Good progress was made on No. 11 by Rick, Gordon and Jason, with welcome help from new volunteers Noah MacAdam and Eric Snyder. During the most recent three-day work session (Jan. 31-Feb.2), the last two holes on the rear frame were reamed and the fitted bolts were installed.
Test-fitting the partsThen, using a circular saw with a diamond blade and a hand-held grinder, the square edges of the large rear frame extension casting were chamfered to provide a perfect fit between the casting and the forward frame. First, a 45-dgree cut was made with the saw, and then using the grinder, the edges were rounded off. The same technique was applied to the forward frames for a great fit.
Rear frame test fit.Next, the forward frames were flipped right-side up. They were then clamped to the rear frame extension casting to test the fit and alignment. Careful measurements showed the forward frames were almost perfectly parallel, off by only a few thousandths of an inch! The rear frame will be flipped over during the next session in March, and fitting it to the rear frame extension casting will begin.
The forward frame fits well.New volunteer Noah is joining Gordon in machining parts at his home workshop in New Hampshire. He is a skilled machinist and will join the team whenever possible. Eric will also assist as he is able.
On the fund-raising front, the 2023 effort has gotten off to a slow start. During January, we raised about one percent of the target amount of $50,000. If you haven’t contributed, we’re always happy to receive your donations to keep progress moving forward. The premiums for larger contributions are still available.
Thanks for your continued interest and support. Learn more at www.build11.org
Gordon cook carefully hammers a fitted bolt home. At the left side of the photo, two completed fitted bolts are circled. Photo by Rick Sisson.
All the silver bolts and nuts seen here will be replaced by rivets.
Harold looks over the Hanna riveter positioned to drive a rivet in the frame.
Over three days at the beginning of August, the Build 11 team made great progress. With the help of four new volunteers joining three regulars, we were able to match-ream nearly all of the holes in the rear frame of No. 11. The process involved removing each bolt one by one, reaming the previously match-drilled holes to size, inserting a sleeve to maintain the alignment and finally replacing the bolts. We did not expect to complete the work, but with the help of the new volunteers, we did it.
That left us time to explore our big Hanna riveter. You may recall the machine was overhauled over a year ago and was successfully tested by riveting the smokebox ring for locomotive No. 10. We experimented with altering its orientation from vertical to horizontal, figuring out how to perform that operation safely. Remaining work includes changes to air piping to more efficiently receive the air to squeeze the rivets and redirecting the air exhaust away from the operation.
So now we need rivets. We’ll eventually need a lot more — maybe a thousand of them — but right now we need 146 in several sizes. Your donation of $11 will buy four. If 37 of the folks who read this each send us $11, we’re there!
