Hi today I made the first part for my 4 inch foster agricultural engine. I did my research, had to wait for my plans due to Dorset Steam fair but today I finally made the first step. I’m starting with the front hubs, axle and wheels. Metal has been ordered so all I could do until it arrives is knock out a front tow pin and the front axle pin. Next it will be the front hubs and axle both of these are being machined from scratch.

I’m fortunate enough to have a lathe and milling machine at home and access to a full machine shop at work. Work also has a few very knowledgeable and experienced people so help is readily available should I need it. Being an engineer I plan to fabricate as much as I can. I was wondering if any users here have any tips for me, perhaps such things as known drawing errors. All advice is greatly appreciated.

Wow er thanks I think, it’d appear there is no end of errors. I had noticed the drawings were vague in places. No big problem as like I said I plan to fab as much as I can so if I plan ahead all should be good. Can any reading be recommend? Bearing in mind I’m new to steam. Thanks sincerely for the help.

Sincerely thanks for your help. I’ve registered with TT but the section on model engines requires a donation which since for some reason I haven’t received my activation email(it’s not in my spam folder either) I can’t donate nor post. My reason for asking is I’m about to start machining my front hubs and am reluctant to start untill im happy with the plans which im not. The drawing for the hub assembly is vague at best and im not happy the bearing set up will work properly. Perhaps me and others are not getting it but im thinking of doing the bearing to my own design. Thanks again and I will have to persevere with TT

Edited By Mr Mike on 07/09/2016 00:58:09

Hi and again thanks for the help. My issue was with the collar that holds the hub assembly to the axle. My drawings are in metric so obviously have been converted from imperial. The axle has a diameter of 20mm the hub inner being 25mm this obviously being the outter diameter of the bearing I’ll push in. The drawings showed the inside diameter of the collar at 25mm this made no sense to me as it would be very loose on the axle and it obviously didn’t fit on the outside of the bearing. Anyway with a fresh mind I measured the drawings and found that the collar measured the same as the axle so it’d appear that whoever metricised the drawings got it wrong. I’ve learnt a valuable lesson here and it’s check, check and check some more as I am now the proud owner of 4 axle collars. 2 I made beautifully with a 25mm inside diameter and 2 equaly beautiful ones with the correct 20mm diameter. Newbie mistake I guess and probably the first of many.

Edited By Mr Mike on 12/09/2016 02:04:09

Hi, again thanks for the advice. I think from now i’m going to draw the part i’m making along with everything else in that particular assembly as it’ll help me notice any missing measurements and get a better idea of how things go together. Especially since I’m scratch building as much as I can and the drawings seem to be aimed at those buying castings and purely cleaning them up, therefor they have a lot of measurements missing.

When I came to mill the slots for my spokes I needed to rotate the work. Whilst I had access to a rotating table I wanted to try something new. So I turned a dummy axle that fitted the inside of my hub and after drilling its middle out I T slotted it to the bed of the mill. After fitting the hub over it I could rotate the hub through 360° and clamp it in place for machining.

Hi thanks for the replies. I'm aware that most use castings but as personal preferance im going to scratch build as much as I can. As mentioned previously the drawings tend to be aimed at those cleaning up castings so some measurements are missing. As for putting a radius on the edges the 3 parts in 1 picture are 1 complete hub assembly. Obviously the spokes go in the slots of the main hub and then the top hat shaped item is solid and fits on the inside of the hub I have put a radius on the part of this that sits up against the axle. The slim 8mm wide biscuit shaped cover goes on the outside of the hub covering the spokes. Since once the whole assembly is in place and held in situ via a collar it is then covered with a hollow usually brass cover to finish it off. Since the 3 items made so far all mate together I didnt think it'd look right with the hub having rounded corners being mated to other items with the same. Instead all 3 parts were turned at the same time to exactly the same diameter so when they are together it will be practically seamless joins throughout out the whole assembly. Obviously this is personal preference

Hi, as this is rapidly coming the place for good reliable advice for me I have a query regards lubrication for my front hubs. I plan to fit plain bearings in two halfs (as sugested here, thanks). My drawings simply a drilling in the side of the hub. Does one fit a flip top oiler or simply use the drilling as my lube point. My phosphor bronze is missing in transit at the moment so my hubs are on hold. Not wishing to name and shame yet but I have an email saying it was posted 3 weeks ago. I've tried to email back but its a no reply type email address, so ive rang and left messages but no joy yet.

To keep myself busy ive started machining my front axle from a piece of square steel and whilst I can obviously get it to within tolerance via the drawings, if someone has a photo of a cast one the could show me it'd help me get it spot on.

Hi thanks for the reply. I had thought of grease but only briefly as I thought oil was the accepted method. I have zero experience so far of fitting flip top lubricators so all advice is welcome. Im fitting split bushes and wasn’t planning on cutting oil ways into them any advice to contrary is welcome.