Blog- PD&SWJR's Workbench Blog - Cows - Part 1

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To go in the cattle dock, one needs cows (or sheep!). At the 2015 Bristol O Gauge Exhibition, PLM Cast-A-Ways had a selection of cows for sale, so I ordered half a dozen (Reference numbers C16, C17, C246, C330, C331 and C332. Don't ask me which one is which now!!<br /><br />Most come as a set of three castings, left side, right side and a head. <br /><br /><br /><br />One came as two parts with the head cast to the side.<br /><br /><br /><br />All the castings required cleaning up as there was some flash. Brass brushes are very useful, as are <strong class='bbc'><em class='bbc'>old </em></strong>files. They clog very quickly, so do not use your best ones,<br /><br /><br /><br />For the first two, I used 5 minute epoxy to glue the part together. It worked, was was a bit tricky to keep the parts aligned, especially the head. Some filling of the parts was necessary afterwards.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />So for the other four, I resorted to low melt soldering. I use a 80W iron, run through a dimmer socket. <span class='bbc_underline'><strong class='bbc'>WARNING</strong></span>, Test on a piece of old whitemetal first to avoid meltdown!! This was much more successful. I used a small tool makers clamp to hold the joined body parts to permit easy soldering of the head.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I used whitemetal solder to fill where the joins were not too good. This was not my soldering, but the quality of the castings. <br /><br />As I used phosphoric acid flux, I was concerned that some liquid could become trapped in the body. I Drilled a 2mm diameter hole in the lower abdomen and flused the inside out with water. The cow were then left in a box in the airing cupboard for a few days to dry out. The hole will then be filled.<br /><br />The fit of the parts on some of them left something to be desired. However, solder or filler can be easily used to create a better shaped cow.<div id='attach_wrap' class='rounded clearfix'>

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