Glueing Slaters insulated hornblocks to brass? And other problems.

[JeffP]

OK, so I got all eight Slaters nylon hornblocks glued in and sitting parallel the other evening. I thought I was making progress at last. How wrong can I be?

 

Tonight, TWO have already come adrift.   That's despite using Devcon 2-Ton adhesive, mixed as recommended, and having degreased both the hornblock and the frames prior to glueing. And all I was doing was, in one case, removing the silver steel fitting jig, and in the second case, trial-fitting a wheelset. The bearings were already reamed to 4.8mm as recommended by Ozzy.

 

And what's to be done about  bearing stight fitting in the hornblocks? I found some to be good sliding fits, others tight at the end of their travel, (towards the open end of the hornblock). I spread them with quite hard finger pressure to achieve a decent sliding fit before glueing, but they have obviously settled back to tight during the setting time of the glue.

 

Is there a remedy? How loose do they need to be?

 

And the sets that stayed in place, despite being reamed, and fitted with silver steel through both bearings, once the wheelset is in place, it's difficult to turn and doesn't want to move up and down even without springs in.....What am I doing wrong?

 

Anyone want to buy a part built quite used A1 kit.............? That's before I chuck it out of the Velux window.