PhilEakins

I seem to recall that the 'Flying Scotsman' kit from Hatchette brought forth a great deal of similar negativity. I also seem to recall that the Gauge 0 Guild has a table full of completed Hatchette kit built locos at an exhibition! There was also a very active thread on this very forum as people negotiated their way through the complexities of successfully building the kit (which I believe was monitored by Hatchette as 'defective' or wrong parts discovered were corrected by later re-issues). Horse, by all means have a view, but base it in evidence, if you get my drift. The last kit was brought home successfully, what makes you think this one won't be? Phil

The price includes the wheels as well - I haven't costed the full wheel set bought separately but I reckon it's a good slice of the £200! Phil

OK - I'm in! Who's going to start the support thread? Cheers. Phil

Hi Michaelp Just to complicate things ....! Collieries are private sidings so far as main line workings are concerned - main line engines were usually confined to the arrival and departure sidings only and were banned from going further, work inside the colliery lines was done with the colliery's own engines. Snowdown Colliery, the only one I can remember at the moment, having seen it in action (when it was!), was reached from a trailing point on the down main line onto two parallel lines with a crossover at the far end (with a spur for your BV) and a very long head-shunt at the other so that the colliery engines did not need to go onto the main line as they collected from and delivered trains to and from the sidings for the main line engines. Can you post a plan of what you have? Phil

In the absence of a yard pilot to do the shunting for you: Run round the empties, uncouple the BV and park it in a siding out of the way of the next shunt, but facing the exit point. Shunt the empties as appropriate. Couple onto the fulls, back onto the BV and couple on, drive away. I don't know that shunting a colliery yard is any different to to any other. HTH. Phil

What is the lathe? Phil PS And I should have said - are you boring with a tool between centres or from the tool post?

Now for something non-controversial (I hope!). When I bought my Unimat Classic SL : this one - I also bought the automatic long feed, which ends up in a big red plastic thingy which includes a shear pin, thus - I'm adding the pictures as Emco rather economically re-used names. Thinking ahead, I also got the spares pack including belts and several shear pins. Now, I am renowned for my ham fistedness and I am sure to use the remaining shear pins sooner or later so I need a supplier to replace them. You knowledgeable folks might be able to point me in the right direction as there is no-one on the net I can readily identify selling the part? Thanks. Phil PS Sorry for the fuzzy focus. PPS The collet cluch/mandrill converter has arrived and is a very nicely finished bit of kit. It does exactly as it was described. Now I need some collets, luckily they are at the cheaper end of the market!

Cheers Stephen - you've got me convinced. You're quite right, I hadn't thought about over-tightening in use, even though I had some shaper tools for wood used in a power drill which did just that! Have you been looking in my tool draw? Phil

Thanks again Stephen - I see what you mean. One idea which occurs to me, is that instead of securing the fitting from the back end, is to bore, thread and then turn an extension to the spindle which can then be bored/reamed/tapered to take a tool (secured by set screw or glued as you say) which would then be perfectly concentric to, and balanced with, the head end each time it's fitted for use. I've found a couple of sources for compatible taps and dies for the spindle head (which opens up even more tooling possibilities of course!). As I said - although I've had the equipment for some (long) time I'm really a just beginner exploring what I can do and what's best practice. Phil PS I didn't take metalwork at school, which was an awfully long time ago!

Thanks Stephen, now I've paid for the thing and I'll see what arrives. I wasn't thinking about forcing a different size collet into the chuck for which it was not designed, but the 'nose' of the fitting is threaded so that I can add later issue (14 X 1) chucks. For example, I can mount a 'Unimat 3' four jaw chuck on the SL - not that I want to, but I could. As I said, I'll see what comes and ask again if I need to. Ummmm, that would act a bit like a correctly sized collet then? Phil

Gosh, don't time fly - I could have sworn that the last post was a couple of days ago .... Anyway, after about 30 years I finally have a place to set up my Unimat SL 1000 (sold in the UK by Elliot) as a drilling/milling machine, and my newer Unimat SL Basic as a lathe, permanently. Having to continually clear them away was always a disincentive to their use. The SL 1000 is now very old (but a valuable machine going on what they fetch on e-bay) and accessories are hard to come by and are expensive. I've sourced a 12mm X 1mm pitch (the SL 1000 standard) to 14mm X 1mm pitch mandrel so that I can attach more up-to-date Emco 14 X 1 fittings enabling me to use a range of collet chucks for the newer Emco machines. However, the mandrel is in itself a collet chuck for ER11 standard collets (not bad for forty quid!). Now, my question is - ER11 collets are 18mm long whereas ER16 (other Emco/Unimat collet chucks on offer) are 27mm long and I think might offer more support to the tools. So should I buy an extra collet chuck for ER16 or will ER11 suffice? I'm not anticipating any very heavy milling, at the moment that is. Any advice gratefully welcome as you will obviously see, I'm a tyro at this. Phil

I'll go along with everything Kenton said. When I've demonstrated/let others have a go at using my PSU at the SWAG do at Taunton over that last couple of years people have been amazed at how simple it really is (although I could never pin Andy Y down to have a go!). No need to tin using a conventional iron unless you are sweating something on. Also, solder paste is expensive and difficult to find when using a step soldering technique with differing melting points. Ordinary solder, cut into short (ie a couple of mil or less, only enough to make the joint) lengths, placed in position on the cleaned and fluxed joint and held down by the carbon probe so that the current passes through the solder into the metal will do just as well and I find is is much more controllable. Can't be at Taunton this year - I'm going to get withdrawal symptoms. Phil

Don't worry Simon - I'm only a year (or two) late so it'll take a bit to catch me up! Hope all goes well with the layout at Taunton. I'm double booked that day so I'll have to wait for the pictures. Phil

I don't know if you chaps have seen this. Apparently a 7 foot 3ins by 2 foot N gauge layout costs £898 to build! Phil

Wonder if he notices? He's certainly not going to sell anything! Although, having said that ....... Phil

This book is obviously priced to sell ..... Item 150438089204 - I paid £30 for mine! Phil