Hornplates - Kit 9

I am starting this thread for Kit 9, which I haven’t actually even opened yet, although it arrived today. If anyone has any tips for the hornplates kit, please add them here. I will post some pictures once I get off and running- I have a bit more work to do on Kit 8 before I start this one.

i found that, I had to elongate some of the mounting holes, so things could be slightly adjusted to give correct crankshaft alighnment with the cylinder, to the dimensions of the crankshaft intructions. So its not much point putting the hornplates in permanently at this stage. Hope this helps, Mike

Mike King wrote:i found that, I had to elongate some of the mounting holes, so things could be slightly adjusted to give correct crankshaft alighnment with the cylinder, to the dimensions of the crankshaft intructions. So its not much point putting the hornplates in permanently at this stage. Hope this helps, Mike

Thanks very much for that info Mike.

What kind of Loctite is suggested for fixing the dummy rivets into the hornplates ?  The bearing grade that came in a previous kit ?  Also, I saw in ChrisX video that he ground flush the rivets on the inside of the hornplates.... is that what everyone does ?  My concern was whether the Loctite will be  strong enough to withstand the pressure of grinding down the protruding part of the rivets -  all tips and suggestions on these points will be very welcome !!

I remember using the bearing loctite in mine. I dont recall having to grind the rivets flat on the reverse side. Mine were reasonably flush. I had no issues at all with mine. If you do have to grind them flat I personally would think they would flatten ok.

Hi Milford

"What kind of Loctite is suggested for fixing the dummy rivets into the hornplates ?  The bearing grade that came in a previous kit ?"

Yes is the answer to that part of your question.

The horn plates bolt on to the boiler through the centre of the stays around the firebox (see picture, i put sacrificial bolts in the holes to keep the paint out as you can see) and hence a gap of 4 or 5 mm between the back of the hornplate and the boiler exists so no need to grind on the rivets at the back at all.



Hope that helps.
Simon

Simon, Mike... thank you very much for that information and the photo - that is helpful and I am now all set to tackle this kit !

I decided to use the slightly stronger Loctite, as the bearing grade is designed to be taken apart at a later stage. These rivets are going nowhere with this stuff. I cleaned up the hornplate with a paint removing disk in my angle grinder. I decided against the patio cleaner for these - I haven’t got a tray quite big enough, and I found the wheel spokes developed a bit of surface rust even though I thought I had dried them well with a heat gun.

I have made some more progress on the hornplates - next thing will be to offer the assembly up to the tender and see if it fits.... I note from the instructions that I am advised to grind off the excess threads on the bolts that come through the two milled out areas on the plates... I might get the cut-off wheel attached to my trusty Dremel to achieve this - how crucial is this operation  - it looks to me that it’s just the side of the firebox behind this area, and there should be a few mm clearance - those threads are sticking out about the same as the back of the big rivets....

If you are referring to the large holes, the top one is for the diff assembly, which will in turn connect via a gear to your crankshaft. The lower one is for the wheel axle. Mike

Mike King wrote:If you are referring to the large holes, the top one is for the diff assembly, which will in turn connect via a gear to your crankshaft. The lower one is for the wheel axle. Mike

Thanks Mike, but I was referring to the threads that protrude from the nuts on the milled out area (shown in red in my picture). I am wondering if I really DO need to grind them down (as per the instructions) because it looks to me like they will clear ok on the side of the firebox (in the same way that the back of the large rivets will clear, as per Simon C’s earlier post in this thread)

I cant see any red on the pic. No worries. I dont recall having to grind any of mine down. Everything cleared ok. Mike

Mike King wrote:I cant see any red on the pic. No worries. I dont recall having to grind any of mine down. Everything cleared ok. Mike

Thank you very much Mike - I appreciate your speedy reply !

No worries. I completed mine a couple of years ago, so I'm delving into my memory a bit. Although, I just signed up again for the latest 2 inch run.. Mike

Can anyone give some guidance on the painting stages for the hornplate/spec plate assembly, bearing in mind what is to come in future kits.....I have primed and undercoated both hornplates and both spec plates and I have top coated the inside of the hornplates.... Is there much assembly / dis-assembly of this unit, or am I safe to topcoat the spec plates now ? (I am doing them bright red)

Thanks very much for any pictures / tips.

Hi there,
The only suggestion I have is, when you come to fit the horn plates to the fire box you may find that the semicircular cutouts need to be fettled to fit around the rear axle bushes.
I painted my horn plates first but then found i had this problem when I came to fitting them, I think some others on the forum have had this as well.

Bazzer.

Thank you very much for that input Bazzer.

Thanks for a useful thread

The hornplates have been re-assembled, ready to go onto the back of the boiler. Only the front spec plate, as per instructions. I think they will need a touch up of paint here and there, but that’s no problem. My son-in-law will come over soon and help lift it on. The bolts are tight on one side and a bit loose on the other side... hopefully it will go on easily and then I will check the measurement to the cylinder from the bearing carrier.

I managed to get the hornplates on by myself, by resting them on some blocks of wood at the back- it was much easier than I expected. I haven’t yet done the measurement to the cylinder, so I guess I might have to remove it again and fettle the holes.....

Close.....but not close enough !!

So this is the measurement, from the face of the rear cylinder cover, to the alignment bar, that is supposed to be 468mm +/- 2mm and I am at 464.5mm.

I tried whacking the hornplates back a bit with my rubber mallet to make sure they were back as far as possible but that only gained 1/2mm.

I will have to take the hornplates off again, and elongate the holes a bit....

Just to complete this thread, I had to elongate the holes and after plenty of fitting, measuring, elongating and refitting I eventually got the measurement that I wanted…. One other thing that’s worth mentioning for new builders - because the hornplates moved back a bit to get the right measurement, it meant that the hole in the bottom corner of the right-hand hornplate (looking from the rear) would foul the pipe that fits onto the boiler here, so that hole also needed fettling on the hornplate.