Mr Grumpy’s Workbench: MOK 9F occasional updates

[Scadaboy]

Ok - i need more Mr Grumpy! i am building one of these and i am at the frame stage.............i need more inspiration!  

[Enterprisingwestern]

I did wonder if they could scan a horse and rider, but think that would work out a bit extravagant!!

Oh, I don't think so, as far as the rider is concerned I've seen more meat on a jockeys whip.

 

Mike.

[Mr Grumpy]

Mr Western Star sat down and took a good look over my 14xx chassis on Friday.

The good news was that the chassis and axles appear square. He noticed one of the wheels was very slightly not square with the chassis and said it may be a burr on the axle.

Strangely, with all crank pin nuts tight the chassis ran smoothly without actually doing anything!

Also, I hadn't tightened the wheels fully for fear of the screws seizing again. However, they all have a smear of graphite grease (including the thread inside the axles) so hopefully won't sieze again. I have given the axle ends a careful sweep with emery cloth, popped the wheels back on and all is sweet as can be!

To be honest, the burr was only visable to me with a magnifying glass.

Still, lesson learned, check and check again!

Thank you Western Star!

All the sandboxes and rear sandbox pipes are fitted along with the guard irons. I'm just making some straps for the sand pipes but they are very fragile. I'm finding the front pipes a tad tedious as they need to be bent back behind the brake hanger before coming down to the wheel. I used to bend pipe for a living....

Edited April 11, 2016 by Mr Grumpy

[Mr Grumpy]

Mark JJ has saved the day!! Not only has he sent me a set of exquisite GWR crank pin nuts and paper dial faces, but also a CD brimming with excellent detail photos, including those front sand pipes :-)

 

Thank you so much Mark, you are so very generous with your time and helping out with bits and bobs!

 

The brake shoes are all fitted with very little fettling involved and are removable for painting and maintenance. I will get the linkage fitted (removable also ) then post some photos, as there isn't a great deal more to see at present.

 

Must remember to re read the instructions and dry run every component of the body :-)

[Mr Grumpy]

The sanding pipes are now installed. The brake shoes are not fixed or finally fettled yet, but screwed in to ensure my soldered 14ba nuts where soldered correctly. The stretchers are also waiting to be fixed. 

I will split the brake gear so that the two stretchers and brake shoes/hangers are in one unit, and the rod from the brake cylinder to the stretchers is detachable from the stretchers and cylinder so the rear wheel assembly can be removed for painting and maintenance. I will join the rod with a 14ba nut and bolt at each end.

 

The markings on the wheels and rods are to ensure everything goes back to it's original place.

 

 

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Ok - i need more Mr Grumpy! i am building one of these and i am at the frame stage.............i need more inspiration!

 

 

Hi Scadaboy,

Your 14xx will be a long way from home :-)

Thanks for taking an interest in my build, I would love to see yours.....as long as it isn't better than mine :-)

[Mr Grumpy]

Well, I'm pretty sure the chassis is now complete.

As mentioned earlier, I wanted the brake gear to be fully and importantly, easily removable for painting and maintenance.

 

To recap, I soldered 14ba nuts to the rear of each brake hanger bracket, and attached the brakes with screws.

I have broken down the brake rods and stretchers in to two components, so that the rear rocking axle assembly can also be removed. The rear brake pull rod is screwed on to the brake cylinder with a 14ba nut and screw. The nut has been filed to 1/2 its original thickness, and the screw will have a little more of it's length removed.

The front end of the pull rod is screwed to the rear stretcher. I left all the  stretcher brackets movable by applying a tiny amount of solder to the bracket pins. I first smeared the inside of the bracket, stretcher and screw with graphite grease to prevent them soldering tight.

 

I will give the chassis a really good scrub over and make any final checks of the brake assembly.

 

So, going by the instruction manual, I need to add some sanding gear rods to the footplate, then on with the body. :-)

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2016 by Mr Grumpy

[HealeyMills]

Hi Grumps,

 

Your build is looking superb.  I still have no idea what it is   but it does look great and you are making (yet again) the construction seem very easy.

 

Thanks for the updates is great to see these locos being built.

 

Cheers

Lee

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Grumps,

 

Your build is looking superb.  I still have no idea what it is   but it does look great and you are making (yet again) the construction seem very easy.

 

Thanks for the updates is great to see these locos being built.

 

Cheers

Lee

 

 

 

......it's not a diesel!!

[Scadaboy]

Hi Scadaboy,

Your 14xx will be a long way from home :-)

Thanks for taking an interest in my build, I would love to see yours.....as long as it isn't better than mine :-)

Yes - it is a long way across the pond! but I could not resist, these kits are so unique - and we have nothing like this in Canada, which is a shame. It is my first attempt at a build like this, and I do love a challenge. Dave from MOK is a great guy to deal with, and was very helpful to source out and acquire the proper gearbox and motor for me and ship it with the kit, along with a few extra bits he threw in to help me out. Wheels I ordered direct from Slater's, as well as a few other odds and ends.

 

I actually started mine about a year ago, and then work demands got in the way for about 6 months, and I have just recently blew the dust off it and started back up. I was lurking around on the RM site as usual, looking for hints and tips - when I stumbled across those magic words: "MOK 14xx build". believe me there is not too much information on this particular kit on the Internet, so your pictures, explanations and tips are like gold to me! 

 

your build so far looks fantastic, and kudos on such a clean, polished build! I whish mine looked half as good as yours at this stage - but I am getting there. patience is a virtue, I was always told, so I am very carefully reading the instructions, (Many times), and dry fitting, (Many times) before actually committing iron to metal

I will post a couple of picks shortly of my progress so far, and I thank you so much in advance for bringing your build to the table! love the idea of the removable brake gear for servicing - just like to know your trick for soldering that tiny little nut, onto that tiny little bracket...................   

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Tom,

 

I agree, David is a great guy to deal with and remarkably helpful :-)

 

It's quite straightforward to solder the nuts in place.

I coat the bolt in a thin coat of graphite grease to prevent soldering it to the nut.

The bolt is screwed in, through a thin strip of wood between the bolt head and bracket, tightening the nut hard against the bracket. It is then a simple job to solder the nut in place.....as long as you are able to see!!

 

I wear two pairs of glasses!! :-)

Edited April 12, 2016 by Mr Grumpy

[Mr Grumpy]

The chassis has been put to one side and a start made on the body.

The spectacle plate is very straight forward, just having a couple of overlays placed on, tabs twisted and a tiny amount of solder.

 

The cab back is a little more involved and includes making up the hand brake recess, window coal bars, seats, working cab doors, coal door and bunker door. The cab doors and seats are attached via hinges that are folded out on the main cab back prior to adding detail overlays.

 

A jig is provided to help bend the window bars to the correct length. I'm generally useless at producing hand rails, so this little task had me  worried. However, the bars went in very well and the protruding ends were cut and filed back. The handbrake recess is straight forward, the base folds out and the cover and lid are soldered on. The whole design and thought process in making this so straight forward must reflect the designer's engineering background. 

The body frame is simply folded up, however, to produce the 45 degree bend above the cab door opening, I used bending bars across the door opening, and my Hold & Fold not the roof section so as not to buckle the doorway.

I have added some photos of progress so far, the cab back is in place just for the photos, it goes on when the body is attached to the foot plate.

 

 

 

 

 

Edit as photos duplicated.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Mr Grumpy

[Deano747]

Looking good Mr Grumps!! I am rather tempted to try their Std 4, 2-6-4t!

 

Regards, Deano.

[Mr Grumpy]

Looking good Mr Grumps!! I am rather tempted to try their Std 4, 2-6-4t!

Regards, Deano.

I quite fancy the 4mt 76000, I'm sure it could squeeze down my branch line :-)

[PAD]

An absolutely first class build of this top end kit. Love the work on the coal rails on the rear look outs. Superb!

Edited April 16, 2016 by PAD

[Mr Grumpy]

An absolutely first class build of this top end kit. Love the work on the coal rails on the rear look outs. Superb!

Many thanks for your kind words!

However, I can't take all the credit for the coal rails, as David supplies a jig to help get them the correct length and a spacer to keep the distance from the cab uniform. I did take a little time to ensure the space between the bars stayed equal and that they were at 90 degrees before soldering.

This kit is a massive confidence booster and makes me crave for one of his bigger locos.......

I think the tricky part of the build is yet to come !!

[Scadaboy]

Mr G - Fantastic work! you are moving along quite nicely on this build. I have not started on the body yet, but your pictures will help tremedously. As requested, her are a couple of shots of where I am at so far...........thanks for the tip on soldering the 14ba nut for the brake gear, i will hopefully get to that shortly   

 

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Tom....

Looking very nice :-) thanks for posting!

 

Are you planning on a British (GWR/WR) layout, or building the loco just for the pleasure of building it?

I have back tracked from large (By UK standards) diesels to smaller varieties which would have shared the line with this type of loco.

There is a lot of interesting stock avaliable to build and keep you interested for some time to come :-)

[Scadaboy]

Mr G,

 

A British layout at some point I would imagine, but right now I just love building the engine - the detail in these kits are amazing!

 

Tom

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Tom,

 

I came across a slight issue today with the front sand box rodding. It has been modified from the old style, and now turns at a right angle and is secured to the footplate with two tabs.

However, once fitted, detail part 1005 will not fit. Unfortunately I had already made up the rodding, luckily I had not soldered the tabs.

I untwisted the tabs and gently levered the rod from the footplate, still attached to the front rodding and cut just beyond the first tab, (see below) then refixed and twisted the tab. Part 1005 then fitted as it should.

Hopefully you haven't got this far yet and can make the cut before assembly.

 

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Richard.

 

 

[Scadaboy]

Now that is awesome imformation Mr G! - i have not made it to that point yet, still fiddling with brake gear.....but i truly appreciate the heads up! Thanks for this insight   

[Mr Grumpy]

I find the slot and tab system of building a bit of a double edged sword....

On the one hand and for me at least, the ability to assemble a large chunk of the kit without soldering is a massive bonus, and allows you to check for squareness and correct fit. Also, in a lot of instances, it saves having to have two pairs of hands and further clamps and devices to hold the work tightly and accurately together.

The down side, again, for me, is the snipping and filing of the tabs. It isn't too noticeable when assembling a few pieces, but I think Im about to find out, a tad monotonous with the larger structure......

 

Best fire up the iron.............

 

 

 

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Didn't get too far cutting back the tabs..... 

Had a mishap with the cab window and a pair of side cutters. I'm not sure how I managed to catch the window frame, but clearly I did!

Not only did the frame crease, a small chunk has been removed from the frame edge.

 

 

The only solution I could come up with was to file back the raised part of the crease and drop solder in to the hole and the 'valley' part of the crease.

 

So, some considerable time and a couple of glass fibre refills later, its looking better. Not quite there yet though....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[3 link]

Hi Richard,

 

I know filing can be monotonous as I build all my own trackwork in 7mm and the switch blades can take some time to trim down, but what does help is to have the correct files for the job. I start off with a bastard file which takes a good amount of material off if I cross file the work, then I use a coarse file which I draw file mainly to take off any score lines left by the bastard file and from there I use a smooth file for the final tidy up.

 

Filing is never going to be an exciting part of the hobby, but the above method can speed the job up a bit.

 

Martyn.

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks Martyn,

Decent files are on my list...

I can remember my 1st metalwork lesson, when the bastard file was introduced and the sniggering that went round the class....

 

Happy days!! :-)