Gerd is building a Shay

[finescalerr]

Gerd, the Shay will be almost as big as you! Nice work. -- Russ

[Waldbahner]

Good morning,

I spend a couple of hours on my Shay last weekend to build the brake cylinder. A test run on compressed air works very fine. Some work is still to do and the initial piping is also missing. I hope I can add this during the next days. The final piping and brake valve will be installed when the cab is on one day.

The brake cylinder was made from bras and stainless steel for the piston rods. Some more progress photos are hosted on my website.



There's a small video of the test run at YouTube => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urOGqKYZ5hI

Cheers, Gerd

[marc_reusser]

Gerd,

Irgendwie funzen die Bilder und Links nicht richtig. Ich sehe alle drei Bilder...aber wenn man darauf klickt., kommt immer nur das erste vor....selbe Problem mit dem You-Tube Link.


Marc

[Waldbahner]

Hallo Marc,

Ich bin immer etwas verwirrt wenn du in Deutsch schreibst ;-) Übrigens ein sehr gutes wie ich finde.

I fixed the links and they should work now.

Bye, Gerd

[Waldbahner]

Hello,

after a break of several weeks in fact of missing budget, I'm back on my Shay. I started with the runboards and floor on top of the frame. I decided to use 6mm plywood as I'll mount a number of parts like lubricator, tender tank, steps and the cab directly to the floor.



As usual on eraly prototype Shay, I milled groves to the under side of the segments to match with the run board supports. I also milled a small pocket to fit over the truss rod head on top of the side beam.

Next I'll mascine the larger segment and will then screw them down to the supports. With the floor completed, only small details like steps and hand rails are missing to finish the frame.

Cheers, Gerd

[lab-dad]

good idea on the plywood.
Man this thing is COOL!!!!!
-Marty

[Waldbahner]

Hello.

Another 4 weeks have past without major project. Yesterday I spend an hour on the steam piping for the brake cylinder.
But in the background I'm working on the drawings for the main steam engine. Some parts have been drawn in CAD, others will build "out of mind". Finally I started a material list. As soon as I have enough money on my budget, I'll go shopping.



Next week I'll continue with the run boards and I'll also do some detail work like coupler pins, hand rails and steps. MAybe I'll also find some time to complete my dummy boiler. I decided to finish the loco without the final boiler by using the dummy.

Bye, Gerd

[Ray Dunakin]

What an amazing project! Very nice.


Also, the 1/2 scale Shay was incredible, too bad it wasn't rebuilt after the fire.

[Waldbahner]

Very small progress done ....

Hello Shay friends,

last weekend, I did some small progress on my Shay. Small in this case means only 12 parts have been added. But step by step.

Universal slip joints.

At the moment, I ran out of stock in material, so I try to build all parts for the Shay with material at stock. This includes the slip joints between the trucks and steam engines crankshaft. At first I build a wooden fixture for a dummy crank shaft.
To make the slip joints, I cut steel square and flat bar to length and milled a grove into the square bar to match the inner square shaft.



After silver soldering the cover on top of the milled channel (I bought a new 60mm propan tourch for this job) I milled the female joint to shape.



The coupling connectors have been added next by silver soldering. The connectors are made from 8mm round steel and drilled/tabed lengthwise for M5 screws. After soldering, I cut them to the right length and milled tthe heads to shape.



Now it was time for mounting them on the Shay and test them on a sharp S-curve arrangement. The test run was successfull and the drive shaft runs very smooth. It was a special moment for me to see this tricky part done and working. Here's a small Clip at Youtube => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29zxJTffMhY



Runboards

At last, I added the run boards to the frame. I used a carpenter milling machine to notch the boards for the supports and to mill pockets where the truss rods heads on top of the side beams. The boards have been screwed in place and the small one was also nailed to the end beam. Maybe I've to remove the larger piece during construction in the future so I'll nail them to the end beams later.



Next I'll continue with the dummy boiler and will go forward with some details on the frame like hand rails, ladders and others.

Bye, Gerd

[Frederic Testard]

This is very impressive metal work, Gerd. I understand your feeling when you saw everything was running smoothly.
Nice video, too, as well as the others you've posted.

[Waldbahner]

Many thanks Frederic.

Sometimes I stand in front of the growing Shay and wounder if it's real and if I realy build this from stock material. I can't belive it some cases and then it's great to have a look on my building log and the YouTube clips to say : Yes, I've done it. ;-)

The next milestone will be the steam engine and first test runs on air. I guess 2 or 3 month will be needed to get the engine running on air. Many more for the first steam up, but I'll try to get the loco finished in 2009!

Bye, Gerd

[Waldbahner]

Good morning.

Once again only small progress done on the Shay. I added the cab steps and endbeam handrails. I also made some detail work on the boiler moke up. In lack of money, I've to take another brake for some weeks/month. But I got a round table for my mill and a independent 4-jaw-chuck for my lathe as birthday present.



Cheers, Gerd

[lab-dad]

Ahhh... a little woodwork! getting closer.
I sure hope you will get some proper size figures soon!
Wait till you use the rotary table! I love mine, dont know how I ever lived without it!
-Marty

[MrBrownstone]

Hello Gerd,

That Steam Braking system really looks cool...
I bet it will sound great too.. I have seen the test run youtube video.

the shaft looked to function pretty smooth as well.. this build is a pleasure to witness..

Mike

[Waldbahner]

Hi,

many thanks for your comments ;-)

Marty : the rotary table (thanks for the correction) was first used to boer the holes for the lathe backplate to mount the new chuck. It's much easier to do this on a rotary table as using protractor and circle for this job.

Actually, I'm working on some smaller projects so the next weeks will be a little bit quite again. But one of these projects may be of interest for you I'll post it later in a separate thread.

Bye, Gerd