Two weeks wasted

Spent two weeks machining the reach rods for my Don Young's BR class 2 loco, Silver soldered the die block pins as described in the build manual. Nice jobs if I say so myself. Only to fine they will not slide through the 1/4" slot in the motion plate. Tried to drill the pins out, but as they are silver steel the drill will not touch them.

I could of cut a tee slot in the motion plate to allow the reach rod and die block pin through but too late now.

Back to the milling machine and a bucket of swarf

Why won't your drill touch the silver steel? Did you quench it straight after soldering as that may have hardened it, if so just heat up and allow to cool slowly

If you silver soldered the pins in, why can't you unsolder them? A solid carbide drill will work on even fully hardened silver steel, which it is unlikely to be anyway. Solid carbide should not be used in a hand drill as you will break it.

I tried to unsolder them but I could not push them out ever when cherry red, I will have a go tomorrow to heat them up and let them cool slowly.

How about drilling a hole just a bit larger than the pins in a block of steel, or bar, putting that in a vise and when the job is heated up, quickly punch the pins out using a drift. An assistant would be a great help and a rehearsal before heating to get the procedure off pat.

Did as you suggested old mart, with the assistance from her indoors. Both pins punched out. I will have to redesign the fitment of the pins, so that they can be fitted once the reach rods are in place. Nothing in the plans or the build manual cover this issue.

Don Young, don’t you just love him, I am having great fun, or something like that with his Marie E design. Typical draughtsman, nice drawings but impossible to make or else every dimension you don’t need and not the one you do. No wonder these bl**dy locos take so long to build.

Buy her a bunch of flowers, then she will be keen to help you next time.

Well, Peter, you've just 'won' two weeks! What are you going to do with it? What would any of us do with an extra two weeks? Suggestions please...

I don’t think it quite works like that.

He is now simply (almost) back on track.

Time was not wasted, just an experience. See how much you have learned from it ?

Have not had that experience myself ,but have made plenty of cock-ups along the way.

It,s all part of the learning curve [that,s what I tell myself anyway ] and it is never time wasted.

At least you are now back on track, more than I can say, most of the time !, my scrap box gets bigger by the day.

Solving problems as you go is a major part which makes it interesting, if you don't want some bother, I suggest getting a painting by numbers book.

Solving problems in one thing, but when plans are not correct what's the point in having them. Building up the valve gear it now appear that the radius rods will not run through the full arc of the expansion links as they foul on the back of the valve crosshead in the lower half of their travel. Should have stayed with stamp collecting !

Keep reminding yourself of the immense pleasure that you will have when you have sorted out the bugs, and have it all working!

You will look at the loco and think, " I made that work, and sorted out the problems that arose on the way"

Howard

Never mind the unkind words ! just carry on and one day you will be as good as me.

I NEVER make mistakes, its just that sometimes I don't get it quite right. That,s why my scrapbox grows by the day.

Happy turning !

It seems rather a lot of locomotive plans come with more or less serious errors. LBSC was a genius and tremendously proud of providing all the "Words and Music" necessary to build his designs. Except he didn't! He didn't always do a good job!

LBSC's output certainly includes engines planned and built by him where most of the bugs were corrected before publication. And the plans for his popular engines, widely discussed, are likely to be reliable too. At the other end of the scale, particularly later in life, LBSC published descriptions of engines that may never have been built, perhaps because he was exploring ideas rather practicalities.

Plans for some of LBSC's engines might be incomplete or wrong. Other engine designers seem to have done much the same, ranging from good to bad as time and talent permitted. I suspect many engines were planned with mild errors that were fixed on the job, and the designer never got round to correcting the drawings. And then there's human error - forgetting bits, getting the dimensions wrong, and otherwise failing to translate 3D into 2D correctly.

I'm not unsympathetic to chaps describing engines. It's not easy. Having attempted some design work myself, I'm of the opinion that producing a good design with accurate plans and effective documentation is more difficult than making the object itself.

The forum is a good place to ask before building an engine, and a club should be pure gold. Nothing like the advice of someone who knows the ropes. Not only will they know if the plans are OK or not, they can comment on how difficult construction is and how well the finished engine will perform.

Generally, I don't trust hobby plans much. I often redraw bits of them to confirm my understanding and their accuracy. Nothing massively formal - a quick sketch is often enough to clarify issues. Other times I've been obliged to fully explore parts and their relationships with CAD; modelling in 3D on a computer often reveals details I don't see on the 2D plan.

Maybe dicky plans are all part of the fun. I don't see it that way...

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 22/10/2019 15:44:55

Check out the list of topics, there are two dedicated to drawing errors. You may be able to prevent somebody making the same problems as yourself.