News and NotesVideo of the DeLaverne Engine in operation
June 26, 2008 Work Report Jerry and Dave made the run to Tuck about 2PM to work on getting our "stuff" out of the Rural Life Museum and help with the sod laying. We
did well and only have 5 or 6 items to get out now. We moved the glass Jerry jumped in for a while and helped a large crew put down the sod in the front of the building. There was some extra and that was placed strategically around the seeded area. The seeded grass is actually sprouting and you can see the green coming up! The landscaper will be there on Monday to put in the flower garden in the front area. Jamie was noted winding up the generators to make sure they are
ready for the show in case we need them Some more bits for the Lincoln Mill were placed in the first trailer along with some pieces for the Dick Day shaper. We made our escape about 8PM. June 21, 2008 Work ReportWork was flying everywhere like *#%@ from a manure spreader on Saturday! Dave Fisher was noted working with a backhoe out front. There was a crew sucking leaves behind the bleachers but I do not know who. It may have been Eric Harvey, Pat Harvey and Shelly Hall. The tractor pull sled crew was working on the sled. The engine shed was active with John Adkins, Art Lyman and Carl getting things ready. Doug was noted in the train yard and Bullet was everywhere. Mrs. and Mr. Blades were seen in the sub shop getting things ready. Pat and Shelly were noted in the Rural Life Museum in the afternoon
along with Jan Clendaniel and her brother. The sign has been renovated courtesy of her brother. Pulleys were cleaned and belts were cut and joined to bring the motor power to the engine room shaft and from there to the main shaft. There may be some tweaking required but the main shaft was turning smoothly in the late afternoon. Pat and Shelly Threw themselves into the clean up of the "stuff"
lying around in the MTM and helped unload several pallets of hangers and
pulleys into the hanger/pulley truck. The mobile scaffolding was disassembled in the late afternoon and
moved to the miscellaneous truck at the loading dock along with some
lumber. It is beginning to look like you can walk around without stepping
over a half dozen shafts and pallets. June 16, 2008 Work ReportThe electrical inspector finalled the electrical yesterday for the machine shop and camper panel. Irving King and his sons finished the trim work and installed the attic hatch. In the evening we had a good crew of eight and set the double door frame, cut the base and trim that was short and finished trimming out shop area. Some new wood will now need varnishing. The hardware did not come with the doors so we need to get that to finish hanging the doors. If I can get the hardware for the doors I will get it on and Andy will call for the building final for Thursday or Friday.
Bobby Saathoff said he would do the drainage, landscaping and hydro seeding work Thursday and Friday. We may need to get some hose and sprinkler system going for Bullet to maintain for a couple of weeks to make sure we get a stand of grass.
This past Sunday we completed the electrical from the new service on the log cabin property to the gatehouse and changed over some lighting circuits from the old system. Eric and crew trimmed trees and used the chipper most of the day. They also removed the fence between the museum and machine shop to allow the landscaping. Eric took the materials and pulleys and will have the drive unit done for Saturday.
Things are moving. -- This report composed by Tom Booze
June 14, 2008 Work ReportJerry and Dave were down on Thursday to do some clean up and get several things ready for Saturday's push to get the main line shaft up . At that time they got a look a the museum with all lights installed and operating. It is an impressive sight and will really be a show stopped when we get all of the ancillary "stuff" out of the building. On Saturday, the usual contingent of volunteers gathered on the grounds to get ready for the show. There was also an antique tractor pull so the crew that runs that was in attendance. In addition the kitchen crew of Ellen and George Sherwood, and Rita Milke were handling the hamburger kitchen. Noted in the Rural life Museum were Jane Clendaniel, Jane Redpath, Pat Harvey and Deb Sinkule. Much work remains therein due to the removal of the machine tools and the mess that left. In the Machine Shop Museum the work was again lead by Tom Booze and his able assistants Lawrence Patrick, Jerry Tuwiner, Jeff Greenblatt, Luther Dietrich, Ed Moniger, Archie Cheda, and Dave welser. Outside, Jamie Hall, Dave Fisher, and others who I do not have names for were busy pulling wire from the main to the camping area sub-panel. All did not go as planned but as usual Jamie persevered and convinced the job that he was in charge. The main line shaft went up and gave us a minor problem in that it did not want to rotate with only the lower bearings installed. Some bearing scraping and testing at the hands of Jeff and Ed produced situation that should work. The use of a strap and a long (8') handle gave us some movement so we stayed with it. Soon a rope wrapped around the coupling was giving movement. The installation of a large pulley late in the afternoon gave us ample torque to rotate the shaft.
Next week we will install the upper bearing halves. Jerry, Archie, and Luther were noted cleaning large pulleys and assorted pieces. Tom and Lawrence were noted putting up a countershaft for the Lodge & Davis shaper. Dave was noted in the trailer and conex searching for "misplaced" items. The days work, which started around 7AM, wrapped up shortly before 7PM and the crew knew that they had put in a days work. Earlier in the week, Jerry made a wood bushing for the large wood pulley in the engine room and reported that it was not hard work, it just took forever. Luther made some replacement brass wipers for several of the bearings. In the new area out front, Eric Harvey, George Sherwood and JR Stinchbury were working on getting the poison ivy under control and cleaning up the area for show parking. Art Lyman's crew of Doug , Carl and Bullet were noted hard at work in the train yard and on the rails later in the day. The sound of spikes being driven was heard as late as 7PM when your reporter departed. I just know that Shelly was around there somewhere but did not see where she was working. June 7, 2008 Work ReportThere was a large contingent (of the same people) on the grounds Saturday. Work and sweat was flying. In the new machine shop museum the crew was headed up by Tom Booze and assisted by Pat Harvey, Lawrence Patrick, Andy Koch, Jerry Tuwiner, Luther Dietrich, Jeff Greenblatt, Charles Roberts and Dave Welser. New member Archie Cheda got a taste of life at Tuck during the run up to the show and liked it so much he will be back the next three weekends! Two countershafts were installed to run the Lathe & Morse lathes and several machines were moved into what we hope is their final position. Our metal pulley collection was retrieved from the shed and placed outside the museum for selection of the appropriate pieces. They will be moved to a trailer for long term storage when we are finished "shopping". Several bearing carriers were painted and two more were retrieved from the hanger truck. Some of the hangers that had been removed from the museum the week before were replaced in the hanger truck and more are awaiting replacement therein. Elsewhere on the grounds, attention was being paid to the train lokey and it appears to have been successful as it sounded great and produced much horn blowing. Noted in that arena and in the big engine shed were Art Lyman, Doug, Carl, John Adkins and George Macey. Out front the crew of Jamie and Shelly Hall, Eric Harvey, David Altavater and son, and Dave Fisher were noted using the heavy machinery and chipper to clear some poison ivy and brush from the new "log cabin property". Jamie was also noted doing some electrical work late in the day. Lunch was provided by Bill Cep and appreciated by all. For anyone who did not notice, it was HOT and MUGGY! December 29, 2007Work on the new building continues. Last week saw a major cleanup in preparation for the beadboard delivery and wall insulation. The insulation has been installed, and the beadboard was delivered on Thursday. After unloading some donated machinery (see below), the "crew" got busy sanding. Jerry Tuwiner followed a lead on the CAMS list for a wood lathe, and ended up with the lathe and 2 trailer loads + 3 pickups worth of machinery from a donor in Manassas. And a friend of Luther's donated an "as new" ShopSmith multi-function woodworking machine. Jeff and Dave picked up the second load from Manassas on Thursday and the crew unloaded at Tuckahoe today. The Shopsmith has a bandsaw and tablesaw attachment with it as well as a duplicator attachment. It has hardly been used and is in pristine condition.
Here's a partial list of the Manassas items:
Needless to say, it was a very generous donation. The mill has been sold, and there are several members interested in the Colchester lathe. 2007 Annual ShowThe 2007 annual show was a great success. Mild temperatures and clear skys brought record crowds. Pictuers Here!. June 9, 2007I would say that we had a stellar day today!! We were able to pull
the pieces together to bolt about 400 pounds of engine head to the
planer table and set to work on it. The iron around the interface was
This did mean that we had to remove those two thru bolts and use a strap across the center to finish the area where the bolts had prevented the cutter from going. Judicious use of a dial indicator made that switch much easier and the finished product looks very smart! The crew deserves kudos for good thinking on the fly and sterling work ethics. The final act of the day was to deliver the head back to the big engine shed where we had picked it up in the morning! We had a steady stream of visitors who had heard about the job and wanted to see the planer do honest work instead of peeling plastic. Luther finished off the cone pulley for the headstock of the DS&B following his near miraculous work last week. Getting the Dutch key halves to line up well enough to clean up with a tap required enormous patience and tenacity. We may be able to get that reassembled this next weekend. Kudos for Luther! Dave wandered off and greased two of the large lawnmowers that see a lot of use but not enough maintenance. There was a great deal of other activity on the grounds, getting ready for the show and well as an antique tractor pull in progress. May 5, 2007April 7, 2007The entire machine shop crew and a some of the gas engine folks braved the April snow to show up at Tuck on Saturday. The engine crew was prevented from further painting on the DeLaverne by the cold weather. Fortunately we had plenty of doughnuts.
This picture is actually in color - it was a remarkably gray morning. Dave provided new bearings for the phase converter, and he and Luther got everything back together and tested. Jeff and company got the apron back on the DS&B lathe. Dave and Jerry picked up the rest of the tooling for the Flather lathe. Lots of good stuff although it would have been nice if it had not gotten rusty. Jerry spent some time cleaning and oiling. Some of the machines in the pavilion got hosed down with oil/WD 40. It looks like we may have a new member in Greg Menke. Greg is from Catonsville, and a collector of American Tool Works machinery. He delivered the Keller power hacksaw that he, Jeff and Jerry picked up at UMBC last week, and volunteered to make a new back gear bushing for the Garvin. Vince did a proposed layout for the new building exhibition area. Dick and Luther reassembled the railroad axle but its not ready to be finalized as the bearing holders need to be cleaned. March 3, 2007A skeleton crew of Dick, Jerry, and Jeff spent Saturday in the machine shop. Dick and Jerry drilled the shortened railcar axle for the sleeve coupling. All that remains is to bolt up the wheels. As this was the last operation of our first "contract" machining job, we commorated the event with a picture:  The fact that this operation was successful attests to Jerry's ability to supervise. Jeff worked on reassembly of the DS&B lathe. A new stub shaft for the feed rod drive was made up but when reinstalling, it became apparent that the bores in the bracket were misaligned. The bracket was removed for further evaluation. We also encountered an odd method of keying the drive gear to the leadscrew. See the DS&B page for pictures. January 13, 2007A crew of four descended on the museum for another work day. Fortunately the weather was warm so we were not too cold in the museum. The heaters were nonfunctional again this month. A discussion session on machine placement was the first item and Dave hauled out the allegedly accurate to scale pieces that represented 12 of our machines. Being made from memory they turned out to be not so accurate. That spurred Dave and Jerry to measure those machines that we felt are prime candidates for the new museum. This involved a lot of acrobatics but we did get a good list. New pieces will be prepared for the next session which we hope will not be too far off. Cabin Fever being next weekend we know it will not be that soon. Dick did some layout for the next cut on a railroad car axle that we are shrinking to narrow gauge. We now know where to cut and mill the joint. Dave had returned the other half from his shop. Jeff did some more reassembly on the apron for the D S & B lathe and this necessitated some work by a "fitter" and in the end everything fit. The feed rod was hauled outside for some serious cleaning and Jeff made a quick drawing to help us restore all the pieces in the correct order and orientation. This was a three man effort and we were able to haul it back into the museum after lunch. The feed rod passes through a tube with bevel gears at each end. The tube rotates in the apron, and translates to engage one of the bevel gears to drive the carriage. Torque is transmitted from the feed rod to the tube by a long key that is square in the feed rod, but tapered to fit snugly in the tube. This key was worn down to almost nothing; Dick volunteered to make up a new one. Dick and Jerry went back to checking the condition of the headstock bearings on the D S & B lathe and through a process of shimming and testing the bearings produced a very satisfactory reading when stressed with a pry bar. They then turned their attention to the long bed Reed 14 and with help from Dave and Jeff produced equally satisfactory results. Jeff did some reassembly and exploratory work on the Cincinnati 1 1/2 tool and cutter grinder. Dave did some looking in the conex for misplaced items to no avail. Everyone worked on the doughnuts and Bullet claimed the remnants. December 9, 2006The gas engine crew, led by Art Lyman, continued with restoration of the Delaverne engine. There was evidence of further painting despite the cold weather. Art's kerosene heater was in serious danger of being hijacked by the machine shop crew, see below. We had an interesting day in the machine shop and got a few things done. It was hard to pry the crew out of the airport restaurant after lunch and back to the deepfreeze called the Rural Life Museum. The propane tank had been disconnected so there was zero heat! Players were Luther Dietrich, Jeff Greenblatt, Dick Mcbirney and Dave Welser with visits by Art Lyman and Bullet, alias David Wooters. Jeff made good progress reassembling several pieces of the Dietz Schumacher and Boye lathe. Luther and Dave spent some time looking for the 1 1/4" shaft supplied by John McCalla to replace the inner shaft on the Garvin back gear. It is still in hiding along with the sector arms for the Garvin dividing head. Dick worked on the shaft for the Garvin and new directions are being explored as the shaft itself has very little runout. Art was consulted on the railroad axle reconfiguration and Dick laid it out for cutting. Dick also did some more work on one half of the axle in the shaper. Luther and Dave relocated the tap and die collection and placed all of the precision measuring instruments in the antique tool chest currently stored on top of the far end of the Reed long bed lathe. We aired out the trailers so they would fill with that crisp dry air that was nipping at our noses yesterday. We attempted to fire up the planer to clarify some issues with the operation manual but were thwarted by belts that did not want to stay in place. We chalked that up to the dry cold conditions and will try again later, perhaps with some belt dressing lightly applied. We also had trouble with the three phase converter. The bearing in the "uncooled" end of the TEFC motor started out with squeals. Dave greased both ends (not without complaints from the very cold grease guns) and the squeal went away but a check at the end of the run (hot!) tells us that we will have to pull that bell housing and see about replacing the bearing. November 18, 2006This Saturday produced an impromptu performance by several stalwarts. Jerry, Jeff and Dave showed up to join Pat, Eric and Andy at a clean up event spurred by Dave's ramblings about the mess in the auction area. Bullet also pitched in. Thanks to Pat and Eric we had a dumpster into which to pitch the trash and a worker from Eric's shop will pick up the metal items for recycling. There turned out to be more metal than trash so the work gang of Pat, Eric, Andy, Jeff and Jerry finished the clean up shortly after noon. Dave tried mulching leaves but the John Deere mower which seemed to work so well in the spring was not running and the smaller Craftsman mower did not seem up to the job. It may have been that the leaves were not as dry as they seemed and did not therefore mulch as easily. We fired up the big forklift after discovering that the oil level was off the stick, down 3 quarts. We'd like to remind all of those who operate Tuckahoe equipment to please check fluids before use. November 4, 2006Members of the machine shop crew retrieved two Cincinnati tool and cutter grinders, generously donated by Bill Bonta of Catonsville. One is a model 1, the other a model 1-1/2; both are in very good condition including motorized wheelheads and the original belt-drive wheelheads. Vince Iorio, who has a 1-1/2, is leading the reassembly/cleanup effort. |
