TFW’s workshop

[Yorkshire Dave]

Turning gold is quite fun. The safety valves have now been made and fitted.

With gold being a soft malleable metal how does it take to turning without deforming or is lower carat gold being used?

 

[Tim Watson]

This was some re-cycled 9ct from Cookson Gold, so quite hard. Previously, I have made lost wax/plastic castings for ‘large’ safety valve covers, which is normally nearer 18ct.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

A friend at work examined the front end of the Raven 4-6-2 class yesterday, observing that it wasn’t quite level. Unfortunately, he was absolutely correct: when you make things you often see what you want to, rather than reality. A bit of tweaking was required.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

In a fiddle yard, far, far away… best to play the Star Wars theme when looking at this.

The next project for CF. It has actually been in gestation for quite a while, collaborating with Mike Trice. Construction of the bogies started in August. They are incredibly tedious to make.

Tim

 

[Heather Kay]

They are incredibly tedious to make.

*nods sagely*

 

[Tim Watson]

Mass production of under-frames in progress. Set up on milling machine.


The cut outs are obviously for the bogie wheels.


Interesting end next.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

And now for the start of the fun and games. The main 1mm-thick brass chassis spars for the Coronation set have been made and can be seen located in the 3DP chassis; designed and printed by Mike Trice. The articulated joint is an overlapping design, with the extra layer beneath the main spar.


The (currently) simple articulated joint was made by making the additional tongue from 1mm brass, drilled as a strip and then cut off, as required.

These short tongues were then soldered to the main spar using the pivot hole for location - the separate components can be seen at the top of the image with the soldering in progress towards the bottom. The drill shank was pushed into a mica block and the underside of the tongue on the spar notched to make it easier to cut through and remove when finished soldering. This also reduced solder flow in that region and the same tongue coated with a black felt tip acted as an anti-flux: of course drill shanks won’t take soft solder, either. The plastic bottle with a needle tube is for phosphoric acid flux.


This close up should make clear the inherent flexibility of the simple joint, but that is probably not how it will stay…


Tim

 

[Giles]

....and a Happy Christmas to you Tim!

 

[Tim Watson]

The North British underground workshops (Jim Watt & Graham Roberts) have now completed the Gate Stock for YR. These will journey south for tweaking. fitting out and painting after the Christmas postal rush.





The last image is a close up of the two spare bogies showing just how compact they have to be - the wheels are 6.5mm diameter and rail level to the top of the frame is 14mm. Clearances between the gear on the worm shaft and the rear wheel on this side and between the motor and the wheels on the other side are to the usual 2FS standard, measured in microns rather than millimetres!


One of the spare motor bogies is for re-working the power car of the standard stock.

Very best wishes for Christmas & the New Year to all my friends on WT.

Tim