Tender frames - An alternative

I travelled to Woking yesterday for the G1MRA annual meeting and enjoyed wandering around the hall and seeing the layoyts and locos running. Even the smell of meths in the hall was oddly appealing!



The trade stands were also excellent, I picked up a number of bits for the both the Dee and Britannia, mostly things like 90 degree pipe unions for the tender, Dee buffers and dome, coupling hooks, etc. I also saw Malcolm and his Britannia there on the Model Engineers Laser stand. Malcolm has a well-progressed chassis with all the cylinders, motion etc complete and a cab and smokebox also. Looks great and inspiration to get a move on with my one! Interestingly, he also had a new kit for the tender chassis, a slot-together and soft-solder one for a very reasonable 17 quid. Now, I already have a tender chassis, but for 17 quid it would have been silly not to buy one in case i end up wrecking my one again. I think I have spent around 30 hours on my chassis already. Pic below is of the MEL one slotted together and held with bolts at this stage... it took less than one hour to separate the bits, file the little tabs smooth and slot together. Not soldered yet but shows how much time these kits can save!



Not sure if I will use it yet. I would need to make new bearings for the wheels as the holes are slightly larger on the tender sides on the kit. I may butcher it and take the part that holds the tubes (water/gas) under the tender and also two of the stretchers and use those with my current chassis.

I also met Dick Moger, who was one of the pioneers of the Dee design I mentioned in an earlier post. I have made some progress with the Dee and learnt a lot along the way that will help me immensely in putting the Britannia together. Piccy of some of the parts follows:

Tender frames

So, managed to drill and tap four holes without wrecking the new buffer beam. Still need to add rivet detail to the buffer beam, mill away the unwanted material on the back and drill and mill the slot for the coupling hook.



I have also started to drill holes in the tender frames to add rivet detail. The tender tank had over 200 rivets to add, I think the frames have around 50 per side. I drilled 10 earlier (after taking the pic above) and am convinced enough to do the rest... I also discovered that 'Wagon & Carriage Works' were happy to sell whitemetal castings for the tender water seives which is great news as it will save time trying to mill them myself from solid.

Tender

Managed to mess up the drag and buffer beams last month whilst trying to drill and tap the holes for the fixings to the frames. (broke a drill bit in one and a tap in the other!)

Had a hectic couple of months recently but managed to get an hour in the shed today and make a good start on a new rear buffer beam.

4-Jaw and a Hacksaw

Finished the axleboxes today, still need to sort some springs out but otherwise the front bogie is now pretty much finished, shown here resting on top of a machined block of brass that will eventually be a Dee cylinder block!



Busy week ahead but will get back to the tender in due course.

Axleboxes and more on rivets

An interesting week, I have soldered four of the tender parts together and will be soldering the remainder when the present gusty weather conditions have passed (it gets a bit tedious when the wind blows out your blowtorch every 5 seconds).

So pleased was I with the tender sides that I sent Malcolm at Model Engineers Laser a picture and commented that the riveting process was easy enough and in my view there was no need for laser spotting the rivets or etching. Anyway, within a few hours I had an e-mail in my inbox from Roger Thornber. I tried to explain to the wife that a 'newbie' to Gauge 1 getting an e-mail from Roger is a bit like someone who has just started going to church getting an e-mail from Jesus. Anyway, Roger had sent a picture of his etched 8F tender sides which looked stunning.

For those who come across this blog and want to repeat my approach to the rivets, it basically involved the Metalsmith riveter (see links), a photocopy of some scale drawings from PDH (see links!), some slow-setting paper glue (e.g. UHU or Pritt-stick) and a digital caliper! I cut out the photocopy and stuck the copy of the left-hand tender-side face-up to the inside of the right-hand tender side, then before the glue set, I carefully positioned the copy in place using the digital caliper and measuring from the bottom of the tender side to the bottom edge of the rivets, basically sliding the paper on the brass and measuring to ensure that the main horizontal line of rivets was exactly horizontal. Then it was a case of just carefully punching the holes through the marks on the paper. The riveter has a guide built-in also which adds another degree of comfort when doing the horizontal line but it obviously cannot be used on the vertical lines as there is no straight-edge to run against (because the tabs are in the way). To do the other side I peeled off the photocopy I had just used, flipped it over, aligned with the digital caliper as above and punched through the holes in the paper. It’s a bit ‘Blue Peter’ rather than Model Engineering but it works!

I realize that the above method will not work if the paper does not sit perfectly flat on the photocopier (you will get curved lines!) and it also relies on the both the drawing and the laser-cutting to be accurate (which they were). As I mentioned to Malcolm, it took me less than an hour to do both sides so it is quick (in the grand scheme of building a G1 loco) and I think an effective alternative to etching.

Anyway, with the wind postponing any soldering today, I took shelter in the shed and changed the 3-jaw chuck on the lathe for the 4-jaw (remembering to protect the lathe bed first in case i dropped it!) and set about machining the front bogie axleboxes. I hadn't used the 4-jaw before but got to grips with it quickly and was soon getting the hang of centering work and I have made good progress on the axleboxes which i hope to finish tomorrow.

I have also bought a big lump of brass and plan to use this to further refine my 4-jaw lathe skills... I have the G1MRA Dee and Project books and thought that it would make sense if my first attempt at machining cylinders and valve gear was an inside cylinder loco rather than making mistakes on expensive castings (the Dee cylinder block is very small and that volume of brass costs less than pint of beer, not to mention the fact that G1MRA books are excellent and have been described to me as a "great introductory course to model engineering"). This was the round-about excuse I gave the wife anyway for daring to suggest starting on a second engine before completing the first!! She has kindly bought me a boiler, wheels, and a complete Model Engineers Laser Dee platework kit for my 'model engineering course' for my birthday! How I ended up with such a good wife is beyond me, but God bless her nevertheless!

Tender Sides

Some more progress with the tender sides today, finished adding the rivet detail and formed the curves/folds. The picture below isn't great but you get the general idea!



Next steps are to soft solder the tender tank parts together, file off the tabs and add the detail and gas/water fittings. I still have some outstanding work to do on the tender chassis also.

Riveting stuff!

Spent some time trying out the rivet embossing tool from Metalsmith Ltd (see link right) - it is the perfect match for the tender kit from Model Engineers Laser. It's actually a lot quicker that I expected to add the rivet detail. Must remember when I do the other side that the sides are handed...

Tender drag beam

The long-suffering wife allowed me a couple of hours in the shed today and further progress was made on the drag beam for the tender. The drag and buffer beams are the key parts of the tender chassis as they hold the two tender frames together, once have they are finished I will have a proper rolling tender chassis.



All the dimensions for the drag beam are correct, apart from the cut corners at the bottom. Must have made a dodgy imperial/metric conversion somewhere (drawings are imperial, mill is metric). No major problem, just need to take a little more off each corner. Also need to drill and mill the slot in the centre (for the bar that connects loco to tender).

Some piccies

About 6 months along the way now, thought I'd post some piccies...



Still some way to go yet, although I would say that there are lots of bits that have been acquired that are not pictured here, including kits for cab and tender body, crankpins, connecting and coupling rods, cylinder castings.... just awaiting machining/assembling! The picture above reminds me that i need to file down the tabs on the main frames also.



As mentioned before, the boiler looks the business. It could be a while yet before it steams... I have spent around 3 hours over the last couple of days machining the tender drag beam and it is only around half done so far - this is a time consuming business!



Mike at Maccsteam also made the tender tank. Although you can't see it in this picture, the tank extends below the tender baseplate with a trough underneath. It has a number of stays and in many ways is no less complex than a boiler so I was glad when he said he would be able to make it. The tender body needs some folding but looks straightforward enough... the tricky bit will be adding the rivet detail - I stopped counting at 180 rivets when I looked at the drawing!

An update

Long time since the last update! New addition to the family has seen attention focused elsewhere. That said, I think I must be quite unique in that not many people can say that they telephoned from a labour ward in between contractions in early labour to order a rivet embosser tool!! Funny what you remember to do when you are sitting through a 3-day labour!

Additional pair of hands is now with us, mother and baby doing well, mum, dad, grandad, grandma and great-grandma all very happy and proud!!

On the Britannia front, early May I took delivery of the boiler and gas tank. Mike at Maccsteam did a super job. I will post pictures soon.

I gave up on ideas of using the Chester lathe for milling. The vertical slide that Chester supply for the DB7 lathe is not fit for purpose and the support from Chester was sadly woeful! That said, the lathe itself was great value for money so perhaps I should not expect too much! I ordered a Sieg micro mill from Axminster (arrived next day) which I have used to make a new start on the axle boxes for the front bogie. I have also procured further parts for the cylinders from Malcolm at Model Engineers Laser, and some crankpins from Walsall engineering. Not to mention numerous taps, dies, etc.

My priorities over the summer will be something along the lines of:

2. Finish front bogie
3. Finish trailing truck
4. Complete tender chassis
5. Add rivet detail to tender sides and complete tender

Number 1. will of course be the baby!

Tender - Rear buffer beam

Cut out the tender buffer beam this evening from a piece of sheet metal. My metal working skills are generally poor so I cut the piece out slightly oversize with the saw, then clamped it in a vice to a piece of square steel bar so that the oversize part protruded. I then filed down against the square bar to give a straight edge and the correct dimension. A bit of a bodge but it gives the right end result, albeit scuffing up a perfectly good bit of steel bar in the process!

Trailing truck - side piece

Finally silver-soldered the last side piece of the trailing truck this evening, as I write this it's currently pickling in the acid bath.



I've made some enquiries about some of the long lead-time items, specifically the boiler and the nameplates (I've been advised the nameplates could take 4 months). Mike at Maccsteam (see links) can make the boiler and I'm hoping also the gas tank as I don't think my ten-quid B&Q torch pictured above will get enough heat into the work to silver solder it.

Axle boxes

Still not fathomed how the vertical slide works. Had a second pair of eyes take a gander at it and equally miffed so it's not just me! Will give Chester a shout. Anyway, sat down this morning with a coffee and a piece of paper and tried to work out how to fabricate the axleboxes using just the toolholder and the 3 and 4-jaw chucks.


All was going well until the endmill bit snapped...

So I set about making the bearings for the tender axles instead. Simple job on the lathe, the sixth one was a lot quicker than the first, however, "practice makes improvement" and all that! Have generated masses of swarf for when I am in a cleaning mood...



The last bit of the pony truck is also ready for soldering. I could solder the tender bearings at the same time but will hold off as I am tempted to make a jig for the tender to ensure the bearings are as square in the frames as possible. I also want to study the drawings to see what detail (rivets, etc.) can be easily added at this stage.

Trailing truck

Been busy fiddling with the trailing truck kit from Model Engineers Laser. Numerous pieces of sheet brass bend and/or slot together to form 4 parts that are then fixed together to form the truck assembly. A little fiddly but the parts are accurately cut and it goes togheter well. The two side parts are positioned and fixed around the wheel bearings which need to be turned from brass rod. This is another straightforward job on the lathe.



I have silver soldered 3 of the parts and have one remaining to do. Hope to post a pic of the completed assembly soon. The holes in the laser cut parts are very small and near to the edge of the parts in some places, the 8BA bolts I have will be too large. I have ordered some 10BA bolts from Maidstone Model Engineering, hopefully these will do the job.

Front bogie

First job with the lathe was to make two spacers for the front bogie, 28mm wide, 4mm diameter and with an 8BA thread inside. Made for a good way to try out a couple of basic lathe operations, such as setting the height of the tool in the toolpost, 'facing-off' the ends of the rod to make them flat and square and then reducing the length of each rod to exactly 28.00mm, followed by centre-drilling each end (with the drill mounted in the tailstock) and then drilling the holes to 1.8mm, ready to be tapped 8BA.

Piccy below shows the bogie after fitting the spacers, I have since silver soldered the frames. Next job is the axleboxes and springs.

Parts and tooling

Another 3 weeks have passed and very little progress on the loco itself although I now have a lathe set up and am gradually accumlating useful-sized bits of metal for turning. The wife was particularly bemused at the arrival of a length of 2 1/4" diameter pipe (the shortest length i could find was two foot long) which is intended to be cut down and used as a smokebox!

Anyway, lots of bits stacking up to be progressed, just waiting for work to calm down a bit to get some free time to get busy with the lathe!

Update - Sourcing more parts

A while since I last posted. Work is still very busy so no time for working on model engines! Insomnia and being miles from home in hotels gives me time however to source more parts... Have got lots of imperial tools from a variety of places over the last week, including drill bits I need and imperial hex keys. Have also got an 8BA tap set and a tap wrench. A new shed which was delivered this morning is awaiting my attention tomorrow and over the weekend for assembly. The old one is slowly falling through the neighbour's fence....

Arrived back from my travels to find lots of parcels, including a very exciting one from Model Engineers Laser containing a tender kit, cab kit and lots more bits for the main chassis including slide bar kit, smokebox supports, motion brackets, connecting and coupling rods, cab kit, rear pony truck kit. Basically - lots to keep me busy and occupy all these rainy sunday afternoons we've been having lately! Will upload some photos soon!

I am very pleased with the laser cut kits so far. The main frames are perfectly square and look superb. They are so accurately-cut that I think it must be impossible to get them wrong, and they offer a superb short-cut for the 'time-poor' which in all honesty is probably most of us!

Have also joined the G1MRA (see link on the right) which processed my application to join in 2 days and sent a nice package of info including the last two journals which contain a wealth of v useful info.

Time for glass of red (Durif) and a read through all the drawings and notes that came with the parts today.

If in doubt... add more blowtorches!

Some significant progress today, I have not yet got a lathe sorted so had ordered some 1/4" brass bearings from the 'Wagon & Carriage Works'. These arrived during the week and look the part.



The main frames have the holes for the axles laser cut already, they just need opening out a little and the bearings then drop in. I silver soldered them in place with the last of the pre-mix solder/flux I had left over from last week.

The main frames then needed cleaning throughly and preparing with flux. I had bought some EF flux for the job which comes as a powder - add some water and a drop of washing up liquid and then it's ready.

The problem I had last week was not being able to get enough heat into the main frames for the solder to flow. This time I had sticks of 842 solder, rather than the pre-mix, but the melting point is the same - 620 degrees centigrade. To try and get more heat onto the work I had bought a brazing hearth (basically 3 fire bricks and a mat) and had been kindly offered a second pair of hands, to work a second blowtorch! Second pair of hands duly arrived with blowtorch, and even better, doughnuts!

The addition of the second blowtorch worked a treat, each joint was up to temperature in around a minute and glowing red nicely, the solder melted no problem and the flux did its job and carried the solder through the joints. We had the whole main frame soldered in less than 10 mins. Once sufficiently cooled, the frame went in the acid bath, the kettle was boiled - time for a cuppa and doughnuts!



After a good soak and some wire wool the frames cleaned up rather nicely, although some further cleaning will be necessary, perhaps a mini-drill with cleaning/polishing bits is needed. On inspection, the joints overall looked remarkably good overall.



Now, looking to the other side of the room, I remembered I had the wheels and axles sitting in a jiffy bag... well... what would you do!? The temptation to trial-fit the wheels was, of course, far too great!



So... thanks to some useful assistance (thank you to Dad for the hands and doughnuts!) it was pleasing to finish the day with something that now at least is starting to resemble a locomotive! A long way to go yet, however. Look forward to seeing the real thing down our way again soon, I took the image below of 70013 almost exactly a year ago and it's due to venture into Kent again on Wednesday (24th Feb). Hope to get out to see it!

Mixed results today

Spent some time separating, cleaning and preparing the remaining parts for the main frames today. Silver soldered the front 'bogie bolster' which went fine. Prepared the main frames for soldering but found that I couldn't get enough heat into the frames for the solder to melt and flow properly. Probably didn't help that the temperature outside was only a few degrees above zero and it was snowing at the time I was out there! Have ordered a brazing hearth from CuP Alloys today, along with some more solder and flux, to see if that makes a difference.

Playing with fire!

A little more progress today... Having tried out the small butane torch yesterday afternoon I quickly found it was only going to work on small pieces. Off to B&Q to get a bigger propane/butane blowtorch....

Now this was more like it... (once I had got it lit - a lot harder than I anticipated! Cue a quick phone call... "Dad... how do you light a blowtorch?") it made a superb roar when it was at full flow. Having cleaned and prepared the rear frame extensions with a solder/flux pre-mix from CuP (see links) I was ready for my first attempt at silver soldering. Supported by a few bits of wood I heated the joints and before too long the steel was glowing red and the solder was flowing. Flowing everywhere in fact! Not a very clean job!



Once the blackened mess had cooled down (it made a satisfying pinging noise for a bit) I made an acid bath using a citrus-based mix (also from CuP) and half a 2-litre milk carton...



Left this for a couple of hours and then took some wire wool to it. The black stuff came off easily, having had a nice soak. The solder joints looked, well, not pretty, but strong enough. And satisfying enough for a first attempt. Still some finishing to be done though. Will have a crack at the main frames next week.

Wheelsets

Away again this week but returned on Friday to find some packages waiting.



Walsall had turned around the order very quickly for the machined wheels, cylinder castings, chimney casting and buffers. The wheels themselves have been beautifully finished, the pictures don't really do them justice! Very impressive service and handywork.



Hoping to get time this weekend to silver solder the frames, must admit that now i have the wheels I have a new-found impatience to get a rolling chassis together!

Some Progress...

Well, some progress to report today - called Walsall prior to going to work and ordered the wheelsets, and cylinder, chimney castings. Had a minor panic when asked about the crank throw... Malcolm helped me out - 7/16" is the magic number apparently!

I was out yesterday, but on arriving back at the office today I was pleased to find that my blowtorch and silver solder/flux had been delivered whilst I was out. I had picked up some wire wool (for cleaning) and butane from B&Q at the weekend so nothing standing in the way of frame assembly now except finding some free time! The main frames are currently slotted together and held with a couple of 1/4" bolts (see pic).

Sourcing Parts

Spent some time at the weekend separating the various spacers and other parts in the frames kit, a very easy process not needing more than a junior hacksaw, a small vice and a file. The plan is to silver solder these in due course.

Have been in touch with Walsall Model Industries (see link right) who can supply turned and quartered wheels along with other bits such as cylinder castings, chimney and sprung buffers. All sounds good and will be getting theses ordered soon.

Still looking for a decent set of drawings. I have been offered the loan of a Britannia book that has, apparently, only "been half chewed by the dog" (!) which sounds like a start!

Model Engineering Exhibition 2009

Went up to Alexandra Palace again this year for the Model Engineering Exhibition. Some awesome exhibits including the same Gauge 1 layout that I spent some time drooling at last year...

The urge to try modelling something larger than 00 gauge was still there and whilst the impracticalities of attempting a 5" loco in a small 2 bedroom house without a garage were obvious, Gauge 1 looked very much like something that could be done without the need for lots of space and massive lathes, and could perhaps even be done on a ktichen table. I spent some time chatting to Malcolm and his team at Model Engineers Laser http://www.modelengineerslaser.co.uk/ who had some interesting 'Britannia' framesets on display - laser cut and slotted so even a halfwit such as myself couldn't go wrong in putting them together. After some discussion with the long-suffering "Boss" (remarkably good-natured seeing as she had put up with several hours of looking at model planes, tanks and locomotives!) and further discussion with the "Old Man" (not actually that old, and whose experience with BR Standards includes getting a certain Standard class 8 out of Barry and into preservation) I was walking back to the car with a kit to build a Gauge 1 Britannia frameset under my arm, having paid a very reasonable 60 quid for it.

Searching the web seemed to reveal very little in the way of websites documenting G1 live steam builds, so I thought I would start one myself to keep a diary of progress and hopefully create something that would be of use to others on a similar path in the future. I have zero experience with live steam and so the leap from 'model making' to 'model engineering' should be an interesting one!