jdb82

In amongst restoring a 1950's drill press, I've finally managed to get some paint on the Old Class i. Obviously it needs a significant session of muckying up to make it passable as a Manning Wardle, but I think she looks OK with her first set of clothes on. I didn't;t take too much care masking the cab floor as that will have boards on top eventually 😁 Final stretch now.

I like the cab weather sheet a lot 😁 What is it made from? Cheers, John

This is excellent! I must have a look at the What's on you printer thread....seem to have missed that. I often have problems printing the 'bigger' stuff like this.I'm sure its down to where I'm placing the supports (or not placing them more likely!). You've achieved a superb level of detail. John

This is great! 3D printers really have opened up a new world of possibilities. With the printing, I've found 3 things to be key - especially when printing larger items such as this: orientation (makes sure everything's the right shape with crisp edges and layer lines are kept to a minimum), supports (correct positioning and size) and the temperature at which it's printed in. I print in my garage so the last one is hugely important to stop a load of failed prints. If the resin chassis performs over time, this could be very interesting!

The motion is on hold temporarily....It turns, but binds slightly in one place. When I put it together, I deliberately made it quite loose - I wouldn't go as far as saying sloppy, but I think I've perhaps introduced too much slop. The theory was that it had a better chance of turning if things weren't micron-perfect, but I think I went a bit too far. If anyone has put an inside motion together previously and knows a magic cure, let me know. Otherwise I'm going to tighten the tolerances on the CAD models, print and re-cast them for version 2. So with that, I added the brake blocks and linkages. These are to be the final soldered parts on the model, so represents something of a landmark in the project. The prototype I've based this model on only had brakes on the front and rear axels, not the middle, which I think adds to the charm of this diminutive little loco. Next, the chassis will get a good clean, ready for primer - hopefully this weekend.

After an evening of fiddling, I finally persuaded the motion into it's new home. It's fair to say it's a tight fit! It needs some fettling up as it's a bit sticky at the moment, but it rotates and wiggles and jiggles in just about the right places. Still need to add balance weights..... Just hand-turned currently, but it give you an idea at least.

Not in it’s current form….It can be pulled out from the chassis as the unit above, but can’t be broken down further. I just wanted to see if it will actually work. If it does, then I’ll invest in some small taps and screw various bits together which will give it a bit more versatility. For this version I’ll suffer the painting consequences!

Righty, now the Easter holidays are here I’ve finally managed to do the rest of the wiggly bits for the motion…. Now to fit them into the chassis and see if it still moves. I’ll also see if I can replace some of the photos in the thread when I get time - seems a shame to lose what people seem to have found interesting over the last year (has it really been that long?!)

I've joined the party a little late, but just spent a very pleasant 30 minutes or so reading through your thread. There's some top quality modelling going on here! I find it really interesting to see modellers adapting kits to suit specific prototypes - love how you've made the modifications

Once everything is soldered up, I'll cut the main axel between the crank webbing. The big end of the connecting rod is in two parts, and will fit round the crank shaft, eventually being drilled and pinned. t'other end is connected to the crosshead. Not quite sure if that answers your question.....?

Attempting to! Not done one before - it all seems to work when modelled on fusion 360, so we’ll see if it works in real life….

I've put it off for too long......made a start on the inside motion. Most things just mocked up, with lots of parts still to add, but it's a start at least!

The gearbox I was making didn't quite work out - most of it worked well, until I got to the final spur gear on the axel - I needed to drill & ream this out to the correct bore. This sounds easy enough and in theory it should have been, but I don't have the equipment to hold the gear exactly perpendicular to the drill. Gripping it firmly enough whilst not damaging the teeth was another issue! It all led to a wobbly final spur gear, which bound everything up. I'll keep working on populating the workshop with kit..... Onto the next solution to powering it. In a perfect world I'd get a nice ABC gearbox, but I can't afford one of these at the moment. A while ago, I bought a selection of N20 motor/gearbox combos from China. I designed a 'holder' to secure the gearbox at the correct distance from the axel, which was connected to the axel via some cheap 0.5 MOD bevel gears. The gearbox is either a 100 or 200 RPM version - not sure of the ratio, but it's suitably slow. The motor/gearbox/bevel gears/3D printed housing cost less than £5. So far, so good. They seem very powerful for their size - I guess we'll see if it's strong enough to move everything when all 6 wheels, inside motion and two or 3 wagons are being pulled. Maybe by that time there'll be enough in the kitty for a 'proper' gearbox! Finally, I gave the boiler assembly and cab roof a splash of etch primer, suitable thinned for a smooth finish.

It actually didn't put up much of a fight in the end - I have an Iroda gas soldering iron, which gives heat in quite a specific area. A few seconds on the filler and it came off no problem.

More than likely, and probably the etches too. I want to get it all finished and right first though. I need to make small adjustments to a couple of the castings. Just started prepping the body for a primer coat.

I keep telling myself I should give everything a good scrub and polish before posting photos...one day I will....before painting! Since my last post, I have added the sandbox levers, draincock reach rods and the reverser reach rod. Then, attention was turned towards the cab roof. The straps locate in a half etched recess, inside and out, and the spectacle frames were all soldered on. Having consulted the CAD drawing to work out where to form the bends, I nearly messed things up. Not only do I need a certain distance of roof from back to front, the front and back panels are at different heights. Needless to say, I put the bends in the wrong place. A bit of finger and thumb persuasion later, I managed to persuade it almost into the right place, although the front panel sits a bit too far towards the back of the firebox really, but nobody will know if you don't tell them. The whistle, brackets and stays were then added. I'm not going to attach the roof to anything yet - I'll paint it first and worry about that later!

Time has been short recently, but I have now finished reboarding the cab floor so the planks now run in the correct direction. These will be numbered and kept aside until after painting, after which they will be stained and weathered.

Been a while since my last post - a combination of work, illness, Christmas and a side project have slowed things down. I have added the springs, tank brackets, lubricator warming valve, boiler bands, clack valves and sandboxes, as well as remodelled the tank filler, which I printed. I realised I forgot to cast the sandbox filler caps, so printed these as well. Lots of little bits that weren't really worth a post individually. I'm currently (re)cutting the boards for the cab. Here's the current, rather grubby state of play - I suspect there might not be much further progress over the next few days! Have a peaceful, hopefully model-filled Christmas! John

I have used the eSun tough resin in my own wheels - it certainly is tough, and works well for the purpose - I wouldn't say it smells any more than any other resin, and as Mike says, it machines excellently. The downsides are that it's not good at printing fine detail (although for most wheel applications this isn't an issue) but perhaps worst of all, it's an absolute pain to clean up. I use 99.5% IPA, and everything it still seems to cling to everything lie superglue! But, a good resin for the purpose :-) John

All good! I'd rather it was spotted now than after I'd stuck'ed down......

I've never been able to find any photos of the cab interior for this class of loco. When I started the flooring, I was convinced that the last Manning Wardle kit I built (an L class) had the boards running in this direction, but having just looked back though the photo's from my build thread, they actually run in the opposite direction. Poo. I'll get round to cutting some new ones at some point, but after spending 3 evenings cutting them carefully to fit, I think I'll move on to another bit of the loco first! If anyone knows the direction specifically for an Old Class i, then me know before the end of next week

I used to live in Brunei - the tyres in the humidity there rusted almost as soon as I took them out of the packet..... and even before I took them out in some cases!

A beautiful piece of work! I especially love the springs. A little extra effort certainly makes a world of difference. The cast iron/brass combination for current collection is interesting. If cast iron is so effective, I wonder why most modern tyres are steel? Is it just price, or more to do with ease of machining I wonder?

Does anyone know what the valve & tap on top of the firebox is?

Yes it's a handrail knob filed to a suitable angle. To be honest, I've taken an educated guess here, as any photos of prototypes I have aren't very clear. The drawing is inconclusive, other than vaguely looking like there's something round-ish on top of this rear handrail, but seemingly flat on the front handrail next to it..... One of the (many) Manning Wardle quirks? Or maybe I've just got it wrong. Wouldn't be the first time