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O.T: Awakening the Beast Part II (Moving the 1928 Lombard Model "T" Dump Truck)

Terry Harper

Cast Iron
Joined
Sep 3, 2009
Location
Maine USA
O.T: Awakening the Beast Part II (Moving the 1928 Lombard Model "T" Dump Truck)

You may remember back in July I posted about awakening the 1928 Lombard model "T" dump truck. Well thanks to the amazing generosity of the Breton family we now have the 1928 Lombard model "T" dump truck tucked away in the Lombard shed along side the two steamers and the 10 ton gasoline powered Lombard.

Our adventure started Thursday night when I made the 2-1/2 hour drive down to Herb's. With the flatbed scheduled to be in Vassalboro at 8:00 am the next morning spending the night at Herb's and driving only a little over an hour made sense. As it was Herb and I were on the road at 5:45 am so we could be there in plenty of time to prep and awaken the beast.

Fortunately thanks to Paul's prep work the beast fired right up without a problem. After a bit of frantic tugging on the steering wheel and jigging back and forth we managed to clear the pole barn without crushing Paul's blueberry bushes. I can tell you.... it's near impossible to turn the wheels when its sitting still!

Here is the link to a video of today's adventure:

YouTube

Anyway, by 8:20 am it was loaded and on its way. Special thanks to Brandon our trucking guy! Unfortunately his GPS led him astray. He had set his GPS to follow the shortest route. However the "shortest" route was down a gated logging road.

Fortunately we found him and once at the museum we quickly had it unloaded and tucked away in the shed. This gave us a good opportunity to look the beast over. We have fuel problem which is either gunk in the carb or sediment and scale blocking off the line to the carb at the tank. The inline filter we installed earlier indicates that there quite a bit drifting around in the system. We also need to get the battery cables sorted out and the battery tucked away were its supposed to be. We tried out the dump body hoist but about 2,000 lbs of Lombard logging sled parts in the bed precluded raising it up too far. However, it worked excellent.

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Driving this beast is interesting. It has essentially a heavy four speed truck transmission with the reverse blanked-off. Reverse and forward are handled by a lever down on the floor by the drivers left foot. It does give you four forward and four speeds in reverse. However, its an awkward reach to say the least. Meanwhile the lever for the hoist is a big reach over on the other side of the gear shift which would have a short person struggling to depress the clutch and work the lever. Lets just say its funky and neat and keeps the driver busy.

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The track system is really cool. Tension is held by a big spring stretching clear across under the cab and pulling on fulcrums which apply tension to front sprocket bearing frames. The sprocket bearing frames are not mounted rigid to the chassis but can slide fore and aft via slides and gibs.

Anyway, our last event of the season is our "Living History" days on October 5th and 6th. Its also our biggest event.

In addition to all kinds of other stuff we will have the steam Lombard out running around as well as the 10 ton gasoline Lombard and the Lombard Model "T" dump truck.

Best regards,

Terry
 
With our last event of the year in the record books it was time to get some work done on the 1928 Lombard dump truck before Winter sets in. I am not sure why but I always like to be at the museum at least an hour before anyone else even if this means getting up at 3:00 am. to make the 3 hour drive in time. Maybe its the fact I can work by myself or maybe its just enjoying the calm and quite. It is beautiful place - off-grid, out in the middle of the Maine woods. I love walking into Machinery Hall still half dark in the morning light - the smell of the old machinery - oil, grease, wood. Swinging open the big door to the bays to let in the light. - the silence. Its hard to describe. Or maybe its more primevil -the walk around to make sure all is well, the ritual of priming the engine using the priming cups and then hitting the starter button and shattering the calm with the healthy bellow of an un muffled, large displacement motor.... that must be it!

Anyway, early yesterday morning was such a day. With cold weather just around the corner we decided to do some more work on the 6 ton Lombard dump truck.Earlier I had re-built the Stewart-Warner vacuum tank so the goal was to get that installed so the beast could roam the museum grounds without the shame of stalling out on the hills.

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I had never worked on a vacuum tank before and was more than a bit nervous if it was going to work or not. The big question was the all important gaskets between the inner and outer tank and the lid. As vacuum tanks go its a big one. I couldn't find gaskets for it so a had to make them. To hedge my bet and used the old method of sealing the gaskets with shellac and assembled the whole mess while still wet.

With the fuel tank drained Dave and I began the task of routing the new lines. Let me just say that this was an adventure! First of all the vacuum tank is mounted on the opposite side of the machine from both the carb and the outlet from the fuel tank. Second, Lombard packed a lot of large housings and whirring bits and pieces under the cab. Anyway, we got it done.

After priming the vacuum tank and fixing one persistent leak it fired right up. In fact being the brave souls that we are we took it for spin down the hill and across the covered bridge and up the steep hill to the blacksmith shop then the long climb back to Government Road. It ran flawless!

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Next we worked on greasing the drive shaft joints and finding still more grease point! I think I have lost count of the number! We also test fit the mock-up for the new radiator cap. Last week one of my students reverse engineered it by scaling off period photographs and measurements of the opening. He then modeled it in Solidworks and 3D printed a mock-up. It fit and looks great! This week the files will be sent to the Advanced Manufacturing Center at the University of Maine where they will use their 3D metal printer to fabricate a finished cap and knob. We also test fit the side panels - these need handles but fit well. I kind of like the patina.

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Even though the museum is officially closed for the season the grounds and trails are still open to the public so throughout the day we had a smattering of visitors wandering through and it was as always a pleasure to talk with them. At one moment when our frustration was peaked due to the leak we were trying to fix (bad fitting)we took a break by taking family for a ride on the big 10 ton Lombard tractor.

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All in all a very enjoyable and productive day!
 
Thanks Terry, great job on the save of the truck.very interesting write up and pics.I always appreciate these projects as a sort of living history lesson. Regards, Jim
 
Since the museum is a "Living History" museum and we demonstrate and operate
our equipment, as it would have been used back in the the day, we do have to make some concessions
to safety. When the Lombards are out and about there are many times we will have kids
climbing on and sitting in the cabs etc. Its an experience we don't want to discourage.

Thats how I got interested in this stuff way, way back in 1974 - sitting in the cab of Lombard
gazing intently through the cracked glass and past the rusty tin cans capping the exhaust
stacks dreaming about roaring through the snow carpeted forest.

Anyway, to keep it safe we always, pull the keys and/or disconnect the battery when we have
to leave a machine standing. However with the dump truck we have to be a bit more careful.
The hoist lever is our main concern - it has limited movement and its very difficult to tell
if its engaged or not until you fire-up the engine and let-out the clutch to move off only to
discover that the dump body is going up.

To prevent this I set my mind to designing a lock-out for the lever. Here is the design:
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Here is the finished lockout as fabricated by master craftsman Chris Rueby:

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last year Chris fabricated an amazing live steam model of our Lombard which is the subject
of an on-going series in Live Steam and Outdoor Railroading magazine as well as just completing a astounding
live steam model of a Marion 91 steam shovel.

Here is a link: The Daily News | New meets old: Model-maker creates miniature version of historic Le Roy steam shovel

Of course as Don pointed out "a door hinge with a slot in one leaf that you simply flip into
place would be about all you need"... I guess I might as well accept the fact that I will
always think like an engineering and yes... make the simple complex.

But it was fun!
 
Im surprised your insurers havent forced you to fence out the public.........one site here where a few years ago you could inspect the machinery is now behind not one ,but two layers of fencing......the second ,outer fence required by the risk assessor to prevent persons from climbing the inner fence.
 
Old Man Winter has swept in seemingly overnight. Though my thoughts are to simply stay warm and go into hibernation mode there is still work to be done - though thankfully from the warmth of a cozy shop. With the Lombards all tucked away we have turned out thoughts to some small but interesting projects.

First on the list is the replacement radiator cover. The original went missing decades ago. If you recall in my last post we had test fit a 3D printed mock-up of the cover. The next step was 3D printing the patterns to be used by the foundry. Original plan was to have the pieces 3D metal printed. However, because of the size and thin cross section they felt that warping would be a issue so we have gone to plan "B".

For plan "B" we 3D printed the cover and knob once again in PLA only this time we scaled it up slightly to take into account the shrink rate of the cast iron. We also added draft etc. Next step was filling, sanding & painting to get a nice smooth pattern. Next step is to send the patterns off to Peter - our foundry guy.

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Another project we wanted to tackle is getting the lights on the Lombard dump truck working. First we located a replacement for the dash light. As it turned out a reproduction of a dash light used on Ford Model "T" was a dead ringer for the original and fit perfect. (one more hole in the dash panel filled!)

Replacing the missing light switch was more problematic. We simply could not find an original style switch. So.... Chris Rueby - one of our very talented volunteers offered to fabricate not just one but four switches for us. The extra's will be going to the family that has generously loaned us the Lombard tractors and will be used on two other machines they have in their collection.

Chris is a true Master Craftsman! Here is a link to an article about some of his work:

Chris Rueby

My good friend Don has the only original switch that has survived and was very generous in providing us photos and measurements.With those in hand I developed a shop drawing for Chris to work from. Below is his progress to date. The face plates and knobs will be nickle plated to match the original.

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All fun stuff!
 
Good job, Terry.

I noticed that TH checked the drawing, which calls the knob p/n 1042E-2, but calls it item 4 on the assembly drawing.

I would not machine the plate's edge chamfer to a knife edge. Polishing will round and reduce the outside dimensions a bit. There would be less reduction if the chamfer is .115, for instance I would try to make the new plate match the original in that regard.

And note that it is spelled nickel, not nickle. Nickel - Wikipedia

I had a lot of respect for the checkers where I worked. They were highly paid, and earned it.

Larry
 
Hello Larry,

Point well taken. This was one of those drawings cranked out in snatches of time between students asking for help.
I call it the "Mr. Harper, Mr. Harper" syndrome but its what I get paid for and enjoy doing.

In regards to part numbers and reference to the assembly we use "item" designation for the
assembly and cross reference that to the part number in the table. I have seen it both ways as long as
its consistent.

No excuse for nickle v nickel... just horrible one finger typing skills. Back a few years ago
I would have had words with an employee who let that slip by! I remember well a cover sheet for a
super market with a location map featuring the well known logo of our clients closest competitor.... they were not impressed! Needless to say it took a long, long time for that draftsman to live that one down!

Here are the assemblies as of today:

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Chris is just waiting for a bar of nickel to arrive so he try plating the knobs and face plates.


T.
 
And there was the program for the Annual Meeting of the Winchester Collector's Association with a Colt Lightning rifle on the cover. They hired a graphic designer who didn't know the difference. Fortunately, the President of the Association had a sense of humor.
 
Last week I got it in my mind to dress-up the magneto switch we
installed on the 1928 Lombard dump truck.

The original American-Bosch switch is apparently made of "unobtainium"
When I did find one the price was more than I could afford.
Needless to say my mind turned to how I could create a "Faux" switch.

The original was a rotary switch with a knob that also served as the
key. Our new switch was a push/pull unit and would form the basis
for the "Faux" switch. In other words I planned to put lipstick
on a pig.

Don graciously provided some measurements of his original switch and
the adventure began. First task was modeling the face plate and knob
in SolidWorks and generating the setups and tool paths in Fusion 360.
Then it was off to the CNC mill.

The engraving on the face plate was tricky since it is quite deep. I ended
up using a 30 degree engraving tool and using a very slow feed with light
cuts and a number of passes. I was pleased with the results.

The knob started off (appropriately enough) as a length of brass grounding rod.
Turned to size in the lathe and knurled (my first time doing that!)

Using the CNC mill I shaped the domed end and engraved the classic American-Bosch
"Red Devil" logo. I think it came out quite well with one exception..... sigh
The center of the face plate needs to be threaded 9/16-18. Stupid me bored it
to max. thread dia. rather than minor so..... I need to do it again!

Once I have the fixed face plate in hand I will modify the switch by shortening
and threading the actuator rod.

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On another note Paul found a really cool factory photo showing a Lombard that is
almost identical with (as usual) a few details that are different. Honesty I don't
think Lombard ever made two identical machines! How they stayed in business as
long as they did is a complete mystery!

Anyway... check out the neat "C" cab... yea its not a true C-cab but its cool.
You can see the rolled-up side curtains as well. It also explains why the cab on
our machine is so different from the other we have seen in regards to the side windows
and doors. We were having a very hard time matching it up.

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Anyway, we just got approval from Paul & Ray to modify the cab back to what we feel
was the original. At some point the rear door post was extended to allow for
full height doors (never installed) and the curved wood pieces were removed.

It will be a rather easy fix since the cab walls are a welded angle iron frame work
and steel panels and the wood has little structural value. In face the lower
portion of the rear door post is set into a vertical length of angle iron welded
to the side panel and seat frame.

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Cab Mods.jpg

The Building Trades students at the Presque Isle Regional Career & Technical Center
are going to fabricate the doors and tool box, Byron our highly talented blacksmith is fabricating the door
latches and levers and and my friend Mike (a very talented cabinet maker) has offered to modify
the cab itself.

As in the photo we will be adding louvered side panels. Paul has the set that came with the
machine when he purchased it. However, at some point the panels were cut down and hinges added
Since there is no one local who can punch louvers and the cost would be way to much we are
going to cut the louver sections out and weld them into new panels.

Anyway. That's all good fun!

Best regards,

Terry
 
Yesterday I headed over to a very, very quite museum and managed to get a lot done on the 1928 Lombard dump truck.

A couple of weeks ago the petulant beast underwent Lasik Surgery and now has a set of working headlights. We also re-routed the throttle cable tube and installed the faux American-Bosch magneto switch. Actually for the first time in a long time we felt like we made progress and left the beast in better shape than when we arrived. Its actually running very, very well... fingers crossed!

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Yesterday I installed the new tool box which fit perfect. I also installed a clip to hold the throttle cable tube to the dash panel and spent quite a bit of time topping-off the gear oil in the differential and transmission. About 6 gallons worth!

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Working around I found one of the trunion caps was rather loose. The cap secures a shaft that the track wheel carriage pivots on. The nuts were well buggered-up so I had to dress them-up with a grinder so a wrench would fit on them. With everything cleaned and greased it all went back together well.The museum is off the grid. However, last year they installed a solar panel system so now we have lights and power! - which sure beats running a generator!

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I also spent some time snugging-up fuel fittings to stop a few drips. One other task was testing the temperature gauge.Years ago it was left disconnected and just tucked-up under the hood. Holding a lighter to the bulb the gauge did what its supposed to. Now we need to make a fitting so we can install the sensor bulb.

The guts....

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The transmission is a four speed by Cotta. A reverse gear in the differential makes it so we have four speeds forward and four in reverse. The long arm and rod running over the top pf the transmission is for the forward/reverse lever. The small diameter rod in the foreground is for the trip rod for the hoist lever. When the hoist reaches either end of its travel the lever in the cab snaps into neutral. The diagonal drive shaft is from the PTO to the hoist gear box. The brake is a cast iron drum mounted to the input shaft to the differential with external contracting brake bands.

I think this beast uses just about every type of drive joint known - Spicer type universal joints, fabric couplings, big pot type CV joints and rubber donut type couplings. For a sizable machine there is not a lot of room to work!

The hoist for the dump body is a Wood Mechanical hoist. You can see the arms - which are driven by pinion gears by the hoist gear box mounted on top of the differential. Wood Mechanical Hoists was founded by Garfield Wood also known for the exquisite Garwood boats.

On another note, Last Fall a very generous gentleman donated a Fairbanks-Morse model Z one lunger. I went over it a bit and tried starting it but I fear the magneto needs some love - no spark... no boom.

We had a bit of a wind storm and some trees down so after Herb arrived we loaded-up the 10 ton Lombard log hauler
and headed down the old carriage road. It was a bit of a tight squeeze getting the beast turned around at the end. However,once we cut a few trees at the turn-around loop it will make a very nice run.

Unfortunately, as with many businesses and organizations the museum is being hit hard by the shutdown associated with the pandemic. All our events have been canceled until July. Loosing our early spring events including "Childern's Days" which runs for a full week in May and includes hundreds of children from surrounding schools visiting the museum, hurt! Plus its an event I always take time off to help with.

Best regards,

Terry

 
Thanks for your efforts to keep these old machines running, also for the pics!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Well I am happy to report that the petulant beast is now tamed. The old girl is running most excellent and in fact is darn right reliable! Its hard to believe that I am saying that considering how frustrated we were back last Fall!

In fact it actually (sort of) earned its keep over the last few weeks. The University of Maine Construction Engineering Technology
students have been working on cap stone projects at the museum. One task was taking down a couple of trees. We used the Lombard to provide a wee bit of tension on the rigging to ensure that the trees fell where they were supposed to. With that done it was a no brainer (and fun) to haul a load of brush up to the top of the hill.

Having no doubt witnessed that performance, our "Tuesday Crew" were inspired to use the beast to move some logs on Monday. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to appropriate as their own and we will one day find it tucked away at the mill complex or stashed in the mysterious green building. Anyway, its an amazing machine and we are very pleased to have it out and about for our visitors to enjoy.





With the mechanical stuff out of the way we are now turning to the cosmetics. One task is back-dating the cab to its original appearance. The new doors are almost done (special thanks to Haynes Manufacturing. In addition, Byron Aubrey - our very talented blacksmith, has finished fabricating the new door hardware. Next we will set to on the woodwork. Fortunately the cab has a stout steel sub-structure so the wood pieces serve no structural purpose which makes the job a lot easier. Another task is fabricating new hood side panels. The original louvered panels went missing decades ago. We have a set of louvered panels that are the wrong size but the louvers are very close to the originals in number and size. Our plan is to cut those out and patch them into new panels. Another task is fabricating the top boards for the dump body as well as the tailgate and fabricating the locking mechanism.

As with everything else its all time and money but we do have a lot of fun!

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So.. here we are down the road a bit. The 1928 Lombard Model 'T' Dump truck has been running fantastic. It starts instantly and is a joy to operate and demonstrate with our guests at the museum. During events there is usually a queue of young people waiting to sit in the cab and often a line of people (old & young) waiting for a ride in the dump body.

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However, just as all seems right in the world and contentment has been achieved "the bomb" has to drop. In this case it was noticing something not-quite-right while greasing around. A few minutes with a wrench confirmed the worse. The front sprocket shaft bushings are shot, kaput, wasted, messed-up, trashed, dead, worn-out, and well past their sell-by date.

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The original bushings are very thick removable babbitt inserts with the top half located by dowel pins. End thrust for the sprocket shafts are taken-up by a grey cast iron caps. Cast iron retaining rings hold the bushing in place on the backside of each bushing block.

So... the plan is to fabricate four new bushings in 932 bearing bronze. These are a nominal 4-3/4" O.D. x 5" long. If the shafts are scored or damaged than we will fabricate those out of 1144 stress proof CRS.(does this seem ok?) Each Shaft is about 28" long and with a max. dia. of 3-1/2".

As the existing bushings wore the shaft started to wear into the cast iron retaining rings so we will have to fabricate 4 of those. In addition it caused the shafts to shift so they are no longer perpendicular to the face of the end caps and wore into those as well so we may have to replace those which will mean a bit of pattern and foundry work.

Needless to say all that will be rather costly just in materials. Most labor we can handle ourselves. However, our mission is to present history in a living format with live demonstrations etc. so we can expect costs from wear and tear. Unfortunately we are reliant on donations and the amazing generosity of our visitor. So... I am off to write a grant.

The grant will not only cover the Lombard repairs but also will include new flat leather belting for our Grady Machine Shop. The old belting is in pretty bad shape and requires frequent splicing. The fragility of it limits what we can do in regards to machine work and demonstrations. In total it will take approximately 110 ft. of 2", 24 ft. of 2-1/2" and 24 ft. of 3".

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All good fun right?
 
Something I have been wanting to do for a long, long time is.... take the 1928 Lombard dump truck out for a night drive.

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We didn't have the optimum equipment for a night shoot but it's passable! The museum is off-grid so we use a small solar array to power LED lights. Unfortunately we don't have lighting in the Lombard bay yet.

 








 
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