[modeleng] What I'm Up To

I'm beginning to get clear of the residue of this year's projects (ie, real 
work) and get back into the workshop.  At this moment I'm doing a couple of 
small boilers on commission, one very small vertical donkey boiler (the 
smallest I've ever made) and a horizontal "Babcock" type marine boiler and 
casing.  The casing will take more time than the boiler.

I'm near finishing the conversion of a 14" woodworking bandsaw into a metal 
saw, which I may have mentioned to the List previously.  This is a fairly 
sturdy all cast-iron Delta machine so the work mainly involves slowing the 
blade speed down to speeds appropriate for metal cutting - 50 to 250 FPM.  This 
is being done (quite easily I might add) by inserting a 20:1 reduction gearbox 
(David Brown - eBay) between the motor and the primary drive pulley.  
Additionally, or so I assumed, the blade guides would need reworking into the 
ball-bearing type, however I came across an account of old saw technology where 
solid guides, wear blocks, of "hard maple, oil boiled" were used and provided 
an improvement in support as the guides could be run up closer to the working 
point and had at least as long a life.  This bears more study.

I have also been doing a bit of work on my TICH, on the front end.  I am slowly 
fabricating the smokebox stand and saddle from cut bits of steel plate and pipe 
by silver soldering and later on welding.  The smokebox itself is made and 
ready to mount.

That's enough for me . . . over to you.
Cheers,
Harry

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