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Messages - Alan Downey

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31
Volunteers / Re: November 2019 Work Reports
« on: November 12, 2019, 11:04:43 PM »

* Machine shop: Alan was trying out a new toy he got, a drill bit sharpener.  He was making good progress.

I saw it during the work weekend, as a person who has dulled a drill and had to hand sharpen it to finish some job or other, I can see the usefulness of it. Post a picture and explain the range of sizes it can sharpen to a factory edge for the others members. A great item to have in any shop.
M. Nix

Hi Mike,

The machine is a Sellers 6G drill grinder, and can sharpen drill bits from 5/16" to 3" in diameter, but there are other sharpeners which are better suited to drill bits below 3/8". I don't have an exact date on when it was built, but I believe it to be pre 1950's It is essentially an overhead line-shaft machine which was "redesigned" by Sellers when individual motors started to power machinery. The "redesign" consisted of bolting a 1.25" plate to the bottom of the already heavy machine, and plunking a motor with a flat-belt pulley on the new base. In converting it to run on single-phase power, I moved it to v-belt drive. I purchased it from a tool collector in western Mass. and brought it home with my "rig". At this point, the machine is essentially on-loan to the museum.

It should be noted that this is not a tool which is available for general use by shop volunteers. Due to the finesse required to sharpen a bit without ruining the bit or the grinding wheel, it should only be used by volunteers who I have trained. I hope to very soon have a small cadre of shop volunteers trained on it to be able to help keep our stock of drill bits in good shape!

I actually don't have any recent pictures of the machine, and I haven't asked Stewart if I can borrow his pictures from Facebook- so here's a similar 6-G. There are some differences in guarding and the electrical controls, but the important parts are the same. It's a really neat machine.


And so that I can continue to show off just how much my little Focus can do, this was at the NH state line, parking with the other "rigs"  ;D.


32
Whimsical Weirdness and Foolery / Re: WW&F Visits....
« on: August 13, 2019, 07:38:39 PM »
Due to a variety of circumstances, we ran the Sandy River Railbus #4 at BRV today. Linda had been telling me how much she wanted the chance to ride in it, so as soon as it was confirmed- I told her to come on down. She rode once up front with me at the controls, and sampled a variety of other seating locations. She had such a blast that I couldn't help but share this. I think her face says everything!





33
Work and Events / Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« on: June 27, 2019, 10:41:58 PM »
Thanks for the heads up. It's fixed now.

34
Work and Events / Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« on: June 27, 2019, 09:46:07 PM »
The biggest impedance to progress on this project has been the available time of those working directly on it, and to be honest- I was the roadblock for about a year. But the seeds of labor over the last year have borne fruit!

Last fall my father built a pattern for the control valve body. The pattern itself is traditional in its wooden construction and the presence of core-prints, but the molding strategy is anything but. The valve body has a number of cavities and internal features of fairly complex geometry. Producing core boxes for these would have been an onerous and time consuming task, so we decided to skip them! Instead, I designed sand cores which were to be 3D printed using a foundry-specific printing machine and process. We also decided to utilize this process for the valve body cover casting as well, and Ron Ginger very kindly produced the pattern using his CNC router. The tradeoff for using 3D printed sand cores, is that they get very expensive compared to traditional cores and the cost increases by a cubic factor with the overall size. But when the expected casting quantity and core complexity align, it can be quite the tool.

While I worked at Enterprise Foundry, I had been looking for opportunities to bring 3D printed sand cores into the workflow, but we couldn't find the right job to pair with the technology. The vacuum brake controller proved to be just the project we were looking for. So when a critical machine went down around Christmas, I negotiated trade- I would come in during the holiday in my capacity as a WW&F volunteer and make the repair using the WW&F's mag drill. In exchange, Enterprise would pour 10 total molds containing 3D printed sand cores purchased by the WW&F. On Monday, the first two molds were made and poured, and we are thrilled with the results. I want to publicly thank Enterprise for their involvement and donation for this project. Between the value of the iron itself and the time spent in the plant, this constitutes a significant contribution and greatly aided in getting this project closer to the finish line. There were also some great lessons learned from this use of printed cores which will directly apply to a major casting project on the horizon.

Over the last few months, Gordon Cook and Ron Ginger have been producing the many machined components for the internals of the control valve assembly. I don't have any pictures to share of their work, but I look forward to seeing all of their work myself! Finally, three smaller patterns for parts which will be made using traditional foundry methods were completed and handed off to Wayne Laepple to be made at Cattail Foundry.

Finally, as some have noticed- my time spent on-site in Alna has decreased rather significantly from what it had been for the last last couple of years. I recently started a company focused on patternmaking and casting purchasing for the preservation industry- piggybacking off the skills which I first learned through my involvement with the WW&F and my time as the quality engineer at Enterprise Foundry. These patterns and castings are somewhat of a "launch" for Preservation Pattern, showcasing just some of technologies that a 21st century pattern maker has at their disposal now.

Moving forward, Jason and I are planning a day or two to complete the machining on the valve body and the rest of the castings which will allow everything to go together afterwards as we work towards our goal of testing and implementing the complete system.

It was pretty fun going back to Enterprise to supervise the production of these parts. I went in on Monday morning to check the molding, and then went back at 9PM on Tuesday during the night shift to shake out the molds and knock off the risers.
Ron's Pattern


The mold


Core installed


The raw casting after being cleaned


My dad's valve body pattern


Mold made and cores installed


The valve body and the cap after being cleaned with the risers still attached


Note the first use of a chaplet for a WW&F casting. This is exactly what we wanted to see. The chaplet is centered on the location where a pipe fitting will be installed, so it will end up being drilled out- negating any concerns of complete fusion.


Both castings in a very raw state. They both still need to be ground before any machining happens.


Showing just some of results of the printed cores.


And the patterns which were just handed off to Wayne.


35
Work and Events / Re: WW&F No. 10 - Official Work Thread
« on: May 11, 2019, 10:47:53 AM »
During the spring work weekend, we turned a corner in the year-long effort to reorganize, restructure, and improve the car shop. While there is still more work to be done, we have gotten the shop to the point where we can not only work on projects again, but work on them more efficiently.

During the work weekend, there was a team working to build a portable hydraulic power unit using a 22hp has engine. Once we fit a set of quick-disconnect hoses, this will entirely replace the use of the tractor to power the flanger, and allow us to work in a quieter environment when flanging. Over the winter, Jason designed a new waterjet cut template for referencing the backhead to the flanging die. This should provide much improved flexibility of the flanging machine. He is looking forward to sinking his teeth back into flanging once the primary focus of volunteer efforts have transitioned to the car barn extension under Brendan's leadership.

Starting this past week, we have begun working on the smokebox, which included turning down the outside diameter of the support ring to the final dimension, and getting it set up to match drill with the smokebox sheet.

We look forward to continuing to make progress #10 and the 21 Campaign as time and manpower resources allow, and updates will be posted in the respective threads and 21 Campaign Facebook page as appropriate. Thank you to all of our donors for helping us get over the finish line with the project funding!

36
Volunteers / Re: March 2019 Work Reports
« on: March 21, 2019, 10:55:35 AM »
Brian,

There will definitely be work to do organizing for anyone willing to help. Jason and I should be able to put our heads together solidify an approach for a few questions I had last week.

37
Work and Events / Re: B&SR boxcar 56
« on: October 19, 2018, 12:19:25 PM »
To clarify, only the south ends of bays 2&3 have been blocked to equipment storage. Bay 1 was intentionally kept clear of "permanent" machinery to allow a run-through and storage if need be. Bays 2&3 can still accommodate two freight cars apiece. Though we did sacrifice the ability to keep a freight car and a passenger car in the same bay.

38
Volunteers / Re: October 2018 Work reports
« on: October 12, 2018, 08:12:14 AM »
I'll be continuing to work on the overhead crane installation in bays 1 and 3- primarily tsking measurements  and  starting to prep and drill the overhead segements. An extra hand or two would always be welcome.

39
Volunteers / Re: June 2018 Work Planning
« on: June 29, 2018, 02:55:05 PM »
I'll be working on a couple different things at the same time tomorrow, but shop setup will be happening. As most  have noticed, we have been putting our new vertical mill in service, and refurbishing our horizontal mill. All of our other machines need TLC, and  I will be continuing to spearhead that effort over the coming weeks. If you are looking for something to do, or wish to get more familiar machine tools- come and find me- I have plenty of tasks that need interested people.

40
Volunteers / Re: May 2018 Work Planning
« on: May 02, 2018, 09:04:26 AM »
We still have one machine to get out of Bay 4 (the Cincinnati Mill), which I'd like to place on a tip-car chassis for storage until we get the K&T up and running.

My Dad and I plan on doing the move, might need another hand, and will need 9 pulled out if that's possible.

41
Volunteers / Re: April 2018 work planning
« on: April 23, 2018, 05:21:50 PM »
All,

Big changes are coming to the car shop this weekend! As James alluded to in the work update for last weekend, Kyle Irving-Moroz was helping develop a "final" layout for the new machine shop. Last fall the board approved a proposal to relocate the machine shop from the home it's occupied since Bay 4's construction, to Car Shop Extension. In place of the machine shop, all of the woodworking equipment will be pulled from the scattered and awkward locations throughout the building, and consolidated into Bay 4. We had a number of significant reasons for deciding to make this change, but to briefly summarize- this will put us in a far better position to perform the restoration and construction efforts of our wooden rail equipment, while also allowing the machine shop to B R E A T H E, and perform the work that we have already been doing more safely and efficiently. This move was going to happen in fits and starts, but as things often happen here- opportunity knocked- and then flooded in when we opened the door.

In order for Josh Recave to get the new machine shop wired up the weekend following the work weekend, we are going to move everything this weekend. All machine shop equipment will be taken off-line and moved to the south extension. This includes the small lathe, and the big drill press. Thus- please do not expect any of the said equipment to be usable for the duration of the work weekend through at least the following weekend. This will be a major effort and cause a bit of short term pain- but should pay dividends when the dust settles.

I am working on some other major enhancements to the car shop which aren't quite ready for public notice yet, but I hope that we will continue to have exciting developments with respect to improving of the utility of the car shop in 2018.

Thank you for everyone's cooperation!

42
Volunteers / Re: March 2018 Work Planning
« on: March 05, 2018, 02:44:55 PM »
Not quite, those are for Coach 9's trucks.

43
Work and Events / Re: Albion Day 2017
« on: October 31, 2017, 06:58:11 PM »
Dave, I'm planning on being there!

44
Museum Discussion / Re: Finding the WW&F on Facebook
« on: November 18, 2016, 02:09:28 PM »
Facebook user here: I haven't had any issues. Not sure what that means.

45
Work and Events / Re: Sheepscot Turntable - Official Work Thread
« on: September 20, 2016, 02:48:52 PM »
Due to the presence of the bearing pivot wheels and the slack in the bore for the pivot center, the only possible loading of the center pivot "pin" is shear. It's 4" in diameter. Using very conservative numbers for the yield strength of cast iron, there would have to be a shear load well beyond 100,000 lbs to break it. While I understand the gut reaction to cast iron from antiques, it was heavily used as a structural material, and is appropriate for this application.

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