Alan's Workbench

[Tullygrainey]

Spoke too soon!

Looking again at the Casserley photo in Leslie's post above, the running plate narrows ahead of the tanks. Bu**er. 

[Mayner]

5 hours ago, Tullygrainey said:

While waiting for replacement wheels, I've  made a start on No 9's running plate in 16 thou (0.4mm) brass. Buffer beams are 2 layers of 16 thou nickel silver plus an extra 5 thou brass layer on the front one - photos of the prototype suggest it might be made of wood with a metal facing.

 

Buffer shanks are from Alan Gibson (4908, Early GWR, Dean). Reggie the Soldering Unit made a neat job of soldering these on.

 

1.5mm square brass rod for the valances stiffens the whole thing nicely and gives it some much needed strength.

 

The front chassis spacer slides under a little bit of 1.5mm brass angle the same width soldered to the back of the buffer beam. This secures the chassis and keeps it centred. At the back there's a 10BA bolt into a captive nut on the running plate. 

No disasters today.

Alan

 

Fair play Alan in building quite a fleet of BCDR locos, stock and Kilmore largely using traditional scratch building techniques.

How do you cut brass/nickle silver so neatly? 

[Tullygrainey]

7 hours ago, Mayner said:

Fair play Alan in building quite a fleet of BCDR locos, stock and Kilmore largely using traditional scratch building techniques.

How do you cut brass/nickle silver so neatly? 

Ah John, I play safe. After scribing guide lines, I drill holes near each corner and cut inboard of the lines with the piercing saw. No need to be too precise (first photo). Then I file up to the lines using needle files (second photo). 

[Tullygrainey]

15 hours ago, Tullygrainey said:

Spoke too soon!

Looking again at the Casserley photo in Leslie's post above, the running plate narrows ahead of the tanks. Bu**er. 

I could've left the running plate as it was - scratch building in 4mm is full of compromises, a track gauge of 16.5mm being not the least of those - but I knew it would bother me so, biting the bullet and ladling on the flux, the valances came off again. Not particularly neatly.

 

New shaped valances made up and soldered in. Bending that 1.5mm square brass rod is no joke, even after annealing it.

 

Running plate shaped to match and cleaned up.

 

Shuffling forward quietly and pretending it never happened

Alan

[Mol_PMB]

1 minute ago, Tullygrainey said:

I could've left the running plate as it was - scratch building in 4mm is full of compromises, a track gauge of 16.5mm being not the least of those - but I knew it would bother me so, biting the bullet and ladling on the flux, the valances came off again. Not particularly neatly.

 

New shaped valances made up and soldered in. Bending that 1.5mm square brass rod is no joke, even after annealing it.

 

Running plate shaped to match and cleaned up.

 

Shuffling forward quietly and pretending it never happened

Alan

Well done! You'll soon forget the pain and be glad you did it.

[popeye]

When you know it's wrong it won't leave your head until you fix it.