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The Eagle has landed on my doorstep..... time for some serious kit building.

Made a start with the hull lower and upper assemblies. The LH lower hull panel has a considerable bow that I thought would straighten out on assembly. Wishful thinking, I will need to take it to my mates place and have a straightening session in the 20 ton press. Otherwise everything seems to be going together very well.

Hello Phillip

Both of my hull side plates are warped and I was going to put them in my press to straighten out. I was curious how this worked for you. Was wondering if you heated them first or just bent them cold, and how did it turn out for you.

Brent

Hi Brenton
I was lucky to have a friend who has access to a set of industrial bending rolls. He passed the hull plate through the rolls sandwiched between two thin steel plates to protect the aluminium.
I was warned off of using a single point press in case I introduced a kink in the plate.
A steel fabricators or sheet metal fabricators in your area might be willing to help you. I find that going armed, and turning up unannounced, with some photographs/build manuals of your project generally sparks a favourable response from most small outfits. I always ask how much would they charge or better still what beer they like to drink.
Regards
Phil

Hi Phillip,
I was able to set the upper and lower side plates on the shop floor with a block of wood at both ends and jump on the center. It took some time but I was able to get the plates almost perfectly straight. Would have made a great u tube video! I was laughing at myself the entire time.
You may also find the rear plate is too tall. I had to file grooves where the rear plate met the frame to get it down about 3/16 of an inch.
Good Luck,
Tom

Tom
That, would have been interesting to watch, well done.
I have also found that we need to fit the idler bush carrier CK0303 to the lower hull plates before assembling the lower hull, so that we can fit the csk screw.
Phil

Tom
Can i be cheeky and ask if you are the Tom Miller that owned Big Boy 4005?

Hi Phillip,
I managed to fit the bushing before assembly but thanks for mentioning it.
And yes that is me. My loco is there in your town. I have seen videos of it running there. Are you a regular at that club and do you know Shane Marshall?
The D&RGW K-36 that I built is also in your country but way south of you now owned by Ian Welch.
Small world,
Tom

Thank you very much Philip I will try to find a place and see if I could get them rolled. I wonder if anyone has tried annealing the plates and then using a press to straighten them out. I tried blocking them with myself and girlfriend bouncing on them and they didn't budge. Mine probably have a 1/4" bend in them at centre. Would you or anyone else know what type of Aluminum these kits are made from.

I used a press at our race shop and a lot of patience....got them within 2 thousands.....I thought originally the bend was coming from tie down straps when shipping but it sounds like a few owners are having this problem.

Thanks Michael
I have a hydraulic press in my shop and I'm planning on trying to straighten them with it tomorrow. Good to hear that others have done that and had success. I wouldn't want to damage one of these side plates, Im pretty confident the aluminium will bend.

As far as I'm aware, normal aluminium plate will always have some form of bend in them, caused by the rolling process used during manufacturing. Cutting the shapes required for these kits can exacerbate this in some pieces by altering the stresses in each face, so some will warp more that others.

If you need a completely flat sheet of aluminium, it has to be cast tooling plate.

Adrian.

There is no such thing as a perfectly flat plate from what I have seen. The machining process can cause the "potato chip" effect as well. Typically, you would have cut plate welded together sent to a stress relief oven to have it baked off. From there, the final machining would take place. I am pretty sure the manufacturing process for the real thing followed this exact process. Otherwise, you would have hull cracks and all kinds of problems with installed assemblies such as the running hear.

Aluminum being softer than steel, one could always increase the fastener sizes a little and use these to straighten things out a little. Not a great solution though.

Could I ask some of you guys to post some pictures of the mounting brackets for the front plates? I did a rookie mistake, took them out of the packages, and proceeded to get them mixed up. I can't tell left from right anymore.

Do Not Try This At Home !!!


Adrian.

Brenton,

Thanks for the photo, but I realized when I saw your photo that I was not clear in my request. I meant installed so I can see the difference between the right and the left.