The Bathgate locomotive works has had a busy time producing lots of fine swarfe this past two weeks, all in the pursuit of the perfect Gold disc…..
The task here was to produce the front smokebox ring upon which the smokebox door would close & the smokebox door. Luckily I was able to obtain two suitable castings.
The first job was to tackle was the easier of the two, the smokebox ring. This was a straight forward machining job.
The ring fits inside the front plate of the smokebox & the door closes onto the ring.
To start with I pretended I was a cnc lathe and just followed the shape of the casting using equal amount on compound slide and cross slide. Then I made up a tool rest like a woodwork lathe and ground an old file to a slight curve and then just used the wood turning method for a bowl. Seems to have worked!
Almost there, ust need to machine the holding boss.
Managed to follow my paper template and then rounded off the edge. I have machined the thickness down to about 1/4” to 5/16″ ish. Don’t want to make it any thinner just in case.
Today’s mission, making the centre for the door. Previous hole in the door was 5/16” necessary for machining. New centre guide fitted for the smokebox dart and to hold the heat baffle.
