DJH DoG

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I will send you a photo when I can get on my laptop. Cheers, Peter

[Pete Harvey]

Hi John

 

Is the Chimney parallel with the boiler/smokebox or is it very slightly skew?

 

just an observation.

 

Model is looking great good progress.

[Grasshopper John]

Here we go again, I managed to raise one washer but the other was too tight and would not budge and It decided to break on me, so I removed everything and rebuilt.

 

 

 

here they are finished, are the washers high enough?

 

 

By raising them obviously the valve itself had to be set at a different angle IE not so vertical and it also threw out the bend I had made because the whole thing has become lower, more nerve racking bending but they fit ok I just need to know if they look ok before I make the bend at the bottom of the footplate.

 

Grasshopper John.

[Mallard60022]

You are the most patient bloke John. I'd have melted the whole lot by now. Go for it. Oh yes, there is another DOG (DJH) kit on Ebay; only £100! You could build that one with your eyes closed and then sell it; (oh hang on, some Company is producing one...........)

P

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Hi John, looks better. You might need to bend the pipe that goes into the boiler so that the clack body is vertical. Here's a pic of mine. As you can see they do not stand up too high above the boiler top. Sorry the image quality is not great but this is the best I have that shows the alignment. If you need to sit the clacks lower then you could maybe counter sink the hole in the boiler by hand, with a drill bit of the right diameter, to allow the round flange to sit into. There should be a good bit of white metal at that point in the boiler. Just go slow and keep checking. Hope this helps. Cheers Peter.

[ozzyo]

Hello Grasshopper,

 

I think that we all know that your having problems with the clack vales, but some of us are uses to working in 7mm and we do forget how small 4mm is.

 

As this is only your third loco and you are trying to do your beast on the build (please don't give up)., you have done so much good work with your soldering and you you have only been learning the black art.

 

You have now learned the black art of soldering.

 

OzzyO. 

[Grasshopper John]

Cheers OzzyO I wont give up my friend, I did a bit of work on them today not a great pic because the body is resting on top of a pair of steps that I use for my vice and the copper wire protrudes through the body and footplate so I had to in an elevated position.

 

 

The washers are now countersunk, Am I close yet?

 

Grasshopper John.

 

 

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Getting there John but you need to get the clack body vertical. Can you put more bend into the copper pipe going into the boiler and also bend up the pipe going through the square flange? That will put the main brass bush (clack body vertical) and should be just about right. Apologies for defacing your pic.

[Grasshopper John]

Not much to report as I had to leave her alone, after two small setbacks, 1) The clack valves are just too big, I tried to make the adjustments as PAD suggested but it was impossible because as I made the valve more vertical the washer that sits in the boiler would also move upwards which would mean lowering of the washer but that would show too much pipework going into the boiler.

 

I gave up and took Stephen and Horse's advice and bought the kit from comet so it effectively a fresh start but a good weeks work for nothing.

 

2) Trying to shorten my front buffers was a bit of a task as they are fine quality but they stuck out too far all I needed was the width of a junior hacksaw blade, so set to work, now the arm that holds it in place is square and very small so re attaching it was difficult as it was made of steel and I couldn't solder it so I used Araldite, I thought I had done a fine job, I reassembled them and was giving one a bit of a touch up when Piiiiiiiiiiiiing the %$$£&**& thing decided to do a runner, the spring  was inside so off it went at quite a speed.

 

Now my room is very small, and the buffer could only have gone in one direction. I have had everything out I mean everything but spring and Buffer have quite literally disappeared. I will just use the W/M ones supplied.

 

So that ends my tale of woe for the past week or so, maybe I will do some work soon as I received my packet from comet I just need to get back into it, although job hunting is taking priority at the Moment.

 

Hope you are all well, Good to see OzzyO doing the stuff he's good at.

 

Grasshopper John.   

[Horsetan]

.... The clack valves are just too big,....

 

 

As I've found out to my own cost, there's a lot of 4mm Markits stuff which is simply too big for 4mm scale. Beautifully machined, but oversize.

[3 link]

Evening John,

 

I am sure your tales of woe are very familiar to a lot of folk on here, they are to me .

 

My old study was also on the small size and because of past losses to the carpet monster, I decided to go for wood flooring, never again !!

 

Oh it's good that at least you can hear whatever part hits the floor but it will then bounce off into oblivion and for some reason pieces of brass matched the wood floor just a little to well, grrr.

 

One time I lost a buffer housing on the floor ( not that small in 7mm ) and not only did I look everywhere, on SWMBO suggestion I removed all the furniture ( seat and table ) and then I used a new hoover bag and hoovered the total floor area, nothing !!

 

I started to go mad, wonerdering if this loss actually happened, or did I have the door open at the time, or was it stuck to my sock ,etc.

 

Well I gave up, but it was still eating away at me but anyway  I sent off for some spares from Laurie at JLTRT, first class service return of post problem solved.

 

3 weeks later I decided to use the box for the completed model to keep in, well on removing all the packaging there in the corner was the offending part !! Doah.. it must have bounced quite high to land in that box on the second shelf, so your not alone John.

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

where has the grasshopper got to?

 

OzzyO.

[Grasshopper John]

Hello OzzyO / All, I've taken a break from the D0G as I needed to do some revision for the last 10 days as I was totally unexpectedly accepted to sit an assessment test for a Train Drivers job which I applied for at the beginning of August.

 

The Assessment was yesterday morning for 3 and 1/2 hours and was pretty intense, it covered concentration, memory retention, and fault finding. When I left I had a slight headache at least the practice material gave me the opportunity to prepare which I needed as I was by far the oldest candidate @ at a mere 54, I noticed some of the candidates were flying through but I just took my time as the tests are all about speed AND Accuracy, OK I wasn't the fastest but I hope to be up the top in accuracy will know in a few weeks if successful. 

 

Am Looking forward to meeting up again at Telford OzzyO plus a few more RM webers, and you can help me get my Mojo back mate.

 

ATB
Grasshopper John.

[3 link]

Hi John,

 

Great news, I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Not a bad job nowadays pay wise and it will help you buy more 7mm kits in the long run .

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

[Grasshopper John]

Hello All, a quick hello I've been away for some time and had a big life change now getting back to normal ( if thats poss) all of my equipment is in storage but i will be getting it out soon, then back to work on D0G I've missed it and being on the forum, I only have t'net when i'm in the pub

 

Grasshopper J

[Pete Harvey]

Well Planned John I look forward to seeing your updates.

 

Pete

[Grasshopper John]

Hello All,

 

Have been sorting out my WB all last week in my spare room I'm nearly there and am getting the urge to pick up the D0G again however I must overcome my fear of the clack valves, If I can do that I have a good chance my mojo will return , So to get things started OzzyO you have a PM Mate.

 

Regards

Grasshopper John.

[3 link]

Hi John,

 

Good to see you back, just put on Radio 2 the Tony Blackburn show at 1pm in the back ground and your mojo will return, great therapy for a Saturdays modelling  .

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

 

PS,  And hurry up and finish with this 4mm stuff, as 7mm will be a walk in the park  .

[great central]

Hi John,

 

Good to see you back, just put on Radio 2 the Tony Blackburn show at 1pm in the back ground and your mojo will return, great therapy for a Saturdays modelling  .

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

 

 

 

Hat, coat, etc

[Grasshopper John]

Hi John,

 

Good to see you back, just put on Radio 2 the Tony Blackburn show at 1pm in the back ground and your mojo will return, great therapy for a Saturdays modelling  .

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

 

PS,  And hurry up and finish with this 4mm stuff, as 7mm will be a walk in the park  .

 

Cheers Martyn, Hmmm Tony Blackburn VS Pub ?  Afraid pub won mate but  before I went i drilled another couple of holes for the clack valves this time I did it at 45deg to the boiler to give that upright position as you can see here.

 

 

Is this correct before i carry on, on PAD's build I noticed the top flange sits on the boiler flush whereas mine have a bit of pipework going into the hole, these are comet valves out of the BR standard pack so I guess they must be correct.

 

Grasshopper.

[3 link]

Grasshopper,

 

They are sticking up way to high, rather than drill the holes any deeper just trim the pipe so the top flange sits flat on the boiler. On the real DoG they looked like they sat down even deeper in some square cut outs.

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

[Grasshopper John]

Ah Thats what I thought Martyn, again i've wasted a morning forming the wire soldering ect so it will all be out now, one bright note though

having been off the WB for over a year I was pleased the way I soldered the copper wire to the valves.

 

Back to the drawing board, just hope I have enough wire

 

Grasshopper.

[Grasshopper John]

Hello All,

 

Not had any internet since Tuesday so decided to do a bit of work on the D0G, I sorted out my new WB in my spare room I think I need some more shelves

 

 

First job was to overcome my Nemesis the dreaded Clack Valves, once I got it through my thick skull what needed to be done I got stuck in, again I managed to break one and had to start again I had to use some scrap .7mm copper wire which I tried to stretch between some pliers not brilliant but I've run out of clack valves so I will just have to live with it.

 

 

I've added the safety valves, Front handrail, whistle and front steps, Front Buffers, vacuum pipe and coupling hook.

 

 

 

 

Next job was the wind deflectors I thought the handrails were problematic thats until I started work on the steps, getting them in the correct position was the problem they are so small my tweezers had a job holding them.

 

 

I even managed to damage one step beyond repair so had to make one out of a piece of scrap.

 

 

Next job is to get my head around the pipework and the various valves I have from comet, that should be fun.

 

End of update.

 

Regards

Grasshopper J.

[steve fay]

Looking good John, when's the black 5 build due to start?

[Grasshopper John]

Cheers Steve, I can't leave something undone so will have to finish the D0G, its a test for me to get back into it if you know what i mean.

I have a southern finecast A4 in 4mm which i want to build in BR Blue but I will start the black five after the D0G is finished.

 

3Link and OzzyO have it spot on 7mm is the way forward.

 

Grasshopper J.