Whats on your 2mm Work bench

[nick_bastable]

Nick,

I like the idea of keeping the Easitrac sections on their sprues to provide a constant distance between each traverser road.  I imagine it took some threading though!

 

Ian

took about 3 hours spread over two nights just started by  tapering the ends of the rail   and built  up brick fashion from left to right top to bottom

 

Thought it was silly not to use the sprues as spacers given they give a tad over 6 foot clearance  certainly better than i would managed by ruler 

[richbrummitt]

yes i know there is a proper 2mm version but I think  kids will love it................. 

 

I presume the face is on the other end?

[StuartM]

Using some 2mm trackwork I have spare, some ngauge track and a cardboard mock up, I'm playing around with the idea of another depot

[Branwell]

Almost ready to get the painters in at Lightcliffe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cornish trains jez]

That is some seriously nice scratch building!

[nick_bastable]

wow very nice indeed 

[Southernboy]

Exquisite

[bcnPete]

great work

[-missy-]

Hi.

 

Andrew wanted a watering can...

 

 

Julia

 

[queensquare]

Hi.

 

Andrew wanted a watering can..

Julia

 

Bonkers, and brilliant. Love it!!

 

Jerry

[Branwell]

Very nice Missy. but does it hold water?

[-missy-]

Yes it does, 2mm Scale water.

 

J

[queensquare]

Yes it does, 2mm Scale water.

 

J

 

Presumably thats H₃O or H treble-O 

 

Jerry

[queensquare]

On my 2mm workbench at the moment are a couple of locos.

 

The first is a quicky - a conversion of the new Farish Jinty using new bearings and 2mm Association wheels and a new chimney to replace the rather anaemic Farish offering. The coupling rods are cut and shut from 2mm etches and the drive gear has been bored out to be an interferance  fit on a small Association muff. The result of all this shocking bodgery is a very nice running little loco. I've removed   the BR lettering with T-cut and replaced it with some old Methfix transfers to represent a loco as built in 1926 - 16548 was a Bath loco later in its life so I plumped for that.

The wheels need painting, coupling rods finishing, DG couplings, weathering and a coat of varnish.

If only my blue SDJR Bagnall No.19 had been such a quick job! Rumour has it that Farish are going to do a blue one so I might have to get another!!

 

 

The second much more of a slow burner, an ex- NE Q6 from a Bob Jones kit. Definately not quicky but a suberbly designed kit which should result in a lovely model.

 

 

Jerry

[StuartM]

Having finished my 2mm shunting layout and before going back to complete my first 2mm shunting layout, I needed a quick fix, so I cannibalised my 2mm service depot from the RMweb 2011 challenge and used some of the parts to build a quick ngauge shunting plank which can be found here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88107-ngauge-shunting-plank-no1/

 

 

 

[queensquare]

Got the Jinty pretty much ready for service this evening after a quick coat of varnish first thing this morning. Balance weights, chemically blackened the wheels, DG couplings and some real coal and light weathering. Dodgy phone snap attached.

 

 

Jerry

[richbrummitt]

Just the one crankpin washer each side?

[Donw]

Just the one crankpin washer each side?

Isn't that how they come?

Don

[queensquare]

Just the one crankpin washer each side?

 

Yes for now, I've left it so its easy to strip down. The intention is to replace the drive gear with a proper one when they become available as I have just used the Farish one bored out. Its only an interference fit on the muff and is probably less than fully concentric - it runs fine but there is more gear noise than before the conversion. The coupling rods are probably ok even though they are cobbled up cut and shut jobs from Association etches. As usual with my engineering - its lucky I don't know what I'm doing

 

Jerry 

[StuartM]

I spent the afternoon taking the final set of photos for an ngauge layout I've just finished before heading back to an unfinished 2mm layout

Dapol's new Westerns are beautiful and GraFar's new departmental BG's are pretty good as apart from having HST legends rather than S&T

[2mmMark]

I've been experimenting with point bases milled from a single piece of PCB sheet, in this case 1.5mm thickness.

 

Sections between the sleepers are milled out, at a spacing to match Peco 6.5mm gauge flexitrack, as I was curious to see if I could make a matching turnout for narrow gauge use.

If anyone wants to emulate this, it's very simple as the gap between the Peco sleepers is 2.5mm. I used a 2.5mm end mill cutting on 4mm centres to half the depth of the board (0.75mm). So it's a case of cut a slot, wind the longitudinal traverse handle 4 times, cut and repeat.  (I've got a Proxxon MF70 mini-mill, which is calibrated in millimetres).

 

Then it was simply a question of soldering the rails on. I used Code 60 to match the Peco track. Having the sleepers rigidly fixed as a single unit made handling the work very easy. It didn't need to be taped down to a plan so I could hold the work at whatever angle was convenient for soldering.  I copied the geometry of a Marklin Z gauge turnout which is a pretty good 1 in 6 unit.

 

I gapped the point blades by simply sawing through the base and rail with a piercing saw.

 

 

The tiebar sits under the unit and is connected to the blades by 0.35mm phosphor bronze wire, coming up through a slot milled in the base.

 

 

 

I reckon it was about 4 hours work in total, as there was a bit of time figuring out where things should go and all the rails were shaped individually, as my filing jigs only accomodate code 40 rail.  With a bit of time invested in filing jigs for the frog & blades and track gauges to accomodate the code 60 rail, it would be much quicker.

The PC board is 0.5mm higher than the Peco flexitrack sleeper base, so that will require some packing to match the height.  1mm thick PCB sheet would have been useful but that's going to be hard to find in the resin/paper material these days.

 

Even with the mismatch of board thickness, I think there's some mileage in this.  It certainly results in a very strong turnout.  I'm pleased with the end result as a wagon rolls through it quite well.

 

In 2mm standard gauge terms, code 40 rail could be used with or without chairplates and plain track using Association sleepers of Easitrac would need a 0.8mm sub-base to match up the height.

 

Incidentally, if anyone's looking for 3mm shank mills for the Proxxon MF70, ebay seller "tony4cats" sells a range of different size & shape mills which are good value.

 

Mark

Edited August 12, 2014 by 2mmMark

[Ian Smith]

One of the items on my workbench is a second loco.  This time a GWR Small Metro Tank (a 2-4-0).  I have milled a chassis and gearbox from solid brass, and the intention is to fit an 8mm diameter Nigel Lawton motor in the boiler pointing back towards the cab.  Because my modelling period is Edwardian, the loco needs to have an open cab (I love making things nice and easy for myself!)

 

Before I can progress any further with the chassis, I need to determine what body components need to be removable - The original intention was to have a separate boiler/smokebox with the motor secured within it driving the gearbox via a "Peg and Bar" connection :

This would allow the motor to be completely disconnected from the gearbox thus allowing easy removal of it within the boiler.  A discussion with John Russell at the last Midland Area Group meeting has caused me to rethink this original concept, and consider fixing the motor to the gearbox assembly.  The chassis and gearbox can be seen in the photo below (the gearbox has a forward projection through which I intended to bolt it to the main chassis block (there is a small peg at the other end which locates in a hole in the main block too to ensure that the gearbox does not move).  I could potentially mount the motor on that forward projection albeit with a bit of extra brass soldered on to give a bit more land) :

 

However, I still need to determine whether it would be possible to slide the motor into the boiler as an attachment to the gearbox if all of the body was one piece, and to that end (while the rest of the family are busy doing other things) that I have been working on the body (only the cab today!) :

 

The cab/tank assembly is separate, as is the boiler/smokebox, and also the footplate assembly.  Obviously the boiler fittings have just been plonked on too to give me an idea what it will look like.  An initial check seems to indicate that I will still have to have the boiler as a separate item.

 

Out of interest, has anyone got any experience of having the body of the loco as separate components that are effectively bolted together around the mechanism?  (I suspect that many 2mm locos have been built this way) but is having the motor separate from the gearbox as I originally intended a sensible way to go?

 

Ian

[Donw]

Apart from the fact that it is very small something that doesn't seem to be holding you back very much, I would suggest that having the body in a few component parts would be a good idea. I know that my friend who paints 0 gauge locos finds it a great help. The main problem I can forsee is the holding of the parts during the build. I  would think that making each peice with a screw to fix it to the footplate would be a start.

The fittings for the boiler look very well made. How do you produce the fit to the boiler?

Don

[Ian Smith]

Apart from the fact that it is very small something that doesn't seem to be holding you back very much, I would suggest that having the body in a few component parts would be a good idea. I know that my friend who paints 0 gauge locos finds it a great help. The main problem I can forsee is the holding of the parts during the build. I  would think that making each peice with a screw to fix it to the footplate would be a start.

The fittings for the boiler look very well made. How do you produce the fit to the boiler?

Don

Don,

The bases of each of the boiler fittings were fly cut on my lathe with a tool I made from a broken drill shank (3mm I think).  The drill shank was ground and sharpened, and fits radially through a piece of steel, and clamped in place with a 4BA bolt down the end of the steel.  The cutting part can be adjusted for radius of cut by moving it in and out before clamping with the 4BA bolt.  The fly cutter is held in the 3 jaw chuck, and the brass (or phosphor bronze bar in the case of the chimney) clamped to the tool rest on centre and perpendicular to the rotating tool.  Once the base has been formed, the bar is turned to the required shape.  The finishing fit is made by rubbing the finished part's base up and down a suitable piece of boiler/smokebox diameter bar wrapped with emery paper.  The dome and chimney still need to be finished properly, which I will do by super gluing to a purpose made mandrel, once finished a little heat from a soldering iron will soften the super glue allowing the finished part to be removed from the mandrel.

 

Ian

[richbrummitt]

Have a look at Nigel Cliffe's 1F (scroll down).