LisaP4

Miss a couple of days on here, and there's suddenly a week's worth of reading. Days are starting to get up above 35°C here, I may go back to sleeping in front of the air-con vent again. The corrugated iron roof of the workshop turns it into an oven through the day. Doing some marking out the other day when I managed to slip with the scriber, and scribed a line across my finger; not much damage, but it sure liked to bleed. On the plus side it was quite an accurate line. Was discussing the possibility of using small metric threads instead of BA with some model engineers, in the process came across a few suppliers of small (down to 0.5mm) metric bolts with hex heads. I'll leave links here for anyone that may have a need for such things: http://www.knupfer.info/- Knupfer have a huge range. http://www.modellbauershop.de/ https://www.scalehardware.com/- in the USA, so their site is in (pseudo)English, not quite as good a range though. http://www.pollymodelengineering.co.uk/sections/bruce-engineering/- a UK company, but mail order only, no online sales, can download their price list though.

I doubt most have much ability to start with. I had a package last year that was sent to a warehouse further away than the original store; I was then sent an email saying it had been delivered and could now be picked up! I ended up getting a refund and buying from elsewhere. Morning all. Coupling rod material for my 5" gauge loco turned up today, occurred to me that it weighs more than a complete 4mm (and probably most 7mm) scale loco(s). Overcast weather is still keeping the heat away, no rain though. Found the 1968 BBC series of The Railway Children on youtube last night, I still prefer the 1970 movie, but it's worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhY2NtXqJwsHrXyG5HlKdSV7cq_JFr3I9

Took me a moment to realise you were talking about planes.

Did anyone else imagine him balancing a laptop on the alter while posting that? Best of luck you two, and if the day get stressful at all, just enjoy the night.

The street I'm on the corner of now has a temporary sign: end road works, drive safely, 60km/h. It's normally an unsigned residential street, thus 50km/h, so they've increased the speed limit due to roadworks. That it's a cul-de-sac, and anyone going that fast would be likely to crash through the fence and onto the railway is apparently irrelevant. Another cool and rainy day here, the rain is welcome to stay as long as it wants. A friend gave me the money to buy (hopefully) all the materials needed for the 16mm scale live steamer, so I should probably get on with spending it. Marked the frames out last night, then realised I don't have a fine enough hacksaw blade to cut them; don't particularly fancy stripping the teeth off that would inevitably happen with a course blade. Still, I can dabble with other parts till everything else turns up; might start a thread on 'ere, I'm sure there's a few who'd find it all interesting. Roasting some turkey and potatos for dinner tonight, smells good already.

Morning (of sorts) all. Been raining most of the day here, the cooler temperature is most welcome. Plus I got a little damp as I love standing out in the rain. Groceries were delivered last night, was sent mandarins when I ordered bananas; well at least they're both fruits. However I was pleased to discover the call centre for the shop was both open at 10PM and staffed by someone who speaks and understands English. Successfully stank the workshop out with kerosene while washing some parts, but at least I finished the coupling rod bosses. Now just have to wait for the metal to arrive for the centre sections of the rods. In the meantime, will probably cut out the frames for the 16mm scale loco... seems I have enough material for several dozen, but cutting by hand will restrain any ideas of a fleet of them.

The plans I have are for (butane) gas firing, though they're somewhat vague about the gas nozzle/jet. So may well end up being spirits fired, we shall see.

Actually quite a good place to buy steel and other metals if you don't mind a bit of pot luck for what's available; plenty of places sell their offcuts on ebay, so there's often 6"-12" lengths of various metals and sizes. Plus it's delivered, not many steel merchants will delivery small quantities. The smallest I've worked with in live steam.

Disturbingly hot day here, so I'm sitting in front of the air-con vent. Found some steel offcuts on ebay just the right size for my coupling rods, so the large amount of hacksawing is no longer needed, my arm is grateful. From the same ebay seller I found a length of aluminium that is the right size for the typical 16mm scale buffer+hook coupling that the likes of Brandbright sell. Also put together a materials list for the 16mm scale loco that I have plans for; surprisingly large list for such a small loco, but I'll see what I've got stock of which will reduce the list down a bit, I hope. Can hear thunder in the distance, looks like an afternoon storm is coming; hopefully it cools the place down, and doesn't just increase the humidity.

A cool(ish) overcast day today, have taken the opportunity to use the oven for a few hours; house is thus filled with the aroma of braised steak and onions. Contemplating building a 16mm scale steam loco as a side project; built to sell so as to get some much needed funds. Currently have all the materials needed to build a 5" gauge loco, but don't have a big enough lathe to finish it. On the other hand I have all the tools to build a 16mm scale loco, but hardly any of the materials. Dad wandered into the workshop the other night while I was working on the lathe, we then had a good chat about the loco I'm building, what I'm working on, what's next etc. He had to be reminded of some terms, but it's about the most active I've seen him in several months. Considering he can't usually remember where he lives even when in the house, this was really great to see.

Morning (of sorts) all. Dark skies here, occasionally pretends to start raining. Hopefully it'll get on with pouring down soon so it doesn't stay hot and muggy. I hear some thunder as I type. Dom, those cats remind me of a kitten I had when I was in school, she used to like riding around in an LGB open wagon.

A snow man by the sounds of it Dd.

Complained to the seller about the missing pages in the model engineer magazine I bought, seller apologised and gave a refund, and I can keep the magazine. So used the money to buy another - after checking with this seller that there's no pages missing.

Makes me think of this RACQ ad' from a few years ago: Just received an old (1944) issue of The Model Engineer I bought off ebay, opened it up to discover several pages missing, including the entirety of the article I bought it for. :/ On the plus side, it seems to be not unreasonably warm today.

Moaning is one of the few perks of being ill, enjoy it! Beyond my budget I'm afraid, so just cutting a bit every day and will get there in the end. I remember dad hand cutting the blades for a dual gauge (3½" and 5") turnout many years ago, took him several weeks. Able to work on other things in the mean time though, so it's not holding up progress. Here's a front boss for a coupling rod I just bored out tonight: Looks bigger than it is here, it's less than an inch high.

Might not save the track as a whole, but could save the rail then handlay or just get new trackbases (sleepers + chairs strips); it they're available for the rail.

I used to complain about filing up switch blades for 0 gauge turnouts, currently having to do four 9" cuts in 6mm steel plate; those switch blades seem quite easy in comparison. Another warm day, but at least I've got ice cream. I notice that's missing 11" gauge, so possibly others as well. Bit of trivia: 12" gauge is as large as you can go in Australia and still be considered miniature (for insurance and legislative purposes anyway), as that's as big as miniature boiler certification will go. You can however avoid all the paperwork of a full-size railway in some states by registering loco's and rolling stock as an amusement device, some 2' gauge preservation lines even do this.

Another dull day in which I managed to put off vacuuming the house, again. Found plenty of other mundane things to do though. Writting documentation for software is the least interesting part of developing it. Hoping for some rain through the night, don't like my chances though. Ebay also have massive overheads for what they do; trillions of listings, bids, and all the feedback, all of which is stored for a decade or more in big data centres, at multiple sites, plus all the staff to keep it running. A bit more than one bloke with a hammer and a ledger (yes I know most auction houses are a bit more than that, but you get the point).

I recall some Aussies got in trouble for 'disrespecting' the All Blacks a few years back by doing that, apparently now if you don't have a (approved) warcry (like Tonga do) then you just have to stand there till they're done.

Sparks? Hi dd. On the subject of sparks, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago (turned 29 again); the day was a public holiday, and that night there was fireworks visible from my kitchen window. I've decided that both were in my honour.

*lurk lurk lurk* Pretty sure if you printed this thread out, then laid the paper on the ground it'd be bigger than most large exhibition layouts. Summer's on its way here, horrid heat, but at least I've got air-con. Tinkering with 5" gauge in the workshop of late, but doing so at night when it's not an oven in there.

Probably how most drivers would interpret them anyway. Was -3°C here this morning, winter's officially here and seems like it's going to be a cold one, yey! Ice cream vans are still driving around looking for business, not getting much though.

It got down to -1°C here last night, then today there was an ice cream van driving around looking for business; he didn't sell much. The possums here use their young like airbags: Once saw a possum with a child on its back drop the 18" or so off the house roof onto the workshop roof, land upside down on its child, then get up and continued its trek across the roof.

Another cool morning at 3°C here, and it's not even officially winter for another couple of weeks. As last year was (apparently) the hottest winter on record, I'm rather looking forward to a cool one this year. Cask beer? Really? As in a cardboard box with a bladder full or beer in it? I've seen cask wine, but never cask beer.

I've got a fairly strong magnet (pinched from something that wasn't working anyway, honest!) tied to the end of a bit of string, also does the job. Council repainted all the street lines early this morning so they all look nice and bright and pretty; guess that means the rates notice (local government tax, don't know if it's called something else elsewhere) will arrive any day now then. Seems they've also decided to refund $600,000 worth of messed up parking fines; amazing how much they'll spend when they want more money.