7mm Scale Aspinall Saddle Tank, Buffers
Hi
I had a little play last night with the buffers. The stocks come as brass turnings, which are fine as far as they go. Except that they are round (they should be clipped top) and they have no details (there should be 5 bolts securing the buffers to the beam). The first part was easy, the flat could be filed on the stock. There second problem is a little trickier. Time to live up to my moniker
I needed a jig first of all if I was going to drill the holes, and I came up with the idea of using a Slater's axle washer which was almost a perfect fit on the back of the stocks. I carefully marked out and drilled 6 0.4mm holes, evenly spaced around the washer. Brilliant, only in the wrong place, too near the centre. Being mean, and unwilling to sacrifice another Slater's washer, I split the differences and drilled another 6 holes further out.
Now it was a case of tack soldering the washer on the back and drilling the 6 holes through the stock, removing the washer and moving on to the next stock. This was entirely successful, even if the washer looked a bit diseased by the time I had finished. The Scale Hardware bolts (yes, I think I satisfy Scale7JB's criterion as a rivet counter)were soldered in, the stocks cleaned up, and hey presto, proper buffers.
I took the following photos this morning....and was horrified to see how rough the turnings looked. They honestly do not look that bad in real life, but I am going to have to finish them off better. I also note that one of the bolts is not seated properly. Aren't photos depressing, you can see all your mistakes
Richard
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