Locomotive suspension

First job I did on the suspension was to prepare the springs for the drivers and the trailing truck. Although they were different thickness both springs were made to the same radius 77". This is a very shallow radius and initially my plan had been to mark them out on the stock and then roll them to the radius. However as the stock was 3Meter lengths as fast as I rolled the radius in the dammed thing straighten out again.

So I ended up cutting the springs to length and forming as the last operation. Spring making is hardly my favorite pastime as it is hardly (use your own cliche).

First job was to cut the spring leaves to length and blue for marking out Above are the 13 packs of leaves to make up the six main driver springs

Next job was to mark out a master leave for drilling

To start I did a trial run on the using the mill

After that each individual pack was clamped and the center hole drilled through

Next came slot milling the saddle cutouts

After drilling the slot was milled

Then i used a chamfering tool to clean up the slots. Good job i had an easy change chuck.

Pack ready to bend

The 77" rad hardwood former a few taps with a hammer and the curve was in

After forming all the springs were wired together ready to go for heat treatment. On the left are the main driver springs and on the right are the trailing truck springs

So that's the start there are loads of bits to do and more of that later.

 

 

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