Rich's de-stress project

[rowanj]

Rich - I suspect you are not managing to get enough heat from your iron directly into the joint - looking at the pics, there is a lot of brass which will be dissipating the heat around the boiler and tank sides, You need to clean out the existing solder then try again with at least a 50watt iron, probably running at 450 degrees. Do it slowly along the join from the inside, make sure that the solder passes through the join, and don't go mad with flux, which will bubble away. It's the old story - repairing is always harder than doing it the first time.

 

I've seen references recently to a "gas pencil" which would be a handy addition to a toolbox.  Antex do a version which seems to heat to 400 degrees.

 

Best wishes

 

John

Edited February 6, 2019 by rowanj
Added info

[jdb82]

25 minutes ago, rowanj said:

I've seen references recently to a "gas pencil" which would be a handy addition to a toolbox.

 

I found myself unwrapping a rather nice Iroda Solderpro 120 bought by my lovely wife as a Christmas present a few weeks ago. I'm having great fun experimenting with it, but haven't been brave enough to use it on my current project yet, as it has a tendency to unsolder everything I've already soldered.....It does make the metal VERY hot. I think I need to learn how to tame it a little first, but it would certainly solve the 'not enough heat' problem, if that indeed is the issue!

[Jol Wilkinson]

Rich,

 

getting enough heat into that mass and getting the solder to bridge the gap seems a bit pointless. If you want to anchor the tanks to the boiler, just make up a couple of small L shaped brackets from scrap etch and solder those between the inside of the tank front and the boiler. It'll still take a bit of heat but less than the other way. However, as I've already said, I wouldn't bother.

 

To my knowledge, no tank loco kits have complete tank "boxes". It would use more metal (and hence cost) and prevent getting inside the tank after assembly to add ballast, so a negative on at least two counts.

 

Jol

[Bucoops]

Thank you again all - my iron is a 50w one. I've had it at 400 and the tank part has been going that dull red colour so a bit concerned!

 

I think I need to spend some time tweaking trying to get the tank to sit a bit better. I have considered little brackets but there's very little clearance in there - it's hard enough getting the tip of the iron in. Definitely worth looking at though

[Bucoops]

Another delay - new glasses have taken almost a week to get the hang of, but did manage to finally get the tank anchored a couple of days ago. I did do some tweaking first to get it to sit a bit closer to the boiler naturally. Loads more cleaning still to do...

[Bucoops]

Another delay of a few days while a rather painful blister healed from where I was a bit tired and didn't concentrate properly when waving the soldering iron around. Whoops

 

Tank steps are on (after pinging the same one across the room twice...), Westie is on - I'm thinking the sand filler lid might be in the wrong place on the casting - not planning on doing anything with that though.

 

I've started the handrails for the end of the tanks. Bit of scrap etch which I'll round the ends of and trim to suit. I've recycled the nickel silver handrail I tried to use for the main boiler run.

[Bucoops]

Moving on

 

Grab rail on the footplate added - there will be steps below here; tank end handrail added, and cab door handrails added. One of these is a tad too long - will see what I can do with it. All but the grab rail are actually supposed to taper as they rise - not a hope of me doing that lol! The extreme close ups do my work no favour   Kinda hoping paint hides a lot

 

 

 

[AdeMoore]

10 hours ago, Bucoops said:

Kinda hoping paint hides a lot

My thoughts exactly with my scratch build!

looking good this build.

 Cheers 

[Bucoops]

Ye gads, over a month since last update!

 

I'm having a short (ha ha) break from the N7 - for some reason I had the urge to do a bit of whitemetal so dug out the BTH Type 1 again. Mostly fine fettling to get the bogies to go together but the kit is designed to take a DS10 - I think way up the thread I wanted to use a Mashima so have made a small bracket for that - a small length of aluminium angle:

 

 

This then has the 1020 (originally I had a 1024 but that's a touch too long) attached (3mm screws as the usual 2mm is too short) and an 8BA hole tapped in the top and attached to the bogie to body mount.

 

 

This then sits nicely in the bogie frame - however I either need to insert a couple of washers to lift the motor up, or I may thin the bracket a little. Modifying the bracket is the more elegant way I guess.

 

 

Redgatemodels has built one of these and it was mentioned on his blog recently by jwealleans that high-mileage ends up with worn axle bearings (or rather holes in the bogie as there aren't bearings as such) - so in anticipation of mine doing a lot of miles one day in my life  I have fitted some small Gibson bushes - 

 

 

 

Then I returned to pickups - I have used 0.7mm brass wire with heatshrink insulation from the bogie baseplate. Fortunately it's all tucked out the way so shouldn't be noticable. I need to find a way of getting the cables round to the top without going near the gears - I initially had them inboard but couldn't find a way of doing it neatly so am trying the way they are on now.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by Bucoops

[Bucoops]

Oh and just for good measure my soldering iron's mains lead has failed - at the strain relief. So much for silicone cables being more flexible. It's off for repair so trying to do little bits like the bracket which doesn't need the iron.

[Bucoops]

Soldering iron is back

 

Celebrated by getting something moving

 

 

 

It's slightly noisier backwards than forwards, but I presume it ought to be run in for a while.

Edited April 16, 2019 by Bucoops

[Bucoops]

I'm not even going to look at the date of the last entry!

 

I got a bit done on the 15 but I need to work out the electronics for the lighting and that's going to involve some vero board etc.

 

So back on the N7 (yay!). It's the fiddly bits now, so there's an end in sight?! I need to tweak some of the steps a bit as they didn't go on as well as I hoped, but I'm quite pleased with the destination board brackets as they are flipping TINY!

 

I also want to give it a bath in something soon as it's filthy with old flux etc. - even after gentle scrubbing with a toothbrush and soap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I need to trim the injector front pipe bit

Edited August 5, 2019 by Bucoops
Injectors

[jdb82]

Good to see you back posting - the 15 is looking great! I've tried various different 'baths' for mucky models, but never stumbled across anything that is properly effective. Elbow grease with various grades of Gariflex blocks and fibreglass pen (both of which make a miserable mess!), followed by a scrub with hot soapy water with a toothbrush, and a repeat scrub with Viakal and a rinse in hot water again. This leaves it nice and shiny.....for a day or two....

[Bucoops]

Thanks - not too bothered about shinyness but there's crud in a lot of corners

 

Can anyone recommend a lamp iron source? I don't mind buying some rather than making them and don't mind them being a little over scale. I have some SE FInecast ones but they are too flimsy unfortunately, and don't come in the arrangement required for the smokebox door or bunker rear.

 

 

Thanks

[Bucoops]

Here's one I made earlier

 

 

There's a few well documented issues with the Oxford model but it's pretty good and VERY heavy.

[Bucoops]

Started the Westinghouse pump pipework. Not sure what to do about the thinner pipe that joins on the thicker one at the top left side. AFTER soldering in the thick pipe I wondered about sliding a 7mm handrail knob on. Might work if I can find one suitably different to the 4mm design. The pipes on the right-hand side are in line with each other - camera angle makes them look rather out.

 

 

[Bucoops]

Hmm, Hopefully when painted black it won't look quite so much like a 7mm handrail knob (what did I expect!?).

 

[Bucoops]

A holiday and silly amounts of work delayed things again, boo hiss! But today I tackled one of the jobs I've been dreading - the rain guttering on the cab roof. The kit says to use "thin round wire", but the real thing has angle so as it's so prominent I decided I had to use that too. Bought it ages ago from Eileen's (and used some on the underside of the cab roof for strength and to assist location.

 

I also bought some little pegs from Eileen's and they helped magnificently