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I think that might be the best 'toy' around! Wish I'd have had something like that when I was little!!

Another vote for Fusion360 here. To a very simple level, I learnt how to use it in a few days, mainly just by watching YouTube videos. Very easy to get your head around. I'm wanting to make my own wheel set, and have created the 3D models with relative ease. The intention is to get these printed up, to use as the wheel hub - material still to be decided upon!. Plans are afoot to buy a cheap bench top lathe to convert to CNC to produce the tyres.

Clearly multitasking is not my forte! I had the France v Australia match on earlier, and only managed to tap 3 bushes and wheels in that time!

Very little progress over the last week or so, and if this evening is anything to go by, now the World Cup has started, I suspect progress may stay at a snails pace! currently tapping wheels and bushes, as suggested. Not much to photograph, but I’ll let you know if it runs more smoothly after the modifications!

Just to prove I've found the same page......the 10 minutes of procrastinating I allowed myself from work today allowed me to break out the tap.

Yes, they are the original 12BA crankpins. Hadn't thought of installing the crankpin bush with the flange the opposite way round from convention (or from the instructions at least). In my box of goodies that arrived last week, I just happened to buy some 10BA taps, nuts and bolts. I'll have a play and see what happens. Just one question though - how does this help with the smooth running? Is it just that a bigger pin and a firmer fixing to the bush keeps things straight and in place?

I need to chill a little more. Doilum, you were quite right - get everything fitted together before setting into panic mode. Despite the plungers preventing free running, and the problems with a bent and subsequently elongated coupling rod, it still runs relatively well. Maybe the little motor has a little more grunt than I gave it credit for. It does sound to be working a bit harder than I expected, but nothing too major. No oil or running in, crankpins not secured and the plungers just pushed into place. Hopefully it will keep working after everything is finally fixed!! The brake pull rod is next, followed by the sand pipes and a couple of other small details. i'll need to make an air reservoir tank from scratch at some stage, as Bamburgh was fitting with a Westinghouse pump. I might leave that until I've got the footplate built though......think out loud. Must stop rambling! https://youtu.be/ppmSJ6QpcMA

I think I got that. Basically, get the housing pushed fully back to the frame, coz in the world of maths & physics, it makes a difference. Right?! 'twill be one this weekend, along with the remains four. I'll get them all installed and hook up the gearbox and motor and if it's got enough grunt. It's not an enormous motor, and there's not room in the firebox for anything much bigger. A bit of trial and error may be needed!

Good plan with the tag - spare small nuts are always useful. Ive got an old telephone which is not being used, and i was planning on taking the wire out of the coiled chord to the handset to solder up to the plungers. Thanks for spotting the top photo.....I hadn't noticed, although even if I had, I'm not sure I would have thought about preloading. There speaks the mind of an engineer vs mind of a primary school teacher! I'll give it a go, although could half a millimetre make such a difference? The axel really doesn't want to spin, and that's even after I've polished up the back of the wheel.

My box of goodies has arrived! Enough bits and pieces to keep me going for a while, and a soldering iron that works I finished off soldering the brake hangers to the support beams. After that, one of the first things I played with out of the box was the Slaters plunger pickups. Never having used them before, I was surprised how wide they are.....a bit difficult to hide on a small industrial tank. A bit of filing back of the outer flange may be needed to hide it completely behind the wheel. I was quite pleased that my measurement to determine the location of the hole in the frame was so accurate - the contact is plumb in the centre of the back of the wheel rim. Now the springs are pretty tiny, and do not feel very strong, however the added friction on the back of the wheels are preventing the axel from rotating freely. The wheels don't even want to turn when I drag it along a wooden surface, let alone rail. I was expecting some resistance but not that much! The axels spins feeling when the plungers are retracted and held apart. As you can see from the photos below, nothin else is touching the wheel - only the plunger contact. I'll give the back of the wheel a good polish with some emery paper and see if that makes a difference.

And so the long wait for a replacement soldering iron continues....... My model is sat on my desk, beginning almost apologetically for me to do something with it! A holiday away last week didn't help matters, although I did buy a cheap (equivalent of about £3) iron from a local tool shop. Predictably, this didn't last too long before smoke began to pour from within the business end. It did last long enough to solder the hangers onto the hanger wires. Still got about 4 joints to go, but at least I got something done! Hopefully the Antex will arrive this week. Then I just need to hope that the problem lays in the iron, and not in the temp. control box itself. Whilst I have a basic understanding of electronics, this one would likely be beyond me given that there's nothing obviously 'black' inside it! Fingers crossed.

This is very impressive Pete - thoroughly enjoying following this. Where did you get all the plans from? I'm probably living in a fantasy land, but this would be a cracking little project for me (probably a good 20 years down the line somewhere though!)

Work on the MW May have to be put on hold whilst I source another soldering iron, as mine appears to have packed in..... I suspect it’s probably the iron element, as the temperature control unit still seems to be in one piece. They seem a bit on the pricey side though! Need to get a multi-meter to test the element first before I buy a replacement

Whilst pondering the middle axel wheel balances, I thought I'd move on to the brake hangers. The three layers of etches were laminated in the usual way of setting up a jig of 2 drill bits in a block of wood to keep everything in line. Lots of flux between the layers helped to draw the solder through between the layers. It's important not to get any flux or solder onto the front of the top layer, as if it gets into the half-etched parts, its a real PITA to remove. Here's how they came out. Straight after soldering: After some work with a file around the edges: After a good polish with various grades of wet and dry, and a scratch brush on the top surface: All 6 completed

I'm just starting out learning the basics of F360. How do you go from creating a 3D CAD drawing to producing the G-code needed for CNC control? Is there bridging software needed, or can this be done directly through F360?

Not much progress to report in the last couple of weeks.....the only thing I have to show in the last 2 weeks are cutting and gluing 4 wheel balance weights for the front and back axels. The etches were clearly designed for different wheels, and didn't even come close to fitting. I cut these down with a piercing saw, and then super glued them onto plasticard to give them some depth. Using a craft knife, I trimmed the plasticard to shape and then filed flush with the etch. These were then superglued on. The centre wheels need balance weights as well, but on the crankpin side of the wheel. I need to think about how best to do this, as the boss on the slaters wheel will make it very difficult to profile and achieve the exact shape.

Agree with using the broaches - drill bits can leave the hole slightly elliptical which can cause binding. Make sure your broach is sharp though, or these too can snag. Here speaks the voice of recent experience! N15class gave me a good piece of advice - if it's throwing up lots of burr, it's not sharp enough! Shame I didn't think of that before I bent my coupling rod through 90 degrees ;-) I'm enjoying following this thread - good work!

As requested! https://youtu.be/xBNbDS5q5Cg To be honest, with the problems I had with the coupling rod, and the overly-large holes needed as a result for the crankpin bush, I'm amazed it runs at all without jamming up. The fact that it is running this smoothly when nothing really attached (none of the bushes, crankpins or rods are actually fixed or tightened in any way - just resting in their positions) is nothing short of a miracle!

Slow progress on the MW once again.....seemingly restricted to a few hours, one day a week at the moment. Having digitally modelled clearances, I drilled the pilot holes for the plunger pickups, and have managed to solder the main structural elements of the chassis together. Surprisingly, it all went together relatively easily and the wheels spin very freely. There's a bit more side play than on my previous build - maybe 1.5mm-ish. Not sure if this is too much. I have some fibre washers on standby if need be. With everything cleaned up, I'll add some of the chassis detail next whilst I wait for the plunger pickups to arrive. The tabs from the frame spacers which poke through the frame, I have filed smooth. They look as though they have gaps around them - apart from 2 tiny holes which need filling with solder, all the rest are completely filled and smooth - there are dark areas because I've given it a good scrub with Viakal - not sure what this has in it, but it has a tendency to durn the solder much darker. An accidental discovery - it turns out mosquito repellent has a similar effect!

In the absence of enough money to be able to afford AutoCad or similar, I've been playing around with some new software this weekend. I have used Affinity Photo as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop for a while now, and they have recently released Affinity Designer for more vector based applications. I intend producing the artwork for some etches of my own in the future using it. For now though, I used Affinity Designer to rescale a drawing of the kit (which does seem to have been drawn to scale, just not 7mm scale). I then put one of the chassis frames on the scanner and scanned to 100%, and overlaid this onto the drawing, adding in frame spacers, firebox & backhead locations as well as potential plunger locations. I wanted to see which motor/gearbox combo would fit, and how it would all go together; or more importantly, what won't fit and where! I guess @doilum that this is a digital version of what you suggested with building a plastikard mockup, even if it's not 3D.... Straight away, I realised that the rear plunger would need moving, as the gearbox would be occupying that space. The spacers and the gearbox between them don't leave me many options for where to put them. I'm not compensating or springing the axels (that prospect still scares me), so at least I don't need to locate them on the vertical plain. Having produced scale versions of the motor/gearboxes on offer, I then overlaid this onto the drawing. Clearly the Mashima 1833 is too big. It would foul the backhead - the front of the cab can't be opened up either because of the former for the saddle tank. Good news though, the Mashima 1624 wit the the Slaters gearbox looks as though it will sit nicely in the firebox, although I'll need to take a bit off the spindle at the top - no flywheel for me once again.... This has been a useful little exercise, if not a little long winded as I taught myself how to use the software. Another skill added to the growing list. Now I know where the plungers will go, I'll drill the pilot holes and crack on with soldering everything up.

Thank you chaps! Most helpful. I shall add them to my shopping list and then smile nicely at my dad to nip down to DHL. Simon, I'll take a look at your thread and that of DLOS, although I think I shall stick to bought ones this time round. Home made ones are an option for my next venture...... Holes will be drilled and frames constructed this weekend, all being well.

Looking at my drawings, both of my options maybe a tight fit, but the Slaters option looks the most comfortable, so I'll probably go for that 'safe' option. Do you have the dimensions for the Slaters Plunger pickups by any chance? Just been searching for them online, but haven't found any info on the diameter of them. I know I'm only drilling pilot holes at the moment, but the back of the steel wheel rim is only 2.6mm, which doesn't seem much to hide the pickup behind! I'm sure it'll be fine.

Yeah, the L class frames certainly seem a bit chunkier than some other of the MW classes. All to my benefit! I'll take your advice and drill the pilot holes in case I do go down the plunger pickup route. As for the gearbox, I would like a nice ABC, but I'm not sure I can justify the extra £40 or so to get it shipped out here. I wouldn't want to trust a £100+ gearbox/motor combo in the rather unreliable regular post out here! I've got 2 alternative with me in my drawer, so I'll be using one of those. I have rescaled a couple of drawings of Bamburgh to 7mm scale, and checked everything matches the etch size. I'll add the motor and gearbox options later to decide which to use. Good to hear your models are out and having a run! I long for the day I have somewhere for a test track, or a layout to tuns things on!