Whats on your 2mm Work bench

[richbrummitt]

New etched goodness. The pony truck, cylinders and many other items are duplicated because I'm sure to need more than one go...

[queensquare]

WP_20180418_22_03_42_Pro.jpgNew etched goodness. The pony truck, cylinders and many other items are duplicated because I'm sure to need more than one go...

Come on Rich, put us out of our misery - 28xx?

 

Jerry

[richbrummitt]

Obviously. Why are you miserable?

[queensquare]

Obviously. Why are you miserable?

Miserable, never! - it's the teasing I can't take:-)) I knew it was all wrong for the steam railcar power bogie!!

 

Splendid stuff, look forward to seeing how it goes together.

 

Jerry

[Nig H]

Here are pics of some LMS suburban coaches I've been building. Its surprising how much work is involved in coach building, but the end is in sight for this batch.

 

LMS Suburban coaches.JPG

 

LMS Suburban coaches (4).JPG

 

Remaining jobs are finish off coach end handrails, fix underframes to bodies, paint ends, add transfers (running nos, first class door 'ones' etc), attach footsteps to bogies and screw these to the underframes. Finally, light weathering. 

 

Nig H

Here are some pics of some of the almost finished coaches. I still need to add footboards and weathering. I may try to re-fit the roof of the rear brake second.

 

 

 

The pics below were taken without flash, then adjusted for brightness and contrast with the camera software.

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the period 1 coaches.

 

 

 

 

Nig H

Edited April 27, 2018 by Nig H

[2mmMark]

Something a little different. I'm working on a commission to build some finescale Z track which will become a test track assisting in some British Z developments. These look very promising.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/129914-british-z-1220/

 

The track follows 2mm PCB principles, using code 40 rail. I needed to make up a little step & repeat jig for plain track. Turnouts are being built on a printed plan from Templot.

 

 

It's proving an interesting project. I've made up a little rolling chassis and it runs through the finescale Z standards very smoothly.

 

The paper template started off nice and clean but it's getting more and more grubby. The sleepers are stuck down with Pritt Stick glue. I'm using solder paint rather than wire solder to get a neat joint.  Early tests with solder wire proved a bit variable, getting too much solder on the joint due to the smaller size of the work. The best option would most probably be solder balls but I don't have any to hand.

 

The Eclipse 180 multi-position vice is a wonderful thing. I inherited mine from Peter Clark. If you see one for sale, snap it up!

 

Mark

Edited April 27, 2018 by 2mmMark

[Valentin]

Mark, I built all my Nn3 narrow gauge track using solder balls (I don't remember the size but I know it's the same as the size recommended in "The Track" book. I am very pleased with the results. For some reason solder paste does not work for me on any kind of soldering work and I use solder paint only for tining the bottom of the rails or the etched brass and N/S overlays.

[2mmMark]

I use "Nealetin" solder paste, standard grade 60/40

http://www.gwneale.co.uk/nealetin.html

which I find works very well.

 

Prior to that, I had some solder paste (can't recall the make) that was a dismal failure and gave up on it for a long time.

 

Mark

[DavidLong]

Here are some pics of some of the almost finished coaches. I still need to add footboards and weathering. I may try to re-fit the roof of the rear brake second.

 

LMS Suburban coaches.JPG

 

LMS Suburban coaches (4).JPG

 

The pics below were taken without flash, then adjusted for brightness and contrast with the camera software.

 

LMS Suburban coaches (5).JPG

 

LMS Suburban coaches (6).JPG

 

LMS Suburban coaches (7).JPG

 

Here are some of the period 1 coaches.

 

LMS Suburban coaches (8).JPG

 

LMS Suburban coaches (11).JPG

 

 

Nig H

 

Come on, Nigel. Never mind those passenger wagons, tell us some more about the Standard 2 tank!

 

David

[DavidLong]

Another vote for solder balls. Ian Morgan mentioned them on here recently and Ebay provided me with a good choice. No more slicing up bits of cored solder for me! I've been building some standard gauge track with Code 30 strip and the 0.76mm solder balls give just the right amount for the joint. With Code 30 you have to make sure that the amount on the inside of the rail doesn't creep up too high as it could get quite close to the wheel flange.

 

David

[Phil Copleston]

The best option would most probably be solder balls but I don't have any to hand.

 

The Eclipse 180 multi-position vice is a wonderful thing. I inherited mine from Peter Clark. If you see one for sale, snap it up!

 

 

Good advice Mr Solder Balls. I just checked and thankfully my hands appear to be 'ball-free'. Phew!

 

Also, I heartily agree about the vice. I got my Eclipse 180 multi-position vice for a song from Ian Pusey when he was disposing of his workshop equipment some ten years ago. I forget the tune...      

Edited April 28, 2018 by Phil Copleston

[Mim]

I use "Nealetin" solder paste, standard grade 60/40

http://www.gwneale.co.uk/nealetin.html

which I find works very well.

 

Prior to that, I had some solder paste (can't recall the make) that was a dismal failure and gave up on it for a long time.

 

Mark

The rubbish solder paste was probably one for electronics assembly. These tend to have only a mild flux incorporated and can have trouble on the normal oxide tarnish film that quickly builds on bare copper and nickel silver. The Nealetin is for plumbing and has a super aggressive flux that will cut tnrough pretty much any tarnish. Just need to be sure to thoroughly clean it up afterwards.

Mim

[2mmMark]

The Nealetin flux doesn't appear to be overly agressive but it definitely does need washing after assembly. I am cleaning the rail before assembly and also wiping the copper faces of the sleepers with a cotton bud soaked in my phosphoric acid flux mix.

 

Only a small amount of paste is needed, applied with the tip of a cocktail stick.  The code 40 bullhead rail helps as it has a flat base that provides a good bond area.  Code 30 rail has a rounded profile which I feel needs a fillet of solder to create a secure joint.

 

Mark

[Nig H]

Come on, Nigel. Never mind those passenger wagons, tell us some more about the Standard 2 tank!

 

David

OK David.

 

The loco was built for me by John Greenwood from parts etched for an LMS Ivatt 2-6-2 by Mike Raithby. The prototypes are very similar so the etches could be used for the standard version. John has done his customary brilliant job on the loco. Here are some pics.

 

 

 

 

Nig H

[2mmMark]

The group of three 6.52mm gauge turnouts are now complete and have been released from captivity.  I found that using Pritt stick glue to hold them down on the template worked well, gripping them firmly enough during soldering and then released by soaking off the paper in hot water when finished.

 

Last time I worked with paper templates, I used double-sided tape and that proved a bit too strong, needing a solvent (white spirit) to break the bond.

 

The next job is to gap the sleepers and rails. I always find this a bit of a tricky job to do neatly so I'm wondering if a dab of etching solution from a small paintbrush would do the job. However, it's not nice stuff to be using "freehand" on the workbench.

 

A better plan might be to set up a dental burr in the milling machine so it just skims the copper cladding away.

 

Mark

[D869]

I usually use a half round needle file for gapping. I find it less obtrusive than a saw cut or whatever and a wider gap provides less opportunities for copper 'hairs' to create short circuits.

 

I expect that a burr would achieve a similar result.

 

I'm also a fan of Pritt but this happened more by accident - I wanted to use double sided tape but I didn't have any. One disadvantage is that it does tend to dampen the paper a little but this is not too severe.

 

Regards, Andy

[2mmMark]

I've now gapped the turnouts, using a combination of diamond cutting disk in a minidrill but turning quite slowly and a 0.5mm slotting file.

 

I like the diamond disks as they are much less fragile than the carborundum equivalent. Then followed an interesting 20 minutes or so chasing the whiskers of copper as I was too lazy to go out to the garage to get The BIg Battery to burn them off.

 

Just a couple of lengths of plain track to build and the job's a good 'un.

 

Mark

[Hendreladis]

Perhaps this should be subtitled "making a sow's ear out of a silk purse."

 

I have long had a penchant for the GWR 517 and decided to give it a go based on the Chris Higgs 14xx replacement chassis from the shop. That is the silk purse in this build.

 

After a bit of umm-ing and ahh-ing about reducing the wheelbase between the rear driver and the trailing wheel I eventually embraced the fact that a combination of my cack-handedness and the sheer variety within the prototypes meant that that wasn't worth the effort this time around. The build may not come off or it may simply look ungainly by having to accommodate the extra mm of length. Instead I opted to see how quickly I could throw everything together by committing a rigid hour a day to the build.

 

In truth I spent about six hours to get the chassis to a rolling stage on a Saturday afternoon. No problem with the kit, it is great, but I managed to repeatedly put the wheels on in the wrong places and then spent ages tweaking and twisting them back off again. Other than that I stuck to the hour a day and the pics reflect the six hour chassis build plus nine hours on the body. It ain't great but I wasn't sure if it was going to be possible to fully assemble the chassis and affix a 7mm coreless motor and then work out a means of sliding the boiler over the motor and securing everything. 

 

Did Mr Higgs design the worm centre on the boiler centre line? Certainly near enough for me and it facilitates the sliding on and off of the boiler over the motor.

 

I confess I am surprised at how big the loco has turned out in the flesh as they always look piddly in the photos and I haven't compromised the dimensions too much.

 

It all looks promising at this stage and the major parts all fit together adequately but I have a question for the more learned out there regarding weighting.

 

Is it best to limit the weight but ensure that the centre of gravity is over the drivers OR just pack as much lead in as I can? So far I have simply put lead between the chassis frames and they are balanced over the rear driver. The motor throws the CofG well and truly between the driving wheels but the weighting of the body could significantly alter that.

 

In the meantime I will try to maintain the enthusiasm to do an hour a day . . . and recommend yet again the joys of using the association chassis kits as a short cut to a pragmatic solution.  

 

Cheers

 

Andrew

[Argos]

Hi Hendreladis

 

I think you are being a bit hard on yourself.

To my eyes it's coming along nicely and looks great.

[Chris Higgs]

Did Mr Higgs design the worm centre on the boiler centre line? Certainly near enough for me and it facilitates the sliding on and off of the boiler over the motor.

 

Yes

 

However it will take careful thinking to produce a design with the motor in the boiler tha can adjust the worm meshing.

 

Chris

Edited May 1, 2018 by Chris Higgs

[richbrummitt]

Very pleased to have got things this far.

 

 

So it remains something trivial for it not to work out...

[chrisveitch]

Since I'd received so much helpful advice on remedies for my bendy Pannier replacement chassis on my Any Questions Answered query, I though it only right that I should post a few photos of progress. And given my glacial rate of progression in any of my modelling projects, it's exceptional to see anything happening anyway. These might be of interest, but on the other hand are just as likely to elicit howls of derision or detailed explanations of why not to do it that way. 

 

I decided early on that I wasn't keen on silicone tubing or similar to drive the worm from the motor and wasn't very confident that I could align a motor mount accurately enough to get an adapter sleeve to work very well (it's occurred to me later that a silicone sealant base would probably have solved the problem). So I designed a motor mount, but then had the problem of soldering it together accurately. I came up with a mounting jig consisting of a bit of scrap brass turned to the match the worm-bearing-to-motor-bearing distance  with a step on the end to match the motor bush hole in the mounting plate - this was then drilled and tapped 6BA and a screw soldered in place and drilled at one end for the worm shaft. A 6BA packing washer also had to be drilled out to the bearing diameter (4mm, I think) to ensure that the nut applied its force in the right place. The whole lot was set up square and the PCB base soldered to the mounting plate successfully.

 

I'd decided that I was going to use a dog clutch drive and turned up a couple of brass plates with pins and corresponding holes (subsequently open out to be slots). I know this can be done with only one pin but it offended my symmetric sensibilities, but time will tell whether one of the pins will be sliced off in light of experience. All has been assembled loosely and looks like it will work, but power has not yet been applied - so it's all going well, at least from a cosmetic point of view...

 

 

This shows the mounting jig set up to hold the motor mounting plate in position to attach to the PCB motor mount base - yes, it looks crooked because it's just stuffed in place for the photo. 

 

 

The various bits on display with the chassis. The right hand hole in the PCB was a mistake from an earlier effort and serves no purpose...

 

 

Dog clutch parts

 

 

The clutch and motor set up in the chassis.

Edited May 6, 2018 by chrisveitch

[nick_bastable]

very clever although I confess I normally just put the  worm on the motor shaft

 

Nick

[Chris Higgs]

Since I'd received so much helpful advice on remedies for my bendy Pannier replacement chassis on my Any Questions Answered query, I though it only right that I should post a few photos of progress. And given my glacial rate of progression in any of my modelling projects, it's exceptional to see anything happening anyway. These might be of interest, but on the other hand are just as likely to elicit howls of derision or detailed explanations of why not to do it that way. 

 

I decided early on that I wasn't keen on silicone tubing or similar to drive the worm from the motor and wasn't very confident that I could align a motor mount accurately enough to get an adapter sleeve to work very well (it's occurred to me later that a silicone sealant base would probably have solved the problem). So I designed a motor mount, but then had the problem of soldering it together accurately. I came up with a mounting jig consisting of a bit of scrap brass turned to the match the worm-bearing-to-motor-bearing distance  with a step on the end to match the motor bush hole in the mounting plate - this was then drilled and tapped 6BA and a screw soldered in place and drilled at one end for the worm shaft. A 6BA packing washer also had to be drilled out to the bearing diameter (4mm, I think) to ensure that the nut applied its force in the right place. The whole lot was set up square and the PCB base soldered to the mounting plate successfully.

 

I'd decided that I was going to use a dog clutch drive and turned up a couple of brass plates with pins and corresponding holes (subsequently open out to be slots). I know this can be done with only one pin but it offended my symmetric sensibilities, but time will tell whether one of the pins will be sliced off in light of experience. All has been assembled loosely and looks like it will work, but power has not yet been applied - so it's all going well, at least from a cosmetic point of view...

 

 

This shows the mounting jig set up to hold the motor mounting plate in position to attach to the PCB motor mount base - yes, it looks crooked because it's just stuffed in place for the photo. 

 

 

The various bits on display with the chassis. The right hand hole in the PCB was a mistake from an earlier effort and serves no purpose...

 

 

Dog clutch parts

 

 

The clutch and motor set up in the chassis.

b

 

Since I'd received so much helpful advice on remedies for my bendy Pannier replacement chassis on my Any Questions Answered query, I though it only right that I should post a few photos of progress. And given my glacial rate of progression in any of my modelling projects, it's exceptional to see anything happening anyway. These might be of interest, but on the other hand are just as likely to elicit howls of derision or detailed explanations of why not to do it that way. 

 

I decided early on that I wasn't keen on silicone tubing or similar to drive the worm from the motor and wasn't very confident that I could align a motor mount accurately enough to get an adapter sleeve to work very well (it's occurred to me later that a silicone sealant base would probably have solved the problem). So I designed a motor mount, but then had the problem of soldering it together accurately. I came up with a mounting jig consisting of a bit of scrap brass turned to the match the worm-bearing-to-motor-bearing distance  with a step on the end to match the motor bush hole in the mounting plate - this was then drilled and tapped 6BA and a screw soldered in place and drilled at one end for the worm shaft. A 6BA packing washer also had to be drilled out to the bearing diameter (4mm, I think) to ensure that the nut applied its force in the right place. The whole lot was set up square and the PCB base soldered to the mounting plate successfully.

 

I'd decided that I was going to use a dog clutch drive and turned up a couple of brass plates with pins and corresponding holes (subsequently open out to be slots). I know this can be done with only one pin but it offended my symmetric sensibilities, but time will tell whether one of the pins will be sliced off in light of experience. All has been assembled loosely and looks like it will work, but power has not yet been applied - so it's all going well, at least from a cosmetic point of view...

 

 

This shows the mounting jig set up to hold the motor mounting plate in position to attach to the PCB motor mount base - yes, it looks crooked because it's just stuffed in place for the photo. 

 

 

The various bits on display with the chassis. The right hand hole in the PCB was a mistake from an earlier effort and serves no purpose...

 

 

Dog clutch parts

 

 

The clutch and motor set up in the chassis.

 

Interesting idea. And something else I can think about 3D printing.

 

Is that motor mount clear of the wheels though?

 

Chris

[Caley Jim]

When I was arranging a dog clutch to link the Faulhaber 0816 motor to the worm on my 2-2-2WT, I simply filed two flats in the end of the worm shaft, producing a 'screwdriver' shape, and then cut a slot into the end of the motor shaft such that the end of the worm shaft was an easy fit into it.  That has worked well for 18 years now.

 

Jim