02-18-2018, 04:33 PM
After a slight intermission from this thread I have a bit of catching up to do. But before I get into the meat and potatoes of this build, I want to talk about a little side project that this project caused.
For years and years a used a Black and Decker electric screwdriver for drilling small holes. It was big and bulky with a rechargeable battery that just would not take a charge any more. It was time for a new one. I picked up one of these little pencil drivers. It's a nice little tool with enough guts to drill through brass and plastic, and very light weight. You can pick them up from Micro Mark, but Harbor freight sells the exact same one for less. The only difference is that Harbor Freight does not offer the drill chuck. You can pick it up from Micro Mark or do what I did , and make your own.
I took an old pin vice that I was never happy with the feel of and cut the chuck end off ( the chuck works just fine ). I drilled out the back of the chuck to a hair under the diameter of one of the bits that they give you with the driver. The chuck was heated with a torch and the bit was jammed in the hole. This worked perfectly, everything lined up right on center. Now I have a very useful tool.
Now onto the 2-8-0......
I'll get to the boiler work latter, but here is the way I mounted the pilot. I completely forgot to take any in progress pics of this part so here is one of the extra unmodified pilots that I have for reference.
The fake coupler and pocket need to be removed and so does a large plastic brace.
A view of the new (modified) one looks like this...
It took a lot of cutting, shaping, shimming, and swearing to get it to fit properly,,, but now it does. I tapped a hole out to mount a coupler in the correct place to mount a new coupler box that I will get to later. For now the wife is taking me out to dinner for my birthday so ,,, Got to go.
For years and years a used a Black and Decker electric screwdriver for drilling small holes. It was big and bulky with a rechargeable battery that just would not take a charge any more. It was time for a new one. I picked up one of these little pencil drivers. It's a nice little tool with enough guts to drill through brass and plastic, and very light weight. You can pick them up from Micro Mark, but Harbor freight sells the exact same one for less. The only difference is that Harbor Freight does not offer the drill chuck. You can pick it up from Micro Mark or do what I did , and make your own.
I took an old pin vice that I was never happy with the feel of and cut the chuck end off ( the chuck works just fine ). I drilled out the back of the chuck to a hair under the diameter of one of the bits that they give you with the driver. The chuck was heated with a torch and the bit was jammed in the hole. This worked perfectly, everything lined up right on center. Now I have a very useful tool.
Now onto the 2-8-0......
I'll get to the boiler work latter, but here is the way I mounted the pilot. I completely forgot to take any in progress pics of this part so here is one of the extra unmodified pilots that I have for reference.
The fake coupler and pocket need to be removed and so does a large plastic brace.
A view of the new (modified) one looks like this...
It took a lot of cutting, shaping, shimming, and swearing to get it to fit properly,,, but now it does. I tapped a hole out to mount a coupler in the correct place to mount a new coupler box that I will get to later. For now the wife is taking me out to dinner for my birthday so ,,, Got to go.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew