Axle wear!

J

John Morgan

Steam Traction
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Hi Group,
The rear axle of my Roundhouse Jack after three years of running.
The wear became noticeable after the timing seemed to be out and the loco began to run a bit rough.
A good reason to make sure your loco is cleaned after use.

John.
 
It always fascinates me how it is the harder material (i.e. the axle) that wears quicker than the softer material (the bearing). I first saw this many years ago when my Big-Big Train Hymek stripped the teeth off its brass drive gear, yet the plastic teeth driven by the brass gear were fine.

I know why it happens, but have never come across a name for this phenomenon. As the principle advocater of "keep it clean" perhaps it should be called Gorton's Law in his honour.

Here is a picture of the rear crank pins from my coal-fired Jack removed a few years ago and replaced with new items.
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Just a thought for those like me that do not have a lathe, the axle bushes supplied by Roundhouse have to be reamed. Next time I will ask them to do this for me.
John
 
Tony,
The reason why the harder material wears is: the abrasive particles [coal ash and dust] "rolls" into the soft material, becomes embedded and you have agrinding wheel , this is the principle used in making a Lapping tool , it seems counterintuitive that a soft lead bar for instance can have diamond dust rolled into the surface and will then abrade a much harder material.
Ive been working on a Annabell today which has had a vigorous years running and it has wear on the rods etc such that Ive bushed them,but the crankpins are mild steel and unworn!

Gordon.
 
John Morgan said:
Just a thought for those like me that do not have a lathe, the axle bushes supplied by Roundhouse have to be reamed. Next time I will ask them to do this for me.
John
Click to expand...

Reaming can be a simple hand job John. All you need is the correct size hand reamer (not expensive) and a tap wrench to turn it with.

Fit the bushes and ream them as a pair. Always turn the reamer in a forward cutting direction, never backwards, and don't push it in to the bush, let it find it's own way through. It effectively 'scrapes' the excess material away.
 
clean machinery is always good!
 
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