johnsmachines

Today I made the BA7 studs for the columns on the triple expansion steam engine.  I decided to use 25mm bolts, then trim them to length after they were installed into the threaded holes.  Why not use threaded rod or make my own studs on the CNC lathe I hear you asking?  Well, I could have made my own studs.  In fact I did make 2 studs, quite succesfully.  But it was time consuming.  Cutting up threaded rod would have worked, but it turned out to be less expensive to buy over length bolts which are threaded right down to the heads, and trim them to length, than to buy threaded rod.  Plus, the trimmed bolts are now quite useable 12mm bolts.   Also, it was easy to use the bolt hex head to screw them into the threaded holes.

I did manage to break off one stud and spent a half hour or so digging the stub out and renewing the stud.  But no permanent damage.

The BA7 25mm bolts are screwed into place, and held there with with a nut.  The saw blade was attached to a 200mm long arbor which was shop made for the job, shown here about to trim the bolts to length, on the milling machine.

The studs are trimmed to length, and the columns are sitting in place, temporarily held with 4 nuts each. 9 studs and nuts is total overkill, over- engineering, but it looks the part, no?

After fiddling with the minute BA 7 studs and nuts, trying not to go nutty myself, I had some fun rough machining the lump of brass which is to become the low and intermediate pressure cylinders.