7mm Hobbyhorse Work Bench

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
Welcome to my first thread with this forum.
Before starting on my next commission which is three Bullied pacific's, one loco that I've know for a long time has returned to the workbench for some TLC, a scratch built Britannia.
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This loco might not be the most well detailed or accurate representation of the class, but when you consider that it was built in the 60's in course scale from tin plate ( yes old oil cans) it grows on you. From the start the owner was keen that any work on the model didn’t spoil the original look, so it been a careful restoration project. One thing that stands out is the valve gear which is in steel.
I first came into contact with it in the mid 80's when I was commissioned to replace the old Bonds motor, fit new fine scale wheels and repaint the loco. Fitted with a RG7 motor, some Slaters wheels and a fresh coat of paint, she looked very smart. A few years latter the client wanted to change the wheels over for a set of AGH ones, these I machined up and fitted and also replaced the tender chassis. Next another visit was to fit a DCC chip.
This weeks visit was to fit a sound chip, and add a screwed fixing at the front of the loco as previously the fixing was under the inside of the buffer body.
The sound chip fitting was straight forward, placing it in the tender on a plastic mounting plate. Two speakers are fitted with one large one in the tender, and a sugar cube type below the smoke box.Mounting%20Plate_zpspu5qymnp.jpg
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With a bit of remapping of the chip and changing some sound settings, she certainly sounds like a Brit now.
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Simon
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Wow! What a beautiful model! She must have covered some miles in her life time. Being born in the60's, I wish I had managed to stay looking 1/2 as good! :)
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
Ive started looking at the Finney West Country kit this morning and have noticed the A5 size instruction booklet is missing, my client can't remember what has happened with it.
Has anyone got a copy that I could borrow, I've got the plans, drawings and reference sheets.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Hi Simon.

I have one. It's packed up and in the loft, ready for our move which is expected later this month. However........if there's no-one else on WT with the kit more conveniently available I'll break in to the packing case and copy the instructions with pleasure. Can we see how this goes until tomorrow? If there's no progress with anyone else I'll liberate the instructions tomorrow morning.

Brian
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
Brian,
Thank you so much for the offer, one of the 7mm Facebook group members has sorted them out for me.
It's alway pleasing when in our hour of need we get results from the modelling fraternity.

Thanks

Simon
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
Onwards with the West Country.

The basic chassis was assembled without any major problems, which is what’s expected with Martins kits.

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To make the riveting easier on some areas which had very closely spaced rivets, I made a new doll suitable for the spacing.

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One item my client couldn’t provide was the hornblocks, these are quite different on the Bullieds although mounted inside the frames the horn projects outside the frames. Sometime ago I machined a dozen hornblocks for another commission that wasn’t used, fortunately these didn’t have any details which are ideal for this loco.

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Having not used any Slaters wheels for some time I thought I'd check how round these are, overall not bad. Out of the six, two had a runout of 3 thou with the other four not detectable. I did mix the axles in various combinations with the wheels just to make sure. Some new crank pins have been machined, with one fitted.

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Unfortunately someone had already had a go at the kit. The side rods looked a mess with the bearing holes opened out oversize, poor soldering and one of the leading rods had been trashed trying to countersink it.

First job was to bush the rear rods with some Nickel Silver machined to fit and drilled to fit the new crank pins. The front rod was repaired luckily with a spare overlay cut into the front section with the new bush made to fit this and the other rod.

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Simon
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
Started with detailing the chassis, working from the front end.

I've modified the piston rod gland by fitting a tube and this also runs to the front of the etched cylinder frame. This will ensure that the piston rod runs parallel to the cylinder and slide bars.

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The glands, covers and oiling points all fitted well.
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Some of the slots needed opening up as the etching process hadn't worked, a .3 bar files soon sorted them out.

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The drawings that I've been waiting for from the NRM arrived, these are for the inside motion and crank axle on the two rebuilts. I can now make a start on the patterns so that the parts will be in stock when needed, the plan is to start the rebuilts towards late summer and also have the parts in the Hobbyhorse range ready for The Reading show.

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Simon
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
It's been a while since the last post but such is life when lots of other things take priority, anyway on with the build.


Test fitted the slide bars and cylinders and other than one tight spot the slide bars more freely.
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The ashpan assembly was straight forward, other than insuring the all the slots allow the parts to fit well, especially with the the bottom doors.

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The details really enhance the look of the ashpan.

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The springs have been assembled and the top of the central buckle has been soldered to the horn keeper plate, providing easy removal.

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The brake rigging is definitely interesting with this kit, and looking at the notes that I did with the last one of these I built, the same mods have been made again which insures no electrical shorts.



Starting with the Brake hangers which are tapped 12ba.

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Simon
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Superb work Simon. The original Bulleid Light Pacific's are one of my favourite steam locomotive classes and it's great to see one (or three) taking shape. The scenic section of my layout will be a tad under 4m long, set in a location that saw a Bulleid visit but once, yet I'd still love one of these in 7mm on day. I suspect that may be many years in the future but at least the Finney7 have rescued future production of the kit.
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
The tender chassis was assembled as per the instructions, other than making the brake rigging removable.

The tags that hold the moving axles in will be removed and replaced with nuts and bolts.


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Working with Alan Harris wheels on most of the locos that I'm commissioned to build makes removing the bogie and tenders wheels easy, which makes painting the parts straight forward, that's the problem with the Slaters wheels, once pressed on there not coming off unless some sort of horn block is built in. One axle on this chassis is fixed so I've used a modification that enables this axle to be easily removed.

A piece of 3/16" brass rod is cut to length, drilled and reamed to fit the axle. The critical thing is to ensure that the axle is a firm fit in the brass tube, it's worth checking the diameter of the Slaters axle before any reaming is carried out.

I've found that sometimes the diameter can vary by a few thou, and although the size should be 5/32" reaming to that size wouldn't give the required fit. By using metric reamers that are available in increments 0.01mm the desired fit can be achieved.

Perhaps the kits that have captive axles could be reworked to make them removable before the new owners reintroduce them.

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Parting the bar to length.



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Drill and ream to size.



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Test fit on Axle, not shown is the registration mark on one end.



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Both parts are drilled and tapped for 6ba grub screws.



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The axle is parted into two, this shows the registration mark and the same is on brass tube.



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Both parts.



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Both axles pressed on.



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Ends cleaned up.

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Fitted with the tube registration mark showing.



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Also fitted the bogie wheels with the mod, the bogie had already been built with the wheels fitted when I took on the build, unfortunately those wheels didn't remove without damaging them so these are new ones fitted.



Simon.
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Simon,

That's a really interesting solution, and not one I would have thought of. I very, very carefully reamed the axle holes in the wheels until I could just twist the wheels fully home, but not so much that they were the slightest bit loose. You do need to mark each wheel and axle end, but yours is the better engineered approach!

Richard
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
That's interesting, Simon, particularly from my perspective which is that I have never had a set of Slaters wheels which would not come off the axle. Sometimes - very rarely, they may have to be drifted off, and that's usually possible just by releasing the screw a bit and pushing. I usually try to make life easier by ensuring that the squared off end is oiled such that rust can't form which I can see would most certainly be a problem.

It'd be interesting to know whether I've just been lucky, or whether others have had a similar experience.

Nevertheless, in the event of a stuck wheel your procedure is an elegant way out of the problem.

Brian
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
Richard, its an approach I've used in the past and works well, other than the look of the tube with the grub screws slightly protruding its not that noticeable. Your system certainly works, would I trust it with a customer?
Been watching your Duchess build, very nice indeed and I've one on the shelf to do.

Simon

Thanks for the reply about the push fit axles, was just about to do that.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Sorry - I misread or more likely made an assumption!

So I agree, I've had similar problems. In the past I've drifted the wheels off, which is always a fraught process. When the workshop is set up I'll see if Steph will allow me to set up his lathe. Perhaps he'll teach me how to use it too!

Brian
 
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