Stickers & Thanks

Hey Patrons! It's a new month and that means credits are updated and stickers are in the mail. This week's video landed right on the 2nd, so there will be a one-week delay on the updated credits. It takes a while to do this stuff, and I can't update the list until the 2nd because of how Patreon updates their database. Anyways, if you joined the Sprocket level in November, you will see your name in lights starting next week.

Long time Patrons will know I always used to do a book review in this space each month. Well, it's been ages since I acquired a new machining book, but I finally have! It's a doozy, too! I picked up the new Kozo Hiraoka book, the K-27 (Vol 1!). This is apparently a two parter, and part one is HUGE. This book is three times as thick as some of his others, and the production quality is noticeably increased. There are a ton of colour photos and mercifully the drawings are bigger. They really pulled out the stops on this one! The larger drawings is significant. For the A3, it's clear they shrank them as much as they could to reduce page count on the book, but some of them are nigh-on indecipherable as a result. See, for example, the trouble I had with the tender hammer form. Critical dimensions were illegible in that because of the tiny isometric view they gave you in the printing.

Volume one finishes with what looks like a running loco, including the boiler, smoke box, cab, all the running gear, etc. It doesn't seem like there's much left for volume 2, but the tender is noticeably absent so maybe it will focus on that.

This is a Kozo book that I bought to read and enjoy, but I will never build this one. It's not a locomotive that appeals to me especially. However, these books are an absolute joy to read and admire as works of art. I'm sure a tiny percentage of people who buy them will ever build the engine, and that's okay!

The boiler in this one is very simple- simpler than the Shay, for example. No taper, although the barrel has multiple joints. The design is virtually identical to the A3, but scaled up and he makes the outer crown sheet in two pieces to eliminate that very problematic Y-joint with the throat plate. A big improvement! The outer crown sheet on the A3 boiler is definitely the most unpleasant part of the design to build. That's all I've gleaned so far from skimming through it. I haven't sat down to read this one properly yet, but I am looking forward to it. I went straight to the boiler to see what he did there, of course. The boilers are the scary monsters for anyone building these things. 😁

Thanks for your support Patrons, and see you all soon!