So, I had a very nice evening spent learning how to use a lathe and reprofile Heljan wheels to s7.
I was quite apprehensive before I started but under the careful tuition of Richard Carr and using his Super 7 lathe (is this a special s7 lathe?) within a couple of wheels I was competent to twiddle the dials and do my own. 16 thou' off the back, 10 thou off the front, and within 30 minutes I had 12 shiny thinned wheels.
Next stage was the exciting part where I would use more bits of the lathe to centre up the wheels in a special tool made in part by Richard specifically to profile Heljan diesel wheels including the smaller wheels of the 31. The profile former made by spark erosion was used to give the cone of the wheels the right angle. Needing to be a bit more careful now as going too fast can cause the lathe to protest
but once I'd got over the shock that Heljan wheels are not necessarily round
it didn't take much more than another 30-40 minutes to reprofile all 12 wheels.
As I was putting the last wheels back on to the axles it had only taken an hour and a half from start to finish and that includes Richard training me, me turning teacher and training JB and putting the everything back together including losing a screw.
Braving the cold we three ventured to the bottom of the garden and road tested the Heljan 47. Hopefully JB will post pictures and video here when he can. Iploffy be warned its the wrong colour!
The rest of my Heljan fleet with be converted over the next few weeks. I think I'll do the 20's next as ill get two loco's done for only an extra two wheels to do.
Thanks Richard
