The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum

alan2525 · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:45 am Post subject:

Here's this evenings additions to the build!

I've cut the parts out for the smokebox and started to rivet up the front plate. The wrapper for the smokebox has the holes pre-drilled, I'll clamp that to the front and back of the smokebox, spot through with a drill and those rivets will locate the assembly whilst it's silver soldered.

Here's another shot showing the part I machined to enable me to rivet the smokebox together (I've yet to peine the rivets over in this shot)

The central waste piece is still attached to one of the machined parts in the above shot. I left some little leave tags on the CAD file so I could hold down the part whilst it was being cut. I used a few small countersunk woodscrews to fix the brass down to a sheet of plywood whilst I cut it out.

The cab is just to get more of a feel for the dimensions of the finished locomotive. It will be replaced with a Brass version at some point when I've confirmed the dimensions of the boiler diameter and worked out where everything goes in the nicely roomy cab!

andysleigh · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:20 am Post subject:

that looks fantastic!
did you make it all yourself?
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tmuir · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:50 am Post subject:

Wow they look great.
Can you take some photos of the parts being made for us.
Is the machine you use your own or a works one?
And more importantly how much did it cost as I want one!

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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

steamyjim · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:20 am Post subject:

LOOKS GREAT!!!!

I WANT ONE EVEN MORE NOW!

Can it be built on non CNC machines?
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Mother of the free,
How shall we extol thee?
Who are born of thee?

Dave B · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:24 am Post subject:

Oh my goodness, this is a great thread to follow!

Thanks from an "armchair machinist".
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Quando omni flunkus moritati

alan2525 · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:06 am Post subject:

I'll take some photos and maybe a video of the machine in action.

The machine is at home - I use the same machine at work but never get the time to use it for home jobs, my machine is knee deep in brass swarf and wd40, their machine is dusty and unused.

It cost a fair amount - but I purchased it second hand from an assets stripping company. It only had 40 hours of use on it and was previously used in a cobblers shop for engraving dog name tags. Most dogs have short names...BUTCH, FIDO, ROVER etc. Even with a lot of dog tags thats very light use!

It's amazing what machines can be purchased 2nd hand from schools too. CNC stuff is great because most teachers never have the time to set up the machine and work on them so they barely get used! The school I work in sold some old Boxford CNC machines recently but they were just too big for me and would have to be bench mounted rather than desktop. Those machines were £10,000 + originally but sold for £250! Thats barely more than the price of an M&S sarnie!

I'm trying to design the parts so that they can be produced without access to the cnc machine, but when it comes to filing cranks, it's all very well if you need one but if you need 4 or 6 of them all the same it gets a little painful!

Alan B

tmuir · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:36 am Post subject:

I can see I'm going to have to learn all about CNC machines as I really like what your doing on it.

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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

alan2525 · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:01 am Post subject:

Unfortunately not too much progress on the loco project - I got a little sidetracked and made some little Colin Binnie Wagon Kits up and painted those!

Here's the assembled Smokebox with the extra rivet detail. and one of the wheel sets (original mamod wheelset shown alongside). I just used some steel Brandbright wheels as they run nicely, have some weight and roll very true too. Wheels are just a press fit onto the axles. I used a piece of 8mm silver steel for the axle and turned a shoulder to align the wheels precisely. Cranks will be split and then a through bolt used to fix to the axle ends.

alan2525 · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:08 am Post subject:

steamyjim · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:56 am Post subject:

Any news on some plans yet?

We have CNC machines in school. Shall only be able to use them for my stuff for 1 more year though as one of the tech teachers whos a model engineer is leaving

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Land Of Hope and Glory,
Mother of the free,
How shall we extol thee?
Who are born of thee?

Minor1PJG · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

Absolutely fantatic Alan. I really like the work you are doing

You are making it look so easy (I'm sure it's not), but this is the way to encourage others to have a go

SUPERB
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Chuff chuff!!

Reid · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:39 pm Post subject:

I second that sentiment. This is truly an inspiring thread!
Thanks very much for your taking pains to show and tell as much as you can; it's appreciated.
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Reid

alan2525 · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject:

alan2525 · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject:

[quote="alan2525"]

alan2525 · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:38 am Post subject:

Progress on the loco has slowed a little in the last few weeks! Too many different projects on the go at once! Anyhow I've finally picked up the courage to just go out and buy the copper tube for the boiler! I was trying to get some freebies but the size I wanted seemed a little elusive!

£11 for a 12" length which should be enough for two boilers, seems pretty reasonable! Once I get the tube I'll refine the cad drawing for the cab and tanks and then get those made so I can start to play around with where everything is going to go! Gas tank, receiver, batteries, burner, steam pipe etc! I could draw all those in cad but I think a little plastic template and a bit of playing around with the parts will make it fairly easy to measure out where the screwholes need to go etc.

Once I have that done I'll detail the drawing and then cut in brass!

Anyhow here's the rolling chassis - Alongside the reg mamod parts, the camera does lie a bit as the scratch built chassis is a fair bit larger all round. It does run very nicely too. I'm hoping the extra mass will help to smooth out the mamods cylinders motion. Plus the extra mass from the steel wheels and 8mm silver steel axles should act a little like a flywheel to make it run nicely!