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.