R/C Steam Turbine Tank

Step 6 Attaching Shaft Adapters

Overview:
This lengthy step describes how to attach Meccano Sprockets to the turbine engine, and the Blizzard clutch.

Details:
I use a lot of older Meccano, or Erector Set parts for my steam machines, in particular
lots of Meccano sprockets. Sprockets and chains are a bit easier to test gear ratios than gears, because you can quickly swap out different size ones, and change the chain length to test the best gear ratio for your particular contraption. Sprockets and chains are also more forgiving, so if you are like me and can't drill a straight hole to save your life, then building a gearbox where gears have to line up perfectly, is way beyond my abilities. The downside of sprocket/chain system is that they can derail easily if not set up correctly (which will be explained in later steps).

So for the turbine to drive the treads, I knew that I wanted to meccano sprockets and chains, but the problem is that meccano sprockets fits shafts that are roughly 4mm in diameter, and the tubine and clutch shafts are slightly larger.

So without having any machining skills, I had to rely on parts that I can hack and use. I found these really useful shaft adapters from my local hobby store about a year ago, and have been using lots of them for my builds. They are made by CEN, and the stock number is WS009. On one end is a smaller diameter hole than the other end, with set screws of lock the shafts in place. These CEN universal joints come in 2 sizes, these are the larger ones and fits perfectly with this setup.

With the CEN adaptor on one end, and a 4mm shaft from the hobby store, I was able to attach the sprocket to the turbine, and another set for the clutch. Thread locker was used to secure the hex set screw. Anything that suffers a lot of vibration is probably a good idea to use a thread locker. I used Tamiya brand thread lock because I had it laying around, but any brand of removable thread lock will work.