpening any milling cutters on it yet ,but it is most usefull for making D bits and simple reamers, and screwdrivers ground on it are excellent, Wouldn't be too difficult to arrange a finger stop and alteration to enable the collet to slide and thus sharpen the sides of cutters, some method of locking the Kennet table wouldn't be too hard to arrange

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 14/05/2022 13:29:16

Hi Stephen

Even if none of Kozo Hiraoka's designs do not appeal to you it is well worth investing in a couple of his books, his drawings and instructions are superb, amazing in that english is not his first language. I've not built any of his designs but have used many of his ideas and methods on other loco's. I must say the little Pennsy switcher looks to be a very nice little engine, and he gives instructions on how to fabricate many parts, saving the cost ,and in some cases, difficulty of working with castings. Good luck with your choice, you can have an awful lot of fun with small engines, my Rob Roy is not the best built example in the world and it is a bit worn but can still manage to pull a couple of people round quite happily.

Dave

Looks like it could be a proper swivelling Boxford shaper vice on the table, these are very rare and were only supplied on the machines with a swivelling table. I put one on ebay a few years ago and the bidding went mad, went for almost the price of this mill!