I don't think Reeves and Blackgates use the same supplier and probably different patterns as well, GS also do them and again unlikely to be the same as the other two.
They are not that hard to make from solid if you have a rotary table if you want a better finish but I don't recall there being a problem when I did my Minnie with Reeves ones though that was a few years ago.
I got mine from Blackgates and they were nice castings. i will send you a picture tonight of the castings that i got. If you want I can send you the Blackgates price list.
I'd say its a bit excessive particularly on such a small part. If it were a 4" traction engine you could probably loose the 1/16" missalignment but it looks like by the time the 5/16" central section has been cleaned up you may not be able to machine the outsides back to 3/16" and get a clean face.
Looks a nice job. You could have got away with steel or brass as its a bit easier to machine and just put a bronze sleeve in the centre. A lot of the parts on these small engines are done from gun metal to make casting easier and avoid hard spots rather than its bearing qualities.
Virtually all the minnie could be done without castings, maybe just the cylinder and flywheel to make things a bit quicker. Done as a road loco you would not even need the spoked flywheel.
I'd wait. 10% oversize is a bit much on small rivits and there is more risk of them going sideways as you need to allow more shank protrusion to fill the hole and form the head.
proved myself a fool tonight, thought I would grab an hour in the shed while the kids where quite, centre drilled one hole then changed over to my new 1/16 drill to drill a test hole, all good, changed back to a centre drill to spot all the holes then mixed up the drills and drilled all my rivet holes the wrong size….teach me to rush
Yes just use a ball pein to fill the CSK hole and file off flush as unlike the full size they will never see enough use to wear the rivits down flush to the strakes. Not too small otherwise you will be there all day, something like a 1/2lbs hammer will do.
If you have not CSK them yet then you can go with a steeper angle so the rivit does not need spreading so much, a 60deg one from a centre drill does teh trick and only needs a small depth.
I left mine until last, that way you can be sure everything lined up rather than trying to match holes in 3 different parts. Mind you at the time it was all done on the lathe and a drill press, I might get things a better match now with the mill & DRO.
J
PS Brian do you want me to alter the title of this thread as its about a bit more than just the hub castings now?