Water tender wagon for the 16 Russell

[cjmlarson]

As I have mentioned before, the Russell has very little water storage, so I thought it would be good to have some extra water available. In my travels for work, I finally located an old set of axles and wheels in a pasture. I found the owner and we struck a deal! When I saw them I became extremely interested due to the fact that they looked to have very simular markings as the Russell casting #'s. And as you will see in the pictures, they are cast wheels with the cast in spokes, and this is how the Russell is also. To get this process started it took me a few hours to figure how it was supposed to go together, because when I picked it up it was just a pile of rusty metal. My first thought was to get an old fuel tank and get this together in a short amout of time. But the only thing I could find was welded tanks. So.........I guess I will make one.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1147-2.jpg
Here I'm just getting the wheels and axles home.

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Here you'll see the cast-in spokes.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1152-2.jpg
Here's a picture of the pile of iron I told you I got with the axles. This shows the bolster, part of the reach board bracket and the pole braces. After I got it home, I noticed that part of the bolster was broken and completely gone.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1166-2.jpg
This is the only wood that was left of whatever style wagon this was. Both the axles were bent, so I straightened those in a press. And then it was to try and figure out the front axle and steering parts, and how I was going to design the tank saddles and get this all to come together correctly.

[M Kerkvliet]

What are you going to build after you get the engine and wagon all done? You are going to have a lot of time on your hands that you don't now!

I know... you can work on more Caterpillars for WMSTR! The D-2 needs a tune up and that would fit in your shop next winter! :hide:

[cjmlarson]

I have had that question asked a lot lately, But I think I better finish some of these projects up and then maybe do a few around the house/yard projects.As far as the D2 I cant drive anything that big and heavy in my shop.:biglaugh:

[cjmlarson]

I finally had gotten all of the pieces figured out and where they needed to go. I had to fabricate some metal pieces and then braise them to the broken bolster. After that, I was able to start sizing up the lumber dimensions and getting the front and back axle so that the tank would sit level on them. This was due to the rear wheels being larger than the steering wheels.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1174-2.jpg
You'll notice the wheels and axles are white, that just happens to be the primer I had at the time.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1177-2.jpg
I did not get any close up shops of the repaired bolster, but if you look close you can tell the bottom half is the one I had to repair.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1188-2.jpg
It's starting to come along as you can see. The tank saddles were given to me as they did not fit the application that person was going to use them on. So I decided that the size of my tank was going to be the diameter that would fit in the tank saddles. You're probably noticing, that this is going to be a freelance water wagon.

[Mike McKnight]

Good gosh Clayton, when you get after something, you REALLY get after something!

A few months ago, I bought the axles and wheels off a Gaar-Scott clover huller that someday is going to be made into a Gaar-Scott water wagon for my Gaar-Scott engines. I feel bad saying they're still rusting away in the backyard! ;)

Mike

[cjmlarson]

Even though this wagon is not a direct replica of a Russell, I want to try to keep the color scheme as close as possible.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1198-2.jpg
It would be so easy to paint the easy stuff first, but here I am painting the spokes. And I think 2/3 of the paint goes in the air. I do know my driveway was yellow when I was done with this.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1219-2.jpg
Here it's starting to look like a wagon frame.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1300-2.jpg
As I said before, the saddles that I got depicted the diameter of the tank. So I had Fargo Tank roll me a barrel and flange my end bells, so that I had a 3/4" flange to rivet the barrel to the end bells. Here I am starting to temporarily assemble the end bells to see how everything fits.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1301-2.jpg
You'll probably notice that 1 end bell has the flange in, and the other end bell has the flange out. Beings I will not be able to get inside the tank, I will rivet the one end bell first, along with the lapseam, and then the other end bell will go in last. Then I can rivet that one from the outside.

[andyg]

Good gosh Clayton, when you get after something, you REALLY get after something!

A few months ago, I bought the axles and wheels off a Gaar-Scott clover huller that someday is going to be made into a Gaar-Scott water wagon for my Gaar-Scott engines. I feel bad saying they're still rusting away in the backyard! ;)

Mike

I hear ya Mike. Sounds just like a KG water wagon sitting in front of Dad's shop. It's on the round-to-it list. I also wish that I got round-to-it as quick as Clayton. That's a nice looking outfit.

[cjmlarson]

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1325-2.jpg
Here I've got most of the holes drilled and have started putting bolts in the holes. This way I can hold the lap seam and the end flanges together tight.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1327-2.jpg
Here I'm lifting the water tank off the wagon frame. I am getting everything ready for the crew of family members to come at Thanksgiving to help rivet.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1335-2.jpg
In the meantime, I'm assembling the wood bunker and drilling the holes in it, so I can rivet this also.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1400-2.jpg
As you can see, I do alot of things 2 or 3 times. Here I put the tank back on the wagon with the wood bunker on top. My brother Kevin (if you've followed the Russell restoration, he always has a hammer in his hand), is helping my Dad build the pole for the wagon.

[cjmlarson]

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1404-2.jpg
Here we're riveting the front end bell to the barrel. Mike Larson and Grant Johnson are standing, and my brothers, Kevin & Craig are taking bolts out as they put rivets in.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1405-2.jpg
As you can see, at times we had plenty of onlookers to see if we were doing it correctly. I was on the inside of the tank setting the rivets as they put them in. This took a very good set of earplugs.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1414-2.jpg
This is what the finished job looked like when we completed the end bell. Then we moved onto the lap seam and finished that also. I believe at this time, there were cold turkey sandwiches waiting for us in the house.

[PoPValve]

well done to you, that will be sme neat piece when its bein pukked round,,,say what you gonna pull it wit?

[cjmlarson]

well done to you, that will be sme neat piece when its bein pukked round,,,say what you gonna pull it wit?

The wagon is being built for the 16 Russell that is being restored ,and you will find it under the 16 Russell restoration and assembly threads.

[cjmlarson]

Here I have my opening for the fill pipe cut out and the holes drilled for the rivets.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1567-2.jpg

Installing the fill pipe in the opening and getting ready to rivet it in place.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1561-2.jpg

Wood bunker is riveted and now getting ready to rivet its' mounting brackets in place.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1568-2.jpg

Holding the tank up with the forklift, and letting it down on the rivet set on the anvil.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1605.jpg

[cjmlarson]

Just another view of riveting the brackets.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1606.jpg

Here's the water pump bracket that is done being riveted.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1609.jpg

Louie showed up to help me rivet in the back endbell.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1615.jpg

Louie's Snap-On impact hammer set the rivets better than my old, worn out hammer would.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1617.jpg

The tank has a total of 348 1/4" rivets. It didn't seem like that many, until I counted them when we were finished.

[cjmlarson]

After getting all the rivets in, I set the tank on the wagon frame and pushed it outside. Then I filled it full of water and was checking for how well we sealed up all the rivets and flanges. Out of 348 rivets, I only had 4 slow weepers. :bannana: All I did, was take my hammer and squash the rivets a little further and they quit weeping.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1643-2.jpg
Here the tank is sitting outside and I was waiting for any leaks to show up.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1675-2.jpg
I was cutting and tapering the wagon pole and also assembling the clevice hitch on the pole.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1692-2.jpg
I almost forgot to taper the front tank support above the bolster. Now we can go over uneven ground and be able to turn without having the front axle catch the front tank support. Here I have got it all back together and ready to start mounting the tank AGAIN! One thing about these projects, when you have to keep doing them over and over, you get to know your project very well.

[cjmlarson]

How do you paint something round, without messing up what you've previously painted, as you roll it? Lucky for me, as I painted it and rolled it, all it did was touch the rivet heads. So I was able to touch the rivet heads up after I was done painting.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1691-2.jpg
The tank got painted with the same paint as the boiler did.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1696-2.jpg
Starting to assemble the painted tank with the pump and hoses. Then I painted all the red pieces to get ready for assembly.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1708-2.jpg
Just a view of the finished product from the right side.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/cjmlarson/100_1712-2.jpg
It was as ready as it was going to be for display at Larson's Spring Steam Up. Just waiting for nice weather and some green grass, so we can hook up to the engine to get some pictures of the finished product.