3/4 Scale
Live Steam Bait
Live Steam
CliShay
Some progress is better than no progress. I have the desire to be back hacking metal parts, but I can’t get my body to do what my mind desires. It’s not a physical thing. Just switching mental gears from what I already do and getting to other things I love to do. I have way too may interests and options. I thought retirement would give me more time. Boy, was I ever wrong!
I just gave myself a Christmas present. I just re-activated my subscription to Live Steam and Outdoor Railroading. That may get the juices flowing. I also ordered the Building the CliShay from the same source. Not that I am going to build one, but I like to study the material and details of any build project.
I kind of like the concept of the CliShay where anything goes, nothing is wrong, do your own thing, that a non-scale live steam project permits.
I viewed an 0-gage CliShay on YouTube that was pretty much a work-in-progress disaster. Flames rolling out, up the outside of the boiler shell and melted off a steam fitting. So inefficient the operator was chasing around with a small blow torch heating the outside of the boiler to keep it running. BUT…
He had a live steam locomotive running and was probably having a great time working out all the issues. He was living the dream, not still in the dream state. Nothing wrong there. I was envious, but still getting a chuckle.
I would probably change places with him for a day…
Live Steam
Is it time to stoke the fire and bring up the pressure again?
I have been retired for two years or so. I do part time consulting that pays well for the hours worked, but it is not a major load on my retirement activities. In other words, not a lot of hours at one time. I still have the problem of too many creative hobbies, with my silver work and 3D printing at the top of the list.
The 3D printing, except for the creative and CAD drawing, is mostly start and forget; letting the printer run for 5, 6 or more hours without attention. That run time is available for anything else I want or need to do. I have to remind myself to stop starring at the CNC action. I’m sure you know what I mean. It’s like the swinging watch… “You are getting sleepy…”
Of the many things I am able to do, one thing I would really like to get back to is the real machining work in building a live steam locomotive. A live steam boiler and a steam engine (motor) would also be a project on which I’d like to be working. I have the necessary machine tools. I feel so guilty not using them now that I have the tools and opportunity. Read the other posts in this category and you see there have been false restarts. Yes Judge, I plead guilty.
I have an excuse. A fairly a valid one. Summers in Texas can be unbearable with the heat and (recently) the humidity here in the Dallas area. It’s always hot in Texas in the summer, but the humidity has been more like Houston than the normal – far northern (away from the coast) – Dallas.
My garage workshop… Continue reading
Coasting on the Flat
Maintaining steam but not building speed on the A3. I am coasting at the moment. A honey-do piano stool restoration has taken over the workspace in my shop. Staining, shellac and urethane require a fairly pristine atmosphere. With the cool temperatures and now (finally) a bit of rain the drying process is slow.
Staining is over but I am looking at about three coats of shellac and then a coat or two of polyurethane. Sanding between coats of course.
The teardown and rebuild is the easy part but finish work is laborious. Metal chips flying soon.
A3 Tender Coupler Pocket
I have constructed the tender coupler pocket for my Pennsy A3 switcher project. There is a write up in The Hobbyist Machine Shop HERE. There was a lot of work in re-making that little component. It was very good practice in fabricating small parts for silver brazing. Hop over and take a look.
I didn’t take a lot of pictures. Let me know what you like to see. I am not really trying to produce a how-to, but I do like to post some of the action.
Engine Parts
What I have in my left hand is six pounds of brass engine parts. It doesn’t quite look like it yet but it will get there. I examined my brass stash for the A3 project and it wasn’t as complete as I thought it was. The stash is good but a few things had been “borrowed” and/or are otherwise missing, or I didn’t figure materials as close as I could.
Actually this is probably 300% more than I needed but with projects like this there are minimum amounts that can be ordered. That’s OK as it will all get used at some point in time. I often cut down stock on hand that is too large rather than make a special order for a tiny quantity. If I look close enough at certain stock I can see smaller parts hiding inside, that my tools help me cut out.
That’s the nice thing about metal milling machines and metal lathes. Excess material is not much of an issue. The hard part is when you have to put some back on…