Wichendon Machine Shop (restart)

[Michael Hohn]

Dave,

It's looking good.

Do you have all the pulleys etc. that you need? I have extra.

Mike

[ReadingBob]

Coming along nicely,  Dave! Love the workers and bosses. They'll add so much to the effect.

[deemery]

Dave,

It's looking good.

Do you have all the pulleys etc. that you need? I have extra.

Mike

Today's project will be to lay out the shafts and inventory the pulleys, hangers, etc.  The one thing I'm concerned about is cone pulleys, I need 5 that should all be about the same size.  (Of course, if I had a lathe, I'd just turn them :-) :-) )  Over the years, I've collected a lot of sets of pulley parts, Model Masterpieces, Rio Grande Models, SS Ltd, Sheepscot, BESTTrains, etc.  

dave

[friscomike]

Howdy Dave,

The shop is coming along well.  The machine placement is excellent.  I can't wait to see all those pulleys and belts.  Good to see you have lots of folks to run the shop.

Have fun,
mike

[ACL1504]

Dave,

The figures look good and will add more realism to the model. Looking good.

Tom

[deemery]

I did a little bit of work today.  I inventoried my sets of belt drive parts.  The 'limiting resource' is cone pulleys.  I think I have enough, but if I could get one more package of the Rio Grande Models part set I'd be in good shape.  Similarly, I could use more RGM belt shifters from the same parts package.  But shifters are easier to do than cone pulleys (unless I run out and buy a lathe   )

I also set up the hoses, etc, for a new compressor to drive an air gun that takes a bit more flow than my Scorpion provides.  I'm very much impressed with the 1 gallon Fortress from Harbor Freight.  It's quite quiet (but not as quiet as my Scorpion.)  The issue there is getting the hose chain (compressor -> regulator/water trap -> brush) to be all 1/4" hoses, rather than the mix of 1/8 and 1/4 hoses I have for my current airbrush.  

dave

[Philip]

https://www.crowriverproducts.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_28&products_id=85&osCsid=jbo43bn87d47eu8af4jkopc1o7

[PRR Modeler]

Philip one time I made a block of tower levers with a thick strip of strip wood drilled holes and inserted painted toothpicks. Of course was in HO.

[deemery]

https://www.crowriverproducts.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_28&products_id=85&osCsid=jbo43bn87d47eu8af4jkopc1o7

I have some of those.  They're really O scale, the cone pulleys in particular are MUCH bigger than the corresponding pulleys on my tools. 

dave

[deemery]

Some thoughts on planning the belt shafts.  Each machine needs 2 things:  (1) drive pulley that matches the machine (particularly important for machines with cone pulleys.)  (2) A way to turn the belt off for that machine.  #2 is where I'm concentrating right now.  If each machine has its own drive shaft, I can pair idler and drive pulleys on that shaft, for the belt that connects the machine's drive shaft to the main shaft.  But my layout, and I think most machine shop layouts, do have a lot of machines running more-or-less parallel spaced to the drive shaft.  Consider the 2 lathes:  A simple way to model this would be a single drive shaft for each machine, with a pair of pulleys on the drive shaft and a belt shifter for each machine.  But I'd have to wink-and-nod at the fact that the single drive shaft would be over-driven when both pulleys are engaged.  What I'd expect for the prototype was some sort of paired pillow block, to separate the two shafts.  

dave

[deemery]

Cone pulleys...   At the top is the large lathe, a Model Masterpieces kit.  From left-to-right, Crow River, Rio Grande Models, and I'm pretty sure SS Ltd.  

Remember, the tool's pulleys should exactly match the shaft's pulleys (oriented the other way), so the length of the belt is preserved.  

The Crow River pully is much larger.  It also takes a larger diameter shaft.  But it's pre-drilled.  The RGM pulley looks the closest to the tool.  There are some indents on the casting to drill for the shaft on either side (I wouldn't want to try to drill through this and expect to get it right.)  The cone on the right is probably a good match for some of the other tools.  It has a pre-cast shaft on one side, so either I'd have to cut that off and drill a new hole for the shaft, or try to arrange pillow blocks on both sides, accepting the chance that the cast-on shaft is larger diameter than the rod I'm using.  

Decisions!  Decisions!   

dave

[Philip]

I can print some for you if you share the dimensions in mm.

[deemery]

I can print some for you if you share the dimensions in mm.

I think I have enough, but if not, I'll definitely take you up on that.  

dave

[Philip]

  Roger that!

[deemery]

The main shaft should be more-or-less above the main drive wheel on the engine.  By the way, I discovered I can swap that drive wheel with the (not installed) flywheel.  Putting the flywheel against the wall is probably a better design.

Anyway, part of the problem are those diagonal braces.  Without those, it would be simple to run the main shaft, it should be pretty much where the diagonal hits the horizontal joist.    I -really want- to be able to assemble the main shaft as a single assembly, same thing for each of the machine auxiliary shafts. 

Here's a look at my set of shaft hangers:

The top row has both regular hangers, and hangers that include brackets for the belt shifters (top right.)  The bottom center has these nice open hangers.  The largest drive pulley I have has a radius of about .200, and the shaft hangers are slightly deeper, so that works OK. 

Each tool auxiliary shaft needs its tool drive pulley (mostly, but not always a cone pulley), a pair of pulleys that match those on the drive shaft (one as a driven pulley, the other as the idler pulley), and a shifter.  So that's 6 sets all told, 5 of those with cones. 

Cogitation continues :-)

add:  I had a realization today.  I can mount the brackets along the diagonals, and use the beam that will need to run above the shaft to control the height of the brackets that aren't on the diagonals.  

So a bit more detailed design to do, but this should work!  One other point:  The pulleys along the main drive shaft are all cored, so I can thread the shaft while adding the pulleys, locking them into position (CA) after the shaft has been fully threaded and the pulleys are lined up with the auxiliary shafts.  I couldn't do that with the per-tool auxiliary shafts, because I can't run the shaft through the cone pulleys.  Instead, those pieces of shaft will have to be cut to length on either side of the cone pulley.  So that means I'll assemble each machine's auxiliary shaft on its own beam, then position that into place.  Once the aux shafts are located, I can glue the main shaft pulleys.  That will work!  There's still a bit of detailed planning for the shaft depth down from the bottom of the joists, I might need to add a bit of bracing between the main shaft bracket and those diagonal braces to put the main shaft where I want it.

dave