RGS #20

It has been awhile since we last posted pictures.

The second course patch is welded and x-rayed. Only the fillet welds remain to be put on the circ seams to restore the calking edges. When that is done the entire welds and heat affected areas from straightening will be stress relieved. After that the bolts will be removed one at a time, the holes burred and reamed to size and a new 7/8" bolt applied. When that is done, the assembly will be riveted.

Brendan has finished machining the door and rear flue sheets. We expect to trial fit the door sheet this week or early next week. New brace parts are on order and these should start to be constructed in the next few weeks. Trial side and crown strips are being made now to ascertain the stay location to ensure that the backhead t-irons are in the correct place. We know one t-iron must be moved because the original brace was bent to clear the crown bolts.

Brad is working on the driving boxes. Four were not too bad but two were in need of a lot of welding which is what is being done now. The boxes will all be stress relieved before machining.

Erich has been working on getting frame dimensions and making drawings for the new frame rails. This was a time consuming process in that the equalizing system needed to be recreated in order to determine what shape the frame needed to be in areas that had been extensively modified in one fashion or another over the years. The rails arrived and will be completely machined prior to cutting the old sections out and welding the new ones in place. The frame will be quite a bit straighter when this is done.