Scratch building (the way I do it)

[N15class]

It is a long time since I have posted on here.

 

Here I need to fit he clack valves to my 0395 class. One problem is I need to detach the the boiler from the footplate for painting, and there is a support bracket on the top of the centre splasher.

I decided I would fix the pipe support and make the clack valve removable until painting was complete.

 

First job was to solder four bits of nickle silver together, I only need to brackets but they would be easy to lose or mess up. They then were cut out as described earlier. and the cast clack valve cleaned up and drilled for the copper to be soldered in.

 

 

 

The copper wire in this case 1mm diameter was straightened and left long as it needs to reach the cab.

 

 

 

The bracket was now formed. I used a short length on nickel silver wire as it is stronger than brass. I started the shaping by wrapping the narrow end around the wire, I held the tip of the bracket on the wire with a pair of pliers and slowly formed a loop at the end. You need to go slow and move the pliers around as you go to give space to bend the bracket. The wider end was just folded over to a right angle. this gave me a millimeter to use fir soldering to the splasher.

 

 

 

here it is soldered in place using a length of copper to position it.

 

 

 

 

This side it fits behind the sand box lever.

 

 

 

The next thing to do is to the copper wire to get it from the hole in the cab front sheet through the bracket to the clack itself. Making sure that it misses anything already fitted. It is always good to have a photo of the loco you want. Or at least a few of the class in the era you are building, then you can have an educated guess. Here they are already bent up to the required shape. You will see I have added a small nut and short length of tube to represent the coupling just in front of the support bracket.

 

 

And here they are in place.

 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2017 by N15class

[N15class]

For my 0395 I needed to fit the blower valve to the smoke box and it´s control rod. The casting was easy to deal with. but the rod needs two supports. that look very similar to handrail knobs. Now these I make with half round wire, but there is a way even if you do not have any.

 

It can be made by filing normal wire in half. How do you hold wire to file I hear. Well I use two way, one is to clamp a length onto a piece of wood. and draw file the wire until hale way through. Or if only a little is required I solder a length to some angle. One flange is held in the vice and then it is easy to file the wire without it moving. This method is of use for any size of wire. I do this to make split pin type handrail knobs. I used this system in 4mm as I thought the manufactured ones looked to bulky.

 

 

 

To make the knob I fold them around a wire of the size that they need to hold. but in this case I am using 0.7mm for the knob and 0.45 for the rod. I found it easier to form around 0.7 wire then crimp again for the 0.45 one. The picture shows how I crimp them with a pair of smooth faced plyers.

 

 

 

Here you will see them soldered into the boiler and also be able to compare to a standard long machined handrail knob. You can set them at any length which makes it very easy to get the handrail or pipe to run parallel to the boiler. When used for handrails I tend to use the same diameter  for the knob as is used for the rail.

 

 

Hope this was of help, there are probably other ways of doing this but this one works for me.

[david.hill64]

Nice work as always.

[N15class]

Thanks David

 

Just trying to help. I think these little bits tend to get missed in descriptions on building. I know I tend to forget that some people are just as much in the dark about these little bits as they are about cutting out the large basic parts. So I might bore some by adding as many as this type of thing, if I remember to take pictures.

[Shez]

Great to see this thread back - always lots of interesting and inspirational stuff!

[N15class]

Glad you like it and it's of help.

[Daddyman]

For my 0395 I needed to fit the blower valve to the smoke box and it´s control rod. The casting was easy to deal with. but the rod needs two supports. that look very similar to handrail knobs. Now these I make with half round wire, but there is a way even if you do not have any.

 

It can be made by filing normal wire in half. How do you hold wire to file I hear. Well I use two way, one is to clamp a length onto a piece of wood. and draw file the wire until hale way through. Or if only a little is required I solder a length to some angle. One flange is held in the vice and then it is easy to file the wire without it moving. This method is of use for any size of wire. I do this to make split pin type handrail knobs. I used this system in 4mm as I thought the manufactured ones looked to bulky.

 

08-29 1.jpg

08-29 2.jpg

 

 

To make the knob I fold them around a wire of the size that they need to hold. but in this case I am using 0.7mm for the knob and 0.45 for the rod. I found it easier to form around 0.7 wire then crimp again for the 0.45 one. The picture shows how I crimp them with a pair of smooth faced plyers.

 

08-29 3.jpg

08-29 4.jpg

 

 

Here you will see them soldered into the boiler and also be able to compare to a standard long machined handrail knob. You can set them at any length which makes it very easy to get the handrail or pipe to run parallel to the boiler. When used for handrails I tend to use the same diameter  for the knob as is used for the rail.

 

08-29 5.jpg

08-29 6.jpg

 

Hope this was of help, there are probably other ways of doing this but this one works for me.

Very clever. I've long been soldering wire to a piece of scrap and filing it flat on one or both sides, but the idea of using it for handrail knobs is genius! 

Thanks for posting! 

[agt613]

Good to have you back offering your invaluable help all the way from Brazil. Graham

[N15class]

Continuous handrails. The dreaded beast from Mars or at least it feels that way, I know I used to hate them too. I have adapted a few tricks from various people over the years and have come up with this.

 

On some loco builds you like or need to make them removable, on locos that have a single knob above the centre of the smokebox it is easy to split it in the knob and fix with a spot of glue on final assembly. On the 0395 it has two smokebox front knobs. I could slit it on these and fix the centre arc. I thought this might lead to slight kinks, So I have split it on the smoke box side ones. So the bent section stays with the smoke box and the straight with the boiler. 

 

How is it all made and is it really that easy?

 

Yes it is and here is how. I take a length of 0.7mm (0.45 in 4mm) nickle silver wire long enough to go from cab to cab, I buy mine in 500mm lengths. I like to do them in one length  I find it easier to get symmetrical. I forgot to take photos whilst doing the handrail so I am just using a short piece.I prefer not to anneal the wire as it easily damages when finished.

 

The first job is to bend the front arc, but far enough alone to be able to bend both sides as well the arc tens to be to one side of centre this then leaves a short off cut that is actually usable for something else. I form the wire around anything that is round and just under the size of diameter require. if the arc ends up to big just do it again around something of a smaller diameter. Here I have used a file handle. Notice how much spring back there is not annealing it.

 

 

 

Here you can see how it looks at the front of the smokebox. not a bad match to the one I did without photographing.

 

 

These jewellery pliers are very useful tool to have in ones kit.

 

 

 

Now I use the knobs on the smokebox which should not be soldered to the loco as yet to locate the bends. On this loco there is only one bend to get the handrail running back along the boiler. To aid aligning the bend I slip a wire into the side knobs, when the pliers outside edge just touches it you know the bend will probably be just about right. get first side right then do the second side the same way.

 

 

On a lot of locos the handrail often has two bends especially GWR, these I will show when I get to do one. But they are almost as easy. You just get the bends on the front right before going onto the ones that go around the corners.

 

This is how it should end up. If you do get the bends slightly out you can move it by over bending one side then unbending the other, This will move it and with luck no kinks. If you do get a kink it can quite often be removed by squeezing in various directions in smooth faced pliers.

 

 

Hopefully this might get rid of some of the dread. Its not the only way but it works for me

[jdb82]

Wish I'd have read this post 24 hours earlier.....Spent most of yesterday afternoon battling with my one-piece hand rail   All in place now though and looks OK. 

 

In fact it's the first time I've come across this thread - nice work! I'll be following this one with interest.

 

 

[dajt]

Thanks for the post on handrail knobs. Very interesting!

[N15class]

Here's a resurrection of the thread, I was asked how I cut the blanks for my scratch building. Thinks have moved on a little from the first post on here, so here's an update. Hope it's helpful. By the way I'm cutting 010" nickel silver sheet, it works well with thinner sheet and is fine on 018" sheet too. I've not tried thicker.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by N15class

[N15class]

Here's a very short piece on using a piercing saw.

Ive started a new scratch build project, so I thought a few how to videos might be of interest.

 

 

 

 

 

[N15class]

Another job I thought might be interesting, the frame spacers. The first job is to work out how wide a strip of metal required. This is done by starting with your back to back measurement. The from this deduct any side play you want, any washers, the thickness of your bearings or hornblocks, and of coarse the thickness of your two side frames. Then cut your strip to this measurement.

 

 

 

Hope this is helpful to you.