4mm Jan's 4mm WB: Hello, Old Friend

[Lyndhurstman]

Now that is nice.

Perhaps tinning the relevant shank with as little solder as you can an a light polish? You could gain the odd micron of additional clearance by means of a bit of gentle broach twiddling in the shank. Worth a go?

Adam

Hi Adam,
Thanks! Yes; I was thinking some solder might work, but as I have 24 of these little blighters to do, I'm still trying to find a process that minimises effort and maximises enjoyment - and learning Hence the wonder regarding plating with NS. There appear to be several YT videos and fora that describe the method, but I'll not make a move into Electric Plating Land (cue Jimmy Hendrix..) until I’m convinced I can do it in safety! As to broaches - again, it's a potential source of fitting freedom... all good stuff to chew over...

Interestingly, in my search for stuff, I came across this:

In the deep and very distant past I remember being toldt,on a school trip around "The Works " at Wolverton that the standards for BR plating was for nickel , copper then nickel , inspection , 2nd Nickel . For Chrome , copper , Nickel , Chrome , inspection, 2nd hrome. Could explain why the handles on 60yr old coaches still have chome on them !

Nickel Plating Brass | Model Engineer

Thanks again

Cheers

Jan

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Sleeve It!
Further fettling fun.

The bores are being reduced. The sleeves of 1.4mm brass tube are cut using a sharp Stanley blade. The depth of the initial cut (or groove) is determined by placing the tube into the hole in the MDF, and scoring around the edge. The tube is then laid on the MDF, and the blade run over it. Downward pressure on the blade causes the tube to rotate along the scored mark (this is probably akin to sucking eggs to you lot, but my joy upon finding this technique online was very, very real ). A few seconds of back and forth is all that’s needed. Any burrs (there will be some) are dealt with using a Swiss file, and the bore cleaned up with a suitable broach. Now it’s just a matter of finding a nice thin glue to hold them in the plastic housing.

Cheers

Jan

 

[jonte]

So that’s how it’s done!

I got fed up attempting to coax an angled cut into something vaguely resembling the vertical and invested in a mini-pipe cutter which now makes the whole job a complete joy. I keep looking for excuses to cut up some tubing just to prove the point

Now, if I’d only known this trick earlier

Jonte

 

[Lyndhurstman]

So that’s how it’s done!

I got fed up attempting to coax an angled cut into something vaguely resembling the vertical and invested in a mini-pipe cutter which now makes the whole job a complete joy. I keep looking for excuses to cut up some tubing just to prove the point

Now, if I’d only known this trick earlier

Jonte

Hello @jonte

Ah.. a mini cutter? One of these?
I thought about one, but I've been exercising frugality (it's easier on the knees than walking..). And I thought I'd share the technique - I'm just sorry I was too late for you

Cheers

Jan

 

[jonte]

No probs, Jan.

Here’s mine:



To be fair, I think it was less than a tenner (plus postage ) and it has had a fair bit of use (unlike the GW wheel-puller that I’m too afraid to use!).

Jonte

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Hi Chum

No probs, Jan.

Here’s mine:

View attachment 110983

To be fair, I think it was less than a tenner (plus postage ) and it has had a fair bit of use (unlike the GW wheel-puller that I’m too afraid to use!).

Jonte

Ah... I looked at those, but the low end of the capacity was too large for these tubes.

I keep meaning to invest in a GW wheel puller. And a quartering tool.. You’re more than welcome to send the patient down here, and I’ll do the necessary for you.

Cheers

Jan

 

[jonte]

Too kind, Jan; thank you.

However, sadly, my latest modelling window will soon be coming to an end, and apart from looking in on developments on WT from time to time, my actual modelling activity will have to wait, yet again, for almost another year. Such is life.

Perhaps in a couple of years or so, I can get back to my grotty ol’ Cheapside project: will I keep the 18.8 whatever, that I’ve started with or will I apply to join the EM-ers and purchase one or two of those cracking ready made point jobbies that have been a joint project with Peco? Who knows. I might even opt for plain double O again, but in any case, I’ll be looking to start building the odd kit or two. Perhaps you’d better stay by the phone, Jan, just in case

And of course, I’ll be keeping an eye on how you’re faring with the generously-proportioned van

Bestest,

Jonte

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Buffed Up

Shining like a beacon in the all-enveloping (definitely Second Class) darkness that is the illogical surround, the TITW (Toe In The Water - it’s like Suck It And See, but you’re less likely to end up being poisoned) methodology mooted by @AJC earlier bears a single (indeed singular) fruit.

The shank of the buffer has been tinned with Fry solder paint, and buffed slightly (apt, for a buffer, what?). This seems to have worked quite well - it’s at least fooling both the camera and our eyesight from this distance, anyway.

Having watched The Repair Shop last night (staple viewing here, purely for the techniques employed; definitely not the emotions and tears the producers try to wring from the supplicants) we have identified something called Silvering Powder that also might work.

The only down side is that springing the buffers doesn't seem to be possible with these even finer clearances. But we need to confirm that.

Cheers

Jan

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Socket & See
As something different from trying to source a new lathe (a recent turn of events), we’ve progressed with the compilation of a quartet of reducing sleeves for the MJT buffers.

The next thing on the list is the coupling hook. And here, we’ve found another pitfall in our policy of reduction of reality; the coupling hook sits in some kind of box on these vans.

BR Diag.1/217 No.B784676

B784652_0905_Wirksworth

This isn’t the case with the Parkside substrate, of course. We’re going to apply a modicum of effort to try and replicate this awkward protrusion. But it may just be we (and The Inspector) have to apply undertake Deliberate Transitional Myopia methodologies, and let it pass unchallenged...

Cheers

Jan

 

[AJC]

As I'm certain you've worked out, these are simple spacers. Most hooks can be pulled out from the headstocks a bit - the bit of channel welded to the headstock on the real thing can be represented with a scrap of 40 thou' with a hole drilled in it. Since I use epoxy to fix my coupling hooks the hole gets filled...

Adam

 

[Lyndhurstman]

As I'm certain you've worked out, these are simple spacers. Most hooks can be pulled out from the headstocks a bit - the bit of channel welded to the headstock on the real thing can be represented with a scrap of 40 thou' with a hole drilled in it. Since I use epoxy to fix my coupling hooks the hole gets filled...

Adam

Hi Adam
Yes... Thanks. I know what they are - compensation for those seemingly bloody long Oleo’s I suppose a lump of casting was too much to accommodate in such a modern design! Still, even at this late stage, it’s the little discoveries like this that give me pleasure..

Thanks again.

Cheers

Jan

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Outstanding
(No... not the fettling; we’re not that easily deceived). More a description of an hour and a half of hook-based action (Be afraid, Peter Pan).


A reasonable representation of the packed protrusion these vans were saddled with (see the Flickr links above). As Adam notes, the hook (in this instance an Exactoscale 4CPD01A) is cuddled by a short tube of brass. This has been inserted into a 20 thou spacer of Plasticard (6ins x 9ins at full size). Enlarged, it doesn’t look the best. You’ll have to trust that it passes muster for us!


Cheers

Jan

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Lever out of it
We’ve not forgotten you. We’ve been busy fettling Reverse Bedford’s - inside-out brake lever guards from his useful Wagon Bits fret assembled contra-indications, as the Vanwides are LHS affairs, not the RHS of standard. This took a while, and a blue hue to the air was realised on occasion.

Next up - and again featuring a fettled former of Mr Bedford’s - are the brake levers themselves. Fans of this outpouring of miserable mediocrity will perhaps recall the previous trials and tribulations encountered with the Medfit.

Well, that was as nothing. We’ve thrown ourselves in at the deep end, and out with the bath water.

A modified Bedford (they’re supplied with the cam on the wrong side). We’ve filed that lump off, and added one of our own. Intrinsically intimate in collocation, they’re sweated on a bit of 0.007” NS sheet, to be used as a former. Later - and divorced - the results are not too shabby (if you squint, and put your hands over your eyes):


The cam is too large. This is deliberate.
We’re unsure whether to use this one as a former, or just make another five this way.
Still. Progress. Of the halting kind.

Cheers

Jan

 

[jonte]

Blood;sweat;tears; toil; to say nothing of the love bestowed.

Has anybody, ever, in the field of creating anything gone to such lengths?

Commendable stuff, Jan.

I think we can excuse the odd expletive or two

Luv and bestest,

Jonte

 

[AJC]

I find that the eye isn't really drawn to the detail of the cam providing that the lever is in the right place, more or less. Good work!

Adam

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Hello Chaps,

Blood;sweat;tears; toil; to say nothing of the love bestowed.

Has anybody, ever, in the field of creating anything gone to such lengths?

Commendable stuff, Jan.

I think we can excuse the odd expletive or two

Luv and bestest,

Jonte

Thanks @jonte. Mightily.
I think there's a tranche of folk on here who've walked that walk, and then a bit more. The fact that these kits were bought part built - and devoid of anything approaching underwear - means that a lot of this stuff has to be done. I find it quite useful to have six to do. Or at least, I have up to now!

I find that the eye isn't really drawn to the detail of the cam providing that the lever is in the right place, more or less. Good work!

Adam

Thanks, @AJC

Indeed. It will hopefilly be rendered insiginificant once its in its proper home. I was looking at the metalled murk beneath the Palbrick B last night - Demeter would surely recognise the realm of darkness and gloom that lies therein. I will probably take a tad more off to make it less beaky. There's still its unattached correspondent to make yet, of course.

Thanks again, both.

Cheers

Jan

 

[Lyndhurstman]

(Cam) Action This Day

Oversized, maybe. But the dog has its bone. All five levers have now been completed. With a varying degree of success, frankly. Still, they look The Part. To our rose-tinted viewpoint, anyway..As to the cam? Well, having made one, we’re not convinced. The cost-benefit analysis is definitely tilted towards the demerit side. But something is needed down there, for sure. More anon. And on. And on.

Cheers

Jan

 

[iak63]

Patient persistence pays - bravo!

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Patient persistence pays - bravo!

Thanks, Ian
I’m not sure if I’ve got the patience or persistence to do that again , but we’ll have to see....

Cheers

Jan

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Vacuum All Ye Faithful
Twas the night after the night after Christmas, and - after becoming becalmed in the doldrums of disinterest for most of the month - Old Nick (Father Christmas, not the boss-eyed barber in Commercial Road) has gifted us a duet of delight: a few hours of peace and quiet, and the will to pick up our tools and fettle.
We’ve made the most of the opportunity, and - with the help of the the ex-Mainly Trains (Now Wizard Models) Vacuum Cylinders and mounting bracket from the LNER Vacuum Fitted fret and some wire from Stores - we’ve made a quintet of these:


There was a mismatch between the length over the cast pins of the cylinders and the length between the holes of the supporting bracket which necessitated the cutting off of the pins and drilling the casting with a 0.7mm drill to accommodate their replacements, which were soldered to the bracket using solder paint. A 0.4mm hole was also drilled in the piston rod to take a cross member of 0.3mm brass.

Trying to get the sub assembly sat upright in the underframe, and aligned with the operating levers (again, from the WM fret) was a trial by tweezers, but we overcame the tribulations eventually. No two are the same of course, but we’re hoping that the darkness beneath will hide the worst of our mistakes.

So, all in all, not much to write home about (certainly not worth a Christmas card), but it’s good to get something done.

Cheers

Jan