dpgibbons

The jump in the share price is a pretty clear indication that these were much better than expected results with sales, gross margins and the balance sheet all showing big improvements - the latter due primarily to the GBP15m share issue. That issue plus the additional lending facilities has restored them to good financial heath. But they need a follow through in the seasonally stronger 2H to underpin the return to profitability and to demonstrate that their strong sales growth is not simply a temporary COVID bounce.

Loctite and other threadlockers come in strengths varying from permanent fix to removable with hand tools. I need to secure the tiny threads and nuts on 7mm wheels/cranks/sprung buffer shanks whilst still allowing ready removal. Are the low strength threadlocker versions (Loctite 202 et al) safe for this? Or is there a better option?

The Youchoos sound install guide includes working lamps - see here

Further on this topic, I bought from eBay a cheap temperature-controlled hot air desoldering gun (like this one) on the basis that even if it wouldn't cure a bodged chassis it would certainly be useful for bodged PCBs, of which I have a growing number. Its first use was to unsolder a whitemetal chimney. It had been crookedly but very thoroughly attached using 100 degree solder onto a pre-tinned smokebox, so I did not hold much hope of getting it off unscathed. But after a few minutes of hot air, starting gingerly at 120 degrees and increasing to 160 (to overcome the heatsink effect), it popped off undamaged. No doubt I will soon give myself the opportunity to discover if it will deal as efficiently with 145 degree and electrical solder.

These days that only applies to pre-orders. Otherwise it's payment up front. But taking money when you don't have stock is guaranteed to annoy your customers - especially if they have to chase you to discover why they haven't received the item.

As an excuse for a UFO that story would take some beating

A real time stock system won't allow sale and payment for an item not in stock. Which avoids your staff spending much time investigating stock-outs, communicating with irritated customers (or not) and manually refunding payments.

My impression is that they do not have a real-time stock system, which leads to orders being taken for items that are out of stock and to all the grief that follows, both for customers and themselves. These days even the smallest online retailers get this right, so I wonder why they have not fixed it before now.

Modratec isn't taking orders at present and there is some uncertainty about its future.

So ... best get the screwdriver out first.

A circuit breaker in the track circuit set to something less than 3A is a good idea anyway - you would not want max power flowing through an unattended short.

The current handset uses tiny SMD components and is quite challenging to assemble - I confess I gave up on mine. Hence the interest in a through-hole version.

Any update on delivery dates please? Revolution's website still shows Q2-Q3 2020.

London Fields is briefly captioned in this atmospheric 1920's video of the Regent's Canal here

According to Tower Models, Dapol are now saying delivery won't be until Easter 2021.

The instructions do indeed call for 28-28.5mm across the outer faces of the bearings, but the Slaters axle is 30mm back to back hence the 1.5mm of slop.

Great idea if you are running fixed rakes, as it minimises stock handling and marshalling. The question for me is whether a 5 road x 1.55m cassette (ie long enough for a 10 coach train in N) is practical.

Two years from announcement is a respectable timescale for a maiden project like this. We've been waiting almost four years for the NGS Hunslet.

I'm building the Connoisseur 0-4-0T starter loco, which has a 47mm wheelbase and a simple fixed worm gear drive. Following the instructions on spacing out the bearings gives me ~1.5mm sideplay on the driven axle, which seems a little excessive for optimum gear engagement. So should I reduce this to say 0.5mm and leave more sideplay on the other axle? And if I do, what sideplay would I need on the latter to accommodate say a 36" radius curve?

May I clarify the situation please on VAT for non-EU orders. The advertised price supposedly includes it, yet when I tried to order a Fell for Australia delivery there was no deduction made for it.

My own formula for buying a tool is based on I*T*H*N where: I = improvement in results achieved using the tool T = time saved H = hourly value of hobby time N = number of times the tool is used If you're a reasonably well-heeled (or time starved) and eager rookie then you will assign high values to all these variables and will be likely to buy the tool. If few or none of these apply you will be likely to say that the tool is a luxury on forums like this.

Note that the Springside Pug is almost entirely whitemetal above the chassis, and according to the manufacturer it has the longest build time - 150 hours - of any of their kits!

According to Kickstarter, 37% of projects get funded (for the rest, Kickstarter returns money to backers) and of those 91% get delivered. IIIRC the main reason that Revolution didn't use a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter is that it's expensive - they take 5% of funds raised and the payment provider another 3-5%. A DIY crowdfunding is cheaper but offers less security to backers.

As you say, their voluminous catalogue is not online, which makes searching and purchasing more difficult. But their responsiveness makes up for it. Chapeau.

Oops! Indeed they are O Gauge, and so too pricey for me. Back to homemade ideas then unless there are other ready-made options out there.