Sorting out the accumulated part done and not yet started things workbench

Hi Folks, hope your all coping with the situation.

Those of you who peruse my threads will be aware that at the turn of the year I was struggling with the D15, with some interesting diversion but little overall progress. I became more and more disillusioned by the whole thing that by the end of January railway modelling had sunk to a low nadir. I went to the SECC at the end of Feb having firmly decided to pack it all in and do something with 4mm RTR. As it was nothing was done and the revealing emergency meant that wholescale change wasn't going to happen either.

Yesterday I was forced into the workshop for the first time in two months to do a domestic repair to a freezer drawer. This done, I surveyed things with a renewed interest, put a few bits away in boxes and sat down with paper and pen to make a list. One of my failings is an initial surge of enthusiasm followed by boredom, for example fitting door handles to carriages, the first one is interesting the rest is boring repetition, I rather too readily give up.

I have decided that the D15 can for the time being be packed away and ignored, I cannot find enough interest to further it. I made a list of partly done projects which goes,
Finish LNER N15
Finish SR Van B
Finish LMS BG
Finish LNER Twin Bolster
Finish upgrading LNER A5
Finish SR 5 plank open
Finish SR pillbox brake van
Sort out LNER J36 & C15 running
Sort out SR C class drive train
Sort out wagon rewheeling.

You'll notice that "Finish" and "Sort out " appear quite a lot, and when I say with something of a shamed face that the SR wagons are ABS kits from easily 30 years ago and the N15 hasn't been touched in 16 years, the scale of the issue is obvious. Now just at the moment lack of time is not an excuse and the list is not necessarily the order they will be done but I am determined that this must be tackled. I don't feel they warrant individual threads so by and large various updates will appear here from time to time.

Regards
Martin

 

Well done, Martin. We'd miss your offerings for sure.

This mojo thing is really odd. I've wanted to build models for as long as I can remember with no loss of enthusiasm no matter what was put in my way. Just lately, though, I've noticed that it's " less urgent" to get out to the workshop. I remain enthusiastic about building the King Arthur, but not at such a high level, if you know what I mean. Also, I don't have anything like the list of projects to complete to compare with yours, but there's been an ABS kit, built and ready to go, sitting on the shelf and waiting to be painted for a couple of years. And there's also the random repairs to be done.....

I think I'll stick with the King Arthur for now.

Brian

PS - and a big one. Hope everyone is keeping safe. Thank goodness for an absorbing hobby, eh?

 

I too have been having MDD, mojo deficit disorder.

It’s curious in its manifestation, as I have no lack of enthusiasm in the morning, lying in bed, but by the time work, or whatever else needs to be done, is done, there seems precious little mojo left. And a beer, the sofa, and the opium that is television (and which normally annoys me to the point of shifting myself very firmly from its grip) seems like an acceptable way of passing time.

I determined that this would not happen again yesterday, and did make a little progress on an Arduino project, which continues today. Bidirectional CAN comms if anybody’s interested.

Still, it’s getting warmer, I hope I can start using the laser in comfort again, and then I can finish the ground cover in front of the loco shed. That’ll cheer me up.

It normally passes. I trust it will again soon...

Keep well!
Simon

 

That's kind of you to say so Brian, thank you.

An item missing from the list is the Vulcan 04, which also needs looked at.
Martin

 

The cure....... start one project with gusto and rip into it, when you hit a little problem put the project down and pick up another project, whilst all the time thinking about the problem that halted the first project......... then bingo the solution will pop into your cranium and you just can’t wait to pick it up again and progress. Repeat until all the shelved projects are done.
No charge for the prescription, free in Wales !!!!!

 

I followed your prescription religiously until the last sentence, which is the difficult bit, which is why I am where I am. No matter, the order of things is a variable feast. I was even going to mount a frontal assault today but the lawnmowers won.
Regards
Martin

 

Just for the record

it worked

I shall play further tomorrow, but milestone achieved. Sorry, not very photogenic.

Keep well
Simon

 

First up for some attention is this

an LNER J36 from a Majestic kit, which went together nearly 20 years ago, rather nicely if I do say so myself. At one time the tender was finished, as in painted with transfers, however I wasn't happy with the orange peelish finish so cellulose thinners were applied. The loco was also black at one time, again a runny blob or two, several actually, put paid to that and also the front angle on the cab roof became unsoldered. I originally installed a MSC single reduction motor/gearbox that wasn't as controllable as it might be so I substituted an ABC combination and it ran as sweet as you would want. Now it doesn't go at all, I suspect pickups. The model is built as the preserved Maude, which really only means the addition of vacuum equipment, principally because I passed both my firing and driving tests on her, and there is in Youtube videos of me in action, modesty forbids me from providing links. More later.
Regards
Martin

 

Well I extracted the chassis and put it on the rolling road. Applying power to the motor itself was fine, perfectly happy whizzing backwards and forwards, but via the wheels and pickups hardly anything.

A view underneath which looks pretty much bog standard and with sufficient pressure from the backscratchers on the wheel rears. It then occurred to me that the wipers are in fact nickel silver wire and I wondered, had they oxidised to become resistors. It seemed possible, but a full dismantling would establish all this. I then made some unhappy discoveries, firstly 12BA screws aren't very strong, and if you allie that to a smidgeon of superglue to hold the crankpin nuts on then disaster looms, it did. Two screws rotated in the wheel and two sheared off at the boss. Thankfully with a touch of deftness I was able to remove the detritus of my previous attempt and hopefully save the wheels for reuse, with 10BA crankpins and tapped bushes it might all be rescuable, worst case new wheels which would be a major buggeration. Ho hum.

Regards
Martin

 

Mmm, I’d definitely avoid gluing crankpin nuts, but I guess you’ve concluded that too.

I tend to tap the Slaters bushes 10BA and tap the wheels the same, and glue the screws into the wheels from the back with a drop of epoxy. Hopefully you’ll be able to recover the wheels you have. I’ve seen wires soldered to the screws to prevent them unscrewing, but I’ve only had one that misbehaved, and I cleaned it all, and reglued successfully.

I also use floating pickups, which are an iteration of a design that David LO Smith kindly shared with me. There are some pictures in my Duchess thread on RMWeb.

Wheels here Second hand Duchess

and pick-ups here. Second hand Duchess

Hope it helps
Simon

 

Well if I didn't know before, I certainly do now, and thank you Simon for your tips. In this instance I will probably retain the general pickup arrangement to avoid even more major re-engineering, but possibly substitute phophor bronze strip for the nickel silver. I had hope to move rapidly forward today however I was commandered for domestic duties, despite my protestation that the work was vital for the war effort which was duly scoffed at. I did manage one wheel

which has worked so I think the wheels are ok for further service. I drilled the hole 1.4mm dia and since the mill has a slow speed tapping mode I started the tap under power so ensuring perpendicularity and finished it by hand, only 5 more to do. I found that my 10BA screw tin had very few csunk screws, enough for this but since both the C15 and N15 are going to need this mod as well some supplies will be needed.
Regards
Martin

 

Well it just keeps on giving. The wheels were all drilled and tapped, as were the bushes, so I temporarily refitted the wheels etc to the chassis. Unsurprisingly there has a been a slight shift in the geometry of things so there was a minor binding of the rods however more seriously the previous incarnation hadn't relied on the depth of the bush where as the new arrangement meant that tightening a nut and washer down against squeezed the rod tight. I had a search through mountains of boxes to try and find some new bushes with no luck whereas I have enough axlebox bearings for several eons. Some suitable brass stock and a go on the lathe produced this

which as a first off would work fine. A new sharp insert and rather less stock flapping about in the headstock will allow six more or less similarly dimensioned ones to be produced. I then had one of those Archimedean moments, fiddling about with the motor I noticed something odd around the wiper mounting plate

as you can see a wire is sticking up more than it should and was obviously a very dry joint that had been hidden under the layer of paint. This is the feed from all the wipers on one side to the motor and rather explains why it wasn't working, resoldering the joint had the desired effect and it scampered up and down the test track on 4 wheels. It would seem that the pick ups weren't the cause of the problem. Much gnashing of teeth and oaths, had I discovered this first I wouldn't have bothered taking it all apart though I suppose I'm making it dismantlable in the future. I also ordered a seemingly enormous quantity of screws nuts etc from EKP. It's quite good fun this.
Regards
Martin

 

We've all been there with dry joints so my commiserations and congratulations in equal measure. Worth it for a handsome little engine (I do like those NB cabs).

Adam

 

As the picture shows, a set of crankpin bushes

this was the second attempt, I got the methodology wrong first time out in that the hole was drilled with the work in the 3 jaw chuck before parting off, and then mounted in a collett for facing and tapping. In all cases the hole became somewhat eccentric so in this attempt drilling and tapping were both done in the collett and it seems to have worked. All very satisfying but hardly a sensible use of time considering the minimal cost of ones from Slater. I'll put the engine back together tomorrow and see where I am.
Regards
Martin

 

I'm going to make some crankpin bushes tapped 10BA tomorrow as I've run out. Well, when I say make I'll take some of Slaters, solder to some brass and tap them! Out of interest, and as it could be a minor time saver in future, does anyone actually produce them for sale?

Brian

 

I'm sure David Hill at Gladiator do. But they are not posting at the moment.

 

Thank you Peter. I'll try David in due course.

 

I have reassembled it all and somewhat surpisingly it seems to work, pleasingly quite well. It has raised a few questions so please bear with me.

1. The screw that holds the wheel to the axle, should it be flush with the boss and is there sufficient meat in the centre to deepen the countersink without risk of the screw bottoming out?
2. Since the bush is reversed from usual I found I needed a washer behind the rod, am I overthinking this?
3. I presume the bush is retained purely by tightening it down, if so would a couple of flats on the periphery be sensible?

Despite being quite happy with the home brewed bushes they are time consumptive to produce so I've ordered a load from Slaters to keep me going, since I came up with a cunning plan to shorten them accurately. It all needs taken apart again so I can fix the screws into the wheels and give them a clean, judging by the pic.
Regards
Martin

 

Martin

Before trying to deepen the countersink check to see if the screw sits flush when it isn't on the axle, you might be surprised but the problem is that the screw can't seat properly into the axle, thinning the neck or shortening the screw maybe the answer.


Richard