Nick Dunhill's workbench CR 0-4-4T Wrexham Tanks

Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
Well this week's efforts began by catching the second loco up. Then I looked at the Redcraft etching for the roof and it was too small! I cut out some of the correct size (how hard is it to measure the drawing) and indented all the rivets and attached all the brackets and angle iron.


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The roof was drilled for a whistle!


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I spent nearly a whole day fettling Laurie Griffin tapered handrails and attaching them to the loco bodies.


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Next up was the backheads. I tried to raid Laurie's parts bin to no avail, so it was out with the piercing saw again.


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Today I just fancied a nice easy day assembling steps from the Redcraft etches. Ooooh no, they were the wrong shape and size so it was back to renew my acquantance with the saw!


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Well at least I thought I'd be able to repurpose the treads from the Redcraft etches. Oh no you won't....


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Luckily the end of the working week came to my rescue. I'll return to battle with the steps on Monday.......
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
I spent nearly a whole day fettling Laurie Griffin tapered handrails

Hi Nick,
Another superb build from the Sheffield Wizard!

As for the tapered handrails, it would have been far quicker to scratch them up from rod in the mini drill between two flat files, as described in the late Geoff Holt's excellent book. I had to replace a couple on the BR86 and it worked a treat. Mind you, it would not produce the ferrules top and bottom so you would need some small washers as well, so maybe that's why you went with the castings.

Cheers,
Peter
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Well this week's efforts began by catching the second loco up. Then I looked at the Redcraft etching for the roof and it was too small! I cut out some of the correct size (how hard is it to measure the drawing) and indented all the rivets and attached all the brackets and angle iron.


50123053991_be4720d5b1_b.jpg



50122490848_bac679b847_b.jpg



The roof was drilled for a whistle!


50123277732_2f6aafef13_b.jpg



I spent nearly a whole day fettling Laurie Griffin tapered handrails and attaching them to the loco bodies.


50122490463_da5cb7cc0c_b.jpg



Next up was the backheads. I tried to raid Laurie's parts bin to no avail, so it was out with the piercing saw again.


50123052866_12f9feb62b_b.jpg



50122489878_3c5f7d0b03_b.jpg



50123052421_af064b9858_b.jpg



50122488968_84d0e8db79_b.jpg



Today I just fancied a nice easy day assembling steps from the Redcraft etches. Ooooh no, they were the wrong shape and size so it was back to renew my acquantance with the saw!


50122488948_e94869d739_b.jpg



Well at least I thought I'd be able to repurpose the treads from the Redcraft etches. Oh no you won't....


50122488808_b88b9289a0_b.jpg



Luckily the end of the working week came to my rescue. I'll return to battle with the steps on Monday.......
Next time I'm going to throw the whole lot in the ^*&$ing bin and make all new :cool:

I admire your tenacity, but this is a perfect case of working harder not smarter, I'll let you cut the boiler sheet out and maybe the smoke box wrapper, but everything else goes on the new etches. Life is too short to be doing all this :shit:, hate seeing people struggle.
 

Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
Yes I didn't anticipate the Redcraft etches being quite as bad. Who'd have thought.....

Hi Pete
The castings are quite easy to clean up in a mini drill with a block of wood and emery, but locating them accurately and cutting the beading in the right place takes forever. You have to get the pair evenly spaced and vertical or your eye just goes straight to it. It can be a bit deceptive as they're tapered too. The top ferrules are just slices of 0.8 mm NS tube.
 

Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
....I did get all the steps and their brackets attached, but it was a surprisingly tedious job.


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Then it was on to the cab detail. I scratchbuilt reversers and handbrake stanchions.


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Next I did my usual modification to the water sight glasses.


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Then I ploughed my way through the rest of the backhead gubbins. The castings are mainly from Laurie Griffin, but the steam fountain is scratchbuilt.


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Next week I'll finish the cab and then there's just the boiler to be made.........
 

Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
....this week I laid some planks on the cab floor and finished off one or two other details.


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I just need a fire hole door casting and a lubricator for the cab front and the cab is finished. The last job is the boiler so I cut out a lot of formers. I tried to repurpose as much of the Redcraft etches as possible, so I got a former and the smokebox 'floor' out of the roof etchings etc.


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I made the skeletons for the smokeboxes and fireboxes ready for wrappers. A much needed holiday next week and on my return we should be able to finish the boiler/firebox/smokebox assembly.....
 

Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
...back from hols and on with the show. I have scratch built some tank fillers, but cheated slightly and robbed the latches and hinges from some similar castings. The bodies are made from tube and slabs of 1.0 mm brass plate turned in a drill and shaped with files.


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Next I made skins for the skeletons for the smokebox boiler and firebox.


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The wrappers for the firebox and smokeboxes were formed round a large rod and the boiler clothing in my trusty slip rollers.


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If you put the wrapper backwards through the rollers and pre form the ends first you don't get any flat spots.





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Just need to bang on and finish the boilers now......
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Only works on slip/pinch rollers (two rollers adjustable), not pyramid rollers (single roller adjustable),
Mick, (@mickoo), watching the video above, the commentator says that only the roll at the back of the machine is adjustable, that the two pinch rollers remain the same.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
The pinch rollers (top and bottom ones) one is usually adjustable to cater for different thickness of metal so that it "pinches" it. The rear or form roller adjusts to control the radius of the roll. Hence usually 2 adjustable rollers. The pinch rollers remain the same as they are holding the sheet and only need to be adjusted for different thicknesses.

The pyramid rollers as the name suggests the 3 bars are arranged in a pyramid fashion. Usually the top one is adjustable to control the radius but the sheet lies on top of the other 2 lower rollers so nothing actually pinches the sheet.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
The pinch rollers (top and bottom ones) one is usually adjustable to cater for different thickness of metal so that it "pinches" it. The rear or form roller adjusts to control the radius of the roll. Hence usually 2 adjustable rollers. The pinch rollers remain the same as they are holding the sheet and only need to be adjusted for different thicknesses.

The pyramid rollers as the name suggests the 3 bars are arranged in a pyramid fashion. Usually the top one is adjustable to control the radius but the sheet lies on top of the other 2 lower rollers so nothing actually pinches the sheet.

Yep makes sense. :thumbs:

JB.
 

Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
....so I levelled and centred the boiler/smokebox and firebox assemblies and soldered the three sections together. Both joins have a brass finishing strip between them, the one between the boiler and smokebox was done before the firebox was attached.. The one between boiler and firebox was easy to make by passing a 1 x 1 mm brass square rod through the rolling bars to produce a ring of the correct diameter. The outside corner was radiused suitably.


The join between boiler and firebox was a lot more tricky as the firebox is egg shaped in profile so the brass finishing cover has to be gradually cut to shape. A length of 2 x 2 mm square rod was shaped in the rolling bars to the correct diameter so that it snapped over boiler like a circlip. The boiler band at the end of the firebox was added as a height guide and the profile of the firebox scribed in the brass ring. This was sawed and filed and sanded (hewn) into the correct shape.


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Boiler bands were added.


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The boiler to water tank stays were another awkward little job. Slots were cut in the boiler using a 0.7 mm drill as a slot drill (nothing to see here engineers!) A small plate with a slot cut in it was soldered inside the boiler clothing (as that is what we model) to represent the boiler under. A piece of waste strip was forced into the slot in the plate first to locate it in the slot in the boiler. The waste strip was withdrawn and a tinned stay forced into both slots and soldered in place. Awkward awkward awkward, looks ok though.


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Now when the boiler is separated from the loco for paint the stays are part of the boiler.


Next I tackle a dozen awkward jobs to finish.........
 
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Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
.....so lots of little jobs this week but I started with fitting up the motors. I used a Roxey moulding fold up gearbox, folded up inside out, so that the centre line of the motor is offset towards the centre line of the chassis. The motor is a copy of a Mashima and is small enough to fit fairly snuggly. I had to make a distance piece to stop the motor case and spur gear coming into conflicy.

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It looks a bit contrived but it works!


Next I ploughed my way through some boiler details, safety valves, chimney, plate join on boiler clothing, ejector pipe and handrails.

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I also have a pair of rather nice 3D printed smokebox doors. thanks to Mick Davies.

This week's awkward job was the toolboxes. They're in different positions on each loco and chopped into the front wheel splashers. Quite satisfying to fabricate, but a bit time consuming.

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The toolbox lids are subtly different too. So there we are, I reckon a day next week will finish them off...............
 
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