Return of the Parkside GWR 10T & an oily rag - You must be kitting me...? SR71 Workbench

[hayfield]

They are starting to look very good, also a skillful use of a soldering iron. Great bit of work 

[SR71]

Thanks Hayfield. Definitely a large chunk of luck in there but hopefully I can keep it up to end up somewhere near where I want it to be.

[SR71]

So... cab or footplate?

 

Both!

 

 

I didn't manage to do anything over the Christmas week but I've made up for that this weekend. And yes those buffers will not be remaining.

 

The cab soldering went well but I did spend a lot of time fettling to make the joint fit up as good as possible before hand. Part of this process was to take out a lot of the locating tabs. They are needed if gluing, to give enough contact area, but if soldering the they end up getting in the way of the joint and also it looks like the driver is smuggling home a load of 6"x4" timber to build a shed.

 

 

Below I'm checking if it's square before going over all the joints with the iron. It's slightly out but I didn't think i could improve on this to get the tiny fraction needed.

 

Soldered but not yet cleaned up.

 

Next I needed to shorten the footplate. You may have wondered why I am building everything as modules off the footplate casting. One bugbear I have with white metal locos is they regularly end up with a footplate that looks like a gradient drawing of the Somerset and Dorset.  This is the nature of the material but I wanted to have the best chance of ending up with a flat footplate so i am leaving it until the last. 

 

...and having carefully kept the casting flat I now need to cut it up... DOH!

 

The PCB is soldered across before cutting to ensure the footplate has the best chance of retaining it's shape and resists the bending action of the saw.

 

 

The first cut has been made and second is in progress.

 

 

The 2 parts are then reattached as I did with the cab sides. Below is tacked so I can check alignment.

 

 

And that's it so far. I need to look at the chassis next I think but I need to get some broaches before I can start on that.

 

[hayfield]

Very impressive and the surgery looks to be nigh on invisible, part watched Tony Wrights youtube video on loco building, very interesting seeing the low melt solder being used for both joining items together and gap filling.

 

I bought (very cheap) a broken Wills GWR Metro tank, its footplate is snapped in two. Trouble is the footplate is part of the cab sides. At a fiver a side I am tempted to buy 2 new ones, on the other hand I have another one and I might be able to make a part mould out of silicone, to hold the 2 parts in register whilst I solder/fuse them together, somehow the desire to actually repair it is greater than taking the easy option. Part of it is that I want to fit a Comet etched chassis to a K's 14xx, the footplate is 2 mm too short, I am wondering if the same process can be used to extend it ? rather than shorten the chassis

[SR71]

Thanks Hayfield, I've not seen that video, have you got a link? (A quick look on YouTube and I couldn't find it).

 

I've found that soldering works best with a small gap between parts. If a joint is totally flush I put a small bevel on the back edge to give room for the solder. I think a 2mm gap might be too much for solder alone, around 1mm is where it seems to start to get iffy for me as the solder doesn't want to bridge the gap. I use the glass underneath as a way to stop it collapsing under its own weight which seems to work so far building up the joint in stages.

 

If I was going to extend as you need to I think I would use a scrap of white metal in the gap to give the solder something to form around. If the casting has already broken in that location I'd worry that it's a weak spot and the solder wouldn't hold long term though. I'm still learning (this kit could yet be a disaster) but I try to put cuts where another piece will bridge the gap and brace it.

 

That being said, with spares available, I'd absolutely have a go because you can only really gain. Feel free to add a photo of the footplate to this thread if you want to.

 

 

[hayfield]

Its the second from last post the one with 5 chassis on

 

 

 

A great watch and very informative

 

I am not too bothered about bridging a 2 mm gap as the solder fuses with the casting material, Tony used plenty of flux on both sides of the joints, some may have been as wide as 1 mm. Its 5 hours long and about 2 hours in, worth having it on whilst doing modelling, rewinding on the parts that are of real interest.

[SR71]

Well I started the D1 chassis but have been diverted onto a secret squirrel project since Feb. I wasn't intending to post it until September but I've been enjoying everyone's increased project updates over the last three weeks and wanted to contribute as I too have been working away.

 

I don't want to give too much away but today's milestone is below.

 

 

[SR71]

Not yet back onto the D1 but I have bought a motor and some gears for it. I can now post pictures of what initially distracted me back in April.

 

 

Not a D1, but a Super D! (Ok G1) So I can finish things... just not what I'd initially started!

[Captain Kernow]

On 24/03/2019 at 20:25, Adam said:

the small wheels suggest that this is a Cotswold 16xx which I think did have opening smokebox door and all the features shown here. A pretty good kit, far, far better than the K's 57xx. The Cotswold kit is now available from SE Finecast

Yes, definitely a Cotswold 16XX. I'm just completing my build of one, with the new NuCast Partners chassis (joint venture between Branchlines and SE Finecast, but designed by Justin Newitt):

 

[SR71]

Well I didn't think it would be this long until a posted an update! The now confirmed Cotswold kit has been packed away in the round-to-it pile. As it happened I was already following the Captain's build - something to aim for!

 

To work back around to the kit I've been building a test track.

 

 

Just needs wiring and the track pinning down. I'm deliberately using salvaged track to test out engines so I know they are able to tolerate less than perfect track work. I also appear to have some underground tube-train test track...

 

For the D1 I've got another N20 but this time with a worm and hopefully not needing me to set up bevel gears. The output shaft is only slightly smaller than a standard Romford.

 

I went for the lowest reduction as it was a choice between 42mph or 120mph top speed. I'll see how it works and might try the next ratio of it's too much of a greyhound.

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by SR71
finger trouble.

[Skinnylinny]

That D1 is looking fantastic so far!

I too have played around with those motor/gearbox combinations in my 3D printed LSWR A12 project. I found it easier to buy 3mm Romford axles (available as an alternative to the 1/8" ones). Knocking out the original drive axle on the gearbox (it's only a friction fit) meant that the 3mm Romford axle fitted nicely, and I've held the gear to it with some nail polish (to allow the joint to break if there's any binding, rather than damage the motor).





Certainly saved much boring or turning of parts!

Edited January 26, 2022 by Skinnylinny

[hayfield]

That is a very interesting development with this motor, as for the 3mm wheels did you use standard 1/8" bearings in the frames ?

[Skinnylinny]

For the driven axle, I've actually used the bearings on the gearbox (as these stick out slightly from the edge of the gearbox - the driven axle doesn't actually touch the frame at all). The front axle uses Markits 3mm inside-diameter bearings (part number MRAXFB3E for a pack of 12 in their catalogue).

The raised bearings can be seen here, and these rest in the "axle holes" in the chassis. The gearbox has to be sprung into place, rather like pinpoint axles into a plastic wagon chassis.



It's certainly saved me a lot of time trying to get worms and gears to mesh nicely!

[SR71]

There's no new ideas

 

Thanks @Skinnylinny I didn't know there were different OD Romford axles. I recently got given a small tin of them so I'll go through and see if I have any. That A12 looks good, do you have a thread?

 

@hayfieldHere is the listing where I got mine if you were interest

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-12V-Double-Shaft-Large-Torque-N20-Worm-Gear-Motor-Full-Metal-Gearbox-Robot-/265431104310?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

 

[Skinnylinny]

1 hour ago, SR71 said:

There's no new ideas

 

Thanks @Skinnylinny I didn't know there were different OD Romford axles. I recently got given a small tin of them so I'll go through and see if I have any. That A12 looks good, do you have a thread?

No worries, thought it might help save you some of the angst I had when designing mine. Thanks, I have a layout thread in the pre-grouping section, although I have been considering setting one up in the 3D printing section of the forum too. So far most of my 3D prints have been wagons, this is only the second loco I've attempted (and the first where I've worked out the chassis mechanical details before getting stuck in!)

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130588-great-southern-railway-fictitious/

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, SR71 said:

There's no new ideas

 

Thanks @Skinnylinny I didn't know there were different OD Romford axles. I recently got given a small tin of them so I'll go through and see if I have any. That A12 looks good, do you have a thread?

 

@hayfieldHere is the listing where I got mine if you were interest

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-12V-Double-Shaft-Large-Torque-N20-Worm-Gear-Motor-Full-Metal-Gearbox-Robot-/265431104310?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

 

 

SR71

 

Thanks I have ordered a couple and will give it a go, working to EM gauge the frames will need their own bearings and no need to spring the frames out when fitting them

[SR71]

No D1 work this weekend but... Test track is wired and tested. It just needs to be installed on my workbench.

 

I have also been building a superquick to act as a bit of photographic interest as a background.

 

 

 

I've also got some D1 related reading;

 

 

I think next weekend will be garden focused but might squeeze in some modelling time too.

Edited April 13, 2022 by SR71

[Chas Levin]

Just came across your thread, very much enjoyed reading through it and also very much enjoyed your work in attaining straight and perpendicular results with white metal kits, something I too have struggled with!

[SR71]

Test track installed on bench and can now try to clear everything on it to a sensible storage space. Taking chance to run in the Peckett I weathered a few years ago

Edited April 13, 2022 by SR71
autoincorrect

[Guest Jack Benson]

On 26/01/2022 at 17:17, Skinnylinny said:

 

Hi,

Just spotted the pickups, as I am having fun with an old SEF T9, can you explain a little more about these rather neat devices.

Thank you and StaySafe

 

 

[Skinnylinny]

Aha, yes - I have never had much joy making my own pickups, so these are DCC Concepts' very neat ones - I do find they need a little tweaking, as they bear on the back of the wheels quite hard, but they have saved me *so* much time and hassle with bending bits of wire. 

Of course, they're a fair bit more expensive than fiddling with bits of wire (£16.95 for a pack of 12 pickups), but a much more consistent, and, as you say, neat result. I've also used their decoder wire in black - it's fine, flexible enough to be easily routed, but then stays in place rather than springing all over the place when the bodyshell is removed.

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/pickup-wiper-12-pack/

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/wire-decoder-stranded-6m-32g-black/

[Guest Jack Benson]

Linny,

 

Thank you and StaySafe

 

 

[SR71]

Nothing to report on the D1 but following suggestions on here I've built a detol paint stripping tank out of some scrap aluminium sheet and an ice cream tub.

 

Already used it and it worked very well. Left for a few days with the lid on and paint just brushed off.

 

[hayfield]

Why use the ali sheet ?

[SR71]

The received wisdom I picked up from the posts I read was that it was the detol fumes not the liquid that attacked the paint. So the Ali has some feet folded into it to create a sump underneath and then the parts for stripping sit on top.