Spitfire's G3 Workbench

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
130 rivets down.
Tender tank outer
20180901_184818.jpg
Inner. Still have to cut and file these down. 20180901_184831.jpg

Each was two panels with proper overlapped joints.

Next is to join those two to the forward center panel to make something like this.
20180901_185420-1.jpg
A single 3' long panel which needs to be wrapped into a horseshoe tank and located into the front and back tank spacers.

Itll certainly be an interesting assembly process as I have to solder this to the steel framework before soldering the flares to the walls and soldering in hundreds of rivets. Going to be a lot of quick work with a hot iron and plenty of support. Luckily at such a large size, the distance between presoldered parts is fairly large.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well Ive now made the tender tank flare.
20180902_195416-1.jpg
Oh god I hope they all fit correctly around the tank.
As I designed it all in CAD, it SHOULD be very accurate, but I fear that accuracy may also allow so little margin of error to be impossible to construct in assemblies. Oh well, we will see. Worst case I order the required etches again, plus about 400 more rivets.
But that makes the already overbudget project more expensive.
Hopefully....
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well Christmas came early for me yesterday.
I got the lasercut steel parts. And have now begun on the tender.
20180907_215859-1.jpg 20180907_215912-1.jpg
Unfortunately, Ive now run out of solder!
So Ive got some more 60/40 ordered from Amazon with 2 day shipping, so Ill have it Sunday evening. (Prime deliveres sundays apparently)

And yesterday I also received the carrying wheels machined by Walsall.
Mounted on Slaters axles with loctite 242 I got free from work. Half a 50ml bottle which was "expired" according to mil spec. Cant really complain.
20180907_215944-1.jpg

Next to build up the bogies while I wait for the solder.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Long day, but a productive one.
Ive got the trucks mostly complete. Just need to tweak the springing and finish a couple details.
20180908_231859-1.jpg

And I spent several hours cutting, drilling, and bolting the floorboards in place.
Thus leaving me with this20180908_231758-1.jpg Quite scary the tender now weighs over 1.5kg! And thats without batteries.
But it rolls so freely so hopefully wont cause much issue.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well unfortunately Amazon has failed me and the solder wasnt shipped out until THIS morning. So much for that Prime 2 day shipping...

But I did get a bit done without it.
I made a start on the locomotive itself. (Yes the frame is being held together with rubber bands)
The pilot truck was mostly assembled, though not completely as I still have to remove the wheels to shorten the axles. Hopefully a hacksaw will work as Im not sure the loctite would survive the heat of my dremel.
20180909_202658-1.jpg
From this, I could do some preliminary tests of the pilot's swing. Its so close to working or not. Certainly if it can get around my 4.5' radius curve, that will be the absolute limit. And thats taking into account as much wheelslop as I can put into it.
5' radius would probably be a lot kinder on it.

Remains to be seen until I can get the drivers finished and mounted, but I doubt that will be any time soon unfortunately. The ONLY machinist I was able to find has been quite busy the past month and doesnt see it quietting down for a while yet.

But I also got one of the valve gear links made up today. 20180909_202750-1.jpg
Quite fiddly to make.

Hopefully the solder will come tomorrow. Come on Amazon, You can do it.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Wow!

I love it. Great job bending that long tender tank, and the loco frames look great.
Thanks.
Honestly the tank wasnt that hard to bend surprisingly. The frame I built inside really made shaping easy, all I had to do was keep it taught. But I do regret making it all 1.5mm thick.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Hopefully a hacksaw will work as Im not sure the loctite would survive the heat of my dremel.

A piercing (or jewellers) saw (and a selection of blades) is a useful item to have in the tool kit for jobs like this. In theory the Loctite should hold if the Dremel cutting is taken slowly. You could cut a quarter of the way through each axle end in turn which will let the axle cool slightly before making the next pass.

.....although the temptation is always there to make the cut in one shot. :rolleyes:
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well I received the solder today, from Amazons 3 day delivery.
And got to work.
20180910_221109-1.jpg
I still have to clean up the rivets and excess solder, but I also realized after cleaning for the night, I didnt solder bottom of one side and I need to correct that top beading.

How much surface rust will I have to clean up tomorrow? We shall see!
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Today I spent several hours writing the first draft for an assembly manual for my Neilson, which Im fairly confident any well rounded modeller could complete. Not like my American which is proving more a jigsaw puzzle where Ive thrown out the box.

And I got a bit more high powered soldering complete. Ive made up the rods, and Im quite happy how easily they went together. I was afraid from my design that theyd be almost impossible to hold and solder.
20180915_193841-1.jpg
From my designs Im sure you can see why.
The connecting rods were only 7 pieces each while the driving rods were 13 each.
But soldered up and cleaned they look like
20180915_193311-1.jpg

I really wanted the multi-layered look of gib and cotter rods and I think I achieved that.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
They look very nice.
What sort of figure do you have in mind for the kit?
The cost of parts. Thats it honestly.
I put the designwork in it for myself, but if even one person gets to enjoy it as well thatd be fine.
But for reference, from the lasercutter in the UK, the metal would cost ~<£100, 3D parts would cost ~£175 before applicable tax, motor is ~£100.
So for a locomotive it was actually quite cheap, but requires a LOT of finishing on the 3D parts. Its not a "fun" job there, but if you put the effort in you can get a good finish.
I have the 3D parts available on my shapeways shop, and I can provide the 2D cutting files to send to whatever lasercutter of choice, but due to good experience, I recommend Lasermaster.
 
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