7mm Rob's workbench - Gladiator J6

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Alongside creation of the motion plate, I had to prepare the slide bars and make the cross heads fit.

Once I had them running nice and smooth and having test fitted them in the motion plate, I detailed them with the very prominent oil pots on the tops. Made from spare etch and nickel rod

I am not sure why but these proved and absolute pain to take photos of...

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Martin Shaw

Western Thunderer
Rob
Nice, can I drag you across to Stratford for a mo please. You mentioned in Heather's thread that you have an F4 in the wait pile, well I've got a model of one that needs a new chassis and I wonder how you got on with the Finney hornblocks. It makes sense to design them in at the paper stage. Additionally am I correct in thinking the leading and trailing axles are radial?
Regards
Martin
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Hi Martin,

I have to confess I haven't got beyond opening the box and looking with the F4. I have used Finney Hornblocks elsewhere and will be fitting them to the J6. I find them so much easier to assemble than the Slaters offering and plan to make them my default hornblock of choice going forward.

Regarding the leading /trailing axles being radial, I am working on the assumption that they are in the absence of anyone ever saying differently. I have a partially assembled Rising Star (Slaters) F8 kit that I am using as a test bed for making radial axles. The plan is that it will be the next one back on the bench once the 06/8F is finished.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Martin, I think they probably would be radial trucks, and not too difficult to fabricate yourself out of a bit of sheet.

JB.
 

Martin Shaw

Western Thunderer
Thanks Rob and JB, I'll put up pics tomorrow of where I'm starting from, it's not very pretty at the mo.
Regards
Martin
 

Martin Shaw

Western Thunderer
Thanks JB, that certainly looks doable, I'll start a separate thread for mine rather than continue hijacking Rob's.
Martin
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Although there hasn't been much to share, work has been progressing on the J6.

We now have all the springs attached to the frame. Initially I though to have the centre springs removable and the for and aft ones just soldered on but in the end I drilled and tapped them all 12ba so they are all removable should the need arise.

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Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
After my interlude with the Streamlined Coronations I am now back on the J6.

Over the last couple of evenings I have prepared the Finney Hornguides/blocks (nicked) borrowed from my A1 kit until I collect some more from the guys at Telford.

Then I started on the instructions which have you prepare the outer chassis first and then attach it to the tender footplate.

Here's where I got to on that last night.

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jonte

Western Thunderer
After my interlude with the Streamlined Coronations I am now back on the J6.

Over the last couple of evenings I have prepared the Finney Hornguides/blocks (nicked) borrowed from my A1 kit until I collect some more from the guys at Telford.

Then I started on the instructions which have you prepare the outer chassis first and then attach it to the tender footplate.

Here's where I got to on that last night.

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Neatly soldered, Rob. It’s probably a trade secret, so I shaln’t ask ;)

Jonte
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Neatly soldered, Rob. It’s probably a trade secret, so I shaln’t ask ;)

Jonte

Hi Jonte,

No trade secrets on my threads, do feel free to ask, I learned by picking up tips from others and adapting them to my own use.

I do as much soldering as I possibly can with a Microflame (in my case an Iroda Solderpro 120 which was recommended many years ago to me by @Dikitriki of this parish). I clip it all together with self locking tweezers, run along with liquid flux (water based from Building O Gauge Online) and then drop tiny bits of solder that I cut from the reel with a scalpel. Then I heat each one and chase it along the seam as it melts which leaves minimal cleaning up.

I find that I can use the microflame on it's minimum setting to solder white metal parts to the brass with 100 degree solder as well as the higher temp solder's. I only need to increase the heat if I am trying to solder heavier gauge brass.

I also use self locking tweezers and aluminium hair grips as heat sinks to hold on bits that I have previously soldered on when soldering later parts just clip some to it or adjacent to it to draw away enough heat to stop the part coming adrift.

 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Further work on the tender last night got one of the more difficult bits behind me - bending the one-piece tank sides/end.


However, I will start off with a bit of a gotcha! The instructions tell you if modelling post 1940 to drill out two etched dimples on the rear right hand side of the tender for hand rails that must have been fitted to some tenders at some point.


Having done it I immediately started to think I wonder. Sure, enough when I looked at photos of 64206 which is the loco being modelled I noted no rear handrail....


So, I opened out the holes to 1.55mm and soldered some stubs of rod in - this is it from the inside


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And from the outside - thankfully nothing shows


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Next the tender sides are rectangular but on the real thing on the tender that I am working on there are cut outs for a handrail as in this example by Ron Bowyer.


GNR/LNER Gresley "J6" class 0-6-0 No. 64223. by Ron Bowyer, on Flickr


I have to confess to struggling with the instructions on this point so I went my own way. There are sections of etched beading to represent this and having worked out for myself how I believe they are meant to fit I tacked them to each end


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This allowed me to scribe a line to cut/file to and then I unsoldered them and removed the bits that needed removing. Time will tell as to whether what I have done is correct but studying various photos it looks right.


The next job was to drill out one of two dimples for the front handrail knob - these are design for a short rail where the top is cut out as I have done or a long rail where the side is left at full height. I drilled out the lower ones.


Then I carefully marked out where the first bend should be and then bent it using my Metalsmith Drilling table with a rod slightly smaller than the required bend clamped to it.


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If this sort of thing scares you take heart. I didn't get it right first time, I just calmly straightened it with fingers and thumbs finally using smooth bladed pliers to finish off and them remeasured and tried again. The first side (the one in the photos) I got right on the second attempt. The other side took three goes.... but I got there.


Next up is to solder in the bulkhead.


Where the instructions are really lacking is that they refer to parts but don't number them so you are constantly searching the scans of the etches and the index to find out which part you are looking for - the scans are labelled with part numbers and there is an index but it would be so much better if the instructions had part numbers alongside the text.


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Then lastly solder the side/end piece to the footplate.


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jonte

Western Thunderer
Hi Jonte,

No trade secrets on my threads, do feel free to ask, I learned by picking up tips from others and adapting them to my own use.

I do as much soldering as I possibly can with a Microflame (in my case an Iroda Solderpro 120 which was recommended many years ago to me by @Dikitriki of this parish). I clip it all together with self locking tweezers, run along with liquid flux (water based from Building O Gauge Online) and then drop tiny bits of solder that I cut from the reel with a scalpel. Then I heat each one and chase it along the seam as it melts which leaves minimal cleaning up.

I find that I can use the microflame on it's minimum setting to solder white metal parts to the brass with 100 degree solder as well as the higher temp solder's. I only need to increase the heat if I am trying to solder heavier gauge brass.

I also use self locking tweezers and aluminium hair grips as heat sinks to hold on bits that I have previously soldered on when soldering later parts just clip some to it or adjacent to it to draw away enough heat to stop the part coming adrift.

Wonderful stuff, Rob. Makes me want to rummage through my modelling tool box for some solder ;)

But seriously, this is very interesting and extremely useful bearing in mind I’d like to try a kit in the not too distant.

Thanks for sharing, Rob.

Jonte
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Jonte,

No trade secrets on my threads, do feel free to ask, I learned by picking up tips from others and adapting them to my own use.

I do as much soldering as I possibly can with a Microflame (in my case an Iroda Solderpro 120 which was recommended many years ago to me by @Dikitriki of this parish). I clip it all together with self locking tweezers, run along with liquid flux (water based from Building O Gauge Online) and then drop tiny bits of solder that I cut from the reel with a scalpel. Then I heat each one and chase it along the seam as it melts which leaves minimal cleaning up.

I find that I can use the microflame on it's minimum setting to solder white metal parts to the brass with 100 degree solder as well as the higher temp solder's. I only need to increase the heat if I am trying to solder heavier gauge brass.

I also use self locking tweezers and aluminium hair grips as heat sinks to hold on bits that I have previously soldered on when soldering later parts just clip some to it or adjacent to it to draw away enough heat to stop the part coming adrift.

Hi Rob,
Very nice work. I note you and Dikitriki have mentioned using a micro flame in the past. I really must give it a try as any thing that improves the quality of the workmanship is always welcome.
Cheers,
Peter
 

MarkR

Western Thunderer
Hi Rob

Many thanks for your soldering tip.

Just ordered the flux and checking out a Solder Pro

Mark
 
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