7mm Finney7 5972 Olton Hall ( aka )

7mmMick

Western Thunderer
Hi Martyn

This is the one I have. Not had much chance to use it yet as I'm still in the middle of renovating the house we moved into two years ago!! But had a play and a nice tiny hot flame. I bought it from this website as it was half the price of others. Obviously needs a propane gas supply, as per the garden BBQ propane.

Sievert Pro 86 Jewellers Gas Blow Torch Kit | Buy now from gasproducts.co.uk

Regards, Deano.

Wow Delano that’s a right bit of kit. To be honest I bought a micro flame years ago now from EBay. It cost me £3.80 and I thought well if it builds one kit that’s great I’ll just buy one per kit and accept the hit on pocket change. I started using it and I’ve never stopped. Sure you have to manually light it with a cig lighter but I’m used to it. It’s small, a pen type and most importantly the flame is adjustable. In fact it was so good about six months after I bought I thought I’ll buy a lorry load to last me. Not to be, I couldn’t find them anywhere, I bought one that looked the same and it was rubbish, I bought others from various outlets and they never came close to the eBay wonder that was. Now unfortunately my trusty old micro flame is playing up and to say I’ve had my money’s worth is an understatement. I do however need a replacement ASAP. I fancy a Proxon one but I have to say I think I prefer a pen type, something I can control well I’m my hand, so I’ll probably go for this or something like, bin the tips and other bits and put it to work. It still looks a little too big though;


Dremel 2000 VersaTip Gas Torch Soldering Iron & Welding Kit Multi-Tip Set 8710364037582 | eBay

My experience is you don’t need to spend big to get something that works well. As long as the flame is controllable and it’s not too larger to handle accurately you can’t go far wrong. I’ll post some pictures when I return from half term break if that helps?

Cheers

Mick
 

jonte

Western Thunderer
Wow Delano that’s a right bit of kit. To be honest I bought a micro flame years ago now from EBay. It cost me £3.80 and I thought well if it builds one kit that’s great I’ll just buy one per kit and accept the hit on pocket change. I started using it and I’ve never stopped. Sure you have to manually light it with a cig lighter but I’m used to it. It’s small, a pen type and most importantly the flame is adjustable. In fact it was so good about six months after I bought I thought I’ll buy a lorry load to last me. Not to be, I couldn’t find them anywhere, I bought one that looked the same and it was rubbish, I bought others from various outlets and they never came close to the eBay wonder that was. Now unfortunately my trusty old micro flame is playing up and to say I’ve had my money’s worth is an understatement. I do however need a replacement ASAP. I fancy a Proxon one but I have to say I think I prefer a pen type, something I can control well I’m my hand, so I’ll probably go for this or something like, bin the tips and other bits and put it to work. It still looks a little too big though;


Dremel 2000 VersaTip Gas Torch Soldering Iron & Welding Kit Multi-Tip Set 8710364037582 | eBay

My experience is you don’t need to spend big to get something that works well. As long as the flame is controllable and it’s not too larger to handle accurately you can’t go far wrong. I’ll post some pictures when I return from half term break if that helps?

Cheers

Mick

Is it this sort of thing, Mick? Gas Tools Butane Fuel Welding Soldering Pen Jet Torch Flame Pencil Lighter Sales | eBay
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
I've got the Proxxon Micro flame MFB/E and as expected, it's been bullet proof; though the flame is still a little large to what I'd prefer.

I did go through the loop a few years back trying micro flames and micro pens, they were all rubbish, hard to light, hard to fill, flame too big, yada yada yada.

On one pen every time you tipped the flame down below the gas reservoir liquid butane would run out and catch fire! Quite impressive as you then had your own micro Olympic flame. I chucked it out of the window onto the wet grass until it burnt itself out, snapped it in half and binned it.

Unlike Mick, everything I bought cheap ended up in the bin, you can get lucky (when the moons align) and get a really good item for the cost of a bag of chips, but it's numbers game, a game I was tired of playing.

The MFB/E is well balanced and really easy to use, having it's own stand is also great, it's self lighting and easily controlled.

Mick R, if you get one and you don't get on with it, then I'll buy it off you for what you paid as I need a spare now that I'm doing commercial work.
 

warren haywood

Western Thunderer
Yep, proxon for me too. Had about 6 of the eroda pen type ones, only paid for one as the rest were replacements from Maplins:eek:
The plastic tank part kept leaking.

The proxon is perfect for me, and I don’t think the flame needs to be to concentrated, it’s just a matter af heating the metal close to the solder to allow it to flash
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Mick,
I have an Iroda Solder Pro 120 bought at the Reading show a fair few years ago for about £30. It can do the small stuff and also has the grunt to do silver soldering. No problems with the tank. Farnells stock them but the price has gone up.
Simon
 

jonte

Western Thunderer
I've got the Proxxon Micro flame MFB/E and as expected, it's been bullet proof; though the flame is still a little large to what I'd prefer.

I did go through the loop a few years back trying micro flames and micro pens, they were all rubbish, hard to light, hard to fill, flame too big, yada yada yada.

On one pen every time you tipped the flame down below the gas reservoir liquid butane would run out and catch fire! Quite impressive as you then had your own micro Olympic flame. I chucked it out of the window onto the wet grass until it burnt itself out, snapped it in half and binned it.

Unlike Mick, everything I bought cheap ended up in the bin, you can get lucky (when the moons align) and get a really good item for the cost of a bag of chips, but it's numbers game, a game I was tired of playing.

The MFB/E is well balanced and really easy to use, having it's own stand is also great, it's self lighting and easily controlled.

Mick R, if you get one and you don't get on with it, then I'll buy it off you for what you paid as I need a spare now that I'm doing commercial work.

Near wet myself reading that :)

Jonte
 

7mmMick

Western Thunderer
Might go for a Proxon then, I think Hobby Holidays stock them. I’ll get one ordered and if it plays up then I’ll try elsewhere.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Might go for a Proxon then, I think Hobby Holidays stock them. I’ll get one ordered and if it plays up then I’ll try elsewhere.
I can say one thing is for sure, it will NEVER play up, they are the Mercedes Benz of soldering irons.

I've used mine pretty much two days out of every three for two years, maybe three....can't recall when I actually bought it....and it lights first time every time, it works at every conceivable angle with no sputtering or change to the flame.

Hobby Holidays do stock them and it's good to keep the funds in the trade, so to speak.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Yep, proxon for me too. Had about 6 of the eroda pen type ones, only paid for one as the rest were replacements from Maplins:eek:
The plastic tank part kept leaking.

The proxon is perfect for me, and I don’t think the flame needs to be to concentrated, it’s just a matter of heating the metal close to the solder to allow it to flash
Warren, that's okay for adding large parts, the area I want to fine tune is adding things like lamp irons onto almost complete locos, that's where I find I need a really small (sub 10mm) flame, which is why I keep looking at these micro torch oxygen/hydrogen stations.
 
Cylinders

7mmMick

Western Thunderer
So the cylinders are finished, well apart from the valve rods. These cylinders are really a test build for the new Finney7 cylinder upgrade. They have the correct profile slide bars instead of just flat etch and also now have the cut out at the rear for the connecting rod as per the prototype. The stuffing glad is represented by a really neat etch and the motion bracket is beefed up a little. The cylinder rod is also larger and more convincing. On the whole I think they look much better. There’s also a cast crosshead being developed which will finish off the upgrade;
BFD3546D-DDAA-43D1-9F1C-60F229B5B4E0.jpeg 31998887-4654-4206-8256-EA1CEECCDFB8.jpeg D3C5F0BA-EA0B-4431-B961-781B61F9CCD2.jpeg 22E35BE7-E1E9-41F9-8984-976587650595.jpeg
The cylinder taps and control rodding is fiddle but represents the prototype really well;35330084-94F1-40F8-95B9-F7D596E49C5B.jpeg
 

dibateg

Western Thunderer
Nice work Mick, I've just started on an original Finney Hall, but I think I'll try and replace some of the fabrications with castings.

Soldering, yes everything clean, tidy join and not much solder. I use mostly 145, and 220. 100 and 70 occasionally with Building O gauge On Line flux. Although for 70, I use phosphoric as the other doesn't seem fierce enough.

I have a torch, but mostly use it for disassembling my cock ups... I was really impressed once when Mr Lambert demonstrated detailing a JLTRT Peak brass buffer beam with one a few years ago.

Best Regards
Tony
 

7mmMick

Western Thunderer
Cheers Mick :thumbs:

Hi Tony,

You’ll enjoy the rest of the build as I have and I agree, some more castings would lift the kit that bit more. That said I think the kit really represents the prototype well.

I picked up the frames and inside motion from @warren haywood earlier in the week, who has turned them nicely red and black. I busied myself finishing off the wheels with balance weights. @SimonT shared some great photos of Hagley Halls wheel sets which showed the simple balance weights in the kit didn’t represent the prototype so well. Following @Dikitriki and his method I used some doctored Finny7 51xx balance weights to build out the centre driver’s balance weights and back the remainder, meaning I could fill in with milliput;
30E55E01-6684-42D4-B4E1-F14787BC117A.jpeg
CAFF16AE-1482-4AF0-8A92-A319CA1AB79A.jpeg
Wheels fitted, minus motor and gearbox so I can check for binding (none found)
2F15F14D-E1B6-4815-810E-4ABD814EAF57.jpeg
2D52B973-0BB7-40B0-9887-9EDCF0ECFBCC.jpeg
And in between Rugby matches I’ve been pushing on with the body, fitting the final castings and finishing off all the exterior work, leaving just the cab details to fit out. The washout plug covers are from Malcolm Michell, they’re so easy to fit and are very nice.
4FCA0923-3DB1-4AEA-AAC5-59CEA6F742EB.jpeg A1A83D6D-70A2-4A37-902C-6FBC4D1C4E29.jpeg
It’s a common misconception that these locos are lacking detail on the body area but the ejector assembly and associated pipe work takes some fitting,
512C6D9F-CEEF-4ED9-A11D-6A5A861F6608.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Top