This Rod's Connected to the....Drive Wheel...
Next I measured and made the connecting rods. Like the side rods, these puppies took about 30 hours to make. First I started with a hunk of steel and bored holes for the bearings.
Once I got the holes bored, I machined the face profiles. Then I taped a copy of the connecting rod drawing to the rod and sprayed it with layout bluing to give me the outline of the rod. Then I cut away the excess with the band saw.
Here's what it looked like after rough cutting and grinding.
This is how I put the profile on the rod.
I did have to take off some excess metal on the crosshead slide bar to clear the connecting rod when the drivers were at 12 O'clock.
