I'll Take a Side of Rods to go with that...
I wanted the side rods to be similar to the GS-4. The only way I could do that was to hand make them. Up to this point, the plans from "Little Engines" were being followed. Measurements from the prototype drawings were taken and made new drawings to scale. Bearings will be placed on all rotating parts and had to find ones that fit in the space I had to work with. Once the bearings were found, the drawings were completed and machining began. The pieces were cut to size, then they were drilled and bored to a light push fit for each bearing. I wanted to make sure that they were the right size before I spent hours making them look pretty.
The next step was to use the mill to put a profile on it.
I then rough cut the outside profile with my band saw, milled as much away as possible, filed for several hours and sanded by hand for more hours. Each side rod took me about 20 hours (there are 6 of them). Here they are all happy together.
I must have quartered the wheels/axles properly because they turn without any binding. Happy days!
