richard carr
Western Thunderer
I have been building a rake of JLTRT MDV wagons for about a year now, 9 down 6 to go. Being a resin kit with white metal fittings ithey are easy to make when I'm away on business trips.
There is one thing I hate about the kits though, thats the white metal W iron thats over 1mm thick, so I have designed my own etched one. It's etched in 0.3mm nickel silver and has the slaters style wagon springing built into it.
here's the finsihed wagon.
Its a tight fit in S7 there is just enough width to fit them.
Grahan Beare has some and is going to use them on his TTA wagons so this how it all goes together.
And the parts cut from the etch
The first thing is to press out the rivets I prefer teh reynalds style of rivetter
Rivetts now pressed out.
The rivitted plates then fold back on themselves like so.
Next the bearing slides have the sides folded over as well
I use some pliers to flatten them fully down.
I then solder the rivetted plate to the W iron
And then solder the bearing slide to the back using the tabs through the slots in the W. The slots are too long so I always push the tab to the top of the slot. As it's nickel silver you can hold the bottom of the bearing slide while you solder it in place making sure its central.
This is the back view.
You can then folder over the retaining plate at the bottom and solder that up too.
I then cut off the tabs at the front and file it smoothe. If you use plenty of solder it should fill the hole.
You can then fit the slaters bearing to the back of the W iron.
To lock the bearings in place I solder a piece of 0.7mm brass wire between the holes in the retain plate at the bottom.
You also need to add the spigot to the bearing using a pair of tweezers.
I then add the spring again using the tweezers, the springs are the slaters buffer springs.
I then fold over the top part and super glue them to the chassis to fit them.
The kit axle box needs thinning down so it sits on the brass bearing.
There is one thing I hate about the kits though, thats the white metal W iron thats over 1mm thick, so I have designed my own etched one. It's etched in 0.3mm nickel silver and has the slaters style wagon springing built into it.
here's the finsihed wagon.
Its a tight fit in S7 there is just enough width to fit them.
Grahan Beare has some and is going to use them on his TTA wagons so this how it all goes together.
And the parts cut from the etch
The first thing is to press out the rivets I prefer teh reynalds style of rivetter
Rivetts now pressed out.
The rivitted plates then fold back on themselves like so.
Next the bearing slides have the sides folded over as well
I use some pliers to flatten them fully down.
I then solder the rivetted plate to the W iron
And then solder the bearing slide to the back using the tabs through the slots in the W. The slots are too long so I always push the tab to the top of the slot. As it's nickel silver you can hold the bottom of the bearing slide while you solder it in place making sure its central.
This is the back view.
You can then folder over the retaining plate at the bottom and solder that up too.
I then cut off the tabs at the front and file it smoothe. If you use plenty of solder it should fill the hole.
You can then fit the slaters bearing to the back of the W iron.
To lock the bearings in place I solder a piece of 0.7mm brass wire between the holes in the retain plate at the bottom.
You also need to add the spigot to the bearing using a pair of tweezers.
I then add the spring again using the tweezers, the springs are the slaters buffer springs.
I then fold over the top part and super glue them to the chassis to fit them.
The kit axle box needs thinning down so it sits on the brass bearing.
