minnie 1″ scaled to 2″

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Fair enough. Mine came from CuP. Actually, I think the biggest boon to boiler making is the insulation blanket they sell – definitely worth a tenner.

Cheers,

Rod

[james huxstepParticipant @jameshuxstep40895]

So im thinking of starting the 2" project off with the rear wheels followed by the front wheels. i have just seen the price of the rear rim castings!!!!!

Can you make the rear wheels in two seperate parts and then braze them together?or can you make them from the solid?

250+ is a lot of money for 2 12" rims

What are other good things to machine starting off, while i get my head around a 2" boiler design that will surfice?

boiler bushes?

smoke box?

maybe the making up the formers for parts of the boiler?

also i remember someone saying about being careful about doubling everything up, otherwise i will end up with a very chunky looking engine. i can totally understand where there coming from, and now am very aware of how i can get around this.

thanks

james

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Options for your rims are:

Find some suitable thick wall tube and machine from that if you can swing 12" on the lathe.

Turn from 12" dia bar, the front rims can be trepanned out so you won't be wasting all the metal in the middle, need to swing 12"

Make from two "Tees" which could be flame or laser cut from plate, again need to be able to swing 12". The originals were two tees and the strakes held them together with possibly some additional plates or a band on the inside.

Have two strips of 3mm steel rolled and weld it into the outer rim, get some more 3mm material laser or plasma cut into flat rings and weld into the rims, this is usual practice for the larger models. No lathe work needed but you need to be able to weld or get them done by someone like Ashbys.

Use the cast ones from Blackgates that need turning

Use the cast Fowler ones from MJ Engineering which are finish cast so no turning needed.

 

 

I would suggest the easier front wheels first, a lot easier to get at the rivits, simpler to bend spokes as they are all the same.

As I said by message get the boiler design sorted before you start bying or cutting metal, no point in making formers until you know what thickness metal you will be working with.

Most people tend to build the front end first as that is not dependant on boiler on most designs, so thats smokebox, chimney, perch bracket, axle.

Edited By JasonB on 10/01/2017 07:37:05

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

I found it quite a shock on the 1" version when I looked at those rear wheels. 6" isn't particularly large but finished at 1&3/8 means that a solid chunk of bar is still quite heavy. I'm hoping to get those rims flame cut from plate with the centres then usable for the front wheels. Us knackered old geezers have to worry about lifting this stuff – well actually more about dropping it. On the 2" I can see a lot of reason to consider finished cast ally although my nature makes me daft enough that i'd still have a go from solid… and probably making two of everything before i get one right..

[PackmuleParticipant @packmule]

Hi James and welcome,

I'm also building a 2" Minnie , albeit slowly ,I have a set of drawings for the boiler which were very kindly done by Fizzy and were passed by our boiler inspector if you would like a copy let me know,

regards

bob

[james huxstepParticipant @jameshuxstep40895]

Thanks for all the replys

What is trepanned?

Thanks

James

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Think of it like parting off on the face of the work, you you have a narrow cut which produces a ring from the outside and leaves the centre intact.

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