DJH DoG

[Grasshopper John]

Still soldering away, fitted all the hand rails both sides still fiddly stuff even in 7mm. I am glad Jim supplied more than enough 0.07 wire as I am an expert at getting the length of the hand rails not quite right.

 

The easiest part ( for me ) was the front ones with the 'U' bend the hardest was the small ones either side of the ducket plate, soldering the horizontal bars to the vertical ones went well.

 

So her she is ( both sides honest Guv )

 

 

 

Not too shabby as my daughter would say.

 

Regards

Grasshopper John.

[N15class]

John to bend handrails, if you do one end and push it into one of the holes, now get your plyers onto the other end with the hole it is going into on the outside of them. you need to be able to see the whole of the hole next to the plyers. Now remove from model still holding the wire tight in the plyers, now bend the wire down and cut off. This should now be a good fit into the two holes.

 

It is quicker to do than explain.

[3 link]

Looking good John,

 

I know your not quite at the roof stage yet but if you don't mind me giving you a little tip for the fitting of the roof . What I do and this also goes for the WEP kits that have no flooring, I scribe a centre line the complete length down the middle of the inside of the roof. Then I also scribe a centre line at the top of the inner door frames, then when you turn the wagon upside down it is much easier to align everything up before tack soldering in place the roof. I hope this makes sense .

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

[Grasshopper John]

Cheers Martyn,

 

BTW I now understand your user name what a job that was all I could think of was 3 links nearly there

 

So I've been busy, I had to make a minor adjustment as you can see.

 

 

all fitted now and a lot sturdier than fitting to the base of the buffer beam, thats if i read the inst correctly, not that they showed much. I had to narrow the support though.

 

Worked on the roof this morning chimney ect are dry fitted I have one more task to do and she is finished but it will take all of my skill me thinks.

 

 

Grasshopper John.

[3 link]

Hi John,

 

Well looking at the neat job you have done to those rain strips I would say you have mastered the so called " Black art " of soldering.

 

Regarding the vacuum hose, I usually put a piece of wire inside the tube to help get the curve of the hose just right.

 

HTH,

 

Martyn.

[Grasshopper John]

Still a Grasshopper though Martyn, my soldering is coming on though. I did'nt think about a piece of wire in the tube, but i make do so i sat with them in place while the 5 min epoxy set, seemed longer though i had to do both twice.

 

This afternoon was a test working on a curve and trying to put in some frames as a want to be able to remove the roof, No other reason being it was just another test for myself.

 

Will post some pics tomorrow.

 

Grasshopper John.

[Grasshopper John]

Good morning,

 

Well it started off ok, but in true Grasshopper style something was amiss, Oh yes i had drilled the holes for the chimney and ventilators 'upside down' so with determination i thought I've seen the Master do it why cant I. So first was plug the old holes with solder then clean, mark out and drill new holes fit chimney and ventilators, all in a mornings work before i cut the lawn, so here is the roof finished and all good, you can just make out the repairs.

 

 

This was my own test, as I wanted to be able to remove the roof, putting in some Tabs, not only getting the measurement right but trying to solder them at the right angle was very tricky, here is how the inside looks.

 

 

So she is finished, this was a good learning curve for me my confidence in soldering has improved a great deal even to fill mistakes it's better than glue IMHO as you can unsolder things just as easy, no boiling water tis a marvelous thing solder.

 

So here she is in her finished state I want to give her a good clean though.

 

 

 

I don't intend on painting, I like her 'Natural' beauty.

 

PS I think i like 7mm

 

Regards

Grasshopper John.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention when the spring buffers worked that gave me a big smile I can tell you, although i had to replace one but that's another story.

[ozzyo]

Not bad my frend, but you have some work to do. You have the vents out by 90 deg.

 

9 / 10

 

must improve.

 

OzzyO.

[Grasshopper John]

Aw shucks Yotsemity, lesson: never assume anything in model making, why would vents not be facing the direction of the van to catch the wind.

 

Sorted Ozzy O Master Ye of 20 20 vision.

[jwealleans]

It's something to do with creating a vacuum inside the central part to draw air in.  I'm not exactly sure how they work but Ozzy's put you right on the orientation.

 

Curiously, I have photos of LSWR vans with them on the way you first had them.  Works error?

[Bob Reid]

Exactly as you say Jonathan - There's a central tube (on the real thing of course) passing up through the middle of the vent and above the level of the roof.  The air rushing by the sides creates a negative pressure on the top of the tube, drawing out the air the stale air from inside the vehicle. if the vents were facing into the wind it would force everything - rain, smoke, the lot, down into the vehicle...

[Grasshopper John]

Spent some time on the D0G this morning, It's so frustrating still. One of the plunger pickups refused to operate, I tried a bit of lube, tried to see if the plunger itself was bent ect ect, Oh and it had to be the center wheel of course with the motor & gearbox already fitted.

 

So a removal of coupling rods crank pins,wheels, motor & gearbox and finally said pick up. Assembly of new pick up was anything but plain sailing spent half my time looking for that darn spring on the carpet with a magnifying glass, for preference rather than bend the end of the plunger I put a spot of solder on the end to keep it in place and also makes fitting the wire easier so a total re assembly and it looks OK.

 

Now for the 'well I never' moment I was about to throw away the old plunger housing and noticed the spring was still inside, without thinking I grabbed a cocktail stick and prized it out, and it was good as new, and there the spring sat happily on the end of the cocktail stick not moving. It was easy to put it into the housing using this new 'tool' why for the life of me I never thought of it before.

 

So anyone going to use 4mm plunger pick up's DO NOT use tweezers on the spring like me, they ping all over the place use a cocktail stick

 

Grasshopper John. 

[Grasshopper John]

I worked out the 'problem' with my center plunger, even the new one would not return properly took it off again and gently ran a broach in the hole all fine replaced it and the same thing, it's the weight of the motor resting on top of the plunger housing, silly me although I can think of a few things better than that to say but it's a public forum.

 

So I will tack the motor up about 1-2mm to stop the problem. Now I doubt Pad or Scott had this but when I put the footplate in place I thought it would be a good idea to see how the boiler fitted, not a chance.

 

I had already cleaned up the cut outs for the motor but I was surprised at how much needed to be taken off to be able to fit around the motor and gearbox housing, so out with the big file and i set to, so work in progress.

 

 

I should have done a before and after but I did'nt think, but i tells ya it's quite a lot needed to be removed.

[ozzyo]

Er, did you see if the motor and gear box would slide in with the boiler at an angle?

 

If you do need to remove metal from the boiler try and keep the cuts vertical as this will keep the hole at the bottom as small as possible.

 

OzzyO.

[Grasshopper John]

Yes OzzyO but the rebate for the gear housing was not wide enough and too short, thats why I had to make a bit more room.

 

Seems to be a lot better now

[3 link]

And do you need to have the motor shaft that long or are you fitting a flywheel, as for the motor I would just use a piece of Blu-Tack to prop the motor up a bit.

 

HTH,

 

Martyn.

[Grasshopper John]

I've never thought to shorten the shaft Martyn, is that allowed not that it was causing any problem that I have come across yet, I have reshaped the underside of the boiler though.

 

Daft Q, why Do motors come with such a long shaft in the first place.

 

You always help my friend.

 

GJ.

[3 link]

Evening John,

 

The extended shaft is so you can fit a flywheel if you want, I think the jury is still out on the effectiveness to smoother and slow running. Although I do fit one if there is enough room for one, this is where the extra space of 7mm comes in handy .

 

Our friend Ozzy has done a thread on here as to the correct way of cutting the shaft off, as the shaft is made of a very hard metal.

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

[Grasshopper John]

Well after my short interlude into the world of 7mm back to the D0G, so progress this week was to fit coupling rods, connecting rods and wire up the motor.

 

 

Also did a bit of work on the boiler, now it's a nice fit over the motor, and the firebox seems to fit ok as well

 

 

Grasshopper John.

[Grasshopper John]

After a Grasshopper moment I now have a running chassis, so putting it to one side I started a bit of work on the Body, first was to shape the cab, bit of dexterity needed on this but practice on my template came in very handy so when I did the real thing I hardly needed to think about it.

 

So here is a dry fit all I have done is solder the two nuts inside the cab and fitted the screw and retaining nut that go underneath the cab, fitted the washout plugs into the firebox and soldered the front retaining screw in place.

 

 

 

 

The cab floor is just in place to make sure a good fit. A little bit of fettering and all should be OK.

 

But I am the Grasshopper so who knows

 

GJ.

 

 

[Grasshopper John]

So enough of dry fits, time to put things together.

 

First the boiler and fire box, and retaining screw ( which i soldered )

 

 

then the cab, cab floor and backplate.

 

 

Next was the drawbar, frame extensions and fire box bottom sides.

 

 

Here is how she looks on the chassis.

 

 

Now to fit the cab roof.

 

Grasshopper John.

[N15class]

Taking shape now. The body seems to of gone together very well.

[PAD]

Hi John, if it was me I would have soldered a nut inside the boiler rather than the bolt. It is much easier putting a bolt into a hole and screwing it in, than fitting a nut onto the bolt and then having to turn it. Ok if you have some sort of nut spinner. Either way it looks good and is really taking shape. I will have to get a move on you are catching me up now! Cheers, Peter.

[Grasshopper John]

Thanks N15class, I am surprised at just how good a fit it is, even the cab roof seems to need no 'shaping'

 

Ha Peter, you are doing a Bespoke job on your D0G and fine work it is.

Re the screw in a way it was lucky as when i drilled the hole for it ( pre marked ) and did the dry fit the screw was out by a mil or so because it did not take into account the smoke box door, so I had to mill out the hole on the footplate 'backwards' to make a good fit, If that makes sense.

 

Regards

Grasshopper J.

[steven]

Hi John, I thought that you had deserted us 00 boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! looking good so far with the chassis and body construction. I cut off the cab floor level with the side returns on the cab sides. I do not know if this is correct but I doubt that the timber planking went that far. If it did on the real DOG I suspect that if it were wet from the coal dampening then it would be a bit slippery for the fireman. It serves a purpose on the model though as it cuts out the possibility of shorting with the tender fall plate if you want to close couple loco and tender. Well done for putting the frame extensions in the right place. Those instructions show them floating in space!!!!! Will you be putting tender pick-up on? I recently bought some mini-micro plug and sockets from Hong Kong via that well known auction site from a hobby site hosted by sammylam. They were 3 quid-ish for 10. A shortened length on the motor tag and the other bit attached to the tender which has an insulated connection made from a strip of veroboard with the copper strip cut through and a peg in one end to hook into the wire loop under the cab. The connector wire was then pushed into the space under the cab and completely hidden. Sterling work John. Keep steadily plugging away. The seasoned DOG builders are watching your efforts with advice and suggestions always to hand!!!!