Wood Steam Engine

[ezdays]

Whoopie-do, hallelujah, I've gone past step 47, it's as done as it's gunna be. Will it ever run? Probably not. I cranked the winder a few days ago and I heard it go, "click, click", (good sound) , and left it since I didn't want to stress anything. I could roll it and the gears all rotated. I put the rods on, the last few steps and now the gears seem to be frozen. I cranked the winder and instead of a "click",  I got a loud "SPROING" (not a good sound) , meaning that the winder shaft has broken free of the ratchet gear. When I rotate the engine to look at the underside, tabs and other connections come apart, especially the drive rods from the wheels. Maybe some more glue, but at this point I'm just joyous that I finished the $%!#!&@ thing. especially that I got the sagging front end to come up a little more, almost level. Basically, when it does run, the smokestack should rotate and the bell goes gong-gong-gong... Oh yeah, the engine should move forward too...

I'm going to let it set for a few days and see if I can get those rods to stay connected to the wheels and maybe get the shaft glued again to the ratchet gear. It's tricky because that gear rotates free inside that three-stack of the main drive gear, but the connection may not take the stress and snap again. It's main purpose is to keep the spring wound until you release the parking lever. I think if it wasn't for the glue I used so far, the whole thing would fall apart when I pick it up.

So here it is in it's present glory, looks just like the sketch. I may just decide to dunk it in a vat of crazy glue...