2mm Modbury
- Thread starter Ian Smith
- Start date
AJC
Western Thunderer
I think I remember one (it must have been in later form) on Chipping Norton at the MRJ show. It was one of the layouts I could actually see, easily(ish), being just 9 years' old at the time!
Adam
Tim Watson
Western Thunderer
Keith Armes had a Dean Goods on his N gauge Newton Tracey layout in 1974! It probably made the transfer to 2mm scale wheel standards.
Tim
Tim
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more progress on the Dean Goods.
The footplate has been fretted and filed from 0.010" nickel silver, as have the valances and buffer beam. The four elements were soldered together and then the valances had to be adjusted outwards so that they cleared the crankpin washers when the wheels rotate!
A nylon plug has been turned, drilled and fitted in the hole for the body securing bolt / tender coupling. I will use a 14BA bolt for this.
The next task will be to form the splashers, I normally turn these as a a vertical sided dish from which the splashers are cut, but the Dean Goods has raised beading on the splasher face so I'm considering the best approach and can feel a bit of experimentation coming on
A day or so later …
The splashers :
Initially, because I needed an outside diameter of 12mm and I only had use of a 3 Jaw chuck to hold the work piece (the ER16 collets only go up to 10mm), I felt that Richard Brummitt's suggestion above would be impossible with the equipment I had. I therefore experimented a little and turned up 3 vertical sided dishes from which I intended to cut the splashers from. The intention was to solder rings of wire around the outside face of the dish which could then be filed back to provide the raised bead around the splasher face. Although I managed to do this, it was a bit of a faff, and I felt that when it came to securing the splashers to the footplate that the beading was bound to become unsoldered anyway (I had used 188 degree solder to secure the beading).
The Mk II version was to do it properly!! For this I needed some way of holding short lengths of 12mm bar, so before any material could be cut in anger I first had to make myself a stepped chuck. This was relatively easy to make from a length of 20mm brass bar (although I think that the material I used was actually a similar alloy that my brother had given me years ago - he's an engineer and regularly gives me 2"-3" offcuts of brass and other materials from work). I turned one end of the bar down to 9mm in the 3 jaw chuck (so that I could mount it in a 9mm ER16 collet). Once mounted in the ER16 collet, the bar was drilled and bored 7mm for its whole length, and then the steps of the collet were bored out at 10mm, 11mm and 12mm steps each 1.25mm deep (I only needed a 12mm step for this project but decided to make the collet a little more flexible). To finish the collet it was necessary to make saw cuts in it so that it could tighten around the material it is to hold.
The ready-to-use stepped collet
The collet in use, a splasher "blank" in the process of being formed into a dish
For the splashers themselves I now needed some 12mm bar, so with the 3 jaw chuck mounted on the headstock again I mounted some brass bar a little larger than 12mm and turned an ample length down to 12mm. The bar end was faced off and a raised bead turned into the end of the bar, and then a piece about 3.5mm cut from the end of the bar. This was repeated until I had 3 splasher blanks all 12mm diameter each with a raised bead on one face.
The 3 jaw chuck was replaced with the ER16 9mm collet, and the stepped chuck and a splasher blank was mounted with the bead face in the chuck. The inside of the dish was then bored out until the rim was about 0.008" thick and the bottom of the dish was about 0.010" thick (regular removal of the embryonic dish was necessary so that I could check the thickness of the base (or splasher face) with a micrometer). The depth of the dish was turned down to 0.100" (2.5mm).
A splasher "blank" and a finished dish
The finished turned dishes ready for cutting chords off for the splashers
It was then a simple matter of cutting chords off each dish to make the splashers (2 splashers from each dish). Obviously these were cut off over size then filed down to size on a needle file held flat on the bench. Once I was happy with one this was used to make sure the other 5 were all exactly the same size.
Filing down a segment of the dish to for a splasher
The 6 completed splashers
Thanks for looking
Ian
The footplate has been fretted and filed from 0.010" nickel silver, as have the valances and buffer beam. The four elements were soldered together and then the valances had to be adjusted outwards so that they cleared the crankpin washers when the wheels rotate!
A nylon plug has been turned, drilled and fitted in the hole for the body securing bolt / tender coupling. I will use a 14BA bolt for this.
The next task will be to form the splashers, I normally turn these as a a vertical sided dish from which the splashers are cut, but the Dean Goods has raised beading on the splasher face so I'm considering the best approach and can feel a bit of experimentation coming on
A day or so later …
The splashers :
Initially, because I needed an outside diameter of 12mm and I only had use of a 3 Jaw chuck to hold the work piece (the ER16 collets only go up to 10mm), I felt that Richard Brummitt's suggestion above would be impossible with the equipment I had. I therefore experimented a little and turned up 3 vertical sided dishes from which I intended to cut the splashers from. The intention was to solder rings of wire around the outside face of the dish which could then be filed back to provide the raised bead around the splasher face. Although I managed to do this, it was a bit of a faff, and I felt that when it came to securing the splashers to the footplate that the beading was bound to become unsoldered anyway (I had used 188 degree solder to secure the beading).
The Mk II version was to do it properly!! For this I needed some way of holding short lengths of 12mm bar, so before any material could be cut in anger I first had to make myself a stepped chuck. This was relatively easy to make from a length of 20mm brass bar (although I think that the material I used was actually a similar alloy that my brother had given me years ago - he's an engineer and regularly gives me 2"-3" offcuts of brass and other materials from work). I turned one end of the bar down to 9mm in the 3 jaw chuck (so that I could mount it in a 9mm ER16 collet). Once mounted in the ER16 collet, the bar was drilled and bored 7mm for its whole length, and then the steps of the collet were bored out at 10mm, 11mm and 12mm steps each 1.25mm deep (I only needed a 12mm step for this project but decided to make the collet a little more flexible). To finish the collet it was necessary to make saw cuts in it so that it could tighten around the material it is to hold.
The ready-to-use stepped collet
The collet in use, a splasher "blank" in the process of being formed into a dish
For the splashers themselves I now needed some 12mm bar, so with the 3 jaw chuck mounted on the headstock again I mounted some brass bar a little larger than 12mm and turned an ample length down to 12mm. The bar end was faced off and a raised bead turned into the end of the bar, and then a piece about 3.5mm cut from the end of the bar. This was repeated until I had 3 splasher blanks all 12mm diameter each with a raised bead on one face.
The 3 jaw chuck was replaced with the ER16 9mm collet, and the stepped chuck and a splasher blank was mounted with the bead face in the chuck. The inside of the dish was then bored out until the rim was about 0.008" thick and the bottom of the dish was about 0.010" thick (regular removal of the embryonic dish was necessary so that I could check the thickness of the base (or splasher face) with a micrometer). The depth of the dish was turned down to 0.100" (2.5mm).
A splasher "blank" and a finished dish
The finished turned dishes ready for cutting chords off for the splashers
It was then a simple matter of cutting chords off each dish to make the splashers (2 splashers from each dish). Obviously these were cut off over size then filed down to size on a needle file held flat on the bench. Once I was happy with one this was used to make sure the other 5 were all exactly the same size.
Filing down a segment of the dish to for a splasher
The 6 completed splashers
Thanks for looking
Ian
adrian
Flying Squad
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
Adrian, thank you for the kind comment. I don't think that I'll ever come close to Tim's exquisite modelling - I just try to do the best I can with the skills and equipment available to me.
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more work on the Dean Goods.
The Cab :
The sides and front of the cab were drawn up in CAD, and printed off. The resultant print was glued to a piece of 0.008" nickel silver sheet and the 3 parts fretted out then tidied up with needle files.
The beading around the cab side openings and the extension back to support the upright handrail were added from strips of 0.004" nickel silver. The inside edge was filed/sanded flush with the inside of the cab side sheet, and the outside edge of the 0.004" was filed and sanded back to provide the beading around the cut-out edge and a short projection backwards where the vertical handrail will sit.
It was then a somewhat fiddlier process than I imagined it would be so solder the 3 parts onto the footplate. First the left-hand side sheet was soldered into position such that it was just inboard of the splasher beading, then the cab front was fettled a little so that it fitted between the splashers, then it too was soldered in place against the left-hand side sheet (the bit over the right hand splasher was left unsoldered until I was sure that the right hand side sheet married up to it correctly - in actual fact it fitted perfectly so I needn't have worried!)
Looking at the photo showing the right hand cab side sheet it looks like I need to add a little more solder where it meets the splasher top. The next job will be to add the roof and vertical handrails - I had previously drilled 0.3mm holes in the footplate behind the cab side sheets for these but both are filled with solder so nee re-drilling! I'd better give it all a bit of a clean too before I go off to work!
Thanks for looking.
Ian
The Cab :
The sides and front of the cab were drawn up in CAD, and printed off. The resultant print was glued to a piece of 0.008" nickel silver sheet and the 3 parts fretted out then tidied up with needle files.
The beading around the cab side openings and the extension back to support the upright handrail were added from strips of 0.004" nickel silver. The inside edge was filed/sanded flush with the inside of the cab side sheet, and the outside edge of the 0.004" was filed and sanded back to provide the beading around the cut-out edge and a short projection backwards where the vertical handrail will sit.
It was then a somewhat fiddlier process than I imagined it would be so solder the 3 parts onto the footplate. First the left-hand side sheet was soldered into position such that it was just inboard of the splasher beading, then the cab front was fettled a little so that it fitted between the splashers, then it too was soldered in place against the left-hand side sheet (the bit over the right hand splasher was left unsoldered until I was sure that the right hand side sheet married up to it correctly - in actual fact it fitted perfectly so I needn't have worried!)
Looking at the photo showing the right hand cab side sheet it looks like I need to add a little more solder where it meets the splasher top. The next job will be to add the roof and vertical handrails - I had previously drilled 0.3mm holes in the footplate behind the cab side sheets for these but both are filled with solder so nee re-drilling! I'd better give it all a bit of a clean too before I go off to work!
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more progress has been made with my Dean Goods...
The cab handrails have been fitted - as is my won't, these are pieces of 0.010" guitar string, as after painting they will be scraped back to shiny steel. The cab roof has also been cut to size and shape and fitted, complete with the rain strip along the rear edge of the roof, which is a length of 0.2mm copper wire wrapped around the cab and the ends twisted together below the footplate to hold it in place while soldering. Once secure the excess was cut off and the ends tidied up with a fine file.
The boiler is a length of suitably sized brass tube cut to length (the ends were made good by turning in the lathe). Because I wanted a round-topped firebox, a fine saw cut was made across the bottom of the boiler, and a similar cut made from the end of the tube to the first saw cut. The area of the tube that will provide the sides of the firebox was heated to anneal the brass, and when cool carefully bent out and shaped to replicate the sides of the firebox. The smokebox is another short length of the same tube, with a slit filed along its length (to allow the tube to be opened out so that it will slide over the boiler tube). The smokebox saddle was fly-cut and milled from solid brass, and has been left over long so that the bit that protrudes beyond the front of the smokebox could be shaped to represent the valve chest cover. I intend to add a piece of shim over this once the smokebox/saddle/boiler sub-assemblies have been soldered together.
Now some photos of the progress :
The 3 elements of the boiler/smokebox. It may be noticed that there is a piece of brass occupying the back of the firebox. This is a 1mm thick turning soldered in place to provide a pin-and-socket fixing into the cab front. There will be a bolt fixing at the smokebox end to unite the smokebox with the footplate (the firebox/boiler/smokebox will be a separate sub-assembly fixed in place after painting)
A photo showing how the boiler/smokebox/saddle look when plonked onto the footplate.
Same again from the other side. As can be seen, I made a bit of a mistake when filing the firebox side down on this side so had to build it back up again with a couple of bits of fret waste, then make good with more filing.
In the last couple of photos, it is just about possible to see the gap at the bottom of the smokebox where the tube has been opened out to fit around the same sized tube used for the boiler. Also the over exuberant fly-cutting has left a dip in the valve chest that needs a shim overlay to cover it.
Thanks for looking.
Ian
The cab handrails have been fitted - as is my won't, these are pieces of 0.010" guitar string, as after painting they will be scraped back to shiny steel. The cab roof has also been cut to size and shape and fitted, complete with the rain strip along the rear edge of the roof, which is a length of 0.2mm copper wire wrapped around the cab and the ends twisted together below the footplate to hold it in place while soldering. Once secure the excess was cut off and the ends tidied up with a fine file.
The boiler is a length of suitably sized brass tube cut to length (the ends were made good by turning in the lathe). Because I wanted a round-topped firebox, a fine saw cut was made across the bottom of the boiler, and a similar cut made from the end of the tube to the first saw cut. The area of the tube that will provide the sides of the firebox was heated to anneal the brass, and when cool carefully bent out and shaped to replicate the sides of the firebox. The smokebox is another short length of the same tube, with a slit filed along its length (to allow the tube to be opened out so that it will slide over the boiler tube). The smokebox saddle was fly-cut and milled from solid brass, and has been left over long so that the bit that protrudes beyond the front of the smokebox could be shaped to represent the valve chest cover. I intend to add a piece of shim over this once the smokebox/saddle/boiler sub-assemblies have been soldered together.
Now some photos of the progress :
The 3 elements of the boiler/smokebox. It may be noticed that there is a piece of brass occupying the back of the firebox. This is a 1mm thick turning soldered in place to provide a pin-and-socket fixing into the cab front. There will be a bolt fixing at the smokebox end to unite the smokebox with the footplate (the firebox/boiler/smokebox will be a separate sub-assembly fixed in place after painting)
A photo showing how the boiler/smokebox/saddle look when plonked onto the footplate.
Same again from the other side. As can be seen, I made a bit of a mistake when filing the firebox side down on this side so had to build it back up again with a couple of bits of fret waste, then make good with more filing.
In the last couple of photos, it is just about possible to see the gap at the bottom of the smokebox where the tube has been opened out to fit around the same sized tube used for the boiler. Also the over exuberant fly-cutting has left a dip in the valve chest that needs a shim overlay to cover it.
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Grahame Hedges
Western Thunderer
Stunning micro metal engineering craftsmanship.
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A day spent turning boiler fittings on the lathe with hand gravers ...
Boiler and fittings just plonked on the footplate
Still some work to do : the Safety Valve cover could do with it's flare thinned, and will have the hole in the top opened out and a piece of steel with 2 saw cuts across it (at 90 degrees to each other) dropped in to represent the top of the fittings covered by the cover. The Dome needs a little more fettling around its lower regions to thin it out. The Chimney will probably be consigned to the bin and a new one made - it looks enormous despite being made to the dimensions for a Dean Goods chimney in Russell's GWR Engines.
Ian
Boiler and fittings just plonked on the footplate
Still some work to do : the Safety Valve cover could do with it's flare thinned, and will have the hole in the top opened out and a piece of steel with 2 saw cuts across it (at 90 degrees to each other) dropped in to represent the top of the fittings covered by the cover. The Dome needs a little more fettling around its lower regions to thin it out. The Chimney will probably be consigned to the bin and a new one made - it looks enormous despite being made to the dimensions for a Dean Goods chimney in Russell's GWR Engines.
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more progress on the Dean Goods...
Firstly, I was not altogether happy with my original Worm mount. In the original design I felt that it needed to be fixed to the chassis at both ends and I was hoping that the forward fixing would be mostly hidden by the boiler, but unfortunately that wasn't to be. A rethink led to a new design that has two fixing bolts at the cab end, with the bearing at the smokebox end cantilevered from the cab end fixings. A few hours milling and drilling produced the new design. The original shaft, worm and flywheel were reused, but the flywheel has been mounted outside the worm mount this time. The flywheel has been retained at its original size because when mounted on the worm shaft its lower surface is roughly flush with the bottom of the boiler, so I will eventually paint it green and hopefully no-one will notice that the bottom portion of the boiler between and marginally ahead of the middle drivers is spinning around like a mad thing!
The original worm/flywheel mount
The new worm/flywheel mount
A 3/4 view of the new worm/flywheel mount. It is also possible to see the insulation tape trapped between the main chassis block and the 1mm thick strip used for the far side of the chassis.
Additionally, the elements of the boiler (firebox/boiler, smokebox wrapper, and smokebox saddle) have been united. The footplate below the smokebox saddle has been drilled 14BA clearance, and the corresponding area above said hole in the smokebox saddle has been drilled and tapped 14BA for the bolt that allows the boiler sub-assembly to be united with the footplate assembly - a corresponding hole slightly larger than the head of the 14BA bolt has been drilled through the chassis, as the model assembly is intended to be "hook the front of the footplate/cab assembly over the end of the front of the chassis, secure footplate/cab assembly to chassis with under-cab bolt (which will also provide the engine-to-tender connection), then slide boiler assembly in place and secure with under-smokebox bolt".
A smokebox front/door has been turned from 0.028" nickel silver (temporarily soldered to a suitable mandrel), the hinge fabricated from guitar string and 0.004" nickel silver strips and soldered in place, and the smokebox door dart has been turned from nickel silver with guitar string handles. The smokebox door assembly was then epoxied into place in the end of the boiler/smokebox tube. The little steps on the side of the smokebox are more tiny strips of 0.004" (a short piece was bent down at the end of the strip to be soldered to the smokebox side, a triangular file was used to partially cut through the strip so that once secure the excess could be bent back and forth until it snapped off leaving a small step that could be tidied with a fine file). The previously made chimney has been soldered onto the smokebox (when I originally made it, I had thought that it looked to big, but in the end I decided that it was the right height - it fits under the loading gauge with plenty of room to spare). The flares of both Dome and Safety Valve Cover have been slightly remodelled with fine files and emery paper, and 12BA fixing holes drilled in the top of the boiler/firebox to allow them to be semi-permanently attached.
The Smokebox door assembly in place - it looks like the handles have moved from the slot that I'd filed for them to sit in, so this will have to be addressed!
A side on view of the model in its current state - hopefully she is starting to look a bit like a Dean Goods now! The forward fixing hole for the original worm/flywheel mount can clearly be seen ahead of the middle drivers giving an indication of how visible the original unit was.
Thanks for looking
Ian
Firstly, I was not altogether happy with my original Worm mount. In the original design I felt that it needed to be fixed to the chassis at both ends and I was hoping that the forward fixing would be mostly hidden by the boiler, but unfortunately that wasn't to be. A rethink led to a new design that has two fixing bolts at the cab end, with the bearing at the smokebox end cantilevered from the cab end fixings. A few hours milling and drilling produced the new design. The original shaft, worm and flywheel were reused, but the flywheel has been mounted outside the worm mount this time. The flywheel has been retained at its original size because when mounted on the worm shaft its lower surface is roughly flush with the bottom of the boiler, so I will eventually paint it green and hopefully no-one will notice that the bottom portion of the boiler between and marginally ahead of the middle drivers is spinning around like a mad thing!
The original worm/flywheel mount
The new worm/flywheel mount
A 3/4 view of the new worm/flywheel mount. It is also possible to see the insulation tape trapped between the main chassis block and the 1mm thick strip used for the far side of the chassis.
Additionally, the elements of the boiler (firebox/boiler, smokebox wrapper, and smokebox saddle) have been united. The footplate below the smokebox saddle has been drilled 14BA clearance, and the corresponding area above said hole in the smokebox saddle has been drilled and tapped 14BA for the bolt that allows the boiler sub-assembly to be united with the footplate assembly - a corresponding hole slightly larger than the head of the 14BA bolt has been drilled through the chassis, as the model assembly is intended to be "hook the front of the footplate/cab assembly over the end of the front of the chassis, secure footplate/cab assembly to chassis with under-cab bolt (which will also provide the engine-to-tender connection), then slide boiler assembly in place and secure with under-smokebox bolt".
A smokebox front/door has been turned from 0.028" nickel silver (temporarily soldered to a suitable mandrel), the hinge fabricated from guitar string and 0.004" nickel silver strips and soldered in place, and the smokebox door dart has been turned from nickel silver with guitar string handles. The smokebox door assembly was then epoxied into place in the end of the boiler/smokebox tube. The little steps on the side of the smokebox are more tiny strips of 0.004" (a short piece was bent down at the end of the strip to be soldered to the smokebox side, a triangular file was used to partially cut through the strip so that once secure the excess could be bent back and forth until it snapped off leaving a small step that could be tidied with a fine file). The previously made chimney has been soldered onto the smokebox (when I originally made it, I had thought that it looked to big, but in the end I decided that it was the right height - it fits under the loading gauge with plenty of room to spare). The flares of both Dome and Safety Valve Cover have been slightly remodelled with fine files and emery paper, and 12BA fixing holes drilled in the top of the boiler/firebox to allow them to be semi-permanently attached.
The Smokebox door assembly in place - it looks like the handles have moved from the slot that I'd filed for them to sit in, so this will have to be addressed!
A side on view of the model in its current state - hopefully she is starting to look a bit like a Dean Goods now! The forward fixing hole for the original worm/flywheel mount can clearly be seen ahead of the middle drivers giving an indication of how visible the original unit was.
Thanks for looking
Ian
john lewsey
Western Thunderer
Excellent Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
Over the last day or so I've been doing a little to the tender for the Dean Goods. The frames were the first part of the Dean Goods build , but I thought it was about time I started to progress the tender so that I could actually "test" the engine - during the build of the engine chassis I had ensured that it rolled freely, and once the original worm housing had been bolted on I had tested that everything worked by attaching a mini drill to a temporary half cardan shaft attached to the worm shaft, but it had never been run with the actual motor.
So, what I have I done? The tender wheels have been painted and temporarily fitted into the chassis, the leading two pairs of wheels have had their axle holes opened out and "Simpson springs" fitted which bear on the tops of the axles between the frames and the muffs. For those not familiar with "Simpson springs", they are just light weight phosphor bronze wires that are soldered to the chassis frames so that they bear on the tops of the axles to aid pick up by exerting a little downward pressure to keep the wheels in contact with the track. They do not provide any springing to the wheel sets as such, and do not support the weight of the engine or tender.
In order that the engine and tender can be united, a coupling/draw-bar was fabricated from 0.010" nickel silver attached to the engine and tender by 14BA bolts. A Universal Joint was made for the motor shaft, this is simply a piece of 4mm brass bar that was drilled 1mm for the motor shaft, then turned down to 2.4mm and a piece about 5mm cut off. A slot was filed across the end of this 5mm piece to a depth of about 3mm (to accommodate the end of the cardan shaft). This piece was cyano'd onto the motor shaft. A sleeve for this piece was turned from the 4mm bar by drilling it 2.4mm, then turning it down and cutting it off to leave a short piece of tube that would fit snuggly over the previously made piece, the sleeve being necessary to prevent the cardan shaft coming out of the slot. A cardan shaft was made from 0.010" guitar string, a loop being made at each end by forming it around some round-nose pliers. The engine end loop clips into the hole made for it on the worm shaft, and the loop at the other end slips into the slotted UJ on the motor shaft. The motor wires were temporarily soldered to the chassis frames, and the various sub-assemblies of the loco and tender united for a test run on Modbury...
Currently, the loco is only picking up from the tender wheels (which still have the odd remnant of paint on them!), so the 7mm End Mill is blu-tacked onto the motor to give a bit of necessary weight over the tender wheels to aid pick up. It would appear that the engine bumps over the check rails, so clearly at least one set of drivers is not gauged correctly at the minute!! But at least she moves!
Thanks for looking.
Ian
So, what I have I done? The tender wheels have been painted and temporarily fitted into the chassis, the leading two pairs of wheels have had their axle holes opened out and "Simpson springs" fitted which bear on the tops of the axles between the frames and the muffs. For those not familiar with "Simpson springs", they are just light weight phosphor bronze wires that are soldered to the chassis frames so that they bear on the tops of the axles to aid pick up by exerting a little downward pressure to keep the wheels in contact with the track. They do not provide any springing to the wheel sets as such, and do not support the weight of the engine or tender.
In order that the engine and tender can be united, a coupling/draw-bar was fabricated from 0.010" nickel silver attached to the engine and tender by 14BA bolts. A Universal Joint was made for the motor shaft, this is simply a piece of 4mm brass bar that was drilled 1mm for the motor shaft, then turned down to 2.4mm and a piece about 5mm cut off. A slot was filed across the end of this 5mm piece to a depth of about 3mm (to accommodate the end of the cardan shaft). This piece was cyano'd onto the motor shaft. A sleeve for this piece was turned from the 4mm bar by drilling it 2.4mm, then turning it down and cutting it off to leave a short piece of tube that would fit snuggly over the previously made piece, the sleeve being necessary to prevent the cardan shaft coming out of the slot. A cardan shaft was made from 0.010" guitar string, a loop being made at each end by forming it around some round-nose pliers. The engine end loop clips into the hole made for it on the worm shaft, and the loop at the other end slips into the slotted UJ on the motor shaft. The motor wires were temporarily soldered to the chassis frames, and the various sub-assemblies of the loco and tender united for a test run on Modbury...
Currently, the loco is only picking up from the tender wheels (which still have the odd remnant of paint on them!), so the 7mm End Mill is blu-tacked onto the motor to give a bit of necessary weight over the tender wheels to aid pick up. It would appear that the engine bumps over the check rails, so clearly at least one set of drivers is not gauged correctly at the minute!! But at least she moves!
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Tim Watson
Western Thunderer
Neat little worm housing, Ian. I would definitely put some scratchy bits between the frames to look like valve gear etc. I am bitterly disappointed that you used a 7mm end mill and not a 2mm end mill on the tender.
Tim
Tim
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
Dean Goods, and on with the tender...
A rectangle of 0.010" nickel silver sheet was cut out and filed to size for the footplate. The profiles of the cosmetic frames were drawn in CAD, printed off, cut out and super glued to a double lamination of 0.008" nickel silver before they too were fretted, filed and separated. The buffer beam is more 0.010" cut, filed and drilled for the eventual buffers.
It was then a simple matter of soldering these components together with 188 degree solder. For the time being I'm leaving off the leading buffer beam, as I want to establish how deep I can get away with making it because of the tender draw bar - I expect that everything will be fine in this respect but until I can mount the tender body on the chassis I won't know (and it will be a lot easier to make a component a suitable size than fitting something over (or worse under) size then having to correct it once it's in place). With the cosmetic frames and buffer beam in place, I then set about marking and cutting out a hole in the footplate for the motor to fit through (the photo below shows the start of this process - a 1.2mm hole in each corner of the eventual motor space, more fretting and filing resulted in a suitable sized hole for the motor but still leaving plenty of land for the body upper works to be soldered to).
The next stage was to form the tender tank. A 7.25mm wide strip of 0.008" nickel silver was cut, the top edge annealed and the flare formed by trapping the strip between two pieces of steel in the vice. One piece of steel had a rounded edge filed along it (against which the flare could be formed), and the second piece was clamped such that it trapped the lower edge of the nickel silver strip but left the upper edge accessible to be pushed over against the rounded edge of the other piece of steel - I hope that makes sense?!
It was then a matter of gently filing the bottom edge of the strip until I reduced it to the height of the tender sides - in this case 7mm - by locking off a vernier calliper at that distance, the strip could be slid through the jaws enabling easy identification of any high spots, which could then be dealt with (although in actual fact I managed to bring the strip down to size pretty consistently by rubbing the strip back and forth on my big file ensuring that reasonably equal pressure was applied along its length).
The result can be seen in the following pair of photos :
To form the tender tank sides and rear, a 1.5mm hole was drilled in a sheet of tufnol truly perpendicular to the surface, then a couple of nicks were made in the flare of the strip where the first bend in the strip was to be made, and the strip carefully bent around a drill shank placed in the hole in the tufnol. While the bend was made, it was obviously necessary to ensure that the strip was a) held firmly against the vertical drill shank, and b) the bottom edge of the strip was held in contact with the tufnol sheet surface. Luckily, I ended up with a nice 90 degree bend that was perpendicular to the bottom of the strip. The second bend was made in the same manner, but its position along the strip had to be carefully measured to ensure that the width of the tank would be 13mm (6'6"). Once the bends were made, the long sides were cut and filed down to length.
The final two photos show the current state :
The final photo shows that I have also added the "skirt" below the footplate - these are merely 1mm brass angle soldered in place.
Before the tank can be fitted, there is a little filing to be done to remove the leading portion of the flare, then a length of fine wire will be soldered around the edge of the flare to represent the beading (I hope that it will assist in filling the slots in the corners of the flare with solder too!)
Thanks for looking.
Ian
A rectangle of 0.010" nickel silver sheet was cut out and filed to size for the footplate. The profiles of the cosmetic frames were drawn in CAD, printed off, cut out and super glued to a double lamination of 0.008" nickel silver before they too were fretted, filed and separated. The buffer beam is more 0.010" cut, filed and drilled for the eventual buffers.
It was then a simple matter of soldering these components together with 188 degree solder. For the time being I'm leaving off the leading buffer beam, as I want to establish how deep I can get away with making it because of the tender draw bar - I expect that everything will be fine in this respect but until I can mount the tender body on the chassis I won't know (and it will be a lot easier to make a component a suitable size than fitting something over (or worse under) size then having to correct it once it's in place). With the cosmetic frames and buffer beam in place, I then set about marking and cutting out a hole in the footplate for the motor to fit through (the photo below shows the start of this process - a 1.2mm hole in each corner of the eventual motor space, more fretting and filing resulted in a suitable sized hole for the motor but still leaving plenty of land for the body upper works to be soldered to).
The next stage was to form the tender tank. A 7.25mm wide strip of 0.008" nickel silver was cut, the top edge annealed and the flare formed by trapping the strip between two pieces of steel in the vice. One piece of steel had a rounded edge filed along it (against which the flare could be formed), and the second piece was clamped such that it trapped the lower edge of the nickel silver strip but left the upper edge accessible to be pushed over against the rounded edge of the other piece of steel - I hope that makes sense?!
It was then a matter of gently filing the bottom edge of the strip until I reduced it to the height of the tender sides - in this case 7mm - by locking off a vernier calliper at that distance, the strip could be slid through the jaws enabling easy identification of any high spots, which could then be dealt with (although in actual fact I managed to bring the strip down to size pretty consistently by rubbing the strip back and forth on my big file ensuring that reasonably equal pressure was applied along its length).
The result can be seen in the following pair of photos :
To form the tender tank sides and rear, a 1.5mm hole was drilled in a sheet of tufnol truly perpendicular to the surface, then a couple of nicks were made in the flare of the strip where the first bend in the strip was to be made, and the strip carefully bent around a drill shank placed in the hole in the tufnol. While the bend was made, it was obviously necessary to ensure that the strip was a) held firmly against the vertical drill shank, and b) the bottom edge of the strip was held in contact with the tufnol sheet surface. Luckily, I ended up with a nice 90 degree bend that was perpendicular to the bottom of the strip. The second bend was made in the same manner, but its position along the strip had to be carefully measured to ensure that the width of the tank would be 13mm (6'6"). Once the bends were made, the long sides were cut and filed down to length.
The final two photos show the current state :
The final photo shows that I have also added the "skirt" below the footplate - these are merely 1mm brass angle soldered in place.
Before the tank can be fitted, there is a little filing to be done to remove the leading portion of the flare, then a length of fine wire will be soldered around the edge of the flare to represent the beading (I hope that it will assist in filling the slots in the corners of the flare with solder too!)
Thanks for looking.
Ian
jonte
Western Thunderer
More great work, Ian.
As a modeller who is about to dip his toe into the world of kit building with a 3500 gallon Churchward tender in 4mm scale, I took particular interest in your method for forming the flare in the sides.
My plan is to adopt the Rice method of trapping the edge to be formed below a steel rod of a suitable diameter, which is secured to an off cut of wood via screws and washers. The unsecured part can then be raised to a right angle using a rule.
I’ve toyed with annealing the edge as you have done, Ian, but as the brass is quite thin, I think I might just get away without. With my lack of dexterity, this will save tears later when manhandling
I continue to follow with interest.
Jonte
As a modeller who is about to dip his toe into the world of kit building with a 3500 gallon Churchward tender in 4mm scale, I took particular interest in your method for forming the flare in the sides.
My plan is to adopt the Rice method of trapping the edge to be formed below a steel rod of a suitable diameter, which is secured to an off cut of wood via screws and washers. The unsecured part can then be raised to a right angle using a rule.
I’ve toyed with annealing the edge as you have done, Ian, but as the brass is quite thin, I think I might just get away without. With my lack of dexterity, this will save tears later when manhandling
I continue to follow with interest.
Jonte
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
The Lockdown Loco (Dean Goods) continues ...
Over the last day or so, I have progressed the tender : The front of the tank sides were scalloped with fine files, and a beading added around the top of the flaring with fine (36SWG - 0.193mm) phosphor bronze wire. I annealed the wire over a lighter flame first so that it would conform more easily to the shape of the scallop and also the flare corners. I also added a 0.5mm wide strip of 0.003" brass around the base of the tank to represent what I assume is a strengthener at this point. The tank was then soldered into place on the footplate, and a piece of 0.008" nickel silver sheet fretted and filed to the shape of the tank top. Unfortunately, when it came to fitting the tank top I realised that the 8mm diameter motor sat a few thou too high which prevented the tank top to sit at the correct level, so a simple dodge was to cut and file away an area of the tank top where the motor is - I will put a slip of thin card over this gap when I add the coal to the tender.
The Tender with the tank in place, and showing the slot that I had to cut in the tank top to clear the top of the motor.
The observant will notice that I have also added the steps at the back of the tender - these are simply a strip of 0.008" filed to shape, the bottom bit bent out to represent the bottom step, and a small 0.004" piece bent to an "L" soldered in place for the top step (this was added waaayyyy over size and filed back once soldered in position before the step component was soldered behind the valance).
The next element I tackled were the buffers (these are made in the same fashion as I've done on all of my locos) : the buffer head and rams were turned up from 3mm diameter silver steel, the rams being 0.8mm diameter. The buffer housings were turned from 1/8" brass bar, a 0.8mm hole was drilled into the end of the bar for the buffer ram, then the collar and parallel section of the housing turned (0.005" collar, 0.035" parallel section), and finally a 20 degree cone turned behind the parallel bit. The housing was parted off 0.090" long (2.25mm).
The buffer heads/rams and a collection of housings - I made 5 expecting to sacrifice one to the carpet monster
(the buffer heads are so simple to make that I didn't bother with a spare).
The housings were soldered onto a piece of 0.006" nickel silver to represent the backing plate of the housings.
Each housing was then separated and the backing piece filed (roughly) square. The housings were then re-drilled to open a hole through the backing plate to allow the housings to be located onto the buffer beams of engine and tender (both of which already had holes drilled in the buffer positions).
The buffer beams were tinned, and housings were held in place with a drill passing down the housing into the buffer beam while the soldering took place. The buffer heads/rams will be fitted after painting.
A final photo to show what the current state of play is. There is an awful long way to go but I'm pretty satisfied so far. It might be noticed that the motor has a cigarette paper covering - this was super-glued around the motor to prevent shorting as the motor itself is super-glued to both inside frames of the tender. I've also added the wires to connect engine and tender to the tender frames, but the wires need to be shortened and have little brass plugs soldered on their ends - the connecting wires will plug into holes in the solid engine chassis (allowing engine and tender to be easily separated if I ever need to). I also need to make a new cardan shaft as I needed to move the motor back a millimetre when I came to fitting the tender tank!
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Over the last day or so, I have progressed the tender : The front of the tank sides were scalloped with fine files, and a beading added around the top of the flaring with fine (36SWG - 0.193mm) phosphor bronze wire. I annealed the wire over a lighter flame first so that it would conform more easily to the shape of the scallop and also the flare corners. I also added a 0.5mm wide strip of 0.003" brass around the base of the tank to represent what I assume is a strengthener at this point. The tank was then soldered into place on the footplate, and a piece of 0.008" nickel silver sheet fretted and filed to the shape of the tank top. Unfortunately, when it came to fitting the tank top I realised that the 8mm diameter motor sat a few thou too high which prevented the tank top to sit at the correct level, so a simple dodge was to cut and file away an area of the tank top where the motor is - I will put a slip of thin card over this gap when I add the coal to the tender.
The Tender with the tank in place, and showing the slot that I had to cut in the tank top to clear the top of the motor.
The observant will notice that I have also added the steps at the back of the tender - these are simply a strip of 0.008" filed to shape, the bottom bit bent out to represent the bottom step, and a small 0.004" piece bent to an "L" soldered in place for the top step (this was added waaayyyy over size and filed back once soldered in position before the step component was soldered behind the valance).
The next element I tackled were the buffers (these are made in the same fashion as I've done on all of my locos) : the buffer head and rams were turned up from 3mm diameter silver steel, the rams being 0.8mm diameter. The buffer housings were turned from 1/8" brass bar, a 0.8mm hole was drilled into the end of the bar for the buffer ram, then the collar and parallel section of the housing turned (0.005" collar, 0.035" parallel section), and finally a 20 degree cone turned behind the parallel bit. The housing was parted off 0.090" long (2.25mm).
The buffer heads/rams and a collection of housings - I made 5 expecting to sacrifice one to the carpet monster
The housings were soldered onto a piece of 0.006" nickel silver to represent the backing plate of the housings.
Each housing was then separated and the backing piece filed (roughly) square. The housings were then re-drilled to open a hole through the backing plate to allow the housings to be located onto the buffer beams of engine and tender (both of which already had holes drilled in the buffer positions).
The buffer beams were tinned, and housings were held in place with a drill passing down the housing into the buffer beam while the soldering took place. The buffer heads/rams will be fitted after painting.
A final photo to show what the current state of play is. There is an awful long way to go but I'm pretty satisfied so far. It might be noticed that the motor has a cigarette paper covering - this was super-glued around the motor to prevent shorting as the motor itself is super-glued to both inside frames of the tender. I've also added the wires to connect engine and tender to the tender frames, but the wires need to be shortened and have little brass plugs soldered on their ends - the connecting wires will plug into holes in the solid engine chassis (allowing engine and tender to be easily separated if I ever need to). I also need to make a new cardan shaft as I needed to move the motor back a millimetre when I came to fitting the tender tank!
Thanks for looking.
Ian