Signals a missed opportunity?

[ikcdab]

On 03/04/2021 at 10:22, russ p said:

Fine soldering is not a skill that many people possess 

That's a bit of a self-limiting belief. Soldering is not that difficult, witness the excellent work done by many people in the past. Regrettably, nowadays the trend is not to learn such skills.

Decent heat, clean components and something to hold them and job done. The wizard models signal components are well designed and far superior in every way to the ratio plastic kits.

 

 

[russ p]

2 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

That's a bit of a self-limiting belief. Soldering is not that difficult, witness the excellent work done by many people in the past. Regrettably, nowadays the trend is not to learn such skills.

Decent heat, clean components and something to hold them and job done. The wizard models signal components are well designed and far superior in every way to the ratio plastic kits.

 

 

 

I would love to be able to do it but me and joining any two bits of any metal doesn't mix! I can do basic soldering but nothing special.  I've tried to learn to weld on a number of occasions but pigs with knitting needles have better results 

[The Johnster]

The world can be divided into two sorts of people; those who have the ‘gift’ when it comes to soldering and those like me who struggle.  We don’t ‘get it’ and never will (though after half a century of struggling I’ve improved a bit, and my soldered wiring is pretty reliable nowadays). 
 

The natural solderers tell us it’s easy, then fail to explain why we still struggle, and we tend to accept this as inevitable and eventually give up, existing in a twilight world of superglue or poxy resin, jealous of those god-like beings who can manage perfect and consistent joins on brass or whitemetal kits.  They try to encourage us by telling us that ‘it’s not that difficult’, not understanding (and why should we expect them to?) that, for us, actually, yes it is that difficult, and we have a scrap pile of failed models to prove it!
 

I do not agree fully with ikcdab’s view that ‘nowadays the trend is not to learn such skills’.  I see where he’s coming from, but my view is that those of us who want to progress beyond box opening have always done and will always do our best to acquire the skills we need, but some of us have to accept our limitations and model within them.  Fun to push the envelope and sometimes we surprise ourselves, but often the lesson learned, sometimes expensively and discouragingly, is that we are better off within our established and known skillsets.  Box openers have always been with us; at least nowadays the models are pretty good. 
 

A signal built of Wizard components is beyond my abilities, much as I’d love to claim otherwise.  A recent attempt to build working shunting discs from this source resulted in one rather lumpen success out of half a dozen; I’m not going to repeat the hopeless experience, and must perforce  accept a life doomed to fixed non-working cosmetic discs, something that grates every time I make a movement past one that should be off. 

[russ p]

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

 

A signal built of Wizard components is beyond my abilities, much as I’d love to claim otherwise.  A recent attempt to build working shunting discs from this source resulted in one rather lumpen success out of half a dozen; I’m not going to repeat the hopeless experience, and must perforce  accept a life doomed to fixed non-working cosmetic discs, something that grates every time I make a movement past one that should be off. 

 

I managed to make some LNER discs rotate but I glued the disc to a cut down ratio LMS plastic one to act as a boss ,then glued the 0.7mm rod to it. Fiddly but it worked 

[figworthy]

11 hours ago, The Johnster said:

The natural solderers tell us it’s easy, then fail to explain why we still struggle

 

This reminds me of a young lad I used to work with many years ago.  Keen as mustard, always willing to help out, and learn new stuff.  And, with one exception, he picked stuff up quickly.  His one weak spot was making coffee.  Now on the face of it, a levelish teaspoon of coffee, a couple of levelish teaspoons of sugar, boiling water and a bit of milk isn't difficult, yet he never managed to produce anything drinkable.  You could stand next to him whilst he was making it, and all looked good, until you tried it.  Apparently his sister used to throw his efforts at him.

 

We never did any soldering, so I can't comment on his abilities with an iron.

 

Adrian

[Michael Hodgson]

Simple solution to that - stick to tea.

[figworthy]

20 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Simple solution to that - stick to tea.

 

In response to the question "Are you civilised, or do you drink tea ?" no one there admitted to being uncivilised.

 

Adrian

[BernardTPM]

If they were drinking tea they would be to civilised to point to those drinking coffee.

[adb968008]

Ive thought for a while that a mass produced range of signals would do well.

 

Dapols motorised signals have done really well, I know they had issues, but the concept has hit home.

 

A manual one would be nice to have, given where we are today, brass or white metal is detailed enough and cheap enough to give an accurate take on those Triang 1970’s ones that many of us still have for fun.

 

Decent colour lights too for us on DC, Berko have sufficed, but they arent the most realistic. There is a few ebay shops in China offering cheap colour lights, which for the most part fit the bill, but realistic, bulk produced ones would be nice.

Edited April 12, 2021 by adb968008

[Suzie]

What we need is for a watchmaker to get on on the market and make a doll with motorised arm unit that can be planted on to a mast/gantry/bracket. Cannot be beyond the realms of technological possibility, but might be a bit expensive at first. A tiny stepper motor should be able to move a well balanced arm and be quite small.