Apologies for the radio silence during the last week, but I have just been plodding on with the peculiar plumbing problems without interruption!
The long balance pipe on the right hand side of the loco had a brass flange brazed on at either end, so required a high degree of accuracy (and a fair amount of luck) when setting up and soldering! There could be no tweaking of the pipe with tweezers or even twixt thumb and fingers on this one!
A friend of mine the other day suggested that I consider (modern) adhesives as an option, stating that they are very effective these days, and with the majority of parts only being decorative requirements, might be a great deal cleaner and pleasant to use?
I answered that with; "the number of times I might have to sweat the bits apart again and re-try could get a bit messy with glue!"
"Fair do's" he replied!
Oddly, as it turned out, the aforementioned fittings went on - with no less than five wretched little M3 studs needing to align - first time! It was the slightly less critical left hand pipe, that only had a flange at the outer (saddle tank) end that fought back!
Another issue is that I am reaching the end of my stock of brass round and hex sections... slightly before the final fitting out jobs are completed! The trailing end of that problem pipe terminates, after a twisting route, in the front face of the well tank, and is contained by a distinctly large (by comparison with all the others) cap nut:
Shortages notwithstanding, I never had any hex large enough for a 10mm pipe to fit into... and come to that, neither do I have taps or dies above 10mm anyway! The only option was to once again rely on yet more of B&Q's finest from their domestic plumbing aisle!
Cutting down one of the cap nuts and chopping off a short section of male thread on a straight, compression connector would provide me with a form of stud... if only I could drill and tap an appropriate size hole in the tank... and in such a confined location under the running plate...?!
Eventually, (?) I decided to use a remaining stub of 10mm brass rod - tapped at one end, and the plain section soldered into the smooth bore of the cut male part.
That was relatively straightforward, but a 9mm hole in the tank was a wholly different ball game:
I do have some of those very pointy wood bits... but there was no way to get the drill, let alone with a large bit in it, or later, a tap in a chuck - into such a restricted space! The only apparent alternative in that circumstance was to wrap the bit in a piece of cloth... and rotate it with my fingers... to cut through the 6mm thickness of MDF!!
Yep, you did read that correctly!
I had to do the same again with the tap... but it being a quite different animal, kept jamming, although that time I was able to keep it going by taking advantage of the square end to grip with a pair of plyers!
"This is not so much a case of patience, persistence, nor even pure bloody mindedness... but perhaps more of complete insanity?!" I found myself ruefully pondering during the long, painful, "boring" process!
The cut-down nut fitted it all up perfectly sweetly in the end, but I was not really happy with the final appearance. I had had quite enough by the close of play on that day though.
After taking a good, hard look at it the following morning... I said; "Nope!" and stripped it all off again... before trudging back down the cellar stairs!
This time, I completely cut and filed off the entire, and rather gruesome looking top off the second nut from the joiner...
Then soldered the male portion - just a couple of turns into the now open ended nut... to give me a narrowed end with a 10mm bore...
The earlier - and completely unsatisfactory, halved nut is on the left in the above - and at right in the next image, below.
The new nut thus formed is now the same depth as before... but:
To my mind, it looks a significantly more meaningful - and "meaty" object?
I know the finished item should actually feature a slight, circular projection where the pipe is inserted - and if I had thought a little more carefully about it, could have included that at the cutting stage, but I think it will definitely have to do now!
Time for some alternative festive activities, so Seasons Greetings, and Happy New Year to you all, my fellows and such good friends!
Pete.
