Alice CLass Hunslet The Frames

[<< Previous]  [Main Page]  [Next >>]  22nd June 2003 Finaly finished marking out the frames for size and hole location. I've still the marking out of the radii on the bottom of each frame but as they are different from front to back, I'm going to wait till they have both been cut and drilled. Squared up my drill press and drilled the pilot indents where each hole was center punched. Drilled out the beam stiffener locations and the buffer block mounting holes. I also drilled out the 3/8th hold for the draw bar (still to make square) and found the limit of my drill press!! .. stalled it a couple of times, but a bit of backing off and going slow saw it complete. Just need to aquire a couple of drill bits that I'm missing and I can finish drilling. 23rd June 2003 Aquired the two number drills and drilled the final holes needed. Also chain drilled the frames to size and cut through with the jigsaw. This was still slow going, but was a little easier than going through with the jigsaw and no drilling. I've still to finished machining the top edge of the buffer beams before I seperate them and apply the indiviual bottom radii. The front has a bigger radus in the bottom corners than the rear. 2 July 2003 Machined the top edge of the buffer beams. 5 July 2003 Squared up the drawbar hole in the center of the beams. Simly done using a file after rouging to shape with the drill and jigsaw. 11th July 2003 I decided that given that the manual cutting of frames is a long and arduous task, I'd get the main frmes laser cut. I've found a company here that does the job (they make roller doors!!) and have sent them the final DXF file of the side frames and they will be getting back to me with a price and timeframe next week. Going on a steel angle hunt this weekend!! 13th July 2003 I've finished the front buffer beams of the loco. Cutting the curves on the bottom of each beam was an easy task with the jigsaw and clean up with the files. I'm now waiting on the laser cutters to get back to me wth a proce for the frames. 21st July 2003 I collected the frames from the lasercutters today. And a very nice job at a very resonable price they did too. All the dimesions are correct which is good considering I drew them up in imperial. 3rd August 2003 I've cutout all of the support angles to connect the frames together and I'm in the process of marking out and drilling the holes. [<< Previous]  [Main Page]  [Next >>]