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F4 Chassis - a story in cackhandiness

Fen End Pit

Entry posted by Fen End Pit

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Sometimes I suspect people only blog when they have got something that works, that demonstrates the best of their modelling, the kind of blog posts that get answered with lots of 'Superbs' and craftsman/clever likes. I guess this might be natural but possibly a little off putting sometimes.

 

So, Friday evening and the F4 chassis made it into wheel shop. We had the tools, we had the company, we had the coffee. The GW wheel press was prepared, I even had a brand new magnifying lamp from Hobbystore, the Right Honorable member for Sawston assisted making some axles which would be the right length (the Gibson ones being about .8m too short). I assembled all the parts in the jig, even managed to getting the bearings round the right way and pressed.The result, a wheel completely on the dink as I'd not quite chamfered the ends of the axle enough and just got the initial push on the jig off. The axle took a tiny bit of material off the inside of the wheel and despite the best attempts to rectify by taking the wheel off and putting it back on again and trying to twist it slightly eventually we had to decide that the wheel set was screwed up beyond repair.

 

As the member of Littleport so succinctly put it, 'Isn't it great that this hobby is just so relaxing?'

 

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So, we had three axles on nice and square, and the quartering was spot on, but there is nothing for it but to order a replacement wheel set from Alan Gibson tomorrow. Next time I will also put the jig into a large vice where I can control the speed at which it presses the wheels on better than just apply hand pressure.

 

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Even with the wheel on the dink it was worth threading through the CSB wire which provides the springing. The result was that I had a rolling chassis, even if it was rocking as well as rolling. The 'phoney-trucks' which simulate the radial axleboxes seem to work nicely.

 

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So, there you have it, my embarrassing tale from a Friday evening of modelling. Still if the only casualty is one pair of wheels and a damaged ego, we live and learn.

 

David

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Dave Holt

Hi David.

Sorry to read of your set back. As you say, we all suffer this type of frustration from time-to-time, but generally don't mention it in blogs. Strangely, I did recount such an incident in my latest Delph blog entry but didn't go so far as to confess I was close to tears when it all went horribly wrong. Not very manly!

When assembling Gibson wheel sets, not on do I chamfer the end of the axle but also slightly countersink the back of the wheel bore using the tip of my three sided scraper.

Dave.

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ROSSPOP
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I can remember many times using wheel press tools for assembling Alan gibson wheels many `on the dink` as you have described ( and then super glueing the odd steel wheel rim back in place)........

 

I still have many of his wheel sets....... but I dumped the wheelpress tools......

 

If you  set up your cordless drill and use medium and fine grade `wet an dry` or similar to shine up the axles until the Gibson wheels just about push on with finger pressure, you can then `quarter` the wheels by eye using the spokes. The `plastic` wheel centres seem to have a `memory` and will grip fairly tight after time. Once you`ve got the hang of it........ no more gibson ` wheel wobbles`.........

 

John

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ullypug
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We've all been there. One Terrier chassis (Perseverence I think it was) got cut up into lots of very small pieces one Sunday afternoon with 'Mr Tin Snips'. Not very rational but very, very satisfying.

These days I tend to ream out Gibson wheels ever so slightly so they're a push fit on, then quarter in the jig before adding a drop of Loctite and pushing them home to gauge. I always use the vice to push the wheels home.

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