Wood Steam Engine

[ezdays]

Well, I'm back on schedule, step 41 is now complete. I did get the drive gear issue resolved. there is a ratchet gear inside that group of three gears and the winding shaft wasn't secure to it. Had to use, you guessed it, glue to get it to hold. I seem to need more glue to keep those three gears locked in, just that I have to be careful since that ratchet gear has to be free to rotate on it's own.

A few more issues, those little orange plastic donuts are suppose to act as lock nuts, but they continually pop off. Gotta use a bit of, yup. glue to keep them in place. And I have to do something to keep that main gear shaft from moving, you can see when it can shift side-to-side and the gears won't align. This time I can't use glue because the shaft has to rotate.

Uh, pay no attention to those tubes of glue in the photo, this unit does not require the use of glue (note the liberal use of rubber bands which will be removed soon)...

Note that the front end of the boiler still sags, it's not suppose to according to the drawings, but it does and now it is locked in place and I cannot even force it up. I am looking through the paperwork to see if I can find a coupon "show the finished engine and this coupon to a psychiatrist for a free visit on us. Some restrictions may apply".