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Drilling old Romford Wheels for crank pins


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Here is my set up, a £10 Lidl pillar drill stand and a small 12v drill. I've got these old style Romford wheels that need drilling to take crank pins. There are just shallow blind holes provided.

On the piece of wood, I have two more of the wheels, the small one is held done with a tiny screw but can still rotate.

So how do I hold it more firmly? Am I just too hopeful about the chances of such a set up drilling the crank pin holes accurately?

What sort of crank pin set up is best for upgrading this old Trinagchassis, drill and tap to fit current Markits screw in pins or will bits of wire do?

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Tom, in to your piece of wood drill a shallow how approx 6mm or 1/4ins dia, this clears the boss on the wheel back and allows it to lay flat. Hold the wheel with your lefthand and work your drill with righthand. Remove wheel, tap 10BA and fit crankpin, secure with loctite, Araldite or as a last resort "Super Glue". Yours, Mick.

 

 

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I use a pin chuck to hold the drill and just drill very carefully by hand. Likewise I hold the tap in the chuck.    I use Triang con rod screws with the point on the end filed off, but I space the rods away from the wheel tyres with 10BA washers on the screws.   I have just drilled the outer wheels and tapped the centre ones a la Triang in the past, but again the rods need spacing away from the tyres. Big plus with these older Romfords is you can file off the pips and drill the wheels for a bigger crank throw, maybe not the full GWR 30" but better than the standard 24" ish.

Edited by DavidCBroad
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8 hours ago, micknich2003 said:

Tom, in to your piece of wood drill a shallow how approx 6mm or 1/4ins dia, this clears the boss on the wheel back and allows it to lay flat. Hold the wheel with your lefthand and work your drill with righthand. Remove wheel, tap 10BA and fit crankpin, secure with loctite, Araldite or as a last resort "Super Glue". Yours, Mick.

 

 

 

Me? I'm a firm believer that if something can snatch (or move) in a Pillar Drill then it probably will.  I have the scars... :(

I'd be temped to drill a deep 1/8" hole in a decent, square bit of wood (not rough sawn) and counterbore slightly as Mick has suggested above to clear the boss, then degrease, roughen up then epoxy a Romford axle into the hole using 24 hour Devcon (apparently stronger than Araldite?), leaving just enough protruding to secure the wheel to the square on the axle end using the axle securing nut.  Should do the job.

HTH

Brian

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When I was a teenage modeller, taking my first step from "train set" to scale this was the type of Romford available. I "scale wheeled" several Triang chassis without any of the proper tools. Things were harder to find back then and some things would have required too much pocket money.   I drilled the crank pin holes from the Romford cast centre marks using a small drill held in a pin vice and twirled between thumb and fingers. For a six coupled chassis I used the Triang fixed pins in plain holes on the outer wheels (as Triang did) and not having a 10BA tap until later force fitted a bit of brass rod (probably brazing rod) into the hole on the centre driver and using bits of paper to separate everything soldered a (home made) washer to the pin to  keep the coupling rod on. With the soldered joint filed down it looked no worse than the Triang original.

On a serious note I second what has been said about not trying to hold the wheels by hand while using a power drill. Far too likely to win free and damage fingers. A machine vice on it's own is not much help either as you really need something which grips a circular object.  The home made jig using an axle is probably the best without too much investment. I have a small 3 jaw lathe chuck (Unimat) fixed to a steel plate, facing upwards, for these kind of jobs now but I have been slowly building up my tool collection for 60+ years.

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

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Holding Romford wheels while drilling is a good way to slice a couple of fingers open. Using the axle hole risks damaging the square. If I were to use a pillar drill I would drill a piece of wood as above to clear the wheel boss and then hold the wheel to the wood with those plastic top drawing pins through the spokes before drilling.  10 BA taps are available ridiculously cheaply from China these days.  They are rubbish but cope with Mazak.  The Triang screws are available on eBay I think they are S2010 but I might well be wrong.

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3 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

Thanks for the link John; I found the same item cheaper, with a UK supplier here:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compound-Worktable-Cross-Slide-Bench-Drilling-Milling-Vise-Working-Table-310mm/282901340082?hash=item41de3bdfb2:g:HRgAAOSwvutaubPb

 

HTH

Brian

Edited by polybear
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On 19/06/2019 at 12:38, polybear said:

Interesting.  Is there a drill/milling machine to match anywhere at a similar price level suitable for 4mm work?

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1 hour ago, 5050 said:

Interesting.  Is there a drill/milling machine to match anywhere at a similar price level suitable for 4mm work?

On the back of all the vice listings I found this -

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Katsu-100080-Mini-Bench-Drill-Press-180w-220v-50hz-7000rpm-Fit-Max-6-5mm-Bits/1955852756?_trkparms=aid%3D666006%26algo%3DPRP.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20161103085654%26meid%3D1037593fcb6c4836842a9d0e4ffff652%26pid%3D100697%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26&_trksid=p2349526.c100697.m4697

 

All the machine vices appear to be the same - but the price varies considerably!

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On 20/06/2019 at 07:42, hayfield said:

 

That's just the X-Y table not including the drill press.

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On 19/06/2019 at 02:00, Michael Edge said:

For drilling Mazak, lubricate with spit, take it slow and back off frequently - do the same with the tap otherwise it will seize and break.

 

Exactly what happened to me , first five wheels no problem and then the final wheel.........................

 

Any one know of a five wheeled class of locomotives

or better still a way of getting the broken tip out

 

regards  Bob A

 

ps have still got all my fingers mostly thumbs

 

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On 21/06/2019 at 18:26, AndyID said:

 

That's just the X-Y table not including the drill press.

 

I bought one - they're OK, but don't expect a precision instrument.

 

For instance, the dial on the handle is a stick-on label.

 

For the price, though, still worth having IMHO.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

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On 25/07/2019 at 12:07, hayfield said:

Bob

 

What size and type of wheel have you damaged ?

Apologies for delay , life gets in the way ........................ romford insulated driving wheel 21mm ?  really old type in appearance with balance weight already 'cast' in situ

 

regards Bob A

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