Brian's 1" Minnie Traction Engine

Hello All..

Looking for a supplier for the rear hub castings on the 1" minnie.

Would anyone know if the usual suppliers all get these casting from one source ?

Would one be able to supply me with a better quality casting ?

Thanks All..

Brian

I don't think Reeves and Blackgates use the same supplier and probably different patterns as well, GS also do them and again unlikely to be the same as the other two.

They are not that hard to make from solid if you have a rotary table if you want a better finish but I don't recall there being a problem when I did my Minnie with Reeves ones though that was a few years ago.

J

Brian

I got mine from Blackgates and they were nice castings. i will send you a picture tonight of the castings that i got. If you want I can send you the Blackgates price list.

Mike

Thanks both for your reply's

Hello Mike, sorry never got back to you regarding the boiler material,

got some locally in the end, but back onto the wheel at the moment.

If you could forward me a photo, i will get a cost from blackgates..

Hello all..

Received my cast hubs today for the Minnie I am trying to build.

I appreciate these are casting, but is the miss alignment between the two halves what you would expect

.

+1

... Dare one ask how much they charge for tat like this ?

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 22/07/2014 18:46:35

I'd say its a bit excessive particularly on such a small part. If it were a 4" traction engine you could probably loose the 1/16" missalignment but it looks like by the time the 5/16" central section has been cleaned up you may not be able to machine the outsides back to 3/16" and get a clean face.

J

Sorry I think I deleted Harrys post

Edited By JasonB on 22/07/2014 18:51:04

Hello All, thanks for the advice,

Explained the situation, no arguments just told to return them..

Have now machined a couple from solid..

Didn't realize quite how expensive phosphor bronze is, nearly dropped it on my toes when they told me..anyhow..

Nice job, Brian

MichaelG.

Looks a nice job. You could have got away with steel or brass as its a bit easier to machine and just put a bronze sleeve in the centre. A lot of the parts on these small engines are done from gun metal to make casting easier and avoid hard spots rather than its bearing qualities.

Virtually all the minnie could be done without castings, maybe just the cylinder and flywheel to make things a bit quicker. Done as a road loco you would not even need the spoked flywheel.

J

Thanks both, unfortunately the only skill I applied to these was to program the machine and clamp them in the vice..

Hello All. Need some advice please

i am in the process of drilling the rear rim for my minnie rear wheel, I have ordered the rivets and a 1/16 drill but they have not arrived as yet.

would I be safe to drill them 0.070 which is the closest I have to hand or is it best to wait and measure the rivet?

thanks all

Brian

I'd wait. 10% oversize is a bit much on small rivits and there is more risk of them going sideways as you need to allow more shank protrusion to fill the hole and form the head.

J

Hello Jason, do you know of a basic guide to riveting..?

It came up during the week

**LINK**

Thanks Jason for the info...

proved myself a fool tonight, thought I would grab an hour in the shed while the kids where quite, centre drilled one hole then changed over to my new 1/16 drill to drill a test hole, all good, changed back to a centre drill to spot all the holes then mixed up the drills and drilled all my rivet holes the wrong size....teach me to rush

And I bet the wrong size drill was not a smaller one

Hello Jason,

As I know you have successfully built a minnie may I seek you advise again.

i am very slowly progressing with the build of my minnie and am at the stage to rivet the strakes.

Am I best just to use a small ball hammer to form the rivet into the c/sink of the strake then dress with a file?

thanks for any help you can offer..

Yes just use a ball pein to fill the CSK hole and file off flush as unlike the full size they will never see enough use to wear the rivits down flush to the strakes. Not too small otherwise you will be there all day, something like a 1/2lbs hammer will do.

If you have not CSK them yet then you can go with a steeper angle so the rivit does not need spreading so much, a 60deg one from a centre drill does teh trick and only needs a small depth.

J