Whats on your 2mm Work bench

[tapdieuk]

The Raithby 4F is starting to look like a 4F. 

 

After the ZAG meeting I carried on with lots of the all jobs.

The tender and loco frames are ready for some paint now.

The Wheels got the balance weights glued on.

The bit that took the most was assembling the boiler. Lots of filing, desoldering rejigging.  Don't look underneath! But it looks ok form the side.....

I know what I would do diffrent for the next 4F......

Got to figure out what to do for the tender and waiting on gears. So this might get parked for a bit, what to fiddle with next? 

Thanks to Jerry for the etch. 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by tapdieuk

[tapdieuk]

No wanting to loose momentum, I pulled the gears from another project. The paint has taken a hammering in places. I though I had opened the bearings up a bit too much. But after taken care with the quarting it rolls quite well, even with the rods not seated up to the wheels (brake pivots in the way)

Feeling quite pleased with this chassis.

 

 

 

[tapdieuk]

......And it works! 

After miss placing the cut down worm, an enforce work bench tidy found several other mislaid small items along with the worm and shaft!

A lash up of Bluetac, silicon tubing as a  flexible drive shaft and a 9volt battery for power. It noisily drags its self along the test track. 

 

 

[Nig H]

Here are some pics of my L & Y 2-4-2 T, 50850. Finally just about finished, after many years left to one side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seems to have de-railed.

 

Painted, lined and transferred by Ian Rathbone - he's done a great job as usual.

 

 

Nigel Hunt

[JohnBS]

Hi folks,

The latest arrival on my workbench is a recent purchase of a 56XX 0-6-2T by Sonic (no, not the Hedgehog one).

The prototype is an ungainly thing, looks like the boiler has been jacked up on blocks and someone has nicked the outside cylinders and a front pony truck. Well, that’s what happens if you leave it parked in the wrong street! At least it’s not as ugly as a "Kruger".

All that I’ve done to it is fit some Microtrain couplers and carried out a fairly serious bit of weathering - well, who has seen a photo of a clean 56XX, other than a works grey one. 
The loco has a split frame chassis, all wheel pick-up (including the lightly sprung pony truck), no traction tyres and apparently has a coreless motor. The plastic superstructure is accurate with excellent details and beautifully painted. It weighs a reasonable 47g (about the same as a pannier) and runs very well. I haven’t yet found out how many wagons it will pull - my guess is 30+ on level track which will be fine for Totnes.

Best wishes,

John

[Bryn]

Slowly but surely building up the layers of weathering on the Stephen Harris 45T tank kits.

 

[Yorkshire Square]

Lamps! 

 

[Yorkshire Square]

The lamps get a lick of paint. I need five for my stables block on Hull Bridge. It seemed a bit silly printing so few. Indeed I made the schoolboy error of cutting one off the sprue before trying to paint it - no chance! The bracket is 4mm from wallplate to lamp centre.

 

This is the boon of 3D printing as far as I'm concerned. I might have made one of these in a couple of hours. It would have been nowhere as neat and I've come away with a thumping head. I drew this in about 30 minutes and now I can have as many as I want! Just need to improve my painting now...

 

[MrSimon]

Just the final bit of painting/transfers/weathering for the L&Y 060 - chassis is a Nigel Hunt, body is the GEM kit with some details added:

 

 

 

Looking at the enlarged pictures it seems like the cab roof is more curved at the back than the front, but only in some pictures.  It’s a massive improvement on the one that came wi the the kit anyway…

 

Once it was sprayed black I refitted the chassis and checked it still ran well (after having to do a lot of fettling after I put the steps on)

 

This is my first fully kit built loco in 2mmish

 

Cheers

Simon

[RichardusH]

Here's the current state of an SDJR Class A that I'm making. It is scratch built and makes use of an nBrass dome & safety valve. It was my first attempt at turning my own chimney and it has turned out a bit too tall & slender so I will have to make another. It is powered by a tender drive using the Tramfabriek 7x16 motor with a worm at both ends

Richard

[oily]

Beautiful effort Ricahrd. I'm envious. I do like scratchbuilt locos. When making a chimney I always try to find original's dimensions and covert to 2mm scale on a scrap of paper to refer to while turning.

Only other suggestion it to really thin the base of chimney quite a bit, a tedious job and if like me you're not good with a fly-cutter a piece of rod same diameter as smokebox wrapped in fine emery is quite useful.

If you can use a flycutter and I eventally twigged it was not that difficult, then I make the base first, in fact I have a box of bases as once set up to make them you can run off several.

I generally go Base then Height then the various Diameters with a rod temporarily soldered or glued up the hole down the middle of the chimney.

Oli

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by oily

[RichardusH]

22 hours ago, oily said:

Beautiful effort Ricahrd. I'm envious. I do like scratchbuilt locos. When making a chimney I always try to find original's dimensions and covert to 2mm scale on a scrap of paper to refer to while turning.

Only other suggestion it to really thin the base of chimney quite a bit, a tedious job and if like me you're not good with a fly-cutter a piece of rod same diameter as smokebox wrapped in fine emery is quite useful.

If you can use a flycutter and I eventally twigged it was not that difficult, then I make the base first, in fact I have a box of bases as once set up to make them you can run off several.

I generally go Base then Height then the various Diameters with a rod temporarily soldered or glued up the hole down the middle of the chimney.

Oli

 

Thanks Oli.

I did the chimney work on a couple of lathes, one a Chinese mini-lathe (Seig SC3 with 7" swing) and the other one of the £30 or so micro lathes which consists of a horizontal motorised chuck mounted on an aluminum bed. I've amended the former to take a vertical slide and made a start on the base by using an 8mm diameter slot drill to form a curve. I then opened this out using 120 grade emery cloth wrapped round a drill shank, however I arranged for the diameter of the shank plus the thickness of the cloth to be the same as the smokebox diameter, so it sounds like  I should have used a slightly bigger shank.

 

Given that I had a good drawing of the chimney (from one of Bob Essery's books) I should have been able to get the chimney diameter pretty well bang on, however it didn't work out that way as the cutting tools that I had were too large. I've now ground down an HSS blank to produce narrower RH & LH cutting tools so hopefully that will do the trick.

 

I used the latter micro lathe for manual turning with the chimney mounted on a spigot. I agree I didn't get the flare fine enough, reducing the drawing down to a 2mm size sounds like a good idea for the freehand work. I use a couple of square section gravers (plus various files) for the free hand turning resting them on a simple tool rest. This seems a bit hit and miss as despite trying to get the cutting point on the vertical centre line of the lathe and at a sensible angle I find that sometimes it cuts well, and other times it just rubs. I don't know if anyone has any tips?

 

Richard

[Nigelcliffe]

12 hours ago, RichardusH said:

......

I used the latter micro lathe for manual turning with the chimney mounted on a spigot. I agree I didn't get the flare fine enough, reducing the drawing down to a 2mm size sounds like a good idea for the freehand work. I use a couple of square section gravers (plus various files) for the free hand turning resting them on a simple tool rest. This seems a bit hit and miss as despite trying to get the cutting point on the vertical centre line of the lathe and at a sensible angle I find that sometimes it cuts well, and other times it just rubs. I don't know if anyone has any tips?

 

Practise, lots of it.   

 

Alternatively, the free-turning tool from the "Fonly" articles works well.  A base which holds a cutting tool at centre height, and you steer it around by hand on a flat plate fitted to the lathe.   For a typical small engineering lathe, a bit of flat plate fixed to the cross-slide works for this, then make the turning tool holder to suit the resulting centre height.    Some find a handle on the rear of the tool holder helps, others find it hinders.   

 

 

[2mm Andy]

14 hours ago, RichardusH said:

I used the latter micro lathe for manual turning with the chimney mounted on a spigot. I agree I didn't get the flare fine enough, reducing the drawing down to a 2mm size sounds like a good idea for the freehand work. I use a couple of square section gravers (plus various files) for the free hand turning resting them on a simple tool rest. This seems a bit hit and miss as despite trying to get the cutting point on the vertical centre line of the lathe and at a sensible angle I find that sometimes it cuts well, and other times it just rubs. I don't know if anyone has any tips?

 

Richard

 

Nick Mitchell's Youtube video on making a 2mm scale dome is well worth watching if you haven't already seen it;

 

 

Andy

[Argos]

16 hours ago, RichardusH said:

This seems a bit hit and miss as despite trying to get the cutting point on the vertical centre line of the lathe and at a sensible angle I find that sometimes it cuts well, and other times it just rubs. I don't know if anyone has any tips?

 

A while ago I bought and refurbished a watchmaker's lathe, as purchased this came without a cross-slide so I started using a hand graver.

I did produce some fittings, a dome and a couple of chimneys using this method but like you found it a bit hit and miss at first.

 

As Nigel suggests there is a technique that will only be developed with practice, supported by understand what combination of lathe speed, tool pressure works best along with a bit of experimentation on angle of cutting edge and shape on the graver itself. There are some useful YouTube videos on graver sharpening.

 

I was also surprised how easy it was to lose the cutting edge on the graver, this improves with technique but regularly honing of the edge also helps.

 

I finally invested in a Cross-slide (another doer-uper) which made a huge difference, it is much easier to get a consistent cuts and good finish. The hand graver can be used to finesse curves etc the are awkward to cut with a cross-slide. 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Argos

[tapdieuk]

Painting and assemblering  3d printed LNWR open and cattle wagons on etch chassis. Print files from the Sithlord.

I had made up a batch of the Assocations LNWR chassis. The 3d printed bodies are not great, nothing to do with the files. All to do with the printer settings that were still being tweaked when these were printed. 

I have gone for variety with the brake gear. 

The tricky bit with the cattle bodies was the threading of the rod/bar. Holes are printed but its a bit fiddly!

It worked out holding the wire I the pin chuck. 

 

The end wagon, is an illegitimate paring of Farish? Rectangular Tar tank and 9'9 LNWR chassis, still some bracing rods to fit to make it look realistic. But its diffrent and a quick lash up until I build more scale/accurate. 

 

 

 

 

[richbrummitt]

I found that cattle vans seem to go wonky or wobbly on DLP printer whatever I did. I believe that due to the geometry being requested (large open areas and relatively thin sections with unsupported areas) and the way the printer works it is a question of how much the distortion could be reduced. Eventually I realised that I was introducing more distortion during the removal from the build plate regardless of how careful I was being using the thinnest of blades and curing the prints whilst still attached to the build plate reduced the final distortion significantly. 

[Sithlord75]

2 hours ago, tapdieuk said:

The end wagon, is an illegitimate paring of Farish? Rectangular Tar tank and 9'9 LNWR chassis, still some bracing rods to fit to make it look realistic. But its diffrent and a quick lash up until I build more scale/accurate. 

 

 

 

 

I'll bring you a 2mm body when I come to Derby Will.  A quick search of the Magazine index from 2010 for Australian Tar Wagon should get you some pictures.

[tapdieuk]

13 hours ago, richbrummitt said:

I found that cattle vans seem to go wonky or wobbly on DLP printer whatever I did. I believe that due to the geometry being requested (large open areas and relatively thin sections with unsupported areas) and the way the printer works it is a question of how much the distortion could be reduced. Eventually I realised that I was introducing more distortion during the removal from the build plate regardless of how careful I was being using the thinnest of blades and curing the prints whilst still attached to the build plate reduced the final distortion significantly. 

Yep 

I leave the prints attached, until I am ready to attach to the chassis. 

Although the 3 plank open wagons look and feel more stable. The PO wagons vary.  Possible I did a batch in in hot* (UK hot...) weather.

All the resin curing is done on a Photon curer.

There are a lot of subtle variables involved with 3D printing. 

I find it's easy to just keep tweaking the build files, ending up with a large number of prints, that I don't want to bin!

It's a really useful tool, but takes time to understand/learn

 

[Ian Morgan]

Nothing like a looming deadline to start some activity, So, having just repaired the fence panel in the garden that was blown down in the recent storms, and Alley Palley exhibition just two weeks away, I have started on a job I have been putting off for some time. The final fencing around the goods yard and coal staithes. This is right at the front of the layout, so Peco fencing would not suffice. I had a few nickel-silver etches from County Rolling Stock for 2mm scale post and wire fencing. This does not appear to be available any more. The etches were sold off to Peedie Models, who seem to have passed them on to Online Models, but the trail seems to have gone cold.

Not as quick to plant as Peco fencing, as each upright requires an overlay front and back, and posts need thinning to make neat joins to form longer lengths, but the end result is very fine, and straight, and quite sturdy. Unfortunately, I only had one gate, so I have to source a couple more elsewhere. Now to paint the concrete posts, and plant it all on the layout.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Ian Morgan
image reposted

[A. Bastow]

Not posted for a while because most of my

model making has either been digital recently or for other people. 
 

The fruit of this weeks’ labours is two completed L&Y wagons. The flatbed is from Masterclass models on Shapeways, to Dia. 80 on one of the association etches. The covered goods is to Dia. 62, of my own modelling efforts, again on an association etch. 
 

In addition I have almost finished one of the Scalefour Society lever frames. It’s wonky in places but it works and I’m happy with it!

 

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by A. Bastow

[martin580120]

Not quite as exciting as the locos being shown off (maybe later in the year...) but after spending a day manning the stand at Model Rail Scotland, I've made some more progress with my Caledonian wagon fleet. I finished painting, transferring, weathering and loading my two diagram 22 wagons and I've built two 7ton "bogie" wagons.

 

The latter haven't gone entirely to plan, things not quite square for the most part, but everything is a learning experience (or so I tell myself...) Hopefully once they've had some liquid greenstuff treatment, painted, weathered and loaded it won't be too obvious...

[A. Bastow]

More wagons this week. Not sure what this year’s SEQAG group challenge is but I have definitely met part of last year’s challenge to have six vehicles in a train. There’s another set identical to these either shown previously or not photographed. I suppose I should take a photo of the full train! 
 

The etched covered van is an LNWR one to dia 88 (association kit), the large covered van is to L&Y dia 62 as before, the smaller one is to L&Y dia 3, and the flat bed is again to L&Y dia 1.

 

Next on the list is a David Eveleigh cattle van and horse box. Then after that I think I might have enough courage to attempt one of the Hunt loco kits. 
 

 

[martin580120]

A bit more progress this week, putting together two more Worlsey Works Caledonian 45' Coaches, and Association etches of Fox Bogies for these three. I had a go at painting a brake third after discovering a post with some RAL IDs for paint colours and matching them with some Vallejo air acrylics. I've still got some tidying up to do and some of the larger panels need another coat or two of paint, but it's starting to look the part and painting doesn't half cover a multitude of sins...

 

I'm currently waiting on an eBay delivery of some square section and round brass rod to have a go at the underframe and the running step which are sadly lacking from the otherwise excellent Worsley etches (so excellent I've just emailed about some more...)

 

I have encountered an issue with the bogies - I'm struggling with the etched axleboxes, so bought some of the white metal 2 bolt axle boxes, but am struggling to find a glue to bond them to the bogie, and the running board to the axlebox. I've tried superglue - which sometimes works and other times seems to fall off at the slightest provocation, araldite - which just left a mess and fell apart, and some low melt solder - which has been a disaster, doubling the thickness of the running board but not actually attaching it to anything. Does anyone have any hints or top tips they'd be willing to share?

 

At this rate I'm fast running out of excuses for not building a layout or starting a locomotive...

Edited March 21, 2022 by martin580120

[Ian Smith]

6 hours ago, martin580120 said:

A bit more progress this week, putting together two more Worlsey Works Caledonian 45' Coaches, and, although not pictured, Association etches of Fox Bogies for these three. I had a go at painting a brake third after discovering a post with some RAL IDs for paint colours and matching them with some Vallejo air acrylics. I've still got some tidying up to do and some of the larger panels need another coat or two of paint, but it's starting to look the part and painting doesn't half cover a multitude of sins...

 

I'm currently waiting on an eBay delivery of some square section and round brass rod to have a go at the underframe and the running step which are sadly lacking from the otherwise excellent Worsley etches (so excellent I've just emailed about some more...)

 

I have encountered an issue with the bogies - I'm struggling with the etched axleboxes, so bought some of the white metal 2 bolt axle boxes, but am struggling to find a glue to bond them to the bogie, and the running step to the axlebox. I've tried superglue - which sometimes works and other times seems to fall off at the slightest provocation, araldite - which just left a mess and fell apart, and some low melt solder - which has been a disaster, doubling the thickness of the running step but not actually attaching it to anything. Does anyone have any hints or top tips they'd be willing to share?

 

At this rate I'm fast running out of excuses for not building a layout or starting a locomotive...

Martin,

regarding supergluing the white metal axleboxes and their failing to stick - have you thoroughly washed off all traces of flux beforehand (and allowed the bogies to dry out too)? In my experience superglue and flux don’t mix!

Looking at the bogie photo, are you applying enough solder (and flux), and applying enough heat, as it looks like the solder is powdery certainly on the stack of washers. I assume that you are using solder paste? I have experienced a similar powdery solder paste situation myself in the past.  These days I generally use solder in wire format with plenty of phosphoric acid flux, and tin both surfaces prior to bringing them together with more heat and flux.

Ian