Tools for building an EM chassis or three

[Guest WM183]

Hi folks.

 

I plan to begin building a Comet chassis kit soon for a Bachmann Jinty, for EM gauge. I will be using the "Flexchas" system, with the rear axle solid. However, I do not know what tools I need to be sure Iam building the chassis very square. Do such tools need be expensive? Can I do it without such specialty tools? I know there are the spring loaded tapered axle things (I cannot recall the name of them) are these sufficient? And where can I purchase a set? I have all the assorted hand and machine tools I could hope for (save for a pillar drill, which I don't anticipate needing for this) but am unsure about the square / correctly spaced hornblock part. Afterwards will come a BR class 4 tank, a class 4 mogul, and eventually others. 

 

Thanks much,

 

Amanda

[John-Miles]

There are some quite cheap chassis assembly jigs which consist of dummy axles onto which you put the coupling rods so you get the hornblocks in the right place. You will need and Engineer's square to check you have things at right angle.  It's also useful to have two or three lengths of eighth rod which you can put into the chassis axle bearings and it gives a good indication if things are square and parallel. You can check by measuring between the rods with callipers. This is the cheap way.

 

The expensive way is to but a chassis assembly kit from someone like Eileen's Emporium or Hobby Holidays. I have never used on of these but people say they give good results. The cost is roughly £200.

Edited January 15, 2021 by John-Miles
Senior moment

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, WM183 said:

Hi folks.

 

I plan to begin building a Comet chassis kit soon for a Bachmann Jinty, for EM gauge. I will be using the "Flexchas" system, with the rear axle solid. However, I do not know what tools I need to be sure Iam building the chassis very square. Do such tools need be expensive? Can I do it without such specialty tools? I know there are the spring loaded tapered axle things (I cannot recall the name of them) are these sufficient? And where can I purchase a set? I have all the assorted hand and machine tools I could hope for (save for a pillar drill, which I don't anticipate needing for this) but am unsure about the square / correctly spaced hornblock part. Afterwards will come a BR class 4 tank, a class 4 mogul, and eventually others. 

 

Thanks much,

 

Amanda

 

Many people, including me, swear by this : -

See http://www.poppyswoodtech.co.uk/ ; under 4mm. scale Loco Builder's Box.

 

John Isherwood

 

[brossard]

I got the family to chip in for an Avonside chassis jig many years ago.  Very expensive as pointed out above:

 

https://www.eileensemporium.com/materials-for-modellers/category/avonside-chassis-squared-jigs

 

For some reason, Eileen's say they can't do export orders at the moment.  This is not something I've seen from other retailers.

 

It has proved useful.

 

The jig pictured in John's post looks to be good value, especially for the occasional loco kit builder.

 

Then again if you have Rice's book on Etched Chassis Construction, you can have a go at the homemade jigs that he describes.  I did that for my fist chassis kit and it turned out well.

 

John

Edited January 15, 2021 by brossard

[AJCT]

2 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Many people, including me, swear by this : -

See http://www.poppyswoodtech.co.uk/ ; under 4mm. scale Loco Builder's Box.

 

John Isherwood

 

 

The great thing is, if small parts get dropped during assembly, they are contained in the box so you don't lose them in the carpet....

 

HTH - Alasdair

[Guest WM183]

Hi all.

 

Yeah, Derek has said export orders are on hold while they sort the new changes with Brexit and wait for the postal SNAFU to unSNAFU itself. Not being able to order from Eileen's is a big blow; I bought virtually everything from them, and am looking forward to when they accept export orders again. I will look at Poppy's jigs. Are they ok for hornblock chassis, the Poppy's one?

[PenrithBeacon]

Comet do their own jigs and very good they're too

[Simon Moore]

Get some axle alignment jigs from london road models or markits, a piece of plate glass & some aluminium hairclips. Also a square.

 

Plate glass is perfectly flat so no need for expensive jigs. Lots of us on here build kits so its a wealth of knowledge. Scalefour webforum is free to browse with some excellent advice too.

 

Might be worth finding mike sharmens flexichassis book which will give you some advice on it all

[AJCT]

17 hours ago, WM183 said:

Hi all.

 

Yeah, Derek has said export orders are on hold while they sort the new changes with Brexit and wait for the postal SNAFU to unSNAFU itself. Not being able to order from Eileen's is a big blow; I bought virtually everything from them, and am looking forward to when they accept export orders again. I will look at Poppy's jigs. Are they ok for hornblock chassis, the Poppy's one?

 

Yes, this is my J38 chassis under construction and it has Kean-MayGib sprung hornblocks (not sure if they're still available, though).  The aluminium clips are holding the plastic hornblocks in place while the glue sets.  I subsequently drilled through to re-inforce them with tiny set screws - 16BA IIRC.

 

HTH - Alasdair

 

[Siberian Snooper]

To add to the above, I would recommend getting a set of broaches for cleaning up small holes and the holes in the coupling rods and an 1/8 diameter parallel reamer for checking the holes in the driving axle bearings.

 

PS. You should be able to the reamer with your fingers, if you need to use a tap wrench, the bearing hole is either badly out of round or it's undersized.

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Siberian Snooper
To add the PS.

[Brassey]

Here's a GWR 2-4-0 MetroTank on my Hobby Holidays jig this afternoon.  This P4 chassis has twin beam compensation with hornblocks on every axle.

 

I bought this jig as the late Geoff Holt, who wrote the Wild Swan series on Locomotive Modelling, used one.  If it was good enough for him, it would do for me.  Not cheap but it is extremely useful.  Not least as I have found you can take the work off the jig to check it and then put it back on again sometimes the other way up!  

 

 

PS: my bench often looks like a bad game of pick-a-stick but here you can see a number of tools in play: 1/8" reamer, tapered broaches, back-to-back gauge, needle files, pliers and ruler.  I have found kits where the rods don't match the wheelbase centres on the chassis so it's always worth checking.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Brassey
PS

[Guest WM183]

Thanks folks. 

I have a set of broaches from Eileen's on order but the package is in limbo due to the postal mess that seems to be existing between the UK and Holland just now, and a 1/8 inch reamer is also on the way. Can I use the alignment jigs from London Road in lieu of the above fancier jigs, or do they not work as well? I need a set of b2b gauges yet, but the rest of the tools I have on hand. I was looking to ordering the B2B gauge along with track gauges from the EMGS shortly, so those will come as well. I'll be using High Level hornblocks if it makes any difference? I thought they were all more or less similar in operation.

All the best,

 

Amanda

[Michael Edge]

14 hours ago, Brassey said:

Here's a GWR 2-4-0 MetroTank on my Hobby Holidays jig this afternoon.  This P4 chassis has twin beam compensation with hornblocks on every axle.

Not least as I have found you can take the work off the jig to check it and then put it back on again sometimes the other way up!  

 

 

 

You can do that with the Poppy jig as well - very handy while soldering up spacers.

[Jol Wilkinson]

27 minutes ago, WM183 said:

Thanks folks. 

I have a set of broaches from Eileen's on order but the package is in limbo due to the postal mess that seems to be existing between the UK and Holland just now, and a 1/8 inch reamer is also on the way. Can I use the alignment jigs from London Road in lieu of the above fancier jigs, or do they not work as well? I need a set of b2b gauges yet, but the rest of the tools I have on hand. I was looking to ordering the B2B gauge along with track gauges from the EMGS shortly, so those will come as well. I'll be using High Level hornblocks if it makes any difference? I thought they were all more or less similar in operation.

All the best,

 

Amanda

 

I only use the LRM jigs. Fortunately most of the kits I build have frames and spacers that are designed to be set up squarely with little difficulty (L and U shaped spacers, set into half etched grooves and/or tab and slot). I build compensated locos for 18.83 gauge so always check that the fixed axle is square to the frames in all planes, using a long piece of 1/8" steel rod before finally soldering the spacers in place. I then use the LRM axle jigs with aluminium hair grips to hold the hornguides and bearings in place. With a six coupled loco I do the fixed and first compensated axles as a pair first, followed by the first and second compensated axles together. It just makes it a bit easier.

 

What other tools? That depends an what you already have but decent small files, a piercing saw with very fine blades to cut out the hornguide slots come to mind. A decent soldering iron - a temperature controlled 50 watt+ unit is a more worthwhile investment that a chassis jig at this point - liquid flux and a good 145 degree free flowing solder would also be on my recommended list. As with all tools, fewer but better is a good philosophy.

[Guest WM183]

I have a good soldering station - a Hakko temperature controlled unit - and a rather complete machinist's toolbox of hand tools; files, gravers, mikes, dividers, drills and whatnot, along with all the squares and rulers I could hope for. I have several types of solder too; 188, 145, and lo-temp solders - and flux, a vise, good worklight, and so on. I have a nice workshop - I have just not build a locomotive chassis before!

I will get some of the london road jigs and some long pieces of 1/8 rod to use for eyeballing things. We used to barrel FAL rifles by eyeballing rods just that way, so i'm a bit familiar with it!

 

Thanks much!

Amanda

[Siberian Snooper]

We all had to start somewhere and I for one didn't have the adadvantages of computers and the net nearly 40 years ago.

 

[Barclay]

A vote from me for the London Road Models jig axles - if you are building compensated I don't think you really need anything fancier, although I see the value of the more complex chassis building jigs if building a rigid chassis, that absolutely has to be square and flat.

 

[Brassey]

3 hours ago, Barclay said:

A vote from me for the London Road Models jig axles

I also have a set of those.  Before they and jigs came along, I first used Romford EM extended axles for outside frame locos.  Still got them.

[Captain Kernow]

I have built rigid and compensated chassis in OO and compensated chassis in P4 over the years.

 

I've used most of the jigs described or recommended in this thread and still have all of them, including the basic Comet ones, the Perseverance equivalent as was, the Poppy's jig, the Hobby Holidays jig and the Avonside jig, but it was the latter above all else that I found really transformative, in terms of ease of use.