# Hot Rod Ruby



## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Dave Hottmann made a beefed up Ruby years ago and I wanted to do one of my own so I asked and received his permission and some helpful ideas last week at the NSS

I believe Dave's model had 5/8" cylinders and a stock Ruby Boiler.
I want to do one with not only a good draw-bar pull but the ability to maintain the pull at speed.

In a steam loco, the cylinders provide the torque to the wheels but the boiler produces the horsepower. Because I want the most horsepower I can get, I will use my own design boiler with 3/4" cylinders.

*The challenges are the following:*
Make a boiler able to maintain steam and look like a Ruby boiler
Make 3/4" cylinders but maintain the 7/8" outside measurement of the current 1/2" ruby cylinders
Convert it to slip eccentric with D valves and the proper lap and lead for high speed performance.
Add as much weight to the loco to prevent slippage.

I decided to use the front of an existing Ruby boiler and add a firebox and extra water storage in the cab.

I have this steel cutting blade which cuts copper like butter. I used it here to prevent the center tube from being damaged during the cut









Then on the table saw I line everything up for the cut









As you can see, the cut is very clean









A throat plate is scribed out on red layout dye









I cut shy of the line with the band saw and sand to the line with my 1" belt sander.









The plate is then soldered in place









The firebox front and crown sheet are held in place with clamps made from coat hanger wire and then soldered together.









The extra water volume in the cab will be higher than the boiler front which means that a safety on top of the front part of the boiler will spurt water. So, this bushing with the elbow at the bottom will get steam from the top of the box in the cab.









Here is the tube in place







]

I am using .093" thick copper plate for the firebox exterior and it is now to the point where there is too much copper to heatup by myself. I will bring it to Henner's next week for an extrs pair of hands.

I started the cylinders today but I am being called to dinner so i will try to post more tomorrow.


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

Bill
Can you make it to look like my "Rat Fink" Ruby logo?


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

I look forward to the big build. Pretty cool the boiler cutaway. Planning one of your Ceramic burners? My 1/2" bore cylinders were the limit of the loco boiler, my 9/16 prototype sucked up all the steam the little burner can make.


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Hopefully, you will mistake it for a stock Ruby
Yes, the ceramic burner is the plan


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

More progress on the Ruby

The weight problem is partially taken care of by adding five pounds of lead to the side tanks









The outside diameter of the 1/2" ruby cylinders is just under 7/8" so I took a 3" long piece of 1" square stock and trimmed one side to 7/8" on the table saw with the blade shown above, and then rounded off the bottom of the cylinders with a 1/2" round over bit on the router. It's not perfect for the 7/8" cylinders but close enough. I then cut the cylinders to length, a few thousands over size, mounted them in the four jaw chuck, trimmed them to length and bored and honed them out.
Here is one next to my 3/8" Ruby cylinder









You can see from the photo above that there is no room for bolt holes in the cylinder wall. I can make the rear cover a press fit and loctite it in but I want to be able to remove the front cover for maintenance. My plan was to thread the front cover on with a fine thread. I needed to make a boring tool with the proper 60 degree angle to cut the thread in the cylinder and a similar cutting tool for the cover. I used the thread gauge to get the angle right.









Here is the cylinder









And the cover, both with a 52 thread per inch thread which is the finest my lathe produces.









The cap is threaded on and hole placements are marked. Then 2-56 hex screws are placed with locktite for looks.









Looking in the bore, you can see the bolts which would normally go into a 1/2" cylinder wall









Here is the rear cover it uses the Ruby design for the piston rod seal. A 1/8" o-ring is sanwitched between the two plates which are held together with four hex screws. The step down on the left is where the cover will be pressed into the cylinder.









Ports are milled for the slide valve









A 3/32" end mill is lined up to double check clearance and drilling angle and then used to start the exhaust port hole









Drilling the exhaust port









The steam port is done in two operations. First a hole is drilled parallel to the top of the cylinder and then an angled hole goes to that hole.









Here is the steam port on the threaded side of the cylinder. you can see where a press fit plug is inserted with Loctite.









The plug is filed smooth. This wasn't planned but it is nice that the cover will keep the plug from ever coming out.









Here it is next to a Ruby. The valve will be a little higher but other than that, i think it looks pretty good.
[


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Those cylinders look like monsters next to the Ruby 1/2 inch one! If you can make enough steam that will be a real pulling animal.


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

My goodness! that is a hoot! cant wait to see it work.


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## redbeard (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey Bill,

Looking good! as usual you are going so fast it' frightening to the rest of us. I wish I had time and resources to work on my projects regularly. I started a similar but different approach to a boiler back in December. So far this is what I have done;










I am going with a bigger flue tube so I drilled the front boiler plate before cutting the back of the boiler. Of course I used a hand saw to cut my boiler off. I guess I will have to get busy!
Larry


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## Shay Gear Head (Jan 3, 2008)

Larry,

Don't let Bill suck you in! He works "faster than a speeding bullet" as the saying goes. Maybe I should get that Shay out that I've been working on for 15 years and finish it!


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Larry
That is interesting
Were you planning on adding a firebox like me or just a larger flue tube and making it longer.
Just making the flue tube larger will improve the steaming
What size were you thinking. 
McMaster Carr has a 1/32 wall 3/4 id and 7/8 od rated at 400 psi. The thin wall should transmit the heat well and hold up to Ruby boiler pressures.


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Winn

The 3/4" bore will have four times the cubic inch displacement of a 3/8" one and 2.25 times that of a 1/2" one

Bore	Area	Stroke	CID	PCT	Factor
0.375	0.110	0.700	0.077	25%	4.00
0.500	0.196	0.700	0.137	44%	2.25
0.750	0.442	0.700	0.309	100%	0.00

You are right...I will need a lot of steam.


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Bore	Area	Stroke	CID	PCT	Factor
0.375	0.110	0.700	0.077	25%	4.00
0.500	0.196	0.700	0.137	44%	2.25
0.750	0.442	0.700	0.309	100%	0.00


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## JEFF RUNGE (Jan 2, 2008)

So it will pull as much as a bigboy boy only run for 3 minutes? Nice work BTW.


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Looking nice Bill. You got Hottman beat. Hhe soft soldered the covers on his big Ruby.

Great seeing you again at Sac. Looking forward to next year already.

Bob


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Ya...ya got to not blink yer eyes around 'ol "Speedy Billie"....

...you'll miss sumthin....fer. sure!!!

Or could be he's got a "trained lathe n mill" @ home...
...they make a mighty heap a [email protected]

Looks awesome Bill....

Dirk


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Jeff
On the pulling capability, I think it will only be limited by the weight I can add to it to keep the wheels from slipping. As for the run time, I am adding water capacity to the boiler and will probably have a small tender with the fuel tank and a hand pump or at least a Goodall valve for adding water.
Bob
Thanks but maybe you will need to make more cars for this little guy to pull next year in Sac


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## Shay Gear Head (Jan 3, 2008)

Bill,

Will we see ball bearings on the axles? Less friction = more pulling!


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Bruce
I have good news and bad news
I went over to Accucraft today to get two wheels from Cliff as I only had two in my scrap box.
Cliff gave me a great deal on an almost new Ruby chassis so now I have a frame with two axles and eccentrics that I can use "as is", if I just set it up for forward with the D valves. The throw on the eccentrics is a little short but I think I can work with it.
The bad news is I will lose a little pull but the good news is that I think I will have more than enough to spin the wheels
Now i just need to do the adaptation of my cylinders to the Ruby frame.


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## BigRedOne (Dec 13, 2012)

Thank you for showing the steps and reasoning for your build.

I received my first steamer a few weeks ago, a Roundhouse Fowler chassis, and as I am contemplating trying to fabricate a coal boiler, your metalworking techniques and pictures are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Matthew


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

I air tested the chassis before lunch and it ran so good, I had to take a video and share it
The sound is somewhat garbled so I'll tell you what was going on
When I test a new chassis, I usually start at 5 psi and if it doesn't run or is rough, I increase the pressure until I get it to run smoothly. I have a throttle valve to control the air flow which simulates the on-track steam delivery.

I started with 5 psi and cracked the throttle which is what you see at the start. I then kept closing the throttle to get the very slow running. Then I gave it about 1/2 Throttle and applied resistance with finger pressure and was barely able to stop it. I then opened it up and applied even more pressure to slow it down. All at 5 psi

After the test, in spite of the fact that it is not broken in, I was able to make it run by blowing on the tube by mouth.


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

That is impressive! One thing I would be worried about with that much power is the rod bearings and/or the crank pins wearing quite rapidly. It looks like you are using the original rods which have no bearings of any kind other than the base metal of the rod itself. You might want to consider ball bearings at least on the main rods.


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## HMeinhold (Jan 2, 2008)

Bill,
this is quite impressive. But when do you attempt this:




Regards


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Winn
I want this to look as much like a stock Ruby as possible. I figure I can always upgrade the rods etc at a later date.
Henner
I don't know if I will be able to sit on top of the Ruby

Here are some build shots I didn't have time to post earlier

A cylinder mount is made from 3/8" brass stock. the cutouts allow the SS screws to go outward to the cylinders









A metric o-ring is fitted to the nipple on the left which goes into the sleeve on the right









Like so









Steam piping is shown here. The 5/32" exhaust tube on the left lays in a groove milled into the cylinder mount. It is push fit for cylinder removal. The pressure line on the right is soldered to each cylinder and the cylinders are removable because of the fitting shown above.









I am using stock eccentrics but because I need more throw for the valves I made new bell crank ends. The stock one is bellow.









I made this connector for ease in adjusting the valves. I used an 0-80 thread and this allows one half turns. Each 1/2 turn moves the valve .006"









You probably have seen this before but I wanted to show how I was able to get the Ruby so well timed. The D valves are easier to set up than the piston valves as you can remove the valve chest cover and watch them in action. Here is the piston in the furthest position for the rear of the cylinder you can barely see it but the valve has moved about 5 - 10 thou past the port opening









Now, in the other direction, you can see the valve port is uncovered possibly a little more but within .006" of the rear port direction. The adjustment for this is made by disconnecting the connector and screwing the valve stem in or out..









What I have just shown is what you may find on several sites in books. But this only balances the cylinder for the front and rear strokes. Timing the engine is what gives it speed and power along with smooth running. My valves have lap on the admission side and no lap on the exhaust side which is by the book. This allows for very advanced timing and a cutoff allowing steam expansion. To time the engine for the best running, I first move the wheels to the forward position.









Now I advance (move in the forward direction of the wheels) the eccentric until the port is just visible. If you look on the left side ahead of the screw, you will see a sliver of black. this is about .004" and provides the engine with "Lead" .004" is about the perfect amount of lead for our engines. This only works to perfection when the valve lap on the exhaust side is zero.









On the lower eccentric you can see how much I have advanced it. The stock Ruby setting is to have both set screws equidistant from the center of the eccentric.









here is a shot of the boiler box prior to the final soldering. You can see the numerous stays. The threaded ones are actually to help hold things in place. The curvature you are looking through is the cutout for the lubricator.









The solder job was challenging to say the least. It took at least four sessions over at Henner's house with Henner, Dennis and me (and sometines Ron) trying to keep everything straight and hot but we finally got it done. The hardest part is always the firebox and crown sheet . It won't win any beauty contest but it is steam tight.









After clean up, it doesn't look too bad.


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## cocobear1313 (Apr 27, 2012)

Awesome project! That video at 5PSI blows my mind!

Dave


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## redbeard (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey Bill,
Sorry for the delay, these days I feel lucky to get one hour in a week to work on my own stuff. 

You asked;
"Were you planning on adding a firebox like me or just a larger flue tube and making it longer.
Just making the flue tube larger will improve the steaming
What size were you thinking."

I am making the Ruby boiler into a tee-boiler for more water capacity(plus the prototype had a tee-boiler). I am using 3/4 inch OD x .042 wall "type L" rigid copper for the flue. (available locally) Here is the direction I am going;










Looks like you will be running before I finish the boiler, but I will get there.....I hope!
Larry


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Larry
My friend Ron did something similar and it works good. He used the same burner tube and a Ruby burner and it seems to work well. The larger diameter and longer tube should increase the heating surface by 50% or so.


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

I see a twisted frame in the working. ; )


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## StackTalk (May 16, 2014)

Maybe Larry can fabricate a torsion bar suspension mod.


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## boilingwater (Jan 27, 2010)

Bill,
I don't think you'll be able to call that a Ruby any longer...maybe 'HULK'....
Very nice work!
Sam


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Hi Jason
Yes the Ruby frame is light. I was going to make a new one with 1/8" brass but since I got the whole assembly I went this way.
I tried twisting it by hand and it is surprisingly sturdy. There is a little give between the drivers where it is cut out.
The area of the piston is .442" sq. which will relate to a 26 pound maximum thrust at 60 psi which will probably spin the wheels before it damages the frame but I will add a crossmember if I can disguise it well enough.

By the way, I saw on another thread where your K28 pulled 3.5 pound drawbar at Diamond Head.
Is this correct, is it stock. I just want something to compare this to.


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Stack Talk
If you are referring to Larry's Heisler suspension, I believe that that will only work on Heisler trucks as it allows the frames to move up and down independently 
I wasn't sure what you meant but I looked up Larry's thread to see and found it


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## StackTalk (May 16, 2014)

My post was an (apparently) failed attempt at humor!

Cheers,

Joe


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Joe
Thanks for keeping things lively
Now I can LOL


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## StackTalk (May 16, 2014)

I try,



StackTorque


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

I took Jason's concerns to heart and decided to add a substantial crossmember.
I was originally going to add lead between the frames behind the cylinders but decided to add this 3/8" thick brass crossmember. The two cutouts are for the side tank bracket









I was missing one side tank bracket so i made another one and painted it up









While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I started on the ceramic burner box. this is the bottom which needs to be a tight fit for proper burning.









The side tank brackets are bolted to the inside of the frame but you cant get to them with the wheels on. so, to get the hex screw started, I stuck the head in a piece of silicone tube









And screwed it in









I cut some scrap pieces of brass to make a mold for the lead pour. It is setting on the cast iron table saw top and the lead cools down before it can stick to the table or brass









Grooves are cut for the frame clearance with the table saw and mill









I bevel the edges so it won't be seen at normal viewing level









A little Bondo takes care of the casting bubles and smooths things out









The casting is then mounted with 2-56 screws. The casting shown above is on the left under the cab. Another casting was done the same way and is between the cylinders. Behind the cylinders, the crossmember is partially shown.









The side tanks are mounted. You can see that the weight under the cab floor is just barely visible because of the bevel.
I put the cab, boiler and domes on to weigh it.

Here are some weights in pounds

Ron's stock Ruby with some water and fuel in it - 5.5
My C-16 with a half full boiler - 12.0 but not all in the drivers.
*The Hot Rod with still some things to go - 13.0*


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Got'a Luv.....all that extra weight!!!

Man after my own ideals..

Heavy locos ride better..act real....

Nice Bill

Dirk


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

bille1906 said:


> Hi Jason
> Yes the Ruby frame is light. I was going to make a new one with 1/8" brass but since I got the whole assembly I went this way.
> I tried twisting it by hand and it is surprisingly sturdy. There is a little give between the drivers where it is cut out.
> The area of the piston is .442" sq. which will relate to a 26 pound maximum thrust at 60 psi which will probably spin the wheels before it damages the frame but I will add a crossmember if I can disguise it well enough.
> ...


 
Hey Bill

It was 7lb 6oz

Its only modified by a working Walscherts valve gear and Rulon rings for the cylinders. I also sprung the suspension with all new springs as best as I can to get the most weight to the drivers.


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

I thought 3.5 was light. Over 7 is awesome. Did you increase the boiler pressure?
I wonder what a stock one will do?
The Ruby will have valve gear as efficient as the working Walschaerts and larger cylinders and PTFE rings but I don't think it will have the weight to get to 7 pounds.


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

yes it was a full boiler and 70psi. I forget what Daves Ruby pulled.


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

We had a steamup at my house and I was able to borrow a few extra cars to give the Ruby it's maiden test

Here you can see it at the top left pulling 15 Accucraft cars (about 75 pounds) none of which have ball bearing wheels. It could have easily pulled more but there weren't any more matching cars. Some videos were taken but I haven't received them yet. It ran beautifully. I ran it at low throttle and a prototypical speed and it had a wonderful chuff due the the heavy load and large cylinders. I then opened it up to 1/2 throttle and it took off and maintained speed for the duration of the run. If you look close, you can see the temporary fuel tank and tubing in the tender and a nice round steam puff just above it.









So here are the rest of the build shots

First mixer box with screen to diffuse the butane/air flow









That worked ok but I added these two standoff blocks which did the job









Ceramic element and jets are added









Burner is tested on the bench and seems fine









When the burner was placed on the boiler it burned too high and was burning through to the smokebox so I sealed some holes in the bottom of the plate to get a better burn.









New buffers were cast in lead









Then painted in a wood grain finish. The stock Ruby buffer is on the bottom









The mounted buffer









The rear one won't be seen much so I made it a little bigger









A Ruby type lubricator is made and the steam tubing is formed. I used 5/32 tubing to minimize the resistance.









and lined up with the boiler









Ready to run









I didn't get the pressure gauge till yesterday so it came after the run.









Here is all 15 pounds of her









This is an Aster Climax tender I got at a swap meet. It had a bunch of holes in the bottom so I cut a plate to cover them and calked everything up. I made the fuel tank from 1-1/2" copper pipe









It had a single steel plate cover which I cut with my table saw. here is the rear portion and the Aster fill spout which is now the gas tank knob.









And here is the front half which will not be bolted on to allow access for tank fueling and water access. I have room to install a hand pump if I decide to do this later.









And the completed (I think) project


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## redbeard (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks Great Bill!
As usual your speed makes us all look slow! Keep up the good work!
Larry


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## cocobear1313 (Apr 27, 2012)

Billie, you sealed the burner edges with red high temp RTV?

Thanks,
Dave


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Yes Dave
The sealing is done on the underside where the temperature should be close to the boiler temp. It will burn off some of the RTV which is above the burner but the sealer between the ceramic and brass on the sides will remain intact and anything under the burner should be good.


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

Just amazing Bill!

I wonder at the restricting RTV you put on the burner, would not reducing the gas flow have the same effect or even using only one venturi?


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## bille1906 (May 2, 2009)

Eric
In retrospect, I could have used a smaller ceramic plate and only one jet. When I did my Quad, I started with one jet and found it was light on fire. I tried larger jets but that was worse. The two jet setup worked great.
On the Ruby, I had no idea how much steam I would need so I probably overbuilt the firebox and burner thinking I could always make it smaller. 
The problem with reducing the gas flow was that reducing it to the point where it was not burning into the smokebox made the flame burn above the ceramic plate and it never went radiant. Using a smaller jet helped a little but there was such a small difference between a good burn and a smokebox fire that I didn't want to risk it happening during a run. One of the main problems is that there is a very small distance between the top of the burner and the crown sheet which causes it to act differently that boilers I have done in the past.
It steamed well Sunday and I have some different jets to try out. I think it is now a matter of fine tuning.


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