Machining Cast Steel Railroad Wheels
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 тра 2016
- Back into the machine shop to do some machinist work turning some railroad wheels from cast steel on the Lodge & Shipley metal lathe. This job is for the Veterans Memorial Park in Bristol, FL to use on their 24" narrow gauge railroad.
Great Job. Thanks for sharing your wonderful life with us.
Cool stuff! Thank you for taking us along!
I have a small lathe and mill I do machining on in my shop and always enjoy watching someone else that has more experience at it then I do. I always learn something new by watching others. Fantastic videos. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, that looks like some killer surface speed on the big diameter! Sweeeeeet!
Hi Keith, Great job for a very good cause, Being a Veteran I thank you for taking on this task at hand
It is my pleasure!
Great work Keith. Thank you for sharing.
Interesting project; nice to see some chips again.
I taught myself to put the right amount of pressure on a micrometer by closing down on known sizes (gauge blocks) until I could arrive at the exact (known) measurement with my eyes shut. Practise that way with several different micrometers until you hit the correct measurement pretty well every time. Get in the habit of measuring several times and measure a few more times if your measurements aren't all the same.
If you discover that one of your micrometers errs consistently, it may have been calibrated by someone with a different "touch" than you have. Time to recalibrate it to match your touch.
+Peter W. Meek Good advise!
On a 0-1 inch, couldnt you close it all the way and the pressure it takes to go exactly to zero is the pressure you want to shoot for when taking a measurement. Thatd be a pretty quick way to know exactly how much pressure for that particular mic.
Thank you again. Another job that woke up my mind as we used to machine railroad wheel for the Dam cars and cranes at out power station.
Keith, that's a fascinating look at working with rough castings. I really enjoyed the video. Thanks!
+Dale Yurk Thanks Dale!
Crazy stuff, thanks for sharing it!
Good to see you taking a break from the shop and doing some machining. Have a good one.
+bbtjd001 It was a nice distraction, and I have plenty more of this work to do as time allows.
Great videos, fascinating subject.
Thanks very much.
Beautiful video, Keith.
It very interesting to see how the railway wheels are turned
+Günter Schöne Thank you!
Another good video. keep them coming!
Best
Matt
+Centurial Inc Thanks Matt!
its great to see you machining. Keep them comming
+Phil's Projects Thanks Phil - Just can't wait to get the shop all finished up so I can get to work on doing more machining!
It's fun for us to watch you cut the metal that way whenever you get a chance. Thanks Keith
Thanks Ed!
Chips are a flying...THANK YOU ....for sharing.
+ELSDP-45 And Thank YOU for watching!
great work Keith , Good to have the UA-cam folks to help ya out man .. Thumbs up !
+ShawnMrFixitlee Thanks Shawn!
Hi Keith, good to see you back in the shop taking a break and having a bit of fun. I am looking forward to the CNC update to this project. I saw Adam's collaboration with NYC CNC and am interested in learning the basics of CNC work. Thanks again!
Thank you - looking forward to it!
Fantastic vid Keith shows how to treat raw cast .Great regards Rudy.
Thanks Rudy!
A very interesting machining video, great seeing your talents at work. Thanks
.....13
Thank you!
I do this every day at work. full sized freight car wheels. it's a blast!
+john hilton Cool - I should just send them up to you to do for them!
Ohh no! You'll miss out on the fun! Besides I think our lathes would be far too big!
John: would you consider doing 26 inch trolley wheels or larger interurban wheels? I’ m hoping they are not stew-pot steel like Kieth had to machine. Judging by the sparks he had a few ball bearings in the melt.
Very good work. I appreciate your running @ 4 X speed.
The aliasing in those 4x speed shots is so fun to watch :)
Hello Keith,
Nice to see again a bit shop work and see you working at the laid, but I also always like the odds&ends. Maybe next year the first shop work video's are in your new own shop, but it takes time of course.
Looking forward to the next one and many greetings from Roel !
+RoelTyros The shop is coming along nicely and I am really looking forward to doing some work in the new shop!
On the plus side, having an unusable wheel also means a wheel that can be used to test the cnc lathe without worrying about ruining the piece. 👍
@Edgar Finley definitely, have been watching on instaflixxer for months myself :)
Really cool
Good to see you back in the machine shop!
+vajake1 Thanks!
When I was there last November and saw you machining that first one, I was pretty sure that those guys weren't going to ever make many of them on their own. Machining a couple would be interesting, but a dozen or two would get old! I do remember how far those tiny chips were flying that day, and I can see a few on your scalp in the wrap-up section of your video. Good luck.
+Jack Hoying Yep, it was those same castings I was messing with the day that you came. And you did comment before you left "you know you are going to have to machine all of those don't you?" And I replied, "yeah, I see it coming..."
Hey Keith in my early years I worked at the Swedish Crucible Foundry in Hamtramck MI. and we cast bogey wheels for military tanks. When inclusions were found in the castings using Xrays we would arc air the inclusions out and then weld over them. It saves the part. If it was good enough for the U S military it should be ok for a little train wheel.
+Gord Taylor funny, i was thinking along the same line.. it's cast steel not cast iron so welding up a hole in the casting shouldn't be much of an issue
+Gord Taylor The problem is that now I am pretty convinced that these are ductile cast iron rather than cast steel. It sure would have been nice if they knew what these were made from....
Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org
spark test
very cool!
Thanks Jeff!
Oh that's cool... I went on a field trip with my conservation biology class to camp at Torreya State Park and visit The Nature Conservancy, and we went through Bristol. Bristol is a tiny, one stop light town (Along with 2 gas stations, a dollar store, and a library.), that you wouldn't realize was a town unless you were paying attention.
My wife actually made me write "NO"on my phone when she was pregnant with our first. Always seemed to get in over my head helping friends and family. Be careful, now you have 60 thou friends that might have project for a nice guy with unlimited tooling. No shame in telling friends you bit off more then u can chew, especially if projects might turn into boat anchors. Thx for vid and nice seeing you doing projects again.
+shade38211 I do tell people no. But if the project looks interesting, I will sometimes take them on. This one should not be too bad.
Great video! I have found that when I melt cast iron in my furnace for a mold (which I don't do often), If you break the mold right away and let it cool fast it results in a material that is VERY HARD. Completely eats away high speed steel bits. I am willing to bet cast steel behaves in the same manner.
+MattsMotorz Yes, "chilled" iron.
+MattsMotorz I like to let them cool slower....
interesting going metallurgy points
One would think the 1 inch shaft would snap before that wheel itself would fail. Great video Keith
+one4stevo I am not questioning their engineering on their cars. I looked at some of the videos they have on UA-cam and this is a pretty small gauge they are running - much smaller equipment than what we have at our museum.
I turned a lot of wheels for a large amusement park and they were cast in the early 1900's and were chilled cast iron. They were very hard.
I like the 4X shots.
At 7:30 you mentioned burning up a HSS tool while taking a light cut. From what I've read, cast metal hardens at the surface and often has some sand in the surface. I suppose it is a quenching effect of the sand combined with the carbon content of the steel. In any case, a heavier cut is better than light. Some of the old-time books recommend hand-chiseling off the outer layer before machining, if you can imagine that. And I think the radius is probably the worst place to test because the large contact area combined with the shallow cut.
Have been watching some of your videos with enjoyment. I worked for a company in Morganton, NC that made mold stock (synthetic graphite) for a customer that cast RR wheels. Also, in one of you other videos you were talking about the history of your Vulcan locomotive and mentioned Bridgewater. Bridgewater is an area on Hwy 70W outside of Morganton, NC. The project you mentioned was the construction of Lake James about 5 miles from my home. Was glad to know you have an old engine from that project that you maintain. The company I mentioned that I worked for earlier owns a Diesel Electric engine that was purchased from a little mountain community here after they shut down their little RR. The engine is the 1950's era and was featured in National Geographic when it was still used in the mountain mining community. The part of the history you mentioned related to Virginia and the construction of a tunnel also caught my attention. I was curious if that was the construction of the only tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Va. Keep up the good work...if you are ever in this area, visit the Narrow Gauge Museum in Newton, NC.
Another great video Keith! Looks like cast iron from the chips and finish. If it's ductile iron, the inclusions may not be much a problem vs. brittle gray iron, but the foundry should replace the casting regardless. Not surprised it wiped out a HSS cutter, the outer skin can get chilled and super hard if they knock it out of the sand quickly. One can grind off the skin with an angle grinder to get under it and also really slow down the spindle speed. Of course carbide tool helps. I used to design castings for farm machinery. At the factory we would weld 65-45-12 grade ductile iron to steel all the time with a wire welder for certain applications. Austempered ductile iron would be awesome in this application for both strength and wear. Hub micrometer, now that's cool. I want one.
+farmachinist The more I work with these castings, I am becoming more convinced that these are indeed ductile cast iron rather than cast steel.
Thanks for that Keith, perhaps I should have known that, but it has been 40+ years since I turned anything. Maybe I should get one of the blokes at my Men's Shed too retrain me.
Crown Metal Products made trains in 15 inch and 24 inch before starting to make 36 inch models in 1964. I believe the first 36 inch locomotive they made is now at the Jefferson & Cypress Bayou RR in Jefferson, TX. All Crown locos are 4-4-0's and extremely simple to aid in maintenance and operation. They are very forgiving in operation.
+Roy Reynolds I have ridden behind a few Crown's but never operated one.
It even sounds hard!!! 50 thou seemed quite a generous cut but I suppose with the big lathe it works OK... certainly seemed to. Pretty big inclusion showed up... pity after your work on it.
Love the hub micrometer - super useful.
+ChrisB257 If you experiment, you can really start pushing your machine. I've found I can do at least 100 thou on my little 10 inch swing lathe, Adam Booth (Abom79) pushed 1 1/4" on his monarch. What seemed high to me was his surface feet per minute. I would have been afraid to go over 50RPM.
+justfakeit888
Adam sure can push some cuts on the Monarch. My lathe is pretty old and it's rare I take more than about 25-30 thou off radius at a time (ie, 50-60 total). I am used to working slow! :)
+ChrisB257 Fortunately, the carbide inserts seem to be doing a good job cutting this stuff!
Awesome Job! they look good! Sorry about the one wheel being a bugger! We run a Propane powered engine as well as a Gas powered engine and our crown :)
+VeteransRailroad No problem, this is going to be a fun little project.
Another great video nonetheless by the way.
Don't get me wrong, I like your shop but nice to see you back to the basics... keep it up.
Believe me, I would rather be working IN the shop than ON the shop, but a man has to do what a man has to do. Just not enough time in the day.....
Correct.
Identifying unknown alloys is easy with an Xray Florescence Spectroscope, like the Niton XL3p+ XRF Analyzer from ThermoFisher Scientific. Other instrument companies make these too. The testing is 100% non-destructive, only a buffed out area free of tarnish is needed to read a sample. Invite the local ThermoFisher Scientific rep over for a video shoot; I've found them to be very accommodating. The XL3p looks like a hand-held ray gun from a 1950s sci-fi movie. My group started restoring a rare 1955 Freightliner cab-over semi-tractor in 2005 at the Portland, Oregon, Freightliner plant (now known as Daimler Trucks). Many aerospace alloys were plentiful just after the Korean War, and this truck took full advantage - there were aluminum and magnesium alloy parts all over it that normally would have been made from steel, and in later model years went back to conventional materials. Our local ThermoFisher Scientific came by and shot readings on any number of "mystery metals"; we learned in seconds just what we had. Not to wear out our welcome, when new parts needed metallurgical identification and it would have been too soon to ask ThermoFisher Scientific to come over again, I cut out a tiny sample from an inconspicuous location and sent it to a local lab for analysis at a cost of about $40. And before I forget, the ThermoFisher Scientific Niton XL3p+ XRF Analyzer costs about $30,000. Most big scrap yards have one and will do tests for a fee.
These wheels will be very lightly loaded so I think the inclusions can be filled and ignored. Given the apparent hardness I suggest stacking the raw castings in a few bags of charcoal and heating them to above the annealing temperature then burying the whole mess in dirt and let them take a couple of days to cool. That should make machining easier.
Using HSS cutters on hardened cast steel is necessary. I ruined and reground a number of HSS tools before I could get stepdad to do a lunchbox purchase of some carbide inserts and holders from the old ALCO machine shop. Those cutters worked.
Keith, these wheels look warped from the casting process. Since this small railroad will only be operated at walking speeds, the warpage may not cause a significant imbalance. Fine work with the machining. Many thanks.
Not warped - rough castings are just that way. That is why you cast them oversize and machine them down. The end results will be just fine.
the voids in the wheel castings can be filled with jb-weld and then sanded smooth. just a thought kieth.
I don't think I would trust the strength of JB weld to keep that flange from breaking off on the train.....
Great video! Looking forward to seeing you complete these later. I'm building a 2-1/2" scale 2-cylinder shay locomotive for a 7.5" gauge railroad that will have eight 6.125" drivers (tread diameter). For those of us who don't have access to a CNC lathe, would you consider making a video on how to manually machine wheel flanges and treads to IBLS standards? Thanks!
+cr125shifter My original plan was to manually machine these, but my HSS cutters won't cut the material. I would have to hand grind a cutter with the correct radius for the flanges but this is not as feasible using carbide.
I'm like Jay axel seems really small, good work Keith.
+Joe Tiller The trains are pretty small too so they are probably just fine. There are some videos on UA-cam of this operation, much smaller scale than what we run at our museum.
Would it be easier to mill the wheel on a CNC Lathe from a solid piece of steel than from a casting?
Probably not - because this is a casting, there is a lot less material to remove.
1 wheel = $$$$$ if you started with a high grade steel block? It would be interesting to get a price just out of curiosity.
As a side note; The wheels for the locomotives made in the 19th century were made of Cast Iron due to the Irons' good wearability. The difference was that the Iron was Malleable Iron, and later Nodular Iron. Iron that had either been put through the forging process or heat treated to reduce the graphitic carbon present in just-cast Cast Iron.
also the early wheels had metal tires
+sandrammer Interesting. I seem to recall hearing that information before now that you mention it. I am not 100% certain that these are cast steel - they may be ductile cast iron.
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Yeah, the chips sure looked like iron when you were drilling the metal.
Would the SF/min requirement for the metal change with that size diameter, and require different lathe rpm when working out at the edge vs in at the axle hub area? Or does the carbide tool not need this relative SP/min change?
Mr.Rucker thank you for video and effort to do it. Now question: is it safe to run the equipment at 4x speed in post production or do you need additional atachments to secure it more?? How bout balance issues??( please read it with scence of humor ) ; )
It it totally safe, as long as it is only on your screen. When you try it on the actual machine, results may vary...
Can't remember who did it in a video but i saw a guy make a basic home made tracer for something like this. He basically used the bottom half of his steady rest , and bolted a profile pattern to it. He then attached a follower finger/pointer to the tool rest, positioned to follow the edge of the pattern which is just to the right of the toolrest, attached to the lathe bed.
He just used the steady rest base just as a mounting device to attach the pattern to a stationary part of the lathe because it was convenient. There are a million ways to do it with clamps, scrap and duct tape......
+Notso Fresh I remember seeing that one too. I think it was Tom Lipton...
Cant find the video but here is an article with exactly the setup i am referring too.
www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/a-simple-manual-tracing-attachment-for-any-lathe.19162/
I bet this is almost as fast as cnc on this job, can be done at home (for you) and also would make for a pretty good video.
Could that pitting from inclusions be drilled out and filled with weld metal, then machined off? Seems such a waste after all that work to have to reject it
It's not about the surface. The reason you'd reject it is that it indicates more bubbles inside the piece. Those can be fracture points later on
Would it be practical to weld up the hole and machine it down? Keep on keeping on.
OK. THANKS, Keith.
A few less than ideal things; but my word the insert's chip breaker was really breaking the chips ;-)
Hi Keith thanks for sharing. A friend of mine owns a professional machine shop here in the UK. He machines railcar wheels that are about 30" in diameter on his big L & S lathe. All done by hand not CNC. I would have thought that the only critical measurements were the running surface angle and the radius in the root of the flange. That 1" bore does seem extremely small for a railcar even if it is a miniature. I look forward to the next video on the project. regards from the UK
+Gary C It can be done manually, but due to the hardness of the material and it eating HSS cutters, I think that using a single point carbide insert will be a better way of getting the job done, and that will be easier on a CNC lathe. Too bad I don't have a tracing attachment on our L&S lathe - that is what a lot of the railroad shops use for wheel profiles.
G'day Keith, watching your video bought back memories. I did notice that you don't use cutting fluid, is that old school now?
Regards for down under.
+Wayne Jones I don't like using oil or cutting fluid on cast material - the chips turn into a fine dust that can be very abrasive on my machines. Easier to clean up dry and less likely to wash into areas I cannot clean if I use oil.
another job written into the books
At least that part of the job - still have to do the next step and turn the face of the wheels.
I would describe micrometer thimble tightness as imagining tightening the thimble with only your finger prints.
With cast steel, could you clean up an inclusion hole to get rid of the bad material and weld it up?
Imo Yes. Carbide burr to clean them up and tig weld them. The big one I would probably drill out and chamfer to be able to get adequate penetration at the bottom.
Cast steel generally welds up fine. Cast iron usually has a problem with the heat affected zone and the fact that you can get a weakened grain structure between the weld and the unaffected area. Preheat and slowly cooling it down helps, but cast iron is generally a crapshoot. Cast aluminum welds very dirty imo. Like there are tons of impurities in it that you essentially have to burn out.
I’m no professional welder though, just a self taught hobbiest
When the thickness was measured you said that it was on the money, but the micrometer indicated that it was 1 thou under. What tolerance were you working to?
+0.000, -0.005.
Isn't that wheel profile just a radius and a straight taper? Doesn't seem that is complicated enough to have to use a cnc lathe. By those chips I would say that is ductile iron. There is no load on that flange except in a turn so I highly doubt you could pull sideways on a car hard enough to break that flange off from that small inclusion. I actually think you probably would break that little 1" axle off first. lol
+bcbloc02 ... i agree.. v the inclusion out.. fill it with brass so it wont rust and good to go.... Brian i'm jonesing for the next shop/barn video fix... hurry.. lol
carryit around
Could you please make it stop raining everyday so I can get something done? I want to get a little more done before I shoot the next update so you can tell I have done something. lol
+bcbloc02 It's not the inclusions that you can see, it's what might be hiding elsewhere in the casting...
Also, while these are for a low speed operation, I think that they are for cars that carry people, and you just don't fool around with the safety regulations in that service...
+bcbloc02 There are four radii that have to be cut (both concave and convex) plus the taper. It could be don't on a manual machine if I could use a couple of cutters with the correct radius, but because HSS won't touch this stuff, I think it would be easier to just single point everything on a CNC lathe. As for the inclusions, they have plenty of extra castings and they don't want to take the chance on what may be hiding in that casting that we have not uncovered yet.
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Really, HSS won't touch that stuff? Or was it just burning it up because you couldn't get the RPMs low enough or what? I couldn't imagine it being that hard.
How much pressure to use on a micrometer? The same pressure it takes to make it go exactly to zero. Right?
When I was about 12 yo my stepfather told me to machine 24 (three cars worth) train wheels out of 6 in bar stock for his amusement park railroad. This was an after school winter project. It took about 8 weeks as the shop took longer and longer to warm up in an upstate NY winter. The project also included 12 axles. I was using an antique belt driven lathe without any graduations on the cross or compound slides. I learned a lot in that shop but the most Importent was how to keep a drunk out of the way.
If anyone knows of the fate of The Carolyn Road I would appreciate hearing from them.
Hi Keith, great video. I noticed that you did not use lube, even when drilling the hub?
Nice job as usual Keith. I'm a bit surprised that the high speed cutters wouldn't work, yet the drills did okay.. could it be that the surface layer was the issue, once you broke through then the material became softer so to speak? like a case hardened piece? As a "Newb" still, just trying to learn! Thanks. Razor!
+Razor Works It is very likely that the surface is hardened and that may be the whole issue. Either way, HSS just is not doing the trick...
Another great video! I'm no engineer, but 1" seems pretty tiny to me as well.
+Mike De La Mater You have to consider the scale of the railroad - those cars are pretty small....
I once saw a guy profile a set of full size steam engine wheels in a wheel lathe that could take an 8ft pair of wheels and that was something. Hope you can video the cnc work.The castings could be iron, as it will be slow speed work and the thrust on the flange will be low, but I wouldn't like to work a train with a wheel with an occlusion like that on it as that flange could go at any time with bad consequences even at low speed.
A wheel lathe - I have seen a couple of those machines. There is one at the Illinois Railway Museum and another at the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum.
With all the machining required to correct these castings for use, why would you not start with a billet? The cost of patterning the wheel, sending it to a foundry and the casting costs would seem to outweigh the additional machining time.
Really appreciate your channel Keith and congratulations on the new shop.
+TheTraakon If I had been the one starting this project, that is probably how I would have gone about it. But that was not the route the guys I am doing this for decided to go.
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org
Understood. Sometimes you just get to ride the train not decide its route.
Thanks for all the continuing education you provide.
I think you should have drilled the center in the same grip-position in which you turn the outer running surface. It would make sure it runs true. There won't be a big difference but it avoids any risk of wobble.
+jahobr The outer running surface will be turned on mandrel going through the drilled hole so that it will indeed run true. Because I am having to chuck the part on the outer surface, there is not good way to hold the part where I can turn the outer surface and drill the hub in one operation.
Hi Keith just throwing mud on the wall here, I was thinking that has to be cast steel due to the color of the sparks I saw in the video. Could those inclusions be milled / drilled to good steel then pre heated and welded back using flux cored wire then machined off to save the casting?
+DS75921 I am still not 100% certain, but the more I work with this material, the more I think it is actually ductile cast iron. The sparks were actually coming from the inclusions and not from the good material on the casting...
For the weight the wheels have to carry you could just fill the holes with paint and not worry about them.
Internet just got working again and I got to finish the video. I see there are 8 wheels and you plan on using a CNC. Good luck and have fun!
Did you ever get chance to do the CNC bits for these? Curious how they panned out in the end.
Lovely video btw - I really enjoyed watching that, thank you for sharing :)
We have not done it yet. The CNC lathe we were going to use is currently out of order. Working on "Plan B".
Another interesting video, thank you.
Since the ride has to be inspected by state inspectors I was wondering how much liability insurance, as a machinist, you have to carry to cover yourself in case of any mishap?
Given that they are in same state as Abomb, I wonder if he would have been able to help out, though he might not have been able to do it for free even in his home shop.
Look forward to the final result.
+MrPlusses Even though they are in FL, they are actually a good bit closer to me than Adam!
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org
Great that you can help them out. Love to see those scale trains kept alive and chugging.
Great video as usual. Can you explain why welding the inclusions is not an option? Thanks.
+Walter Plummer All steels aren't the same, it depends on the composition of the particular steel being welded, the welding process can produce a spot so hard that can't be machined or ground to a suitable surface, and any friction against the metal will only get harder causing the tool being used to break or in the case of a grinding wheel just wear it down.
+Walter Plummer Welding cast can be difficult, and I am not 100% certain of the material these wheels are made from. And then there is the unknown of what other defects might be hiding in that casting that I have not uncovered - it is just too suspect for me to try and use it.
A video of all those (people) asking questions......
Q + A, ......show and tell.
I think all of (your) viewers would like to see that.
DeWalt (and I imagine other manufacturers of various items) used to refer to their radial arm saw castings as "semi-steel," which I took in part to be an advertising term suggesting that the material was higher in quality than just "cast iron." I've never found a definitive identification of semi-steel, just an assumption that there's more steel in the crucible, sort of a hybrid between grey iron and steel. Watching your drill chips made me think in terms of a semi-steel. It wasn't the powdery crumbs of iron, but it never formed a string like steel, either. Seems like the wheels would be resistant enough to shock, considering the load and ignoring the casting defects, but like others, I really want to see the axle design.
I think that these wheels will perform just fine!
keith nice work.=========bob
+Robert Kutz Thanks Bob!
Big job ahead. Any idea if there was sand in those inclusions.? what makes the sparks?
I am guessing that the inclusions were from some kind of gas bubble in the metal.
I puzzle as to what causes the sparks. the cutting edge catching on the edge of the bubble (if it is a gas inclusion - I think you are right there) or does a bubble cause a hard spot. Any metallurgists out there?
Keith,
Fascinating. I was very interested in the way you established a machined surface for reference on the rest. That thing looked like a dog's hind leg.
Could you tell me why you did not use any cutting fluid? Was it because you think it was cast iron?
Thanks, Ian
I don't typically use a cutting fluid on cast material because the chips come off in a fine and abrasive dust rather than a chip like you get with steel. If you use a cutting fluid, you can wash that abrasive material down on the ways and into other parts of the machine that will cause a lot of wear to your machinery.
Can you weld cast steel? Is drilling the inclusions out to remove the bad material and then using stick electrodes to fill the holes a option.
Love all of your videos and I plan to stop at the musem the next time I am down that way.
Cast steel can usually be welded quite easily unless it has a high carbon content, in which case pre-heating and post-heating might be necessary. If it is cast iron like some people here are suggesting, it´s a different story. I guess the decision about what to do about the inclusions depends on if the other wheel castings have the same defects and how much time and effort it´s worth to get rid of the inclusions, and of course if it´s steel or iron. For the intended application (slow moving, light duty train) I don´t really see that the defects are critical, but more of a cosmetic issue. If the inclusions are left "untreated" water and dirt could be trapped and cause corrosion, but I guess that could be solved by grinding the rough edges with a rotary burr. Can´t wait to see the next video :-)
The more I work with these wheels, the more I am becoming convinced that they are actually cast ductile iron rather than steel. So, welding is pretty much out of the question.
I realize this is pretty old, but could that casting be welded to fill in the void? I just saw some videos about welding cast iron.
There will be more voids throughout the casting. Talked to someone who machined steel castings and they said it would be structurally compromised by the voids
good job turning them, i agree that they should scrap that one with the inclusions in it. those trains will be transporting people so no need in pushing the limit. better safe then sorry. on another note. i have tried sending you a couple of messages but not sure if you got them.
+Bison Workshop Absolutely - you might be able to fix it, bu it is just not worth the risk.
In my 19 years of restoring steam locomotives material identification was often an issue. Try sparking it with a side wheel grinder. Also spark known iron and steel. The sparks will identify it. From the sparks I saw and the chips I'm guessing gray iron. The 1" axle worries me. Love your videos. Thanks.
+Chuck Haynes I am now pretty convinced that these castings are ductile iron.
3 plus years and no more videos on this.?.? Keith, I had hoped...
Sorry, but that job ended up getting farmed out to a CNC shop.
Beautiful videos to watch. Just a heads-up: be careful when allowing your telescoping gage to spring and 'slam-to' maximum dimension. I sprung a Starrett gage that sheared the stops that now is functional, but you better retain the parts when releasing. Just put your finger over the anvils when releasing the thumbscrew. My $.02.
+halfinchholes88 Good point!
you could put acid into the hole so all the slag and millscale comes out and then weld or braze it full
Talk to Saunders (NYC CNC) he does quite a bit of CNC work. He Also does training, so he might be able to give you some pointers, or reference material.
+ArcAiN6 I plan on talking to him at the summer bash in a few weeks!
:) Ibuilt my own CNC machine over the winter, just because i was bored.. i have to say, it was a pretty fun project. Most difficult part for me, was i had to mill all the 1/2 aluminum parts using a compound vice on a drill press.. That being said, i still managed to stay within 0.05mm tolerances... Pretty crazy..
Most of the railroad steel I've cut was really hard and barely magnetic. Are these wheels magnetic? I was told it's the manganese.
It's a steel alloy called Mangalloy (sometimes Hadfield steel); has a high manganese content of 13%-15%. It has a metastable phase that work hardens very readily, making it very abrasion resistant, but leaves the center to remain very tough. Being mainly austenite, it is not magnetic.
The profile that you have left to turn should actually be a slight curve with the radius specified by the Florida museum, rather than a straight taper. It has to do with the concept of a ball (the wheel profile) rolling between two pipes (the rail profile) to make it self centering. That type of machining used to be done with a tracer attachment on the lathe.
+Shop Dave Exactly - it is a taper with several radii around edge and the flange. A tracer attachment would be a nice way to do this, if I had a tracer attachment....
flat on the wgeel needs tob 15 degrees so the whell can turn with scipping
the flanges need to be rounded to prevent de-railing in the switch and frogs
If HSS cutters won't touch it, how is it that you can drill it with, presumably, HSS drills?
It is mostly hardened on the surface of the casting, once you get under that, it is fairly easy to machine. The drill gets through that layer pretty quick.