Many of you been watching the progress of the borax wagons and have
seen the front and back axle assembly put together.
We also have the boxes built and there on the running gears.
We also have the wheels well in to the process, waiting for tires.
Our intention is to show you the videos where the boxes are being built
and how the wheels are being built
and everything it takes to do these.
But because of our time, and our deadlines, these videos are going to have to wait.
These wagons are scheduled to be in the Rose Bowl parade January 2nd
and in the Inauguration parade, so I have a lot of work ahead of me.
But this little video here is going to show
you these brake rod ends.
How they were forged together and made and that's what we're gonna see here.
So this is one that I have done. Kind of show you what they're going to look like
and I'm going to use two pieces of half-inch thick, two and a half inch wide, mild steel
and we're going to go ahead and show you the process.
Now I've speeded this up a little bit through most of it.
It's not a lot of editing. It shows you each step.
But first we're gonna bring them up to heat
and then we'll begin fluxing them and getting them prepared for welding.
So here's where I kind of speed it up a little bit,
but this is similar to the horn and bumper process.
Bring it up. We're going to flux
it with borax, the same material that was hauled in these wagons.
I'm going to do both sides and
we're gonna put these faces together.
And to keep them from shifting, I'm going to put clamps on them
And we're going to go back into the fire and bring them up to the welding heat.
Now this first time we're not too aggressive again. This is kind of the tack weld.
I'm going to go back and reflux the edges,
just make sure they're sealed up good.
Go back into the fire and
do our second weld.
Doing this weld, I actually start to clean up the edges a little bit
and this whole assembly gets tapered down to a 7/8 inch round on the end so it has quite a little
bit of drawing out to do. I'm just starting to do it kind of gently here.
Not too aggressive yet.
This third time, we're going to get a little more aggressive and
a little more aggressive and start to draw it down little closer to the 7/8.
And you see it start to gain some length as we're drawing it down also.
Go back and add some more heat.
Continue to draw this out
Now were starting to work the square corners off.
Bringing it into a little more of an octagon
before I actually
bring it into round. And I'll use a
I'll use a little swage block here eventually,
but I'm gonna take these sweeping corners and
kind of clean them up by hand.
I could be a little rough in the trip hammer.
I'm using the horn of the anvil here as an opposite, and just kind of bringing
the sweeping curves of the more in line.
Start to take the corners off here.
They have a 45 bevel, kind of chamfered off,
so we're kind of bringing those in also.
Taking the sharp edges off.
Now here we're gonna bring it down to a seven eight round shape
that will actually be welded
to the length of seven eighths rod that connects the back brake lever to the front brake handle.
I've got this just a little crooked here.
We're gonna go over here and straighten it up.
I'll go back and put some more heat on it
and do our final cleanup to 7/8 round.
Then we need to make sure that the 7/8 round
and sweeping curves coming up, all kind of blend together.
Here we're just cleaning it up,
making sure our lines smooth and continuous.
Just some clean up work here.
An here I'm just really looking for the lines.
Taking the 45 corners from straight
through the curve.
Checking for straight.
So now I need to open this up so that it can go on each side of the brake handle.
We're gonna spread it apart
and I have a one-inch piece, a little box iron here then
put it in here. I really don't have quite enough heat on this. it doesn't have to be a
It doesn't have to be a real tight fit.
I'm just kind of looking for something close,
but I don't have enough heat.
I've got to go back to the forge and put some more heat in here.
Now she'll bend down around that piece,
if she'll stay in there.
Really needs to only be kind of a sweeping curve.
It doesn't that be a real tight fit.
This is just a spacer, so I'm gonna check that it's going to slide okay.
And from here on out we're just gonna do the final cosmetics.
Take a last little scale off. Go to a little finer brush here.
Now the ends of these are kind of 45'd off on the corners.
We're gonna go and put them on our sander take the corners off.
Go to the drill press and drill our holes in them.
This is what they look like before they're actually welded to lengths.
This is the rear brake handle,
and this is how it will fit
with the multiple holes to adjust the length.
Thanks for watching