7mm David Andrews Princess - 6206 Princess Marie Louise

[OzzyO]

Hello Rob,

I'm a bit late to this party, but did you smooth the joint at the bottom of the smoke box? As this can be a very shallow vee and cause the smoke box not to settle onto the saddle well.

Of cause it could be teaching granny to blow eggs.

Nice looking build.

ATB

OzzyO.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Paul,
It was and I did.

 

[Rob Pulham]

For a bit of light relief, I took the secondary saddle for several brief trips on the mill until I got it to sit at the same level as the main saddle.

 

[Dave Holt]

Looks to be nearly there, Rob. Your patient work on the rear sets of splashers and firebox/boiler is certainly paying off.
It could just be the camera angle, but might you just need to ease the inner corner of the front splashes which look to be touching the boiler?
Dave.

 

[Rob Pulham]

It could just be the camera angle, but might you just need to ease the inner corner of the front splashes which look to be touching the boiler?
Dave.

Thanks Dave,

I can see daylight between the front splashers and the boiler at the moment, but that might change when I fasten it down. I may need to take some off at that point. I am taking a short break from this one and trying to get my head back around the inside motion for the J6 to get that out of the way.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Over on the Guild forum there was some discussion about lubricators, centred primarily on the potential difficulties of drilling out brass castings. This prompted me to look in the box and see what the lubricator castings were like as supplied.



They are nicely detailed castings, albeit missing the front and rear fittings. But, most importantly for this build, there are only two of them in the kit and we need three.

In a bit of a dilemma but not needing them right now, I sent an email off to the gent that I am building it for with a few options on how we might proceed.

While awaiting a reply/phone call, I rose to the challenge and had a look through my material stock to see if I had any bar of a suitable size for making some myself.



I had a length of brass that was suitable, so I cut three lengths and machines them to the basic shape and size before drilling out the various holes.

Next, I turned the circular front piece that the pivot mechanism attaches to. Which gave me a chance to try out the grooving tool that I ground. I am pleased to say that by taking very light cuts, I was able to turn down a part with a 1mm spigot then a 3mm centre and a further 1mm spigot beyond the 3mm section without having to reverse the workpiece in the collet to turn the second spigot without snapping it off.

I then filed up and cut off around 50 small brass unions (I needed 42 but there were the inevitable pings off into space). It was only when I started to fit the blanking plugs on the front of two of the lubricators that I thought to take any photos.







As you can see not all of the holes were dead in line due to the small drill wandering a little because I drill right through rather than from each side. But I had a cunning plan to get around that.



The holes through the bodies were 0.5mm but the copper wire that I am using for the pipes is only 0.3mm. The smallest microbore tube that I had for making the unions has a 0.5mm id so I had quite a bit of wiggle room to line them up as I fitted them.

The rocking [ shaped pieces on the rear, were made from some slices cut from a length rectangular brass tube that I have had in my stock box for 10 years or more. I don’t seem to use it often and then only in small slices but it’s handy to have and more rigid that if I had bent up some strip.

 

[Hobbyhorse]

Nice work Rob, it's always satisfying overcoming problems and especially making the parts yourself. Yes a little time consuming but worth the effort.

Simon

 

[chigley]

I find that holding bits like that in a milling table and a mini drill using drop of oil works for me,and don't use cheap bits

Ken

 

[chigley]

Over on the Guild forum there was some discussion about lubricators, centred primarily on the potential difficulties of drilling out brass castings. This prompted me to look in the box and see what the lubricator castings were like as supplied.



They are nicely detailed castings, albeit missing the front and rear fittings. But, most importantly for this build, there are only two of them in the kit and we need three.

In a bit of a dilemma but not needing them right now, I sent an email off to the gent that I am building it for with a few options on how we might proceed.

While awaiting a reply/phone call, I rose to the challenge and had a look through my material stock to see if I had any bar of a suitable size for making some myself.



I had a length of brass that was suitable, so I cut three lengths and machines them to the basic shape and size before drilling out the various holes.

Next, I turned the circular front piece that the pivot mechanism attaches to. Which gave me a chance to try out the grooving tool that I ground. I am pleased to say that by taking very light cuts, I was able to turn down a part with a 1mm spigot then a 3mm centre and a further 1mm spigot beyond the 3mm section without having to reverse the workpiece in the collet to turn the second spigot without snapping it off.

I then filed up and cut off around 50 small brass unions (I needed 42 but there were the inevitable pings off into space). It was only when I started to fit the blanking plugs on the front of two of the lubricators that I thought to take any photos.







As you can see not all of the holes were dead in line due to the small drill wandering a little because I drill right through rather than from each side. But I had a cunning plan to get around that.



The holes through the bodies were 0.5mm but the copper wire that I am using for the pipes is only 0.3mm. The smallest microbore tube that I had for making the unions has a 0.5mm id so I had quite a bit of wiggle room to line them up as I fitted them.

The rocking [ shaped pieces on the rear, were made from some slices cut from a length rectangular brass tube that I have had in my stock box for 10 years or more. I don’t seem to use it often and then only in small slices but it’s handy to have and more rigid that if I had bent up some strip.

Rob master tools do micro pipe sets about a fiver from squires

Ken

 

[Rob Pulham]

I find that holding bits like that in a milling table and a mini drill using drop of oil works for me,and don't use cheap bits

Ken

Hi Ken,

I buy my drills individually from Drill Services (Horley). You can really tell the difference between them and the multi box sets that I used to use.

 

[chigley]

Me too,dear but worth it

Ken

 

[Rob Pulham]

Just to finish this little bit off, in all the three lubricators have 75 parts between them. Fiddly to make, and I know that I could have bought in some very nice castings or 3D prints from the trade, but I had immense fun and raised my personal bar a little higher. Would I make some more in the future, who knows now that I have scratched that particular itch.

 

[neaston]

After all that work for you Rob, can I recommend some resin printed lubricators on flea bay. Excellent detail and reasonably priced.
Look up seller floyd_kraemer.
Satisfied customer no other connection.
Nick

 

[Rob Pulham]

After all that work for you Rob, can I recommend some resin printed lubricators on flea bay. Excellent detail and reasonably priced.
Look up seller floyd_kraemer.
Satisfied customer no other connection.
Nick

Thanks Nick, I am aware of them, indeed I plan to buy some prints of water boiler, Still and cash register for my Gresley Buffet Car from the same seller.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Tuesdays have become quite a busy day in the Pulham household so I didn’t have too much time at the bench. One of the jobs that I always seem to forget until the last minute when building are the balance weights. I normally wouldn’t have taken photos of such a simple thing but in this case, I wanted to share the type of adhesive that I used.

After reading about it here on Western Thunder (thanks Jim) as being specifically designed for etched metal and clear parts, I thought that I would give it a go and bought some. I am not a great lover of cyanoacrylate type glues, not because of their adhesive properties but because the fumes can leave unwanted residue especially on paintwork etc. which is difficult to get rid of.

The glue needs 6 hours to fully harden and to be honest it doesn’t seem to have great “grab” when initially applied. But being able to wipe off any overspill with a damp cotton bud and no residue from fumes is a big plus, assuming that it works.

Well, my scepticism was unfounded, the balance weights were nicely stuck when I checked them this morning.





I also added the inner plates for the weights cut from some 10thou nickel sheet.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Today I made up some connecting rods for the inside motion. They came from the scrap etch box and were originally for a Black 5. I cut off the big end bosses from all the pieces and then soldered them together in pairs. Once I had measured the length, I cut them to final size and grafted some Laurie Griffin eccentric straps onto them. I have calculated that the home turned eccentrics will give about 3mm of travel fore and aft but that will be sufficient to give the sense of movement though the holes in the frames.

 

[Max M]

I am not a great lover of cyanoacrylate type glues, not because of their adhesive properties but because the fumes can leave unwanted residue especially on paintwork etc. which is difficult to get rid of.

Many years ago when I was into modelling cars I used an earlier iteration of this which is fume free and doesn't leave any residue.

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Some lovely work here, @Rob Pulham. Much applause from Cornwall. Your bar is way higher than mine

Cheers

Jan

 

[Rob Pulham]

Your bar is way higher than mine

Thanks Jan,

I try to raise my personal bar higher with each successive model. I don't always succeed but I try.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Following a question about parts for the inside motion on the Guild forum, a fellow member posted how he had achieved a similar result to what I am working on but without the use of a lathe. I must off thanks to Harold because his post gave me the solution to one problem that I had been pondering (how to space them apart for soldering) and for prompting me to think that I didn’t actually need to solder them to the axle at all. I could solder them to the bush which acts as a spacer and would allow a hole to be drilled to make use of the taper pin that holds the axle together.







In true Blue Peter style, here’s two I made last night before I got my head into gear and correctly worked out the width. They will go in the spares box as I am sure that they will come in for something.