Another Balancing Act...

 ...juggling next? 

Having received the new castings for the balance lever pivots, time presented itself to get them drilled and ready for fitting.

The four mounting holes had little depressions cast into the backing, to allow easy centering of the drill. Once clamped down onto the radial arm drill, these were a very simple job.





The main pivot support, however, was a little more involved. There was no centre marking, so the centre had to be found and marked. Whereas with some of the dismantling work, it had been possible to find the centres of some pins by eye, these required more finesse!

Rob offered a very handy tool, which was put to good use.

First of all, a blob of paint was daubed in the central area of the casting and allowed to dry: this was so that the scribed lines would show up better.



Next, the centre lines were scribed across this paint, and luckily they all met up! Several lines were thrown across, just so that any inaccuracies would be revealed.


Rather than use a centre punch, and risk damage to or destruction of the casting, a small bit was put into the drill, and used to send a pilot hole through. This was fine for the top section, but the drill bit was not long enough to continue through.


Opening up the hole in stages to get the 25mm required (we were constrained by the sizes of suitably long drill bits...), it was then possible to continue through the hole, to drill all the way through the back plate.

Finally, it was time to open out the holes to 1" diameter, using a reamer. Sadly, the reamer in question was not long enough to run all the way through, so we have a tiny bit more work to complete these. The solution we thought we'd discovered, to use a morse taper extension, fell apart as we found it was bent... and the longer one didn't quite clear the first hole. Worst case, a little, careful filing will complete these. 


The final step will be to drill a hole through the end, to allow the spindle to be pinned and prevent rotation.

** juggling is an apt description of managing the jobs that contribute towards the scheme as a whole!

Location: Stainmore Railway Company, South Rd, Kirkby Stephen CA17 4LA, UK

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