Squaring the Frames - Pennsylvania A3 Switcher, Part 36

This episode on Blondihacks, I’m finishing the tender! Exclusive videos, drawings, models & plans available on Patreon!
/ quinndunki
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[@JetIgniter2k2]

I'm not really into model trains, but I love this series because you get to touch on so many different machining and fabricating techniques.

[@alextopfer1068]

Same, although I'm worried that watching it is getting me more into model trains...

[@julias-shed]

These aren’t model trains they’re miniature trains so you’re good 🤣

[@TKing2724]

10:45 - The moral of the story is "You can do it right, or you can do it over." Nothing wastes time in a shop like taking shortcuts.

[@vaderdudenator1]

“There’s always time to do it right the second time”

[@autochton]

I believe there's a similar saying which originated in the military: "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast." As in, go slow so you get it right, and don't have to lose time doing it over and/or clearing up the mess from your first rushed try! 😁

[@user-dh5eb1cx9e]

I feel like I need that as a warning sign in my shop, "Never Underestimate My Ability to Make a Problem Worse." 😂

[@RonCovell]

Quinn - great to see you making good progress. I truly salute you for featuring your missteps as well as your successes. We can all relate to making mistakes, occasionally.

[@DavidLindes]

"occasionally"... I see, you can't let it be believed that it's too frequent a thing. ;)

[@rossbishop2468]

I've been a model engineer for over 50 years and made several models of varying complexity. I find it really difficult to relate what I'm doing to people unfamiliar with model engineering; even within my own house. It's like they walk past my latest engine everyday and all of a sudden it's "where did that come from?" I really appreciate your patience to explain what you're doing in a humble and accessible format. It does a lot to promote the hobby and hobbies in general which are evermore important for health and well being. Keep doing it. You are our spokesperson!

[@GilgaFrank]

I always learn more from watching people make mistakes than from watching people just churn out perfect work. So I suppose I'm on the right YT channel here. Thanks for being honest about slipups!

[@petedepledge3359]

We gain knowledge from making our mistakes. We gain wisdom from watching other people make mistakes. Thanks, Quinn for making us all wiser😂

[@marydickson5871]

Having followed your journey through this project, I really appreciate the way you show it all... mistakes and triumphs. I have said this before,: when I was young my grandfather explained to me: "it is not that a master work person does not make mistakes but rather that they know what to do about them". Keep up the good work. And, yes. Fire subdues all, big fire conquers.

[@bernieshort6311]

When I was in my apprenticeship (as an Engine fitter and turner) I sometimes made a mistake. I would go to the boss and tell him I had made a mistake, he would ask "what are you going to do about it" so long as you had an idea on how to put it right, he was never bothered and told me to put it down to experience. I followed that line throughout my working life and applied it to the people I taught later in my life. It’s only a cock up if you have no way of making it right. People new to this hobby will learn tremendously from watching your channel Quinn and it is upstanding of you to both show your mistakes and how to put them right. I have always admired that about you. Thank you.

[@mauraalwyen220]

"The moral is always a bigger torch" 😂 Said like a true HVAC pro 😂

[@SoPackedIndustries]

Saturdays with Quinn are the best! thank you for sharing your projects with us. As I watch you build this im extremely curious on how much it weighs? Hope you see this comment! Happy Saturday Quinn cheers from Boston.

[@Blondihacks]

I think the whole thing is about to about 40lbs right now. It’ll be around 125 when finished, I think

[@oldfarthacks]

@@Blondihacks It's interesting how fast the weight adds up, not only in the projects that we build.

[@MrRedstoner]

18kg will be 57kg, for my metric brethren

[@OGTtom]

Happy Saturday Quinn , I look forward to Saturday , to see your video , thank you .

[@Raytenecks]

I just realized that your intro is one of the few that I don't skip. It's short, it sounds good (rather than attacking my ears, like some) and visually pleasing. So, thanks!

[@notwithintolerance]

As a Machinist I love watching your videos, Quinn. You do good work which is a joy to watch. Just a suggestion wrt your hearth setup: I've had success getting more out of a smaller torch by building a more confined space with fire bricks. Brass is, as you know, very thermally conductive, so it loses any heat put into it rather quickly. Especially given how much 'overspilling' of heat you were getting just blowing past the part. I had to stress relieve a bunch of brass bars prior to machining, and wasn't getting good even results until i surrounded the bars closely on 3 sides..even with an oxy acetylene torch. It later became a non-issue when we got a heat treating oven, of course. 😁 Anyway. Keep up the good work!

[@johnmoorefilm]

Ahhhhhhh…6pm Saturday in Dublin…happy time

[@markloving11]

Having been an avid viewer for many years now I am so inspired to see just how far your skills have grown and it really make me want to strive for higher precision and quality every time! Thank you!

[@Jim-fe2xz]

Wow! Holding .001" all around that assembly is fantastic! Love the humor especially "measure until you get the answer you want" LOL! (From previous vis). You're making great progress!

[@earlledoux9824]

Your videos are awesome. I think what makes them so interesting, is the way you explain everything in detail. 👍🚂 Lots of love😘.

[@mumblbeebee6546]

It’s a frame now, and a good one! Nice! Swarfy dreaming of journeys future…

[@doublenickelbob]

There's never time to do things right but always time to do it twice. Measure twice, drill once. lol we all done that. Super job, can't wait to see it done

[@firebird8600]

Yay! It's Blondihacks time!!

[@rickfazzini22]

Great video as always! Your sense of humor is as good as your fabrication skills👍🏻

[@Hyce777]

Fantastic work as always Quinn! Depending on exactly which square-y bit you're looking at, it's either a Pilot Beam, or an End Sill depending on the piece of equipment, at least in the US vernacular. The front beam on a steam locomotive is the pilot beam. Bolsters are specifically for a truck->body interface, again, at least in US vernacular. Railroad vernacular seems to have a *shocking* amount of non-congruence across territories so your mileage may vary... Those boxes are neat. At first I thought there wasn't going to be a binder strap on the second box, but once you demonstrated it made sense. That's a cool design. On the full-scale stuff, we have a shoe on the front, and a tapered wedge on the back of those slots within where our journal box rides. Tightening the wedge rams the box forward in the frame jaws against the shoe, and keeps our running gear tight, even through wear, at least until tolerance runs out. Fantastic to see how you machine these parts! I've learned at least a dozen things about machining from your channel. Much appreciated. :)

[@Hyce777]

... I just got to the point of talking about the lack of spring rigging. *Interesting*. That makes a ton of sense. Spring rigging is usually set up in tripod format, just like this model is, though in groupings of equalized wheelsets. So freaking cool. Thanks again!

[@Blondihacks]

The terminology is extra complicated by Kozo who has his own terms for everything in the drawings. Sometimes they are Japanese translations of their terms, sometimes he has used the British terms, and sometimes it’s clear he’s just making up words that he thinks suits the part. 😅

[@Hyce777]

@@Blondihacks That makes it just, an entire fun pile! Lol. The joys of translation. Love seeing the progress.

[@RainShadow-yi3xr]

In British terminology, I think they would be called Headstocks.

[@avoirdupois1]

I appreciate both the discussion of errors and the discussion of corrections. It helps us to be better makers.

[@cowcar87]

18:05 - Safety glasses: check, Safety squints: check, Metric grimace of concentration: check! Love the channel. Keep up the great work!

[@stephenbridges2791]

Nice save on the holes. I've always found if you try to save time not getting the correct tool; it ALWAYS takes longer. Really enjoy your train project.

[@thedabblingwarlock]

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching this series, and I'm looking forward to seeing it done and working. I also want to thank you for reigniting my childhood love of trains. Funnily enough, a train was passing by my house as I was watching this.

[@StevenStyczinski-sy8cj]

I love you. Please keep going.

[@WildGalaxy]

I love this project, and I love your channel, Ms. Hacks.

[@MLFProp]

I'm at a loss for words. Such dedication and mastery of a craft is so very rare these days. I'm so glad that I started watching this series a few years ago. Congratulations to you Leo and to the crew. You were very lucky to find such a fine crew to work on it with you with so much love. SV Seeker sent me to this channel and thank you so much Doug.

[@Blondihacks]

Really? Doug mentioned me? I watched him early on but haven’t kept up lately. Hard to beat Seeker as ambitious projects go!

[@Blondihacks]

Oh I think maybe you meant to comment on Tally Ho’s launch video (which was amazing!). 😄😄

[@danmooney7192]

The gentleman over on the Daze Cars you tube channel gave a nice shoutout on his latest video to your machining expertise.

[@hadinossanosam4459]

Pedantry alert: 17:33 At least on an *inside-frame* steam locomotive - on an outside-frame one, there's much more mechanical business going on inside the frames, so the tradeoff becomes more complicated

[@ryanneumann5165]

I love Blondihacks Saturday!! 😊

[@rogertaylor1589]

Great silver braze save on the frame member. You are almost even with me on my A3 build that started 10 years ago. Great progress, I need to get started on the engine.

[@dustandcobwebs]

It's really coming together now which just makes each episode all the more exciting. Choo choo

[@natthewsmith]

you are the favorite kickoff to a chill saturday morning. I saw the video and squealed. ❤

[@Freakcent]

Percussive persuasion is a technical term!

[@Ioughtaknowbetter]

Really excellent machine work. Half of being a good fabricator is being able to fix your mistakes so that nobody knows they were there

[@firbolg]

Back in uni, I had a day job as a machinist and I share your hate for boring heads! My job was to make extraction plates for some large thermoplastic injection moulds and each plate had a lot of precision holes required to be made... and I had a 20 year old boring head on a 20 year old and poorly maintained CNC milling machine and some holes required an accuracy of up to two hundreds of a millimetre (0.75thou). It wasn't fun! And I had been hired as a mechanical designer, which was my actual profession and expertise. Love your channel and it's slowly restoring my love for tinkering and machining.

[@nicholashacking381]

Good recovery from the misplaced holes problem.

[@Kim-kl5jh]

Wonderful work on the frame, Quinn! I like how you made the screw holes on the end of the long frames for the front bolster. That was quite a challenge because those parts are so long. Your solution was great and very tidy. Nice save with silver soldering the screws in the misplaced holes. Wish I could say I've never done that before! 😂

[@Wolfie-Crafts]

Absolutely loving this series, its really inspired me to try model engineering. I have a copy of Kozo's A3 Switcher and am looking forward to the day I may be able to do my own build of this beautiful locomotive. I am still very new to machining and only have a mini lathe and mill. Not ideal for this project but I am hoping to learn the skills I need practicing on them and in the future be able to afford larger machines to have ago at this. I am also interested in garden scale Sm32/Sm45. Currently have a small garden steam engine to build. Which I'm looking forward to putting together soon.

[@donaldsutherland244]

Always, always something to learn anew or to reinforce by watching your work. Thank you for sharing!

[@Argent911]

0:03:37 Your commitment to hitting tolerances always makes me smile! I'm just starting to learn how to do manual machining and it's always nice to see what an art it can become. Beautiful work!

[@llapmsp]

Awesome work this week. Can't wait till the next installment.

[@soundmaster1966]

Hi Quinn! That was absolutely satisfying to seeing every little step and the transformation from all that raw brass material to becoming the locomotive chassis. What a lovely project. Stay safe and have a nice weekend. Yours Ulf from Germany.

[@planecrazy9208]

I am so envious of your abilities! I can hardly wait for each episode - keep 'em coming!! Tom :)

[@daniel_wilkinson]

In our industry a common saying is that we're all just one broken bolt away from a 30 minute job taking 3 days.

[@Blondihacks]

🤣

[@steveteague4152]

Hmmmm....you rock. Never seen a more practical set of videos.

[@jonasowens27]

QUINN THIS IS INTERNUTS i love your full circles your my favorite lesbun

[@stumccabe]

Looking good! Thanks Quinn, great build.

[@peterdolamore7808]

I just made exactly the same mistake on the front bolster holes a week ago! Love your channel ! Ontario Can

[@hemanthharrilall6469]

Really enjoying/enjoyed all your projects. This project is excellent. Cannot wait for the finale.

[@TheDistur]

Good save. Making progress!

[@jackrigdon6270]

Quinn- your attention to detail is simply astonishing! I work on the Durango and Silverton and would be more than happy to show you our roundhouse machine shop if you are ever down here!

[@Blondihacks]

I would love that! Riding the D&S is on my bucket list for sure. You’re all doing amazing work down there.

[@jackrigdon6270]

@@Blondihacks Drop our marketing team a line whenever you get the chance to come down, it's probably not out of the question that you could snag some free tickets in exchange for a video or something! I work at the museum so I don't have any direct ability to arrange a ticket but would be happy to put in a good word!

[@MacroAggressor]

Beautiful work!

[@paulmorrey4298]

Thanks Quinn

[@vaderdudenator1]

I’m super hype to see the boiler on the frame

[@davidtaylor6124]

Great job, super tidy.

[@testbenchdude]

Love this. While I was watching, I was fine-tuning my 3D printer in order to print some garden markers. Watching you go through the process of making/troubleshooting stuff while I'm also engaged in a fabrication of sorts just makes for good vibes all around. I hope to get into machining someday! Thanks again Quinn :)

[@DustyFixes]

Love the switcher build. And, you're NOT incompetent. I will except lazy though. Just a thought for the clamps you used for the rotary table. What if they had a 45° bend at the end so you could come straight at the part? One Right hand, and one Left hand.

[@jackbodenmann7379]

Hello My Friends Most excellent Quinn! There are few things in life more satisfying than riding behind a coal burning steam locomotive that you made yourself. You are well on your way. Jack🚂

[@craigguinn5423]

Nice one, setups are always interesting.

[@andrewdashgdotcom]

Great video Quinn - thank you. I particularly appreciate how your commentary provides acccurate description of the various processes used to accomplish your admirable results. It really helps to keep these tips in mind when working on a project such as this.

[@raystevens687]

Well Quinn thanks for sharing your knowledge with everyone I appreciate it.

[@synth6754]

Another name for the buffer beam you start making at 4:52 is the pilot beam, which was the most common term describing it (in the states at least)

[@janjager2906]

I am in awe!

[@samleigh7817]

11:07 Quinn, I thought the answer to all life’s problems, the universe, and everything was 42!

[@kensherwin4544]

That's why we all watch this channel. We learn stuff.

[@garychaiken808]

Great job. Thank you 😊

[@kevinmullner4280]

percussive persuasion - i´m not a native english speaker, so that one was new to me, great.

[@manythingslefttobuild]

Great video Quinn.

[@heighRick]

Such a cool video, thanks Quinn, helps a lot!

[@andypughtube]

I might have said this before, but if you get a Wohlhaupter UPA3 from that eBay then your love-hate relationship with boring heads might change. They are such a delight to use, and you can feed more cut without stopping the spindle, just by briefly holding the feed ring.

[@ExpeditionTundraBeast]

I have a milling attachment for my lathe and with a chuck in the spindle, it allows u to drill the ends of very long parts.

[@jimsvideos7201]

Great fun as always. I've made similar mistakes and I'm sure I'll make more in my life.

[@KaletheQuick]

I have a request, forgive me. I started watching your videos with my daughter a bit over a year ago. I initially was trying to coax her to bed by putting something she would think is boring on the TV. So we started with Clickspring, visually appealing enough for her to not whine. I called him 'Clockmaker' and after some video of his finished yours was recommended (I've watched for awhile), so I said "Oh, this one is Train maker." Fast forward to now, when we sat down to watch this and while I was fiddling with the remote she was bouncing on the sofa chanting; "Trainmaker, Trainmaker, Trainmaker..." So thank you for all the quality content, and inspiring at least one little lady. If it fits the ~vibes~ of your videos, she would probably detonate from excitement if you gave her a shout out. If not that's fine, she is clearly already excited enough! Her name is Lillian and she will be turning 4 on the 18th. Have a lovely day. Can't wait to see the train go, Trainmaker.

[@Blondihacks]

🚂

[@raymondhorvatin1050]

Thanks for sharing

[@johnmoorefilm]

In terms of pivoting axel boxes, similar territory to “end shake” in watchmaking….if it don’t rattle it don’t run!

[@OnlyTheEd]

🚂 Progress!🥰

[@mperry9025]

Love your show

[@cypherfunc]

The camera POV parallax at 21:54 really had me questioning the squareness check for a minute there. 😅

[@kevinetheridge6153]

@19:50… I thought there would be a joke about a Starrett precision sharpie for depth 😊

[@jasonsummit1885]

I'm thinking that by the end of this series, we'll see Sprocket riding in a rail car as I'm not sure if it's going to be big enough for human passengers.😂

[@andrewjames7616]

Thankyou👍

[@terrytopliss9506]

Well despite the small brain fart the machining went really well Quinn. Thanks for the video.👍👍

[@BarryLitherland]

nice recovery

[@MasterMayhem117]

22:26 "With quality like that, I'm starting to make up for that silver soldering debacle.." -Quinn Ominous Foreshadowing? :P

[@grampiangs515]

What you didn’t tell us was just why are those members so cross

[@robertpearson8798]

I haven’t done it, but I believe that the head on your mill could have been tilted a full ninety degrees to allow you to drill the end holes in the frames. I’m not sure if it would have been worth the effort though. As far as being too lazy to bother getting the right torch for the job is concerned I think that pretty much all of us can relate. I know I certainly can. The good news is that the older I get the more able I am to avoid the temptation and just do things the right way the first time.

[@syninys100]

@14:35 it looks to me like the t-slots on that rotary table are aligned at 0-90-180-270; which means that to round the end of long stock aligned to 0 degrees would always require moving a clamp. But, is there any reason you couldn't align the stock to the y-axis at, say, 45 degrees, and then do the rounding through 45 to 135 degrees? That would put the workpiece angularly midway between the t slots, and, hopefully, allow the 180 cut to be made without moving clamps?

[@ego73]

Negative, Quinn! The answer to all of Life's problems is [wait for it!] 42!

[@nicolashuffman4312]

I bet a bunch of people watching this would like the 'Grand Scale' railroading episodes over on the Hyce channel. It's like this project but even bigger.

[@Blondihacks]

Hyce’s channel is great!

[@perfumedmanatee6235]

Those displaced centre drills are expensive but really useful...

[@pmsteamrailroading]

Love your videos as always. It is kind of a shame that the plans don’t use a fully sprung suspension. Yes it is a bunch more parts, but then you would get to learn and teach about some of the most fascinating aspects of real locomotives.

[@peevester9987]

So next time we get to see some driver wheels get built, or are you doing the cab first? The wheel machining looks ... intense.

[@misterikkit]

6:50 Quinn saves the exposition

[@peterwooldridge7285]

Sweet

[@a.bakker64]

Hey, new air ‘pistol’ rocket thing.

[@tjr4744]

Yes, what you said @ all that techy terminology .lol

[@lindonwatson5402]

full circle, not circle, great video, great video

[@BetweenTheBorders]

Now, now, *we* can always make anything worse. My projects have improved dramatically once I learned when to stop chasing a fix.