....another Empire backfire
Things have gone a bit retrograde (it's like Lucozade, without the fizz). Having spent an evening believing I had found The Truth & The Way with my home-brewed alignment jig, its accuracy led me to the conclusion that there was no way I could provide alignment between the four axlebox/W iron castings, and have parallel axles.
I spent a considerable time in the dumps (some people call it Liskeard), and considered consignment to the Big Box Of Failures ( the kit that is - I have been there long enough to qualify for voting rights). But I thought I'd try one more time (it's amazing what strange motivations a very crap day at work will provide).
There had to be a reason for the error, and I think I've found it.
Having eased off the castings (superglue is a wonderful thing) I checked the position of the spring bumpers using the jig and wheels as a gauge. The non-alignment of the stub axles over one of the bumpers indicated one bumper was about 0.75 mm out of position.
It doesn't sound a lot, but unlike the single injection moulded assembly I'm used to, in the kit, it's a key relationship. Because the castings are separate to the etched solebars. The buffer beams and solebars are separate. But the wheels and castings are effectively a single unit, and anchored by the wheelbase. So any error in build, any slackness in squareness or fit, any incorrect placement of parts, will explode in your face. Which is what happened here. There
are half-etch location holes, and I thought I'd done it right first time, but the combination of fiddleness and wielding the iron meant I didn't spot the movement out of position.
So it was our with the 40W Antex, the 2" V block (heatsink!) and some 188 solder. Now things are a lot better.
I think we're back on track (even if we have our wheels up).
Cheers
Jan