Shaving a bit at a time

"I'm trying to decide whether to put it on the lathe or horizontal boring mill," said lead machinist Sam Thompson. Harold Tilton and Sam dropped the crankshaft and removed the eccentric on Saturday, February 28, because it didn't fit properly.

Sam spent Saturday morning recalculating his next series of cuts on the middle eccentric to the Diamond and Caldor No. 4. He figures he must to remove one-thousands of an inch from the eccentrics bore to make it fit onto the crankshaft.

"It's going to be a cut-and-fit process," said Sam. The challenge will come when Sam tries to mount the eccentric on the lathe. He expects it to take several Saturdays.

In the picture, Sam uses railway's No. 2 rotary head milling machine to shave a thin layer of metal out of the key slot on the middle eccentric.