Cookie's Workbench - 7/8ths Alan Keef K40

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Another coat of emulsion was applied in the kitchen last night, followed by another spray of green paint for the rails before work this morning. With everything dry, the mounting holes were run through with a drill bit and it was put together :)

DS33 Finished for Larkrail.JPG

Lots of brush marks but it will do for Saturday, better than nothing :)
Now to get on with all the other bits and pieces...
Steve
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
When you put it like that, it will have to be something that has been cosmetically enhanced and presented in, ahem, an undressed state.
That'll be the GBL / PMV then.
:)
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Back to pottering around on the PMV. Its not very exciting, but yesterday the window frames were glued to a sheet of 0.25mm thick plasticard, then cut out using a 150mm ruler as a guide to keep the width around the perimeter consistent.

NFS 77 Mounted and cut.JPG

Today, to the audio accompaniment of Mario Muth's* interviews on youtube I have drilled out each corner and removed the centre section of each window.

NFS 78 Centre cut out.JPG

Next step is to try and come up with the jig that will help with machining the chamfer.

Steve

*If you like F1, I can recommend the interviews by Mario Muth. Well, I say interview, you don't actually hear anybody but the subject, but they are very nicely shot, informative and entertaining in a 'talking heads' sort of way.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Your cunning plan has outsmarted me, what is the fiendishly clever idea behind sticking your frames on to Plastikard and then neatly cutting into squares?

Is it something to with holding the frames while you machine or otherwise work at the chamfers?

Good to see more progress on this van, I've been out shearing grass on the lineside myself, and I ordered the motor & gearbox for D6319 from ABC.

Simon
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Your cunning plan has outsmarted me, what is the fiendishly clever idea behind sticking your frames on to Plastikard and then neatly cutting into squares?

Is it something to with holding the frames while you machine or otherwise work at the chamfers?
Essentially, yes :)
The frames are very thin so they distort, and at only 1.5mm wide they are difficult to hold and machine at the same time. The plasticard thickens them up to the desired thickness (!), gives a bit more room for fingers or clamps and imparts additional stiffness for machining. The current thought is that the new material will sit under the reference guide, the edge of which sits against the edge of the current frame. The guide then stops the frame lifting up as well as acting as the straight edge against which the frame is slid when machining. By making the excess the same size all the way round, the edge of it can also be used as a reference if needed - it was no extra effort to cut it that way than to just randomly cut out at any old size.
Good to see more progress on this van, I've been out shearing grass on the lineside myself, and I ordered the motor & gearbox for D6319 from ABC.
Good stuff :)
Its all about to get very busy for me work wise, I'm squeezing in what I can, while I can :)
Steve
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
I've just landed an Accucraft Leader :) The worst colour of the lot (black, blue or maroon would have been my preference), but its hardly been used, came complete with tools, alternative chimney, 32mm wheelset for rear bogie (its currently set to 45mm) and an enots valve. It is largely similar to Ragleth, but with a sight glass, no air restrictor ring on the burner and a much shorter coupled wheel base - I suspect it will be bloomin' noisy and waggle its hips quite entertainingly. It needs a good once over just to check everything and then I'll fire her up for a play.

AL1 Loco.JPG

AL2 Sight glass.JPG

Assuming everything turns out OK, this will be my working narrow gauge loco which will free up Ragleth for dis-assembly, ready to be squeezed under the tram body kit bought early this year, hurrah :)
Steve
 
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Steve Cook

Flying Squad
It does doesn't it, very much part of its appeal :)
Must remember to leave it alone and just use it, rather than thinking how nice it would look in bronzed green with black borders and thin yellow lining... goddammit, I've only owned it three hours :))
Matt black firebox, light weathering - oh, suit you Sir...
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
It does doesn't it, very much part of its appeal :)
Must remember to leave it alone and just use it, rather than thinking how nice it would look in bronzed green with black borders and thin yellow lining... goddammit, I've only owned it three hours :))
Matt black firebox, light weathering - oh, suit you Sir...

Go on! You know it makes sense:thumbs:

Of course if you don't, it'll niggle you like an itch you can't reach until you do;)
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Dear Mr Cook,

Regarding your latest purchase, I can't help but think that this colour ....

index.php


.... would suit far better than green.

Yours sincerely,

Biassed of Aberllefenni
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Before spending too much time worrying about paint jobs, one of the tasks this evening has been to check her over and give her a trial steaming. Parked in the sun with her companion

AL4 sisters in the sun.JPG

A quick compare of cab layouts and features - definitely of the same DNA although they feel completely different in operation.

AL3 Cab compare.JPG

A quick lubrication of all the valve gear, then she was oiled, watered and gassed up for run this evening.

The first major difference was the aggressiveness of the gas valve, Leader requires barely any movement to get the right amount of gas in order to actually light, a fraction too much and the flame just pops out. Once settled its fine, but much louder than Ragleth as expected. I'm sure some of the noise and the lighting issue is down to the lack of air control ring on the burner - you can see the holes clearly in Leaders in the photo above, whereas almost half of them on Ragleth have been blocked off with the brass ring.

Leader has a sight glass so one fills to 3/4 of that - its best to take the enots valve off for this as it gives the air somewhere to escape and you get a more accurate reading - there is no blow down valve on the sight glass to clear it out. Ragleth has an overflow valve which is opened during firing up - as the water heats up and expands it is forced out of the overflow pipe, thus it creates its own level. As soon as steam appears the valve is shut and it raises pressure - Leader starts from the off and raised pressure much quicker than expected.

Leaders regulator is like on / off switch, as well as getting bloomin' hot - the extra length of the shaft on Ragleth really does make a difference. Clearing out the cylinders was fun, tons of horrible brown watery stuff ejected all over the bodywork and the track - goodness knows what has been caught in the pipework or how long its been there. She did clear eventually though and settled down to a reasonable pace - its definitely not run in yet, I think it could do with a good few laps on a continuous circuit.

Once fully warm, she would slow down to a good pace and she doesn't waggle much at all, I'm almost disappointed :) There is a slight rock though when pushing down on the rear bogie - one wheel on the front lifts up so I need to check what goes on when there is a load on the rear coupling.

The safety valve was a bit naff - blowing off at >65psi on the gauge when the boiler certificate states 60psi as max running pressure. The safety valve cover as supplied is also a pain - it prevents any access to the valve meaning you can't check for free operation when raising pressure, thus it was removed pretty quickly. I adjusted the safety valve down as much as possible, but it doesn't seem to flow enough steam to get the pressure below 50 psi, even with a fairly conservative amount of heat - I worry that with the gas cranked up, unless she is running at speed then controlling the pressure is going to be interesting.

On balance though, I'm very happy :) Lots of stuff to tinker with and its different enough in feel from what I already have to keep it interesting as well as looking different.

AL5 Steamy.JPG

The stainless mesh for the first mod to the burner has arrived too. Following various bits of advice on the net I've plumped for some 40 strands to the inch mesh to wrap around the burner, I just need to find somewhere that does 15thou stainless wire in smaller quantities than a kilo to tie it into place. The mesh was £2.99 including postage so as experiments go, its not expensive - Ragleth will be getting a wrap too as I hope it will quieten them down as indicated which will make it more suitable when hidden inside a tram body.

AL6 Stainless mesh.JPG

Steve
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
A spot of catching up to do :)
I swapped the safety valve between Leader and Ragleth, firing both engines to see what the impact was. Leader's safety valve struggles to keep the boiler pressure where I would like it when stationary and the burner low, but its fine when running - I do wonder if this is the reason for the updated valve seen on Ragleth. Anyway, the characteristics moved with the valve so now I have a choice, make a new valve, or try and buy a spare Ragleth one - it all comes down to what threads are used and whether they match what I have. Leader's pressure gauge reads @5psi higher than Ragleth's, although I don't know if either are right yet.

In a small period of distraction, I took a trip down memory lane and built Benny's Spaceship from The Lego Movie - the colour scheme and logo coming bang out of my childhood :)

Bennys Spaceship.JPG

The PMV also got a look in today, I thought I was ready to glue the roof on but then remembered I ought to prime and paint the inside black first. I cut out 12 cardboard masks to block up the windows and masked the outside off with some newspaper.

NFS 79 Outside masked.JPG

I was halfway through shaking the primer when I put a ruler across the top of the ends and centre partition, just to check the roof fit. Bloomin' good job too, the partitions are too low and wouldn't actually support the roof when it was in position. That would have made gluing it in more difficult than it needs to be, it was a quick fix though, strips of 1 x 2.5mm styrene have been glued across the top of each partition to bring them up to spec.

NFS 80 Centre Partitions height increased.JPG

Painting delayed until tomorrow.
Steve
 
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Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Some progress to report on the 16mm coach that appeared previously too. I got the sides and ends glued together, aligning and tacking them into place initially with superglue, then reinforcing the joints with epoxy. The running boards / steps have been glued into place too, the upper edge of these also provide the reference for the floor.

SS Brake 8 Making a box.JPG

Whilst at the Llanfair railway show a couple of weeks ago I picked up a pair of bogies for the coach, I want to give myself the option of running it on both 32mm and 45mm track which would not have been so easy in its 4 wheel configuration. Whilst mulling over the design of the bogies, I hit on an idea that would top me having to swap to the bogies to change track gauge :)
The wheels / axles are held in place by a brass tube that the axle runs in, this is normally glued into the location slots provided in the bogies themselves. By creating a jig to replicate the locating slots, I can solder a strip of brass across the two brass tubes, then screw the assembly into the bogie. By creating pairs of these units with 32mm and 45mm wheels sets, I can save the cost of replacement bogies, and also the hassle of getting the bogie free play just right every time.
The jig was made from scraps of wood and four pegs - the mdf spacer being fractionally bigger than the largest dimension between slots measured on the bogies, ensuring that the axles will fit into any of the bogies.

SS Brake 4 Axle Spacing Jig.JPG

The four lines that run inline with jig are to align the ends of the brass tubes, the inner pair covering 32mm and the outer pair 45mm. The two lines which run across the jig are the marks for drilling the fixing holes on the centre strip - it becomes clear in a minute.

One wheel is removed from a wheelset and the brass tube inserted in the jig. The chamfers of the pegs hold the tube hard up against the mdf, the use of two pegs keeps the tubes parallel and allows access to solder in the centre of the tube.

SS Brake 5 Axle Spacing Jig2.JPG

The centre strip is held in place on the jig with two self tapping screws

SS Brake 5 Axle Spacing Jig3.JPG

Both ends are then soldered to the tubes before the sub-assembly is removed from the jig by opening the pegs. Two holes in the bogie allow the new axle tube assembly to be screwed into place.

SS Brake 7 wheelsets.JPG

With it all mocked up, you can hardly see the wheels....

SS Brake 9 Mock up on chassis.JPG

I do wonder how durable it will be - there is the option to increase the strip width to 25mm from 12.5mm if required, I guess I'll just have to run them until something falls off and fix what goes wrong. What I need to do now is to order some more 32mm wheelsets, I only have one pair and there is the long version of this coach to get the same treatment at some point.
Steve
 
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