Building an Aligator

Thanks. Need some way to lock the nut. Was thinking of also cross drilling the shaft and the sleeve that the paddle assembly will be mounted to. A pin through it would act as a shear pin in case we picked up a log or something. Wondering if I should cut a keyway through the threads and key a washer behind the nut, then cross drill the nut as well.

Greg
 
Had to bore this gear, that apparently came from a hay bailer, out to 2.891 to fit the main shaft. It will give about 8.5 : 1 reduction between the steam engine and the paddles. Forgot to get a photo of it on the mill.
Quality control stepped in for a size comparison.

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Greg
 
Don't have any broaches, or a press big enough to get the gear in so the shaper came to the rescue again.

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About the limit for my little Logan shaper. Bolted a 5x5 angle to the table then clamped the gear to that. The bottom was sitting on the pad for the table support.

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Getting the 260 pound shaft balanced and aligned on the mill was interesting. Used a Starret height transfer gauge with the pins along the front edge of the table and a test indicator on the stem.

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A 1/2 inch key fitted.

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Greg
 
The guys did a pressure test on the boiler and fired it. This will be the power house.

 
Awesome build, heavy and solid. I love your GSD helper too.
 
Started building the paddle wheels. Cut the parts for the hubs with the plasma cutter. Each hub has two 24 inch dia disks and eight spacers that the wooden spokes will bolt to. The outer disk is slotted to allow it to form a cone to splay the outside spokes to match the 16 inch wide paddles.

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The plate we used was really rusted, the cuts were a little rough. Had the parts sand blasted so I could get decent welds. Decided to cut some holes and arcs in the spacers after blasting. Strangely enough the cuts were worse after blasting. Think maybe the pitted surface was deflecting the arc, when the pitts were full of oxide the effect was less. HUM

Greg
 
This is really impressive, the design, fabrication and machining. This is also a great undertaking and challenging project and is coming along nicely. Bob
 
Placed the main shaft today. The boiler is bolted in, but the engine is just sitting there. Need to build an Idler shaft now to carry the pinion, will be a roller chain drive to the engine. The roller chain will allow easy reduction changes to fine tune the system.

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Started framing the cabin, will make it easier to close in for the long cold winter.

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Greg

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