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Replacement for Mashima


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24 minutes ago, Ruston said:

I have bought motors direct from China maybe 5 or 6 times in the past few years and have never had to pay any postage at all, never mind a handling charge and customs charge. Is the charge because you were paying postage anyway, or have things changed recently that mean we now have to pay these charges on things coming from China ,even if they are said to be free postage?

The customs fee only kicks in above a certain value threshold. The real cost is that the Post Office collects said charge on behalf of the Govt., and they charge a flat rate of £8.50 to provide this 'service' so your customs charge might be only £4 but you're not getting your parcel unless you hand over £12.50. 

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2 hours ago, Ruston said:

I have bought motors direct from China maybe 5 or 6 times in the past few years and have never had to pay any postage at all, never mind a handling charge and customs charge. Is the charge because you were paying postage anyway, or have things changed recently that mean we now have to pay these charges on things coming from China ,even if they are said to be free postage?

Don't know, I've bought N20 motors with gearbox before and not had a problem but these K20s cost. Don't know why, perhaps the Revenue just pick out packages at random. Eny-meany-miney-mo style.

Cheers

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Perhaps there is a revenue drive from both customs and the Royal Mail,

 

There have been reports that the Western mail operators are getting fed up having to deliver increasing amounts of mail for free (subsidising the true delivery costs) owing to the way the Chinese government subsidize postage and how the international postage system works financially.

 

Things will be changing in the future as the balance of postal trade has shifted due to international online purchases, the USA has led the way on this one, no doubt other large countries will seek to redress the imbalance.

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14 hours ago, ROY@34F said:

 

Thanks John for your reply .  I agree coreless are very smooth , powerful and quiet , so I hope it works out good for you , and that I'm wrong about the suitability of worms on coreless drive shafts . I'll be interested to see what you think of it . 

 

Regards , Roy .

 

Roy

 

I can understand why some are happy to experiment with different cheap motors from China and the demise of Mashima may be a blessing in disguise in the future, 

 

Before the likes of High Level. Comet and Branchlines came along I had issues with meshing motor mounts, I am not in the camp where I am happy to spend hours tweaking mechanisms to work. I am also not electrically savey, I am happy to let others read technical data to determine what is within the limits required by our hobby.

 

I have spent quite some time getting rid of 3 pole motors in favour of 5 pole motors, then a move away from open frame to can motors. Now the price of coreless motors has plummeted making them more affordable and the newer 10 series are 3 pole motors, which I have been informed DJH are now supplying for their kits. I think at £9 its worth a try. The main area for me is that the motor can be secured to a gearbox

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Although worms are less efficient than gears I doubt if that matters much if power is supplied via the mains as 12v DC. It might matter for battery power but I'm not sure.

For most, perhaps all, model applications I'd be surprised if it's a concern.

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16 minutes ago, PenrithBeacon said:

Although worms are less efficient than gears I doubt if that matters much if power is supplied via the mains as 12v DC. It might matter for battery power but I'm not sure.

For most, perhaps all, model applications I'd be surprised if it's a concern.

 

There seems to have been a trend firstly to reduce the diameter of the worms and now in some cases make them in plastic

 

From the little I can glean this makes for a more efficient system, certainly the examples I have tried from High Level, Comet and Branchlines all work well and I have had no problems with them. Unlike the various makes of motor mounts most of which are noisy at best and some just useless

 

I have also heard with the older Romford style gears the lower gear ratios worked better than the higher ones, which again may explain the issues I had. But I have bought some ready built kits which run quite nicely !! 

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Smaller diameter worms mean that per revolution less friction is generated and thus less power lost/absorbed. Romford gears suffer from being of a correct gear tooth form profile - involute - but with worms over-large for the actual size used relative to the worm wheel, many of which were/are cut as dished, where the worm is meant to be sunk into the dead centre of it and where there should be no sideways movement at all. This is of course at odds with what most modellers want/need or indeed how they try and mesh and use them. Add in screw fixing which usually pulls both worm and wheel off centre to boot, and as a result, noisy poor running, is what often emerges.

 

Thankfully gears and boxes such as High Level are now around.

 

Izzy

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22 hours ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

If the motors have free postage on eBay, surely the solution is to place multiple orders so each package is below the £15 VAT threshold?

I did exactly that with 3 n gauge kato chassis (for 009 use) from Japan.  Each was under £15 including postage (think it's the overall cost that attracts the customs?)  so I bought 3 separately. No problem. 

Bought various motors etc. mainly from China, only got done for customs once, when the total value was over £15, as has been said the Post Office £8.50 charge for any item is annoying, especially if the customs charge is less!

 

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I bought some mitsumi motors a while back,  20mmx15mm (12mm across flat)  which fitted ok on comet 40:1 and 50:1 gearboxes. I did have a length of tube which I cut to form a collar between the too wide hole in the gearbox and the too narrow collar on the motor which aligned it perfectly. The motors came with a worm gear which needed a gear puller to remove.

 

 

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On 03/03/2020 at 20:00, ROY@34F said:

 

Thanks John for your reply .  I agree coreless are very smooth , powerful and quiet , so I hope it works out good for you , and that I'm wrong about the suitability of worms on coreless drive shafts . I'll be interested to see what you think of it . 

 

Regards , Roy .

 

I have had a play with the loco on a yard of track with a decent controller, given that the chassis needs to be set up finally it is running exceptionally well after a very light oil, very smooth and a silent runner. reacts well with the simulator function.

 

If you are prepared to pay for Mashima prices this is better

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