Whats on your 2mm Work bench

[Chris Higgs]

A Farish Hawksworth Auto Trailer.

 

 

What a beauty. It's going to make the Dapol 14XX look pretty awful, so it had better go with the Farish 64XX. Just contemplating whether to rewheel, or replace the bogies with etched ones.

 

Chris

[TomE]

They are lovely aren't they!

 

 

This one will become 'Chaffinch' for use on Ropley, but I could be seriously tempted by another and a 64XX for conversion to 2mm FS and use on a small plank!

 

I agree entirely about the Dapol 14XX though. I suppose the best hope we have for a new version is for DJM to shrink down the Hatton's model. 

 

Tom. 

Edited March 1, 2017 by TomE

[nick_bastable]

to be fair the Dapol 14xx kicked the market very hard in the need to  producing better details

 

although it was a very poor runner 

 

NIck

[sp1]

to be fair the Dapol 14xx kicked the market very hard in the need to producing better details

 

although it was a very poor runner

 

NIck

I must have a really good Dapol 14xx !

It's one of the early ones (in terms of production) - has always run well and after being stored for years (aborted layout!) I got it out a few months ago and gave it a run, with no oiling or any other maintenance and it runs just as well as ever......

 

One strange thing has happened to it though, the handrail on one side has gone soft and 'bendy'

to be fair the Dapol 14xx kicked the market very hard in the need to producing better details

 

although it was a very poor runner

 

NIck

I must have a really good Dapol 14xx !

It's one of the early ones (in terms of production) - has always run well and after being stored for years (aborted layout!) I got it out a few months ago and gave it a run, with no oiling or any other maintenance and it runs just as well as ever......

 

One strange thing has happened to it though, the handrail on one side has gone soft and 'bendy'

[sp1]

Oops, what happened there!

[MrSimon]

One strange thing has happened to it though, the handrail on one side has gone soft and 'bendy'

I fixed a (former) M7 that had that problem, it's as if the plastic has given up - I say fixed, I replaced the bendy plastic with wire

 

Cheers

Simon

Edited March 1, 2017 by MrSimon

[sp1]

I fixed a (former) M7 that had that problem, it's as if the plastic has given up - I say fixed, I replaced the bendy plastic with wire

 

Cheers

Simon

Thanks - I had been thinking that might be the solution to the problem

[Chris Higgs]

I must have a really good Dapol 14xx !

It's one of the early ones (in terms of production) - has always run well and after being stored for years (aborted layout!) I got it out a few months ago and gave it a run, with no oiling or any other maintenance and it runs just as well as ever......

 

One strange thing has happened to it though, the handrail on one side has gone soft and 'bendy'

 

 

And how is its slow-speed running? That for me was always the weakness, a very poor gear ratio and not particularly fantastic motor to go with it.

 

Oh, and the not see-thorugh wheels.

 

Chris

[CF MRC]

Mustn't be forgotten that Farish were still in the swamp at the time of the 14xx, with non see through speed wheels and many other crude features. Things have moved-on remarkably quickly in the last few years. Competition from Dapol at least woke them up.

 

Tim

[2mmMark]

Change of loco size this evening. The Park 0-6-0 tank that has trundled round the NLR on a coal train with a Jinty for the last dozen years - more or less continuously - failed to proceed at the Stevenage show, having had a few problems previously at Warley. On examination, I couldn't really see what was wrong. Clearly a nicely throated worm wheel. Reality was of course, on comparison with a new one, that it was skew cut and worn out!

 

 

The worn out worm wheel was removed from the muff with a hot soldering iron along with the front wheels. A new muff and gear was re fitted to the axle and the whole lot back together and running within the hour. The motor setting did not need disturbing, but there was head room at the end of the drive shaft to slip on the new worm. The loco axles were not significantly worn. The Maxon 816 motor and gearbox is perfectly sound and doesn't know it's done any work.

 

 

This Maxon motor gearbox set up is an expensive one, but 12 years of hard running on our layout is worth a lot.

 

Tim

 

What was the condition of the worm?  Looks like that Nylatron is pretty stern stuff.  On some of the Z gauge mechs that have come through my hands, the wear has always been on the worm, the gears have been fine (the whole gear train is steel and suffers if run unlubricated).

 

Mark

[2mmMark]

Oops, what happened there!

 

I think you've caught the Trump disease of repeating oneself.  Caught the Trump disease of repeating oneself.

 

Together, we'll make RMWeb great again.

[Chris Higgs]

Mustn't be forgotten that Farish were still in the swamp at the time of the 14xx, with non see through speed wheels and many other crude features. Things have moved-on remarkably quickly in the last few years. Competition from Dapol at least woke them up.

 

Tim

 

True, although it's not as though see-through wheels were an unknown and untested radical idea. Fleischmann (to name one amongst many) had had them for a good 30 years already at that point.

 

Chris

Edited March 2, 2017 by Chris Higgs

[Caley Jim]

Together, we'll make RMWeb great again.

Once we get rid of these fake posts! :-)

 

Jim

[Phil Copleston]

Once we get rid of these fake posts! :-)

 

Jim

 

Mark doesn't do "fake posts"... But he does do alternative humour! 

[CF MRC]

Royal Train duties for Lord President?

 

I've just turned up the front buffers out of a bit of steel for LP. They're highly polished, as they were at KX Top Shed for Royal Train duties (special sets were kept aside just for this purpose). Anyway, these will end up chemically blacked, but do look quite jolly all bulled up in the meantime.

 

 

Tim

Edited March 9, 2017 by CF MRC

[Ian Morgan]

Shouldn't they be quarter polished?

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CHAjwSPWgAAUyJR.jpg

[CF MRC]

Not on a P2.

 

Tim

[CF MRC]

Made the rear tender top detail yesterday. The original P2 streamlined tender had extensive fairings that were cut back quite rapidly because they got in the way. Lord President is modelled in original condition. The filler was a simple turning with a bit of added detail: hinge and hasp. It's very conspicuous because, of course, the top view always is.

 

I have recently got an ERSA I-CON1 80W Soldering Station. This was quite pricey, but is a fantastic piece of kit. It will put 150W heat into a small area very quickly and sustainably. I could solder the hinge in place without the hasp shifting. The afficianados would say that resistance soldering could easily do the same thing.

 

 

Tim

[Donw]

Nice work Tim, I am a bit confused as to how an 80w device can apply 150w sustainably. I use a Microflame unit for 7mm work but although the flame is very small it is still a bit big for 2mm. The resistance unit has the advantage you can take the power off very quickly. It is probably me but I find small details tend to move as I take a normal soldering iron away. I blame it on surface tension of the solder but that is just an excuse.

Don

[Caley Jim]

I've had an ERSA RDS80 for some time now and wouldn't be without it. Using Carrs 188 solder paint and running the iron at 300 degreesC I find ideal for assembling etched kits. Although I have a couple of fine tipped bits I prefer the chisel shaped one as it gives much better heat transfer.

 

Jim

[CF MRC]

Nice work Tim, I am a bit confused as to how an 80w device can apply 150w sustainably. I use a Microflame unit for 7mm work but although the flame is very small it is still a bit big for 2mm. The resistance unit has the advantage you can take the power off very quickly. It is probably me but I find small details tend to move as I take a normal soldering iron away. I blame it on surface tension of the solder but that is just an excuse.

Don

I think it has a peak output of 150W, Don, which seems sustainable for the small bits I'm doing and the time it lingers on the joint.

 

Tim

[queensquare]

Royal Train duties for Lord President?

I've just turned up the front buffers out of a bit of steel for LP. They're highly polished, as they were at KX Top Shed for Royal Train duties (special sets were kept aside just for this purpose). Anyway, these will end up chemically blacked, but do look quite jolly all bulled up in the meantime.

Tim

He's a bit good that Watson chap!

Beautiful, neat, work Tim, including the excellent dodge of flooding low melt solder around the shiny shanked drill bits to drift the holes. I shall put that one in the memory bank for future reference.

 

Jerry

[Chris Higgs]

The afficianados would say that resistance soldering could easily do the same thing.

 

 

Tim

 

And they would be right!

 

Chris

[Kylestrome]

afficianados would say that resistance soldering could easily do the same thing.

Tim

Some years ago I also bought an Ersa 80w soldering station and my resistance soldering iron has been gathering dust ever since. Edited March 12, 2017 by Kylestrome

[garethashenden]

Made some progress and then had a bit of a setback on the M7. I had decided to make a Watson style brass block to hold the worm shaft, positioning it in the firebox and the motor in the bunker. I got some appropriately sized brass bar, cut a bit to length, and drilled a hole through it. I really need to invest in some sort of drill press, because this hole was anything but square. It absolutely must be parallel with the sides of the block when viewed from above, and it would be good if it were parallel with the top of the block when viewed from the side. This block was neither. I tried again and got a hole that had a noticeable downward tilt but was parallel with the sides. Not great, but worth trying. The next problem was how to join the 1.5mm worm shaft with the 1mm motor shaft. I cut two short lengths of telescoping tube, one with a 1.5mm ID and one with a 1mm ID and soldered them together. This was probably quite eccentric, but I never found out because I ran into another problem. The combined length of the block, the coupling, and the motor were too long for the body and stuck out the back of the bunker. The obvious solution was to shorted the block, but at this point I decided to just mount the worm directly on the motor.

I tired to remove the axle shaft from the worm, but it seemed very happy where it was and didn't want to come out. I didn't want to damage the worm so I left it and "borrowed" the worm from another worm/gear set I had ordered at the same time. I had good luck with Ultrascale this time. The order has been placed for three sets of 38:1 worms and gears on New Years Eve. They arrived before January was out including the 10 or so days spent in international postage. Far better than the 8 months their website is currently advising. If I eventually decide that I can't work with the small bit of axle in that worm, I'll just order a new worm, they're less than £2.

So back to the M7. I fitted length of 1.5mm OD 1mm ID brass tube to the inside of the new worm. Then I used a small amount of Loctite 609 on the end of the motor shaft to hold the tube to the motor. Maybe this works, maybe I got lucky but the worm is still concentric. I while ago I had mounted a wormwheel to a muff, but yesterday I fitted the two wheels to the muff in the chassis. Everything went quite well and the axle spun quite freely. I superglued the motor to the frame spacer and applied a battery to the motor leads. Success! the wheels turned smoothly and quietly. I mounted the wheels for the front axle, made up the coupling rods and fitted them in position. Small lengths of wire insulation were used to hold the rods on the pins and the battery was once again applied. More success as the hole assembly worked smoothly in both directions. I had previously fitted a 12BA screw down through the frame spacer to mount the bogie on. The bogie needed a small spacer between the top of it and the underside of the frame spacer, again brass tube to the rescue. A little bit of filling followed by an offering to the floor gods and a bit more filling saw all 8 wheels sitting evenly on the track.

After this I went back to the body. A small scrap of lead was flattened from its previously crumbled state and then rolled to fit inside the boiler over the first axle, it pretty much fills the space in front of the side tanks. A second piece was formed to fit over the motor in the boiler. With these set aside the boiler was soldered to the smokebox front, the cab front, and the tank sides. This greatly increased the rigidity of the body, particularly of the footplate forward of the tanks.

Unfortunately, disaster struck soon after. With the previous plan of fitting a large brass block between the frames, a large gap had been left between the second and third axles, i.e. the rear driver and the bogie. This was compounded by the frame getting very thin as it passed over the bogie wheels and resulted in a weak spot. While trying to make a minor adjustment, I accidentally bent the chassis quite substantially. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't. I removed the rear spacer and cut a longer piece to suit, again fitting a screw for the bogie. This was gapped and soldered in place. Unforunatly, the chassis etch had by this point suffered so much that one side broke off where it had been bent. I stuck it back on anyway and checked the continuity. All was good. The motor was reinstalled and the motion was checked, again all was well. The chassis was reunited with the body and that's when I found the second problem. The chassis from the second driver back has a distinct bow to it, curving to the left. I did take a picture of this.

 

I think it would be best to start over with Chris Higgs' offering. I've learned a lot about chassis building from this project. Here's what I think is the most useful thing I've learned from this project; The Worsley etch has a fold up underframe. I removed the sides and discarded the middle. What I should have done was cut the chassis down the middle so that I would have two L shaped parts to work with. This would have given a much stronger assembly, and it would have helped to keep everything square. This will be important when I get to the T9 I have lined up next. There isn't an alternative chassis etch to rescue me if I mess that up.

 

Here are a few other pictures of the current state of affairs.

Edited March 12, 2017 by garethashenden